Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 11.djvu/98

Rh The courts of law are open to the public, except when the interests of good morals or public order demand the contrary. Naval and military offences are tried by naval and military courts, and offences of ministers of the crown by special courts, in accordance with the constitution of 1864.

Crime is proportionately less common in Greece than elsewhere, for the people are more temperate, and, on the whole, more contented. The peculiar Greek crime is or, as we may happily now say, was brigandage, the form of iobbery which is natural to a mountainous and thinly- peopled country without roads. According to the latest consular reports, the country is at present completely free from brigands. But it will never be secure against their reappearance until it obtains good roads, which will operate against the brigands both by tending to increase the rural population and by affording better facilities for the capture of criminals.

The strength of the Greek army on a peace footing was, at the census in 1870, 12,400, including upwards of 2000 gendarmes ; but since the Servian war with the Turks in 1876 the Government has resolved to raise it to 24,376, exclusive of 2508 mounted gendarmes. This, with the national guard and the reserves and volunteers, would make their total strength on a war footing over 150,000. The national guard is composed of all citizens capable of serving and under the age of 50; it is designed for purposes of defence only. The reserves consist of those who have served out their time in the regular army. The army is recruited by lot from all capable of serving, with the alternative, which is largely used, of providing a sub stitute; and the period of service is three years in the line, three years in the first reserve, and six in the second. The navy consists of two small ironclads and a few wooden gunboats and vessels for coast-guard purposes, which are manned by 2500 men, raised, as a rule, by conscription from the inhabitants of the coast, though volunteering is encouraged. The Greek flag is a white cross on blue ground the Bavarian colours and the Greek cross.

The religion of the people and of the state is that of the Orthodox Greek Church. In fact, the Greek rite is not only the national religion, but perhaps the deepest and most creative factor in the nationality of Greece itself. Men of Greek blood who do not belong to the Greek Church do not identify themselves with the Greek people. The Moslems of Crete were the sternest oppressors the Greeks knew, and the Latins of Syros sided at the revolution with the Turks, yet both were of the purest Greek descent. And what makes the Greek and Skipetar and Wallach of the modern kingdom all equally Greek in their sympathies to-day is their common profession of the Greek rite. But all other religions are tolerated in Greece. There is a Moslem mosque at Chalcis ; there is a Jewish synagogue at Corfu ; and, whatever a man s religion may be, it entails on him in Greece no civil disabilities of any kind. A Catholic or a Mahometan may rise to the highest offices of state; both Turks and Jews are at present members of municipal councils ; and Jews and Catholics are buried in the same cemetery with the Orthodox at Athens. The Church of Greece, which became virtually independent at the time of the revolution, was organized upon the model of the Russian Church. Its supreme power is vested in a synod consisting of five members, who are appointed annually by the king, and the majority of whom must 1&amp;gt;9 prelates. The metropolitan (archbishop of Athens) is ex officio president ; two royal commissioners attend and deliberate without voting, and the synod s resolutions require to be confirmed by them in the king s name. In all purely spiritual matters the synod has entire independ ence ; but on questions having a civil side, as marriage, divorce, excommunication of laymen, the appointment of feasts and fasts, and the religious censorship of the press and of religious pictures, it can only act in concert with the Government. Excluding the Ionian Islands, which have five archbishops, there are eleven archbishops and thirteen bishops in Greece, who are chosen by the king out of a list of three candidates presented by the synod, and can only be deposed by common consent of king arid synod, and in conformity with canon law. The clergy numbered 5102 in 1861. The immense majority of the population belongs to the Greek Church. In 1870 the number of other Christians in Greece was 12,585, most of whom were Roman Catholics ; of Jews, 2582 ; and of all other religions, 917. There are two Roman Catholic archbishops and four bishops. The revenue from the property of the Greek Church in 1877 was 10,571. The prelates receive a salary from the state, the bishops 145, and the archbishops 180. The inferior clergy receive none, but are entirely dependent on the fees they earn for various spiritual services and superstitious observances, praying for the sick, exorcising the evil eye, consecrating a new house or fishing boat, or purifying one bought from a Turk. There are 1600 monks and 1500 nuns in Greece.

Popular education is widely diffused in Greece. It was the first care of the newly-liberated people, and has been jealously fostered ever since, till they have now an exceedingly complete national system of education, which is perhaps the most striking product of the new kingdom. The latest statistics we have on the subject are those of the year 1872, given in Watson s report of that year (Reports of H.M, Secretaries of Embassy and Legation, No. i. 1872). From these figures we learn that there were then 1141 primary or demotic schools, 136 grammar or Hellenic schools, 7 gymnasia, and finally, the crown of the whole, the university of Athens ; besides 6 nautical schools, a polytechnic school, 4 theological seminaries of the Greek Church, and various private institutions main tained by Catholic or Protestant societies. At the primary schools, the usual elementary branches only are taught, reading, writing, arithmetic, the catechism, grammar, history, geography, natural history, agriculture, and drawing. In the Hellenic schools instruction is given besides in the least difficult of the ancient Greek authors ; and in the gymnasia, a more thorough acquaintance is made with ancient Greek, and with Latin and French, mathematics, logic, anatomy, physics, and natural history. The teachers of the primary schools are educated at a training institution in Athens ; those of the Hellenic schools must be licentiates of a university ; and those of the gymnasia must have the degree of Ph.D. The primary schools are main tained at the expense of the communes, with a subsidy, in certain particular cases, from the state. The total amount spent by the communes for this object comes to about one-sixth part of their income, or over 40,000 in all, and the whole Government grant for primary education in 1872 was 4171. At these schools a small fee is charged, running from Id. to 5d. a month, from all who are able to pay it. The grammar schools, the gymnasia, and the university are maintained entirely by the state, the expense in 1877 exceeding 35,000 for the two classes of secondary schools, and 18.000 for the university; at these schools and the university education is entirely gratuitous, and is furthermore encouraged by the existence of various exhibitions for meritorious pupils, won by competition. The university was erected at a cost of 10,000, raised by private subscription from Greeks all over the world, and is furnished with excellent laboratories and museums, a library of 150,000 volumes, medical hospitals, an astronomical observatory, and a botanical garden. It has 4 faculties arts, medicine, law, and theology 52 pro-