Administration of justice--Popular assemblies--Free constitution--
Bavarian code--Reforms--Agriculture--Aristocracy--Argos--King Otho--
Russian intrigues--Greek church--Synod--Russian church--Religious
feeling--New coinage.
Generally speaking, the political deliberations of the senate were
conducted upon principles of the purest liberty. Perfect freedom of
opinion was the right of every senator--a right, not depending on the
permission of the prince, but firmly established by law.
♦ POPULAR ASSEMBLIES ♦
In all ordinary matters, then, the prince and the senate usually
decided. Questions, however, whether of policy or law, in which the
people were materially interested, were discussed by the senators in
their presence. Justice was administered in the forum by the elders; of
the merits of the judicial decision, the people, who commonly crowded
the forum, were the sole arbiters. When an elder or judge delivered
his opinion, they evinced their disapprobation or assent by murmur or
applause. Each party pleaded his own cause, the elders sitting in the
middle of the forum, on marble seats highly polished, to remind them of
the mental purity which they ought to bring to the discharge of their
office. They formed a circle, held sceptres in their hands, and the
people around them were restrained by heralds, whose province it was to
preserve order in the assembly. Witnesses were heard as to the facts
of the case, and when both the litigant parties had concluded their
statements, the elders rose, one after the other, and explaining the
law, pronounced their opinions on the question at issue. That which was
most agreeable to the majority of the people prevailed.
So also when an impost was to be levied, the senate and people met
in a general council; and if the object for which the impost was
required were approved of, the people agreed to pay such tributes as
were necessary, consisting of ships for foreign expeditions, corn, and
cattle. The inhabitants of towns yielded regular contributions to the
prince, which they levied amongst themselves; and if they held him in
particular reverence, they added occasional gratuities to mark their
attachment to his person.
♦ FREE CONSTITUTION ♦
Thus, then, in the most ancient condition of the Greek people we find
all the traces of a free constitution: a king, whose power was limited
by the laws, and the immediate control of a senate of nobles. We find
this senate acting not only as a free legislative assembly, but also
as a judicial tribunal. We find another assembly, composed of the
people, whose duty it was to give or withhold taxes, and act as the
arbiters of justice in the last resort--in fact, exhibiting the very
power which led in our own country to the establishment of the House of
Commons, and the system of juries. In the towns we discern the germs
of municipalities. We see the law and the administration of justice
held in the most sacred respect; and notwithstanding the many centuries
that have since intervened, and the many vicissitudes through which the
Greeks have struggled once more to a state of national existence and
freedom, there is nothing more certain than this, that the principles
of their ancient customs have never been wholly obliterated from the
minds of that people.
♦ BAVARIAN CODE ♦
It can be a matter, therefore, of no serious difficulty to revive
in Greece the free institutions which Greece was perhaps the first
nation in Europe to appreciate and enjoy. I am aware that from the
unfortunate dissensions which broke out in the regency soon after its
establishment, very little progress has been effected in re-organizing
the country. The attempt also which was made by that body to introduce
into the monarchy a system of laws, derived altogether from the
Bavarian code, was a most dangerous mistake. There was in that code
no one principle congenial to the habits of the people, and the
consequence was natural--the moment it was promulgated it proved to be
utterly impracticable. The business of the legislator in Greece is to
study her most ancient laws, and to reproduce them with such analogous
developments, or such modifications and suppressions as the modern
improvements in society may demand.
♦ REFORMS ♦
Preparations were already in progress at Napoli for the removal of
the seat of government to Athens, and for the inauguration of the
king: events which have since taken place. Although no senate, no
representative assembly, no judicial tribunal, no municipalities have
yet been constituted, yet, I entertain no doubt that measures have been
adopted for the accomplishment of all these great objects. Indeed, the
outlines of municipalities had been dispatched to Argolis, Arcadia,
Messenia, Attica, Phocis, Locris, Eubœa, and the Cyclades. Civil
tribunals have also been established in several districts, which act
with the consent of parties until the code of laws shall be completed.
The police of the country has also been placed upon an effective
footing, by the employment of a body of about a thousand men, as
patroles, on the principal lines of communication through the interior
of the country. These officers have been judiciously selected from
amongst the Palichari, who had previously been themselves the chief
agents of disturbance and of annoyance to the traveller. They have
become now the best guardians of the public peace, because as they are
well paid they have a direct interest in its preservation.
♦ AGRICULTURE ♦
The natural mind of Greece is peculiarly favourable, from ancient
associations, to the establishment of a free constitution. Fortunately,
also, the government has only to refer to the early ages of that
country for models of every species of enterprize by which the fertile
tracts of land in which it abounds, were turned to the utmost possible
advantage. The great evil arising from the generally mountainous nature
of its territory, is, that in some places the even plains at the feet
of those mountains are filled with stagnant waters, collected from
the neighbouring heights, while in other places the waters generated
on the mountain tops escape too speedily to the sea, leaving the
declivities and inclined plains over which they rush without sufficient
moisture for the growing season of the year. In ancient times, this
double evil was guarded against with wonderful industry and success.
Wherever the waters from the mountains were likely to stagnate, sewers
were constructed to carry off the superfluity; wherever the torrents
were too rapid, they were diverted into reservoirs, whence they were
gradually distributed over the soil, so as to afford it all the
advantages of complete irrigation. During the ages which have since
elapsed, the sewers have been choked up, and the reservoirs have been
destroyed; the consequence of which is, that at the present day, some
of the very best parts of Greece are altogether lost to the purposes of
agriculture. The government will have simply to direct the old sewers
to be cleared and repaired, and the reservoirs to be re-established,
in order to render Greece for its extent the most fertile kingdom in
Europe.
♦ ARISTOCRACY ♦
In the actual state of things it is probably not an inexpedient
principle of legislation to say, that there shall be no aristocratical
order allowed in that country. So many persons of equivocal character,
of undoubted ignorance, and discontented views, would put forward
pretensions to nobility, which could not be resisted without danger to
the existence of the monarchy, that a general rule of entire exclusion
is preferable to partial admissions. The abolition of majorats,
however, I take to be impracticable as well as undesirable for any
length of time in a monarchical government. When that government shall
have acquired force, it can only be retained by being divided amongst
the aristocracy, which will have naturally grown up in the mean time in
the professional and commercial paths of life. The leading men in the
senate, and representative assembly, at the bar, and in the army and
navy, will adhere together according to the common course of things,
and form an aristocracy that will be acknowledged by the people, and
must be respected by the king. Majorats ought to precede and encourage
this state of society, the best that can be constituted; for I look
upon the republican notions of universal equality as inconsistent with
all the tendencies of the human mind, which, like flame, are constantly
pointing upwards.
♦ ARGOS ♦
I spent a day at Argos, visiting, on my return to Napoli, the
celebrated walls of Tiryntha, which, even in the time of Homer, were
looked upon as the remains of one of the most ancient cities in the
world. I rode over the plain of Argos, with a view to see the lake of
Lerna, so famous in antiquity. It is now confined to a small pool,
scarcely larger than the mouth of an ordinary well, but the soil in its
neighbourhood is so marshy, that without a guide no stranger ought to
venture upon it. My horse sunk at one place nearly up to the girth; it
was with great difficulty that the animal extricated himself, and if
my stirrup leathers had not been fortunately on a spring buckle, which
allowed them to come away horizontally, I might have been seriously
involved in his danger.
♦ KING OTHO ♦
Mr. Dawkins took the earliest opportunity which court etiquette could
permit of presenting me to the king; Captain Price was presented at
the same time. I need hardly add that we were both received in the
most gracious manner. Otho, though little more than nineteen years of
age at that period, had already assumed a grave dignity of demeanour,
well calculated to temper the feeling of distrust naturally generated
by the appearance of youth in a station of so much responsibility and
importance. He possesses all the advantages of a fine figure, and
a countenance peculiarly German, beaming with benevolence, and not
unmarked by that order of intellect which, though slow to perceive, is
strong for the retention of useful principles, and likely to act with
great circumspection in reducing them to practice. He was dressed in
the blue uniform of a general officer; met us without any pageantry,
being quite alone in a handsome saloon, to which we were conducted by
his chamberlain, addressed us in French, and the conversation turning
at once upon the approaching removal of the seat of government to
Athens, he dwelt upon the topic with evident satisfaction. He had words
of courtesy for Captain Price, whom he hoped to have the pleasure of
frequently seeing; alluded in emphatic terms to the uniform attachment
which his predecessor, Captain Lyons,[5] had shown to the cause of
Greece on every occasion, and became animated by the prospects which,
he said, every succeeding day served to extend and confirm for the
interesting country of his adoption.
[5] While this sheet is passing through the press, I am happy to
observe that Captain Lyons has succeeded Mr. Dawkins as British
envoy to the court of Athens. Lord Palmerston could not have possibly
made a more happy appointment than this. Captain Lyons enjoys the
entire confidence of the king, as well as of Count Armansperg; and I
am convinced that the interests of Greece in her relations with
England could not have been committed to better hands. It is very
well-known that Mr. Dawkins had been anxious for the last two or
three years to return home, as in fact Englishmen are in general
desirous of doing, who have been long engaged at a foreign station.
But his services are of that class of which the country ought not
to be long deprived, whether available at home or abroad.
♦ RUSSIAN INTRIGUES ♦
The king appeared to be on the most cordial footing with Mr. Dawkins,
with whom he chatted for a while, and then turning to me, inquired very
minutely about the route I had taken in the course of my journey. I
did not omit to inform his majesty that I had passed through Munich,
which, under the auspices of his royal father, was becoming quite
Italian in the beauty of its streets and palaces, and the splendour of
its public galleries. I described in a few words my steam-voyage down
the Danube, as he appeared to have been already aware of the enterprize
for the navigation of that river, and seemed to take a lively interest
in its success. The topic led to the projects which were entertained
for imparting to Greece all the advantages of the steam-boat, and he
very justly remarked that to no country in Europe could that invaluable
instrument of commerce and civilization be more eminently useful, than
to that with whose happiness he was now identified. We then withdrew,
Captain Price and I both simultaneously observing, after we came out,
that the audience had left most agreeable impressions on our minds,
the more especially as we had not been altogether prepared for the
intelligence and the winning simplicity of manner which the young
monarch displayed.
♦ GREEK CHURCH ♦
The general feeling among the best-informed persons whom I had
encountered at Napoli was, that Otho appeared likely to prove an
excellent sovereign in every respect, and that his reign promised
to be tranquil and prosperous. Russia, as usual, had continued the
attempts which her agents had carried on from the beginning of the
Greek revolution, with a view to prevent the establishment of free and
permanent institutions. Her policy every where out of her own empire
is, “divide that I may rule.” Disturbance, apprehension, and anarchy,
in any quarter, serve to divert the attention of Europe from the
designs which she is maturing in the East, and no opportunity, be it
ever so slight, is neglected on the part of her numerous agents, which
may contribute to carry the suggestions of that policy into execution.
It was thought that the arrangements made with respect to the
Greek church, might have been converted by those persons into an
inexhaustible source of discord as between the Greeks themselves,
and as between the nation and its Roman Catholic sovereign. The
head of their church having always been the patriarch, residing at
Constantinople, it was found necessary when the Sultan recognized the
formation and absolute independence of the new monarchy, to terminate
its ecclesiastical connexion with an individual, who might be supposed
capable of acting under the Sultan’s influence. I believe it is
strictly conformable, in such cases, with the discipline and practice
of the Greek church, to confide its spiritual government to a synod of
its own bishops, whose authority is in every way a competent substitute
for that of the patriarchal office. This alteration from the usage of
some centuries, was rendered necessary in Greece by the restoration of
its national existence; but the Russian minister would not afford it
his sanction, conceiving that the patriarch’s authority (which would be
Russian and not Turkish) ought not to be interfered with, or that if
it were, the only course left open for the church of Greece to adopt,
would be to place itself in communion with the patriarch at Moscow!
♦ SYNOD ♦
Co-religionism has been the uniform, and I must add, the powerful
pretext, by the judicious use of which the agents of Russia have
succeeded in extending her authority over the whole of the Sclavonic
tribes, spread through Moldavia, Wallachia, and Servia. It is the
apology for her intermeddling with the affairs of Turkey, and it was
boldly insisted upon as an excuse for the assumption, on the part of
the Russian minister at Napoli, of a sort of ascendancy in the councils
of the new kingdom. The appointment, however, of a synod of bishops for
the purpose of presiding over the spiritual government of the church,
exhibited a determination on the part of the Greeks to maintain in
every way the independence they had acquired. This course of proceeding
did not suit the views of the Emperor; accordingly it was declared by
his agents that the church of Greece, by separating itself from the
authority of the patriarch, had become schismatic, and therefore he
could not acknowledge it any longer as the Greek church,--it became a
new sect, with which he could hold no communion.
♦ RUSSIAN CHURCH ♦
Forthwith an Archimandrite, several priests, and a full choir were
dispatched from Petersburg to Napoli, and a chapel splendidly
ornamented was erected behind the Russian minister’s house, in which
the service of the _true_ Greek church was performed every Sunday. This
chapel was open to any Greek who felt that his countrymen had become
_heretics_; and the fears of the conscientious, as well as the scruples
of the timid, it was hoped, would in due course of time swell the
attendance at the chapel, and of course excite religious controversy
all over the country, which could only produce one effect, that of
creating a Russian party sufficiently powerful to overwhelm any other
that existed, or that might arise in Greece.
♦ RELIGIOUS FEELING ♦
Never was a Russian intrigue carried on with more ingenuity, or with a
more plausible appearance of success than this affair of the schism;
nevertheless it resulted in a complete failure. The chapel was well
attended, because the choir was attractive, and the congregation
“fashionable;” but no impression was made by this manœuvre upon
the country. It is not at all improbable that this failure may be
attributable to the general indifference which prevails in Greece upon
questions of an ecclesiastical nature. The condition of dependance to
which the Greeks had been so long inured, the destruction of their
temples which took place during the war of the revolution, and the
general ignorance of their clergy, necessarily contributed to impair,
and almost to extinguish very generally the strong sense of religion
by which the subjects of the Byzantine empire had been in former ages
peculiarly distinguished.
♦ NEW COINAGE ♦
My days passed like hours in Napoli, but I was obliged to economize
them, as I hoped to reach Corfu in time for the steam-boat to Ancona,
whence I intended to hasten homewards. To leave Greece, however,
without visiting Athens, would be a sort of classical high treason; and
so having engaged, through the agency of Bruno, a pair of horses at
five drachmas each, I set off (8 November) for Epidaurus. One of the
first measures of the regency was to restore all the denominations of
the ancient money of Greece; accordingly, a new coinage, the dies for
which were beautifully executed, was manufactured at Munich, consisting
of gold pieces of twenty drachmas, silver crowns of five drachmas,
silver drachmas, half and quarter drachmas, copper pieces of ten,
five, and two leptas, and single leptas, the latter being worth about
half a farthing, while the drachma is equivalent to little more than
eight-pence of our money.