[Footnote E: This is no exaggeration. We once visited the island of Santorin, which has a population of 9000 souls, who own 46 vessels of 200 tons and upwards, besides many smaller craft. King Otho was sailing about in one steamer at the time, and another was acting the man-of-war amidst a fleet of English, French, Prussian, and Austrian frigates in the front of the Piraeus; yet no post had been forwarded to Santorin for a fortnight. Santorin is about 90 miles from Athens, and yields a very considerable revenue to the Greek monarchy.] It is evident that a poor peasantry, possessing no other means of transport than their mules and pack-horses, must reckon distance entirely by time, and the only way to make them perceive the advantages to be derived from roads, is forming such bridle-paths as will enable them to arrive at their journey's end a few hours sooner. The Greek government never though of doing this, and every traveller who has performed the journey from Patras to Athens, must have seen fearful proofs of this neglect in the danger he ran of breaking his neck at the Kaka-scala or cursed stairs of Megara. Nay, King Otho's government has employed its _vis inertiae_ in preventing the peasantry, even when so inclined, from forming roads at their own expense; for the peasantry of Greece are far more enlightened than the Bavarians. In the year 1841, the provincial council of Attica voted that the road from Kephisia--the marble-quarry road--should be continued through the province of Attica as far as Oropos. Provision was made for its immediate commencement by the labour of the communes through which it was to pass. Every farmer possessing a yoke of oxen was to give three days' labour during the year, and every proprietor of a larger estate was to supply a proportional amount of labour, or commute it for a fixed rate of payment in money. This arrangement gave universal satisfaction. Government was solicited to trace the line of road; but a year passed--one pretext for delay succeeding another, and nothing was done. The provincial council of 1842 renewed the vote, and government again prevented its being carried into execution. It is said that his Majesty is strongly opposed to the system of allowing the Greeks to get the direction of any public business into their own hands; and that he would rather see his kingdom without roads than see the municipal authorities boasting of performing that which the central government was unable to accomplish.