We shall only trouble our readers with a single instance of the manner in which commercial legislation has been treated in Greece. We could with great ease furnish a dozen examples. Austrian timber pays an import duty of six per cent, in virtue of a commercial treaty between Royal Greece and Imperial Austria. Greek timber cut on the mountains round Athens pays an excise duty of ten per cent; and the value of the Greek timber on the mountains is fixed according to the sales made at Athens of Austrian timber, on which the freight and duty have been paid. The effect can be imagined. In our visit to Greece we spent a few days shooting woodcocks with a fellow-countryman, who possesses an Attic farm in the mountains, near Deceleia. His house was situated amidst fine woods of oak and pine; yet he informed us that the floors, doors, and windows, were all made of timber from Trieste, conveyed from Athens on the backs of mules. The house had been built by contract; and though our friend gave the contractor permission to cut the wood he required within five hundred yards of the house, he found that, what with the high duty demanded by the government, and with the delays and difficulties raised by the officers charged with the valuation, who were Bavarian forest inspectors, the most economical plan was to purchase foreign timber. The consequence of this is, the Greeks burn down timber as unprofitable, and convert the land into pasturage. We have seen many square miles of wood burning on Mount Pentelicus; and on expressing our regret to a Greek minister, he shrugged up his shoulders and said: "That, sir, is the way in which the Bavarian foresters take care of the forests." Yet this Greek, who could sneakingly ridicule the folly of the Bavarians, was too mean to recommend the king to change the law.