The population of Attica is divided into seven communes or demarchies.[B]
[Footnote B: To this population of 33,909, must be added the troops and strangers in Athens, and at the Piraeus, who are not citizens. They generally exceed three thousand.]
1. Athens, containing . 22,309 inhabitants. 2. Piraeus, . . . 2099 … 3. Kekropia, . . . 2158 … 4. Marathon, . . . 1214 … 5. Phyle, . . . 2659 … 6. Laurion, . . . 1470 … 7. Kalamos, . . . 2000 … ——— 33,909
It will be enough for our purpose to describe the local constitution of the city of Athens, and then point out the slight variations which circumstances render necessary in the secluded agricultural communes of the province.
The magistrates of Athens consist of a demarch (provost), six paredhroi (bailies), and a town council composed of eighteen members. The town-council is selected by all the citizens, who vote by signed lists, containing the names of thirty-six individuals. The eighteen who have a majority of votes become members of the town-council, and the remaining eighteen who have the greatest number form a list of supplementary members to supply vacancies, and prevent any election being necessary except at the stated periods provided by law. The election of the demarch and paredhroi is a more complicated affair. The eighteen members chosen to form the town-council, and eighteen citizens who are the highest tax-payers in the community, then meet together under the presidency of the royal governor of the province. This meeting first proceeds to elect two of its number to open the ballot-box, and assist and control the conduct of the royal governor, as vice-presidents of the assembly. The election proceeds, the persons present voting by ballot. The names of candidates for the office of demarch must be returned, from which the king selects one, and six paredhroi chosen, who must all have an absolute majority of votes. The indirect election of the demarch is extremely unpopular, as it has no effect except to enable the king to exclude two popular but uncourtly citizens from every municipal office.
The plan of election in the country districts is precisely similar, but the town-council is less numerous, and each village has its own resident paredhros. The election of the demarch and of the paredhroi is conducted as at Athens, and the royal governor of the province is compelled to visit each commune in turn, in order to preside at the election. The whole system rests on a popular basis. Every citizen possessing property, or enrolled in the list of citizens from paying taxes, enjoys a vote in the election of the magistrates of his demos. The royal authority only concurs in so far as is required to preserve order, and give an official certificate of the legality of the proceedings.
We come now to another popular institution, which gives a great degree of political strength to the municipal organization of Greece, and protects its liberties in a manner unknown in most other countries. Each province possesses a provincial council, the members of which are elected by the citizens of the different demoi into which the province is divided—a demos containing 2000 inhabitants, sends one representative; a demos with 10,000 but exceeding 2000, sends two representatives; and a demos having more than 10,000 inhabitants, sends three. Here, however, the electors are required to pay fifty drachmas of direct taxes to the general government in order to be entitled to vote.[C]
[Footnote C: Twenty-eight drachmas make a pound sterling.]
It will be seen, on referring to the population of the Attic demoi, that the provincial council of Attica consists of twelve members, and these members are elected for six years. The restriction on the electors is not unpopular in Greece, as it is connected with an extended suffrage in the municipal elections. Upwards of 500 citizens voted in Athens at the last elections of provincial councillors. The provincial councils meet every year in the months of February or March, as that is the season when the landed proprietors in the country can most conveniently absent themselves from their farms. The council chooses its own president and secretary, but the royal governor of the province has the right to attend its meeting. The budget of each demos must be presented to the council and approved by it, and it has the power of rejecting any item of expenditure; but it can only recommend, not enforce, any additional expense. It is likewise the business of the provincial council to examine the grounds on which any demos solicits the power of imposing local taxes: it proposes also general improvements for the whole province, and has the power of assessing the taxes necessary for carrying them into effect. Roads, barracks for gendarmes, prisons, hospitals, and schools, are objects of its attention. Its acts must all be presented to the minister of the interior at the conclusion of the session, and they acquire validity only from the time the minister communicates the royal assent to the proceedings.
This system of popular government, in all matters directly connected with the daily business of the citizens, is a wise arrangement, and it has proved a powerful engine for the preservation of order amidst a population accustomed to anarchy, revolution, and despotism; and it has also formed a firm barrier against the tyrannical aspirations of the Bavarians. Indeed, had King Otho's government not been prevented, by this municipal system, from coming into daily contact with the people, we are persuaded that it would long ago have thrown Greece into convulsions, and caused the massacre of every Bavarian in the country.