(Fr. grève), a kind of armour for the legs, originally of leather, quilted linen, &c., and afterwards of steel. This kind of defence for the legs was used both by the Greeks and Romans, by the former of whom they were called syngae, by the latter oceae. Greaves were made of various kinds of metal.
JOHN, an eminent mathematician and antiquary, was the eldest son of John Greaves, rector of Colemore, near Alresford in Hampshire, and born in 1602. He went to Balliol College, Oxford, in 1617; was chosen fellow of Merton in 1624; and, six years later, professor of geometry in Gresham College, London. After travelling in Europe, he visited the East in 1637, and collected a considerable number of Arabic, Persian, and Greek manuscripts, of which he well knew the value, as he was a thorough master of these languages. He also collected for Archbishop Laud many oriental gems and coins. He made a more accurate survey of the pyramids of Egypt than any traveller who had preceded him, and afterwards digested his observations in a work on that subject. On his return from the East, he visited a second time several parts of Italy; and during his stay at Rome instituted inquiries into the ancient weights and measures. Soon after his return he was appointed to the Savilian professorship of astronomy at Oxford, but was deprived of his Gresham professorship, the duties of which he had wholly neglected. In 1648 he lost his fellowship as well as his chair on account of his adherence to the royalist party. But his private fortune more than sufficed for all his wants till his death in 1652. Besides his papers in the Philosophical Transactions, the works of Greaves printed separately are, Pyramido graphia, or a description of the Pyramids in Egypt, London, 1646, in 8vo; A Discourse of the Roman Foot and Denarius, ibid, 1649, in 4to; Elementa Linguae Persicae, ibid, 1649, in 4to; Epochen celebriorum Astronomorum, Historicis, Chronologis Chaldaeorum, Syro-Graccorum, Arabum, Persarum, &c. usitata, ex traditione Ulug Beig, Arab. et Lat. Lond. 1650, in 4to; Chronomie et Manvarnatnatre, hoc est, Regionum extra fluviem Oxum, descriptio, ibid. 1650; Astronomiae quaedam, ex traditione Shah Cholgii Perse, una cum hypothesibus Planetorum, ibid. 1652, in 4to. In 1737 Dr Birch published the Miscellaneous Works of Greaves, in two vols. 8vo, containing some of those above mentioned, with additions, and a biographical notice of the author.
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1 A claim has been put up for the churchyard of Granchester, about two miles from Cambridge, the great bell of St Mary's serving for the "curfew." But Stoke Poges is more likely to have been the spot, if any individual locality were indicated. The poet often visited the village, his aunt and mother residing there, and his aunt was interred in the churchyard of the place. Gray's epitaph on his mother is characterized not only by the tenderness with which he always regarded her memory, but by his style and cast of thought. It runs thus—"Beside her friend and sister here sleep the remains of Dorothy Gray, widow, the careful tender mother of many children, one of whom alone had the misfortune to survive her. She died March 11, 1753, aged 72." She had lived to read the Elegy, which was perhaps an ample recompense for her maternal cares and affection. Mrs Gray's will commences in a similar touching strain—"In the name of God, amen. This is the last will and desire of Dorothy Gray to her son Thomas Gray." [Cunningham's edit. of Johnson's Lives.] They were all in all to each other. The father's cruelty and neglect, their straitened circumstances, the sacrifices made by the mother to maintain her son at the university, her pride in the talents and conduct of that son, and the increasing gratitude and affection of the latter, nursed in his scholastic and cloistered solitude—these form an affecting but noble record in the history of genius. Greece and its inhabitants, after a long period of oblivion, have latterly become objects of general interest to the more enlightened nations of Europe. It was singular, indeed, that whilst 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 completely forgotten. 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 the commencement of the present century 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 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 the arms of France, 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 was explored, and a great 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 classical interest of the country has been augmented by vivid descriptions of its monuments and its scenery; and the stirring events of the revolution completed in 1832 have greatly strengthened its claims to the attention and the sympathies of western Europe. It is now found 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, and present memorials of many separate communities, 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 subtler 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.
In this article we shall first describe Greece in its full extent, according to the boundaries recognised in ancient times by the Greeks and Romans. We shall then give a brief sketch of the history of the late revolution; and conclude by a statistical view of the new state, which forms only a portion of ancient Greece.
The original name of the Grecian Peninsula was Hellas—a term at first confined to a small town and district in the south of Thessaly, whose inhabitants, the Hellenes, gradually overran the whole of Greece. As they extended their conquests, they gave the name of their mother country to all the places that fell under their dominion. Even their distant colonies in Italy, Sicily, and Africa, were looked upon by them as integral parts of Hellas equally with the capital cities of Greece Proper or the Peloponnesus. In a more restricted sense the term was applied to the country stretching southwards from the River Peneus and the Ambracian Gulf to the Isthmus of Corinth. The part of Epirus, however, that fell geographically within this distribution, was not regarded as forming part of Hellas, though Herodotus and others maintained that it did. The Peloponnesus, though inhabited by Hellenes, was not, strictly speaking, comprised within Greece Proper. At a later period, however, not only the Peloponnesus, but Macedonia and part of Illyria, were included in the general term. It is not known why the Romans called the country by the name of Graecia instead of adopting the term in common use among the Greeks themselves. The name Graecia is first used by Aristotle. After the country passed by conquest under the Roman yoke, the conquerors reduced it to a province and called it by the name of Achaia. As the various states of Greece are all discussed under their respective heads (See Attica, Boeotia, &c., &c.), we shall in the present article take the appellation in its most extensive sense, and so 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 Mace-
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1 Cellarii Geog. Antiq., lib. ii., cap. 13; Strabo, lib. viii.; Potter's Antiq. b. i., chap. 16. Greece is nearly shut in on the north by a chain of mountains known anciently by the names of Rhodope, Scionius, 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 Ægean 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 430 English miles; its greatest breadth, from Durazzo to Calavle, at the foot of Mount Pangaeus (a branch of Rhodope), 235 miles; and it embraces an area of 57,750 square miles, exclusive of all its islands except Euboea. 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 recognised as Greece before the rise of the Macedonian power, comprehended the Morea or Peloponnesus, Attica, Euboea, Brotia, Phocis, Doris, Ætolia, 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 9000 English square miles; that of the countries just named, without the peninsula, including Euboea, is 14,800; and both together amount to 23,800 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 58,800 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 the country; as the following table, deduced from measurements, will show:
| Region | Square Miles | |-------------------------|--------------| | Attica, including Megaris and Salamis, but not Euboea | 1190 | | Brotia | 1530 | | Laconia (without Messenia) | 1720 | | Achaia (the twelve cities with their territories) | 1140 |
These states, therefore, were in general about equal in extent to middle-sized English counties. None of them was 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 Euboea, 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 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 population of 50,000 souls, sent out sometimes colonies of 10,000 men at once (Diod. Sic. lib. ii.); and Sparta furnished 50,000 soldiers to fight the Persians at Platæa. The territories of Corinth, when she formed a separate state, were much smaller than any of these; Greece, 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 mountains 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 Nauplia, 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 forty-third 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 Scionius and Rhodope anciently, passes south-eastward, and sends off branches on both sides, one of which, Pangaeus, advances southward to the Ægean 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-eastward, under the ancient names of Scardus, Pindus, Cithaeron, and Parnass, and terminates at Cape Colonna, the southernmost 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 Ætna, which, running eastward to the Malac Gulf, forms, at its termination, the famed pass of Thermopylae. Mount Othrys, a little farther north, may be considered as a subordinate chain to Ætna. 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 Acroceramus; another farther north, and more inland, was Mount Tamarus. 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.
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1 Throughout this article we use the ancient or the modern names, according as either happen 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. 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 8000 feet in height; but none of the other mountains seems 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 Bernoulli. 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. The mean height of the mountains of the Morea is estimated at 1200 feet; on the west side they attain a height of from 3000 to 4500 feet; Mount Cyllene rises to the height of 4500 feet, and Mount Oleno to 6000; Mount Taygetus, in its range from Cape Matapan to Arcadia, varies from 3000 to 7200 feet. The plain of Tripolizza, in Arcadia, is about 2000 feet above the sea, and the insulated rock of the Acro-Corinthus about 1900. (Boblaye, Annales des Sciences Naturelles, Feb. 1831.)
A great part of the surface of Greece is occupied by a 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. The compact 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 secondary on the west. Tertiary deposits are found in Elis, Laconia, and Argolis; and trachytes and other igneous rocks exist in Ægina, Milo, Santorin, and on the continent at Methana in Argolis. M. Boblaye states that four, and in some cases five, successive terraces of shingle are seen at many parts on the shores of the Morea, each of which had once formed the sea beach, indicating that the land had been elevated by a corresponding number of sudden movements upwards. (Boblaye, Annales des Sciences Naturelles, Feb. 1831; Holland's Travels, p. 89, 319, &c.)
It is to the peculiar constitution of the 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 North Albania; the Peneus, now the Salympria, in Thessaly; the Achelous, now the Aspropotamo, in Ætolia; the Alpheus, now the Roufia, and Eurotas, now Vasiliopotamo, 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 con-
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1 Travels in the Morea, Albania, and other parts of the Ottoman Empire. By F. C. Pouqueville, M. D. (translation), London, 1813, p. 443. 2 Travels in the Ionian Isles, Albania, Thrace, Macedonia, &c. during 1812 and 1813. By Henry Holland, M. D. 1815, p. 297. 3 Memoirs relating to European and Asiatic Turkey, edited by the Reverend Robert Walpole, A. M. 1817, p. 72; Clarke's Travels, 4th edition, 8vo, 1816, vol. vii. p. 260; Holland's Travels, p. 394. Article Climate in this work. Greece, 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 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.
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 Ambracia. 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, Beotia, and Arcadia. Each of these forcibly suggests 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 Néropont, 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, Creto, Scarpanito, 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 Macedon, 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 Macedon to a Roman province. Thessaly, separated from Macedon 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 Macedon. 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 Phocceans, 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. Beotia 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. Beotia 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 Beotia 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 a hundred and fifty 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 Beotia, high and cold, often covered with fogs, arising from the moisture of its soil, and hence also subject to malaria. All its running 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 semi-circle 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 plain, and, till ruined by the revolution, was one of the best built towns in the Morea. The ancient Greece. Laconia, consisting of the long open valley of the Eurotas, is very thinly peopled. The ruins of Sparta, four miles south-west 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. Ætolia, 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. Ætolia 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 Ægean 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, and the woods abound more on the west side than the east. 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 speckled 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 inland 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 twenty-one or twenty-two inches, and the greatest heat, in each of the four years ending with 1867, 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 to be 64, and with the 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 Tripolizza, in Arcadia, the snow has been found eighteen inches thick in January, with the thermometer at sixteen degrees 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 Citheron in Boeotia were confined to their houses for several weeks by the snow. At Yanina, 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 everywhere 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 fifteen or eighteen degrees higher at Athens than London; while Boeotia 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
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1 Beaujour, let. i.-4; Holland, p. 230, 291, 234, 376, 420; Clarke, vi. 562, vii. 303; Hobhouse, let. 14, 15, 16; Walpole, 60, 303, 306, 333, 522; Byron's notes to canto 2d of Childe Harold; Tournefort, let. 4-8. 2 Holland, 248, 302, 401, 254, 418; Hobhouse, 63, 461, 201; Clarke, vii. 260; Beaujour, let. 4; Chateaubriand's Travels (translation), vol. i. p. 85, 157; Williams' Travels, let. 54, 55, 66, 72, 74. 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 N.E. wind. The N. and N.W. winds are distinguished by their serenity and dryness. The zephyr or W. wind is famed for its balmy softness; the S.E., S., and S.W. winds are all humid, and the E. wind still retains the character of a morning breeze, as described by Aristotle. The sirocco is felt in Greece. It blows from the S.E., 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.
As yet little is known of the mineral resources of Greece; but, from its geological structure, we may conclude that it is, like Italy, rather poor in metals. 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 Enboca and Melos, Naxos, Siphnos, and others of the Cyclades. The gold and silver mines of Macedonia yielded Philip 1000 talents a year.
The mines and quarries of Greece might be a source of considerable wealth. The marbles of Pentelicus and Paros are still the finest in the world. The first—close, fine, glittering; the second—of a limpid transparency, with broad veins and a warm colour, giving to statues a flesh-like appearance. Not long ago there were discovered in the Archipelago quarries of rosso-antico; and in Targyetus, beds of the admirable jasper known by the name of verd-antique; but not one of these fine quarries is worked. At Marcopoulo, in Boeotia, there is a bed of lignite or coal, equivalent to 4½ lbs of its weight of pure carbon, but neither is this worked. At Kumi, in the island of Euboea, there is a much better lignite, said to be equal to 3½ lbs of an equal weight of Newcastle coal. This mine, after paying all expenses, clears for the state 12,000 drachms a year.
Greece has several mines of argentiferous lead, especially one on the island of Zéa, where the veins run down to the sea at the bottom of a little creek where coasting vessels can touch. The ore contains about 80 per cent. of lead; and the lead, on an average, about 0.00125 of silver. These mines are not worked; but when the winter rains detach masses of ore, the municipality claims them. The produce of the emery of Naros, which is now extracted and sold by the government, may be said to be the only revenue that Greece derives from her mineral wealth. Its amount is about 400,000 drachms. One reason for the mines and quarries not being worked is the want of roads and capital.
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 scrofulous complaints. Coughs, catarrhs, and apoplexies 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 has not made its appearance since the establishment of the kingdom, and when it had previously occurred it had been imported from either Constantinople, Smyrna, or Egypt. The cholera has appeared in later years; and in 1853 it made severe ravages in Athens.
It has been said that there are no longer any Greeks in Greece—that the population is altogether Albanian; but this is not correct. Notwithstanding all they had passed through, previous to the war of independence, they preserved their lineage and language to a wonderful extent. The Albanians principally inhabit Attica, Bucotia, Phocis, Argolis, with the isles of Hydra, Spetsia, Salamis, and Andros. They have also several villages in Arcadia, Achaia, and Messenia. But the wars of independence destroyed a great part of this population, and the rest is now mixed in the Greek element. In the rest of the Peloponnesus, in all the other islands, in Ætolia, Acarnania, a great part of Thessaly and Lower Macedonia, the population is exclusively Greek.
As soon as the war cry of independence was raised, many Fanariot families, who were the most educated of the Greeks, and serving the Turkish government as ambassadors in foreign missions, as learned interpreters in the Divan, and as governors in the principalities, came to assist their common country with their talents, and continued to fill the highest offices even under the government of King Otto. Such are the Moroussis, the Risos, Mavrocordatos, and other distinguished families now at Athens. These speak a purified Greek, but they adopt the dress and manners of western Europe, as do also the greater part of the people in the towns.
A numerous and very different class of Greeks are the mountaineers of the northern provinces, who, finding that the diplomatic arrangements had left their part of the country in the hands of the Turks, proceeded southwards, and fixed their homes in the kingdom which had been founded by their prowess. These people who call themselves Palkars have brought with them, even into the city of Athens, many of the strange usages of their former life; and it may be said of them in common with the Mainots of the Morea, that they form the most original and characteristic portion of the Greek population. They still continue to wear the national dress—a calico shirt with a large turned-down collar, short cotton drawers, leggings fastened up to the knees, not unlike the sauphées of Homer's heroes, red slippers, a skirt resembling a Highland kilt, a sash, and narrow garters of coloured silk, a jacket generally of silk, and often embroidered with gold, a broad leather belt, from which are suspended an embroidered handkerchief, purse, tobacco-bag, inkleand, and arms; and to crown all, a red cap with a blue tassel. Such a dress often costs a sum equal to L2.25. The dwellings of the Palkars resemble fortresses; and their servants, selected from among their old retainers, form a little garrison. They practise a ruinous hospitality, especially towards such Greeks as come from their own part of the country. Their language is mingled with Turkish words, and some of them can still speak that language.
Between the Palkars and the Fanariots, but rather resembling the latter in character and habits, are the Islanders, who are by profession mariners or traders, generally both. They wear the red cap, a short jacket, with the wide Turkish trousers instead of the kilt and leggings.
All Greeks wear the moustache but shave the beard, except in mourning, when it is allowed to grow. Whiskers are considered indicative of dandyism, and not very creditable. Few of the women are handsome; the men are almost universally so; and their great stature, slender form, oval face, long aquiline nose, large moustache, and easy
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1 Holland, 47, 137, 411, 426; Hobhouse, let. 24; Posqueville, p. 29, chap. xv.; Clarke, vi. 585, vii. 102; Arist. Meteor. lib. 2, c. 2. gait, give them an imposing appearance. They are an exceedingly temperate people; drunkenness is a vice remarkably rare among them; their food also is spare and simple; even the richest are content with a dish of vegetables for each meal, and the poor with a handful of olives or a piece of salt fish. Very few partake of animal food more than once a week or once a fortnight, except at Easter, when every one must partake of it. All other pleasures are indulged in with similar sobriety; their passions are moderate, and insanity is almost unknown among them. They have much intelligence, aptitude, and ready wit, rather than great capacity for abstruse study and profound thought. Greek mechanics learn even a difficult trade in a few months; commercial young men rapidly acquire the command of five or six languages; students of law, medicine, and theology, likewise attain in a very short time to the knowledge necessary for their respective professions; all minds appear eager after knowledge, both as matter of pride and natural curiosity. The love of liberty and independence does not seem to have been rooted out of the national mind by centuries of subjugation; they love to command, but though they are very loyal to a good government, are apt easily to rise when their rights are infringed. As there is little love of obedience among them, so neither is there any toleration for aristocratic pretensions. They have all groaned alike under the Turkish oppression; all alike have been beaten with the same rod, all are nearly alike poor; and though in western Europe we hear of Greek counts, and even princes, such titles are not recognised in Greece itself. The counts, if of good coinage, are from the Ionian Islands, where the population received them from the Venetians; the self-styled princes are those who filled the temporary functions of hospodar or bey, under the Turkish regime. Another distinguishing characteristic of the Greeks is their ardent patriotism—a genuine legacy from their illustrious ancestors. This passion strangely blinds them as to the real importance of their country, so that one would think they deemed Greece the centre and object of all the events in Europe. But this weakness aside, it must be admitted that many of them have sacrificed all their property, which was not inconsiderable, for the liberation of their country. The public buildings of Athens have been raised by the subscriptions of individuals; most of the Greeks who live abroad bequeath their property to their national institutions.
The Greek is generally supposed to hate agriculture, and, in fact, other trades and pursuits are preferred by him. Distant voyages, hazardous speculations, and, above all, commercial bargains, are more agreeable to his disposition. But his dislike to agriculture under the Turks lay not so much in his indisposition to follow it, as in the heavy taxes and repeated exactions demanded by the pachas of his district, which left him hardly one-fourth of his products for himself.
In business the Greek is quick, intelligent, and attentive; and in his transactions with the Turks he has the celebrity of possessing keenness, amounting to swindling, insomuch as he generally charges twice the value for the goods sold to them. But if the faithful followers of the Prophet are thus imposed upon by their more acute neighbours, it not unfrequently happens that the latter fail to get payment of half their account, and perhaps lose all.
The Albanians form about a fourth of the population of the country; and retain their foreign dialect. They are strong, patient, addicted to manual labour, and as well adapted for agriculture as the Hellenes are for commerce. The Wallachs or Blakhs on Mount Pindus, and on the borders of Thessaly and Macedonia, betray by their language their descent from the Roman colonies of Dacia, and still call themselves Romuni. They are a nomad or pastoral race, sleeping in the open air among their flocks, which are protected by ferocious dogs like those of Eumeus. In Greece a Wallach and a shepherd are synonymous.
The Maltese are numerous about Athens and Piraeus; and, by a curious exception, bear a high character for honesty; whereas at Constantinople and Smyrna they are for the most part robbers and assassins. At Athens they share with the robust inhabitants of Maina the severer labours of the mason, the gardener, and the porter. The Bavarians have almost disappeared; Turks are scarcely found; and there are comparatively few settlers from other parts of Europe.
The Greeks marry young. The ceremony is a purely religious act; and divorces are not so easily obtained as in Constantinople. The pride of the Greek matron is placed in the number and beauty of her children; but though great numbers are born, comparatively few come to maturity. They die off under the influence of fever, which is a great scourge in the country.
There are very few people who have a family name, but each adds to his baptismal name either the name of his father, or some bye-name invented for himself. Thus, there are thousands of Basilis, Athanasius, Peters, Georgeses, Nicholases, or even Aristideses, and Themistocleses. This one is Peter the son of Nicholas, or Peter the Albanian, or Peter of Nauplia, or Black Peter, or Short Peter. The duties of relationship are strictly observed; and the poor man who maintains at his own expense the widow and children of a brother is not praised as though he had done anything more than his bounden duty. The right of primogeniture is not likely ever to be known in Greece. Those who have such a strong sense of equality among compatriots will never tolerate inequality among brothers. Yet it is different with their fathers. They submit to him as to an absolute master; and this respect is shown by all classes without exception. The father has absolute command in his family, and is respected and supported to the last days of his life even by his married children. Parricide is said to be almost as little known as when Solon refused to make laws against it. There seems to be, on the whole, very much that is commendable in family life among the Greeks.
The drachm, which is the unit of the currency, is about 8½d. of our money. It is divided into 100 equal parts called lepta. There are copper coins of 10, 5, 2, and 1 lepta, the only Greek money that circulates in the country. The silver coins of 50 and 25 lepta have been melted down or exported. Those of 1 drachm are very rare. Those of 5 drachms are now only to be found in Turkey. The gold pieces of 20 drachms, called othis, also have disappeared.
A very complete scale of weights and measures was established by the government in 1836; but the people adhere and measure for length to the pique = 27 inches. Then for sure weight—the principal one known, even in the capital, is the oke, a Turkish weight equal to 2 lb. 12 oz., which is divided into 400 dramia = 1 Eng. drams. The cantara or quintal is generally 44 okes = 121 lbs. The kilo or quintal of corn is 22 okes, or 60 lbs. The land measure is the stremma, equal to about one-fourth of an English acre.
It appears that not half the surface is susceptible of cultivation; and at least two-thirds of the cultivated, and four-fifths of the uncultivated soil belong to the state. One great disadvantage to agriculture is the scanty supply of running water; but the peasants are very dexterous at taking advantage of the smallest rill to irrigate their tillage.
Money rent is little known; the lands being farmed on the metayer system, according to which the landlord receives a certain proportion of the net produce—usually a third. He has frequently to furnish the seed, and sometimes the oxen for tillage, the cost of which, with high interest, is deducted from the profits before any division is made. On this system, there is little inducement for the proprietor to expend capital on improvements; still less is there for the metayer, who has no interest in the land beyond the season. Consequently, inclosure and drainage are scarcely thought of; and the stones having never been removed, lie so thick together that in some places it is scarcely credible that they can have accumulated naturally. The dwellings of the peasants are extremely poor, consisting of stones and fragments of tile and pottery held together by mud. Glass casements are rare even in provincial towns; and in the country cottages the light is most frequently admitted only by the door-way.
The arable soil of Greece is devoted chiefly to the cultivation of corn, vines, mulberry trees, and fruit trees. Wheat, rye, barley, and maize succeed pretty well in the stony districts where the mould is but a few inches deep. Oats render but a middling crop, and the potato is quite unsuitable. But the leguminous grow well, and rice might be raised in the wet soils. In many parts of the country cakes of maize flour form the staple article of food. (See page 32.)
At the head of all the agricultural productions for exportation are the Corinth grapes, which we corruptly call currants, and which are cultivated from the isthmus to Arcadia, along almost all the northern and western shores of the Morea. This fruit is of a violet colour, and hangs in long loose bunches. They are gathered at the same time as other grapes, dried in the sun and packed. Very few of them are used in Greece, few anywhere except in England. The consequence of this is, that the effect of raising a large crop is merely to lower the price in the London market; whereas if France, America, and Russia used plum-puddings to the same extent as the English, Greece would have had in this one article an inexhaustible source of revenue. All kinds of grapes succeed well, and the best vintage is that of the island of Santorin, where above sixty varieties are reckoned. The Russians are very fond of Santorin wine, and import L20,000 worth yearly. The art of expressing and fermenting the juice of the grape is quite in its infancy; and unfortunately the Greeks have no wine-cellars, and very few casks. The wine is kept in skins, and rosin is put into it to keep it from spoiling. It is at first exceedingly disagreeable to the taste; but the natives prefer it to the choicest beverages of France and Spain; and even foreigners become reconciled to it with use.
Next to the vineyards as a source of revenue are the mulberry plantations. There is a demand for silk in every market in the world, and the climate of Greece affords facilities for an unlimited extension of this branch of industry. The south of the Morea generally, and all the islands of the Aegean Sea, are adapted for it, and here the house of almost every peasant is in part given up to the rearing of the worm. The spawn or eggs are nestled in the bosoms of the women; and the worms hatched in spring are abundantly supplied with the young mulberry leaves then shooting. The cocoons are placed in the sun, and the heat kills the worms. In 1836 some Greek merchants, who had resided in the silk districts of Italy, introduced Italian workmen with their families into Morea to improve the mode of winding; and a few years have greatly advanced this branch of industry and placed it on a firm and extensive basis, giving promise of a lucrative and increasing trade. Two silk-throwing manufactories have been established at Athens with great success. (For further particulars see page 32.) The Moniteur of Paris of 16th and 17th October 1855, pays a high compliment to the quality of the Greek silk in the Paris Exhibition, which gained the first prize.
The olive next claims attention. Being indigenous, the trees are found in a wild state in every direction, and seem only to require grafting to yield excellent fruit. Grafted olive trees are very numerous; and many of the people live all the year round on little but olives, indifferently pickled in brine. The oil is extracted in the rudest manner, after which it is either run into cisterns or jars. There is a large consumption of it in the country, nothing else being used for light, and a great deal being consumed in food and cookery; but still there remains a good quantity for exportation. Cotton succeeds well wherever it is sown, especially in the plain of Argos, and in the islands. It does not form an important item in the exports, owing to the large consumption of it in the country. Madder thrives well in the northern districts. Greek tobacco is said to be of good quality, and to have a delicious perfume. It is cultivated at little expense.
The cultivation of fruit-trees might be a profitable branch of industry. The figs of Attica have not degenerated since the olden time; the apricots are delicious; and the pomegranates, oranges, and lemons, would make a good figure in the shops of London and Paris.
First among its natural productions may be mentioned valonia, the cup of the acorn of the Quercus Illyrica, an oak of which considerable forests exist in the neighbourhood of Marathonisi, Cape Papa, Arcadia; also in Attica, the island of Zea, and other places. The acorn is a powerful astringent, used in tanning and dyeing, and for this purpose is shipped for England and Italy. Another species of oak—the Quercus cocceifera, commonly called galls—grows in great quantities on Mount Taygetus, and breeds the insect known as kermes. In the process of drying the insect assumes the appearance of a small brittle berry partly filled with powder, which, from time immemorial, has caused some to look upon it as the berry of the plant, while others considered it to be a swelling caused by the puncture of a particular kind of fly. It is used in dyeing the red Tunis caps both of the Greeks and Turks, and a good deal is exported to Tunis and Alexandria. The dried leaves of the lentsik, also, under the name of Σκόπος φαλάκρος, are used by the tanners in Greece and the Levant. Turpentine is obtained in large quantities from the pine forests of Mount Citharon and other districts.
Notwithstanding the immense clearances made by the ravages of war and other causes, Greece contains 2,800,000 acres of forest, filled with timber trees of the best quality; yet wood is bought abroad for house and ship building, as for want of roads these forests cannot be worked. The shepherds make a practice of setting fire to the coppice woods, in order that their flocks may find some tender sprouts to crop in spring. It is not unusual in the neighbourhood of Athens to find large black patches covering half a square league; and if an explanation be required, the answer is, "Only a shepherd who has been making pasturage for his sheep."
The principal places of trade are Syra, Patras, Piraeus, Kalamata, and Nauplia. The trade of Patras is chiefly import; Hydra, Spezzia, and Galaxidi, come more properly under the denomination of ship-owning ports. The exports are chiefly the articles we have enumerated, with others of minor importance; the imports are chiefly iron ware and woven fabrics; besides coffee, sugar, and spices.
The carrying trade is very considerable, especially among the islands. Some of the Greek vessels are between 600 and 700 tons register, and a good many from 300 to 400 tons; but the great majority of them are boats of 6 or 7 tons having a large hatch in midships. (See page 32.) It is customary for a ship-owner to bargain with a captain and crew, taking up a certain sum at interest, generally secured on bottomry bond; with this money a cargo is purchased on the ship's account, and the profit is divided between the vessel and the crew, the latter sharing among themselves according to their special agreements. In this way the Greeks carry on extensive speculations in corn whenever bad harvests or other circumstances present openings in the ports of Turkey, Italy, Spain, or France. Besides this, they export the various productions of Turkey, Greece, Egypt, Persia, and Southern Russia, to London, Marseilles, and Trieste. The great advantage which the Greeks have over foreigners in prosecuting this trade is that of having relations and connections in the interior on whom they can rely for the collection of small parcels; and thus they avoid the impositions of agents and the profits of middlemen. The Greek trader despises nothing, and will gather a few bags of rags, or a ton or two of bones and horns, while he is chartering fifty vessels to load with corn and tallow. Then the same vessels supply Turkey, Persia, and Greece with the manufactures of England and Germany. The extensive Greek establishments at Manchester for purchasing, examining, and packing goods, attest the importance of this branch of commerce. They have almost quite superseded the English traders here, chiefly from their thorough knowledge of the countries to be supplied, and their readiness to execute the smallest as well as largest commissions for the shopkeepers of the East. The Greek trader slips in everywhere, neglects no business, disdains no expedient, and changes his flag as often as he finds it his interest to do so.
The Greek government does nothing for maritime trade. There is but one lighthouse on the coasts; and, notwithstanding the shipwrecks that are recorded every winter, the ministers turn a deaf ear to the appeals of the mariners. A similar neglect is shown concerning the means of internal communication. There are only seven roads, amounting in all to a length of 30 leagues, and this in a country where the state owns more than half the land, where evictions are easily effected, and where the peasants are willing to lend their hands for works of public utility. There is no highway from Athens to Sparta, or to Corinth, or to Patras, which, owing to the trade in currants, is becoming the commercial capital.
The banking and exchange operations form perhaps the most remarkable part of the commercial system. The national bank was founded at Athens in 1842, the capital being in the first instance fixed at 5,000,000 drachmas. Branches have since been opened at Syra and Patras. The exchange operations throughout the country are ruled chiefly by the transactions at Athens, where bills on London, Paris, Marseilles, Trieste, &c., are negotiated with facility. The most serious hindrance to the progress of industry in Greece is the high rate of interest. The legal rate is 10 per cent. for ordinary loans, and 12 per cent. in commercial business. High as this is, most of the loans are affected at still higher rates; and the government cannot suppress the usury. From a statement inserted in the Spectateur de l'Orient of Athens, it appears that the bank has paid interest to the shareholders, from 1849-54, at 8½ to 9½ per cent. per annum; that its capital amounts now to 6,000,000 drachmas, and a reserve fund of 400,000 drachmas to provide against emergencies.
The manufactures of Greece are few and simple, the value of the raw material being little enhanced by the labour; yet the peasantry are entirely clothed in cotton and woollen fabrics of their own manufacture. The capotes, not only of the Greeks, but of the whole maritime population of the Mediterranean, are made of a woollen stuff, the peculiar manufacture of the Wallachs; and Kalamata is famous for a silk gauze, highly prized in the East for bedcurtains. Embroidery in gold, silver, silk, and cotton, is brought to great perfection; and marble-cutting and sculpturing have made great progress. At the Great London Exhibition of 1851, the embroidered dresses in red and gold, and in blue and silver, were highly praised. The samples of marbles were not in a condition of manufacture to demand much notice as specimens of industry. Commendatory mention is made, in the report, of lithographic stones from Messenia, samples of steatite (the French chalk of commerce), of a fine natural cement of puzzuolano, of varieties of flexible sponge, and some other objects. In the Exhibition of 1851, only four medals were given for various productions of art and manufacture from Greece; and in the Exhibition of Paris, eleven of the first class were given (five of which were for agricultural products); thirty of the second, and twenty-seven of the third.
The Greeks call the horse Alogon, that is to say, the Animals, animal above all others. Alogon also means unreasonable, a term, it would seem, not very inappropriate, for they appear to be intractable creatures. The ass is here, as elsewhere in the East, a much less degraded animal than with us. They are tolerably swift as well as sure-footed. Oxen are scarce, and the city of Athens can only boast of five or six cows. The milk, butter, and cheese of sheep are in general use. Sheep are indeed an important part of the wealth of the country. Every family eats roast lamb at Easter.
The coasts of Greece are well provided with fish; but the people do not seem disposed to cultivate this branch of industry.
The game is excellent; the hares, snipes, and thrushes are said to have a delicious flavour. The passage of the wild ducks at certain seasons affords fine opportunities to those who live near Lake Copais. So the quails on their passage supply the Malnotes with food for a month; they are so heavy on their arrival that they are sometimes knocked down with sticks. Pigeons may be shot in spring and autumn during their migrations, and thrushes in March and April. The Greeks have an almost incredible tolerance for the sportsman. He wades through the barley, scrambles over the walls of the enclosures of unburnt brick at the risk of demolishing them, eats the best fruit, and nobody interferes with him except when he is seen to carry fruit away in his bag. The only enemies the sportsman has to fear are the shepherds' dogs—immense curly monsters which their masters encourage to throw themselves upon strangers. Even in towns dogs are troublesome after nightfall.
Eagles and vultures are abundant in Hymettus, Pentelicus, and most of the other mountains. A few foxes, and even jackals, are found in the Morea. The owl still inhabits the town of Athens, but it is no longer held as sacred there. In the month of April a species of hawk called the kestrel, visits the Acropolis, and rids it from all the crows which invest it. It departs, however, in October, and crows return to defile the marble of the monuments. The tortoise is common in the fields and brooks of Greece, but the people have the greatest repugnance both to the land and water animal.
The choice of Athens as the capital of Greece proceeded on archaeological rather than prudential considerations; and those who know the country express much regret that Corinth was not rather chosen, as being much more convenient for the interests of commerce, besides enjoying a more fertile soil, a more salubrious climate, and a more plentiful supply of water. Even the Piraeus would have suited better than Athens, for, as has been remarked, the capital of a nation of mariners should be a seaport. When King Otho, or rather his father, decided on Athens as the headquarters of government, the once splendid city was but a village in ruins, surrounded by an arid plain. A palace was hastily erected, the court settled as it could into the neighbouring dwellings, and the officials encamped around. But houses were rapidly built; the stone costs nothing, the plaster is excellent, and the Greek masons are not unskillful. There are now 4000 houses and 32,000 inhabitants. The Turkish village which formerly surrounded the base of the Acropolis still remains, and forms a quarter of the new town called Plaka. The new quarter of Athens, where the palace, the university, the legations of England, France, Bavaria, and Russia, with other public establishments, are situated, presents a curious spectacle. The streets are not regularly laid out, nor are they carefully levelled; and a great fosse or open sewer traverses it throughout. Yet at every step are to be seen pretty houses ora- Greece is a constitutional monarchy. The charter guarantees to citizens equality before the law, personal and religious liberty, freedom of the press, immunity from confiscation, and education of the people at the public expense. Unfortunately for Greece, its constitution, from various causes, was never tried to its full extent; above all, the nation was not ripe for a representative government, and the king never gave to it that cordial assistance necessary to strengthen and consolidate it. Since the events of 1854, however, we learn that he has in conjunction with his ministers attempted to bring about those improvements which the advantages of the constitution enable him to do. These endeavours to improve and benefit the country are not thrown away, for the people fully appreciate them; and we may safely say that throughout Greece he is universally loved. Though religious liberty is the first article of the Greek constitution, proselytism is strictly prohibited. The highest offices of state are open to all without distinction. A Greek subject, whether he be Jew, Turk, Catholic, or other persuasion, can attain the highest position in the country by his own individual efforts.
The legislative power is exercised by the king, the senate, and the chamber of deputies collectively. The king enjoys all the privileges of a constitutional monarch; his person is sacred, and his ministers, who are seven in number, are responsible. Senators are nominated for life by the king; they must be forty years old; they receive 500 drachms (about £1.18) per month. The deputies, who must be above thirty years of age, are elected from among persons who possess some property or an independent profession. They retain their places for three years, and receive 250 drachms (about £0.9) per month during the session. The electors consist of all men above twenty-five years of age, who possess any kind of property, or exercise any independent profession in the district of their political residence.
The power of the king is not however really controlled either by the senators or deputies. As little are the ministers of state any check upon his sovereign will. We quote from M. About:
"In fact, the power of the king is only limited by the diplomatic body. Every minister is ready to do anything for the sake of keeping his place. These men—poor, ambitious, without principles, and brought up in such a miserable school of politics—only aspire to gaining as long a time as possible their 800 drachms a month. They know that their position is precarious, that no ministry has lasted, and that the quidnuncs of the coffee-house of 'Beautiful Greece' announce every morning the formation of a new cabinet. They only think, therefore, of keeping in their places, and of making the best of their temporary tenure of state affairs. Each one on coming into power takes care to surround himself with his creatures. He does so from prudence and from duty; from prudence, not to be betrayed by his subordinates; from duty, to reward the devotion of those who have served him. A minister who did not make a clean sweep in his department, and did not put devoted officials into the places of those that knew their business, would pass for a fool and an ungrateful person. He would lose the friendship of his clients, and would become the laughing-stock of his enemies. It follows that all the staff of the administration is renewed with each new ministry; that men of capacity are never formed in the offices; that the officials of all ranks, not having any certainty for the future, lay hands on all that is within their reach; that the state has no old servants, and that there is in the kingdom but one civil functionary who has been able to acquire the right to a pension. A more distant, but not less necessary consequence of such a state of things is, that the king never finds any resistance either in his ministers or in any of the other officials."
Neither did the governments which gave to Greece an absolute monarchy consider seriously enough the character of the people and the state of the country; nor did the revolutionists, who tore from the king the constitution of 1843, take into account the ignorance and barbarousness of the nation. If ever it could be said that a country was not ripe for liberty, it may be said in speaking of Greece. Not that men's minds are closed to political ideas; far from it. All Greeks, without exception, are apt to discuss public affairs—all talk of them, if not wisely, at least with a knowledge of them—all take a passionate interest in the smallest debates of the session."
In the election of representatives, political and personal passions have the greatest influence, and the government takes advantage of this to insure the election of its supporters. Sometimes intimidations and other means are used, which have, on one or two occasions, caused the loss of human life.
The judges of Greece are characterized for their independence and integrity of character. Since the government has been established we believe there is no example of their having been influenced, either by intimidation or by bribe, to commit an act contrary to their consciences. The constitution provided for the appointment for life of the judges after five years from its promulgation, but stipulated that this must first be established by a law. The reason for this was, because at that time there were few judges deeply learned in jurisprudence, and the constitution allowed five years to supply this want from the class that were then studying. Unfortunately, though the five years have long elapsed, no one has yet introduced a law to that effect, because each ministry wishes to reserve these places for their particular supporters.
For administrative purposes, the kingdom is divided into 10 monarchies or prefectures, and into 49 eparchies or sub-prefectures, two of which may be administered by one sub-prefect. The eparchies are subdivided into demarchies or cantons; and the rural districts are administered by municipal functionaries called paredri—that is, coadjutors of the demarch. All these functionaries are nominated by the king, and salaried by the state.
| Nomenclature | Capitals | Eparchies | Chief Towns | Pop. In | |--------------|----------|-----------|-------------|---------| | 1. Hellas, or Northern Greece (3822 sq. m.) | | | | | | Attica and Boeotia | Athens | Megaris | Attica | 104,807 | | Phocis and Phthiotis | Lamia | Doris | Phthiotis | 99,697 | | Aetolia | Longhi | Messolonghi | Eurytania | 118,265 |
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1. *Greece and the Greeks of the present day.* Edinburgh: Thomas Constable and Co. 2. It also has the effect of increasing the class of functionaries, already much too large for the country. For the administration of justice there is an areopagus, or supreme court, 2 courts of appeal, 3 commercial courts, 10 civil and criminal courts, 120 justice of the peace courts, with jury trials, lawyers, notaries, &c. Then there is a provisional civil code, a commercial code, a code of civil process, and a code of criminal law, which seems to secure everything that can be desired for the ends of justice. Capital punishment was introduced by the penal code in 1837, but before an executioner could be found there were 30 or 40 prisoners waiting for execution. The guillotine is the instrument used; and the horror of the scene is occasionally augmented by the struggles of the culprit to escape. The law provides that he shall walk freely and unbound to his doom; and as most of those who are thus condemned are vigorous men, brigands by profession, the struggle is sometimes fearful. The executioner, however, at length prevails, being armed with a dagger, and when the culprit is exhausted with loss of blood from its thrusts, he goes freely to suffer the last sentence of the law.
The people, who are for the most part strongly attached to the Greek Church, have almost forgotten the religion of their king, because they look forward to the 40th article of their constitution being strictly enforced, which stipulates that the next heir or successor of King Otho shall be of the same religion as their own. Prince Leutpold, the brother next in age to Otho, declines changing his religion. A still younger brother, Prince Adalbert, consents to accept the sovereignty in his stead, and the London conference has authorized the substitution; but as he is not absolutely certain of the succession, he chooses to continue a Roman Catholic till actually put in possession of the throne; and to all appearance it will again be the fate of Greece to receive a king who is an utter stranger to them, and at heart averse to their religion.
When Greece was a province of Turkey, its religious community naturally formed part of the patriarchate of Constantinople, one of the four great divisions of the Eastern Church. The war of independence virtually freed it from this position, and the constitution of 1843 established the fact. The patriarch, however, did not recognize the independence of the church in Greece, and the result of a long negotiation between the Greek government and the patriarch was a bull or tomos, signed in 1850 by the patriarch and synod. It set forth that the right of uniting or separating ecclesiastical provinces had in all ages belonged to the oecumenical synods; and it granted to the Greeks the permission to separate, but not without some restriction, to the effect that difficult cases should be referred to the patriarch and his sacred college. This tomos did not satisfy either party. The Russian emperor and his partisans desired to see the Greeks kept in connection with the synod, while the friends of independence desired more perfect freedom. In 1852, the matter was brought before the Chambers, and a bill was passed to the effect that the superior ecclesiastical authority of the kingdom should reside in a permanent synod, called the Holy Synod of the Church of Greece. This synod is composed of four prelates of the kingdom, besides the metropolitan, who enjoys the right of presidency. A commissioner appointed by the king attends the sittings, not to vote, but to countersign all their acts and decisions. The functions of the synod are either internal, including the preservation of pure doctrine and worship with the maintenance of ecclesiastical discipline, and other matters purely religious; or they are external, relating to matters which involve public interests, as marriage, divorce, the excommunication of laymen, and the celebration of extraordinary religious festivals on working days. In the former, the powers of the synod are independent of the state; in the latter, it can act only in concert with the government.
Excommunication, however, is used in a different spirit from the Roman Catholic Church, namely, to influence, by the fear of God and future punishment, the consciences of those who, knowing the perpetrators of a crime, conceal, or do not reveal to the authorities, the criminal, or of those who are the possessors of stolen property. Very often this has succeeded better than the efforts of the police. It is, however, very seldom used, and the synod must first have permission from the king.
The kingdom is divided into 24 episcopal sees, of which 11 are directed by archbishops, and the remaining 13 by bishops. Every bishop is chosen by the king out of three candidates presented by the Holy Synod. He can displace him again only in conformity with the canons, and after the advice of the synod. The metropolitan receives 6000 drachmas (£212) a year; each archbishop, 5000 (£180); and each bishop 4000 (£145). The inferior clergy receive no salary from the state. They live chiefly by the altar, but they also levy certain portions of the harvest.
The government found the country infested with monks, and it has shut up many of their houses; but it has been impossible either to suppress or reform a convent at Janina (Turkey), containing about 200 females, who are not closely secluded, and whose morals are said to be scandalous. The religious houses are understood to be asylums of anti-national intrigue, the inmates being generally devoted to the interests of the Russian emperor, and disposed to look on King Otho as a mere heretic.
There are above 300 churches in Athens and its neighbourhood; only five or six of them are habitable, the rest are miserable sheds or ruins, yet none of them is utterly abandoned. On the day of the saint to which it is dedicated, a little lamp is lighted, a little incense burned, and a few prayers chanted. It would be deemed sacrilege to destroy even the meanest of these sanctuaries. There are no infidels or latitudinarians in Greece; no one is ashamed of punctually attending to the duties of religion. (For the doctrines and state of the Greek Church, see Greek Church.) Roman Catholics are tolerated, among whom is the king himself; but he is obliged to render public homage to the state religion five or six times a year. There are few Jews who, though they have every protection, do not seem to prosper amongst the Greeks.
The army, which was reorganized in 1843, consists now of 6 battalions of the line, 3 battalions of light infantry, 2 troops of cavalry, 3 companies of artillery, 1 company of engineers, and 1 of artillery workmen, 3 corps of gendarmerie, 1 corps of pensioners and phalanx; in all, including the administrative hospital pensioners, 952 officers, 1257 subalterns, 8237 soldiers—total 10,446.
The fleet numbers 21 vessels, principally small, except 3 steamers and some gun-boats which the government has lately ordered in England. The complement of the Greek navy is 1431 men, including 418 officers and 139 sub-officers.
Education. Greece boasts of one university, divided into the faculties of theology, philosophy, law, and medicine; a military school; a polytechnic school of arts and trades; a normal school for training elementary teachers; a school of agriculture; a seminary; seven lycées; an extensive institute for female education; an orphan female school, called Amalion, was established last year at Athens, under the patronage of Her Majesty the Queen of Greece (who is very much beloved by the nation for her intelligence and judgment, and for the great zeal she shows for the patriotic cause); 179 Hellenic schools, in which ancient Greek is taught; and 369 communal or Romaic schools, in which strictly elementary instruction is imparted. In 1854-5 there were 643 students at the university—20 in theology, 190 law, 317 medicine, 74 philosophy, and 42 pharmacy; and there were 38,018 scholars at the various schools. The education in all, from the humblest village school to the university, is gratuitous. The effect is to draw the youth of the country in undue proportion towards the learned professions. A young man will at once enter the house of a Fanariot as a valet, and matriculate at the university as a medical student. When his studies are completed, he will ask his master's permission to attend him in future as his physician. Children and youths of all ages prosecute their studies with indefatigable eagerness; and at Athens an idle student is not to be found.
Newspapers and periodicals form the principal literature of the country, but a considerable number of books are published yearly in every branch of knowledge, either translated or original. In 1851, 188; and in 1852, 164 books were published, the greater part of which were of poetry; and though we understand few of the latter are of a first-class character, yet it shows that the Greeks aspire to gather the laurels of Parnassus once more. All the books are written by Greeks; and it may be mentioned, that out of the 164 published in 1852, 120 belong to the kingdom of Greece, 29 to the Ionian Islands, 7 to Turkey, and 8 to Vienna and London. They are a very musical people; but until lately music did not form a part of their education.
In sculpture, there is now an establishment at Athens of a talented artist, who with such splendid prototypes before him may succeed in approaching his ancestors.
In 1846 M. Salvandy, minister of public instruction in France, resolved to found at Athens a school for the promotion of literature, similar to the French Academy at Rome for the fine arts. It was decided that the members should be chosen from among young men who had obtained fellowships in history, philosophy, and literature; and that they should each spend two or three years in Athens, at the expense of the state, in a house provided for them, and prosecute the study of Greek literature. The first professors that repaired to Greece seemed at a loss what to do with themselves. Some began to learn modern Greek under an Athenian professor; others employed themselves in teaching French to the Athenians; others travelled about the country; while economists at home, disposed to pick holes in the budget, wondered what end was gained by the 40,000 francs per annum which this academy cost the state. In 1850 a decree was passed, placing the school under the patronage of the Academy of Inscriptions and Belles-Lettres, and enjoining that each member should annually send home a paper on some question of Greek history, geography, or archaeology. The institution was, however, nearly extinct, when the fortunate excavations of M. Beulé gave it a fresh impulse. There are now five young professors prosecuting with enthusiasm their researches into the archaeological remains.
The kingdom of Greece has ever been peculiarly in an embarrassed state. It was necessary for the protecting powers to enable her to negotiate a loan by becoming security for her. The sum thus raised has been squandered by the Bavarian regency, and now the revenue never meets the expenditure; so that there is little hope of the debt ever being paid. The greatest part of the taxes are paid in kind, because of the scarcity of money. The wealthy proprietors bribe or intimidate the officials; and the lesser ones are protected either by a powerful friend or by their own poverty. The ministers of finance, therefore, up to 1846, used to prepare two budgets—one indicating what sums the government ought to receive; the other, what it could dare to hope for. The year after the revolution, only a small portion of the taxes imposed were realized.
The state income consists of—(1.) Direct taxes, including land tax, paid in kind; usufruct, or the rent paid in kind by the cultivators of the state lands; except the tax on the currants, valonia, and all kinds of fruit, which is paid in money; taxes on bees, cattle, and buildings, which are paid in money; and a tax on grants of land from the state, also payable in money. (2.) Indirect taxes, including customs-duties, stamp-duties, taxes on trade and professions, licenses to carry arms, consular fees, and quarantine, harbour, and navigation dues. The public establishments—as the mint, the mails, and the royal printing-office—yield very little return. The national property—consisting of mines, quarries, medicinal springs, salt-works, fisheries, forests, olive-groves, vineyards, &c.—ought to supply a considerable revenue, if the government were intelligent enough to have them worked advantageously, and strong enough to compel payment from those who work them. The state expenditure consists chiefly of the interest on the national debt, internal and foreign; the civil list; the salaries of the chambers and the expenses of the ministry; besides those of collecting taxes and customs.
The following statement of the foreign debt is from the Debt report of M. Metaxas, audited by M. Lemaitre, commissioner of the French government:
In 1832, France, England, and Russia, to complete the emancipation of Greece, and to assure her prosperity, supported by their guarantee a loan of sixty millions of francs. Each of the three powers guaranteed a third of the sum, that is to say, twenty million francs.
One part of these sixty millions was intended to indemnify the creditors of Greece, and particularly the Turkish government; the remainder was to supply the first wants of agriculture and commerce, and to form as it were a social capital for this improvised kingdom.
Unfortunately, the funds were confided to the Council of Regency. The regents were irresponsible; they employed the money as they pleased, and went away without giving in any accounts. It is difficult to say which most to admire, the audacity of the regents, the simplicity of the Greeks, or the rashness of the great powers, to confide sixty millions to three individuals who had the right of squandering them.
Since the year 1832, up to the 31st December 1843, the issues of the bonds for the loan amounted to:— Greece.
For the guarantee:
| Language | Francs | Cents | Drachmas. lep. | |----------|--------|-------|----------------| | English | 19,838,805 | 33½ | 22,155,977 79 | | Russian | 19,999,673 | 33½ | 22,335,523 50 | | French | 17,400,661 | 33½ | 19,433,058 58 |
Total: 57,229,040
To be deducted:
Loss in the negotiation of the loan adjudged to MM. Rothschild, at 9¼ per cent.: 3,835,473 59
Discount paid to those that took up the loan for payment in ready money: 1,176,188 10
Commission and other expenses: 1,964,251 73
Nett capital: 6,986,013 42
Interest, sinking fund, commission, different expenses up to 31st December 1843: 33,080,795 31
Remains: 23,867,751 14
Greece contracted in Bavaria another loan, which produced, after deducting the expenses of negotiation: 4,658,186 14
Paid for interest, sinking fund, commission and expenses up to 31st December 1843: 2,809,077 66
Nett: 1,849,109 00 1,849,109 00
Sums advanced by France: 3,085,098 25
Sums advanced by the three Powers: 2,757,028 32
Gross total of the resources of which Greece could have disposed: 31,659,934 33
To be added for two heads misplaced: 100,947 62
Total: 31,659,934 33