The Express.
London, England, 1862-10-27 00:00:00

HIGH WATER AT LONDON BR/DOE.

TEM DA 11-.:1011110/4 !Oa.....AßernonD. 1k 400 L
TO-Momiow—Morsing. 66. 6Es.. „Afternoon. sn. 30s.

LONDON, MONDAY, OCTOBER 27.

FORTY years ago Greece was to the liberal
spirits of England what Italy is to-day, an object
of romantic and passionate enthusiasm. The feel-
ing was not so profound, perhaps, or so popular;e
the former instance as in the latter ; for in those
days the publ;c interest in foreign affairs was
limited to purely political circles ; there
was neither the large population of readers
and thinkers, nor the rapid and ample diffusion
of news, nor the enormous centres of industry and
agitation, nor the instantaneous concentration of
rumour and opinion, by which to-day science—that
mighty revolutionist—makes the pulse of Europe
beat with one stroke. Greece was the passion of
scholars, poets, and dilettanti ; the caprice of
statesmen, the spoilt child of diplomatists, the
fashion of society. The trading and working
classes in this counby knew or cared very little
about the sons of the heroes of Marathon and
Salamis ; but old statesmen looked up their
classics and wrote sonnets and lyrics, and the
Foreign-office became alarmingly sentimental, and
Conservative England was all ablaze for " an idea."
Old political traditions and orthodoxies were for-
gotten, and the British Government, with the
utmost gaiety of heart, sent a fleet to blow an
ancient ally out of the water, and to salute the
birth of the destined inheritor of the Ottoman
Empire. It was not only a BYRON, a HASTINGS,
or a COCHRANE, but Downing-street that did this.
BvsoN was happy at least in dying before the
dream to which he sacrificed his life had become a
reality. It was left to statesmen and diplomatists
to do the poem into prose ; and such prose !
As soon as Greece leas free from the Turk the
next thing was to make a respectable Power and a
responsible people of that interesting Hellenic race.
The population being almost as large as that of a
London parish, the patriots being unaccustomed to
regular habits of life, and the provisional Govern-
ment having a large budget at their disposal, the
three protecting Powers were invited to recom-
mend a King. King LEOPOLD (that was to be of
the Belgians) took • stern prosaic view of the
offer, and declined it; to the disadvantage of Greece
no doubt, but manifestly to the advantage of
Belgium and his own. Then, as the new King
must belong to neither of the protecting Powers,
all Germany was ransacked, and at length, after
the formalities of a preliminary Convention of
London, and a treaty, ratified by the King of
BAVARIA, an unfortunate but strictly moral young
man, of 17, who had received the education of
a priest, and was harmless enough for a cloister,
was fixed upon, and nearly thirty years ago it was
that Prince onto accepted the crown of Greece.
For three years his government was administered
by • counsel of regency ; while the young Bava-
rian Prince was taking lessons in wearing the
Greek costume, and a host of Bavarian philologues
were teaching him to talk Greek. In 1835 he
" assumed the reins of government," and
in the winter of the following year he married
a lady of high spirit, excelling in all
the qualities in which her royal husband was
deficient, and who very soon took the reins out of
his hands. Since 183 G Greece has been governed
by Queen AMELIA. °Trio of Greece, and
FRANCOIS d'Assise of Spain, have borne • similar
destiny, with similar resignation. A similar but
not an equal idestiny ; for it was not the will of
PROVIDENCE that Onto, like hie cousin of Spain,
should be the father of • race of Kings. Child-
less unions, even in private life, are seldom
happy ; but in royal houses a childless union is
an irreparable mistake. If the Sovereign is
beloved, it is • source of anxious bitter-
ness to his people ; if he is indiffer-
eut or obnoxious to his subjects, all the unpro-
ductive energy of an ambitions Consort will not
conciliate their affections. They will regard a
monarchy without issue as a national failure,
and endure it with increasing irritation
and impatience. The conduct of the King
and Queen of Gsar.ez has not, it must be con- '
teased, inspired their subjects with even a provi-

load or pawing affection. IWOPomace on the,
one side has not atoned for hancilllness;n4
other. While the KING haeas., the
puppet of a feminine willktheglypar has eled
all the exuberance of # nitteldhivid
temperament upon idle dreams of ambition, in- '
stead of devoting her energies to the more modest '
task of administerin with beneficent activity her
Ihusbandh kingdom, and attending to the welfare of
the people at 'home. No doubt the protecting
Powers made a signal blunder in the selection of
such • monarchy for such • people. There seems
to be an ineradicable defect of sympathy between
your lumbering fish-eyed Bavarian and your rest-
less, quick-witted Greek. The honest Olio-
logues and archaeologists from Munich would fa4n
have restored Greece to its ancient rank ;-1
ture and philosophy. But the modern Greek
would have none of them, and we doubt whether
the ancient Greek would have taken kindly to
these Bavarian Philhellenee. Then the whole sys-
tem of government has been an excrescence :
an overgrown court, and all the apparatus
of • cumbersome bureaucracy, and • 001'
rapt administration in the capital ; outside
the capital no government at all, except in the
shape of gendarmerie and taxation. Since 1843
it is true that • Parliamentaii constitution has
" flourished" in Gres a, and a free press. There
have been Ministerial crises and " interpella-
" Lions" in the Chambers. Yet nothing has
come of all this, but • keener discontent, a restless
vanity, and a noble disinel"mtion to pay the
interest of the debt to the protecting Powers.
This state of thirls has been varied once or twice
by an abortive attesnpt at • comp treat or by a
conspiraiy to rectify the Turkish frontier.
Yet in spite of its Government the Greek nation
has shown itself sot unworthy of a better fate.
Under all disadvantages and discouragement'
the country has advanced every year in
prosperity. The population increases steadily ;
public instruction becomes diffused and more
systematic ; and the mercantile and maritime re-
sources of an adventurous, shrewd, and enter-
prising race are developed with a vigour and
success which owe nothing to a government that
lets agriculture starve. It is difficult to predict too
fair a future for the commerce of Greece, since
even under the Bavarian monarchy she has owned
thirty thousand seamen, and in vessels famed for
(speed and beauty carried her flag to the remotest
seas.

The revolt which broke out in Western Greece
last week was the inevitable sequel of the
military insurrection which was not quelled, but
induced to surrender, at Nauplia in the summer.
The Government was just able to compel
the Nauplian garrison to capitulate, and was glad
enough to grant them an amnesty and let the
chiefs depart. It was no secret that the affair at
Nauplia was but a partial and precipitate outbreak
of a wide-spread, deeply seated, and elaborately
organized national movement, which was to
pause only with the deposition of the reigning
dynasty. The time for the larger insurrection
was confidently announced, and it has been kept
with remarkable punctuality. The disturbances,
it seems, first broke out in Western Greece. A
Provisional Government wasestablished at Petra& for
the maintespuice of order. The Revolution, for
such undoubtedly it is, was so well concerted,
that there was no sign of anarchy or confusion.
The latest telegrams inform us that Athens has at
length pronounced against the dynasty, and
that the Kivu has abdicated, and taken his
departure. So far the Revolution appears to be
thoroughly national, and unattended with any un-
pleasant violence, thanks to the timely resig-
nation of the KING. We cannot at this moment
pretend to augur the domestic and external re-
sults of the abdication of the KING and the esta-
blishment of a Provisional Government. The first
result, indeed, is the inevitable swoop of the fleets
of all the " Powers" upon the Piratua, and the
concentration of • Turkish force upon the Alba-
nian frontier. But we are confident that the pre-
Bence of the British fleet is a guarantee that the
independence of the people of Greece, and their
right to a government of their own free choice, will
be religiously respected.

THE MDFLernit.—A Cabinet Council was ap-
poinkd t, meet on Thursday 11,1, but on Wednesday after-
noon, by "unction of the Foreign Secretary, Earl Russell,
the reciting WPI countermandtd. The postponement, how-
ever, was notified too late to prevent several of the ministers
travell'og oontiderable d!stincee to London in order to at-
tend the council. The Duke of Argyll readmit town on
Thur.day morning, from his seat in Dumbartonshire. to
W which s 6,a 7.0 has since retutacd. Lord Granville, Mr.
Gladstone, the Duke of Newcastle, and other members of
the Cabinet remain at present in town, but some of the
minister, have left London on their return to their country
residence., and others are expected to follow in the clrly
pet. of the week. Lord Palmerston did riot leave his
count's, teat, but remains with Lady Palmerston at Broil-
lands, Haute. No time has yet been Fiat for the meeting
of the Cabinet CouriciL—Observer.

PRIEST BEUNDRIT AND THE BIRKENHEAD
Atom—Father Bruntfrit, "M.A. Cambridge," has written
a second letter on the subject of these riots. He says
"1 exercised my privilegeu an Englishman t.t choore whether
I would act as a policeman or not. It is not my taste to
go among excited mob*, and, as it was well known that
hundreds of Orangemen had arranged to come over from
Liverpool, I thought that the presence of a priest would
only Le an extra incitement to them to cause a row, and so
I threw the task of keepiug the peace upon its legitimate
guardians. In addition, considerms the service I had ren-
dered Dr. Baylee, and his ingratitude, sod that my actions,
words. and motives had all been misrepresented
by Lim and others, I thought it the more prrdeut part not
actin to interfere or expose myself to their malice." He
had no reason to apprehend any disturbance upon the part
of the aitholics on Wednesday, the 15th inst., but " on the
contrary, I had every reason to hope that they would
respond to my wishes and stay in their houses." Rome 200
or 3110, unfortunately, went to the neighbourhood of the
meeting ; but " I am informed, both by protestants and
catholiea, that had not the police commenced the row, and
moat aivagely attacked and knocked down quiet lookers-on,
no such disgraceful scenesu afterwards occurred would have
been witnessed."

THE AMERICAN SQUADRON orr THE ISLAND OF
BERMUDA.—Captain Rona. commanding the steamship
Gladiator, writes to the Timms :—"I arrived at this port
yesterday from St. George's, Bermuda, and, as the Bermuda
mail has not yet arrived, I take the liberty to trouble you
with a short statement. The island has been strictly
blockaded by • Federal squadron under Admiral Wilkes
(the notorious Wilkes) since the 27th of September, on
which day he entered the harbour in the Nammit, accom-
panied by the gunboat Tioga, leaving another gunboat.
the Sonoma, to keep guard at the entrance of
the harbour, and, under pretence of coaling and
repairs, remained at anchor till the 2od of October,
on which day he left the harbour with the Tinge,
and the Sonoma entered and commenced coaling, and
left on the nth of October. The three vessels had been in
eight up to the date of my leering (October 7), cruising
about four miles from the land, and at eight anchoring on
the fait way of the channel leading to St. George's, eo that it
I was impossible any vessel could get either in or out. On the
morning of the sth the Royal Mail steamer Merlin was Rix I
at and brought to, when, by the statement of the pilot,
within three miles of the land. I left the harbour on the
' 7th, at 4 p.m.. in the steamship Gladiator, and when be-
tween three and four miles from the land was hailed by the
Sonoma and ordered to heave to, which I did. I was then
ordered on board; I refused to go, on which I saw the
covers of her guns taken off, and on looking throiezli
the ports I could see the men at quarters. Shortly after •
boat came alongside with en officer, who, on stepping on
deck, demanded to see the papers, phi^h I showed to him,
and he took • copy of the manifest. He then ordered me
to remain hove to until he had communicated with his com-
mander, and if I was to proceed he would wave hi■ hand.
kerchief, which he dad shortly after. ►od I proceeded on
my voyage. The coaling must have hem a mere pretend,
as the squadron was only four days from Fortress Monroe,
and the quantity of coals taken on board by the three
venial. was not sufficient to coal one had it really needed
them. In conclusion. I have to observe that the only
British man-of-war at Bermuda is the Desperate."
SOUTITAM rroN, Ocr. 26.—1 t blew very heavily
here last night, chiefly from the north-west without rain.
At I a.m. the wind moderated, and rain fell. The storm
signal has been hoisted to day.