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
This system of popular government, in all matters directly connected with
the daily business of the citizens, is a wise arrangement, and it has
proved a powerful engine for the preservation of order amidst a population
accustomed to anarchy, revolution, and despotism; and it has also formed a
firm barrier against the tyrannical aspirations of the Bavarians. Indeed,
had King Otho's government not been prevented, by this municipal system,
from coming into daily contact with the people, we are persuaded that it
would long ago have thrown Greece into convulsions, and caused the
massacre of every Bavarian in the country.
From the account we have given of the royal central government on the one
hand, and of the local magistracy on the other, it will be evident to our
readers that there are two powers at work in Greece, which, unless they
are united in the pursuit of some common objects, must at last engage in a
contest for the mastery.
We shall now notice the newspaper allegation, that the Greek court is
composed entirely of Bavarians. This was once the case, but it ceased to
be strictly true from the moment Armansperg introduced the system of
bribing the Greeks to join the Bavarian party; and at present the
government is supported almost entirely by Greek deserters from the
national cause. There is now no Bavarian in the ministry, and there are
Greeks in the cabinet. Many of the Greeks who affect with foreigners to be
loud in their complaints against the Bavarians, are, in the
administration, the most strenuous supporters of King Otho's system, and,
like Maurocordatos, the declared opponents of a national assembly and of a
representative form of government. They declare to the king that it is
necessary to retain some Bavarians in Greece, and they really wish it done
in order to exclude their Greek rivals from office. A revolution, followed
by a foreign government, and a lavish expenditure, has demoralized sterner
stuff than Greek politicians are made of, so that it is more to be
regretted than wondered at, when it appears that the Greek court has an
unusually large supply of venal political adventurers always ready to
enter its service.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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