SECTION II.

CONTINENTAL GREECE AND THE PELOPONNESUS.

SPECIAL INTRODUCTORY INFORMATION.

1. Historical Sketch and actual Condition, &c.—2. Climate, Soil, &c.3. Packets. 4. Money.-5. Shops, Servants, &c.-6. Inns and Accommodation for Travellers.-7. Skeleton Tours.

1. HISTORICAL SKETCH AND ACTUAL CONDITION, &c.

Historical Sketch.-The historical outline has already (GENERAL INTRODUCTION, 1) been carried down to the formal recognition by the Ottoman Porte of the independence of Greece, in the treaty of Adrianople in 1829. The emancipated state was at that time under the government of Count John Capodistria of Corfu (see above), who had been elected for seven years president or governor of Greece (Kußepvýτns tĥs 'Exλádos), at the National Congress, held at Trozen in April, 1827. Its limits were finally, after much discussion, fixed by the three protecting Powers, England, France, and Russia, nearly at those of what had been anciently Hellas Proper; that is, they included the Peloponnesus, the Cyclades, some of the Sporades, the island of Euboea, and so much of Northern Greece as lies S. of a line drawn, partly along the chain of Othrys, from the Ambracian Gulf (Gulf of Arta) to the Pagasaan Gulf (Gulf of Volo): consequently the modern Hellas, or Greece, though less extensive than the country once so called, comprises the territories of the most celebrated and interesting of the Grecian states. As Cicero has said (pro Flacco, § 27), Hæc cuncta Græcia, quæ famâ, quæ gloriâ, quæ doctrinâ, quæ plurimis artibus, quæ etiam imperio et bellicâ laude floruit, parvum quemdam locum Europæ tenet, semperque tenuit.

The limits of the new state having been defined, the next subject to be settled was the proper form of government. Count Capodistria was invested with powers essentially monarchical; and experience has shown that no other polity is adapted to the genius and taste of the modern Greek nation. Unfortunately, however, the Greeks themselves were never formally consulted in the matter, and the consequence was that they threw many obstacles in the way of an adjustment of differences. When the allies set to work to find a permanent Sovereign for Greece, several conditions tended to limit the number of candidates for this honour. It was determined that the person elected should belong to a Royal House; and in this manner Capodistria was set aside. From the mutual jealousies of England, France, and Russia, and for other reasons, Prince Paul of Wirtemberg, one of the princes of Baden, and several others, were successively rejected; at length the allies offered the new crown to Prince Leopold of Saxe Coburg (afterwards King of the Belgians), who, after some hesitation, finally declined it, alleging as his motives the unwillingness of the Greeks to receive him, and their dissatisfaction at the confined boundaries assigned to them. The truth appears to be that Count Capodistria repaid the slight which had been put upon him and the rest of the Greeks, in not consulting them in the negotiation, by exaggerating to Prince Leopold the difficulties which awaited him. At the same time the president gained his point in the prolongation of his own tenure of office for a period apparently indefinite.

By his delay in summoning a National Assembly Capodistria occasioned general discontent, and there were several insurrections against his authority. He became, moreover, peculiarly obnoxious to several of the restless military chiefs of the late War of Independence, who found their importance diminished under the new system. A conspiracy was formed against him in the family of Pietro Mavromicháli, the well-known Bey of Maina; and he was assassinated by two members of that clan on October 9, 1831, at Nauplia, which was then the seat of government. The conspirators chose for the execution of their plot a visit of the President to the church of St. Spiridion, the Patron-Saint of Corfu, his native island. They awaited his arrival at the gate, and as he was entering the church George Mavromicháli stabbed him in the side, while Constantine shot him in the back. He expired almost immediately,* and one of the assassins was killed on the spot by the soldiers on guard. The other escaped for the moment, but being soon afterwards arrested, was shot by sentence of a court-martial. The prompt movements of the party of the President secured their power for a season, and his brother, Count Augustine Capodistria, assumed the reins of government for a short period. But he soon felt himself obliged to relinquish his authority, and retire from Greece. After much deliberation the election of the Three Powers finally fell on Prince Otho, a younger son of the King of Bavaria, who was proclaimed on August 30, 1832, at Nauplia, where he arrived in the beginning of the following year. It was provided that King Otho should be of age on completing his eighteenth year, that is, in June, 1835; and that three Bavarian councillors, appointed as a Regency, should govern during his minority. It was also provided that a corps of regular Bavarian troops, armed, equipped, and paid by the Greek state, should be maintained until the organization of a national army. Moreover the Allies guaranteed to the new government of Greece a loan of 60 millions of francs (about 2,400,000l.).

On attaining his majority King Otho declined to establish a representative form of government, and continued to govern mildly but absolutely, assisted by a Council of State appointed by himself. In 1836 he contracted a marriage with the Princess Amelia, a daughter of the Duke of Oldenburg. He never had any issue. The obtaining of a constitutional form of government was effected by perhaps the most peaceable and well-ordered revolution recorded in history. On September, 1843, the constitutional party having matured their plans, and having gained the army and the great mass of the population to their cause, surrounded the Palace at Athens with a body of troops, and firmly but respectfully required King Otho to sign the Charter which they offered him, or to quit Greece immediately and for ever. A vessel was prepared to convey the Sovereign and Court to Germany, in case of refusal; but not a drop of blood was spilt on either side. After a parley and hesitation of several hours, the King gave way, and signed the Constitutional Charter, which, among many other provisions, established a representative government, and enforced the dismissal from the Greek service of the Bavarian officers and soldiers, and of all other foreigners, with the exception of such as had taken a share in the War of Independence,

Since 1843 there have been several local insurrections and disturbances in various parts of Greece; the event most interesting to Englishmen has, probably, been the blockade of the Greek Ports, in the spring of 1850, by the British fleet, in consequence of the refusal of King Otho's government to liquidate the claims advanced by several British and Ionian subjects for compensation for various losses and injuries. The blockade lasted rather more than three months, when the Greek ministry at length conceded the points in Count Capodistria was interred in the burying-place of his family-the chapel of a small convent in one of the suburbs of the town of Corfu, where a short Greek inscription marks higrave.

dispute. The policy of Lord Palmerston, then Foreign Secretary, on this occasion was violently assailed in England, and the debates on the question in both Houses of Parliament will repay perusal.

During the Russian War, from 1854 to 1856, the Piræus was occupied by a combined English and French force.

On the 19th of October, 1862, a revolution at Athens overturned the Bavarian dynasty from the throne of Greece, which by the provisional government was declared vacant three days later. King Otho was forced to quit the kingdom on the 24th of October, and on the 6th of June, 1863, the throne was accepted by the second son of the King of Denmark, who was born on the 24th of December, 1845, and who arrived at the Piræus on October 30th, 1863. His Majesty, who reigns under the title of George I., King of the Hellenes, married on the 27th of October, 1867, Her Imperial Highness Olga, daughter of the Grand Duke Constantine of Russia and niece of the Czar, Alexander II. The King belongs to the Lutheran Church, the children of the marriage being brought up as members of the Church of Greece. The Ionian Islands were annexed to Greece on the acceptance of the throne by his Majesty.

The following is a sketch of the Greek Government as at present constituted:

The Legislature is composed of the King, with his Executive Council of Ministers, and a Representative Assembly (Bovλń).

The King enjoys by the Constitution of the 17th of November, 1864, the usual privileges of Constitutional Sovereigns. The Assembly is composed of the Deputies elected by the various towns and districts of the kingdom.

Greece is divided into 13 Nomes (vóuoi), answering to the Departments of France, and each of these is presided over by a Nomarch (Noμápxns), an officer corresponding to a French Préfet. They are as follows:

The 13 Nomes are subdivided into 59 Eparchies (Enapxía), and these again into several hundred Demes (Añμo), divisions which correspond respectively to the Cantons and Communes, as the Eparchs and Demarchs are analogous to the Sous-Préfets and Maires of France. There are 361 Communes.

Public Revenue.-The public revenue of Greece is derived from the tax of one-eighth of the produce of all private lands, and from the fourth, or 25 per cent., of the produce of the national domains. There are also duties on mines and minerals, imports and exports, cattle, salt, &c., as also on stamps, &c. The revenue of Greece for the year 1870 was estimated at 1,218,0007. sterling; the expenditure during the seven years ending with 1870, including payment of interest on debts, was on an average about 274,000l. yearly, in excess of the revenue. For details, see Reports on Greek Finances,' by H.M.'s Secretaries of Legation at Athens.

Justice.-The civil code of the kingdom of Greece is still in the main the Manual of the Laws (Прóxεipov Tv Nóμwv), an abridgment of the Basilica, written in A.D. 1345, by the Byzantine Armenopoulos. This is also the manual by which the bishops and primates of the Rayah Greeks, who are had recourse to by their co-religionaries oftener than are the Turkish Cadis, guide their decisions; a circumstance that must prove a no less powerful link than identity of language, race, and creed, in connecting the Greeks of the Christian kingdom with their brethren under the Ottoman dominion. The criminal, commercial, and correctional codes of Greece were drawn up by M. von Maurer, one of the Bavarian Council of Regency, and are founded on the Code Napoléon. The military code of Greece is likewise adopted from that of France. Besides the High Court of Appeal and Cassation at Athens, dignified with the time-honoured title of areopagus, there are Courts of Assize and primary jurisdiction in the chief towns of the Nomes or departments, and various inferior tribunals. Trial by jury has been introduced in most cases; but the juries are said to be generally much too indulgent from fear of the vengeance of friends of the accused.

The Justices of the Peace (Eipηvodíkai) must be men who have undergone a legal education. As is the case in almost all countries except England, the government, and not the injured individual, prosecutes the criminal, according to the report of the Juge d'Instruction ('AvaкpiThs), who first examines generally the witnesses and evidence. Judicial oaths are administered with much solemnity, the whole assemblage standing up during the ceremony. As to the question how far the Greek judges administer justice uprightly, the sweeping charges of general corruption brought against them are false or exaggerated, though their salaries are so miserably insufficient, that the natural inference is, that they must have other sources of profit.

Religion. Full religious toleration is guaranteed by the Constitution of 1864. With the exception of about 25,000 Latins, or Roman Catholics, and about 6,000 Jews, the whole people of Greece belongs to the National Greek Church. The few Latins still remaining are chiefly found in some of the Egean Islands, and are descended from Genoese and Venetian settlers of the Middle Ages. The University and Ecclesiastical Seminary at Athens are now causing a rapid improvement; but the Greek clergy are, generally speaking, poor and illiterate; their habits, however, are said to be simple and exemplary. Monasteries are now by no means so nnmerous in Greece proper, as in the Ionian Islands and the Helleno-Turkish provinces. In 1829, under the government of Capodistria, above 300 of the smaller convents were abolished and their revenues secularized; nearly 100 still remain, with a total of from 1500 to 2000 inmates.

The doctrines of the Church of the kingdom of Greece are identical with those professed by the Holy Eastern Church (GENERAL INTRODUCTION, m); but since the Revolution it has been independent of the Patriarch of Consta