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GREECE.

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ATHENS, April 11, 1868.

THE Greek Revolution which, by aid of the three powers, rescued the country from the Turks, who had held possession of it for two hundred years, began in 1821. The people were heartily inclined to radical republican institutions, and elected a Congress, the President of which was, for the time being, the head of the country. Count Capo d'Istria, a native of Corfu, who had been many years in Russia, and had been minister of that empire, was finally called home by the votes of the people, and made President of the Greek republic. He was a man of great talents, and high and noble qualities, far more Greek, as it proved, in his sympathies than was expected by other powers, who supposed that he would bring Russian predilections with him, and rule with the habits and tastes of an aristocratic breeding. He turned out the simplest and most democratic of rulers, and offended many of the resident diplomats by his disregard of etiquette. He was advancing the country rapidly on its republican career, when he was assassinated by two Greeks for some grievance personal to themselves-not, however, as was believed, without some encouragement from the ministers of Russia and France, who were jealous of the democratic tendencies of Greece under his patriotic administration. His bust, the only piece of statuary I saw in the Palace Garden at Athens, is full of intellectual dignity and moral beauty, and leaves the

conviction that, had he lived, the political fortunes of Greece might have been very different. At his death England, France, and Russia, the three "protecting" powers of Greece, made up their minds that she must fall into the monarchical system of Europe and have a king, and finally settled upon Otho, son of King Louis, of Bavaria, who in his character of poet, artist, and king had been greatly interested in the fortunes of Greece, and had proved himself her friend and patron. Otho was crowned in 1833. He brought with him his high Bavarian notions of prerogative, and, by the aid of advisers and ministers supple to his will, so managed as, under the form of a responsible ministry and a free House of Representatives, to have his own way, and to neutralize essentially the democratic elements in.the government. He is represented as having been a heavy, slow, and unteachable person, of excellent private character, a friend of good morals, and a promoter of the good order and social development of the country, but wholly out of sympathy with the aspirations of the people, and hopelessly set in his Bavarian prejudices. It may be observed here, though out of place, that after Otho's deposition in 1860 the people were invited to express, by a popular vote, their wishes among three candidates, Prince Alfred of England, a Russian prince, and a French one. England, erroneously supposing that Russian partialities prevailed, proposed to the other powers that no candidate from either of the three protecting nations should be accepted by them. Russia, with cautious policy, postponed her answer to this proposition till after the election, and then accepted it. Meanwhile the popular vote, by an overwhelming majority, had decided in favor of the English prince! England, who had said nothing limiting the time of Russia's reply, was technically obliged to abide her decision, and Prince Alfred accordingly declined the crown.

Otho's Mismanagement.

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Otho's wife (an Oldenburg princess) was also a worthy person, who maintained a pure court, but who had a great ambition, and was not above intrigue, in favor of one of her own family, for the succession to the throne; for they had no children.

DEPOSITION OF OTHO.

Otho had come in under the promise of granting a constitution to the Greeks. He postponed the performance of his promise until, in 1843, the soldiers and citizens gathered in the square before his palace and extorted a liberal constitution from him. He gave it, but continued by a cautious policy to neutralize his grant until, in 1860, the people, wearied out by delay and disappointment, took advantage of his absence on a tour in the Peloponnesus to assemble and depose him. He was met, on his return to the Piræus, by a committee of citizens, who told him he was no longer king, and could not come back to Athens. He accepted the hospitality of an English ship of war in the harbor, and was carried off to Trieste. He died in Munich this last June, and when I passed through that city the people had just celebrated his funeral. His deposition could not have been effected had not the rank and file of the army been against him. Fortunately, the army of Greece is served by three-years' men, who enter it citizens, and return to citizen life when they leave it. The school system of Greece is so good, and the aptitude for learning so remarkable, that probably the country is only second to Massachusetts in the smallness of the percentage of those who can not read or write. The press, therefore, is widely influential in Greece. There is such a thing as public opinion there, and that opinion is essentially democratic. If the officers of the army had been able to have their way, Otho, who was personally respected, and

had a strong party in the country among place-holders and lovers of a stable government, would have been able to resist the revolution. As it was, the rank and file of the army were with the great body of the citizens, and he was helplessly deposed without the loss of a drop of blood.

KING GEORGE.

Had the country then been allowed to have its own way, it would have re-established its republican government upon the model of American institutions. But the three powers had intervened with their protective kindness, and insisted that Greece could not get on without a king, and a king she must have. Greece, wholly unable to resist their will, felt about for another monarch, and after much difficulty fixed upon Prince George of Denmark, as being as little likely to do harm as any one. He was then a boy of seventeen, of fair promise, and agreeable to England and Russia. His sister had married the Prince of Wales. His two brothers, the Crown-prince and his successor, had both in turn married the Russian Princess Dagmar, one on his death-bed, the other soon after his brother's death. George was crowned when not eighteen, in 1864, and married only a few months ago a young princess, daughter of Duke Constantine, of Russia, not yet seventeen years old. It is impossible yet to say what qualities these young creatures may develop. They are said to be simple in their tastes. He is a Protestant; she a warm devotee of the Greek Church. He has brought his court-preacher with him, and maintains a Protestant chapel in the palace. She attends the Greek Church, and he accompanies her sometimes. He brought a Count with him from Denmark, who, for the first two or three years of his reign, had the chief sway in the ministry. His policy was not popular, and the king was reluctantly obliged to ac

Condition of the Lands and Woods.

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cept his resignation. The ministry is now composed wholly of Greeks, and has a respectable old gentleman at its head who enjoys the confidence of the country. There is no order of nobility, no titles or hereditary distinctions, no law of primogeniture. The taxes are upon the products of the country (a very bad system); the revenue from all sources is about $6,000,000.

When the Turks were driven out, that portion of the country from which they were expelled became public property; and when by treaty they left the other portions of the country north of the isthmus, they sold their lands to the Government, so that half of all the land in Greece belongs to the nation. It was understood at the time that those lands were to be divided among the people, as some restitution for the losses they had suffered in the war for freedom; but from difficulty in arranging the scheme, this act of justice has been handed over unperformed from ministry to ministry, and remains the chief thorn in every new cabinet. The government can not sell, and does not distribute these lands. They are let at low prices, and the whole agricultural life of the nation is kept in a depressed and miserable condition by this policy. If they would only in any way get these lands into the protected ownership of private parties, there would be good hope of a rapid development of the farming interest of Greece-the best progress it could make. The Turks cut down every olive-tree in the Peloponnesus before they left; but what they meant as a curse has turned out a great blessing, as the roots have spread and shot up in new trees, tenfold more and better than the old stock. Would that as much could be said for other kinds of trees in Greece. It is almost wholly stripped of forests, and presents on most of • its mountain-sides a bare and desolate appearance, such as could never have called forth the passionate admiration which

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