claims to have our own.” The Italians are in the right track now; but
they will find that before they are ready to enforce the evacuation of
Rome, Napoleon will anticipate a hostile collision by timeously
bargaining to cede to them their capital in return for renewed
co-operation between the two Governments.
In the neighbouring peninsula a revolution has taken place which
startled Europe by its unexpectedness, and which may by-and-by give rise
to important consequences. For the present, however, no such
consequences attend the movement. The Greeks have been orderly,
peaceable, and discreet; and although we entertain no doubt that this
movement will ere long extend itself at the expense of Turkey, and will
hasten the final disruption of the Ottoman Empire, we trust that the
Greeks will continue to act with prudence, and not compromise their
fortunes by hasty efforts to revive a Panhellenic kingdom. Their choice
of Prince Alfred to be their new King—the founder of a dynasty whose
territories would soon comprise all Greece, and the isles alike of the
Adriatic and the Ægean—was a great compliment to England, and a proof
that the quick sagacity of their race has survived amidst the decay of
many nobler powers. It was an instinct, a universal emotion, which
declared that they would have no King but Alfred of England; and that
instinct was as correct as if the question had been debated in popular
assembly for a twelvemonth before. Prince Alfred comes of a good stock,
and has had an excellent training; and England is the Power who could,
if she would, either assist or oppose the Greek revolution more
effectually than any other. England is the stanchest ally of the Porte;
but the Greeks knew that they could reckon also upon our still greater
attachment to freedom; and, moreover, that if they did secure our
alliance, they should not have to pay for it, as their neighbours in
Italy had to pay France. Still more, England is commercial, full of
capital and enterprise, and the Greeks might reasonably conclude that if
our Prince became their King, the bleak hills and deserted harbours of
the Morea would soon bloom with verdure, or teem with new life. What
they will do now that they are disappointed in their hopes and unanimous
desire, we do not know. It is certainly a hard thing for a people that
they should be checked in the choice of a King on account of a treaty
which they had no hand in making. Were Prince Alfred to become their
King, his kingdom probably would ere long rise into an influential place
in Europe; but certainly the vacant throne possesses no such attractions
as would lead us to desire the annulment of the treaty which forbids it
to be filled by an English Prince. The choice of Prince Alfred by the
Greeks, however, has had the good effect of checking any dreams of
ambition which may have been entertained by Russia, by inducing her to
adhere to the treaty, instead of putting forward Prince Leuchtenberg as
a candidate for the throne.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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