GREECE and its inhabitants, after a long period of oblivion, have at length become objects of profound and general interest to the most enlightened nations of Europe. It was singular, indeed, that while classical scholars were immersed in the study of its poets, orators, and historians, the country that gave birth to so many literary treasures, though neither distant nor inaccessible, seemed to have been as completely forgotten, as if it had been blotted from the map of Europe. The learned contented themselves with supposing, that the modern country was inhabited by rude and unknown tribes, governed by fanatical Turks, whose barbarous rule exposed travellers to continual insults and pillage, and had swept away all traces and memorials of the ancient glory of Greece. Besides, the country was not known to be distinguished by its natural beauties; and being confounded with the torpid mass of the Ottoman empire, its political importance was reduced to nothing. Till a very late period, the only intelligible accounts we had of the country were drawn from Strabo and Pausanias. The inquiries of Spon and Wheler, Le Roy, and Stuart, which at length brought some of its precious antiquities to light, were chiefly addressed to artists and scholars. Chandler's Travels were not much better adapted for general use. But the work which, more than any other, contributed to render all subjects connected with Greece and its antiquities popular, was the Travels of Anacharsis. Previous to the appearance of this work, however, various circumstances had contributed to bring the Greeks more conspicuously forward on the theatre of European affairs. While the general diffusion of education was increasing the number of those who felt an interest in classical subjects, the rise of the power of Russia, the connection she endeavoured to form with the Greeks, and her projects against Turkey, held out a probability, that Greece might speedily regain some share of political importance. The Greeks themselves, by the desperate efforts they made in 1770, and again in 1790, gave a proof to the world, that their existence as a people, and their national feelings, had survived those destructive revolutions which were supposed to have overwhelmed them. When the political enthusiasm, created by the French Revolution, made the most gigantic plans of political change appear easy, the emancipation of this long neglected country from the Turkish yoke was looked to as one of the most certain and gratifying triumphs of the new principles. Before the interest arising from this state of things had expired, circumstances of a different kind directed public attention more immediately to Greece. The host of English travellers who had been accustomed to roam over the Continent, shut out from their usual routes by an extraordinary combination of events, were forced into less frequented tracts, and numbers of them visited Greece. By these, and by a few individuals from other parts of Europe, a great part of the country has been explored, and a vast mass of information given to the public. Its topography and statistics are now better known than those of many of the nearer and more accessible parts of Europe. The revolutionary schemes, though not forgotten, have lost their importance; but the classical interest of the country has been augmented tenfold, by vivid descriptions of its monuments and its scenery, which have rendered many of the great events in its history familiar, as it were, to the eye. It is now found, that Greece may be visited with as much ease and security as Italy, or any other country in the south of Europe; that the modern Greeks, instead of being the mixed progeny of obscure and barbarous tribes, possess a respectable degree of civilization, and great capacities of improvement; that they have preserved the features and national character of their ancestors with surprising distinctness; and that their dialect does not deviate much farther from the language of Plato and Demosthenes, than that of Chaucer does from the English of the present day. Independently, too, of its other attractions, Greece surpasses Italy, and perhaps every other country in the world, in the beauty of its scenery. Its antiquities are not like those of the latter country, accumulated chiefly upon a single spot. They are scattered over a wide surface,—associated with a variety of scenery,—presenting memorials of many separate people, distinguished by differences of character, habits, and civilization. Its monuments, compared with those of Rome, breathe a purer taste, a finer moral spirit, and bespeak a sublimer genius; they tell of brighter and better times; of characters and actions, more surprising, generous, and romantic. Some of them transport the mind back to those remote times, where truth and fable are blended,—to those delightful fictions which bear the impress of the genius of the people more distinctly than the real events of their history. No country, in short, presents greater attractions to a well informed traveller; and as, in future, it will certainly be included in every classical tour, we may reasonably expect that, in a short time, every part of it will be completely explored.

The name of Greece was originally restricted to a small territory northward of the Gulf of Corinth, called also Hellas. Afterwards it included Attica, Eubcea, Peloponnesus, Epirus, and Thessaly; and ultimately Macedonia and Crete. In the brilliant periods of Grecian history, the extent of the country might be considered as coincident with the limits of those states which sent deputies to the Amphictionic Council; and, in this sense, Etolia and Acarnania, as well as Epirus, Macedonia, and Crete, ought to be excluded.* But, though we shall notice these divisions, our object at present is rather to take the appellation in its most extensive sense, and to follow what may be considered the natural limits of the country; because the territories included within these limits are associated by certain political relations; and because many of the most interesting subjects of inquiry and discussion relating to the ancient, and still more to the modern state of Greece, connect themselves most naturally with this arrangement.

The Continent of Greece, including Albania and Macedonia, is nearly shut in on the north by a chain of mountains known anciently by the names of Rhodope, Scomius, and Orbelus;† it is bounded on the west by the Adriatic and Ionian Seas, on the south by the Mediterranean, and on the east by the Aegean Sea, or Archipelago. It extends from 36° 10' to 42° 40' of north latitude; and from 19° 45' to 24° 40' of east longitude from London. Its length, from Cape Matapan to Mount Orbelus, or Argentaro, is 450 English miles; its greatest breadth, from Durazzo to Cavale, at the foot of Mount Pangaeus (a branch of Rhodope), 285 miles; and it embraces an area of 57,750 square miles, exclusive of all its islands except Eubcea. But, as our ideas of the extent of the country have always a reference to those ancient states which comprised but very minute portions of its surface, it is necessary that its dimensions should be described more in detail.

The country recognized as Greece before the rise of the Macedonian power, comprehended the Morea or Peloponnesus, Attica, Eubcea, Boeotia, Phocis, Doris, Etolia, Acarnania, Thessaly, and Magnesia; and even several of the states included within these limits had little or no share in those splendid actions which have shed so much glory over the country. The surface of Peloponnesus, which included seven different states, is about 8950 square English miles, in Danville's map; that of the countries just named, without the peninsula, including Eubcea, is 14,800; and both together amount to 23,750 square miles; an extent of surface not exceeding two-fifths of England, or one-fifth of the British isles. If to this we add 16,000 square miles for Albania or Epirus (including the basin of the Drino), 18,000 for Macedonia, and 1000 for the Cyclades, the whole surface of Greece and its islands will be 58,750 square miles, which is almost exactly the area of England. While Greece preserved its independence, however, all these territories were never united into one body politic, nor was their confederated force ever applied to the prosecution of any common enterprise. The communities whose warlike achievements, and brilliant career in arts and philosophy, raised the Grecian name so high, occupied but very minute portions of these territories; as the following table, deduced from measurements on Danville's map, will show.

<table> <tr> <th></th> <th>Sq. Eng. Miles.</th> </tr> <tr> <td>Attica, including Megaris and Salamis, but not Eubcea, ‡</td> <td>1190</td> </tr> <tr> <td>Boeotia,</td> <td>1530</td> </tr> <tr> <td>Laconia (without Messenia),</td> <td>1720</td> </tr> <tr> <td>Achaia (the twelve cities with their territories),</td> <td>1140</td> </tr> </table>

These states, therefore, were, in general, about equal in extent to middle-sized English counties. None of them were so large as Norfolk or Devonshire; and the two adjoining counties of York and Lancaster were nearly equal to the whole seven states of the ancient Peloponnesus. Attica, indeed, besides possessing at one period Eubcea, had many colonies in the Cyclades, Thrace, and other parts; and Sparta held Messenia long in subjection; but, in great struggles, these colonies and dependencies

* Cluver, Geog. Lib. iv. Cap. 6.—Strabo, Lib. viii.—Potter's Antiq. B. i. Chap. 16. † Throughout this article, we use the ancient or the modern names, according as either happens to be better known than the other. In general, the ancient divisions of the country being more minute, and more accurately defined, than the modern, serve better for the purposes of description. The greater number of modern travellers have felt it necessary to adopt this practice. ‡ In the maps of Barbie du Bocage, Laconia is considerably larger, and Attica and Achaia considerably smaller, than here stated. But we have followed Danville, as his maps are pronounced, by a very competent judge (Sir William Gell), to be much more accurate than any others since constructed. often shook off their allegiance, and the parent state was obliged to rely on its own resources. Such was the energy of these small communities, that Attica, which scarcely supports, at present, a miserable population of 20,000 souls, sent out sometimes colonies of 10,000 men at once (Diod. Sic. Lib. 2.) ; and Sparta furnished 50,000 soldiers to fight the Persians at Platea. The territories of Corinth, when she formed a separate state, were much smaller than any of these; her wealth and power depending chiefly on commerce.

Greece forms a long and rather narrow peninsula, singularly indented on three sides by arms of the sea, and having a greater proportion of its surface occupied by mountains than any other country in Europe of equal extent, except Switzerland. It has been justly observed, that those physical features which distinguish Europe from the other quarters of the world, belong in a peculiar manner to Greece, and distinguish it in the same proportion from the other parts of Europe. Of these arms of the sea, the most considerable are the Gulfs of Contessa, Salonica, Volo, Ægina, and Napoli, on the east; those of Kolokythia and Coron on the south; and those of Lepanto and Arta on the west. Of the mountains, the first in order are those which pass along the northern frontier. Mount Argentaro, the ancient Orbelus, placed at the northern extremity of Greece, near the 43d degree of latitude, may be considered as the centre of the whole system of mountains in European Turkey. From this nucleus, an elevated chain, bearing the names of Scomius and Rhodope anciently, passes south-eastward, and sends off branches on both sides, one of which, Pangeus, advances southward to the Egean Sea, nearly opposite to the Isle of Thasus, and shuts in Greece on the east. From the same central nucleus, another great chain passes south, and south-easterward, under the ancient names of Scardus, Pindus, Citharon, and Parnes, and terminates at Cape Colonna, the southmost point of Attica. This chain, which includes the celebrated mountains of Parnassus and Helicon, divides the northern continent of Greece into two parts of nearly equal breadth, and gives birth to all the most considerable rivers, which flow off on its opposite sides, but in no instance cross it. On the east side, besides many small lateral ridges, it sends off two principal branches, which enclose Thessaly on the north and south; these are the Cambunian mountains, which, connecting the central ridge of Pindus with the lofty group of Olympus, separate Macedonia from Thessaly; and Mount Oeta, which, running eastward to the Maliae Gulf, forms, at its termination, the famed pass of Thermopylæ. Mount Othrys, a little farther north, may be considered as a subordinate chain to Oeta. Mount Olympus is separated only by a narrow ravine from Ossa and Pelion, which enclose Thessaly on the east. On the western side of the central chain, the whole country to the Ionian Sea, northward of the Gulf of Arta, is covered by a series of ridges, not running off laterally, but disposed in lines nearly parallel to the central chain, and separated by deep valleys. One of these ridges, nearest the coast, and terminating in a promontory, in latitude 40° 30', was known anciently by the name of Acroceramnus; another farther north, and more inland, was Mount Tomarus. A long and narrow ridge occupies the Island of Euboea, and is evidently continued in the outermost chain of islands included under the name of the Cyclades. Another chain of these islands may be considered as a prolongation of the great central ridge from the promontory of Sunium or Colonna.

The mountains in the Morea or Peloponnesus, which are as numerous as in the north of Greece, present rather a singular configuration. A long ridge, bent into a circular form, encloses the central plateau or basin of Arcadia, and five spurs, or subordinate ridges, run off from the different sides of this circular chain to the five prominent points of the peninsula.

The elevation of some of the Grecian mountains has been estimated but not accurately measured. Mount Orbelus, the northern boundary of the country, has its summit covered with snow all the year,* and must therefore exceed 8200 feet in height, but none of the other mountains seem to reach the circle of perpetual congelation. The elevation of the great central chain of Pindus, is loosely estimated by Dr Holland at 7000 feet.† That of Olympus, one of the loftiest summits in Greece, was computed by the ancient philosopher Xenagoras to be ten stadia and a plethrum, an elevation not materially different from that of 1017 toises, or 6500 feet, assigned to it by Bernouilli. The famed Parnassus seems to be considered by Dr Clarke and Dr Holland as rising above most of the other Grecian mountains; but as its summit is destitute of snow during a part of the year, its height cannot exceed 9500 feet, and is probably much less. This mountain is still called Parnassu by the peasants residing on it, but in the low country of Livadia, it bears the name of Lakura.‡ The celebrated Athos, which is now the seat of twenty-two monasteries, rises to the height of 713 toises, or 4350 feet. (Walpole, p. 204.) Several of the Albanian mountains are estimated by Dr Holland to be from 3000 to 4000 feet high.

* Travels in the Morea, Albania, and other parts of the Ottoman Empire. By F. C. Pouqueville, M. D. (Translation), London, 1813. p. 443. † Travels in the Ionian Isles, Albania, Thessaly, Macedonia, &c. during 1812 and 1813. By Henry Holland, M. D. 1815. p. 207. ‡ Memoirs Relating to European and Asiatic Turkey, edited by the Reverend Robert Walpole, A. M. 1817, p. 72 ; Clarke's Travels, 4th edition. 8vo. 1818. Vol. VII. p. 260 ; Holland's Travels, p. 394. Article CLIMATE in this Supplement. The elevation of Mount Oleno, said to be the highest summit in the Peloponnesus, according to Scrofani, is 700 geometrical paces, or 3500 feet (Voyage en Grece, 1801, Tom. I. Let. xxxi.), and that of Mount Geranion, which separates the two seas at the Isthmus of Corinth, is about 2500 feet. (Holland, p. 419.) These notices, though separately possessing little accuracy, when put together enable us to conclude with considerable certainty, that the highest mountains of Greece are in the northern parts; that the great central chain of Pindus, with its branches, may be considered as corresponding pretty nearly in height with the Carpathians,—as rather higher than the chain of the Apennines,—and as not having more than half the absolute elevation of the Swiss Alps.

Nearly the whole surface of Greece is occupied by a great formation of compact limestone, of a whitish or bluish grey colour, approaching, at times, to the nature of chalk. It forms, in some places, long sharp continuous ridges, in others round or craggy summits, and it presents strata highly inclined. It contains a few organic remains, with many flint nodules, and some beds of gypsum on the western side; and occasionally masses or beds of a calcareous conglomerate. The Acropolis of Athens consists of the last mentioned rock. Dr Holland conjectures, that the principal formation may belong to the first fleetz limestone, and the gypsum to the first fleetz gypsum of Werner. This limestone, which forms the entire mass of Parnassus and Helicon, rests on mica slate near Athens. The hills of Attica consist generally of primitive limestone; and the same species of rock, with clay slate, serpentine, sienite, porphyry, abound in Negropont, the central parts of Pindus, Olympus, and Athos, and all round the Gulf of Salonica. Farther north, in mounts Scomius and Rhodope, granite and gneiss are found.* In general, primitive rocks are most abundant on the east side of Greece; and the west side is characterized by the prevalence of beds of gypsum. It is to the peculiar constitution of this great limestone formation that Greece owes those physical features which so remarkably distinguish the country,—the numerous caverns, fountains, subterraneous river courses, hot springs, and gaseous exhalations, which gave birth to so many of the popular superstitions of the ancients.

The rivers of Greece, flowing within a narrow territory, are much inferior in size even to the larger branches of the Danube. They may be fitly compared with those of Great Britain for the length of their courses and the quantity of water they convey. The classical rivers, however, which are chiefly in the south, are generally mere brooks, such as would find a place only in a county map. The largest rivers in Greece are the Axius, now the Vardar, in Macedonia; the Drinius, now the Drino, in Northern Albania; the Peneus, now the Salympria, in Thessaly; the Achelous, now the Aspropotamo, in Ætolia; the Alpheus, now the Roufá, and Eurotas, now Vasilopotamo, in the Morea. These and some others have permanent streams; but the greater number are mere mountain torrents, short, but rapid in their courses, and dry in summer.

The general aspect of Greece is characterized by a very singular distribution of its mountains. These are usually neither placed in parallel chains, nor in massive groups, but are so disposed as to enclose extensive tracts of land, which assume the appearance of large basins or circular hollows. The bottom of these basins consists of an alluvial plain of the richest soil, and level as the ocean; through which sometimes rise steep insulated rocks like the summits of vast natural columns. Nature had thus marked out the country into a number of distinct districts admirably calculated to become the seats of small communities. The plain, with its rich alluvial soil, furnished subsistence for a dense population; the insulated rock became the Acropolis or citadel of the chief town, a place of refuge in war; and the surrounding mountains were barriers against invasion. In proportion as access from without was difficult, internal communication was rapid and easy. A crowded population, dispersed over the sides and the area of this natural amphitheatre, lived, as it were, in the continual presence of one another. Their country,—a word of undefined import in large empires, conveyed to them as distinct an idea as that of their own homes. Its whole landscape, with its trophies, temples, monuments, and fields of renown, were constantly under their eyes. Their patriotism, concentrated within this narrow sphere,—attached to visible objects by early and habitual associations,—kept alive by frequent struggles with neighbouring communities, for independence or glory, and still more by the proud sense of individual importance, inspired by their republican institutions,—was not, as in larger empires, a vague and languid feeling, but an ardent and steady passion, of which nothing in the modern world can give us an adequate idea. The same circumstances had an influence on their political condition. Conquest, which forces nations of different habits, characters, and languages, into combination, is the great parent of slavery. In such heterogeneous masses union becomes impossible. The despot, glittering in barbaric pomp, and surrounded by foreign guards, appears in his subject provinces like a being of another order, not to collect the sentiments, or redress the wrongs of the people, but to silence all complaints, and enforce obedience to his own lordly will. Though hated by all his subjects, he can still employ the wealth and the physical force of one nation to trample on the rights of another, and is thus able to hold the whole in slavery. But the small Greek communities, protected by the barriers of their gulfs and mountains, escaped this evil destiny. The people, united by identity of manners and language, by common interests, and continual communication, could combine with the utmost facility to resist the first encroachments of their rulers. They were able to apply freely the lights of reason to all their common concerns, to model

* Holland, p. 89, 319, 379—394, 401, 416, 461, 516 ; Clarke, VII. 15—18, 134, 222. their government according to their circumstances and their views of common interest, and to make the end for which it existed, the measure of the powers bestowed upon it. The forms of government they adopted, though not contrived by absolute wisdom, were probably in principle better adapted to their situation than any other that could have been suggested. And never did the powers of the human mind display themselves with such energy and grandeur under any other system in the history of the human race. (Clarke, III. 97, and VII. 59.)

Of the plains we have mentioned, some terminate in the ocean, and seem to owe their existence to the retiring of the waters. Such are those of Macedonia, Athens, Argos, Laconia, Messenia, and Ambria. Others are completely surrounded by a rampart of mountains or high grounds, except at a single point where the waters have found or forced a passage. Of this description are the three remarkable valleys of Thessaly, Boeotia, and Arcadia. Each of these forcibly suggest the idea of a vast inland lake, where the waters accumulating for a long period, had at length burst through the barrier that confined them, and left the bottom dry. There is also an analogy between these valleys and some of the inland seas of Greece, such as the Gulfs of Corinth, Arta, Volo, and the Channel of Negropont, which are marine lakes completely land-locked, and communicating with the Mediterranean by a single passage, which may at one period have been closed. It may even be conceived that the Archipelago itself, at one period, was completely shut in by a barrier of high lands, of which Cerigo, Crete, Scarpanto, and Rhodes, are portions or fragments; and that its numerous isles are either the summits of mountains which then diversified its surface, or of detached rocks like those of Meteora in Thessaly, which have resisted the incessant action of the waters.

The valley of Macedonia, which extends in a semicircle round the head of the Gulf of Salonica, is the largest and most fertile district in Greece. Its produce has been supposed to be nearly equal to that of all the rest of the country. The rivers in the lower parts, which overflow annually, render the country marshy, and subject to the malaria. It contains a considerable number of ancient remains, but they have only been partially examined. A large tumulus still marks the site of the battle of Pydna, which reduced Macedonia to a Roman province. Thessaly, separated from Macedonia by Olympus and the Cambunian mountains, is a vast circular basin, of fifty or sixty miles diameter, enclosed on all sides by mountains, and next in fertility to Macedonia. The whole of its waters flow off by the River Peneus. The celebrated vale of Tempe, a deep ravine, formed by precipitous cliffs, six or eight hundred feet high, and separating Mount Olympus from Ossa, affords a passage for this river to the sea, on the east. The vale is about five miles long, and so narrow, that the river, in some parts, occupies the whole breadth of its bottom: the scenery is more striking by its grandeur than its beauty. The rocks, which are of bluish grey marble, have a shattered appearance, and wherever the surface admits of it, are covered with trees and shrubs. Some of the ancients believed that this defile was formed by an earthquake. Were any natural convulsion to close it up, Thessaly would again be converted into a lake; and Xerxes, when he invaded Greece, threatened the Thessalians with this catastrophe, if they opposed him. The rocks of Meteora, at the upper side of the Thessalian plain, are objects of a very remarkable kind. They rise from the level surface of the country near the Peneus, and cover a triangular space of two miles each way. They consist of a great collection of lofty rocks, in the various shapes of cones, pillars, rhomboids, and irregular masses, all standing detached from one another, with faces generally as perpendicular as a wall. Their height varies from one to three or four hundred feet, and the deep winding intervals between them are filled with trees and brushwood. On the summits of some of these rocks monasteries are suspended in mid air, as it were, on the tops of very tall pillars. Some of the monasteries occupy the whole surface of the rock they rest on, and persons ascending to them are swung in a basket or net, and dragged up by a rope passing over a pulley. The rocks are composed of a conglomerate, consisting of fragments of granite, gneiss, and other primitive substances, disposed in horizontal strata. The narrow district on the eastern side of Mounts Ossa and Pelion is the ancient Magnesia, and is now called Zagora. At the south extremity of Thessaly lies the famed pass of Thermopylae, which is merely the narrow space between the flank of Mount Oeta and the sea. The part of this space nearest the sea is occupied by a marsh; between which and the cliffs the breadth of firm land is still about sixty paces, as stated by Livy. The hot springs mentioned by Herodotus; the remains of the wall built by the Phocaeans, and a tumulus, believed with good reason to be that of the Spartans, are all yet to be seen. The length of the pass is about five miles. The country of Phocis, which lies immediately south of the pass, is one of the most rugged in Greece, being occupied almost entirely by the branches and declivities of Mounts Oeta, Parnassus, and Helicon. Boeotia is a large circular valley, enclosed by Parnassus on the west, Helicon on the south, Citheron on the east, and a range of high lands on the north. A low ridge running north and south divides it in two. The lake Copais, which occupies the bottom of the western and larger division, and receives all its rivers, sends off its waters by subterraneous passages to the sea on the north-east. In summer this lake has the appearance of a green meadow covered with reeds. Boeotia has more than once been inundated by obstructions in these subterraneous channels. The country is very fertile; but is higher and colder than Attica. It is often covered with thick fogs, as described by the ancients; and, from the abundance of its marshes, is very subject to malaria. Attica, which adjoins to Boeotia on the east, is comparatively arid and barren, hilly rather than mountainous, but distinguished peculiarly by the dryness and elasticity of its atmosphere, and the beauty and serenity of its climate. The isthmus of Corinth, which connects Attica with the Morea, is occupied towards the north by high rocky hills, which render it strong as a military post; but in the south, where its breadth is about four miles, the surface is low, seldom exceeding 150 feet. The remains of the ancient wall, and of the canal begun by Nero, are yet visible. The Morea consists of an elevated central plateau or valley, namely, Arcadia,—and of five separate districts, formed by the exterior declivities of the mountains which surround the central plateau, and by spurs or branches which run off from these mountains. The central valley of Arcadia, so famed for its pastoral character by the ancients, is like the inland districts of Thessaly and Boeotia, high and cold, often covered with fogs, arising from the moisture of its soil, and hence also subject to malaria. All its waters escape by the single channel of the Alpheus; and it has sometimes suffered from partial inundations. Its scenery, in the opinion of Lord Byron, is by no means deserving of its ancient celebrity. Argolis, lying in a semicircle round the Gulf of Nauplia, embraces but a small portion of level country, which, however, is remarkably rich, but very unhealthy. The city of Argos still exists in its ancient plan, and is one of the best built towns in the Morea. The ancient Laconia, consisting of the long open valley of the Eurotas, is very thinly peopled. The ruins of Sparta, four miles southwest from the village of Mistra, are extensive, but afford no fine specimens of architecture; the spot is entirely deserted. Messenia, which lies round the head of a gulf, has a pretty large plain, of a very rich soil. Elis, on the west, and Achaia, on the north of the Morea, are in general hilly, and rather dry. In general, the west of Greece has a different physical character from the east. Aetolia, Acarnania, and Epirus (the modern Albania), present none of those circular basins so characteristic of the east and south sides of the country, except the valley surrounding the Gulf of Arta. Aetolia and Acarnania consist of long valleys open to the south, and rising into mountains in the north. Albania has the same features on a larger scale. Its mountains, which are more numerous than those of any other district of Greece, cover the country in long parallel ridges, and are separated by deep valleys, some of which open to the south, and others to the west, but none to the north. The Cyclades, and other islands in the Aegean sea, are almost all steep and rocky.*

The mountains of Greece, which cover so large a proportion of its area, are partly wooded and partly naked. The low country susceptible of tillage probably does not amount to more than two-fifths of the whole surface, and of these two-fifths, judging from the corn, olives, cotton, tobacco, &c. required for the population, one-twelfth or fifteenth part may be actually in cultivation. It is generally bare of wood, and, from the want of enclosures, the profusion of weeds and brushwood, the thinness of the population, and the ruinous condition of the few cottages, combined with the crumbling remains of the noble structures of the ancients,—has a desolate, melancholy, and deserted aspect, which harmonizes well with the fallen fortunes of the country. In the end of summer, from the excessive heat which dries up the streams, the hills and fields appear parched. In many quarters of the country, however, there are copious perennial springs, which gush out suddenly from the limestone rock. Greece combines in the highest degree every feature essential to the finest beauties of landscape, except large rivers, which are perhaps incompatible with the general character of its scenery. Travellers of taste have wanted words to describe the magnificence of the views it affords. Its mountains encircled with zones of wood, and capped with snow, though much below the Alps in absolute height, perhaps are as imposing from the suddenness of their elevation. Rich sheltered plains lie at their feet, which want nothing but an industrious population to fill the mind with images of prosperity, tranquillity, and happiness. But it is in the combination of these more common features, with so many spacious and beautiful inland bays and seas, broken by headlands, enclosed by mountains, and specked and studded with islands, in every variety of magnitude, form, and distance, that Greece surpasses every other country in Europe, and perhaps in the world. The effect of such scenery, aided by a serene sky, and delicious climate, on the character of the Greeks, cannot be doubted. "Under the influence of so many sublime objects, the human mind becomes gifted as by inspiration, and is by nature filled with poetical ideas." Greece became the birth-place of taste, science, and eloquence, the chosen sanctuary of the muses, the prototype of all that is graceful, dignified, and grand, in sentiment or action. The poetry of the north, nursed amidst bleak mountains,—amidst oceans covered with fogs, and agitated by storms, is austere and gloomy; but the muses of Greece, awakened into life in a rich and beautiful land, amidst bright and tranquil seas, are gay, joyous, and luxuriant. You almost conceive (says Chateaubriand), as it were by intuition, why the architecture of the Parthenon has such fine proportions, why ancient sculpture is so unaffected, so simple, so tranquil, when you behold the pure sky and delicious scenery of Athens, of Corinth, and of Ionia. In this native land of the muses, nature suggests no wild deviations: she tends, on the contrary, to dispose the mind to the love of the uniform and the harmonious.†

The climate of Greece seems to be distinguished from that of Spain and Italy in the corresponding latitudes, chiefly by having the characteristics of an in-

* Beaujour, Let. 1—4; Holland, p. 280, 291, 234, 376, 420; Clarke, VI. 562, VII. 303; Hobhouse, Let. 14, 15, 16; Walpole, 60, 303, 306, 335, 522; Byron's Notes to Canto 2d of Childe Harold; Tournefort, Let. 4—8.

† Holland, 248, 302, 401, 254, 518; Hobhouse, 83, 461, 201; Clarke, VII. 260; Beaujour, Let. 4; Chateaubriand's Travels (Translation), Vol. I. p. 85, 187; Williams's Travels, Let. 54, 55, 68, 72, 74. land region in a higher degree; that is, the extremes of summer and winter are more severe. In Attica, which has a drier atmosphere and more uniform temperature than the rest of the country, the average rain is about 21 or 22 inches, and the greatest heat, in each of the four years ending with 1807, was 104, 99, 93, 94. The greatest cold was from 28 to 32 of Fahrenheit. The mean deduced from all these extremes is 63.5. This agrees very nearly with the temperature of a spring in the isthmus of Corinth, observed by Dr Clarke, 64°, and with the mean annual temperature given in Professor Leslie's table, which is 64.4. At the southern extremity the annual temperature, according to the same authority, is 65.3, and at the northern extremity about 60. But local diversities have a greater effect than mere difference of latitude on the distribution of the seasons. In Attica, which being freely exposed to the sea, has in some measure an insular climate, the winter sets in about the beginning of January. About the middle of that month snow falls, but is seldom seen for more than a few days, though it lies for a month on the summits of the mountains. Gentle rains fall about the middle of February, after which spring commences; and the corn, which is a considerable height in March, is cut in May. In the beginning of March, the vines and olives bud, and the almonds are in blossom. In the great interior plains and valleys, which are girt with mountains, and cut off from the direct influence of the sea, the winters are much colder, and the summers, making allowance for the difference of height, are warmer. At Tripolitza, in Arcadia, the snow has been found 18 inches thick in January, with the thermometer at 16° Fahrenheit; and it sometimes lies on the ground six weeks. Dr Clarke was informed, that in the winter preceding his visit, the peasants at the foot of Mount Cithaeron in Boeotia were confined to their houses for several weeks by the snow. At Janina, situated in an inland plain, 1000 or 1200 feet above the sea, the snow lies to a considerable depth in the winter, and sometimes falls as late as April. The neighbouring lake was so firmly frozen over in 1813, that it was every where crossed on the ice. The summits of the central chain of Pindus, and most of the Albanian mountains, are covered with snow from the beginning of November to the end of March. These various facts show that the winter in Albania, though shorter than in England, is as severe; but that the summer is a vast deal hotter, the extreme summer temperature being 15 or 18 degrees higher at Athens than London; while Beotia and Thessaly are probably still hotter than Attica Though we have no accurate data to establish a comparison between the climate of Greece and those of Spain and Italy, yet the fact of cotton being successfully cultivated, on a large scale, in Macedonia, as far north as the latitude of Rome and Valadolid, where it does not succeed in the two last countries, is a proof that the summer temperature in Greece is higher than either in Spain or Italy. The coldest weather in all parts of Greece is accompanied with a north-east wind. The north and north-west winds are distinguished by their serenity and dryness. The zephyr or west wind is famed for its balmy softness; the south-east, south, and south-west winds are all humid, and the east wind still retains the character of a morning breeze, as described by Aristotle. The sirocco is felt in Greece. It blows from the south-east, and produces its usual effects on the human constitution,—a sense of oppression, a dull headache, with lassitude and uneasiness in the limbs. Earthquakes are very frequent in Greece, but they are seldom very destructive.*

Modern travellers afford us but scanty information respecting the mines of Greece; but, from its geological structure, we may conclude that it is like Italy, rather poor in metals. The working of the veins which do exist is neglected by the Turks, from want of skill, or abandoned in consequence of the oppressive exactions of the government. It is chiefly on the east side of Greece, where the older rocks protrude through the superincumbent limestone, that metalliferous veins have been found. The silver mines of Laurium, in Attica, which were extensive enough to employ 10,000 slaves, and supported the Athenian navy at one period, are now entirely abandoned. Copper also was anciently found in Attica. Ores of iron, gold, silver, lead, or alum, were wrought in Euboea and in Melos, Naxos, Siphnus, and others of the Cyclades. The gold and silver mines of Macedonia yielded Philip 1000 talents a-year. At Nisvoro, in this country, there is still worked a silver mine, which affords a scanty produce of from 50 to 400 okes† of silver, and 4000 or 5000 okes of lead annually. Marbles of many varieties are abundant in Greece. Those of Paros and Mount Pentelicus, which are both highly crystalline, were employed in the finest works of sculpture and architecture. At Selenitza, in North Albania, there is a very extensive mine of asphaltum, or compact mineral pitch. The bed, 70 or 80 feet thick, and near the surface, is supposed to extend over a span of four miles in circumference. Carburetted hydrogen gas issues from several crevices of the ground near it, and inflames spontaneously,—a phenomenon distinctly alluded to by ancient authors, and connected in this and other instances with the superstitions of the Greek mythology.‡

* Holland, 47, 137, 411, 426 ; Hobhouse, Let. xxiv.; Pouqueville, p. 29, Chap. xv.; Clarke, VI. 585 ; VII. 102 ; Arist. Meteor. L. 2. C. 2. † The oke is equal to 2 1/4 pounds avoirdupois ; Dr Holland says 2 1/2 ; but Beaufour, the best authority on this subject, makes the oke equal to 40 Paris ounces, which are equal to 43.3 English ounces. The cantaar or quintal is generally 44 okes=121 pounds. The kilo, or quilot of corn, is 22 okes, or 60 pounds. (Beaufour, Let. xxiv.) ‡ Travels of Anacharsis, Eng. edition, 1791, II. 424, V. 34 ; Holland, 416, 518 ; Walpole, 228 ; Clarke VI. 348 ; VII. 462 ; Tournefort, Let. iv. v. There are few or no diseases peculiar to Greece. Like all the countries on the shores of the Mediterranean, it suffers greatly from malaria. This prevails chiefly in the months of August and September, and produces remittent or intermittent fevers, which attack those who reside in low situations, near the mouths of rivers, or in the neighbourhood of lakes, marshes, or rice grounds. The ancients were aware, that fevers of this description affected certain districts; but, undoubtedly, the sphere of their influence has been vastly extended by the neglected state of the country. Attica, though one of the driest districts of Greece, is not entirely exempted from them. These fevers, recurring frequently, vitiate the system, and produce goitres and scrophulous complaints. Coughs, catarrhs, and apoplectics, are prevalent in some districts; and elephantiasis, and leprous affections, arising probably from deficient and unwholesome nourishment, are more common than in other countries. The plague occurs at irregular periods, and makes great ravages, but is generally believed to be imported from Constantinople, Smyrna, or Egypt. The first appearance of this dreadful scourge spreads alarm and terror through the whole community. The affrighted imaginations of the people represent to them nocturnal concerts of music, voices murmuring amidst the silence of night, spectres wandering about on the roofs of houses, covered with funeral rags, and calling out the names of those who are to be cut off from the number of the living.*

Agriculture. A rapacious and tyrannical government, like the Turkish, depresses every species of industry, but is particularly fatal to agriculture, which requires the investment of large capitals, with the prospect of only distant returns, and which yields products that cannot be concealed. The Turkish landlords and farmers are too sluggish and ignorant to attempt the smallest improvement; the other classes are too much exposed to pillage; and all must be affected by the insecure tenure of their lands. In Greece, as in other parts of Turkey, all lands hold immediately of the Sultan, and on the demise of the incumbent, vest anew in him. When the Turks conquered the territories they now occupy, the lands were taken from the native proprietors, and a part of them distributed among Turkish colonists in Zaims and Timars† (the one exceeding 500 acres in extent, the other from 300 to 500); on condition that the possessors, with a stipulated number of followers, should serve in the armies during war. Any of these properties which fell vacant during active service was bestowed upon the volunteers who had signalized their valour in the hope of obtaining such rewards; and there are instances of the same lordship having been eight times disposed of in the course of one campaign. Another part of the land was appropriated for the support of mosques, or as appanages to the great officers of state, the mother and mistresses of the sultan, and the children of the imperial family. The residue, burdened with a territorial impost or land-tax, was left, by an undefined tenure, to the ancient inhabitants. (Thornton, 164.) In general, both Greeks and Turks pay a quit rent to the Aga or local governor, besides the land-tax of one-tenth to the sultan. We do not find it any where stated what proportions these different species of property bear to one another; but it is obvious that a great part of the land is held by persons who have but a different interest in it; and though custom may temper a rule so pernicious, and the right of resumption may not be rigorously exercised at the demise of each incumbent, it will still be made a ground for vexatious demands, and render the transmission of property dependant on the caprices of provincial governors. To this must be added the farther insecurity arising from bad laws badly administered; from the extortions practised by every class of public functionaries, civil and religious; and, last of all, from the depredations of bands of robbers, who descend from the mountains, sometimes in parties of five or six hundred, to dispute with the local rulers the right of plundering the unhappy husbandman. Ali, the Pacha of Albania, permits no sale or transfer of lands within his dominions, without his special consent. He holds great quantities of land himself; and, not content with buying it from those who are disposed to sell, he compels others, by quartering soldiers on them, and harassing them by vexatious demands, to part with their lands for an inadequate price. He is now believed to be the proprietor of one-third of the whole cultivated country under his government. In such circumstances, it need not surprise us that cultivation is badly conducted, the peasants poor and wretched, and the country a wide waste, affording a miserable subsistence to two millions and a half of inhabitants, where three or four times as many lived in comfort and prosperity in the days of Xenophon.‡

The most considerable proprietors, both Turks and Greeks, live generally in towns, and the land is let to the peasants on a system resembling that of the metayers in France. The lands are let from year to year; the landlord furnishes cottages, cattle, and seed; the tenant labours the ground; and after a tenth of the produce is set aside for the public tax, the remainder is divided into three parts, of which the tenant gets one and the proprietor two. When the tenant has cattle and a house of his own, he gets one-half. In the chiflicks or farms belonging to Ali, who is a rigorous landlord, two-thirds are taken when the peasant finds stock and seed.

* Pouqueville, Chap. xvi.; Clarke, VII. 470; Walpole, p. 13. † The number of these feudal lordships is variously stated. Olivier says there are 914 zaims, and 8356 timars, in European Turkey. If these are estimated at 500 acres each, they will not amount to more than 1-20th or 1-25th of the whole lands, including mountains. ‡ Thornton, Chap. iii. v.; Beaujour, I. p. 3; Travels in Sicily, Greece, and Albania, by the Rev. T. H. Hughes. 1820. p. 82. and five-sixths, it is said, when he furnishes nothing but labour. Enclosures are extremely uncommon, and scattered hamlets or cottages are scarcely anywhere seen, the peasants living in villages for the sake of security. Both the husbandman and shepherd, when employed in the fields, has always a musket slung over his back, besides a pistol and sword at his side. Their cottages are hovels built of mud, straw, and boards, generally without an opening to let the smoke escape. Sometimes they are without walls, and consist merely of wooden poles laid together in the form of a tent, and covered with turf, like the huts of savages. Women are employed in the labours of the field in Albania and Maina, but rarely in other parts. The cultivation of corn land is generally rude and slovenly; but in some districts, where, from local circumstances, the people are well protected, it is neat and clean, though not skilful. Cotton and olive grounds and vineyards, which are laboured chiefly with the hands, are managed with more care; and in general, that part of the cultivation which depends on manual labour, and requires neither capital nor good implements, is best executed. The management of sheep and goats is also better conducted than that of arable land, doubtless because store farms are generally in situations more capable of defence, and their stock is easily removed. In gardening, the Greeks turn up the soil with a mattock, being unacquainted with so common an instrument as a spade. The implements of agriculture are few and simple. In light lands like those of Messenia, the plough consists merely of a share pointed with iron, without any other parts attached to it. It is dragged by one horse or two asses. In stronger soils the share is fixed into a plough with one handle and two mould boards, and in some cases with block wheels. In Albania the plough consists of a pole, a share, and one handle, all of wood, except the share, which is pointed with iron. In Boeotia, Thessaly, and Albania, and in Greece generally, the plough is drawn by two oxen, sometimes by asses or buffaloes, very seldom by horses. A hundred stremata of land require four oxen if the soil is light, or eight oxen if heavy. The stremma is stated to be forty square paces; if yards are meant, it will be very nearly one-third of an acre. The corn, cut with a sickle, is separated from the straw in the ancient mode, by treading it under the feet of oxen or horses. Fallowing is practised, and manures are used, though the small quantity of ground in tillage will, of course, render it unnecessary to cultivate poor soils, which require much artificial nourishment. In some few parts of Macedonia and Thessaly, a sort of clumsy car with solid wooden wheels is used, but every where else wheel-carriages seem to be unknown, produce and goods of all kinds being carried on the backs of horses, mules, or camels.

The most common crops are wheat, barley, maize, and rye; besides these, oats in very small quantity, rice in marshy spots, millet, pease, beans, tares, sesamum, and anise, with cotton and tobacco. Turnips, if raised at all, are confined to gardens, and potatoes seem to be entirely unknown. The corn, sown in November or February, is high in the beginning of March, and is cut in May. It is sometimes sown as late as April, and reaped in two months. After a crop of barley, cotton is sometimes sown and reaped the same season. The soil of Attica is too light for wheat; and hence barley, as in ancient times, is still the prevailing crop. In the Ionian isles, and probably in the moister parts of Greece, wheat is protected from the effects of heavy dews, by two persons dragging a long rope over the field, so as to shake the husks. In the rich soils of Macedon, to save the wheat from being injured by superabundant nourishment, it is usual to let it be eaten by sheep early in the season, a practice familiar to the ancient Greeks. Notwithstanding the wretched system of culture, the produce is large. The most fertile parts are the plains of Thessaly, Boeotia, Sicyon, Argos, Messenia, Arcadia, and Macedonia. The soil of the latter, in the opinion of Beaujour, is superior even to that of Sicily. An arpent* of this soil usually produces from 25 to 30 quintals (hundred weights) of wheat. In the Arcadian plains wheat of several kinds yields 12 for 1; in those of Argos 10 for 1; in Eleusis, the primitive seat of agriculture, and in Thessaly, 12 for 1. The produce of good soils, generally in favourable seasons, is estimated by Mr Hawkins at 10 or 12 for 1; and of the best soils, in very favourable seasons, at from 15 to 18 for 1. If these estimates are well founded, considering the rude system of cultivation, they are proofs of a very great degree of fertility. In England, the average return from the seed, notwithstanding its highly improved agriculture, is believed not to exceed 9 for 1. The very best soils yield from 6 to 7 quarters of wheat per acre, weighing from 24 to 28 hundred weight; but from ordinary soils, the average produce per acre is only about 20 or 21 bushels, weighing from 10 to 11 hundred weight. Greece exports corn largely, both to Constantinople and the western parts of Europe.†

Greece, abounding in mountains covered with herbage, is eminently a pastoral country; and the management of sheep is better understood than the other branches of rural economy. The modern breeds, however, have declined much from the ancient in beauty and value. The flesh is but indifferent, the wool of inferior quality, and the weight of the sheep is only from 30 to 50 pounds. The flocks of Arcadia and Livadia, especially those which feed upon Parnassus, are considered superior to the others. A black-woolled breed is very common. In Greece, as in Spain, the flocks migrate from the

* An arpent is nearly equal to 1 1/2 English acre. (Mentelle et Malte Brun, Metrol. Tab. 14.) † Beaujour, Let. i.—v.; Pouqueville, p. 45, Chap. xvii.; Walpole, p. 60, 290, 226, 150, 146; Holland, 36, 504, 248, 482; Hobbhouse, p. 138, 135, 227, 354; Eton's Survey, p. 220; Williams, II. p. 354, 411; Clarke, VI. 546, VII. 389; Hughes, II. 81; Wheler (Ed. 1682), p. 330; Travels of Anach. Chap. lix. inland mountains to the low valleys, near the sea, at the approach of winter. Attended by the owners, with their servants, they come down, in October, in vast numbers to the low country, where they enjoy the right of pasture under the laws or customs of the empire, and they return to the hills in April. The goats, which are also numerous, are shorn along with the sheep, and their hair is made into sacks, bags, and carpets. The flocks are guarded from the wolves by very large and strong dogs, supposed to be descended from the ancient Molossian breed. Attica, which forms only the fifth part of Greece, has been stated to possess 100,000 goats, and 60,000 sheep, about one-tenth part of which are killed yearly. And yet it is not so much a pastoral country as Albania, Phocis, or Arcadia. The oxen, which are chiefly used for labouring, amount to about 3000 in Attica: the cows, principally kept for breeding, are rather less numerous. The oxen of the Morea are low in stature, have long white hair, and weigh from 300 to 400 pounds. The cows there give little milk, and are exposed to jackalls, which tear away the teats, and to serpents, which are said to suck the milk. About 6000 head of cattle are consumed annually in the Morea; but as both Turks and Greeks prefer mutton, the number of sheep killed is incomparably greater. A very fine breed of oxen is found in that district of Albania which corresponds to the ancient Chaonia, and which has probably derived its beauty from the ancient breed of the country, celebrated by Aristotle, Ælian, and others. In all parts of the Morea, buffaloes, which are handsome animals, with fine skins, are used in husbandry, and when unfit for labour, are killed and eaten. The horses of the Morea are little to be admired for their beauty, but are active, vigorous, and sure footed. The asses, which are numerous, but small and mean, are used as beasts of burden; mules and camels are employed in the same capacity, but the latter are brought from Asia, and are not numerous. The annual produce of Macedonia, in wool, is estimated by Beaujour at 700,000 okes (2,000,000 pounds), of the Morea, by Pouqueville, at 12,800 quintals (1,500,000 pounds): and it sells about 15 piastres* (18s. 9d.) the quintal. The Morea produces annually about 66,500 quintals of cheese (chiefly from the milk of sheep and goats), which sells at 7 piastres the quintal, or about one penny per pound. In Attica, a good cow is worth 12 piastres; a good ox, fit for the plough, 50 or 60 piastres; a horse for carrying burdens, 50 to 65; a mule for riding, 150 to 200. A sheep sells at 3 piastres; a lamb at 1 1/2; a goat at 2 1/2, or 100 paras. Wheat fluctuates much in price, but has been stated to be on an average 5 1/2 piastres (6s. 10d.) the kilo † or bushel.‡

Cotton is cultivated from one extremity of Greece to the other, but on the greatest scale in the district of Seres in Macedonia, a rich and populous plain watered by the ancient Strymon, and containing 300 villages, so near one another as to present the appearance of one large straggling town. It is a more profitable, but more precarious crop than corn; requiring clear sunshine, copious dews, and light rains, to make it succeed. An arpent of good soil produces from 200 to 300 okes (550 to 825 lbs.) of cotton, which, valued at a piastre the oke, is worth from 200 to 300 piastres. But the price varies from 3/4 to 1 1/2 piastres. The plain of Seres alone produces 70,000 bales, or seven millions of okes of cotton, of which 50,000 bales are exported. Considerable quantities are also raised in the ancient Chalcidice (another district of Macedonia), in Thessaly, Boeotia, and the Morea. The annual produce of the last, according to Pouqueville, is only 59,000 okes, exclusive of two cargoes exported.§

Tobacco, though introduced into Turkey only about the middle of the seventeenth century, is now a luxury in universal use. It is cultivated on a very narrow scale in the south of Greece, but to a considerable extent in Albania and Macedonia, and of a quality much esteemed. The Turkish plant is not,

* The piastre is equal to 40 paras, and the para is equal to 3 aspres.

The value of the piastre, from the progressive debasement of the Turkish coin, has been continually sinking; and it is besides liable to fluctuations from variations in the rate of exchange. Dr Chandler, in his time (1764), reckoned the piastre worth 2s. 6d. English. Beaujour says, that in his time (1787 to 1797), its intrinsic value was 28 sous (1s. 2d.), but its value in exchange was, on an average, about 37 sous (1s. 6d.). Dr Clarke (1800) represents it as worth 1s. 4d. Mr Hobbhouse (1809) says, that when the exchange is at par, 17 1/2 piastres are equal to one pound, which gives 1s. 1 1/2d. for its value. Dr Holland (1812) generally reckons the piastre about 1s. 1d.; and Mr Williams (1817) makes it worth no more than 8d. in exchange. In the calculations in this article, the piastres are generally turned into English money, at the value assigned to them by the author from whom the facts are taken, and when the facts are derived from various authors, 1s. 3d. is taken as the mean value.

† According to Beaujour (Let. xxiv.), 1 1/2 septiers = 4 1/2 kilos of Constantinople; and one quarter being equal to 1.83 septiers, should be equal to 6.76 kilos. The kilo, therefore, is to the Winchester bushel as 20 to 17; but, judging by the weight, the kilo (22 okes or 60 lbs.) should be very nearly the same as the wheat bushel, which weighs from 56 to 64 pounds; and Dr Sibthorpe reckons 8 1/2 kilos equal to a quarter. (Walpole, 145.) It is probable the provincial measures are not very consistent with one another; but the latter calculation appears the more accurate, and we may, therefore, with great propriety, reckon the kilo equal to the bushel.

‡ Beaujour, Let. v.; Pouqueville, 200, 462; Travels of Anacharsis, Chap. lix.; Holland, 826; Walpole, 141-4, 226, 193.

§ Beaujour, Let. ii.; Pouqueville, 462; Holland, 227, 248. however, so pungent as that of America, and latterly the produce seems to be diminishing. The quantity annually raised in Macedonia was estimated by Beaujour (between 1787 and 1797) at 100,000 bales, or 10,000,000 okes, valued at 4,000,000 piastres. It occupied about one-eighth of the cultivated soil, and afforded support to 20,000 Turkish families. One half of the quantity raised was exported to Egypt, Barbary, and Italy. In 1812, the annual produce, as stated to Dr Holland, was only from 35,000 to 40,000 bales. (Beaujour, Let. iii.; Holland, 329; Hobhouse, 15.)

The olive is cultivated throughout Greece generally, but that of Attica is still distinguished as in ancient times by its superior excellence. It requires a dry soil, a sheltered situation, and a warm exposure; and is therefore not adapted to the rich, moist plains of Boeotia and Thessaly. The tree gives fruit the twelfth year, arrives at full vigour about the twentieth, and, when not exposed to frost, is so durable, that the present olives of Palestine are believed to date from the Crusades. An arpent of ordinary olive ground will nourish 120 trees, each of which yields in good years 20, but in average years 10 French pounds* of oil, and as this sells at 6 or 8 paras the pound, the whole value of the produce is about L. 12 Sterling. Attica yields annually of this oil 2,400,000 pounds, of which three-fourths are exported. It is at present, as it was in ancient times, the staple produce of the country; the tree was indeed considered as a special gift from the gods; and its cultivation was favoured by peculiar protection and encouragement, as far back as the reign of Cecrops. The Morea, according to Pouqueville, yields 5,570,000 pounds of oil. The amount of the produce of Albania and other districts is not known. If the opinion of the ancients is well founded, that the olive does not thrive at a great distance from the sea, it may be presumed that the plantations in the interior of the country are less numerous than on the coast.†

Vines are cultivated on a small scale in Attica, Albania, Thessaly, and in most of the districts of Greece, but without the skill and refinement which the ancients had introduced into this branch of rural economy. Dr Clarke, however, observed some vineyards on Parnassus, which were managed with much care and neatness, and afforded excellent wines. In general, the Greek wine, owing to the resin and lime mixed with it, has an unpalatable harshness. Pouqueville estimates the produce of the Morea, in wine and brandy, at 32,300 barrels, of 50 okes each, or about 550,000 gallons. If the vineyards are not more extensive in other quarters, the whole produce of the country must be inconsiderable.‡

The species of grape called the Corinthian grape, or the currants of commerce, is almost peculiar to the Morea and the Ionian isles, though believed not to be indigenous in these countries. It is found in the greatest perfection along the southern shores of the Corinthian Gulf, on some points of the opposite coast, and in Cephalonia, Ithaca, and Zante. Beaujour thinks it was brought from Naxos about 1580; and it must therefore have been unknown to the ancients on the continent. It succeeds best in plains near the sea, with a western exposure, and prefers a dry light strong soil. The mean annual produce of the Morea is estimated at 10,000,000 pounds, of which 8,000,000 are exported to the western parts of Europe, chiefly to Britain. They are sold at 80 piastres the thousand pounds, including duties and expenses, which add 60 or 70 per cent. to the first cost. Patras is the centre of this trade. (Beaujour, Let. viii.)

Madder grows wild in abundance, but is an object of cultivation in the moist plains of Boeotia, where 1200 sacks (of 275 lbs. each) are raised, of which 700 are consumed in Greece in dyeing spun cotton, and the other 500 are exported. The produce of vermilion from the Kermes insect is considerable. The canton of Livadia furnishes 6000 okes, and the Morea 22,000 okes, valued from 6 to 8 piastres the oke. A part is exported.§

The mulberry tree is becoming an object of increasing importance in Greece, and the produce of silk is considerable. The districts that take the lead in this branch of industry are Elis, Thessaly, and Magnesia, now Zagora. It is chiefly conducted by the women. The annual produce of the Morea in silk is about 79,000 okes; that of Zagora 25,000 okes; which sells at 15 or 18 piastres the oke. A part of the silk of Thessaly is sent across the mountains to Albania.||

The management of bees is an object of considerable attention. This branch of industry is even so far favoured by the Turks, that hives, under a regulation of Soliman II. are not seizable in payment of taxes. Honey is abundant in every part of Greece and Albania, but that of Mount Hymetus still maintains its ancient pre-eminence. It is remarkably transparent, and, in the opinion of Beaujour, is superior to the best honey in France. There are about 3000 hives on this mountain, and 12,000 in the whole of Attica, which yield 360,000 pounds of honey, and 24,000 pounds of wax. About one-tenth is consumed within the country; the rest is exported. The honey sells at 8 or 10 paras the pound; the wax at a piastre. The produce of the Morea in honey, judging from Pouqueville's table, does not much exceed one-half of that of Attica.¶

The fruit trees which grow in the fields or gardens Fruit Trees. of Greece, besides the vine and the olive, are the almond, pomegranate, orange, lemon, citron, banana, fig, with the peach, apricot, quince, plum, and others

* The French pound is to the English pound avoirdupois as 100 to 92. † Beaujour, Let. vii.; Pouqueville, 462; Trav. of Anach. Chap. lix.; Theophr. Hist. Plant. VI. ‡ Clarke, VII. 254; Holland, 212; Hobhouse, 91; Pouqueville, 462; Trav. of Anach. Chap. lix. § Beaujour, Let. ix. x; Pouqueville, 462. || Beaujour, Let. xi.; Pouqueville, 200. 462; Holland, 245. ¶ Beaujour, Let. vi.; Pouqueville, 203, 462; Holland, 510. of a more common kind. The date grows, but does not bear fruit. The process of caprification, or exposing the fig to be punctured by insects, which is minutely described by Pliny, is still in use, and is thought to improve the fruit greatly. The gardening of the Greeks is badly conducted, and many of their fruits want the rich flavour, which might be given them by the art of engrafting. Their melons, water melons, and gourds, are excellent, and form a considerable part of the subsistence of the inhabitants. Their culinary vegetables, of which they have no great variety, are spinach, artichokes, cabbages, cauliflowers, carrots, beans, lettuce, celery. The forests produce the oak, kermes-oak, cork-tree, pine, larch, ash, plane, aloe, wild olive, the sweet chestnut, whose fruit is the temporary food of the people in many parts, the Fraxinus ornus, or ash which yields manna; the turpentine pine, various trees and plants which yield dyes; and a vast variety of flowers and aromatics.*

Wild Animals. The wild animals of Greece are, the bear, wolf, lynx, wild cat, wild boar, stag, roebuck, wild goat, badger, martin, fox, hare, jackall, weasel, and hedgehog. The bears are rarely seen; but the wolves are numerous; and to guard the flocks and cattle from their ravages, great numbers of dogs, of a powerful and fierce breed, are kept all over the country. The peasant who kills a wolf is rewarded, not as in the time of Solon, out of the public funds, but by a small voluntary contribution. Hares are very abundant; but they are not much hunted except by the Greeks. The method of calling hares, or causing them approach the hunter by a particular cry, and then shooting them, is practised.

Of birds, there are very large vultures, various species of falcons and owls, the cuckoo, roller, king's fisher, ducks of several kinds, the domestic goose and turkey, the stork, which arrives at Athens in March and departs in August, partridges numerous, wild pigeons, quails, snipes, teal, blackbirds, the goldfinch, nightingale, the beccafica, a very small bird, the swallow, martin, &c.

The seas, lakes, and rivers, abound with a variety of fish, and the phoca is found on the coast.†

The mechanic arts are necessarily in a rude state in Greece, though the vices of the government do not operate so injuriously upon them as upon agriculture. Numbers and union give a certain degree of security to the artisans of towns, which the rural inhabitants cannot possess. But, on the other hand, these arts can only flourish when they are bottomed on knowledge generally diffused; and when entirely separated from scientific principles, they unavoidably degenerate into empirical processes, which are continued by servile imitation. Accidental circumstances may improve some, and prevent others from retrograding; but they are not so connected as to advance equally, or carry forward each other. This is obviously the case in Greece. Some of the ruder mechanic arts have been created or preserved by the indispensable wants of society; others have been imported to minister to the luxury of the great; and a few seem to be fragments saved from the wreck of former knowledge. Hence trades and professions, equally necessary, are exercised with very different degrees of skill, and seem to belong to different stages of social life. On the other hand, travellers sometimes mislead us, by not sufficiently attending to the fact, that the household-furniture of the Turks or Greeks, and the implements and accommodations required for every situation and employment, are few and simple, compared with ours. Works, however, are executed requiring much more skill than many others, the want of which is sometimes referred to as a mark of barbarism. The agents of the British ambassador could not procure a wheeled cart or a ladder in Athens; but it ought to be recollected, that the Greeks, who inhabit a mountainous country, with steep unpaved roads, have some reason for employing pack-horses instead of wheel-carriages, as we did in Scotland sixty or seventy years ago; and if the tradesmen who construct the mosques, the baths, and the palaces of the pachas, would not, or could not make a cart or a ladder, it was certainly not from want of skill, but want of practice.

It would be absurd to compare the manufactures and mechanic arts of Greece with those of England or France; but they are probably little, if at all inferior to those of Hungary or Poland. In the villages and small towns, carpenters use no other instruments than a saw, a hammer, and a hatchet; and it is only in large cities that gouges and chisels, for making mortices, are employed. Artists, however, and tradesmen, are found capable of constructing water and wind-mills, and building bridges. The churches and mosques are often substantially built and well finished, though designed in bad taste. The palaces of the pachas are generally executed in a very sumptuous style: they are beautifully wainscotted, have marble floors sometimes inlaid, are adorned with good carved work and gilding, with paintings not at all despicable, and with various decorations, which would be thought handsome even in the west of Europe. The baths, fountains, and sepulchral monuments, also display some good architecture. In some few cases, it is probable these works are executed by foreign artists. Ships of considerable burden are built at Hydra and Spechia. There are goldsmiths among the Greeks and Turks, who can combine the metals, and execute devices neatly enough upon sword-belts and scabbards, though their workmanship is inferior, in taste of design and delicacy of execution, to that of English and French artists. Knives and forks are made at Athens; daggers, and other articles of armoury, at Mistra. Good pottery, resembling the ancient in purity, brightness, and elegance, is made at Larissa. The saddles, bridles, and housings of the Turks, are

* Pouqueville, Chap. xvii.; Hobhouse, 69, 227. For an account of the plants of Greece, see a Paper by Dr Sibthorpe in Walpole's Memoirs relating to European and Asiatic Turkey, p. 235. † Walpole, 73—77; Chandler, 126; Pouqueville, Chap. xvii. well made, according to their fashion, and elegantly embroidered. The Greeks paint in fresco, by a peculiar process, and are possessed of a method of painting in wax, and fixing the colours with heat, which has been thought to be substantially the same with the ancient encaustic painting. The fabrication of images of saints is a considerable branch of manufacture. They are formed mechanically from a model or prototype, which is handed down from father to son; and hence the remarkable uniformity of feature in these images. The Greeks of Janina, and other places, embroider well on stuffs of various kinds; and the artisans of Larissa, Janina, and Salonica, have long excelled in the preparation of Turkey leather. Soap is made at Tripolotza; the art of dyeing is practised in many places with much skill; and in particular, the secret of giving a fast red colour to cotton was long confined to the Greeks of Thessaly, though now known both in France and England. The cloth manufactures of Greece are chiefly of a coarse kind for home consumption; but they embrace also some articles of a finer description for exportation. A silken robe, of very delicate net-work, made in Greece, is believed by Beaujour to be the same sort of fabric as the ancient gauze of Cos, or cloth of air, except that the latter was made of linen. Ten thousand of these are annually exported from Salonica to other parts of Turkey. Shawls for turbans, serges, velvets, satins, and various silk and cotton stuffs, are made at Tornavos, in Thessaly, at Tripolitza, in the Morea, or other places. The carpets of Salonica, though inferior to those of Smyrna in brilliance of colour, are equal in quality, and are much esteemed in the west of Europe. Of woollens, the principal manufactures consist of coarse fabrics, called abats, used for clothing by the peasantry, and of carpets or cloaks; an article in universal use among the Albanians, and also in great demand among the mariners of the Levant. These are chiefly made by the Wallachians, and other inhabitants of the mountainous parts of Albania, Thessaly, and Macedonia. But the species of manufacture which probably employs the greatest number of hands, is the spinning and dyeing of cotton yarn. In Thessaly and Macedonia, 20,000 bales, or 5,500,000 pounds of cotton, are spun annually. The large village of Ampelakia, which overhangs the defile of Tempe, containing 4000 inhabitants, is entirely supported by this manufacture; and it forms the most considerable branch of industry in Tornavos, Larissa, Pharsalus, and in all the villages on the declivities of Ossa and Pelion. Of the yarn, a large proportion is sent to Germany. In general, the manufactures of Greece are carried on by mere manual labour, without combination, and without the aid of machinery; and, considering the disadvantages they labour under from these circumstances, it is rather matter of surprise that they are so extensive. The most industrious provinces are Thessaly, Macedonia, Albania, the Morea, Attica, and Livadia. The western part of Boeotia, with Phocis, Locris, Etolia, and Acarnania, are totally destitute of manufactures.*

Physic is practised partly by Greeks who have received some education in Italy, and partly by Italians. Many of them, however, have received no education at all, but are adventurers, who, having failed in trade, put on the Frank habit, which all the physicians wear, and commence practitioners. With a few exceptions, they are extremely ignorant and prejudiced; and their practice is limited to the use of bleeding, and a very few remedies: if the disease does not yield to these, the papa is called in, and recourse is had to exorcism. Surgery is chiefly in the hands of the Albanians, who have skill enough to reduce fractures and dislocations, but never attempt amputations, or other operations of any difficulty.†

Greece, deeply indented on three sides by arms of the sea, encircled by numerous islands, and having its inland communications obstructed by mountains, has a natural tendency to become a commercial country; and, from various causes, its foreign trade has suffered less from the wretched policy of its government than either its agriculture or manufactures. The foreign merchant always assumes, in a certain degree, the character of a citizen of the world: Having his capital scattered over many countries, only a small part is within the grasp of tyrannical rulers at one spot; and, when oppressed or disturbed, he can, with greater ease than any other person, transfer his wealth and industry to some other place where they will be more secure. Originally, the commerce of Greece was carried on almost entirely by foreigners, whom the Turkish government found itself compelled to treat with some degree of respect; and the Greeks, who have latterly engaged in it, partly by procuring protections from foreign powers, and partly from the force of custom, have insensibly acquired a share of the consideration and the privileges enjoyed by the class to which they belong. What contributes perhaps still more to their security is, that they are exempted from any immediate collision of interest with the Turks, who, from the aversion to foreigners, arising out of their religious bigotry, almost entirely abandon commercial pursuits. The only exception to this is, that the Beys and Pachas, with the usual short-sighted cupidity of despotic power, have monopolised in many cases the sale of the most considerable articles of export, such as corn and oil (Holland, 84, 328), and they have of course greatly cramped the growth of these branches of trade. The Greeks are gifted in a peculiar degree with the practical sagacity and address required for conducting mercantile transactions; and finding the paths to distinction, and the pursuit of national objects, closed against them, their activity and enterprise flow more abundantly into the channel of commerce. The ruin brought upon many foreign

* Beaujour, Let. i. ii. xiv. xv. xvi.; Thornton, 16—28; Clarke, VI. 273, 280; VII. 344; Hobhouse, 73, 69; Eton, 232; Holland, 123, 133, 265, 288; Pouqueville, Chap. xvii. † Pouqueville, 194; Hobhouse, 535; Holland, 161. houses engaged in the trade of Greece, by the fluctuations and revolutions in the west of Europe, during the last thirty years, has thrown a great portion of it into the hands of the Greeks themselves. (Pouqueville, 207.) And the annihilation of the commerce of France, Spain, and Italy, for a long period, by the ascendancy of the British marine, gave the Greek traders a new and extraordinary importance as neutrals. At present there are individual houses of this nation who have branches established in three or four of the chief commercial towns of Europe, and their ships make voyages as far as America. Within this period, too, the small barren rocks of Hydra and Spechia, off the coast of Argolis, have become the seats of an extensive and flourishing commerce, and have risen suddenly to extraordinary wealth. In 1812, the former had 25,000 inhabitants, entirely supported by trade, with about three hundred trading vessels, some of them as large as 500 tons.* The larger vessels are generally built at Fiume. Funds are supplied for fitting them out by capitalists residing in the island, who have acquired fortunes in trade, and lend out their money at 10, 15, or 20 per cent. The captain is generally a principal owner, and every person on board, down to the cabin boy, has a share in the speculation. (Holland, 424.) The Hydriotes have purchased the right of electing their own magistrates from the Porte, and they some years ago expended ten thousand pounds in building their town-house. (Hobhouse, p. 599.) Spechia approaches to Hydra in commercial importance, and there are one or two other small islands which have acquired consideration by their trade. The same cause which raised these places to consequence, created a new trade of a very singular kind at the port of Salonica. Colonial goods, when the usual channels by which they were admitted to the continent were closed in 1810, 1811, and 1812, were sent to Salonica by sea, and thence forwarded overland to Vienna, by a route of 700 miles in length. The goods were transported on horseback; the journey generally occupied thirty-five days, and the expence was supposed to add about 100 per cent. to the import price of the articles at Salonica. In 1812, thirty cargoes came direct from England to Salonica, besides a still greater number from Malta and Gibraltar, and cavalcades of a thousand horses sometimes set out at once for Germany. (Holland, p. 323.) This trade would of course cease with the war; but the capital it has created, and the stimulus it has given to the industry of Greece, will lead to new enterprises. The Greeks have in fact a large field for exertion. They conduct not only the commerce of their own country, but that of nearly the whole Turkish empire, except what is in the hands of foreigners. Their vessels are found trading in Egypt, Syria, Asia Minor, the Black Sea, and the Sea of Marmora; and a vast number of small craft ply among the islands of the Archipelago, and between these islands and the continent. When we advert to these circumstances, the information received by Mr Hobhouse in 1809, that the number of Greek mariners altogether amounted to 50,000 (Hobhouse, p. 299, 600), will not appear greatly exaggerated. To form an adequate idea of this subject, we must take into view that the number mentioned amounts to one-third of the number of men in the commercial navy of Great Britain and Ireland in 1817, and to four-fifths of that of the United States in 1808. But as the Greek vessels are generally small, and employ a very great number of hands, the amount of tonnage must be comparatively small.

The commerce of Greece with the other parts of the world is chiefly carried on by sea; but with Germany, a considerable traffic is maintained by land. The town of Salonica, which is situated in the centre of the most fertile, populous, and industrious districts, Macedonia and Thessaly, is the principal seat of this commerce. As a trading city it rivals Smyrna, and is probably inferior only to the capital. The other most considerable ports in Greece are Orphano, at the head of the Gulf of Contessa, Volo in Thessaly, Athens, Nauplia in Argolis, Calamatte, Coron, and Patrass in the south and west sides of the Morea, Salona on the north side of the Corinthian Gulf, Arta, Butrinto, Avlona, and Durazzo in Albania. The exports, which consist principally of raw produce, are corn, cotton, tobacco, olive oil, timber, wool, silk, honey, currants, figs, hides, dye-stuffs, drugs, with some wine, cheese, butter, live cattle, spun and dyed cotton, some capots or cloaks, carpets, coarse woollens, and a few slight fabrics of silk and cotton. The manufactured articles go chiefly to the other provinces of Turkey. The imports from western Europe consist of manufactured goods, colonial produce and peltrey; those from other parts of Turkey, of coffee, flax, timber, rice, drugs, and some manufactured articles; those from Barbary, bonnets and slaves. Both imports and exports pay a duty of 3 per cent. if the merchant is a foreigner; but by a strange inversion of ordinary rules, the duty is from 5 to 10 per cent. if he is a native. The goods imported are circulated through the country by fairs held in the great towns, and are transported from place to place on the backs of horses, mules, and sometimes camels. The prices are of course greatly enhanced by the risks attending carriage, and by the high rate of interest paid on capital, which is generally 12 per cent. in commercial transactions, and 20 per cent. in other cases. (Beaujour, Let. xxiii. xxiv.; Holland, 227, 326.)

In the ten years from 1787 to 1797, about one-half of the foreign trade of Greece was with Germany. It was chiefly conducted by Greeks, and Vienna and Salonica were the principal entrepots. The Germans take cotton, raw and spun, from Greece, and return light woollens, linens, muslins,

* Holland, 424; Mr Hobhouse, who travelled in 1809, says, that Hydra could furnish men for 80 vessels of 300 tons, Spechia for 60 (p. 600); with a small allowance for increase in the intervening period, perhaps the two statements are not inconsistent. glass, cutlery, &c. to the value of one-third of their imports, and the other two-thirds in specie. The Italian commerce, which is next in importance to the German, is carried on chiefly with the ports of Leghorn and Venice. It supplied Greece with firearms, glass, paper, silks, &c.; Russia sent silks and peltry; France, woollens, bonnets, gold-lace, sugar, coffee, and indigo; Holland, cloth and spiceries; and England, woollens, muslins, linens, metal, wrought and unwrought, watches, trinkets, jewellery, and colonial produce. (Beaujour, Let. xvii. xxiii.) Except Russia and England, all those states make a part of their returns in specie. The late long wars, however, must have made a considerable change in the distribution of this trade. The new establishments of Britain in Malta and the Ionian islands must have transferred to her a part of what was formerly in the hands of the French and Italians.

Cotton, according to Beaujour, ranks first among the staple exports of Greece, and four-fifths of the trade in this article is conducted at Salonica. On an average of the ten years ending 1797, the district of Seres in Macedonia, where the most extensive cotton plantations in Greece are, furnished 50,000 bales, or 5,000,000 okes for exportation, of which three-fifths went to Germany. The price varied from 80 to 160 aspres the oke, or averaged about a piastre. But in 1809 the export of cotton from Salonica amounted to 110,000 bales, or 11,000,000 okes, and the price having risen to 60, 85, and even 90 paras, must have averaged nearly at two piastres the oke. The export of the Morea, which, according to Pouqueville, consisted, about 1800, of two cargoes, probably 400,000 okes, must have increased from the same causes, and may be estimated at 600,000 okes. About 72,000 okes were shipped from Salona in 1805. Considerable quantities of cotton are raised in Albania, and more in Thessaly; and though a great proportion of these is consumed within the country, a part is exported by the ports of Volo, Arta, and probably also by Butrinto and Avlona. If we add for the exportation of these districts a quantity double of that of the Morea, or 1,200,000 okes, we may form a loose estimate of the whole export of cotton from Greece; which would thus amount, about 1809, to 12,872,000 okes, or 35,398,000 pounds,—a quantity nearly equal to what was exported by the United States in 1805. The value of this, estimated at \( \frac{1}{2} \) piastre the oke, would be \( 22,526,000 \) piastres, or about L.1,200,000 Sterling (taking the piastre at 1s. 1d. the value given by Dr Holland, from whom most of the statements are taken). The opening of the Continent, however, in 1813, for the admission of West Indian and American cottons, must have produced a great diminution in this branch of trade.*

The trade in tobacco, of which Salonica is also the chief seat, seems to have latterly declined. Beaujour estimates the annual export of this article, between 1787 and 1797, at 60,000 bales, which went chiefly to Egypt, Barbary, Italy, and Germany; but Dr Holland, who travelled in 1812, estimates it only at 30,000 bales, or 3,000,000 of okes. The Morea, and the southern parts of Greece, generally raise little tobacco, but import a great part of what they use from Macedonia and Anatolia. Albania and Thessaly, however, yield a large produce, and export to some extent. We have no account of the precise quantity, but if we suppose it to be one-fifth of what is shipped at Salonica, the whole export of this article would amount to 3,600,000 okes, which, valued at 36 aspres the oke (about 1\( \frac{3}{4} \)d. the pound), including custom-house duties, would amount to 1,080,000 piastres, or L.67,500.†

The exportation of corn to foreign countries is Corn prohibited in Turkey, but is carried on to a great extent clandestinely, by the beys and pachas themselves, or by merchants to whom they sell, for a large sum, the privilege of violating the law. During the unsettled state of the west of Europe, the trade of Greece in corn seems to have increased rapidly. According to Beaujour, the export from the fertile provinces of Thessaly and Macedonia, by the ports of Salonica, Orphano, and Volo, consisted annually of 80 cargoes to other parts of Turkey, and 40 to France and Italy, making in all 1,200,000 kilos. In 1809 Dr Holland estimates the export from Salonica alone at 1,000,000 kilos of wheat, 500,000 barley, and 100,000 maize, altogether equal to about 200,000 quarters. About 50 cargoes of wheat and maize are sent from Arta to Sicily, Malta, and the Ionian isles; 100,000 kilos from Salona, and 250,000 from Livadia. The Morea, according to Pouqueville, sends out eight cargoes, or, according to Scrofani, about 240,000 kilos. If we put these quantities together, taking the cargo, according to Beaujour's valuation, at 10,000 kilos, and allow for the exports of Thessaly by the Gulf of Volo (which is not included in Dr Holland's statement), and of North Albania by Avlona, Durazzo, and other ports, a quantity equal to what is shipped at Arta, we shall have, for the whole export of continental Greece, in corn, 3,190,000 kilos, or 400,000 quarters. The greater part of this consists of wheat, the price of which was latterly from 5\( \frac{1}{2} \) to 6\( \frac{1}{2} \) piastres the kilo. Beaujour states the value of bread corn in his time at 2\( \frac{1}{2} \) piastres; and Scrofani reckons the grain of all kinds exported from the Gulf of Arta worth 3 piastres the kilo. If we assume the average in 1809 to be 4\( \frac{1}{2} \) piastres, the value of the whole exportation would be about 14,950,000 piastres, or L.809,700 Sterling.§ This may be considered as the true value of the grain, only a

* Beaujour, Let. ii.; Holland, p. 84, 389; Pouqueville, p. 206. † Beaujour, Let. iii.; Holland, 84, 151, 349; Pouqueville, 411. ‡ Beaujour, Let. iv. and xxiii.; Holland, p. 84, 389, 395, 517; Pouqueville, 206; Walpole, p. 226. small share of which, however, goes into the pocket of the grower, imposts and exactions by the public officers absorbing the greater part. Considered in reference to the extent and circumstances of the country, the exportation now stated is very large. Estimating the whole population at 2,500,000, and allowing a septier of corn (about 4 1/2 bushels) to each, according to Beaujour's calculation, * the whole consumption of the country will only amount to 1,400,000 quarters; and the corn exported will form nearly one-fourth of the entire produce.

It has been stated that only a small proportion of the wool of Greece is wrought up in the country; but the amount of the export does not seem to warrant this assertion. From Salonica, according to Beaujour, the quantity exported is about 500,000 okes annually; from Salona, in 1805, it was 140,000 okes; from the Morea, according to Pouqueville, two cargoes, or, according to Scrofani, 340,000 okes. As sheep-farming is a leading occupation in Thessaly, and still more in Albania, the quantity exported from these countries (independently of what is carried inland to Salonica), and from Aetolia and Attica, cannot be less than from Macedonia and the Morea together; and on these data the whole export of wool may be loosely estimated at 1,800,000 okes (4,950,000 pounds), which, at the average price of 20 paras the oke, is worth about L.56,000 Sterling. Considering the reputed number of flocks in Greece, and the small proportion of the wool said to be used in domestic manufactures, this estimate is probably below the truth. The Jews of Salonica, who were refugees from Spain two centuries ago, obtained from the Ottoman government the privilege of buying up one-fifth of the wools grown in Macedonia, at 4 paras the pound; and this oppressive privilege they are still permitted to retain and abuse. †

The exports of Attica in olive oil, according to Beaujour, are 150,000 measures (of 12 pounds each), or about 14,000 barrels, at 48 okes to the barrel. Those of the Morea, according to Scrofani, are 21,000 barrels; Salona, in 1815, shipped 5000 barrels; and large quantities are sent out from the Gulfs of Valo and Arta, from Avlona, and probably from Salonica and Orphano. Considering the extent to which this tree is cultivated over all Greece, the annual produce for exportation would certainly be moderately estimated at twice the amount of the quantities above enumerated, or 80,000 barrels. The value of this, at 20 piastras the barrel, is L.100,000 Sterling. ‡

The commerce in currants centers chiefly in Patrass, from which, according to Beaujour, 8,000,000 pounds are annually exported, the total value of which, at 80 piastras the thousand pounds, is L.40,000 Sterling. Dr Holland states the export from Patrass at 5,000,000 pounds; Scrofani at 6,000,000. (Beaujour, Let. viii.; Holland, 433.)

The only exportable commodity, worth naming, possessed by Attica, besides oil, is its honey, which is famed over all Turkey. Of this article and wax it exports to the value of 100,000 piastras. Twenty or thirty cargoes of timber are sent from the Gulf of Arta, besides large quantities from Macedonia and Thessaly; and from one or other of these districts are also exported silk, wine, hareskins, honey, opium, drugs, bees-wax, carpets, and some capots, and other coarse woollen cloths. Vermillion and madder are exported from Livadia. Of the nature and extent of this trade, we can only form a judgment, by referring to that of the Morea. Besides the produce of corn, oil, currants, cotton, and wool, formerly mentioned, the Morea exports, on an average, according to Scrofani, silk, to the value of 407,000 piastras; cheese, 459,000 piastras; cattle, 240,000; fruits, 139,000; dye-stuffs, 202,000; wax and honey, 140,000. These, with smaller articles, to the value of 238,000 piastras, make a total of 1,725,000 piastras. From this must be deducted the value of goods sent to other parts of Greece, supposing it to equal the imports of the same description, viz. 316,000 piastras, which leaves 1,409,000 piastras. If we suppose the trade of the north of Greece, in these miscellaneous articles, to be three times as great as that of the Morea (the ratio of the population is about 5 to 1), or 4,227,000 piastras, we have a sum of 5,950,000 piastras, or L.377,000, to add to the value of the exports of Greece, in the great articles formerly enumerated, § and the whole will stand thus:—

<table> <tr> <th>Cotton, raw and spun</th> <th>L. 1,200,000</th> </tr> <tr> <th>Tobacco</th> <th>56,000</th> </tr> <tr> <th>Corn</th> <th>809,700</th> </tr> <tr> <th>Wool</th> <th>67,000</th> </tr> <tr> <th>Olive Oil</th> <th>100,000</th> </tr> <tr> <th>Currants</th> <th>40,000</th> </tr> <tr> <th>Miscellaneous articles</th> <th>377,000</th> </tr> <tr> <th>Total exports of Continental Greece</th> <th>L. 2,649,700</th> </tr> </table>

We are sensible that so many uncertain elements enter into this table as to detract greatly from its authority; but the reader is aware of the data from which it is compiled, and can judge for himself. The multitude of particular facts, given by different travellers, seem to be of little value, except as materials for some such general estimate, and the writer of an article of this kind is evidently in a better situation to form such an estimate than an ordinary reader.

* The consumption of each individual in England is computed to be about 1 or 1 1/4 quarter of grain; and though the inhabitants of Greece live much on gourds, melons, chestnuts, and other substances of that kind, the estimate of Beaujour is certainly rather low. † Beaujour, Let. v.; Holland, 389, 84, 517, 499; Pouqueville, 206. ‡ Beaujour, Let. vi.; Holland, p. 84, 349, 389, 517; Pouqueville, 411. § Beaujour, Let. vi. ix.–xi.; Holland, 84, 389; Clarke, vii. 465–8; Mentelle and Malte Brun, Geog. X. 215; Pouqueville, 411. With regard to this amount, it is proper to observe, that it refers to the period of 1809, when the commerce of Greece was forced up to an unnatural magnitude by the singular state of western Europe. The peace of 1814 must have reduced both the quantity and value of the cotton and grain exported, probably to the extent of a third or more. We may remark farther, that the sum expresses the value of the articles to the foreign purchaser at the place of export, which includes duties and charges, amounting, in some cases, to one-third of the value; and, with regard to the article of corn, a considerable part is carried away without payment, as the produce of a tax; another part is forced from the grower, at a fifth or sixth part of its value, for the supply of the capital, while the sale of the remainder is either monopolized by the beys, or subjected to an arbitrary impost, paid as a bribe for permitting the exportation, in violation of the law. (Beaujour, Vol. I. p. 119.) So great a proportion of the value is diverted into the pockets of the various classes of public functionaries, that the effect of the exportation, in stimulating domestic industry and production, is infinitely less than the aggregate amount would lead us to suppose. But when the extent and population of country is considered, and the multiplied discouragements to industry, arising out of the government and state of society, the trade is surprisingly great, and shows what a high rank Greece would attain, as a commercial state, were her industry unfettered.

Beaujour has given a general estimate of the commerce of Greece, computed on an average of the years from 1787 to 1797; but as this estimate refers only to certain districts of the country, and with regard to these districts, includes only the trade with foreign nations, and not that with the other parts of Turkey and Barbary; and besides, as subsequent events have made a great change both in the distribution and amount of this trade, we have not considered his table as the most eligible basis for an estimate of the total amount of Greek commerce, at a recent period.

In the trade with the northern and western parts of Europe, according to Beaujour, the goods imported by Greece formed only about five-ninths of the exports, the balance being remitted in specie. Scrofani also makes the balance of trade between the Morea and all other countries in favour of that district, though only to a small extent. But it is well known that there is often much fallacy in such calculations.

Though still proceeding on conjectural grounds, we may venture a step farther, in order to get at some idea of the naval resources of the Greeks. If we take the imports of the Morea (given by Scrofani) as a basis for the whole country, we should conclude that the trade of Greece, with other parts of Turkey and Barbary, is to her trade with foreign nations nearly as 5 to 4. And, in a period of war (1809), when the Greeks appeared in the character of neutrals, it is probable that the whole of the former trade, and two-thirds of the latter, would be carried on in Grecian bottoms. In this and other particulars, the commerce of Greece bore a general analogy to that of America, both countries exporting raw produce of the same kind, and importing manufactures, and both acting in the character of neutrals. On the ground of this resemblance, we will suppose the coasting trade of Greece and its islands to employ about half the tonnage of its other trade. In 1810 we find the whole tonnage of the United States (foreign and coasting) was, to its exports, in the proportion nearly of 1 ton to 48 dollars; but allowing for the inferior efficiency of Greek shipping, and the difference in the value of money, although their voyages are shorter, we may assign 1 ton to 36 dollars, as the proportion in the latter. This gives about 340,000 tons of shipping, of all sizes; and since the danger from pirates, as well as their own want of nautical skill, oblige the Greeks to employ an extra number of hands in their vessels, we may allow one man to 10 or 12 tons, which will give 30,000 seamen. If we add half as many more for the Greek mariners employed at Constantinople, Smyrna, and other ports beyond the limits of Greece, the whole number of mariners of this nation, in 1809, may be estimated at 45,000, which does not fall greatly short of the number mentioned by Mr Hobhouse. Should Greece ever seriously attempt to recover her independence, such a naval force will be of essential service to her in the struggle.

The proportion between the rate of wages and the price of commodities in Greece affords an illustration of the dependence of the former on the habits of the population. The numerous fasts of the Greek church keep the peasant idle a great part of the year; and the consequence is, that, as he must have the means of subsistence, his wages, during the time he labours, are so much higher. Thus, Beaujour tells us, that, in his time (from 1787 to 1797), the wages of a peasant were from 20 to 25 paras a-day—an artisan, 30 to 40 paras; and, at the same period, beef was sold at 6, mutton at 12, and bread at 4 paras the oke (2½ pounds); and corn was 2½ piastres the kilo or bushel. Supposing a full aged labourer to consume six or seven kilos of corn in the year, he observes, that such a person could earn bread for himself, for a whole year, in 36 or 40 days, and food of all kinds in 80; that he could provide subsistence for himself and his wife in 160 days; and for a child, besides, in 40 days more. The vast number of fasts, as he remarks, are the chief cause of these high wages, which do not enable the labourer to live well, but to live idle, and indulge his superstitious feelings. (Beaujour, ii. 168.)

The provincial governments of Greece bear the Provincial different denominations of pachalik, mousselimlik, Govern- agalik, vaivodalik, according as they are admini- ments. The pachas are the first of these functionaries in rank, and govern the largest districts; the others follow in the order in which they are named. The agas often take the title of Bey, though that belongs properly to military commanders, one degree higher. The most essential distinction between them regards the extent of the districts they govern; for they are all independent of one another, and accountable separately to the general govern- ment. Each, as vicegerent of the Sultan, exercises the full powers of sovereignty within his own district. This seems to be the theory of the government; but as theory and practice seldom coincide in Turkey, we find that in the Morea, and perhaps in other parts, the beys or agas are, to a certain extent, dependent on the pachas. The limits and the numbers of these provincial governments are often in a state of fluctuation, in consequence of the hostilities which the beys and pachas carry on against one another. The enterprising ambition of Ali, the Pacha of Albania, has nearly obliterated all the ancient political divisions of Northern Greece. In 1812, the provincial governments consisted of five pachaliks, two vaivodaliks, and a number of smaller districts, governed by beys, or officers of inferior rank. These were, 1. The pachalik of Albania, now comprehending the territories which formerly constituted the pachaliks of Lepanto, Arta, Janina, Delvino, Ocrida, Avlona, with the moussellimlik of Larissa, and several towns and small districts governed by beys, agas, or vaivodes; the whole comprising the ancient Epirus, Acarnania, Aetolia, Phocis, the greater part of Thessaly, the southern division of Illyricum, and the western divisions of Macedonia and Bocotia. 2. The pachalik of Scutari, consisting of the country watered by the Drino, a part of the ancient Illyricum. 3. The pachalik of Salonica, including all the lower part of Macedonia, except the districts belonging to the Pacha of Albania. 4. The pachalik of Negroponte, consisting of the eastern part of Boeotia, and the island of Euboea or Negroponte. 5. The pachalik of Tripolitza, comprehending all the Morea, except some maritime towns and districts. The pacha has under him twenty-four officers, governing the different cantons, some named Beys, and others Codja-bashees or elders. 6. Attica and Livadia are each governed by a vaivode. 7. The high country of Macedonia is divided among a number of beys or agas. 8. The small territory of Zagora, the ancient Magnesia, is under the government of the Greek primate of the country. 9. The district of Maina, in the Morea, is disjoined from the pachalik of Tripolitza, and though nominally subject to the Capudan pacha, actually enjoys a great degree of independence, under the sway of its own beys, who are twelve in number, and live much in the condition of feudal barons. 10. All the Greek islands, with some maritime districts on the mainland, are under the authority of the Capudan pacha. This enumeration of the provincial governments is not so perfect and detailed as could be desired, but it comprises the best information we have been able to collect from a considerable variety of sources.*

The civil polity of the Turks is in substance the discipline and arrangements of a Tartar camp applied to the government of a nation. The pasha, like the commander-in-chief, determines every matter civil, military, and judicial, with summary dispatch, and without reference to any other rule than his own untutored conceptions of right and wrong.

Those public boards and organized bodies, by which the civil concerns of other nations are administered, are scarcely known, and the system of government of course takes its complexion entirely from the personal character of the chief. Questions not of a criminal nature, however, between subject and subject, are decided by the mollah or judge, whose jurisdiction extends over both Turks and Christians. In the tribunals of these functionaries, bribery is almost open and avowed; and false witnesses form something like a regular profession. The gainer of a suit pays the whole expences. The Turks themselves, aware of the notorious corruption of the courts, rather submit to injustice than seek legal redress. The Greeks and Jews generally submit all differences amongst themselves to their patriarchs and rabbins, in the way of arbitration; and the decisions of these persons, though not in right, are, in fact, without appeal; because they are enforced by anathemas which inspire such terror that they have sometimes caused husbands to be deserted by their wives, and fathers by their daughters. Avanies, or vexatious prosecutions instituted against Christians, for the purpose of compelling them to pay a sum of money as the price of abandoning the suit, are a regular source of revenue to the Turkish inhabitants of towns. The police of the Turks is as rude as their judicial system. An officer accompanied by soldiers traverses the markets in the great towns, and if he detects any person selling with false weights, the defaulter receives the bastinado for the first offence, is nailed by the ear to the door of his own shop for the second, and hanged for the third. Their attempts to correct evils often produce others of much worse description. If a complaint is made by some person of consequence, of a robbery committed, an enormous fine is levied on the district where it happened; or, what is still worse, a party of soldiers is sent out, who, under the pretext of searching for the robbers, oppress and plunder the peasants without mercy. An officer named Dervendgi-pacha, charged with the inspection of the roads and bridges, makes an annual tour through the country, accompanied by a party of soldiers; but his inspection serves no other purpose than to extract money, under the name of fines, from the people, to fill his own pockets, while the roads and bridges are utterly neglected. Indeed, all classes of public officers practise extortion, and Turks, Greeks, and Jews, are almost equally sufferers. Public offices are regularly sold to the highest bidder, and those who buy them of course reimburse themselves by one means or another. As the appointments are annual, the price is paid over again every year; and the only method of redress which is open to a city or district that is oppressed, is to offer a greater sum for the removal of its governor than he gives to obtain the renewal of his office. Very often, after an aga has amassed great riches, the porte allures him into some large town, by the bait of a splendid employment, and there

* Beaujour, Let. i.; Pouqueville, Chap. x; Thornton, p. 122; Hobhouse, Let. xiv. xvii. strips him of his wealth, and perhaps awards him the bowstring. The pachas live surrounded with a degree of pomp and splendour, which contrasts strangely with the squalid wretchedness of the people they govern. They are approached with prostrations, like eastern monarchs. Their places of residence are vast buildings—forts without, and palaces within, capable of containing a thousand or twelve hundred men. Besides a strong body of soldiers, they are filled with an immense retinue of servants; including menials, tradesmen, and artists; such as coffee-makers, sherbetmakers, confectioners, bathers, tailors, barbers, dwarf pages, black slaves, buffoons, musicians, puppet-show-men, wrestlers, conjurors, dancers, an imam (or priest), and, lastly, the executioner, the pacha's confidential servant, without whom he never stir abroad, and who is the only person privileged to sit in his presence. In addition to all this, the harem, or women's apartments, forms a separate establishment, with its own train of servants. A pacha of Salonica, not peculiarly profuse in his habits, has been known to expend L. 24,000 per annum on his domestic establishment. The mousselmans, agas, and beys, support the same state in proportion to their circumstances. Wars are as common among these petty rulers as among the old feudal barons, and as destructive in their effects. The porte, by a miserable policy, foments their quarrels, to weaken them individually, and increase their dependance on itself. The people, ruined by exactions, or the ravages of the military, abandon their homes, and fly to the mountains and forests, where they commence robbers. In some places the rural inhabitants live in houses which are built like small forts with draw bridges and battlements. In addition to all the evils common to them with the Turks, the Greeks have many peculiar to themselves. They are made to feel their degradation by the most opprobrious distinctions. They are marked out by a peculiar costume; and are not allowed to wear certain articles of dress,—or clothes or slippers of a light colour; or to paint their houses of those colours which the Turks use. It is death for a Greek to marry a Turkish woman, or to strike a Mahometan even in self-defence. One of the lowest Turks will dismount from his horse, force a Greek from his shop, load him with his baggage, and compel him to follow him, without the poor Greek daring to utter a complaint. The wealthiest individuals of this nation are exposed to the most galling insults in their own houses. Dr Holland mentions, that while he was sitting with the Archbishop of Larissa, the most considerable Greek in Thessaly, a Turk of a surly and forbidding aspect, and evidently of the lowest class, entered the room, seated himself unceremoniously on the sofa, filled his pipe, and took coffee from the attendants. The Archbishop was evidently embarrassed, but made no comment. After a short interval, he took a coin from his purse, and put it silently into the hand of the Turk, who immediately disappeared. In general, the inhabitants of the districts which are appanages of the great officers of state,—of the timars or fiefs held under the sultan,—and of the lands belonging to the church, are less oppressed than the others. The islands of the Archipelago, where Turkish governors do not reside, are also less disturbed; and mountainous districts, such as Maina, which are capable of being defended, are sometimes nearly in a state of independence. Local differences, indeed, in the political condition of the people, are numerous in Greece. Where the Christian inhabitants have wrested certain privileges from the Turks, they generally enjoy them undisturbed, from the mechanical adherence of the latter to habits once formed. Very often the degree of freedom and security which the Greeks enjoy depends on their numbers. In towns where they form a large part of the population, as in Athens, their numbers and union give them consequence, and their superior knowledge and address enables them successfully to elude or oppose the sluggish tyranny of the Turks. In Albania, the severe government of Ali has repressed the insolence of the Turks, but without raising the condition of the Greeks. He has, however, reduced the numerous bands of robbers who infested, or rather occupied the country; he has built bridges, made roads, given security to merchants, and, upon the whole, greatly improved the condition of the people.*

The Turkish government being purely military, Military the privilege of carrying arms is considered a mark Force of distinction, and is reserved entirely to the Turks. Nearly the whole of this part of the population belongs either to the Toprakli (feudal militia) or to the corps of janizaries. A Mahometan, unconnected with any military corps, is equally with Christians liable to capitation-tax and other imposts; and this law, though not rigorously enforced, induces most of the Turks to enrol their children in their infancy. Hence in the cities every Turk is a janizary. But only a very small number of these are embodied; the whole corps of janizaries in actual pay in the empire being only about forty thousand, according to Mr Thornton. They serve in garrisons, and generally follow some trade. Their pay was originally about one shilling a-day, and though still nominally the same, is now, from the depreciation of the coin, reduced to a fourth part of this sum. Small companies of topgias, or artillerymen, are also placed in the garrisons, but they are totally ignorant of gunnery; and very often the guns are without carriages. The yamacks or unembodied janizaries, and spahis, serve merely to fill vacancies in the standing corps, and furnish extraordinary levies in time of war. These levies are made at the rate of one man out of ten persons of the families attached to the military bodies. When called upon for active service, they march without uniforms, armed with fowling-pieces, pistols, lances, or such weapons as

* Pouqueville, p. 26, 122; Beajour, Let. i.; Thornton, Chap. iii., iv.; Holland, 110, 120, 289, 343; Eton, 104, 358; Hobhouse, 118, 289; Walpole, p. 20. they can find. The Albanians, from greater practice in war, are better organized, though destitute of what would be considered discipline in regular armies. Many of the pachas, indeed, now keep in their service a corps of Albanians, who have become the principal, and far the most efficient part of the Turkish military in Greece. We do not find any accurate account of the amount of the military force actually kept on foot in Greece, or of the contingent furnished by it for the general service of the empire. But the pachaliks of Salonica, with the mousselimlik of Larissa, which have a population of 500,000 souls, Greeks, Jews, and Turks, supply, in time of foreign war, 15,000 men; and as the proportion of Mahometans is much greater in these districts than anywhere else, perhaps the contingent for the whole country, including Albania, will not exceed three times this number. But so inefficient is the military administration, that generally not more than one half of the individuals called upon actually join the army. The Pacha of Tripolitza has in his service a body of five or six thousand Albanians, which may be considered as the standing military force of the Morea. The Pacha of Albania, the most formidable military power in Greece, has seldom more than 8000 men in pay, according to Mr Hobhouse. But Dr Holland, who wrote at a later period, when Ali's dominions were much more extended, estimates his standing army at 15,000; and thinks he could, for a short time, maintain 30,000 men in arms. As nearly one half of the Peninsula of Greece was, at the latter period, subject to Ali, containing a population of 1,200,000, or 1,300,000 souls, the estimate seems exceedingly moderate; and the whole military force of the country applicable to any emergency, calculated on the same scale, would be 60,000 men, or one-tenth of the males able to bear arms. The pay of Ali's troops is said to be twelve piastres, or fifteen shillings a-month, besides provisions, which are furnished to them by the villages where they are quartered. The Albanians of all classes possess arms. Those in active service use a sabre in addition to the gun, pistols, and poinard which the peasantry carry. Pouqueville speaks of them as being formed into chiladi or bodies of a thousand men each, which are subdivided into companies; but these companies do not consist of a fixed number. They have few cavalry; and their infantry is without tactics, discipline, or regular order. Ali has made some attempts to introduce the European discipline, but found the habits of his subjects totally averse to it. The men, however, have the military virtues in a degree not surpassed by any nation in Europe; and their impetuous courage has often snatched victory from an enemy superior in numbers and technical skill. They are strong, hardy, active, and enterprising; they delight in combats,—are daring in action, even to rashness, and firm in the midst of dangers.*

The public revenues of Greece, like those of other rude countries, consist of a number of imposts, raised on a very simple plan, and often so much the more oppressive for this simplicity. The expedients adopted in other states to lighten and equalize the pressure of taxes, and to mitigate their injurious efforts on industry, are totally unknown in Turkey. Most of the taxes were imposed in rude times by men skilled in nothing but the use of the sword; and the paramount authority of custom, which in Turkey controls equally subject and sovereign, will not allow of any material alteration. There are, however, local variations, both in the amount of the taxes, and in the mode of their imposition. 1. The first of the Turkish taxes is the miri or land-tax, which affects equally Turks and Greeks, and consists of one-tenth of the gross produce of the soil. Beaujour estimates its actual amount at one-twelfth. Vineyards and gardens, with ground under cotton, madder, and mulberries, generally pay a composition. 2. A tax on moveables, that is, shops, houses, furniture, &c. affecting all other classes but Turks: it is assessed in a very arbitrary manner; varying much in different towns; and is estimated by the Greeks to absorb a fourth part of their gains. 3. A tax on consumable commodities, cattle, provisions, firewood, liquors, &c. levied at the gates of towns, at rates probably not uniform. Sheep and goats pay one para, an ox one piastre, wine two, and brandy four paras the oke; compositions are accepted for other articles. 4. The karatch, or capitation-tax, imposed on all males, not Mahometans, who are above twelve years of age, according to some, above five, or eight, according to others. The rate varies from two to ten piastres, according to the supposed wealth of the person, and may vary to a still greater extent, as it is levied on the basis of an ancient roll or census, and, when the population of a district diminishes, the rate is raised in order to afford the same annual amount. The officers judge of a child's age by putting a cord round its head. The person paying receives a ticket, which he is obliged to produce at the gates of towns, and if he fails, he is compelled to pay anew, perhaps with the addition of the bastinado. 5. A duty on exports and imports, amounting, generally, to 3 per cent. when the merchant is a foreigner, and 5 or 6 per cent. when he is a native subject. 6. The property of all public officers at their death, and of all persons who die without heirs, devolves to the pacha, on behalf of the Grand Seignior. By a composition, however, the heirs of a public officer are sometimes allowed to retain his property. 7. Each pacha has generally a number of farms and villages attached to his place, of which he draws the rents. Ali is reported to be the proprietor of 400 villages, which yield him L. 200,000 per annum. Mr Hughes thinks that one-third of the whole cultivated territory belongs to him. 8. The arbitrary requisitions made of horses,

* Thornton, Chap. v.; Beaujour, Let. iv.; Hobhouse, Let. xii. xiii.; Pouqueville, Chap. x. xxxiii.; Holland, p. 111. forage, and provisions, for the public service, are a productive source of revenue. 9. Large sums are drawn from the sale of public offices, including those of the dignitaries of the Greek church. The inferior clergy are also compelled to pay a sum at their installation. 10. In some provinces, perhaps in all, there is a duty on legal proceedings, amounting to one-tenth of the value of the disputed property. 11. Avanies, or vexatious prosecutions; and fines levied on districts for crimes committed within their bounds, on the ground that they might have prevented them. This last practice is made a pretext for many grievous acts of extortion and cruelty, the inhabitants being subjected to military execution when they are unable to pay. 12. Sums are wrung from the tributary classes, as a composition for working at the highways and fortifications; but the money passes wholly into the pockets of the public officers. 13. A considerable revenue is derived from escheats, forfeitures, and confiscations; and a trifling amount from the produce of the mines, all mines being regarded as the Grand Seignior's property. Lastly, the Istira, or regulation by which the cultivators are compelled to furnish corn for the supply of the capital, at one-fourth or one-fifth of its market value, operates as a tax on the husbandman, though it bring little into the treasury of the prince. Many of these taxes are farmed; but certain districts, as Maina, and certain bodies of men, as the Jews of Salonica, are allowed to make a composition with the government, under which they assess and collect their taxes (wholly or in part) themselves. Were we to judge of these taxes by the amount paid in to the government, we should pronounce them extremely light. But the unequal and often arbitrary mode of apportioning and collecting them, are sufficient to render the lightest impost oppressive, and the numberless fraudulent demands for which they afford a cover on the part of the revenue officers greatly aggravate their pressure. From isolated facts stated by various writers, we are warranted to believe, that the gross revenue, or the money drawn from the people, is generally double, sometimes triple, of what is paid even to the provincial governments.*

We have no account, on which the smallest reliance can be placed, of the whole produce of the taxes of Greece; and the statements with regard to those of particular districts are too contradictory to be received without suspicion. Mr Hobhouse heard the revenues of Ali estimated at six millions of piastres, exclusive of casual levies (a very comprehensive head). Attica has been said to remit annually to Constantinople 700 or 750 purses (of 500 piastres each). According to Pouqueville, two millions of piastres are raised in the Morea, of which only one-half is paid in to the pacha. There is very little consistency in these statements. If we take the first as a basis, and assume that Ali's territories comprehended one-third of Greece at the period aluded to, the revenue of the whole peninsula might be estimated at eighteen millions of piastres, or L. 1,100,000 Sterling, exclusive of what are called casual levies. But, from the vigour of Ali's government, his revenue is probably greater in proportional amount, and collected at a less expence, than that of any other provincial ruler. A different mode of calculation would conduct us to a similar result. In the least advanced countries of Europe, such as Spain, Portugal, Austria, Russia Sweden (see article Europe, Supplement), the public revenue, compared with the population, is generally at a rate varying from 8s. to 1.5s. Sterling per annum for each inhabitant; and as Greece is certainly near the bottom of the scale in point of productive industry, her revenue can scarcely exceed the lowest of these rates. Calculating on this principle, and supposing the population to be two millions and a half, the net revenue would be L. 1,000,000 Sterling, and this sum doubled may represent the gross amount extracted from the pockets of the people.†

It is not true, as has sometimes been stated, that the taxes in Turkey have been immemorially the same. The tax on consumable commodities was first imposed during the reign of Abdul Achmet, late in the last century, and probably several others of those enumerated are of modern date. But the government certainly has not the same ready access to the pockets of its subjects as those governments which are supported by Parliaments or States General. The Turks, who are the slaves of custom, would think themselves degraded if they submitted to exactions unknown to their ancestors, and the Grand Signior must respect their prejudices. But no such motives operate to protect the raias, or tributary classes, from new impositions; and indirect schemes of taxation may reach the Turks also.

Municipal, and other local charges, are defrayed by the three classes of Turks, Greeks, and Jews, who are organized for this purpose into a sort of corporate bodies. In Salonica, the Turks are governed by a council of six Ayans, who are generally powerful Beys; the Greeks by their Proestii, or Primates, as every where else; and the Jews by a council of Rabbins, whose head, called Kakam, usually places himself under the protection of some Christian power. These persons ought to be a check on the public officers, and they are sometimes the channel through which remonstrances are made, and justice obtained; but more generally they are accomplices in the extortion and oppression practised on their respective communities. (Beaujour, Let. i.)

Of the various estimates given of the population Population.

* Thornton, Chap. vi.; Beaujour, Let. i.; Pouqueville, Chap. x.; Holland, p. 115; Hobhouse, p. 296; Hughes's Travels, Vol. II. p. 82. † The ancient Athenian revenues consisted of, 1. Contributions from the allies, which amounted to 600 talents in the time of Alcibiades. 2. Customs at the rate of 2 per cent. on imports and exports, which yielded about 36 talents. 3. Confiscations of the property of individuals. 4. Rents and produce of mines and marble quarries. 5. Capitation-tax on Metropolis, or strangers permanently resident in the city. Xenophon estimates the whole at 1000 talents, or L. 250,000. (Walpole's Memoirs relating to Turkey, p. 435.) of Greece, that of Beaujour has been most generally followed. This writer assigns a population of 700,000 souls to Macedonia, 300,000 to Thessaly, 400,000 to Epirus, 200,000 to Etolia, Phocis, and Boeotia, 300,000 to the Morea, and 20,000 to Attica, making a total of 1,920,000. In two particulars, this statement seems to require correction. The population of the Morea, since the desultory war of 1770, appears to have been gradually increasing. Scrofani, on whose statement Beaujour probably grounds his own, estimates the number of inhabitants in that district at 250,000; but Pouqueville, who wrote at a later period, and had good means of information, estimates them at 400,000 Greeks, 15,000 Turks, and 4,000 Jews. Again, Beaujour appears not to have included under the name of Epirus the district watered by the Drino, or even northern Albania; and the researches of Mr Hobbhouse and Dr Holland have shown, that the parts of this country he did include are more populous than he imagined. An addition ought therefore to be made to Beaujour's enumeration on these grounds. Dr Holland, on the other hand, appears to have greatly overrated the population of part of the country. Ali's territories, circumscribed by the boundaries which the Doctor has traced, embrace an area of about 26,000 square English miles. Pouqueville estimated the population at a million and a half; and Dr Holland thinks it must be nearly two millions, which is equal to seventy-seven persons to each square mile. But Spain, a country resembling Albania in its physical features, with a larger proportion of arable soil, and a greater internal tranquillity, has, on an average, only fifty-five or sixty inhabitants to a square mile; and it is certainly extremely improbable that Albania should have more, or even so many. Considering the circumstances of the country, fifty persons to a square mile may be thought a high estimate. This would give 1,300,000 inhabitants for the whole of Ali's dominions. If we add to this, 420,000 for the Morea, 100,000 for Attica, Eubcea, and the eastern part of Boeotia, 600,000 for Macedonia (exclusive of the part in Ali's possession), 200,000 for the pachalic of Scutari, and 80,000 for the Cyclades, we shall have 2,700,000 for the entire population of Greece. Perhaps the number of inhabitants was not greater in Strabo's time, if we may judge from the account he gives of the deserted state of the country (Lib. vii. p. 322); and the government of the Turks, with all its train of abuses, is probably not more destructive to Greece than that of the Romans was. This population is very unequally distributed. It is densest in the southern parts of Macedonia, in the eastern parts of Thessaly, and in the central and northern districts of Albania. Acarnania is almost a desert; Aetolia is thinly peopled; Attica, including the city, has not more than twenty-five or thirty inhabitants to the square mile. The plains of Argos, and the hilly region of Maina, are the most populous parts of the Morea. As might be expected from the insecure state of the country, single cottages or scattered hamlets are scarcely anywhere to be seen. The inhabitants are always collected into villages or cities; and those who are engaged in husbandry waste a great part of their time and labour in travelling to and from their lands. Hence in the agricultural districts, the proportion of the inhabitants who live in towns seems unusually large, considering the small resources that trade and manufactures afford. Of 500,000 persons inhabiting the pachalic of Salonica, and the Mousselimik of Larissa, one-third, according to Beaujour, live in the large towns. The most fertile districts are not uniformly the most populous. A barren soil in mountainous parts, which afford the means of defence, is often laboriously cultivated, while the rich plains below are neglected.*

It would be interesting to compare the modern with the ancient population of Greece in point of numbers. But inquiries with regard to the latter seem to lead into a labyrinth of difficulties, partly from the want of sufficient data, partly from the multitude of errors that have crept into the numerical expressions in the text of ancient authors, and partly from the civil distinctions of citizens, slaves, and strangers, which render the application of particular statements uncertain. It would baffle human sagacity to build any satisfactory conclusion on the mass of discordant details collected by Hume. We shall proceed more securely if we ground our reasonings on some single statement that is pretty well established. From a variety of circumstances which elucidate and fortify each other, Hume deduces that Athens contained at one period 284,000 inhabitants.† Let us suppose this to include, also, the rural population. Attica was com-

* Beaujour, Let. i.; Holland, p. 113, 251, 280; Hobbhouse, p. 176, 201, 487; Pouqueville, Chap. x.

† This conclusion is not without its difficulties. But if it involves any errors, they are errors of defect and not of excess. For any different construction of the text of Athenaeus would give a larger number. See Hume's Essay on the Populousness of Ancient Nations. We may adopt another mode of calculation. The Spartans were the only power who regularly employed their slaves (Helots) in their armies, and whose military force may therefore be taken as a criterion of their whole population. They sent, of Lacedemonians and Helots together, 50,000 to fight the Persians at Plataea. The men were collected and sent off within the space of a day or two, and as the Messenians were shortly after in a state of revolt, it may be presumed that none of that nation were in the army. (Herodotus, Lib. ix.) If we suppose that this army contained one half of the males of a military age (and probably no country ever sent a larger proportion beyond its own confines), the whole population of Laconia would be 400,000; and that of Peloponnesus, on the same ratio, would be 2,000,000. Supposing the parts beyond the isthmus to be peopled only to three-fifths of the density of Peloponnesus, the whole population of Greece would be 8,300,000, an amount not materially different from the other. After all, it must be confessed that so general a conclusion, built paratively a barren district; and, exclusive of Eleusis, Megara, and Salamis, did not occupy more than one-sixtieth part of the countries to which our statements apply in this article. Its commerce and colonies, however, more than compensated for the inferiority of its soil. Now, if we suppose the other and more fertile, but less improved parts of Greece, to have been peopled only to one-fourth of the density of Attica, this would give a population of eight millions and a half for the whole country. Without relying much on this calculation, we may observe, that, if one amidst a multitude of small states had such a mass of population, her neighbours and rivals must have possessed something like a proportionate strength to preserve their independence. And, considering the strong feeling of emulation which pervaded these small republics, we may be certain that, before the arts of industry could be so far advanced in Attica as to enable such a mass of people to subsist on so small a surface, the neighbouring states must have been considerably improved.

We have stated that a small proportion of the inhabitants of Greece live scattered through the country. Were this circumstance not attended to, the number of large towns mentioned by travellers would lead us to conclude that the country is more populous than it really is. We subjoin the names of some of the most considerable towns, with the estimated population:

ALBANIA. <table> <tr><th>Janina</th><td>-</td><td>-</td><td>35,000</td><td>Hobhouse.</td></tr> <tr><th>Argyro Castro</th><td>-</td><td>-</td><td>20,000</td><td>do.</td></tr> <tr><th>Berat</th><td>-</td><td>-</td><td>15,000</td><td>Holland.</td></tr> <tr><th>Metzovo</th><td>-</td><td>-</td><td>8,000</td><td>do.</td></tr> <tr><th>Paramithia</th><td>-</td><td>-</td><td>9,000</td><td>do.</td></tr> <tr><th>Avlona*</th><td>-</td><td>-</td><td>5,000</td><td>do.</td></tr> <tr><th>Arta</th><td>-</td><td>-</td><td>5,500</td><td>Hobhouse.</td></tr> <tr><th>Scutari</th><td>-</td><td>-</td><td>12,000</td><td>do.</td></tr> <tr><th>Dulcigno</th><td>-</td><td>-</td><td>6,000</td><td>do.</td></tr> </table>

MACEDONIA. <table> <tr><th>Salonica</th><td>-</td><td>-</td><td>70,000</td><td>Holland.</td></tr> <tr><th>Seres</th><td>-</td><td>-</td><td>60,000</td><td>Beaujour.</td></tr> <tr><th>Jenidge</th><td>-</td><td>-</td><td>30,000</td><td>do.</td></tr> <tr><th>-</th><td>-</td><td>-</td><td>6,000</td><td>do.</td></tr> </table>

THESSALY. <table> <tr><th>Larissa</th><td>-</td><td>-</td><td>20,000</td><td>do.</td></tr> <tr><th>Vodina</th><td>-</td><td>-</td><td>12,000</td><td>do.</td></tr> <tr><th>Kara Veria</th><td>-</td><td>-</td><td>8,000</td><td>do.</td></tr> <tr><th>Tournavos</th><td>-</td><td>-</td><td>6,000</td><td>do.</td></tr> <tr><th>Pharsalus</th><td>-</td><td>-</td><td>5,000</td><td>do.</td></tr> <tr><th>Zeitoun</th><td>-</td><td>-</td><td>4,000</td><td>do.</td></tr> <tr><th>Volo</th><td>-</td><td>-</td><td>3,000</td><td>do.</td></tr> <tr><th>Trikula</th><td>-</td><td>-</td><td>11,000</td><td>Holland.</td></tr> </table>

Makrinetza, - 6,000 Holland. Ampelachia, - 4,000 do. Ellasson, - 6,000 do.

ATTICA AND BÉOTIA. <table> <tr><th>Athens</th><td>-</td><td>-</td><td>15,000</td><td>Clarke.</td></tr> <tr><th>Negroponte*</th><td>-</td><td>-</td><td>12,000</td><td>Hobhouse.</td></tr> <tr><th>Livadia*</th><td>-</td><td>-</td><td>4,000</td><td>do.</td></tr> <tr><th>Megara*</th><td>-</td><td>-</td><td>10,000</td><td>Holland.</td></tr> <tr><th>Thebes*</th><td>-</td><td>-</td><td>3,000</td><td>Hobhouse.</td></tr> <tr><th>-</th><td>-</td><td>-</td><td>2,500</td><td>do.</td></tr> </table>

ÆTOLIA. <table> <tr><th>Messalonge</th><td>-</td><td>-</td><td>5,000</td><td>do.</td></tr> <tr><th>Natolico*</th><td>-</td><td>-</td><td>3,000</td><td>do.</td></tr> </table>

MOREA. <table> <tr><th>Corinth*</th><td>-</td><td>-</td><td>2,500</td><td>Holland.</td></tr> <tr><th>Patrass</th><td>-</td><td>-</td><td>10,000</td><td>do.</td></tr> <tr><th>Vostitza</th><td>-</td><td>-</td><td>3,500</td><td>Hobhouse.</td></tr> <tr><th>Argos</th><td>-</td><td>-</td><td>8,000</td><td>Holland.</td></tr> <tr><th>Tripolita</th><td>-</td><td>-</td><td>15,000</td><td>do.</td></tr> <tr><th>Calamatte</th><td>-</td><td>-</td><td>5,000</td><td>Pouqueville</td></tr> <tr><th>Mistra</th><td>-</td><td>-</td><td>16,000</td><td>do.</td></tr> <tr><th>Hydra (Island)</th><td>-</td><td>-</td><td>25,000</td><td>Holland.</td></tr> </table>

The towns of Greece contrast strikingly with those of western Europe in their general appearance. Founded rather as places of security, than with a view to commercial advantage, their sites are generally elevated and picturesque. Instead of the long and uniform lines of buildings seen in our cities, the houses often stand detached, and appear irregularly scattered over the ground. The tall, airy minarets, also, which break the outline in an agreeable and fanciful manner, and the groups of cypresses surrounding the mosques, which are seen blended with the buildings, give them a character of repose and softness, combined with richness, and even magnificence, which has a fine effect in the landscape. On a near inspection, however, their beauty vanishes. The mean buildings, the streets narrow and dark, seldom paved, and covered with offal and filth of every kind, grievously offend both the senses of sight and smell. The houses of the poorer classes are miserable hovels, built of mud and straw; those of the peasants in the country are often formed, like the huts of savages, of wooden poles rudely put together in the shape of a tent, and covered with turf. The houses of the better classes in towns are of wood, sometimes with a foundation of stone. They are pretty generally of two stories; the upper story sometimes projecting beyond the lower, in the manner of the old wooden buildings in Edinburgh, and the roof again extending far beyond the face of the upper wall, apparently for the purpose of giving shade and shelter to the streets below. The style

on so narrow a basis, is scarcely better than a confession of total ignorance. It may be observed, that the greatest army which England ever sent beyond her own frontier, previous to the present times, was that with which Edward II. invaded Scotland, which consisted of 100,000 men. * The population of the towns marked thus is computed from the number of houses, reckoning five persons to a house. of building is extremely uniform. The larger houses are built round a square area; the under story, used as stables and warehouses, has seldom any windows on the side towards the street, or it is shut in on that side by a wall, so as to give the house the appearance of a jail. The upper story presents, in front, an open gallery, with small windows, latticed with cross bars of wood, and serves chiefly to communicate with the apartments behind. The furniture consists of a very few articles, of a rich, or rather gaudy description; a divan or raised seat, from 10 to 15 inches high, stuffed and covered with silk, and cushioned behind for the back, extends round three sides of the room. A handsome carpet covers the rest of the floor. These, with a table of very plain construction, and two or three large mirrors in the corners, are generally all that a well-furnished Turkish room contains. The walls are sometimes wainscotted, and adorned with landscapes, or purely ornamental paintings. The roofs exhibit gilding and carved work. Many of the houses of the rich have gardens attached to them, inclosing fountains. The dwellings of the wealthy Greeks are in no respect different from those of the Turks. There is a total absence, in the Greek towns, of that noise, bustle, and activity which give such an animated character to our cities. There are no wheel-carriages of any kind seen, but loaded camels or horses are passing to and fro, through the dust or mud. Hawks and storks are flying about the trees, mosques, and houses; and great numbers of gaunt and half-wild dogs, which have no owners, are prowling about, picking up the offal thrown into the streets. One of the most interesting objects in a Greek town is always the Bazar or market. This consists of one, two, or more streets, filled entirely with shops or wooden booths. The dealers in the same class of articles are all ranged together. One street is occupied by those who deal in jewellery; another by those who deal in pelisses and shawls; a third by the retailers of common cotton goods; a fourth by the dealers in groceries, tobacco, &c.; a fifth by those who sell pipes, amber, mouth pieces, &c., and so on. These bazars are often shaded by wooden trellises interlaced with vines, or by branches of trees laid across from the roofs of the opposite shops or booths.*

The population of Greece is composed chiefly of three different races, not more distinct in their origin than in their manners and character. These are the Turks, the Greeks, and the Albanians, with whom are intermixed a smaller number of Jews, Armenians, and Wallachians. It is extremely difficult to estimate, with any accuracy, in what proportions these different races are combined. The scanty information given by travellers on this subject is often rendered ambiguous by the indiscriminate application of the name of Greeks to persons attached to the Greek church, whether they are of that nation or Albanians. Except in some towns, and very limited districts, the Turks nowhere appear to constitute the majority of the population. They are most numerous in Thessaly, Macedonia, and Negroponte, are thinly diffused through the rest of Greece and Albania, and are scarcely seen at all in the islands. In the districts of Salonica and Larissa, where they most abound, they scarcely exceed, according to Beaufour, one-third of the inhabitants (180,000 out of 500,000); in Athens, according to Dr Holland, they amount to one-fifth; in the Morea, they form one-twenty-eighth part by Pouqueville's enumeration; in Livadia, there are few of them; in Acarnania and Aetolia, still fewer. In Janina, they are less numerous than the Greeks; and throughout Greece generally, except in Thessaly and Macedonia, there are very few Turks among the rural population. Without pretending to accuracy, on a point where accuracy is unattainable, we may, perhaps, estimate the Turks on these grounds at one-third of the inhabitants in Thessaly and Macedonia, and at one-tenth in the other parts of Greece and Albania on an average. The whole number of Turks computed on this principle would be 500,000, which is between one-fifth and one-sixth of the entire population.†

It is more difficult to form any satisfactory conclusions as to the respective numbers of the Greeks and Albanians. Colonies or parties of the latter people have, from time to time, settled in various districts of Greece. Nearly all of these belong to the Greek church. Some of them have preserved their native manners, dress, and language; others are gradually adopting the language of the Greeks; and as some of their settlements were formed more than four hundred years ago, and probably much earlier, it may be presumed, that numbers of the Albanian settlers have lost their distinctive character, and become blended with the mass of the Greek population. The whole of the peasantry in Attica, and the eastern part of Boeotia, and one-fifth of the inhabitants of Athens itself, are Albanians. They are found also preserving their peculiar character, and generally employed as shepherds, in some districts of Argolis, Elis, Arcadia, and Laconia. Dr Clarke met with them repeatedly among the rural population of Thessaly and Macedonia, to the extreme limits of the latter country, at Mount Pangaeus. And if we might credit an extraordinary statement of his (Vol. VII. p. 119), we should conclude that the whole peasantry of Greece were Albanians. But this is irreconcilable with the accounts given by other travellers. Dr Holland, who was well apprized of the distinction between the Albanians and the Greeks, describes the peasantry of Thessaly as a very different race from the Albanians, and estimates the Greeks in this district at two-thirds of the population. In the countries south of Mount Oeta, Doris, Phocis, and part of Boeotia, he thinks they are proportionably more numerous. In the Morea, Pouqueville met with Albanians frequently as shepherds; but the

* Holland's Travels; Hobhouse, Williams, passim. † Beaufour, Let. i. iv.; Holland, p. 343, 395, 412; Pouqueville, p. 119; Hobhouse, p. 206; Leake's Researches, p. 375. Greeks there certainly outnumber the other classes in greater proportion than any where else, except in the islands. They are numerous in Ætolia, and form almost the entire population of Acarnania. In the capital of Albania they are the largest and most respectable class of inhabitants; and in the towns and villages of southern Albania generally they constitute the basis of the population. Every where the Greeks form a conspicuous part of the population of towns. In some of the large towns of Thessaly and Macedonia the Turks predominate in numbers; but in all the towns south of Mount Eta, with a very few exceptions, the Greeks form the great majority of the inhabitants. Except, therefore, in Attica, Boeotia, and some parts of the Morea, where the Albanians are regularly colonized, we have reason to believe, that when they are met with in other parts of Greece, it is only in small straggling parties, found there, perhaps, during the annual migratory expeditions of the shepherds with their flocks, or left behind them. After so many revolutions, what is called the Greek population of Greece cannot be unmixed. Many of the inhabitants of the mountains may be sprung from Albanians, or from other tribes distinguished in features and character from the inhabitants of the plains. And, in fact, Major Leake observes, that the Greeks of the mountain districts closely resemble the Albanians in manners and character. But, in a general view of the country, all those should be considered as Greeks who speak the language, and follow the national mode of worship, if they are not separated by some strongly marked distinction which prevents them from feeling an identity of interest with the great body of the Greeks in national questions. Considering the subject in this light, we think it may be assumed, that the Albanians are not more numerous in the other parts of Greece than the Greeks are in Albania; and making a rough estimate for the whole country, whether the smaller body is held to be one-fourth or one-sixth of the larger, in either case, the result will be nearly, that the Greeks are to the Albanians as three to two. On whatever principle we calculate, the Greeks can scarcely be made to exceed the entire mass of the other inhabitants, Turks, Albanians, Wallachians, Bulgarians, and Jews,* or one-half of a population of 2,700,000 souls. We have no data to authorize even a conjecture as to the number of Greeks in the parts beyond Mount Haemus; but we think it is clear, from what has been stated, that the late Professor Carlyle proceeded upon a very exaggerated idea of their numbers, when he estimated the Greeks in the whole of European Turkey at 3,500,000.

But in Greece, as in other rude and ignorant countries, the most permanent ties, and the strongest antipathies, are grounded on religious distinctions. And the strength of the different religious parties is, therefore, a cue to the distribution of political interests. The Turks, who are all Mahometans, have already been estimated at 500,000. The Bulgarians, Wallachians, and Albanian colonists are Christians of the same denomination with the Greeks; and since neither the Jews, nor the Latin Christians, dispersed through the ports on the western coast, and in some of the Cyclades, are of any importance in point of numbers, we have only to estimate the proportion of Mahometans and Christians in Albania, to ascertain the total amount of each party in Greece. In southern Albania the native tribes are chiefly Christians; in the north chiefly Mahometans. Major Leake thinks, that the native inhabitants of Albania altogether (exclusive of Greeks) are pretty nearly equally divided between the two religions. On this ground, an addition must be made of 350,000, or 400,000, to the Turkish Mahometans, which will raise the whole number of Mahometans to 900,000. The different nations belonging to the Greek church, who constitute the remainder of the population, must, therefore, amount to nearly 1,800,000, or twice the number of Mahometans. It should be observed, however, that the Albanians were all originally Christians; that the party now professing Mahometanism embraced it only at a recent period, and are so lax in their faith, and so exempt from bigotry, as to be considered no better than infidels by the Turks. Their national temper predominates over their religion; and they hate the Turks much more than their brethren who profess Christianity. The two serve together in the army, and intermarry; and though the various tribes are often at feud with one another, religious differences are seldom the ground of their quarrels. If circumstances should, therefore, bring the Turks into danger, the tie of religion will be but a feeble bond between them and the Albanian Mahometans.†

The Vlaki, or Wallachians, are next in numbers to the Greeks, Albanians, and Turks. Like the Albanians, they first appear in the history of Greece about the eleventh century. They are a tribe of mountaineers, chiefly employed as shepherds, living permanently on the great ridges of Pindus, and Olympus, and their branches; but, like the Albanians, descending into the plains of Thessaly, Macedonia, and Southern Greece, during the winter, with their flocks. They have a language of their own, which, from the great proportion of Latin words it contains, has led to a belief, that they are the descendants of the Roman colonies, planted in Moesia and Dacia by the Emperor Trajan and his successors. The rugged country they inhabit has kept them unmixed with other tribes, and enabled them to maintain a considerable degree of independence. They are hardy, but less ferocious than the Albanians, sober, industrious, cleanly, and in high repute as shepherds throughout Greece, both for their fidelity and skill. Some of the higher classes go abroad as merchants, and the lower classes furnish some of the best artisans in Greece and Turkey at large; but wherever their occupations carry them, a strong national spirit recalls them ultimately to their native mountains.

* Leake's Researches, p. 251, 254; Holland, p. 114, 253, 267; Hobhouse, p. 293, 490; Beaujour, Let. i.; Clarke, Vol. VII. p. 119, 408; Ib. Vol. VIII. p. 40; Pouqueville, Chap. v.—viii. † Leake's Researches, p. 250; Hobhouse, Let. viii. ix. x. xii. xiii.; Holland, Chap. xxii.—xxiv. Within their own country they have considerable manufactures of coarse woollens. They are of the Greek church, and the men generally speak Romaic, or modern Greek, besides their own language, but the women know only the latter.*

The mountainous districts in the north of Macedonia are inhabited by Bulgarians, who occupy the whole region, from these parts to the Danube, and the neighbourhood of Constantinople. They are a people of Slavonic origin, profess the Christian religion, and have a language distinct from that of the other people settled in Greece. They live chiefly by their flocks, are rude and ignorant, but brave. They possess only a small portion of the country at present; but for a considerable period between the eighth and eleventh centuries, they were masters of nearly the whole of Greece, and have left traces of their establishment there in the language, and in the names of places.†

Small bodies of Jews are found in most of the considerable trading towns of Greece, engaged as usual in the lower branches of commerce. There are none in Athens, and this fact is accounted for, as in some other places, by the supposition, that the native Athenians outdo them in their favourite profession of usury. There is a considerable number in Janina; but they are nowhere so numerous as in Salonica, where they have been settled for some centuries. Their number in this city is estimated at 12,000; the peculiar privileges they enjoy, however, have not raised their character; for they are proverbially distinguished throughout Greece for chicanery, dishonesty, and immorality. Considered as a branch of the general population of the country, they are too inconsiderable to be of the least importance. Armenians are also found in some of the towns, but in a still smaller proportion than the Jews.‡

Bands of Tchinganies, or Gipsies, distinguished by the habits and occupations peculiar to them in other countries, wander over Greece. They are subjected, however, to the capitation-tax. Some of them make a profession of Mahometanism; but they are held in great contempt by the Turks. Some of the more wealthy Turks keep negro slaves, who are imported from Barbary and Egypt.§

The Greek church appears at the present day covered with the accumulated abuses of ten or twelve centuries. It was founded in an age of theological casuistry and dogmatism; it has never felt the benign influence of general knowledge, or the salutary control of rival sects; but the bigotry or crooked policy of Christian princes, the barbarism of Mahometan conquerors, the pious frauds of monks or fanatical priests, the credulity and superstition of an ignorant populace operating uncontrolled, have been continually loading it with new errors, new absurdities, and new corruptions. Though its priests are more numerous than in any other church, its rites and forms infinitely complicated, and its fasts absorb about two-thirds of the year, it is scarcely possible to trace one genuine idea of Christianity in the minds either of the clergy or laity, or one trait of its influence in their conduct. The subtlety of understanding by which the Greeks are distinguished, and still more their proneness to superstition, have made them hold fast by their national faith amidst all the calamities they have suffered. And their barbarism has never yet been carried so far as to reduce the cumbrous machinery of their religion to any degree of simplicity.

The Greek church agrees so closely with the Roman man in its doctrines, and even in its forms, that it is rather difficult to discriminate them by any intelligible distinctions. The Greek church holds the doctrine of the Trinity, with some unimportant peculiarities. In the number of its sacraments, the invocation of saints, the belief of the real presence, the practice of auricular confession, and in admitting masses and services for the dead, it agrees perfectly with that of Rome. The sacrament of the Lord's Supper is administered to infants newly born, and, in the place of confirmation, they substitute the chrism or sacred unction, being a part or appendage of the baptismal ceremony. The sacrament of the Holy Oil, or Euchelaton, is not confined, like the extreme unction of the Roman church, to the sick and dying, but is given to devout persons upon the slightest malady, or even in perfect health. On Holy Thursday, the Greek archbishop, like the Pope, washes the feet of twelve priests or monks. It is rather doubtful, whether the Greek church admits a purgatory, at least in the same sense as the Roman Catholics; and they themselves, at the present day, are too ignorant to be able to tell. The most palpable distinction between the two churches, in the eyes of the common people, is, that the Greeks abhor the images used by the Catholics, and employ only paintings in their churches. They have four liturgies, and the service, which consists chiefly of prayers, hymns, recitative chaunts, and frequent crossings, without any sermon, often occupies five or six hours. The want of seats in their churches, during the long service, is supplied by staves or crutches, which are used for leaning on, and form part of the church furniture. Their music is without instrumental accompaniments, but is allowed to have considerable beauty. The floor of the church is generally of earth, the altar of stone, the sanctuary separated from the nave by deal boards, and an inclosure of pales set off at the other end for the women. The church is generally in the form of a Greek cross. The choir is always placed towards the east, and the people turn their faces in that direction when they pray. The books of offices include biographies of saints, and are numerous and bulky. The clergy are distinguished by a great variety of striking vestments, to which many mystical virtues are ascribed. The Panagia, or Holy Virgin,

* Leake's Researches, Chap. iii.; Holland, p. 226, &c. † Leake, p. 375,—381; Pouqueville, Chap. xxxviii. ‡ Beaujour, Let. xxv.; Holland, p. 320; Chandler, Chap. xxv. § Holland, p. 266, 509; Pouqueville, p. 323. has succeeded to the worship formerly paid to Minerva. There is scarcely a cottage in which her picture, with a lamp burning before it, is not seen in a wooden case, or a niche of the wall. The secular Greeks have four Lents, which are observed with various degrees of strictness, and the caloyers, or monks, have two more. The first of the secular fasts lasts two months, the second forty days, the third, which depends on moveable feasts, varies in its length, the fourth endures from the 1st of August to the festival of the Assumption. Every Wednesday is a fast, because it was on that day Judas received the money for betraying Christ; and every Friday in remembrance of the crucifixion. A vast number of saints' days are also observed, so that of the whole year there are only about a hundred and thirty days free of fasts or festivals. During these fasts the women are employed in gathering snails, and searching for herbs of different kinds. The change of food is enforced, without exception, on infants, old people, and the sick. Some of the festivals are celebrated in the open air during several days, with the firing of guns, songs, dancing, banqueting, and the most extravagant revelry. As confession generally takes place at these occasions, as a preparation, they are a harvest to the papades, who make a charge for absolution proportioned to the magnitude of the sin, and the supposed wealth of the sinner.

The Greek clergy are of two classes, the caloyers, or monks, and the papades, or priests. Monasteries, which are very numerous throughout Greece, are generally built in rocky and inaccessible situations for the sake of defence. They are supported partly by farms cultivated by lay brothers, partly by donations and perquisites received from the pious, partly by the exercise of mechanical trades, and the fabrication and sale of crosses, pictures of saints, psalters, &c. Their cells and prisons are universally dirty, as their minds are overrun with ignorance and superstition. In the vast establishment of Mount Athos, however, where five or six thousand monks are assembled, and in the monastery of the Apocalypse, in Patmos, there are seminaries where some slight theological studies are pursued. The patriarch of Constantinople, and all the superior Greek clergy, are generally taken from these places. Novices are admitted into monasteries so early as at ten or twelve years of age. The noviciate lasts two years, in the most regular monasteries; after which the novice changes his habit, and becomes one of the professed. The monks who distinguish themselves by superior sanctity may be advanced to a still higher class, called Megaleschemoi, who are thought worthy of being compared to angels. Their general diet is fish, pulse, roots, olives, and wine; during their fasts, which occupy nearly the whole year, pulse, roots, and water only. But, notwithstanding this mortified style of living, they are the sleekest and best fed people among the Greeks. Convents for women are rare. There are some anchorites who live three or four together, in houses depending on convents: and a few ascetics, who live solitarily in caves in the mountains. Convents of all kinds are under the superintendence of the bishop of the diocese. The expectations, long indulged, of finding some of the lost classics in the libraries of these establishments, have been at last entirely dissipated. Professor Carlyle examined the libraries of the whole twenty-two monasteries on Mount Athos, containing altogether 13,000 manuscripts, a greater number, certainly, than exists in all the other monasteries in Greece, and found not a single unedited fragment of any classical author. (Walpole, p. 196, 220.)

The officiating clergy consist of two classes, the Secular Patriarch, Archbishops, and Bishops, and Papades, or parish priests. All those of the first class are taken from the monasteries, and are not allowed to marry. The papades are allowed to marry once only previous to their consecration, but not afterwards. Hence, before entering into orders, they are generally careful to chuse healthy partners, who are likely to live many years. The superior clergy have some little learning, are generally decent in their characters, and attentive to the duties of their stations, which are numerous and difficult; as, besides having to control the licentious and fanatical priests, they are umpires in all disputes among those of their communion, and exercise an extensive civil authority under the Turks. They enjoy the title of διεστορης, or Lord, and are treated with extraordinary reverence. They are, in fact, the princes of the Greeks at the present day; and hence the first families send their children to the monasteries of Athos or Patmos, on purpose to qualify them for these dignities. The Turks having reserved to themselves the investiture of the prelates, openly put the offices to sale, and hence the most indecent broils arise among the candidates. The patriarch of Constantinople, who rules the whole Greek church in European Turkey, and nominates all its inferior dignitaries, is said to pay sixty thousand crowns for his office. His income does not exceed L.3000 per annum, and that of bishops, in general, L.300. Dr Holland, however, was informed that the archbishop of Larissa had a revenue of L.9000, but he doubts whether the amount was not exaggerated. The patriarch draws his revenue from contributions upon the archbishops and bishops, who are supported by a tax on each house within the dioceses inhabited by Greeks.

The inferior clergy are appointed Papades, or parish priests, by a species of parochial election, and before arriving at this office, they pass successively through the subordinate stations of reader, chanter, subdeacon, and deacon. No farther promotion, however, awaits them. Their means of living depend as much on their knavery as on their diligence in pastoral duty. They are supported chiefly by perquisites derived from absolutions, benedictions, exorcisms, sanctifying water, administering sacraments, selling amulets, sprinkling the streets and tombs, blessing the sea, granting divorces,—for most of which a certain price is fixed. The profits of excommunications, which are large in proportion to the terror they inspire among all classes, belong to the superior clergy, who alone have the power to issue them. By a shocking abuse of religious functions, the priests, when well paid, grant divorces at the instance of one party on the slightest pretence, and break the most sacred ties for a paltry bribe. Nearly all authors, who have alluded to the Greek priests, agree in describing them as the most depraved part of the population. They are coarse in their manners, and dirty in their persons, ignorant, greedy, and corrupt, and instead of cherishing virtuous habits in the people, they enervate and debase them, by practising on their credulity, and filling their minds with wretched superstitions, and perverted ideas of duty. It is not uncommon for them to lay aside the sacerdotal character, and become menial servants or public dancers, or to join bands of pirates or robbers. They are besides excessively numerous, and the people, who are extremely credulous and superstitious, are entirely under their influence. Athens, with 7000 or 8000 Christian inhabitants, has 200 churches, of which about 50 are used every Sunday, and the rest occasionally. (Wheler, p. 350.) In Albania the priests are much less numerous, and much less respected. In a word, the swarm of worthless priests is the moral pest of the country, and contributes more, perhaps, to keep the people in a state of ignorance and degradation than all the other evils in their condition.*

Antiquities. The antiquities of Greece open so wide a field, that, in an article of this kind, we can do nothing more than allude to the various classes of objects comprized under the title. Among these we may, without much impropriety, rank many of the cities themselves, which not only exist on the very spots they anciently occupied, and bear the same names, but deriving their most striking characters from natural objects, which remain unchanged, they still present to the eye, at a distance, the same general aspect and outlines. With regard to the interior of the cities, also, though the august temples of the gods have disappeared, and filth and meanness meet the eye everywhere, little doubt will remain with those who have read what the ancients have left us on the subject of their private houses, and what modern travellers have told us respecting the disinterred buildings of Pompeii, that the houses at the present day with their square enclosed courts, their projecting roofs, and dead walls, and all that is most peculiar in their plan and interior arrangements, are copies, though miserable copies, of those of the ancient Greeks; and it is probable that some of the modern dark and narrow streets of Athens come much nearer in appearance to what they were in the age of Pericles than the admirers of antiquity are willing to allow. Among the cities which occupy their ancient sites, and bear their ancient names with little alteration, may be mentioned, Athens, Thebes, Livadia, Larissa, Pharsalia, Salonica, Corinth, Argos, Nauplia, Patra; and a great number of others of less note, might be added. The ancient buildings of which remains now exist belong to three different eras: 1. The very ancient structures to which the name of Cyclopian has been given, consisting of vast masses of unhewn stone, put together without cement. They are not numerous. The ruins of the citadels of Ty-

rins and Mycenæ, which are of this description, have remained in their present state for 3000 years, and present the most perfect specimen in existence of the military architecture of the heroic ages.† 2. The works of the classical ages, consisting of temples, baths, porticos, theatres, columns, stadia, fountains, which are extremely numerous, and executed in a great variety of styles, exemplifying the infancy, progress, perfection, and decline of the arts. Of the two or three hundred temples enumerated by Pausanias, many of which were models of the most exquisite beauty and symmetry, that of Theseus at Athens is the only one which is tolerably entire. Others are found in various stages of dilapidation; and the far greater part have vanished from their sites, and only left traces of their existence in their innumerable fragments of inscribed and sculptured marbles scattered over the fields, or stuck into the walls of forts, churches, and clay-built cottages. 3. A number of square towers, of a rude construction, built on the tops of hills for military purposes, are the only memorials left by the Latin princes who ruled Greece for two or three centuries before the Mahometan conquest. 4. Next in importance to the remains of ancient edifices we may rank the statues, bass-reliefs, and inscribed marbles; a great number of which, generally somewhat mutilated, have been brought from Greece to enrich the museums of western Europe; and a much greater number, no doubt, lie buried under the soil. 5. Vessels of Terra Cotta, or ancient pottery, consisting of vases, amphorae, lamps, &c. of exquisite workmanship, adorned with coloured designs illustrative of the arts, habits, and mythology of the ancients, and often in high preservation. The quantity of these found among the ruins of ancient cities is incredibly great. 6. Coins of gold, silver, and copper, which are great in number and variety, every considerable town having its separate coinage. 7. Among the most interesting remains are the Tumuli, erected to commemorate great victories. These simple but expressive monuments, formed of conical mounds of earth, but long since divested of their sculptured ornaments, still mark the fields of Marathon, Leuctra, Plataea, Cheronea, Thermopylæ, Pharsalia, and Pydna. 8. We ought also to class among the antiquities of Greece a vast number of fountains, caves, rocks, and other natural objects, which owe their interest, not to any beauty or importance they possess in themselves, but to the legends associated with them in the history and mythology of the ancient Greeks. With regard to the antiquities of Greece, in general, it may be observed that the finest, the best preserved, and the most numerous specimens of ancient art are found at Athens. Salonica, it is said, ranks next to it in this respect; but its monuments are deficient in the interest derived from classical associations. In general the southern and eastern parts of Greece, and the islands, abound most in an-

* Tournefort, Let. iii.; Constantinople, Ancient and Modern, by James Dallaway, Sect. xxiv.; Pouqueville, Chap. xii.; Hobhouse, Let. xxxiii.

† In Sir William Gell's Itinerary of Argolis, a good account of these remarkable ruins is given, illustrated by excellent drawings. tiquities. Albania and Aetolia contain but few, and these not of much interest.*

There are five languages spoken in Greece at the present day; 1. The Turkish, which is in use among a few of the Turks, but the great majority speak Romaic. 2. The Bulgarian, a dialect of Slavonic, spoken by the tribes of Bulgarians who inhabit the northern parts of Macedonia. 3. The Wallachian, in use among the Vlaki, who occupy the branches of Pindus and Olympus, a language of uncertain root, but containing a large mixture of Latin and some Italian. 4. The Albanian or Shkipetaric, spoken by the natives of Albania, and by some of the colonies of this people in the south of Greece. It is an unwritten tongue, and abounds in nasal sounds. Its basis is supposed to be the ancient Illyrian, with which is intermixed a large proportion of Latin, and smaller proportions of Romaic, Slavonic, Italian, and Turkish. 5. The Romaic (Ρωμαϊκή) or modern Greek, spoken by all the Greeks, by most of the Turks, and by a part of the Albanians. This is the name given to the language by the Greeks, who call themselves Ρωμαίοι, or Romans, a denomination derived from the establishment of the Roman empire for so many ages at Constantinople, which they consider as the capital of Greece. The ancient Greek they denominate (Ελληνική) Hellenic, and their ancestors Ελληνες. The Romaic bears a much closer resemblance to the Hellenic than the Italian to the Latin; it adopts a great proportion of the Hellenic words unaltered, follows its inflexions and syntax to a considerable extent, and has, in truth, so strong an affinity to it, that Villoison, with some reason, considers it merely as a dialect of that language. The peculiarities which distinguish the Romaic from the ancient Greek cannot be fully explained without many details; we shall, therefore, only notice some of the most prominent. These are, 1. The disuse of the aspirates in speaking, though they are retained in writing. 2. The adoption of the first numeral ενα, μια, ενα, for an indefinite article, as in the French. 3. In substantives it discards the dual number, and the dative case, makes some alterations in the oblique cases, marks cases sometimes by prepositions, and often changes the Hellenic masculine and feminine into neuter. 4. The degrees of comparison are formed as of old, by adding τερσες and τερσος, but sometimes by τερσος, plus, as in the French. 5. Diminutives are much used as in the Italian. 6. Considerable changes and substitutions have been made in the tenses of the verbs, the infinitive and the middle voice have been suppressed, and two auxiliary verbs introduced, θέλω, I will, and εχω, I have. 7. The Hellenic pronouns are retained, but with many modifications. 8. Some new words have been adopted from the Turkish, Latin, and Italian; others have been formed from Hellenic roots; and many old Hellenic words have changed their meaning; attributes being put for objects, and vice versa. The pronunciation of the Romaic deviates widely from that of the ancient Greek as taught in our schools. The B is sounded like our V, while the place of B is supplied by μπ. The Δ is sounded like th in that, and δ like our th in think. The vowels η, ι, υ, and the diphthongs ευ, ου, ηυ, are all pronounced like the Italian i. Great liberties are also taken with the orthography of the Romaic. Vowels are substituted for one another, and letters or syllables suppressed or added, according to the fancy of the writer, at the beginning or end of words. In addition to all this, there is a perplexing diversity in the style and construction. Those who write in Romaic, having no good models before them, readily fall into provincial vulgarisms; and as they often derive their ideas of composition from works in Hellenic, Italian, or French, they adopt, to a less or greater extent, the idioms of these languages. It is said, however, that the dialects of the spoken Romaic in Greece have not so marked a difference as those of the distant provinces of France or England. The purest dialects, or those which approach nearest to the Hellenic, are found in some of the least frequented islands of the Archipelago, in the mountainous parts of Greece, at Janina, and among the well-educated Greeks of Constantinople. The Romaic of Athens is full of corruptions, derived from the Italian and French; and the Athenians of modern times, though still distinguished for quickness and subtlety of understanding, are reproached by their countrymen with an indifference or want of capacity for literary pursuits. But in spite of the benumbing influence of Turkish despotism, a new impulse has been given to the minds of the Greeks; the Romaic is now in a state of progressive improvement, and both writers and readers are increasing. A great number of books, chiefly translations, have been printed in Romaic within the last fifty years; and at present there is not a Greek community, in a moderate state of opulence, which does not support a school for instructing their children in the ancient Greek, and often in other branches of polite education.†

There is a national likeness observable in all the Physiognomy—Greeks, though, on the whole, the islanders are my, &c. darker and of a stronger make than those on the mainland. They have a larger facial angle than the other nations in the south of Europe, to whom they are manifestly superior both in countenance and form. Their faces are just such as served for mo-

* On the subject of the Antiquities of Greece, the reader may consult the following works: Le Ruines des plus beaux Monumens de la Grece, par M. Le Roy, fol. 1758. The Antiquities of Athens, by Stuart and Revett, 4 vols. fol. 1762,—1816. The Ionian Antiquities, by Chandler, Revett, and Pars, 2 vols. fol. 1769,—1797. The Unedited Antiquities of Attica, by the Society of Dilettanti, fol. 1817. Chandler and Clarke's Travels, already referred to; and Mr Edward Dodwell's Classical and Topographical Tour in Greece, 2 vols. 4to. 1819.

† Leake's Researches, Chap. i. The works published in Romaic have been chiefly printed at Vienna and Venice; a few at Moscow, Buda, Paris, and other towns. See a list of these works in Hobbhouse's Travels, Chap. xxxiii. and Leake's Researches, p. 77. dels to the ancient sculptors, and their young men, in particular, are of that perfect beauty, which we should perhaps consider too soft and effeminate in those of the same age in our northern climate. Their eyes are large and dark; their eye-brows arched; their complexions are rather brown, but quite clear; and their cheeks and lips are tinged with a bright vermilion. The oval of their faces is regular, and all their features in perfect proportion.* Their hair, which is dark and long, is shaven off on the fore part of the crown and side of the face, and they wear a thin long mustachio on the upper lip. Beards are worn by the clergy, the Codja-bashees, and other men in authority. Their necks are long, but broad and firmly set, their chests wide and expanded, their waists rather slender. Their legs are strong and well made; their stature above the middling size; and they are muscular, but not brawny, nor inclined to corpulency. Both the face and form of the women are very inferior to those of the men. Though they have the same kind of features, their eyes are too languid, and their complexions too pale, and, even from the age of twelve, they have a flaccidity and looseness of person which is far from agreeable. They are generally rather below the middle size, and when between twenty-five and thirty, are commonly rather fat and unwieldy.

The dress of Greeks of the wealthier classes closely resembles that of the Turks. A cotton shirt made like a woman's chemise, cotton drawers, a vest and jacket of silk or stuff, a pair of large loose trowsers drawn up a little above the ankle, and a short sock, make the inner part of their dress. Next above this is a long shawl, wrapped in wide folds round the loins; and a large gown or pelisse, with loose sleeves, forms the outer garment. The head is covered with a calpac instead of a turban. They wear slippers or quarter boots, which the privileged Greeks may have of a yellow colour, but even they are not permitted to wear robes of green,—the favourite colour of Mahomet. The common people have their trowsers descending but a little below the knee, with bare legs, and a slipper pointed and turned up at the toe. Above this they have a jacket, and on their heads the little red Albanian scull-cap.

The dress of the females approaches much nearer to that of the Frank ladies, and need not here be particularly described. That of the richer females is profusely ornamented with gold and silver trimmings. They wear bracelets of precious stones, and strings of gold coins round their arms and necks. They colour the inside of the eye-lashes with a composition, and use washes and paints to improve their complexion. With the young women it is a prevailing fashion to dye the hair of an auburn colour. When abroad, the Greek ladies are muffled up in a wrapping cloak, and wear a long veil, which, however, they frequently throw aside, when not in the presence of the Turks. They live almost as much secluded as the Turkish ladies. Indeed, before marriage, they are rarely seen by any male, except of their own family; and even the lover rarely sees his mistress till she become his bride. But afterwards the ladies enjoy the privilege of being introduced to people of their own nation, and to travellers. When, in the interior apartments, a young woman divests herself of her outer robes; and, in the summer season, may sometimes be surprised reclined on a rich carpet or sofa, with her feet bare, and her whole form rather shaded than concealed by trowsers of gauze, and a thin muslin cymarr.

The women can seldom read or write, but are all Women. of them able to embroider very tastefully; and they can generally play on the Greek lute or rebeck. Their dancing they learn without a master from their companions; and their favourite national dance, the Romaika, is thought to bear a striking resemblance to the ancient Cretan dance, invented in the time of Theseus. Most of them are acquainted with a great number of songs or recitatives, accompanied with tales, which are combined and taken up by different individuals in succession for hours together. The Greek women evince a great quickness of understanding, and much aptitude for the acquisition of languages and other branches of education, when an opportunity offers. But their early marriages, for they are sometimes married at thirteen or fourteen, are prejudicial to their mental improvement. They are, however, assiduous housewives, and tender mothers, and, notwithstanding the scandalous imputations of some travellers, generally chaste. The state of bondage and seclusion in which they are kept naturally enfeebles their characters, and they are excessively credulous, weak, and superstitious, slaves to a thousand vain apprehensions, believing in sorcery and witchcraft; and receiving implicitly the dogmas and fables of their church. They are much guided by ominous dreams and celestial revelations; and at births, marriages, and other memorable domestic events, they have recourse to many spells and superstitious rites, to guard against fairies or wicked spirits. The evil eye is particularly dreaded; and the herb garlic is in high repute as a charm against this and other imaginary misfortunes. At funerals, women, hired for the purpose, accompany the bier, howling in a manner rather ludicrous than mournful, proclaiming the virtues of the deceased, and calling aloud to the corpse, "Why did you die? You had money, you had friends, you had a fair wife and children,—Why did you die?" On the ninth day after the funeral, the nearest relation gives a feast with music, dancing, and every other sort of merriment. Many of the rites and ceremonies now in use, and not a few of the observances connected with religion, have evidently been transmitted unaltered from Pagan antiquity. (Hobhouse, Let. xxxi.)

The Greeks affect a great deal of parade in their style of living. Those who are in office are addressed by pompous titles, keep great numbers of servants, dignified with the names of secretaries, physicians, coursiers, &c. and have large houses, which are in ge-

* The manners and character of the Albanians, who form a considerable part of the population of Greece, are described in the article ALBANIA in this Supplement, to which the reader is referred. neral shabbily furnished, and very dirty. Both Greeks and Turks contrive to support a respectable appearance with very slender means. The Greeks, like the Turks also, are all smokers, and addicted to the use of the hot bath. The men generally bathe once a week, the women at least once a month. Their diet, when not restricted by their fasts, consists, among the poorer classes, of bread made of barley, wheat, or Indian corn, pilau, or boiled rice mixed with butter, eggs, sheep's milk curdled, cheese made of sheep or goats' milk, dried fish, olives, gourds, melons, and various other vegetables. On holidays, lamb, mutton, kids' flesh, or fowls, are served up. The rich have a greater variety in their dishes and cookery. The mutton, which is the kind of animal food most in use, is seldom good, and is generally roasted or stewed, rarely boiled. Pastry is common, but is very indigestible, being sweetened with honey and not well baked. Boutaraga, caviar, and macaroni, are generally met with on the table, and a dish of snails is not uncommon. The bread is coarse and underbaked. Salted olives are a standing dish, and gourds and melons in their season. Great quantities of vegetables are consumed, such as cabbages, cauliflower, spinach, artichokes, &c. which are generally prepared with oil or butter, and seasoned with pepper, mint, marjoram. Oranges, pears, olives, citrons, medlars, pomegranates, are served up as a dessert. During dinner the Greeks drink wine and a spirit made from barley, resembling whisky; but they rarely indulge to excess. Coffee is much in use, but is taken rather as a refreshment than as a part of diet. In general, says Dr Holland, the Greeks have an appearance of comfort in their dwellings, clothing, and in the various habits of life, not much inferior to that of other nations in the south of Europe.*

Travellers seem now to be nearly agreed as to the intellectual and moral qualities of the Greeks. It is allowed that they have much acuteness of understanding, polished and agreeable manners, a sprightly wit, and great natural eloquence; but, on the other hand, their apologists cannot deny that, though strict in their fasts, they are lax in their morals; that their vanity forms a lamentable contrast with their humbled condition; and that they have more than an ordinary share of duplicity, meanness, and bigotry.

A great proportion of the Greeks are engaged in foreign or domestic trade; and as merchants they are reported to be vigilant and dexterous, but over-reaching and deceitful. Those who get into power, as Archons or Codjabashees, are as rapacious and tyrannical as the Turks. All classes are devoutly attached to the doctrines of the church, and hold other sects in such contempt, that they regard themselves and the Russians as the only Christians. The few well-informed men among them are generally sceptical, as will always happen where religion is debased by absurdities which shock the understanding. One of the best features in their character is the strong national spirit that animates them, and the lively interest they take in the fate of their country. The Greeks settled in Russia and Italy, and some of those at Constantinople, have expended a considerable part of their fortunes in supporting schools, and in printing works designed to enlighten their countrymen. Their sensibility on this subject is, indeed, extraordinary. Mr Hobbhouse informs us that, on mentioning the name of Riga (who was put to death by the Turks for exciting his countrymen to a revolution) to a young Greek of high rank, he jumped up from the sofa, and, clasping his hands, repeated the name of the patriot with a thousand passionate exclamations, the tears streaming down his cheeks. They continually reproach the Franks with ingratitude, for not assisting them to throw off the Turkish yoke; asserting that we are indebted to their ancestors for all the arts and knowledge we possess. Yet, though the deeds of the ancient Greeks live in their memories, and are often in their mouths, they have a very confused and erroneous idea of their character. They associate the glory of their ancestors much more with the empire of Constantine and his successors, than with the Greek republics. And their bigotry has so far perverted their ambition, that the overthrow of the Turks would gratify them more as the triumph of their church than as the establishment of their independence. In private life, the Greeks have much social feeling; and, though easy in their manners, are strict observers of forms. Two men, in saluting, first touch their foreheads, then place their right hand on their hearts, and kiss each other. They make the most ceremonious and particular inquiries after each other's families. It is rare to find a Greek living single, except as a widower, for they seldom marry a second time. They are fond of titles and distinctions, in proportion to their want of real strength and dignity of character. Every Archon and Codjabashee, though he has but the shadow of official dignity, is "most illustrious," or "most noble." A Bishop is styled "your Beatitude," a priest "your Holiness." They are avaricious, but they desire money only for the purpose of ostentation. Their veneration for wealth indeed supersedes, in some measure, the strongest natural ties. Children who get rich sometimes employ their own fathers as menial servants, and are waited upon by them at table. Parents teach their children to kiss their hands, and to address them by the title of Signor, which implies superiority, and is, therefore, preferred to more endearing appellations. All classes, but especially the lower, are lively and gay, excessively fond of dancing, music, and pastimes. They delight in poetry, and have a remarkable facility in versifying. Of popular songs they have a great variety relating to love and drinking; some of them written by living authors who have distinguished themselves in this species of composition. They have also some pieces of a greater length and of a dramatic form. Their music, which is plaintive but monotonous, is sung with a nasal tone. The fiddle and three-stringed guitar

* Hobhouse, 226; Pouqueville, Chap. xv.; Holland, 268. are the instruments most in use. Strolling bards, still bearing the ancient name of Rhapsodists, frequent the houses of the wealthy, singing love songs, or celebrating in rude verse the exploits of some warrior, and accompanying their voices with the lyre. Foot races, wrestling, and the disc, are still, as in ancient times, favourite amusements. The Greeks are rarely employed in any military capacity, but they are allowed to be not deficient in courage, though they are easily discouraged by difficulties, and certainly want the constitutional firmness of the Albanians.*

The Greeks of the present day, though unquestionably much debased, are rather objects of compassionate sympathy than indignation. The cardinal vices of their character, dissimulation, meanness, and superstition, are so distinctly referable to their political situation, as to warrant a belief that a favourable change in the one would speedily be followed by an improvement in the other. Experience tells us that misery and persecution increase men's attachment to their religion; and that, among a people so attached to their religion, possessing lively imaginations, but grossly ignorant, and where the only pittance of knowledge to be found is in the hands of priests, superstition must take root and flourish; and when we recollect that the national faith of the Greeks, rendered venerable in their eyes by its antiquity, has descended through a period of fifteen centuries, exposed to the continual action of all the causes that could corrupt it, without one lucid interval of free inquiry, and diffused knowledge, we cannot be surprised that the vital principles of religion have totally disappeared amidst the rubbish of senseless forms, mystical rites, and vain pageantry. Again, with regard to the civil condition of the Greeks, it may be observed, that the slavery in which they are held is of the most demoralizing kind. Uninstructed though they be, they are enlightened compared with the Turks. But knowledge, when doomed to dependence on ignorance and rudeness, unavoidably degenerates into craft and duplicity. Instead of raising the character of the individual, it furnishes him with new powers of servility and deceit, and makes him more deeply conscious of the ignominy of his condition. A human being can never feel his self-degradation so complete as when he is the slave of another whom he despises. What is still worse in the state of the Greeks, the lord and vassal are separated by difference of faith; and the rancour of religious bigotry inflames the contempt and hatred naturally generated between the oppressor and the oppressed. Human nature, in such painful circumstances, has but two resources—resistance at the hazard of extermination, or entire submission. The suffering party must either bend to its hard destiny, and endeavour by flattery, duplicity, and management, to mollify the violence of the oppressor, and by cunning and dissimulation to elude his tyranny; or it must assume a courage from despair, and extort better terms by the obstinacy of its resistance.

The Jews, the most degraded portion of European society, illustrate the one case; the Albanians the other. Though too many of the Greeks have chosen the less honourable alternative, and have sunk to a state of abasement resembling that of the Jews, they have also shown themselves capable of acting the more rugged and difficult part when favoured by circumstances. The inhabitants of the hilly country have everywhere forced the Turks to respect their privileges; and the firm and unconquerable spirit displayed by the Mainotes of the Morea, and the Suliote Greeks, in defence of their rights, is worthy of the most brilliant days of Sparta or Rome. Doubts have been raised unnecessarily whether these people are of the same race with the Greeks of the plains. Both, however, have the same language and religion, and their manners do not differ farther than local circumstances are sufficient to account for. We see the influence of the same causes exemplified in the Albanians who have settled in the low country; for these have lost the high and resolute spirit which distinguishes their countrymen, and submit to be insulted and pillaged by the Turks like their neighbours the Greeks.

The question regarding the emancipation of the Question as to the lateral topics, that a long dissertation would be required to do justice to it; and we can only spare room for a few remarks. First, we may observe, that the moral degradation of the Greeks is not necessarily fatal to their hopes of deliverance. A sense of common interest, a strong national spirit, and a powerful feeling of revenge, are the motives that excite men to act in such circumstances; and all these the Greeks feel the influence of in a considerable degree. They have courage; and though they want the private virtue and disinterested public zeal necessary to build up a free government, it should be recollected that they may be independent without enjoying civil liberty, and yet by such independence their condition would be immensely improved. In the second place, while the Turks are remaining stationary, the Greeks are silently advancing in knowledge, in wealth, in numbers, and in the consciousness of power; and their relative situation is thus daily improving. Their lively and susceptible disposition is extremely capable of every species of instruction; and all the arts and knowledge of western Europe, with all the superiority which these confer, could be communicated to them more easily than to any other people in the same stage of civilization. In the third place, the power of the Turks seems verging to destruction, from the craziness incident to an old system, which has no means of internal renovation, and no power to adapt itself to the changed circumstances of Europe. Their numerous defeats have destroyed their confidence in themselves. They form but a fraction of the population of Greece; and though they are accustomed to

* Hobhouse, Let. xxxi. xxxiv.; Pouqueville, Chap. xi.; Beaujour, Let. xxv.; Notes to Childe Harold, Canto II command, and have the machinery of government in their hands, their force is badly organised, and their torpidity and want of skill neutralize the power they have. In the fourth place, Greece is a mountainous country, abounding in strong positions; and therefore affording great advantages to a population engaged in desultory warfare. To this we may add, that, in the event of a general insurrection, the commercial marine of the Greeks would soon render them masters by sea; and, from the nature of the country, this would operate powerfully in their favour.

There cannot remain a doubt, therefore, that a very slight effort would be sufficient to subvert the Turkish power. But the emancipation of the Greeks depends, in some degree, upon a variety of other circumstances. First, Greece is unfortunately occupied by several nations, differing in manners, language, and origin, who have no common ties sufficient to unite them firmly together. Setting aside the Bulgarians, who are posted at the extremity of the country, and the Turks as the common enemies of the whole, there are still the Wallachians, who have entire possession of a considerable district, besides being dispersed in small portions through the rest of the country; and the Albanians, formidable by their numbers and energy, masters of two-fifths of the country, and spread in a small proportion through the whole. These nations, with the Turks, form about one-half of the population. The Greeks, who form the other half, are thus everywhere mixed with their rivals or their enemies. The Wallachians, though professing the same religion with the Greeks, differ from them in manners and language. The Albanians are not only distinct in manners and language, but regard the Greeks with contempt. Even among the Greeks themselves there are considerable diversities of character. The commercial Greeks of the towns have probably but little affinity with the peasantry, and the Mainotes of the Morea as little with the peasantry of Thessaly and Macedon. All these parties agree in hating the Turks; but, it is evident, there are many antipathies to be removed, and rival interests to be reconciled, before they can be brought to co-operate vigorously in a common design. Should the Greeks move by themselves, they will find that all who are not for them are against them; and the Turks, with the usual policy of despotic rulers, will make use of one party to crush the other. But, in the second place, the consolidation of so great a part of Greece under the Pasha of Albania, has given an entirely new aspect to the question regarding the emancipation of the Greeks. Albania, for some centuries, has been divided among a number of fierce and warlike tribes or clans, almost independent of the Turks, but engaged in perpetual contests with one another. The union of these hostile tribes, for the first time, under one head by the vigour of Ali, has necessarily raised up a new and formidable power, which must make itself felt in all the surrounding parts. It is so formidable, indeed, that no great change can now take place in Greece without its concurrence. The two great parties of Greeks and Albanians are, in fact, so placed that their union is essential to the independence of the country, and that union seems to be scarcely possible. So long as Ali wants the naval means of the Greeks, and while the Turks occupy the southern and eastern part of the country, his power cannot be secure. The two nations are too strongly divided by dissimilarity of character and mutual antipathies to coalesce voluntarily. Nor is it probable that the Albanians, who are stronger for defence than conquest, will be able to reduce Southern Greece by force. The Greeks, on the other hand, would not make any effort for the sake of exchanging the sluggish tyranny of the Turks for the rigorous despotism of the Pasha. Were they to attempt to liberate themselves, Ali's sagacity would teach him to regard such a step as injurious to his interest; for, though it would weaken the common enemy the Turks, it would raise up a new power much more formidable to him. To all appearance, therefore, the power of the Turks in Greece, so far as depends on these causes, may maintain itself some time longer, by means of the mutual jealousies of its domestic enemies.

The Greeks, however, have long looked to foreign aid for the means of liberating themselves; and three different opinions prevailed among them recently in relation to this subject. The insular and commercial Greeks, and those of the Morea, attached themselves to the idea of liberation through England; a second party, including many of their literary men and continental merchants, looked to the late revolutionary government of France as a more probable means of deliverance; while the lower orders, and those most attached to the national religion, were anxious to receive the Russians as liberators. (Holland, 274.) The recent course of events has certainly lessened the probability of any of these powers interfering in their favour. While the dread of jacobinism continues to haunt the princes of Europe, they will be little disposed to tamper with new revolutions, or schemes for reviving Greek republics. The Greeks have more to hope from the popular spirit now spreading through all the western parts of Europe; but their chief reliance ought to be on their own efforts to spread education and knowledge among themselves, to raise their national character, and to create a common interest in national objects.

In the course of last century, the Greeks made two unsuccessful attempts to liberate themselves. The first was in 1770, during a war between Russia and the Porte. The Russians, in pursuance of a plan previously concerted, landed a small force of 2000 men at various points in the Morea. The Mainotes, and other Greeks, rose in arms instantaneously, and got possession of the open towns, butchering the Turks with every circumstance of cruelty. Before, however, they had mastered any of the fortified places, a great force of Albanians pouring in, defeated them, and retaliated, with dreadful severity, the cruelties committed on the Turks. The inhabitants of some entire towns and villages were massacred, and the country almost desolated. Though the Greeks acted with much vigour at the outset, it was observed that their spirits sank at the first check they received. But it is impossible to reprobate too strongly the cruelty and perfidy of the Russian government, which, by sending such an inadequate force, exposed the Greeks to certain destruction, for the sake of making a paltry diversion in its own favour; and, at the conclusion of a peace, took no effectual means to protect them from the rage of their enemies.

In 1790, the Greeks of Suli, in Albania, rose in arms, upon an understanding that assistance was to be received from Russia. A deputation went to Petersburg to offer the crown of Greece to Prince Constantine, brother of the present Emperor, whom they saluted βασιλέως των Ελλήνων. They were to collect their various troops from Suli, Livadia, Attica, and the Morea,—to march through Thessaly and Macedonia, where they were to be joined by other reinforcements, and to meet the Russians at Adrianople with 300,000 men (as they gave out), after which the combined army was to proceed to Constantinople, and drive the Turks out of Europe. In the end little was done. The Russians sent a trifling sum of money, which was chiefly embezzled by their own agents, and soon made peace, without concerning themselves about the peril into which they had brought the Greeks. The Suliotes defeated the Pacha of Janina, and, aided by their rocks, defended themselves with prodigies of valour against the Albanian Turks. A squadron of twelve small vessels, which they had fitted out at Trieste, signalized itself in the Archipelago, and after spreading terror among the Turks, was overpowered and destroyed by a greatly superior force. This second enterprise, in short, ended like the first, without any other effect than that of exposing the Greeks to renewed outrages from the Turks. The brave tribe of the Suliotes, on whom the Greeks placed a great reliance, as the best soldiers of their faith, were totally destroyed by Ali in 1803, after a contest of many years.*

(G.B.B.)