The Express.
London, England, 1855-08-28 00:00:00

BRIGANDAGE IN GREECE.

A naval officer, in a letter published in the Dublin
Freeman, gliSI the following additional partienlan relative
to the resent attack of brigands on two British officers in
Omen :

H.M.S. Fury, Athens, August 6, 1866.
My Dear —The state of affairs in this
country, which you perhaps imagine to be one of the but
in Europe, but put down by thou who know it well to be
one of the worst, is getting rather uneasy. I gave you in
my last letter the fall and true account of the daring bri-
gandage outside Athens, in which two of our fellows were
near lining their lives, and which showed pretty plainly
that the
_powers of the Greek government were at a dia-
-1 count. The fact of the brigands' public declaration to
their unfortuoste prisoner., that they would have eat the
officers' throats if they caught them, clearly proves that
they are no ordinary pickpockets, but something of a
savage tribe. The 00CUITODOI of such an affair to two
officers of the allied forces occupying Greece has of course
opened the way for the active interference of both minbtan
at the court, which has been energetically followed up.
The owner of the horses has demanded payment from those
modern imitators of " Richard the Third," which of course
was politely declined, it being no fault of theirs that the
steeds bit the dust; but on finding he is a Pole, and always
civil and obliging, he was sent to the ambassador, who has,
I believe, taken bis cue in hand, and will get him full com-
pensation from the Athenian government. The sensation
that inch an ennt caused everywhere should have been
quite enough to have induced the government and people to
have made most energetio endeavours to seise the bandits
and thou emaciated with them. But it is otherwise in
this country, and late events begin to show that there is
something of • political character in those plun-
dering parties. The very next day, in the same
place, two more easriages were stopped net robbed, and
two days after that again the same thing occurred, and
yet there is not a soldier to be seen half a mile outside
Athens. The despatches from the camp at Pendants have
to be sent under an snort of Greek dragoons (a questionable
safeguard at present), end the officers going in or out have
always two or three along with them, as it is thought that
the brigands, through revenge and hatred, would fire at
them behind a hedge, without giving them the opportunity
of a fight. In fact, the country is overrun by bandits, and
all the people who used to live is their summer houses are
flying into Athens. An English femily,who lived for years
at Caffchio (sic or eight miles from the city), base come in,
being. I supposed, threatened ; also the Greek family of
Marco Miceli, a Spartan Prince, who is in danger on account
of his friendship for the Western Powers. But the crowning
;took place the other night, when these brigands actually
entered Athens, and robbed an ex-mioiater of two or
throe thousand drachtau' and gave notice to the present
premier, Mayrocordato, that they will do the sane to
him. He was away until yesterday, but now it shall be seen
if he eau do anything. It affairs go on in this way, it is
expected there will be a revolution, as either the people,
government, or the army ars conniving at It for
some political purpose to mist the Russian party.
It is though now that these doings have most
likely originated and bean kept up by the Russians to bring
the government into discredit, as it is favourable to the
Western Powers against Russia, and to show how powerless
and unsupported they are in the country. But they are
aistaken—for the Eagle and the Lion are about to occupy
Athens, and woe be to the bandit who will wander about at
night without a reason, as the gui nee and "Who goes
there ?" may be rapidly followed by a bullet. If they have
to occupy the capital, on account of the supineness of the
Greek troops and people, the meet energetic and stringent
regulations will be put in force, which will rather astonish
the nation. Our troop. at. enraged at these doings being
permitted in Green ; and if the slightest provocation is
given to the reds, the brigands will get such a bayonetting
and general castigation that they will forget it. They
pursue the game conduct on the borders of Turkey, and
there it is no doubt linked with their ideas of getting up •
revolutna against the Turks. Perhaps they trill escape
our strong measures by doing ostensibly something which
will satisfy us and the French, who make ekes" fur them in
everything.

The fashion of wearing dresses of extreme breadth
has spmd from Paris to the French provinces. The
Cburrier de ilhers mentions an unfortunate OCCIMMICIO,
mieudosed the other day by the custom. A lady,
it seems, presented herself at the confessional of
the cathedral. Bat presenting herself was not
all that wee to be done, it was necessary to
enter the narrow space reserved for the penitent
and to reach the grating which divides him or her from the
priest. To do this the dress submitted to extraordinary
efforts, but the whalebone of the under drew wee obstinate,
and, compressed on one side, the balloon swelled out on the
other. The dress persisted is its resistant*, a silent resist-
saes, scarcely betrayed by the rustling of the silk and the
little movements of half steed impatience. At last the
worldly toilette got the better of the aspiration' of piety.
Reddened by confusion the penitent quitted the spot, and
left the church. Was it to chino her costume ?
Our police authorities, says the Glasgow Daily
Mall, have exemplified a liberal spirit in issuing orders for a
good supply of newspapers to be furnished daily to the
varicose police districts throughout the city. This strange-
nest to eau tale operation from the let reels*.