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

With regard to the second class of claimants. Common honesty, if royal
gratitude go for nothing in Greece, required that those who advanced money
to their country in her day of need, should be repaid their capital. All
interest might have been refused--the glory of their disinterested conduct
was all the reward they wanted; for few of them would have demanded
repayment of the sums due had they been rich enough to offer them as a
gift. The refusal of King Otho to repay these sums when he lavished money
on his Bavarian favourites and Greek partizans, has probably lowered his
character more, both in the East and in Europe, than any of those errors
in diplomacy which induced the _Morning Chronicle_ to publish, that
several Bavarians of rank had written a certificate of his being an idiot,
and forwarded it to his royal father. The sum required to pay up all the
claims of this class, would not have exceeded the agency paid by King Otho
to his Bavarian banker for remitting the loan contracted at Paris to
Greece, by the rather circuitous route of Munich.

It was also expected by the Greeks that one of the first acts of the royal
government would have been to abolish the duty on all articles carried by
sea from one part of the kingdom to another; this duty amounted to six per
cent, and was not abolished until the late demands of the three protecting
powers for prompt payment of the money due to them by his Hellenic
majesty, rendered King Otho rather more amenable to public opinion than he
had been previously. A decree was accordingly published a few months ago,
abolishing this most injurious tax, the preamble of which declares, with
innocent _naivete_, that the duty thus levied is not based on principles
of equal taxation, but bears oppressively on particular classes.[D]
Alas! poor King Otho! he begins to abolish unjust taxation when his
exchequer is empty, and when his creditors are threatening him with the
Gazette; and yet he delays calling together a national assembly. It is
possible that, little by little, King Otho may be persuaded by
circumstances to become a tolerable constitutional sovereign at last; but
we fear our old friend Hadgi Ismael Bey--may his master never diminish the
length of his shadow!--will say on this occasion, as we have heard him say
on some others, "Machallah! Truly, the sense of the ghiaour doth arrive
after the mischief!" But we hold no opinions in common with Hadgi Ismael
Bey, who drinketh water, despiseth the Greek, and hateth the Frank. Our
own conjecture is, that King Otho has been studying the history of
Theopompus, one of his Spartan predecessors who, like himself, occupied
barely half a throne. Colleagues and ephori were in times past as
unpleasant associates in the duties of government as protecting powers now
are. Now Theopompus looked not lovingly on those who shared his royalty,
but as he understood the signs of the times, he sought to make friends at
Sparta by establishing a popular council, that is to say, he convoked a
national assembly. Thus, by diminishing the pretensions of royalty, he
increased its power. Let King Otho do the same, and if some luckless
Bavarian statesmen upbraid him with having thrown away his power, let him
reply--"No, my friend, I have only rendered the Bavarian dynasty more
durable in Greece." [Greek: Oi deta, paraoioomi gar ten basileian
poluchronioteran.] If King Otho would once a day recall to his mind the
defence of Missolonghi, if he would reflect on the devotion shown to the
cause of their country by the whole population of Greece, he would surely
feel prouder of identifying his name and fortunes with a country so
honoured and adored, than of figuring in Bavarian history as the protector
of the artists who has reared the enormous palace he has raised at Athens.

[Footnote D: This decree was published in the _Athena_ newspaper, and is
dated the 20th of April 1843. It does not appear to have been published
until some weeks later.]

The Greeks expected that a civilized government would have taken measures
for improving the internal communications of the country, and exerted
itself to open new channels of commercial enterprise. They had hoped to
see some part of the loan expended in the formation of roads, and in
establishing regular packets to communicate with the islands. The best
road the loan ever made, was one to the marble quarries of Pentelicus in
order to build the new palace, and the only packets in Greece were
converted by his majesty into royal yachts.[E] The regency, it is true,
made a decree announcing their determination to make about 250 miles of
road. But their performances were confined to repairing the road from
Nauplia to Argos, which had been made by Capo d'Istria. The Greek
government, however, has now completed the famous road to the marble
quarries, a road of six miles in length to the Piraeus, and another of
five miles across the isthmus of Corinth. The King of Bavaria very nearly
had his neck broken on a road said to have been then practicable between
Argos and Corinth. We can answer for its being now perfectly impassable
for a carriage. Two considerable military roads are, however, now in
progress, one from Athens to Thebes, and another from Argos to
Tripolitza. But these roads have been made without any reference to
public utility, merely to serve for marching troops and moving artillery,
and consequently the old roads over the mountains, as they require less
time, are alone used for commercial transport.

[Footnote E: This is no exaggeration. We once visited the island of
Santorin, which has a population of 9000 souls, who own 46 vessels of 200
tons and upwards, besides many smaller craft. King Otho was sailing about
in one steamer at the time, and another was acting the man-of-war amidst
a fleet of English, French, Prussian, and Austrian frigates in the front
of the Piraeus; yet no post had been forwarded to Santorin for a
fortnight. Santorin is about 90 miles from Athens, and yields a very
considerable revenue to the Greek monarchy.]

It is evident that a poor peasantry, possessing no other means of
transport than their mules and pack-horses, must reckon distance entirely
by time, and the only way to make them perceive the advantages to be
derived from roads, is forming such bridle-paths as will enable them to
arrive at their journey's end a few hours sooner. The Greek government
never though of doing this, and every traveller who has performed the
journey from Patras to Athens, must have seen fearful proofs of this
neglect in the danger he ran of breaking his neck at the Kaka-scala or
cursed stairs of Megara.

Nay, King Otho's government has employed its _vis inertiae_ in preventing
the peasantry, even when so inclined, from forming roads at their own
expense; for the peasantry of Greece are far more enlightened than the
Bavarians. In the year 1841, the provincial council of Attica voted that
the road from Kephisia--the marble-quarry road--should be continued
through the province of Attica as far as Oropos. Provision was made for
its immediate commencement by the labour of the communes through which it
was to pass. Every farmer possessing a yoke of oxen was to give three
days' labour during the year, and every proprietor of a larger estate was
to supply a proportional amount of labour, or commute it for a fixed rate
of payment in money. This arrangement gave universal satisfaction.
Government was solicited to trace the line of road; but a year passed--one
pretext for delay succeeding another, and nothing was done. The provincial
council of 1842 renewed the vote, and government again prevented its being
carried into execution. It is said that his Majesty is strongly opposed to
the system of allowing the Greeks to get the direction of any public
business into their own hands; and that he would rather see his kingdom
without roads than see the municipal authorities boasting of performing
that which the central government was unable to accomplish.

We shall only trouble our readers with a single instance of the manner in
which commercial legislation has been treated in Greece. We could with
great ease furnish a dozen examples. Austrian timber pays an import duty
of six per cent, in virtue of a commercial treaty between Royal Greece and
Imperial Austria. Greek timber cut on the mountains round Athens pays an
excise duty of ten per cent; and the value of the Greek timber on the
mountains is fixed according to the sales made at Athens of Austrian
timber, on which the freight and duty have been paid. The effect can be
imagined. In our visit to Greece we spent a few days shooting woodcocks
with a fellow-countryman, who possesses an Attic farm in the mountains,
near Deceleia. His house was situated amidst fine woods of oak and pine;
yet he informed us that the floors, doors, and windows, were all made of
timber from Trieste, conveyed from Athens on the backs of mules. The house
had been built by contract; and though our friend gave the contractor
permission to cut the wood he required within five hundred yards of the
house, he found that, what with the high duty demanded by the government,
and with the delays and difficulties raised by the officers charged with
the valuation, who were Bavarian forest inspectors, the most economical
plan was to purchase foreign timber. The consequence of this is, the
Greeks burn down timber as unprofitable, and convert the land into
pasturage. We have seen many square miles of wood burning on Mount
Pentelicus; and on expressing our regret to a Greek minister, he shrugged
up his shoulders and said: "That, sir, is the way in which the Bavarian
foresters take care of the forests." Yet this Greek, who could sneakingly
ridicule the folly of the Bavarians, was too mean to recommend the king to
change the law.

Let us now turn to a more enlivening subject of contemplation, and see
what the Greeks have done towards improving their own condition. We shall
pass without notice all their exertions to lodge and feed themselves, or
fill their purses. We can trust any people on those points; our
observations shall be confined to the moral culture. We say that the
Greeks deserve some credit for turning their attention towards their own
improvement, instead of adopting the Gallican system of reform, and
raising a revolution against King Otho. They seem to have set themselves
seriously to work to render themselves worthy of that liberty, the
restoration of which they have so long required in vain from the allied
powers. There is, perhaps, no feature in the Greek revolution more
remarkable than the eager desire for education manifested by all classes.
The central government threw so many impediments in the way of the
establishment of a university, that the Greeks perceived that no buildings
would be erected either as lecture-rooms for the professors, or to contain
the extensive collections of books which had been sent to Greece by
various patriotic Greeks in Europe. Men of all parties were indignant at
the neglect, and at last a public meeting was held, and it was resolved to
raise a subscription for building the university. The government did not
dare to oppose the measure; fortunately, there was one liberal-minded man
connected with the court at the time, Professor Brandis of Bonn, and his
influence silenced the grumbling of the Bavarians; the subscription
proceeded with unrivalled activity, and upwards of L.4000 was raised in a
town of little more than twenty thousand inhabitants--half the inhabitants
of which had not yet been able to rebuild their own houses. Many
travellers have seen the new university at Athens, and visited its
respectable library, and they can bear testimony to the simplicity and
good sense displayed in the building.

One of the most remarkable features of the great moral improvement which
has taken place in the population, is the eagerness displayed for the
introduction of a good system of female education. The first female school
established in Greece was founded at Syra, in the time of Capo d'Istria,
by that excellent missionary the late Rev. Dr Korck, who was sent to
Greece by the Church Missionary Society. An excellent female school still
exists in this island, under the auspices of the Rev. Mr Hilner, a German
missionary ordained in England, and also in connexion with the Church
Missionary Society. The first female school at Athens, after the
termination of the Revolution, was established by Mrs Hill, an American
lady, whose exertions have been above all praise. A large female school
was subsequently formed by a society of Greeks, and liberally supported by
the Rev. Mr Leeves, and many other strangers, for the purpose of educating
female teachers. This society raises about L.800 per annum in
subscriptions among the Greeks. We cannot close the subject of female
education without adding a tribute of praise to the exertions of Mrs
Korck, a Greek lady, widow of the excellent missionary whom we have
mentioned as having founded the first female school at Syra; and of Mr
George Constantinidhes, a Greek teacher, who commenced his studies under
the auspices of the British and Foreign School Society, and who has
devoted all his energy to the cause of the education of his countrymen,
and has always inculcated the great importance of a good system of female
education. We insist particularly on the merits of those who devoted their
attention to this subject, as indicating a deep conviction of the
importance of moral and religious instruction. Male education leads to
wealth and honours. Boys gain a livelihood by their learning, but girls
are educated that they may form better mothers.

Other public institutions have not been neglected. The citizens of Athens
have built a very respectable civil hospital, and we mention this as it is
one of the public buildings which excites the attention of strangers, and
which is often supposed to have been erected by the government, though
entirely built from the funds raised by local taxes. The amount of
municipal taxes which the Greeks pay, is another subject which deserves
attention. The general taxes in Greece are very heavy. Every individual
pays, on an average, twelve shillings, which makes the payment of a family
of five persons amount to L.3 sterling annually. This is a very large sum,
when the poverty and destitution of the people is taken into
consideration, and is greater than is paid by any other European nation
where the population is so thinly scattered over the surface of the
country. Yet as soon as the Greeks became convinced that the general
government would contribute nothing towards improving the country, they
determined to impose on themselves additional burdens rather than submit
to wait. Hospitals, schools, churches, and bridges, built by several
municipalities, attest the energy of the determination of the people to
make every sacrifice to improve their condition. We offer our readers a
statement of the amount of the taxes imposed by the municipalities of
Attica on themselves for local improvements. The town communes of Athens
and the Piraeus find less difficulty in collecting the large revenues they
possess, than the country districts their comparatively trifling
resources.

Drachmas
Athens, with a population of 22,309 collects 159,000
Piraeus, ... 2,099 ... 27,300
Kekropia, ... 2,158 ... 3,759
Marathon, ... 1,214 ... 1,708
Phyle, ... 2,659 ... 7,000
Laurion, ... 1,470 ... 2,356
Kalamos, ... 2,000 ... 2,747
------- -------
33,909 ... 203,870

From this statement we find that each family of five persons pays, on an
average, thirty drachmas of self-imposed taxes, or about twenty-two
shillings annually, in addition to the L.3 sterling paid to the general
government.

We think we may now ask: Are the Greeks fit for a representative system of
government? We should like to hear the reasons of those who hold the
opinion, that they are not yet able to give an opinion on the best means
of improving their own country, and the most advantageous mode of raising
the necessary revenue.

We must now conclude with a few remarks on the line of conduct towards the
Greeks which has been pursued by the three protecting powers. We do not,
however, propose entering at any length on the subject, as we have no
other object than that of rendering our preceding observations more clear
to our readers. We are persuaded that the policy of interfering as little
as possible in the affairs of Greece, which has been adopted, and
impartially acted on by Lord Aberdeen, is the true policy of Great
Britain.

But in reviewing the general position of the Greek state, it must not be
forgotten that the Greek people have had communications with the great
powers of Europe of a nature very different from those which existed
between the protecting powers and King Otho. As soon as it became evident
that Turkey could not suppress the Greek revolution without suffering most
seriously from the diminution of her resources, Russia and England began
to perceive that it would be a matter of some importance to secure the
good-will of the Greek population. The Greeks scattered over the
countries in the Levant, amount to about five millions, and they are the
most active and intelligent portion of the population of the greater part
of the provinces in which they dwell. The declining state of the Ottoman
empire, and the warlike spirit of the Greek mountaineers and sailors,
induced both Russia and England to commence bidding for the favour of the
insurgents. In 1822 the deputy sent by the Greeks to solicit the
_compassion_ of the European ministers assembled at Verona, was not
allowed to approach the Congress. But the successful resistance of the
Greeks to the whole strength of the Ottoman empire for two years, induced
Russia to communicate a memoir to the European cabinets in 1824, proposing
that the Greek population then in arms should receive a separate, though
independent, political existence. This indiscreet proposition awakened the
jealousy of England, as indicating the immense importance attached by
Russia to securing the good-will of the Greeks. England immediately outbid
the Czar for their favour, by recognising the validity of their blockades
of the Turkish fortresses, thus virtually acknowledging the existence of
the Greek state. The other European powers were compelled most unwillingly
to follow the example of Great Britain. Mr Canning, however, in order to
place the question on some public footing, laid down the principles on
which the British cabinet was determined to act, in a communication to the
Greek government, dated in the month of December 1824. This document
declares that the British government will observe the strictest neutrality
with reference to the war; while with regard to the intermediate state of
independence and subjection proposed in the Russian memorial, it adds
that, as it has been rejected by both parties, it is needless to discuss
its advantages or defects. It also assured the Greeks that Great Britain
would take no part in any attempt to compel them by force to adopt a plan
of pacification contrary to their wishes.

France now thought fit to enter on the field. According to the invariable
principle of modern French diplomacy, she made no definite proposition
either to the Greeks or the European powers; but she sent semi-official
agents into the country, who made great promises to the Greeks if they
would choose the Duke de Nemours, the second son of the Duke d'Orleans,
now King Louis Philippe, to be sovereign of Greece. The Greeks had seen
something too substantial on the part of Russia and England to follow this
Gallic will-o'-the-wisp. But England and Russia, in order to brush all the
cobwebs of French intrigue from a question which appeared to them too
important to be dealt with any longer by unauthorized agents, signed a
protocol at St Petersburg on the 4th April 1826, engaging to use their
good offices with the Sultan to put an end to the war. The Duke of
Wellington himself negotiated the signature of this protocol, and it is
one of the numerous services he has rendered to his country and to Europe,
as the Greek question threatened to disturb the peace of the East. France,
as well as Austria, refused to join, until it became evident that the two
powers were taking active measures to carry their decisions into effect,
when France gave in her adhesion, and the treaty of the 6th of July 1827,
was signed at London by France, Great Britain, and Russia.

Events soon ran away with calculations. The Turkish fleet was destroyed
at Navarino on the 20th October 1827, the anniversary (if we may trust
Mitford's _History of Greece_) of the battle of Salamis. France now
embarked in the cause, determined to outbid her allies, and sent an
expedition to the Morea, under Marshal Maison, to drive out the troops of
Ibrahim Pasha. Capo d'Istria assumed the absolute direction of political
affairs, and by his Russian partizanship and anti-Anglican prejudices,
plunged Greece in a new revolution, when his personal oppression of the
family of Mauromichalis caused his assassination. King Otho was then
selected as king of Greece, and the consent of the Greeks was obtained to
his appointment by a loan to the new monarch of L.2,400,000 sterling, and
by a good deal of intrigue and intimidation at the assembly of Pronia.[F]
The Greeks, however, had already solemnly informed the allied powers,
that the acts of their national assemblies, consolidating the
institutions of the Greek state, and by securing the liberties of the
Greek people, "were as precious to Greece as her existence itself;" and
the protecting powers had consecrated their engagement to support these
institutions, by annexing this declaration to their protocol of the 22d
March 1830.[G]

[Footnote F: Several national assemblies have been held in Greece. The
acts of the following have been printed in a collection composed of
several volumes. The first was held at Pidhavro, near Epidaurus, of which
its name is a corruption, in 1822; the others at Astros in 1823, at
Epidaurus in 1826, at Troezene in 1827, at Argos in 1830 and the last at
Pronia, near Nauplia, in 1832.]

[Footnote G: Annex A, No. 9.]

The three allied powers have not displayed more union in their councils,
since the selection of King Otho, than they did before his appointment. In
one thing alone they have been unanimous; but unfortunately this has been
to forget their engagements to the Greek people, to see that the
institutions and liberties of Greece were to be respected. England and
France have, however, displayed at times some compunction on the subject;
but, unluckily for the Greeks, their consciences did not prick them at the
same moment. At one time the Duke de Broglie proposed that Greece should
be reinstated in the enjoyment of her free institutions, but Lord
Palmerston declared, that, her government being very anti-Russian at the
time, institutions and liberty were a mere secondary matter, and he did
not think the Greeks required such luxuries. Times, however, changed, and
King Otho, displaying considerably more affection for Russia than for
England--England conceived it necessary to propose, at one of the
conferences in London on the affairs of Greece, that the Greeks should be
called, in virtue of their national institutions, to exercise a control
over the lavish and injudicious expenditure of the revenues of the kingdom
by the royal government. But Russia and France, though admitting the
incapacity of the king's government, declared that they considered it
better to send commissioners named by the protecting powers, to control
his Hellenic majesty's expenses. Russia, indeed, distinctly declared she
would not allow the constitutional question to be discussed in the
conferences at the Foreign Office, and Lord Palmerston, with unusual
meekness, submitted. France, every ready to play a great game in small
matters, really sent a commissioner to Greece, to control King Otho's
expenses; but his Hellenic majesty soon gave proofs of how grievously the
_Morning Chronicle_ had mistaken his abilities. He gave the French
commissioner a few dinners, a large star, and a good place at all court
pageants in which he could display the uniform of Louis Philippe to
advantage, and thereby made the commissioner the same as one of his own
ministers. England and Russia kept aloof in stern disapprobation of this
paltry comedy.

The last farthing of the loan has now been expended, and the protecting
powers have intimated to King Otho, in very strong terns, that he must
immediately commence paying the interest and sinking fund, due in terms of
the treaty which placed the crown of Greece on his head. The whole burden
of this payment, of course, falls on the Greek people, who, we have
already shown, have suffered enough from the government of King Otho,
without this aggravation of their misery. Is it, we ask, just that the
Greeks should be compelled to pay sums expended on decorations to European
statesmen, pensions to Bavarian ministers, staff appointments to French
engineer officers, and ambassadors at foreign courts, when they never were
allowed even to express their conviction of the folly of these measures,
except by the public press? The truth is, that the loan was wasted, and
the amount now to be repaid by Greece was very considerably increased by
the allied powers themselves, who neglected to enforce the provisions of
the very treaty they now call upon the Greeks to execute, though not a
party to it. King Otho borrowed largely from Bavaria, as well as from the
protecting powers--he was at liberty to do so without the allies
attempting to interfere. But he was not entitled to repay any part of this
loan from the revenues of Greece, until the claims of the protecting
powers were satisfied. So says the treaty.

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