Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine — Volume 54, No. 335, September 1843Various
General
Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine — Volume 54, No. 335, September 1843
Various
England -- Periodicals; Scotland -- Periodicals
The Greek government enjoyed every possible advantage during the
administration of these Bavarians. A loan of £.2,400,000, contracted under
the guarantee of the three protecting powers, kept the treasury full; so
that no plan for the improvement of Greece, or for enriching the
Bavarians, was arrested for want of funds. We shall now pass in review
what was done.
1. A good monetary system was established. The allies, it is true,
supplied the metal, but the Bavarians deserve the merit of transferring as
much of it as they could into their own pockets, in a very respectable
coinage.
2. The irregular troops were disbanded, and many of them driven over the
frontier into Turkey. The thing was very clumsily done; but, thank Heaven!
it was done, and Greece was delivered from this horde of banditti.
3. Every Bavarian officer or cadet was promoted, and every Greek officer
was reduced to a lower rank. We cannot venture to describe the rage of the
Greeks, nor the presumption of the Bavarians.
4. An order of knighthood was created, of which the decorations were
distributed in the following manner: One hundred and twenty-five grand
crosses, and crosses of grand commanders, were divided as follows: The
protecting powers received ninety-one, that is thirty a-piece if they
agreed to divide fairly. The odd one was really given to Baron Rothschild,
as contractor of the loan. The Bavarians took twenty-three. The Greeks
received ten for services during the war of the revolution, and during the
national assembly which accepted King Otho, and one was bestowed among the
foreigners who had served Greece during the war with Turkey. Six hundred
and fourteen crosses of inferior rank were distributed, and of these the
Greeks received only one hundred and forty-five; so that really the
protecting powers and the Bavarians reserved for themselves rather more
than a fair proportion of this portion of the loan, especially if they
expected the Greeks not to become bankrupt.
5. All the Greek civil servants of King Otho were put into light blue
uniforms, covered with silver lace, at one hundred pounds sterling a-head.
And, O Gemini! such uniforms! Those who have seen the ambassador of his
Hellenic majesty at the court of St James's, at a levee or a drawing-room,
will not soon forget the merits of his tailor.
6. Ambassadors were sent to Paris, London, St. Petersburg, Munich, Madrid,
Berlin, Vienna, and Constantinople, and Consuls-general to all the ends of
the earth.
7. A council of state was formed.
8. The civil government was organized, and royal governors appointed in
all the provinces, who maintain a direct correspondence with the minister
of the interior.
9. A very respectable judicial administration was formed, and codes of
civil and criminal procedure published.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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