Munich?" "Sire, I was then at the military academy," was the modest reply. "Thunder and storms," whispered his majesty to his own aide-de-camp, "it is not safe asking questions here in Greece; but if the Greeks are promoted as rapidly as the Bavarians, no doubt Sir Edmund Lyons is quite right, and every body must be vastly pleased with Count Armansperg's administration, except, perhaps, the parties who may think of paying the loan he is spending.

A short time after the Bavarians were driven from their supremacy in Greece, the Russian party acquired a predominant influence. The discovery of a secret society which embraced many Russian partisans both in Greece and Turkey, was adroitly used by the British minister to exclude them from power, by creating a serious alarm in the mind of King Otho concerning their ulterior projects. This secret association was called the "Philorthodox Society," and it acquired a considerable degree of celebrity from the British cabinet affecting to believe that both the Greek monarchy and the Turkish empire were exposed to imminent danger by its intrigues.

The British minister would in all probability have recovered his influence at the Greek court, after this discovery, had the mind of King Otho not been deeply prejudiced against British policy by a series of the most violent personal attacks that were ever made on the character of a reigning prince. Almost immediately after the recall of Count Armansperg, a number of letters began to appear in the London Morning Chronicle, then generally regarded as the organ through which the foreign office communicated its opinions and prejudices to the public. Though these letters were utterly destitute of the polished and pointed style of the famous invectives of Junius, they displayed in their incorrect and ill-constructed sentences all the fierce and malignant passions of the secret libeller, and the same preference of sarcasm to truth. King Otho was the great object of hostility, and the attacks were rather directed against his person with the intention of wounding his feelings, than against the nature of his despotic power for the purpose of improving the constitution of Greece. The letters appeared as communications from a correspondent at Athens, but it was soon evident in Greece that they originated in diplomatic circles, where many things were known of which the people of Athens had not the smallest idea. As the correspondence was extensively disseminated by the British legation and British consuls in Greece, it soon began to excite great attention.

From one step to another, the correspondence reached its climax, by declaring that King Otho was "an idiot," and that a certificate had been signed by a number of Bavarians about the court, declaring his incapacity, and the names of several persons holding high offices in the king's palace were pub lished as having signed the certificate. The news produced a ferment at Athens, and caused the dismissal of two of the Bavarians accused by the anonymous writer, from their offices. at court. Conjectures were risked concerning the real source of the correspondence, but the mystery of the writer has never been revealed. The effects of the attacks on King Otho have, however, been visible ever since, in the uneasy position occu pied by the British minister at the Greek court. King Otho, not without justice, considers himself grossly insulted, both by the publication of the correspondence in a ministerial paper, and by the publicity given to the correspondence by the agents of the British government in Greece; and he holds Sir Edmund Lyons and Lord Palmerston responsible, as many of the facts could never have become public without the sanction of one of these ministers.

The effect in Greece was also injurious to the English party. Some of the Greeks, disgusted with the conduct of the court, inferred that the British cabinet had determined to dethrone King Otho, and imprudently embarked in anti-dynastic intrigues. The personal hostility between King Otho and Sir Edmund Lyons became a marked feature in Greek politics. A section of the constitutional party began to plot the dethronement of King Otho, and the royalists demanded the recall of Sir Edmund Lyons. Both parties failed, but the astuteness displayed by the king of Greece in the long diplo matic struggle he has carried on with a minister of the acknowledged talents and great popularity of Sir Edmund Lyons, has afforded the world ample proof of his capacity to reign in the way most unfavorable to British influence.

This unfortunate discord proved very injurious to the prog ress of Greece. When the cry of the Greek people for constitutional government, as the only means of alleviating the burdens under which they suffered, became so loud as to alarm the court, King Otho, distrusting the projects of Great Britain and Russia, both of whom he seems to have suspected of designs to dethrone him, threw himself into the arms of France, and trusted blindly to its support. A revolution was evidently impending. Great Britain and Russia united in pressing for

explanations concerning the financial position of the Greek government, and the king, in his embarrassment, adopted the most injudicious measures of economy, making extensive retrenchments among the Greeks in order to maintain all the overpaid Bavarian officers, officials, and courtiers about the palace. The consequence was a revolution headed by the Greek military, on the 15th of September, 1843. King Otho was compelled to proclaim the constitution which had been in abeyance since the dispersion of the deputies at Pronia, and convoke a national assembly.

It is generally supposed that both the English and Russian ministers at Athens regarded the dethronement or abdication of King Otho as a certain consequence of the revolution, unless he should throw himself into their arms for protection. That his dethronement was actively sought and openly advocated by many of their partisans, is generally asserted, and the accusation acquires some color from the facts noticed in a pamphlet lately published at Edinburgh by Mr. Edward Masson, the British Philhellenist best acquainted with the political affairs of Greece, and who was present at Athens during the revolution. Mr. Masson says, "It cannot be denied, that an Athens correspondent of the Morning Post, who usually knows very accurately how the wind blows at the British legation, wrote to that journal ten days before the revolution, and stated that the object of the impending movement was positively the forcible expulsion of Otho, and the overthrow of the Bavarian dynasty; and that a constitution would not be accepted at Otho's hands, should he offer it a hundred times. This remarkable letter was printed, with observations of the editor, before the news of the revolution could reach England. Lit era scripta manet."

The opinion that the British and Russian legations directed

* Mr. Edward Masson resided in Greece from 1824 to 1845. He held the highest legal offices in the country, and his eloquence at the bar was the admiration of the Greeks. The pamphlet from which we quote, consists of two letters published in an Edinburgh newspaper, "The Witness;" the one addressed to Mr. Baillie Cochrane, who is also the author of a pamphlet "On the state of Greece," and the second addressed to the Earl of Dundonald, better known as Lord Cochrane. Mr. Masson is also the author of a valuable little work entitled, "An Apology for the Greek Church; or Hints on the means of promoting the religious improvement of the Greek nation: by Edward Masson, one of the Judges in the supreme court of Areopagus. Edited by J. S. Howson, M. A., of Trinity College, Cambridge. London. 1844." The Morning Post succeeded the Morning Chronicle, as the channel through which the Greek court was attacked at London.

the movement was so general at Athens during the affair, that on the night of the 14th of September, while the troops were marching into the square before the king's palace, the British minister was said to have sent his secretary of legation to the ministry of finance, which is opposite his residence, in order to inquire the cause of the tumult in the city. The sergeant of the guard is said to have turned round very coolly and replied, "You ask me what's the matter! Well; now that is what I call diplomacy; as if you did not know at the British mission what is going on this night in Athens a great deal better than I do."

The project of dethroning King Otho, whether entertained by the French, the English, or the Russians, (for they accused one another,) failed completely. The Greeks had begun to be disgusted with the constant interference of foreign diplomatic agents in their affairs, and neither the army nor the people could be induced to adopt the cry for an abdication. In vain the corps diplomatique was prevented from obtaining an audience of the king; in vain a decree compelling his majesty to confer a decoration on those who had taken up arms against him, was submitted to him for signature. King Otho had tact enough to perceive that though the people were for the constitution, they were not against him, and he was easily persuaded by the members of the council of state who communicated with him to accept all the propositions made to him, and, by keeping possession of the throne, save Greece from anarchy.

It may here be necessary to point out the other causes which prevented the success of his enemies. In such cases, foreign agents naturally pay more attention to guard against the possibility of being personally compromised in case of failure, than to arrange the details of each step in the proceedings necessary to conduct the conspiracy to success. It therefore happened that the English and Russian parties were unprepared with the precise proposals necessary to bring about their ultimate object, and while they were balancing in doubt and indecision, the people adopted the determination to make Otho a constitutional monarch. Great Britain was the first to perceive that the moment for guiding the movement had passed away, and by prudently joining the popular cause and affecting to become a partisan of King Otho's constitutional power, she acquired a predominant influence during the formation of the constitution. Russia, on the other hand, satisfied that the incongruous political position of Greece will yet require another "convention"

for its settlement, has not taken any prominent part in Greek affairs since the revolution of 1843, but has abandoned the field to the rivalry of England and France.

The constitution of Greece, completed in 1844, is not without some serious defects. It was framed by a coalition of the constitutional French and English parties, and is an imitation of European monarchical constitutions, rather than a political system, adapted to the peculiarities of Greece. In imitation of the House of Peers, a senate, consisting of members for life, has been appointed. The selection of these senators is left to the king, but his choice is restricted by numerous regulations, and the consequence is, that the Senate consists of a number of secondary characters, without influence or knowledge, and is utterly useless as a legislative chamber. Indeed, it cannot be denied, even by the warmest friends of Greece, that the national assembly, irritated by foreign domination and diplomatic intrigue, displayed a spirit of political jealousy and official cupidity, which has proved very injurious to the cause of liberty. Every Greek not born within the territory of the microscopic kingdom, or who had not taken up arms during the revolution, was excluded from all appointments under government. In consequence of this national decree, many of the ablest public servants were dismissed from employments they had discharged with honor for many years. Two parties were thus created among the Greeks themselves,-the autochthones, [citizens by birth,] and the strangers. The ingratitude of the autochthones in passing this disgraceful law, merits the severest reprobation; but the error of Mavrocordato and the English party, in countenancing the proceeding, was an act of pitiful weakness or blundering ambition. Their misconduct soon produced bitter fruit. From the hour the decree passed, the popularity of the English party began to decline among the enlightened portion of the nation; it was evident that the advancement of Greece was a secondary object to men who could so basely abandon liberal principles to serve their party views; and henceforth their actions were scrutinized with suspicious and searching

eyes.

Immediately after the termination of the national assembly, in 1844, Mavrocordato formed a ministry under the open and avowed protection of Great Britain. With the exception of Mavrocordato himself, this ministry did not contain a single member suitable to the place he occupied. Tricoupis, who