enthusiastic scholars, and the wishes of cautious statesmen, have all
been utterly disappointed by the government of King Otho. More than
this, while the King of Greece has shown himself a bad monarch, the
Greeks have displayed extreme ignorance in all their attempts to supply
his deficiencies. Instead of suggesting better principles for his
guidance, they have become the steady supporters of his system whenever
he condescended to purchase their support by places and pensions. It
seems as if the Bavarian monarchy had infused a morbid lethargy into
Romaic society, so rapidly has the central administration of Athens
quenched the fervour of patriotism throughout liberated Greece. The
Albanian population has lost its valour and perseverance; the Greek has
sunk back into that normal condition of rapacious imbecility which has
characterised the Hellenic race ever since the time of Mummius.
The revolution which freed Greece from the Turkish yoke broke out early
in the year 1821, so that the inhabitants of the kingdom have now
enjoyed the advantages of political independence for thirty-three years.
A generation has grown up to manhood in possession of a greater degree
of freedom than is possessed by most of the continental nations of
Europe. Municipal institutions existed, to some extent, under the Turks,
and they acquired considerable importance during the revolutionary war.
The fullest exercise of the liberty of the press has prevailed ever
since the first year of the revolution. Nor has this liberty been
greatly abused, though it has often been misused—a circumstance not to
be wondered at in a country so torn by faction as Greece has been ever
since she commenced her struggle for independence. This fact must be
weighed against the many vices and corruptions of the Greeks which it
will be our task to notice, for it affords decisive evidence that there
still exists among the mass of the population a sound basis of public
opinion.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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