The Sun.
London, England, 1865-06-20 00:00:00

GREECE.

ATHENS, June 10.
The King opened the Chamber of Deputies yes-
terday in. person.
After requesting the members to be seated, his
Majesty delivered the following speech :
" Gentlemen Deputies—l have pleasure in seeing
around me the representatives of the people, for
whom I feel a constantly increasing affection. I
have the satisfaction to announce to you that my
relations with foreign Powers remain friendly, and
that the maintenance of those relations is one of the
principal cares of my government. The consolida-
tion of public order has claimed particular attention
from my government, whose conduct has been
guided by the free exercise of the rights established
by the nation and by royalty. I congratulate the
Greek people upon having once more demonstrated
during the elections that they are animated by the
same spirit. Urgent and recognised wants concern-
ing the general administration of the State, the
maintenance of public order, the assimilation of the
legislation of the Seven Islands, now happily an-
nexed to that of the rest of Greece, solely within
the limits demanded by the administration of those
provinces, all have required to be dealt with imme-
diately by my government, by acts of the executive
power. These acts will be submitted for legislative
sanction, and I am persuaded that you will rightly
judge both the motive which dictated them
and the end they proposed to fulfil. My govern-
ment has considered that the gratitude due to the
great guaranteeing Powers, and the good of the
country itself, required the definitive settlement of
the question of the loan of 60,000,000 drachmas.
This settlement, by introducing order in our finances,
and rendering the State budget a reality, will enable
us to take seriously into consideration the fulfilment
of our other obligations, and thus to establish our
foreign credit. Negotiations have been opened with
this object, and their result will be communicated to
you in due course. By reason of the events of the
last few years, the State budget shows a considerable
deficit. My Government has attentively studied
this important matter, and will lay before you dif-
ferent projects tending to establish a balance between
revenue and expenditure. Moreover, as the Assem-
bly has not discussed the budget of the current year,
this budget, as well as that for next year, will be
laid before you during the session.

" You will also have to examine bills relative to
three questions of the highest importance, since they
affect the moral and material welfare of the people
—I allude to the partition of the national lands, the
alienation of national territory upon which settle-
ments have been made, and the modification of the
system of taxation.

"My Government will also lay before you vari-
ous bills relating to the conditions to be required
for nomination to the public service, to the educa-
tion of the different classes, and especially to a
combination between primary instruction and the
functions of the lower clergy, which, while meet-
ing the wants of the latter, will have the effect
of improving and completing the moral and religious
education of youth. Bills for administrative and
municipal organisation, upon the basis of decentra-
lisation, economy, and the good government of the
country, and for modifications to be introduced into
the organisation of the tribunals for the purpose of
making their jurisdiction correspond to the admini-
strative circumscriptions, will also be submitted to,
you.

" The attention of my Government has been
directed to the measures to be adopted for the im-
provement of the army, which ought to be released
as soon as possible from the discharge of duties
foreign to its functions. You will have at the same
time to discuss a more intelligent organisation of the
National Guard.

" The increase and the improvement of the means

of communication, and the especial requirements of
navigation, have already attracted the attention of
my Government, which will lay before you different
bills for these objects. Bills relative to the intro-
duction of a system of accounts at the consulates,
and to the extension of their judicial functions, will
be submitted to you.

" I ask your patriotic and enlightened study of
all these bills, which refer to the dearest interests of
the nation. I am further most firmly convinced
that the happiness of the country can only be at-
tained by the sincere application of our fundamental
law. While invoking with you the blessing of the
Most High, I now declare open the first session of
the first Legislature."

THE CAPE MAIL.

PLYMOUTH, June 19.

The mail steamship Roman arrived here this after-
noon from the Cape, with 125 passengers and the
usual mails, 169 bales wool, 106 bales skins, 7
packages aloes, 118 wet hides, 2,265 bags copper
ore, 76 packages old copper, sundry small cases and
parcels of wine, and 3 cases of old coins, value £5OO.
Among her passengers is Mr. Baines, the Zambesi
traveller. The mails have been landed and for-
warded by to-night's mail trains, and the Roman
left to-night for Southampton.
She left Table Bay on the 15th ; St. Helena, 26th;
Ascension, 29th May ; and Madeira, June 12th.
She was delayed three days off the Cape by a
gale of wind, and experienced north-east winds
towards the close of the voyage.
At the Cape all was quiet on the frontier, but
differences of opinion existed as to the probability
of war. The Cape Town Advertiser and Mail says :
--" In any case it is not probable that hostilities can
be averted for any lengthened period, although no
immediate apprehension of their outbreak is enter-
tained."

From other sources it was doubted if there was
existing occasion present or prospective to fear
another native war. It was stated that there was a
likelihood of a rupture between the Free State Re-
public and Les Cane, a petty chief of the Basuto
tribe, and a vassal of the paramount chief Moshesh.
In the present state of affairs it was not unlikely
that such an occurrence might lead to a general war.
Trade was still limited in the colony, through the
late embarrassments at Port Elizabeth and the stag-
nation at Natal.

The barque Rubens, from Liverpool for the Cape,
went ashore in beating up to the anchorage in
Table Bay on the night of the
.9th of May. She
became a wreck, and the vessel and cargo had been
sold for £l,BOO.
The ship Naturalist, from Calcutta for London,
out sixty-two days, was spoken with on the sth of
May in lat. 35 S., long. 20 E., and reports having
on board four men, the only survivors of the crew
of the ship Van Capellan, Capt. Sewell, of Liver-
pool, from Calcutta for Hull, which vessel capsized
on the 16th of March in lat. 6 S., long. 83 E., in
consequence of the cargo having shifted. The four
men were picked up in a boat in a most exhausted
state, having been driven about for fifteen days,
during which time they were compelled to live on
human flesh. Captain Sewell is not among those
who were saved.