The New Orleans daily Democrat. [volume] (New Orleans, La.) 1877-1880, 1879-08-20
THE ISLES or GREECE.
The Classic Kingdom Not Failure 1t
Wants More Room,

| There are many things whi"h Justify rs IN
saying that the Greek Kingdom has not onl y
not been failure, but has been q success, In
| spite Of the mixed origin of her people no ma
| ton Is more compact and homogeneous. Out
Of 100000 Of Inhabitants there are only
4 G7,glt who speak any other tongue than
Greek. and only 1G.Ost who profess any other
! religion than the orthodox. They have an OK
aailent system ct law; they enjoy complete
/ civil freedom, with trial by jury for criminal
otenses. The house and person are sacred,
except under judicial warrant. The Greeks
enjoy perfect religious freedom. and it Is q
remarkable fact that it wa not till the
| Greeks obtained possession Of the Ionau
| Island that the Jews were eInancipatnd.
| The population has doubled since the
institution 81 TIE kingdom III 1892.
| In 1882 the population was G12.GVs. In 1870 it.
was ,457, 1914. This. Of course, includes the
population of the lonian Islands, which Is
estimated At about 2lss79. In 1921 Greece
| had only 40 vessels, with total tonnage Of
81 40. la 1875 she had 5440, with q tonnage
| OF 2G2.0a2 In 1880 1t had scarcely harbor
which deserved the name. 1T has now IS good
trading ports. IA lsl7 II had only light
house. it has now H. in 1879 its entire com
meree amounted to only So 355. 900; In 1875 it
had reached si2.0oo.0o0 At the Industrial
Exhibition of 1851 Greece had only - exhibit
tions; at that of 1878 1t had 1000. It has now
% steam factories, most of which have been
erected since 1864 Since the beginning of the
kingdom, up u 1869, It had built or rebuilt go
towns and coo villages. Education Is not
neglected i'm Greece On the contrary accord
ing to IuckermaD, Greece II ahead of every
other nation In this respect, not excepting the
United States II can boast III l29 newspapers
and periodicals., and since 1864 the press has
been exempt from the private eensure of the
government. Agriculture Is yet In low and
backward state. but the steam pillow has
already made progress, and improvement, 1t
may be reasonably inferred, will go on apace
The roads are esecrahle and the land tax Is u
curse 70 the country. but the people are
awakening, and we are not without evidence
that Improvement is setting in In both these
directions With such evidence before u.s. it
can hardly be said that the Greek Kingdom
has been Il failure
In view then. OF I'LL we have said, It seems
but just and reasonable that the claims of
Greece should be respected, and that she
should have suitable increase Of territory. |
We are not disposed to be doglnatic rs to how
much she should receive or in what direction
the kingdom should be extended. We should
be pleased to See the spirit Of the Berlin re-
might be safely left to properly appointed
commission. Ii isnot denied that the present |
limits of the kingdom are inadequate. Lord
Beaconsfield calls the present frontier an "im-
perfect and Insufficient one, Mr.. Gladstone
has told us that it Is within his knowledge |
that as Int % 1862 Lord Palmerston and |
Lord John Russell were most DESTROYS ito |
retrieve the error committed ct tho institlI- |
ton OF the Hellenic State by the deplorabje !
restriction Of It's territory" and that in no
spl1 , T., Of :, unlIlendllness to the Porte they
wished for the assignment of Thessaly and |
EpirHs TO Greece, subject to the condition of
sovereignty Of tribute There seems to be
but one course open to the powers. II Greece
and Turkey cannot agree upon boundary
line thcy must take the matter i'm hand and
settle i for them. It il well TO be tender to-
ward Turkey, but Greece also has her rights,
which should be respected.