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
10. The Greek Church was organized on a footing which rendered it
independent of the patriarch at Constantinople without causing a schism.
This is unquestionably the ablest act of Mr Maurer's administration, and
it drew on him the whole hatred of Russia.
11. The communal and municipal system of Greece, the seat of the vitality
of the Greek nation, was adopted as the foundation of the social edifice
in the monarchy. It is true some injudicious Bavarian modifications were
made; but time will soon consign to oblivion these delusions of Teutonic
intellect.
12. The liberty of the press was admitted to be an inherent right of Greek
citizens.
The five last-mentioned measures are entirely due to the liberal spirit
and sound legal knowledge of Mr Maurer, who, if he had been restrained
from meddling with diplomacy, and quarreling with the English and Russian
ministers at Nauplia, would have been universally regarded as a most
useful minister. But all the practical good Greece has derived from the
Bavarians, is confined to a few of his acts.
The accession of Count Armansperg to power, opened a new scene. A certain
number of Greeks were then admitted to high and lucrative employments, on
condition that they would support the Bavarian system, and declare that
their country was not yet fit for the enjoyment of constitutional liberty.
The partizans of Mr Maurer were dismissed and sent back to Bavaria: a few
good bribes were given to newspaper editors and noisy democrats; but the
Bavarians were kept in the possession of the richest part of the spoil.
Accordingly, the cry of the Greeks against Bavarian influence and Bavarian
rapacity never ceased. Rudhart's government was a continuation of that of
Armansperg, only with the difference that he leaned on a different foreign
power for support. Neither Armansperg nor Rudhart conferred any benefit on
Greece. They formed a phalanx or corps of veterans; but as they laid down
no invariable rules for admission, but kept the door open as a means of
creating a party among the military, this institution has become a scene
of jobbing and abuse.
A law conferring a portion of land on every Greek family was passed; but
as it was intended to serve political purposes, it was never put into
general execution. A number of sales of national lands has been made under
it, in direct violation of every principle of law and justice; and as
detached pieces of the richest plains in Greece have been alienated in
this way, the resources of the country will be found to have been very
seriously diminished by this singular species of wholesale corruption.
Rudhart was compelled from his weakness to make one or two steps in the
national path. He assembled the council of state, and called the
provincial councils and the university into activity.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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