Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine Volume 54, No. 335, September 1843 by Various

V >> Various >> Blackwood\'s Edinburgh Magazine Volume 54, No. 335, September 1843

Pages:
1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 | 24

We have now arrived at the period when King Otho assumed the reins of
government. From the year 1838 to the present day, he has been his own
irresponsible prime minister; for the apparent ministers Zographos,
Paikos, Maurocordatos and Rizos, have never enjoyed his unlimited
confidence, nor have they been viewed with much favour by the people.
Indeed, with the exception of Maurocordatos, they are men of inferior
ability, and of no character or standing in the country. Any one who will
take the trouble to read those portions of their diplomatic correspondence
with the ministers of the allied powers at Athens, which have been
published, will be convinced of their utter unfitness for the offices they
have held. Let the reader contrast these precious specimens of inaccuracy
and rigmarole, with the come-to-the-truth style of our own minister, or
the sarcastic, let-us-go-quietly-over-your-reasoning style, in which the
Russian minister answers them.

In order that our readers may form some idea of the manner in which King
Otho has carried on the government for five years, we shall describe the
political machine he has framed--name it we cannot; for it resembles
nothing the world has yet seen amidst all the multifarious combinations of
cabinet-making, which kings, sultans, krals, emperors, czars, or khans,
have yet presented to the envious contemplation of aspiring statesmen. The
king of Greece, it must be observed, is a monarch whose ministers are held
by a fiction of law to be responsible; and the editor of an Athenian
newspaper has been fined and imprisoned for declaring that this fiction is
not a fact. These ministers are not permitted by King Otho to assemble
together in council, unless he himself be present. The assembly would be
too democratic for Otho's nerves. In short, the king has a ministry, but
his ministers do not form a cabinet; his cabinet is a separate concern.
Each minister waits on his majesty with his portfolio under his arm, and
receives the royal commands. To simplify business, however, and make the
ministers fully sensible of their real insignificancy, King Otho
frequently orders the clerks in the public offices to come to his royal
presence, with the papers on which they have been engaged; and by this
means he shows the ministers, that though they are necessary in
consequence of the fiction of law, they may be rendered very secondary
personages in their own departments. If it were not a useless waste of
time, we could lay before our readers instances of this singularly easy
mode of doing business--instances too, which have been officially
communicated to the allied powers. His majesty carried his love of
performing ministerial duties so far, that for more than a year he
dispensed entirely with a minister of finance, and divided the functions
of that office among three of the clerks: no bad preparation for a
national bankruptcy, we must allow--yet the protecting powers viewed this
political vagary of his majesty with perfect indifference.

The most singular feature of King Otho's government is his cabinet, or, as
the Greek newspapers call it, "the Camarilla." This cabinet has no
official constitution; yet its members put their titles on the visiting
cards which they leave, as advertisements of the existence of this
irresponsible body, at the houses of the foreign ministers. It consists,
or until the late financial difficulties deranged all the royal plans, it
consisted, of four Bavarians and two Greeks. Its duty is to prepare
projects of laws to be adopted by the different ministers, and to assist
the king in selecting individuals appointed to public offices. This is the
feature which excites the greatest indignation at Athens; the minister of
war does not dare to promote a corporal; the minister of public
instruction would tremble to send a village schoolmaster to a country
_demos_, even at the expense of the citizens; and the minister of finance
would not risk the responsibility of conferring the office of porter of
the customhouse at Parras, before receiving the royal instructions how to
act on such emergencies, and ascertaining what creature of the camarilla
it was necessary to provide for.

We have already mentioned the council of state; it consists of about
twenty individuals chosen by his majesty, a motley congregation--some
cannot read--others cannot write--some came to Greece after the revolution
was over--some, long after the king himself. This council is, by one of
the fictions of law so common in the Hellenic kingdom, supposed to form a
legislative council, and it is implied that it ought to be considered as
tantamount to a representative assembly. Some of its members are most
brave and respectable men, who have rendered Greece good service; but
since they were decked out in silver uniforms, and received large salaries
to form a portion of the court pageant, they have lost much of their
influence in the country, either for good or evil. The king looks upon
these patriotic members as an insignificant minority, or an ignorant
majority, as the case may be, and he has more than once set aside the
opposition of this council, by publishing laws rejected by a majority of
its members. To speak a plain truth in rude phrase--the council of state
is a farce.

King Otho, with his Greek ministers, his Bavarian cabinet, and his motley
council of state, is therefore, to all appearance, a more absolute
sovereign than his neighbour, Abdul Meschid. But we must now leave the
royal authority, and turn our attention to an important chapter in the
Greek question; one which nevertheless has not hitherto met with proper
study either from the king, his allies, or the public in Western
Europe--we mean the institutions of the Greek people.

The inhabitants of Greece consist of two classes, who, from having been
placed for many ages in totally different circumstances, are extremely
different in manners and in civilization. These are the population of the
towns or the commercial class, and the inhabitants of the country or the
agricultural class. The traders have usually been considered by strangers
as affording the true type of the Greek character; but a very little
reflection ought to have convinced any one, that the insecurity of the
Turkish government, and the constant change in the channels of trade in
the East, had given this class of the population a most Hebraical
indifference to "the dear name of country." To the Fanariote and the
Sciote, Wallachia or Trieste were delightful homes, if dollars were
plentiful. But the agricultural population of Greece was composed of very
different materials. We are inclined to consider them as the most
obstinately patriotic race on which the sun shines; their patriotism is a
passion and an instinct, and, from being restricted to their village or
their district, often looks quite as like a vice as a virtue. This class
is altogether so unlike any portion of the population of Western Europe,
that we should be more likely to mislead than to enlighten our readers by
attempting to describe it. The peasants are themselves inclined to
distrust the population of the towns, and look on Bavarians, Fanariotes,
and government officers, as a tribe of enemies embodying different degrees
of rapacity under various names. They have as yet derived little benefit
from the government of King Otho, for their taxes are greater now than
they were under the Turks, and they very sagaciously attribute the
existence of order in Greece to the alliance of the kings of the Franks,
not to the military prowess of the Bavarians.

There is a third class of men in Greece who hold in some degree the
position of an aristocracy. This class is composed of all those
individuals who from education are entitled to hold government
appointments; and at the head of this class figure the Fanariotes or Greek
families who were in the habit of serving under the Turkish government.
Many of the Fanariotes move about seeking their fortunes, from Greece to
Turkey, Wallachia, and Moldavia, and _vice versa_. One brother will be
found holding an office in the suite of the Prince of Moldavia, and
another in the court of King Otho. This class is more attached to foreign
influence than to Greek independence, and is almost as generally unpopular
in the country as the Bavarians; and perhaps not without reason, as it
supplies the court with abler and more active instruments than could be
found among the dull Germans.

We must now notice the great peculiarity of the national constitution of
the Greeks as a distinct people. There is indeed a singular difference in
the organization of the European nations, which does not always meet with
due attention from historians. The various governments of Europe are
divided into absolute and constitutional; but it is seldom considered
necessary to explain whether the people are ruled by officers appointed by
the central authority of the state, or by magistrates elected by local
assemblies of the people. Yet, as the character of a nation is more
important in history than the form of its government, it is as much the
duty of the historian to examine the institutions of the people, as it is
the business of the politician to be acquainted with the action of the
government. To illustrate this, we shall describe in general terms the
political constitution of the Greeks, and leave our readers to compare it
with the share enjoyed by the French, and some other of the constitutional
nations, in their own local government. After all the boasted liberty and
equality of the subjects of the Citizen King, we own that we consider that
the Greeks possess national institutions resting on a surer and more solid
basis.

All Greece is, and always has been, divided into communities enjoying the
right of choosing their own magistrates, and these magistrates decide a
number of police and administrative questions not affecting crimes and
rights of property. The most populous town, and the smallest hamlet,
equally exercise this privilege, and it is to its existence that the
Greeks owe the power of resistance they were enabled to exert against
their Roman and Turkish masters. We shall not enter into the history of
this institution, under the Turks, at present; as it is sufficient for our
purpose to give our readers a correct idea of the existing state of
things. A local elective magistracy is formed, which prevents the central
government from goading the people to insurrection by the insolence of
office which the inferior agents of an ill-organized administration
constantly display. Fortunately for the tranquillity of the country, the
local administration works its way onward through the daily difficulties
which present themselves, independent of king, ministers, councillors of
state, or royal governors.

In order to make our description as exact as possible, without presenting
a vague statistical view of the whole kingdom, for the accuracy of which
we would not pretend to answer, we confine our observations to the
province of Attica, concerning which we have been able to obtain official
information from all the communes.

There is, of course, a royal governor in Attica, who resides at Athens; he
is named on the responsibility of the minister of the interior, with whom
he is in daily correspondence, and is the organ of communication between
the royal government and the popular magistracy. Of course, in the present
state of things, the officer is appointed by King Otho himself, who has
made it a point of statesmanship to keep a person in the place quite as
much disposed to serve as a spy on all the ministers, as inclined to
execute with zeal the orders of his immediate superior.

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.

From the account we have given of the royal central government on the one
hand, and of the local magistracy on the other, it will be evident to our
readers that there are two powers at work in Greece, which, unless they
are united in the pursuit of some common objects, must at last engage in a
contest for the mastery.

We shall now notice the newspaper allegation, that the Greek court is
composed entirely of Bavarians. This was once the case, but it ceased to
be strictly true from the moment Armansperg introduced the system of
bribing the Greeks to join the Bavarian party; and at present the
government is supported almost entirely by Greek deserters from the
national cause. There is now no Bavarian in the ministry, and there are
Greeks in the cabinet. Many of the Greeks who affect with foreigners to be
loud in their complaints against the Bavarians, are, in the
administration, the most strenuous supporters of King Otho's system, and,
like Maurocordatos, the declared opponents of a national assembly and of a
representative form of government. They declare to the king that it is
necessary to retain some Bavarians in Greece, and they really wish it done
in order to exclude their Greek rivals from office. A revolution, followed
by a foreign government, and a lavish expenditure, has demoralized sterner
stuff than Greek politicians are made of, so that it is more to be
regretted than wondered at, when it appears that the Greek court has an
unusually large supply of venal political adventurers always ready to
enter its service.

This band consists of the Fanariotes, who were trained to official
aptitude and immorality under the Turks--of the politicians of the
revolution who deserted the cause of their country for the service of the
protecting powers at the last national assembly--and of a large class of
educated men not bred to commerce, who have resorted to Greece to make
their fortunes, and are now ready to accept places under any government.
The court, in its ignorance of Greece, has often purchased the services of
these men at their own valuation; and from this cause originates the crowd
of incapable councillors of state, useless ambassadors and consuls,
ignorant ministerial councillors and royal governors, and dishonest
commissaries, who assemble round King Otho in his palace. But time is
rolling on--ten years have elapsed since King Otho first stepped on the
Hellenic soil--the heroes of the war are sinking into the grave--Miaulis,
the best of the brave--Zaimi, the sagacious timid Moreote
noble--Kolocotroni, the sturdy strewd old klephtic chieftain;--these
three representatives and leaders of numerous classes of their
countrymen, now sleep in an honoured grave, and their followers no longer
form a majority in the land. A new race has arisen, a race equal in
education to the Maurocordatos, Rizos, Souizos, Karadjas, Tricoupis, and
Kolettis, and possessing the immense advantage over these men of
occupying a social position of greater independence. The fiery vehemence
of youth placed most of these new men in the opposition when they entered
on life. A political career being closed, they were, fortunately for
their country, obliged to devote all their attention to the cultivation
of their estates, and content themselves with improving their vineyards
and olive plantations instead of governing their country. Years have now
brought an increase of wealth, habits of moderation, steadiness of
purpose, and feelings of independence.

In a country such as we have described Greece, and we flatter ourselves
our description will bear examination on the part of travellers and
diplomatic gentlemen, we ask if there can be any doubt of the ultimate
success of popular institutions? For our own part, we feel persuaded that
Greece can only escape from a fierce civil war by the convocation of a
national representative assembly.--We adopted this opinion from the moment
that the Bavarian government was unable to destroy the liberty of the
press, after plunging into the contest and awakening the political
passions of the people. When a sovereign attacks a popular institution
without provocation, and fails in his attack, and when the people show
that concentrated energy which inspires the prudence necessary to use
victory with a moderation which produces no reaction against their cause,
their victory is sure. Under such circumstances a nation can patiently
wait the current of events. If Greece exist as a monarchy, we believe it
will soon have a national assembly; and if King Otho remain its sovereign,
we have a fancy that he will not long delay convoking one. Nothing,
indeed, can long prevent some representative body from meeting together,
unless it be the interference, direct or indirect, of the three protecting
powers. They, indeed, have strength sufficient to become the Three
Protecting Tyrants.

We hope that we have now given a tolerably intelligible account of King
Otho's government, and how it stands. We shall, therefore, proceed to the
second division of our enquiry, and strive to explain the actual state of
public feeling in Greece; what the king's government was expected to do,
and what it has left undone. We may be compelled here to glance at a few
delicate and contested questions in Greek politics, on which, however, we
shall not pretend to offer any opinion of our own, but merely collect the
facts; and we advise all men who wish to form a decided opinion on such a
question, to wait patiently until they have been discussed in a national
assembly of Greeks.

The first great question on which the government of King Otho was expected
to decide, was the means necessary to be adopted for discharging the
internal debt contracted for carrying on the war against the Turks. This
debt resolved itself into two heads: payment for services, and repayment
of money advanced. The national assemblies which had met during the
revolution, had decreed that every man who served in the army should, at
the conclusion of the war, receive a grant of land. It was proposed that
King Otho should carry these decrees into execution, by framing lists of
all those who had served either in the army, the navy, or in civil
employments. The same registers which contain the lists of the citizens of
the various communes, could have been rendered available for the purpose
of verifying the services of each individual. A fixed number of acres
might then have been destined to each man, according to his rank and time
of service. This measure would have enabled the Greek government to say,
that it had kept faith with the people. It would have induced many of the
military to settle as landed proprietors when the first current of
enthusiasm in favour of peaceful occupations set in, and it would have
been the means of silencing many pretensions of powerful military chiefs,
whose silence has since been dearly purchased.

The royal government always resisted these demands of the Greeks, and the
consequence was, that when it was necessary to yield from fear, Count
Armansperg adopted a law of dotation, which, under the appearance of being
a general measure, was only carried into application in cases where
partisanship was established; and yet national lands have been alienated
to a far greater extent than would have satisfied every claim arising out
of the revolutionary war. The king, it is true, has in late years made
donations of national land to favoured individuals, to maids of honour,
Turkish neophytes, and Bavarian brides; and he has rewarded several
political renegades with currant lands, and held out hopes of conferring
villages on councillors of state who have been eager defenders of the
court; but all this has been openly done as a matter of royal favour.

Pages:
1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 | 24