The circumstances that have determined the position of our relations with Greece, since the Constitution of 1844, occurred in the preceding period. Lord Palmerston’s first quarrel with the Greek court dates from 1837, and originated in the dissatisfaction then felt, because the British Minister at Athens did not possess as much influence with King Otho’s Government as he had possessed with Count Armansperg’s. The avowed object of British diplomacy, at that period, was to force the adherents of the English party into office; and King Otho incurred the enmity of England for preferring the counsels of France and Russia. The first pitched battle between Greece and England was fought about the waistcoat of the British Minister’s groom. The question was, whether the waistcoat worn by Sir E. Lyons’ groom in his stable dress, and in which he had been carried off to prison for squirting water on a policeman, was or was not a livery waistcoat. After several weeks’ deliberation, the Greek court decided, that, although they did not consider the waistcoat in question to be a livery waistcoat, yet, in consideration of the fact that the British Minister called it his livery, the Government of Greece was ready to make every concession that could be required to heal the wounded honour of Great Britain. Parliament had a narrow escape of seeing the waistcoat laid before both Houses. Now this is very silly. Yet there is no doubt that the arrest of the groom was an intentional insult. This affair was enacted to lower the English minister in the eyes of the populace, and compel the English Government to change him. Everybody in Greece knew that the groom was sent to prison; few Greeks believed that the Government had apologised for the insult; indeed, nothing but the sight of a policeman chained before the British legation for twenty-four hours could have reintegrated the name of England at Athens, so stoutly did all Government officials declare that no apology was ever made. Another scene was exhibited for the satisfaction of the court and the _corps diplomatique_. At a private theatrical representation in King Otho’s palace, the British minister was left without a chair in the circle, and remained standing during a long comedy. Some ambassadors would have been sorely distressed by this species of physical torture; but the ambassador in question is said to have consoled himself, during this public exhibition of the feelings of protected Greece to protecting England, by the reflection that his turn came next.