believe it is very difficult to lift the veil which covers the mysteries
of the political inconstancy of the Cabinet of St. James's; and leaving
the solution of this enigma to time, that great OEdipus of history, we
will here make only this remark, that English diplomacy has allowed a
favourable opportunity to escape for taking the initiative in all the
great questions which concern the general interests of civilization, and
this notwithstanding the hopes which Lord Salisbury's circular for an
instant caused us to entertain. However, the propitious moment has not
yet passed away. France, which appears at this moment to be holding
aloft the standard of the policy first enunciated by the Marquis of
Salisbury, serves not only the interests of Greece and of Europe, but
also those of England.
Beware of the North! In the triumph of the Panslavist idea there is not
only the absorption of Hellenism, there is something of still more
general interest, which for some time past should have furnished
European diplomacy with matter for reflection, before the icy blast of
the North, changing our fears into realities, obliges diplomacy to
submit to accomplished facts.
Europe to-day, in proceeding with the execution of a decision of the
Congress, is not only doing a work of importance, but also a work of
justice in repairing the wrong which she formerly committed in narrowing
the limits of the Greek kingdom, and hindering the physical development
of its people. The political prophets of the time when this new European
State was created--Palmerston, Leopold of Belgium, Metternich--were
unanimous in pointing out how doubtful was the future of this nation,
which had not the elements necessary to a regular life, and which,
consequently, was incapable of fulfilling the exalted mission which
Europe had confided to it in creating it. What was the cause of this
niggardliness of the Powers towards a nation full of youth and activity,
at the very moment of its creation? Mr. Gladstone has already told us in
this REVIEW.[76]
Greece, which, more than all the other Eastern races, had always the
_pre-eminence_ intellectually and morally, might, in concert with the
West, and making herself, so to speak, the organ of its views in the
East, become a powerful barrier against that torrent of Slavism which
for some time past has threatened to overwhelm the Balkan peninsula.
In that ethnological pandemonium, which is called the Peninsula of the
Balkans, of which so many nationalities dispute the possession, to the
exclusion of the only possessors whose rights are consecrated by
history, Greece seems to be the only nationality which, better than all
the other races,--most of which lack historic traditions and a true
national consciousness,--is capable of realizing the views of Europe for
the fulfilment of which, on the initiative of England, the European
Congress was convoked at Berlin. It was, doubtless, these principles
which inspired the Congress when, in Article 13 of the Treaty, it
ordered the annexation to Greece of the bordering provinces of Epirus
and Thessaly; this was a reparation of the political fault committed at
the time of the creation of the new kingdom. However, a dishonest policy
on the part of Turkey delays up to this moment the accomplishment of the
Treaty fulfilled by her in its other Articles. She has reaped its
advantages, but she seems not to wish to submit to its sacrifices. We
cannot conceive what benefit the Sublime Porte derives from this vain
delay. It ought to understand that it will not gain anything from this
continual paroxysm with which it finds itself struggling since the last
Eastern crisis. And we see with satisfaction that public opinion in
Turkey has already acknowledged that an enlargement of Greece, even at
the expense of Turkey, is not contrary to the interests of the two
races, whose common peril from the Slavs is indisputable. Turkey must
seek the centre of her activity and power in Asia, where she may play an
important part, and not in Europe, where she has always remained a
stranger, and has never succeeded in creating an indigenous and national
civilization. It will one day depart from Europe, this Mussulman race,
which for five centuries has only encamped in Europe, without leaving
any memorial of civilization or morality, except a few pages of military
history. It can carry European civilization to the nations of Asia,
initiating them into its mysteries, by means of a wiser government and a
more enlightened activity. This is the true and just policy of Turkey in
the future. By the cession of the provinces where the Turkish element is
_nil_ she will gain much more strength than by their retention, which
cannot be of any profit to her.
We hope that Turkish statesmen, whose enlightenment and intelligence are
well known, will recognize the urgent necessity for a sincere
understanding between the two neighbouring States on the basis of the
cession of the two provinces in accordance with the Berlin Treaty; then
perhaps, later on, a union may be formed in order to oppose the common
enemy. The obsolete policy of _non possumus_, behind which Turkey
persists in sheltering herself has been, on more than one occasion,
hurtful and fatal to her.
The province of Epirus, without the town and department of Jannina, is
like a body without a head. The town of Jannina, which fills so
glorious a page in the modern history of Hellenism, has been ever since
its foundation the capital of Epirus in every point of view. It is only
the bad faith of the Turkish Government which could take advantage of
the inconceivable patriotism of the Albanians to create all of a sudden
an Albanian nationality. It is true that there does exist an Albanian
race, an insignificant branch of that powerful tree of the Hellenic
family; but this race has never played an important, independent, free
part in history. Once only, in the time of Scanderbeg, does Albania
appear to have fulfilled a separate mission, in fighting against the
Turks for the liberty and independence of her rugged mountains; but the
brilliant star of this memorable and almost unique epoch in the poor
history of Albania, the famous hero of Croia, according to recent
researches into this part of the history of the Middle Ages, was not of
Albanian origin. In those long combats for Hellenic liberty and
independence, when the Albanian race fought with the _ilephtes_ and
_armatoles_ of the national regeneration, it was not an Albanian idea
which inspired those brave champions of our independence: it was the
Greek standard, it was the _sabanum_ of Constantine, under the shadow of
which the tyrant was combated by the Greek patriots, and by those who,
in this time of sophism and paradoxes, plume themselves upon Albanian
nationality, in claiming with incomparable _naïveté_, in documents and
manifestoes in which historical traditions are disfigured, the
independence and liberty of a nation which never existed in history.
These mountaineers, these intrepid combatants in a holy cause, remained,
during all that revolutionary epoch of Greece, in the rear of the
Hellenic idea, which was doubtless their national idea. This idea
impresses its peculiar stamp on the life of the nation, in its material,
moral, and intellectual existence; but such has never existed in the
Albanian race. Unity of history, of language, of religion, all that
constitutes the essence of nationality, is altogether wanting in the
Albanians. This is not the time to discuss all the obsolete and
paradoxical things which have lately been said about the Albanians by
anthropologists, ethnologists, &c. &c. We do not wish, either, to
pronounce against them the death-sentence of the celebrated geographer
Kiepert, who wrote some time ago in the _National Zeitung_ of Berlin,
"We think the total dissolution of this part of an important and very
ancient nation, which always retrogrades" to be very probable, and
useful for European interests. Doubtless, the Albanians have a right of
historical existence; but that history in which is always represented
more or less the famous scientific conception of the great naturalist of
modern times, the _struggle for existence_, is favourable only for those
who know how to work and struggle successfully in the arena of
civilization. Up to this moment, this race has been entirely unknown in
history. A learned German naturalist, Haeckel, has found in this region
of Eastern Europe the rudiments of a savage life exactly resembling as
to manners the state of pre-historic times, especially in Upper Albania,
where this race has a numerical and national preponderance. The
Albanian nationality, then, about which its _soi-disant_ representatives
have made so much noise, has no real existence, and is at this day but a
national Utopia, a _terra incognita_, existing only in the ardent
imagination of certain high functionaries of the Sublime Porte, and
certain religious fanatics of Mussulman Albania. As for the
non-Mussulmans, they still remain supporters and friends of the Hellenic
idea and of the Greeks, with whom they have always made common cause,
and have played a glorious part in our history by their courage and
patriotism. Let the Albanians show by their European culture that there
are among them the elements of a compact race which has the full
consciousness of its individuality; and, what is more important, let
them abstain from declaring to-day against Hellenism, by becoming the
instruments of treacherous movements whose sole aim is their absorption.
The object of the Hellenic idea is not the absorption of the races with
which it is called to live; it is neither fusion nor conquest, as has
been more than once proved in history. It is only in the Greeks that the
Albanians will find their natural friends and allies; it is only with
them that they will not lose their national individuality, because they
are their brothers, retarded in the history of humanity and of
civilization.
But if the idea of an independent and peculiar Albanian race and
nationality is shown to be false by ethnological research and by
historical documents, it is a still greater error and a ridiculous
pretension to say that the town of Jannina is the centre and the capital
of the Albanian idea and nationality. This argument, which for some time
past has been going the round of Europe, and which has found supporters
in Italy,--in the Italian Government unfortunately,--is truly pitiable,
and unworthy of being seriously debated, in the view of those who are at
all acquainted with the history of modern Greece. But since, in these
times of vain questions and useless and sophistical debates about the
peoples of the East, much has been written and argued on this question
in the European press, we think it may not be out of place to give some
information on the political and intellectual state of Jannina, its
population, and the historical and moral traditions of the town, which
was formerly, prior to the creation of the new kingdom, the intellectual
capital of Hellenism.
Jannina is, of all the districts of Epirus, that in which the Greek
population is the most numerous and the most compact. Out of 100,000
inhabitants of this district, there are only 5000 Mussulmans; and these
also are of Greek origin, because they all speak Greek. And in Turkey in
Europe, Jannina is the most Hellenic village, in which there is not one
inhabitant who does not speak the language of the country. It is,
perhaps, an historic curiosity, but still it is a fact which has already
been proved, that the Sublime Porte has no right of conquest over this
town, because Jannina has not been conquered by the Turks, but has only
recognized the Turkish rule by a treaty which guaranteed to it all the
rights of self-government--rights which were afterwards trampled under
foot in consequence of a rising in the unfortunate town. In the
seventeenth century, at the very dawn of the Hellenic revival, Jannina
was already a centre of light which illumined the dark sky of Hellenism;
for a long time this part of Epirus was the mother-country of the
greatest patriots, and the most earnest propagators of national
education. Athens was but a village, known only through history, when
this town was already the central point of the national consciousness;
the capital of the learning of the dispersed nation, which was without a
political official centre. In the famous school of this town, afterwards
called [Greek: Zôsimaia Scholê] (The School of Zosimas), illustrious
professors taught Greek literature; and, according to the testimony of
many travellers, Jannina was the town whose inhabitants spoke the most
correct Greek. Our national historian, M. Papparigopoulos, speaks thus
of it in his French work, already well known and esteemed in
Europe[77]:--"Jannina especially became a true nursery of teachers, who
in their turn were placed successively at the head of other schools in
Peloponnesus, in continental Greece, in Thessaly, in Macedonia, at
Chios, at Smyrna, at Cydones, at Constantinople, at Jassy, at
Bucharest." The intellectual superiority of this town lasted until the
death of Ali Pasha and the creation of the new kingdom, when the centre
of the moral and political activity and work of the nation was
transferred to Athens, the town which, from its grand traditions, was
worthy to become once more the capital of the great Hellenic idea. But
the school of Jannina still remains one of the most renowned and the
most useful centres for the propagation of the learning and literature
of Ottoman Greece. At this day, for the foreigner who visits the capital
of the kingdom of the Hellenes, the first spectacle which will attract
his attention will be that majestic view of national monuments, worthy
to be compared with the most renowned monuments of the European cities:
these are the University, the Academy, the Polytechnic School, the
Arsakion, the Seminary of Rizari, &c., all eloquent witnesses of the
patriotism and self-sacrifice of the nation. Who are the founders of
these monuments? By what means have these brilliant ornaments of the
Hellenic revival been constructed? The greater part of their generous
founders are Epirotes, natives of Jannina itself, that town of which one
of the most illustrious _savants_ of regenerated Greece spoke with so
much appropriateness when he compared its school to a great river which
has given rise to several streams, which in their turn have watered and
fertilized all the other towns of Greece, but which to-day, contrary to
all reason and to historic truth, is represented as the Albanian
capital, and finds for this strange idea supporters who willingly
sacrifice the rights of populations to political interests and
necessities; a sad but eloquent sign of the moral confusion of our
times, and of the bad faith which dominates over the political and
international conceptions of some Governments.
The political life of Greece has, doubtless, been very stormy of late
years. The state of confusion and uneasiness which followed the
expulsion of King Otho, and, later, the unfortunate issue of the Cretan
rising, acted to some extent as a drag on the peaceful progress of the
new kingdom. Besides this, the adoption of a political Constitution
dissimilar and entirely strange to our customs and political and social
habits, the introduction of what is called in political language the
Constitutional _régime_, transplanted from the cloudy region of England
to the sunny climate of Greece, has not proved the political panacea
which had been hoped for by the enthusiasm of the political ideologists
of our times. Already, and especially during the last fifteen years, the
intellectual life of a young nation full of health and vigour has been
wasted foolishly in a barren struggle about political formalities, while
other questions, more serious and more vital to the national
development, have been neglected. No doubt we may console ourselves with
the thought that we are neither the first nor the last for whom the
fruit of the political wisdom of old Albion has proved so bitter and so
indigestible, and that other nations of the Continent, more advanced
than ourselves in civilization, have committed the same fault of not
taking into account that the Government of a nation is not a mere
question of forms, but that it ought to be the expression of its moral
and social life, that it ought to represent its historical traditions
and political aspirations. Like most of the Continental nations, we also
have the external forms of the English Constitution, without having its
internal essence, which constitutes the real value of its political
institutions,--viz., Self-government. It is true that the political
wisdom of nations does not improvise itself, nor reveal itself all at
once in its fulness, as Minerva of old sprang from the head of Jupiter,
clad in complete armour, but that it develops itself during their
historic progress amidst vicissitude, and by turning to profit the
lessons of trial and experience. It is this that gives us the hope that
in future our nation, enlightened by the painful events of which we are
now reaping the sad fruits, will become more clear-sighted, especially
after the annexation of the new Hellenic provinces, when the need will
be the more felt for a revision of our political system, and the
reconstruction of our new political edifice on a basis more real, more
solid, more durable, and more in conformity with our national character,
with our needs, and with contemporary aspirations. Our political life,
especially during its latter years, instead of adding a page to our
contemporary history, has, on the contrary, consumed and wasted
foolishly many of our intellectual faculties which might have been more
usefully employed. At the moment when vague questions, which were
useless to our national and political development, were being gravely
debated in the Parliament of Athens, Greece might, with a more perfect
political Constitution and military organization, have shown herself
fully in a position to face the storm which still agitates the Balkan
peninsula; might have shown herself to be a respectable Power, capable
of measuring her strength with her enemies. The East was in flames, the
populations of the Balkans in full revolt, only the Government of Athens
had no definite policy. Whilst the Greeks of Turkey were waiting
impatiently, and turning their eyes to the Cabinet of Athens, this
latter, under the presidency of M. Coumoundouros, remained inactive and
irresolute. When the danger became more serious, and all parties, under
the impulse of an obsolete illusion, had united themselves in order to
form that common Government which our press has called the OEcumenical
Government, then was seen in all its obviousness the political
incapacity of those parties who for fifteen years past had governed
Greece, without doing anything, and without thinking of the important
and serious position which Greece might have occupied in the East. This
coalition ministry, without principles and without political aim, was
driven from office, after a period of internal languor, in order to give
place to M. Coumoundouros, the skilful perplexer of our policy, worthy
to be compared in more than one respect with Walpole, whose memory,
doubtless, does not occupy an illustrious and honourable page in English
political history. It is this same uncertainty and confusion which
reigns to this day in the thoughts and in all the actions of the
Government, which under a wiser and more politic direction might and
ought to say the last word in those negotiations, which already have
been going on for a year between the Cabinets of Europe, on the subject
of the new frontiers of Greece.
* * * * *
But if our political life cannot call forth the admiration and
enthusiasm, nor win the applause of an impartial judge, the individual
and social progress of the nation, on the contrary, in many points of
view, compensates us to some extent for our political inexperience and
incapacity in these latter times. If the Hellenic State, wearing a dress
which is burdensome and strange to its customs and its free
individuality, cannot advance as it should do, on the other hand society
has in other respects made immense progress. The impulse which has been
given to the active mind of the nation of late years is in every way
remarkable. In its social development Greece does not encounter any
obstacle which hinders the march of its civilization. The ancient
class-divisions of Europe, which are now exciting terrible passions that
threaten the overthrow of the social edifice, have no cause of existence
under the calm and happy sky of regenerate Greece. The social work of
the progress and development of the national forces goes on here without
obstacles, in a perfect accord of all classes of society. We have not
here classes having opposite aspirations, suspected one by the other,
and ready to engage in a deadly struggle. We only want political wisdom,
and then Greece, which has not to-day to expiate past faults, because
she has already expiated many of them, will be capable of becoming a
political society worthy of the nineteenth century.
We recommend to the readers of this REVIEW two works recently published
in French, in which they will be able to study the progress of Greece
since its regeneration. These are--"La Grèce telle qu'elle est," by M.
Moraitinis; and "La Grèce à l'Exposition universelle de Paris en 1878,"
by M. Mansolas, director of the Office of Statistics, in which may be
found a record of the social and intellectual work which in the space of
fifty years has transformed Greece, by changing the uncultivated desert
of former times into a prosperous and vigorous society. The apology of
much-misunderstood and much-decried Hellenism is made by the eloquence
of the figures in this history, which is symbolical of its spirit. The
regenerate country, by comparison with the other provinces which have
remained under the yoke of Turkey, witnesses to the work which has been
accomplished, and which has transformed the aspect of Greece, thanks to
its national and political enfranchisement.
Fifty years ago Greece emerged from a catastrophe: she had been deprived
of everything and devastated by a long and desperate war; she was
without resources, without agriculture, without commerce, without
manufactures, without the least social or political organization;
everything had perished during her long struggle for independence,
except her genius and her faith in the future. This faith has already
wrought marvels. Agriculture, which is _par excellence_ the basis of the
prosperity of nations, has made considerable progress; its development
goes on day by day in geometrical progression. Thus, in the space of the
last fifteen years there have been taken into cultivation nearly
5,000,000 acres. The number of inhabitants engaged in the cultivation of
the soil, including the shepherds, is, according to the census of 1870,
562,559 out of the 901,387 inhabitants (among the 1,457,894 inhabitants
of the kingdom) whose employment could be stated. Of this number 218,027
are agriculturists, properly so called. This is the chief industry of
the country. Like agriculture, manufactures have also made considerable
progress of late. We extract from M. Mansolas' book the interesting
description which he gives of the state and progress of manufacturing
industry in Greece:--
"Any one returning to Athens after an absence of fifteen years would
certainly be surprised to see, on landing at the Piræus, tall chimneys
by the side of the railway station, and the vast district of industrial
establishments which has been formed, where a few years ago one did not
see a single cottage, a tree, or a blade of grass.