Chapter VIII

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.