One advantage might have been obtained for Greece by the constitution of 1844, if either the Greeks or their sovereign had known how to profit by it. The direct influence of the protecting powers in the internal affairs of the country was greatly diminished. Unfortunately, Mr Coletti did not avail himself of this circumstance to lead the Greeks to make one single improvement in the interior. Not a road was made, or a packet established. Coletti was, nevertheless, a favourite minister with King Otho, for he fomented the King’s aversion to England, and carried on an active warfare with Sir E. Lyons. When Mr Wyse arrived at Athens last year, as British minister, he found the train laid to the mine Lord Palmerston was about to spring. He tried in vain to persuade the Greek ministers to make such concessions as would prevent an open rupture. His conciliatory conduct misled the Greek court into a belief that Lord Palmerston was afraid to come to blows, and, in an evil hour, it deemed itself secure of victory. The only alternative left to Great Britain, in King Otho’s opinion, was to withdraw the English minister from Athens. But, even if Lord Palmerston’s disposition had made him inclined to take this course, King Otho ought to have remembered that the convention of 1832, which created the Greek kingdom, bound England to watch over it. So infatuated was the court of Athens at this time, that the modifications which it would be possible to make in the Greek constitution, after the departure of the English minister, became a subject of conversation. Yet when the hour arrived, and Lord Palmerston’s demands were communicated, the Greek ministers felt the folly of resistance; and they would have capitulated, had the minister of the French Republic not availed himself of the conjuncture to flatter King Otho’s private prejudices, and assumed the direction of affairs. The Greek minister of foreign affairs, Mr Londos, was a man utterly unfit for the place. His communications to the Chambers, on the subject of the quarrel, are a tissue of erroneous statements. M. Thouvenel persuaded this unlucky minister to brave Lord Palmerston, and trust to the protection of France and the European press. The French minister knew that he would gain for himself the star and the broad blue ribbon of King Otho’s Order of the Redeemer, and he knew equally well that he would inflict a serious injury on the commerce and revenues of Greece, and that he would cause the ruin of many Greek merchants. There can be no doubt, that ambassadors ought never to be allowed to receive Orders from the sovereigns to whose court they are accredited. The interests of nations are often sacrificed by honourable men for stars and ribbons. In finally coming to an open rupture with Greece, Lord Palmerston probably only did what any other minister who had placed himself in a similar position must have done. But though we believe that it was King Otho who made the cup run over, we have shown