The Express.
London, England, 1856-02-14 00:00:00

(Stamped Id. AdditimmL) [TWOPENCE.

LITERATURE

—.--
Grua and eke Grooks of Lie Preiont Day. By
EDMOND Awns. Thome Constable and Co.

M. Abont's work on Greece has created a considers-
ble sensation. He has travelled in that wintry, has
made great nee of his eyes, and comes back to tell as,
not exactly that " all is barren," but that all is very
fruitful in everything that is bid. Certainly if the
Mate of Grosse and the character of the Greeks are
such as are described by M. About nothing as be
worse. He has scarcely • good word eves for the
country or the climate. He almost endorses the
opinion of two midshipmen, who, when told
of his intended journey, expressed their utter
astonishment that he should go to Greece
without being compelled. They told him that he.
would find sacuntains without trees, plains without
gram, rivers without water, a sun without pity, dust
without mercy, fine weather a thousand times more
miserable than rain, a country where the vegetables
grow ready cooked,, when the hens lay eggs hard-
boiled, where the gardens have so leaves, where the
colour has been effaced eves in the rainbow,
same ors leek it for Torlyro

oat even finding • Wed to repass upon. We prefer
taking our selections from the remarks which oar
author makes upon the inhabitants and the state of
society and goveroment. The reader will find that
the assertions of the author tend to destroy a vast
number of popular impressions with regard to Greece.

?Si earn WOXIII.
The beauty of the Greek raw is so eatabrated, sad tra-
vellers so WIT oapeat to lad in Grasso the family of this
Vow of )tllo, that they Mak they haws Ibsen takes I.
when they arrive at Atha's. The Athenian aroma sro
neither bosatifal awe well made; they have neither the
lively physiognomy of Preashwornan, nor the tall rick
beauty of the Remora dues, are the pale, white delicacy
of the Turkish women—oars sets moth's, in the town bat
ugly avatars' with broad sous, /at test, and ill-ioesod
waists. It is Wawa Athens, twastrivo years ago, wow
ay as Albeaisa village. The Albaaians formed, and still
fora, almost tho whole of the population of Attlee; ass
within time Isairsas of tho apit 1, villsga aro to be round
when Greek is hardly andorstood. Athena has boos npidly
peopled with Jaen of all 'dads sad aatioae ; that saplalsa
the eillassa of the Athealaa type. Boaatifal Omsk wastes,
sad thine an rare, ars oily to be wet with in swab% prt
'nerd Wards, or is sone nooks of this asoaatailas whirr
istradoes have not peastntad.
It nay be Paid that the Greek people kayo no iodisation
for any Mod of estwesos, sad that they take all their plea-
' sures with equal sobriety. They are pandaalina and I
bairn that la all tines they have been the lase.
Now the Greeks are capable of lova and hats, bat 'either
their hatred as their love is blind ; they do good and evil
with reflection, sad NUM always imamate. bonen into
their moat violist widow They do not go sad kill an gamey
till after they have nada sore of impasity ; they do not
indoor a yosag girl till after having sasertsined bar dower.
I /ladies. also is a malady siossatvely Iwo in the kir:ldols;
ha hospital for *a blind has Just beta oonstractod is
Athens; it will sever be neorasary to ballet coo for mad-
, atsa.

TZB 011111. WIN.

TM hthabitiutte of Rehm are as in former ages, at the
same time spleen and hospitable. A stranger that nobody
knows, is sire to mime back without baggage. I saw one
day in the tows of disks, oa the mafines of Rains, at the
door dike town hall, as. of my blends who was strepilleg
with • domes dainotem Them good ee•-4.1i, politely insisted
es his pion, them a ilmfr.r.4 piers ; he maned it with no
less politeness. To exhort him to liberality they dropped
men; hints of beating hint with their cudgels, and they
showed him the finarms that adorned their persons. The
chief of the heed was is petty dark in the prefecture, who
talked lewdly of his Mod title. I sum is time to Len-
gage my Somali. auesperamt. Respect is conceded to two
men togelbse _ , mold be refused is either of them
sepotatelyo I thmaassed the ringleader of this band of
rogues, sad made melt of the name of • deputy of Matra,
for whom I bed a letter. My men began to laugh. " Bath
• em I" be mieldmed ; " I know him—he is one of my ma
(lithos mow)."
AU the Greeks are equally free from money mad glory.
There are not a hundred families in the kiogdom that are
'erten of their daily betted; so mash for their riches.
They have all barn time weight of this Turkish rule up te
the moment when we delivered them from it—all alias have
been Mama with the same stick • them is their glory
For lateUigenes sad itistruenn they have all get about an
equal dose, and ell of them, or very men it, think that they
belong to the aristocracy of intelligence.
Whoa a ealaister passes through the Hermes street on his
way to the palace, the grocer or barber readily mils out to
• " Ho, my poor Mead how badly you an governing
us!" The minister moms, " It Is .say to see that you do
sot held the Malls of the (rying.pan.'
The eassakatise does not admit of any distinctions of
'abaft, sad it does well.
Yet it ft not a ram thing to hear a Greek prince's name
aesommed is the salons of Paris, and Greek counts are
esmaisa k In lodging houses. The counts may be of
bad do
then they come from the bombe bland*
bad do met Mhos to the kingdom of Oboe,; as to the
they do not belong to any aristocracy, but they
Eiavirlde themselves what they are.
All Greeks who, wider the Turkish rule, have filled the
temporary (meatless of hospodar or bey, that is to soy, of
administrator, have exchanged the tiUe they no Meier had
for the more pompous one of prime. Their children and
grandchildren of both sexes, torahs sure of inheriting seen
thing, take in their tura the title of prince or princess. If a
dismissed sub-pram gave himself the title of prises, and if
all his children made themselves prism after him, we
should laugh heartily. This is whet the Greek, do, and
they have never believed in earnest in the Panariot prince.
dome with which Athens is inundated. The Greek princes
have two kis& of visiting cords; on the one they writs
Jobs, Constantino, or Michael I—; ea the other, the
Prim X—; the net are for the Greeks, the latter for
the dupes.
No doubt a groat deal of vanity eaten into the love of the
Greeks for their country, and they strutted, blind them-
selves as to the real isspertaace of Orem. According to
them, all the events rd Ramps have in Greece their cents
and sad. If Ragland has made • Umivereal Exhibition, it
was to pet in view the products of Grime ; tf Frame hes
made • molatios, it is to supply interestiag articles to the
aewssieve of Athens; U the Emperor Nicholas covets Cou-
✓tin le, it is fen the purpose of ley.g it at Riot Otbo's
feet. Greek mina is the ant antic, of the world;
Groom • mats, without its equal; the Wm and the
Thames are subtorraasos brandies of the Celanese and
Him. I pm over these foibles. It is mean that limy
Greeks of the islasde have, like the great Comdmitittis, ant
grieved all their property, which wee amiderable, to free
their country. AU the public bindings of Athena have
been built by subseriptim, and the greater amber of the
Greeks who live out of their matey bequeath their pro-
em, to Gems. !Molly, the ialtabitasts it the hake
Islasde, who are richer, balmier, and • Modred times
better gemmed than the subjects of Kim Othe, revoked
alter the mats of 1148 ; they weaned to be Maid by tam,
robbed by tan gatherers. mord by beheads, 111. used by
soldiery, and to enjoy all the Meadow Man a deplemble
eivememeat Ma for twisty rem beam iteming to Gram.
Does Greek pendia' go the length el messing nett to
musket balk ? This is • quails& I have often discussed
with the Pbilhellests. Bathes believed at one time that
all the Greeks were heroes • I have brave same old soldiers
dam that they were all wands. I Ukiah I am meter the
truth in saying that their mime is disereet and refleetisg.
Oudot the war of indepoadoom they fought chiefly as
skirmishers, behind bushes. It ibl be easy to believe this,
whim I add that they are gives to rand their gm es a
Use or a atm, to make sum of their shot. Sportive.*
sever kill gem Ida.; they sheet partridges sitting, and
harm is the form. It is In this way they formerly went out
shooting men. No doubt there have been found sump
them soldiers brims *sough to vesture as the Oda, but they
wen, sot the greater number. Canaria, who um d to sit lire
So • fleet by lying alongside it, was • subject of astosish-
meat to the when bans. It must mot be supposed that
di the Greeks wore like Cesar* and it is always • bed
plea to lodge of • nation from 'madden. It was net the
Greek fleet that attacked Mentes at Balsmk ; it me MO
it me Timone:isles. The Greeks wasted not to fight,
eel ens relates, that • Veit, was heard in the air
whidt ezelalated, "Cowards! whes will yes moos to
retreat ? "
Tim Omsk adieu is wet ben to make war, whatever it
may my. Beet it u meal ewer ma Ityetends to. disci•
pike, whin I. the prieshea strength of war, will always
be wastivd. The Grabs mad icy are ant fit for aided-
tan We I ammo& armfdlhep owe rigid; agrisaltaki re-
galra pliswees mien yenetteinwee. mid • more stable
=WO. than the Rawl Uwe emit bed flee their share. They
10.41
,distant voyages, lwassiese eatsvpvime, Testunsom
%peddles& The Greek Reda himself in his right plea at
the deer of • Mop. whom be Invitee matomen es
the
Melt life mod when be mews the pease germ
&neg.
M k salided with NS dimity; stoodlog,
he admires him
self is bis defame hot it k ropesseat to bim Mame te-
, wards the earth. Our isboarose wesid mal Ms ou tamer;
they weed he wiewg—he his meMal Cbeithe
I who aultivate the gnaw* W themedem humiliated ; their
aashitim is to ham a suresmewleilma. elm • little
lams. The segregated NI ifty bolus assa wet
i desk to their hearts--they Mee Mai NMI
their elm anerstens, • lem el the NMI they bow ONPIPPIIefa
Ike Ponied myths 11 the seller of ma. The

French per ant only thinks of enlarging his field, the Greek
plasma is always ready to sell it.
For that matter, they tell whatever they me, firet to get
mousy, and thee for the pitman of selling. la Prance, if
you proposed to a workman to boy his cost, be would thieat
his hands into hie pockets, sod sneerer : hip coat is not to
be sold." la Greece, stop a men in the street, end ask him
if be will sell his shoes ; if you oiler a somewhat reasonable
rim the odds ere ten to one be will return home bare-
footed. In our travels, when we lodged in the howl of
pomp@ pretty well off, we bad no need to send to the beggar ;
our hoop gave se, at fair market pilots, the mice from their
cellar, the bread their oven, end the chickens front
their bonniest. They would endives, if requited, to mil to
their clothes; I haws hronaht away with me as Albanian
shirt very well embroidered, which I hod bought still warm ;
There is another point ever which the moot ardent apolo-
gists el the Greek notion are obliged to name lightly—it is
that of probity. The Greeks have made for themselves
.broad • detestable reputation ; in say ternary the name of
Greek I. used for • sharper er a swindler. lam ehiiged to
admit that they do not deems snore than their reputation.
I hays been shown at the Court of Kieft Otho, such a one,
• superior officer, who has bees several times caught sheat-
hs, at garde ; but the judge, who have sold justice. are not
potated out, nor the men in :ace who have sold themselves,
am the rut efffeere of the crown who have commanded
beads of brigands; there would be too much to do. It is
an axiom with the ()seeks, that ell same are good is order
to get rich ; lucky thieving is admire as is ancient Spelt& ;
Maadaimm am phisele MAW hoe
himself n
enlo Washer
few one thing—hr barbs lrt be foud out. M.
Casimir Uvulae, an enlightened Mendel Greece, a reseed
PlillbeUese m be calls Memel', owns in his excellent steno.
sisal trestles, " that the venality of the fusetioaerim is the
subject of seteasations which he is forced to record without
daring sodomy them."
Ones a high pereonsge of Wallachia seat to the Greek
Minister of Foredo Affairs a meek* of plate, which was well
worth fifty thousead frame. The box bad this dimple ad-
dress—. To the Mishear of Foreign Affaira" Whilst the
plate wee es the road, a 'bugs of ministry occurred. The
sew =Weft receives the box, sad keeps it without asking
any questlese, The fallen excellency claims it, mettle,
that it Is e pemplisite that was owiag to him. There was a
legal maths, but so Kendal. The meet hosest people in
Athens would be people of doubtful reputedos to France or
Zeeland. What should we think of a high judiedal fuse-
tiosary who should make • lottery of aa enclosers sad a
cottage, under the pompous title of the Academy of Plato!
The man who made this little speculation, end who sent
tickets to all Europe, is ea ex minister, who presides over
the highest of all the warm of justice, sad who espy@ a
very good reputation ia his own country.
M. About's account of the government and pros-
pects of Grans is equally unfavourable. We may
add that there is, in the work, a large mass of in-
formation on every subject of importance connected
with the state of modern Greece, and that, however
the author's statements may be quarrelled with, it
should be remembered that he had the best opportu-
nities for 'observation, and that nothing either in
the manner or matter of his remaike would seem to
show that his disparaging assertions were not made
in perfect candour.