No. 29.
Mr. Read to
Mr. Fish.
Athens, April 10, 1875. (Received May 7.)
Sir: Referring to my No. 20 and No. 25, I have the honor to continue my report upon the political situation in Greece during the last year.
After the resignation of Mr. Deligeorges, on the 21st of February, 1874, Mr. Bulgaris formed a ministry composed as follows:
Mr. Bulgaris, president and minister of the interior; Mr. N. Papami-chalopoulos, minister of finance; Colonel Tringhetta, minister of war; Mr. J. Balassapoulos, minister of ecclesiastical affairs and public instruction; Mr. B. Nicolopoulos, (son-in-law of Mr. Bulgaris,) minister of justice and ad interim of foreign affairs.
On the 23d of March, however, the portfolio of foreign affairs was confided definitely to Mr. Jean Delyanni, while Colonel Tringhetta was transferred to the ministry of marine, and Colonel Grivas became minister of war. On the 23d of October, Mr. Papamichalopoulos resigned, and Mr. Nicolopoulos, minister of justice, assumed charge of the department of finance, which he still continues to direct.
The parliamentary elections began on the 5th of July, and ended four days afterwards, in accordance with the constitutional provisions.
[Page 659]The deputies returned to the legislative body were, almost without exception, friendly to the Bulgaris ministry, although some of them, at a later day, fell away from the government.
In the island of Zante, Mr. Lombardos, the radical candidate, was defeated by a large majority; and in Missolonghi, Mr. Deligeorges, president of the late ministry, was equally unfortunate. The friends of each of these gentlemen did not hesitate to attribute their non-election to active military interference at the polls.
The Chamber met on the 6th of August, but the attendance was extremely limited, this being the month in which the currant-crop is gathered in Greece.
The usual speech from the throne was omitted; and the session was opened by merely the reading of a royal decree.
For the want of a quorum, no business was transacted until the 15th of October. At that date the House entered upon an examination of the validity of the elections, and shortly afterwards it declared vacant the seats of several deputies opposed to the ministry. Among the persons thrown out was Mr. Philemon, one of the deputies of Attica, and editor of the Aion, (the Age,) the most vigorous organ of Mr. Coumoundouros.
The Chamber next proceeded to the choice of its presiding officer, and Mr. Zarcos, the government candidate, having received ninety-five out of one hundred and forty votes cast, was declared duly elected.
On the 30th of November, the president, accompanied by the vice-presidents and secretaries, presented himself in due form to the King, and announced to His Majesty the organization of the Chamber.
The following day the debate upon the budget of 1874 commenced. After a prolonged discussion of more than a week, at the very moment when the decisive vote was expected, on the 12th of December, the opposition, with few exceptions, failed to appear in the Chamber.
The government, however, proceeded to business, on the plea that at the beginning of the sitting there were one hundred and three deputies present, whereas only ninety-six are required to form a quorum; that is to say, a majority of the whole number, the whole number being one hundred and ninety.
It is said that the few opposition deputies who were present went out without notice, when they saw that their departure would destroy the chance of a quorum. They left one of their number however, behind, who protested against further action, and repeatedly told the president that there was not a quorum in the “Chamber. The latter dignitary paid not the slightest attention to these observations, which were couched in language more energetic, perhaps, than parliamentary.
The deputies who remained being, with the one exception above noted, supporters of the ministry, proceeded with the debate, and finally passed the budget by a decisive vote.
In the next sitting, which took place on the 14th of December, the 13th being Sunday, the opposition were present, and proposed the annulment of what had been done on the preceding occasion.
The ministry, however, maintained that the Chamber had had a quorum in the beginning; that the president was not obliged to order the calling of the roll a second time, and that, moreover, the original remonstrance had not been supported, in accordance with the rules, by ten members.
The debate thus opened lasted two days; and on the 15th of December the proposition of the opposition was rejected by a majority of twenty out of one hundred and forty voices—the ministers also voting.
[Page 660]Upon the subsequent day the opposition withdrew in a body from the Chamber, having previously declared their intention to take this step if their proposition to annul the proceedings of the 12th of December was defeated.
They also presented to the King a protest against the ministry, dated the 16th of December. I have the honor to inclose a copy and translation of this document.
After the retirement of the opposition, the ministerial party endeavored in vain to obtain a quorum.
The public business was in consequence entirely suspended. The finance measures, on which the credit of the country depends, could not be passed, and the spectacle presented to the friends and well-wishers” of Greece was indeed a most melancholy one.
In the light of this event, it seems a sad misfortune that no clause exists similar to that in section 5 of Article I of the Constitution of the United States, by which less than a majority of the Chamber might be authorized to compel the attendance of absent in embers.
In the midst of the difficulties arising out of the want of such a provision, the Christmas holidays arrived; the various deputies departed to their respective homes, and the session of 1874 was finally declared to be at an end by a royal decree of the 1st of February of the current year. On the 24th of the same month, however, the many important questions pressing for solution, and above all the evident necessity of considering the budget of 1875, induced the King, upon the representation of the ministry, to call an extraordinary session of the Chamber, to begin on the 17th of March.
At two o’clock in the afternoon of the day last mentioned, only a small number of deputies were present in the Chamber. After the usual religious ceremonies, Mr. Bulgaris ascended the tribune, and in the name of the King proclaimed the opening of the special session. The reading of the royal decree was followed by cheers from all the audience for His Majesty.
The senior deputy, Mr. Reveliotis, following the organic rules of the House, acted as provisional president, and informed his colleagues that there was not a quorum present. He declared, however, that he would call them together again upon the arrival of a sufficient number of deputies from the provinces.
The government now put forth every effort to obtain a working majority. On the 31st of March it is said that there were ninety-one ministerial deputies in their seats, besides one belonging to the opposition. After the calling of the roll, the president announced that there was a quorum.
He proceeded to say, in substance:
It is true that the number of deputies is ordinarily one hundred and ninety. A majority would, therefore, appear to consist of ninety-six. At the present time, however, this cannot be the case; for six of these deputies—those from Attica—have not yet been elected; and the elections of seventeen others have not yet been verified. Consequently, according to the spirit of the constitution, and particularly according to the interpretation given to the question by the National Assembly, in one of its sittings in 1864, viz, that the majority must be taken from the number of existing deputies—the dead, the not yet elected, and the not yet verified not being counted—it is entirely clear that the actual members of the Chamber at this time are only one hundred and sixty-seven, and therefore that the half of that number, namely, eighty-five, form a quorum.
[Page 661]The opposition denied, with warmth, the accuracy of the president’s definition of a quorum. They insisted that the National Assembly was totally unlike the present Chamber. The former body possessed the power to organize and give a form of government to the country. The moment, however, that it had framed and adopted a constitution, its mission was at an end. The measures which were eminently proper in that convention, endowed with unlimited privileges, were entirely inapplicable to the present case, and cannot be extended to a house utterly different in origin, character, and purpose.
In consequence of the declaration of the president, ten deputies retired, amid great noise and confusion, and were received with cheers by various groups awaiting them on the outside.
At the same moment another deputy mounted the tribune, crying out, in violent excitement, and with passionate gesticulations, that a man who had reached such a venerable age ought to be ashamed of such conduct; that the president was destroying the liberties of the country; and that he was a traitor!
Only eighty-two deputies now remained—being three less than a quo rum, even according to the opinion expressed by the president a few moments earlier, and fourteen less than a quorum, according to the opposition. Nevertheless, the work of the Chamber was continued.
The president administered the oath to nine persons, whose elections were also examined and verified. The induction of these deputies into office carried the total number (according to the president’s doctrine) to one hundred and seventy-six, and the quorum (according to the same authority) to eighty-nine.
On the 1st of April four of the deputies who had retired returned to the Chamber. Ninety-one members altogether answered to their names; being two more than the government deemed necessary for a quorum, and five less than the opposition considered essential. Dr. S. J. Cassimati (deputy from Cerigo, but a resident of the island of Syra) was chosen president, receiving eighty-nine votes. Three vice-presidents and four secretaries were also elected.
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Upon the same day, the proceedings of the sitting of the 12th of December, the day when the opposition withdrew, were declared valid.
April 2d, ninety-two deputies being present, Mr. Nicolopoulos, minister of justice and finance, submitted the budget of 1875. April 3d, Dr. Cassimati, president, read to the Chamber his address, informing the King of the organization of the House, together with His Majesty’s’ reply.
I have the honor to inclose copies of these documents, marked II.
On the 4th of April the Chamber passed the budget of 1875 by a decided vote. Only eighty-five deputies were present the following day, but several bills of importance were disposed of without difficulty. The 6th was a holiday, the anniversary of Greek independence. No sitting took place on the 7th; but on the 8th, ninety deputies appeared. In the mean time various causes had combined to increase the political excitement, and to augment the irritation of contending parties. On the 3d of April, as the president of the Chamber was returning with the other officers of the House, from an official interview with the King, he was violently hissed by a number of persons sitting outside of a café on Constitution Square. A ministerial deputy, Mr. Staicos,* * * was in the cafe at the time. Upon hearing the noise, this gentleman rushed out of the door, exclaiming that it was a cowardly and rascally thing to insult the president and the Chamber. [Page 662] Thereupon Mr. C. Coïdas, ex-deputy attorney-general, attacked Mr. Staïcos, and gave him a terrible beating, crying. “You are the rascals who vote in the Chamber, without a quorum, in direct violation of the constitution of our country.”
At the earliest moment possible Mr. Staïcos called for the police, who came speedily to his aid, and lodged Mr. Coïdas in jail, where he remained twenty-four hours.
The next day Mr. Staïcos challenged Mr. Coïdas. A duel was fought with pistols at twenty paces. Neither party being wounded, at the third fire the distance was reduced to fifteen paces, and Mr. Coïdas received a ball through the lungs, which placed his life in imminent danger.
* * * * * *
Subscriptions were immediately opened by three of the morning papers of Athens opposed to the ministry. Similar movements were organized in the provinces to provide a dower for the daughter of the wounded man. The sums collected in this city from the 7th to the 9th instant reached five thousand four hundred drachmas, and exaggerated rumors were current concerning the amounts contributed in the provinces.
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The special session of the Chamber was closed yesterday by a royal decree. Parliament will not resume its ordinary sittings until November.
The present condition of the political situation is one of suspense.
I have, &c.,