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From this moment a struggle for constitutional liberty was commenced by the Greek nation, against the united power of the allied courts and the king of Bavaria. The first act of this great national contest was the desertion of liberal principles by the partisans of British influence, under the guidance of Mr. Dawkins. This party had obtained possession of the principal ministerial offices in the provisional government, and in their eagerness to retain power, its members sacrificed the interests of the Greek people to the intrigues of foreign diplomacy. Their apostasy is boldly announced in an official report signed by Mavrocordato, Tricoupis, Zographos, and Clonares, in which they make their responsibility to a foreign king paramount to their duty to the constitution of their country. From this period, the faction in Greece called the English party, though consisting of many respectable men, has always been regarded by the constitutionalists with considerable distrust, and indeed, the frequent desertion of their principles for place has prevented them from recovering the reputation they then forfeited. In their defence it has been sometimes urged, that the majority of the national assembly of Pronia consulted private interests in the line of conduct it pursued; this may or may not be true, but it is certain that the partisans of English diplomacy consulted their interests both more openly and more profitably. The real secret of the hostility of Great Britain to constitutional liberty in Greece, at this time, lay, perhaps, less in any decided aversion to liberty, or any very strong attachment to King Otho, than in a pitiful fear that a free election of deputies would give a majority to the Capodistrian party.

In consequence of the intrigues of the allied powers, and the incapacity of the provisional government, Greece remained in a state of anarchy, until the arrival of King Otho and the Bavarian regency, in 1833. Unfortunately for Greece, there was only one member of the regency who was sincerely attached to constitutional liberty; but, fortunately for her, he was the only one who possessed any legislative talents. This man was George Lewis Maurer, and he is now a member of the liberal cabinet lately formed by the king of Bavaria. Almost all the good Greece has derived from the creation of the monarchy, is to be attributed to the legislative and ad

*The document is printed by Thiersch, Vol. I., p. 412.

ministrative labors of Mr. Maurer. An excellent organization of the courts of justice and an admirable code of civil procedure still attest his merit. The heads of his colleagues were filled with very different ideas. The grand executive act by which Count Armansperg, the president of the regency, announced his arrival in Greece, -the first stroke of his policy, was to issue a royal ordonnance declaring that two Bavarian lions crowned and rampant,-probably on account of the loan,were to be the supporters of the arms of the Greek kingdom. The introduction of the paraphernalia of monarchy followed, and, in a short time, the Greeks had exchanged their dirty kilts, or fustinellos, for uniforms, embroidered jackets, lace, ribbons, crosses, and stars. Many absurdities were daily committed, but no absurdity committed in Greece, not even in the expenditure of the loan, was equal to the absurdity of Talleyrand, Palmerston, and Lieven, who put the money at the disposal of the regency before its members were acquainted with the wants of Greece. Mr. Maurer was unable to keep himself free from party connections, and he attached himself, perhaps, too closely to the French party. His enemies availed themselves ably of all his errors, and the king of Bavaria was induced to recall him. He ceased to be a member of the regency on the 31st of July, 1834.*

From August, 1834, to the 14th of February, 1837, Greece was governed by Count Armansperg, an amiable and accomplished diplomatist, who imposed on the Greeks by assuming the air of a grand seigneur. His policy, however, was rather directed to maintaining himself in place, by securing a predominant influence to British diplomacy, than either to advancing or retarding the social and political improvement of Greece. It was by this very indifference to principle, that during his administration, the abuses of the Bavarian system

* Mr. Maurer, after his return to Germany, published a work on the state of Greece, which, besides a defence of his administration, contains much valuable information: Das Griechische Volk in öffentlicher, kirchlicher, und privatrechtlicher Beziehung vor und nach dem Freiheits-Kampfe. Heidelberg. 1835. 3 vols. 8vo. There is also an English work which throws much light on this period, but it labors under the disadvantage of presenting every thing distorted by a violent fit of Russophobia: "The Diplomatic History of the Monarchy of Greece, from the year 1830, by H. H. Parish, Esq., late Secretary of Legation to Greece." London. 1838. 8vo. An account of the state of Greece under Count Armansperg's administration will also be found in a pamphlet, entitled, The Hellenic Kingdom, and the Greek Nation, by George Finlay, Author of "Greece under the Romans." London. 1836.

were carried to their greatest height. The number of Bavarians in Greece was never so great as during the period of his supremacy in the regency, and political corruption and jobbing reached their acme in every department, during his administration as chancellor. In order to strengthen his position, many Greeks were admitted to share the profits of his system, so that his administration undoubtedly acquired a certain degree of sinister popularity. The finances of Greece were, however, kept under the control of Bavarians, and the real finance minister could not speak a word of Greek, and hardly two of French. A council of state was also formed. This institution was undoubtedly a step in the right direction, though it was made into the mud; for it must be observed, that this council was composed, not of men capable of being of any use as counsellors, but only of those whom it was of some importance to gain as supporters. Their votes were secured by large salaries, and by the power which the Count retained in his own hands of removing them at pleasure, if they displayed constitutional sympathies. An absolute government can never avoid resorting to intimidation. Attempts were made to restrain the liberty of the press, and a disposition. was manifested to commence a persecution of the orthodox, or, as it was called-to render it unpopular-the Russian party. The preacher Germanos, who was editor of a relig ious newspaper at Athens, was exiled by Count Armansperg to a monastery in Skiathos, and in this way, his newspaper was suppressed. Sir Edmund Lyons, a captain in the British navy, and a man of popular manners, was sent by Lord Palmerston as British minister, with instructions to support the system of the Count to the utmost. Sir Edmund Lyons has continued to represent Great Britain ever since at the court of Athens, and has taken a leading position in Greek politics. His first appearance in diplomacy was as the supporter of the Bavarians and the foreign camarilla, and as the staunch. opponent of a representative government, on the usual diplomatic pretext, that Greece was not fit for a constitution.*

*There is a curious despatch containing a rather fulsome eulogium of the Count's administration, in the Parliamentary Papers, presented to Parliament August, 1836, p. 37. Among a number of inaccurate statements, it is said, "that not one Bavarian has landed in Greece to fill a place under government, since the king's majority." Now, if this were literally correct, there would be no great merit in it, as Count Armansperg had been absolute sovereign of Greece for more than a year previously, as president of the regency, with two ciphers as colleagues, and during that time he had brought a number of his creatures

The lavish expenditure of Count Armansperg brought Greece into financial difficulties, and the king of Bavaria recalled him, as he had done Mr. Maurer. Mr. Rudhardt was sent as his successor, but Rudhardt resigned his office of prime minister, in the month of December, 1837, and his resignation put an end to the open supremacy of the Bavarians in the Greek cabinet.

From the 20th of December, 1837, to the 15th of September, 1843, the cabinet was almost entirely composed of Greeks, though King Otho continued to employ a number of private secretaries, chiefly Bavarians, to control the acts of his ostensible ministers, and thus gave a permanent existence to the camarilla established by Count Armansperg. It is not necessary to enter into any details concerning the political conduct of the various cabinets, from the termination of the Bavarian supremacy to the establishment of constitutional liberty, in 1843. During this period, national feelings gained strength so rapidly, that the ministers of the allied powers were in turns compelled to appear as the friends of a representative system. While Bavarian domination received the unqualified support of Great Britain, France whispered a few words in favor of the constitution. When Mr. Chrestides presided over the Greek cabinet, under the auspices of France, Great Britain loudly preached revolutionary doctrines; and when Mavrocordato assumed the direction of affairs, in 1841, on anti-constitutional principles, with the joint support of France and England, Russia stepped forward as the advocate of Grecian liberty.

Let us now pause for a moment from the ungrateful task of recording the tortuous course of diplomatic intrigue, and turn to the more agreeable duty of tracing the progress of the Greek people. The year 1833 found the population of Greece, according to the unexceptionable testimony of Professor Thiersch, in a state of such destitution, that the proprietors and farmers were without cattle to till their lands. The scanty harvest of the year was, in a great part, the produce of manual labor. Every town in Greece was in ruins; Argos, which had been rebuilt under Capodistrias's government, had been

from Bavaria, and, among others, Mr. Frey, who did more injury_to_the finances of Greece, than any other foreigner. It is true, this was not done "since the king's majority." It would be easy to produce many other facts as contrary to the spirit of the despatch.

again destroyed; the colony of Greek refugees, established by Dr. Howe, at the isthmus of Corinth, was burnt to the ground; Athens, and the whole island of Euboea, having remained in the hands of the Turks, were almost desolate; the schools established by Capodistrias were dissolved, and the regular army had melted away. The king arrived, and the support of the three powers restored order; immediately, every man sought to rebuild his house, and every agriculturist to procure a pair of oxen; the price of labor rose to the most extravagant pitch, and the interest of money advanced to four per cent. a month. The second volume of the work of Professor Thiersch treats of the measures which the regency was bound to adopt, in order to alleviate, as much as possible, the evils under which Greece was suffering. He discusses the means of improving the condition of the agricultural population, of restoring industry, of reviving commerce, and of ameliorating the moral and intellectual state of the people. The practical experience of the governments of Great Britain and Russia in administering the affairs of thinly peopled and partially organized territories, induced the enlight ened men in Greece to suppose that the subject must be one well understood by the ministers of these courts, and it was concluded they would communicate their advice to the regency and King Otho. The work of Professor Thiersch, however, proved useless to his countrymen; and the advice. of the ministers of Great Britain and Russia, had they been really competent to give any, would have been rendered of no avail, by their joining the opposition shortly after the arrival of the regency. Indeed, the way in which the affairs of Greece were treated by king, regency, and foreign ministers, affords convincing proof, that practical knowledge of statesmanship is as rare among diplomatists in the nineteenth century, as it was in the seventeenth, when their verbal astuteness and magnificent pretensions drew from the Swedish chancellor, Oxenstiern, the celebrated reply to his son: Mi fili, parvo mundus regitur intellectu.

The advances made by the Greeks in social improvement previously to the year 1843, were almost entirely due to their own individual exertions. The little assistance they derived from their own government was unwillingly and ungraciously accorded, and any succour they received from foreigners has been vaunted rather more than it deserves. While King Otho obtained, or, to speak perhaps more correctly, seized a civil list

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