The Express.
London, England, 1850-05-08 00:00:00

informed the world, that his Hellenic Majesty, whe had
been selected by Lied Palseeston, and supporter.' with a 10611
0f.2.400.00“., wee severtheisse moat to Novara his Marken;
=4 that • eettifieste to this effect bad be= signed by seve-
ral e Seers, civil, militley, and medial, who were then at
Athens is the wren of King (Mho, sad that this sernicate
had been placed in the bands of Kis( Louis e Bavaria.
Tkis strange coeussication would have passed unnoticed
its (impel bad it not been made Me subject of eonverestion,
and the attest/op of Greek statesmen called to it. At last,
it was publie:y noticed by the Greek press, and an oaten
produced. Three of the Bavaria= named as having signed
the certificate, published a declaration controlled's the
statement, in a document hearing date the lltieffied Ina.
1839, which was printed in the Greek newspapers. The
medical and military officers who signed this counterecertifi.
este were &resisted from all their places, and immediately
quitted Greets. Very HOS has been said on this subject
since. All parties seem heartily showed of their share in
te• transaction, and the public
Me mystery.
When Mr. Wye, arrived at Athens last year, as British
minister, he lotted the train laid to the Mee Lord Palmer-
ston was about to sprier. Hs tried in vain to posited, the
Greek ministereto make such causeless as would severe
so open cooly*. Has conciliatory conduct mink d the Greek
court into • b lief that Lard Palmerston was afraid to tome
to blows, sod in an evil bear, it deemed itself secure of
victory. The only alternative left to Great Britain, in
King Otho's opine's, was to withdraw the English minister
frost Athens. But, even it Lent Palmerston's disposition
bad made him inclined to take this course, King oin
ought to have remembered that the convention of IWO
which created tho Greek kingdom, bound England to watch
over it. So esteemed was the cost of Athens at this time,
that the modification which it would be possible to make
in the Greek constitution, alter the departure of the English
mnister, became a subject of conversation. Yet when the
hour arrived, sad Lord Pelmerston's demands were com-
municated, the Greek min:sten felt the folly of resistance ;
and they would have capitulated, had the minister of the
French Republie act availed himself of the con-
juncture to flitter King Other's private prejudices,
and assumed the direction of affairs. The Greek
sinister of foreign affairs' M. L 'ado., wag a
man utterly unfit for the placer. Hie communications to
the chambers, on the subject of the quarrel, area tissue of
forsook statement.. hl. Tbouvenel presided this en.
lucky ei muter to brave Lord Palmerston, and trust to the
Protection if Prance and the European pre*. The
French sickle, hoew that he would et 'du for himself the
star sal toe broad blue ribbon of K.ng O.ho's Order of the
Redeemer, and he knew equa:ly well that he would inflict a
seri les it jury on the commerce and revenues of Greece,
and that he would cause the ruin of matey Greek merchants.
There out be no doubt, that ambassadors ought cee. r to
be allowed to receive orders front the sovereigns to who.*
court they ere accredited. The interests of nitrous are often
sacrificed by honourable son for stars and ribbons.
We ars bound also to observe, that the cadet of King
Otho has so templet. ly disergaaisad the finance. of Greece,
that t ie ffir 'ne is in ismi neat danger, and • great change
in the government of Greece must take place in the mien,
veer. In the year 1848, • serious rebellion took place in
Greece. The diplomacy of England was accused of en-
(vomiting toe insurgent., Rai, for some day., the flight of
King O;ho from Athens was an hooey expected.
When the fu I nom of the evil, and the anarchy which
threatened the c sentry in consequence of th insane conduct
of the Greek Opposition, win known in England, L'erd
Palmerston trunkly changed his police, and sent our ablest
and best English lipleastio, S r Stratford Canning, to save
King Othe.'. throne. If a throne he of any value, the King
cr. Greece owed some thank. to England for the meat ser-
vices of fir Stratford Canning, who had to =counter •
'virulent and miter opposition from the English officials at
Atheos during his exertions to save Greece from anarchy.
Ilk conchae on of the revolutionary war lift the cation
dieted into several dams of society, as different in their
ideal and habits of life as If they bad formed parts of dif
tenet patients. These closes were, first, the peasantry—
foe so the coltiva•or. of the soil are generagy called, though
a large portion of deem are lands' proprietors, and often the
only rows* of suhstanca in tee prove' cat Second, the
*sake, or proprietors, who did not eul'ivute their own
loads. Thew men managed public business, and acted as
collectors of the or under the Turks: they frequent
coffe e• hoes es, and form political seietie, ender the cent rail led
email:sties' ',stem of government. Tbie cloy, however,
possesses some education, but its moral character is vitiated
by • firm e 'eviction that it es 'stilled to be maintained in
• state of WO nese at the public 4:pease. It has gained con•
slierable retitle el kfluerke by meat's of the eOction law of
1841. Coletet by intimidatinr the weak, bribing the active,
and creating =numeral'', places, turchosed V•is class whole
sale, and read. red hiseelt master of nearly all the eke:oral
districts in Greece. The third clue is composed of that
numerous body of Greeks who h.?, emigrated to the H.l•
leak territory from different provioces cot Turkey. Tee
does includes the greater part of the shiest and best edu
eyed sea in the country; but the abject principles of the
Phanarietes, or Greeks educated for the public 'eerie in
Tarkey, ai d the heee avidity displayed by this class in
place-hunting, which is their principal meanie of life, ten-
dered them very unpopular, and enabled their Tiede, the
primates, to seems them from official emplao,asents by a
deer= of the national assembly of 1811. Toe fourth class ,
is the esilitary. This class is very numerous, ILS I'S ranks
are swelled by crowds of individuals who served in a
mtlitaty capacity, bat who have received military rank as a
paymnt for political services. Kiop Othe sakes general•
of sorrels, sod eolone:s of commusaries; while airmen
Of the revenue, muleteers, sad blots' memos. forts about
cue half of the anatomised offices of an army which it rants
an cfficer fir every two private's and • quarter, if we can
trust the Greek Midget and the Greek newspapers.
The allies gave the Greeks • king, a c ur:, • regency lees
salted than their own apitani, Civil warm, adder noel debts,
sad an order of lorgbtkood to corrupt foreign diplomatist.:
but no: • road, &budge, or • ferns-boat, was totrooerned into
• country full of =gestalts and dangerous torrent-bed.• and
ceeskting, ia great parto of peninsulas and islsnis. Katie
Othe„ who be. spent 3,000,0001. steels/ on civil Mani, and
1,030 0001. ea palaces, dies not posses fife, miles of road
practicable for a donkey-cart, is his whole &minima. There
is not • earrkgeoroad from Athens to Corinth, nor a ferry-
boat to the Steads of the Archipelago. Need roe wonder,
then, if the Greeks despke toter own government, and sue-
;wet the ir.tentions of the three protecting powers that sup-
per; it in its evil conduct? The consequence is, that fitter.
[hostile military and police officials fail to pre serve order
in • populaion of nine hundred and twenty thousand souls.
The result of this polities; experiment, he the foundation of
monarchies. certainly refire. little credit on the statesmen of
England, Franey, and Russia.
The Greeks possessed great rower in the local adminietra•
lion sinner the Turk,. This power contributed in a high
degree to the pros/net:on of their semis' existence, but
alarmed the weeemirded Beranek ; and, under the shield
of the three protecting powers, the Greeks were robbed of
their municipal instOutions by the regency. A system of
local oligarchies was introduced, which foetal:sat present.
The election of the mayor and aldermen is vested in an
electoral college, one half of which kouni_pased of the persons
who pay the greatest amount of taxes. Here is an element
of respectability ; but in order to dilu's it with one of ser-
vility, • certain cumber of individues, decorated with
noses, is admitted. Even this respectably servile body is
not allowed to elect the mayor; it is eel empowered to
nu= three candidate., from which the King chooses the
individual who is to direct the interests of the little commu-
nity. The mayor so chose enjoys his office for three years,
and receives a good salary from the municipal feeds. Let
us now exo ioe how this system IS worked, in conformity
with cozetitutioaal principles, in the wits' of the Hellenic
kingdom. Attica, it must be observer, sends four deputies to
the legislative ebitailoo: and as these deputies receive two
hundred and fifty drachmas a-month, and have succeeded in
making the sittings cf the Greek chambers perpetual, the
place of deputy is worth as much as the best estates in
Greece. Now, to these interminable sitters are chosen by
universe suffrage, but are required to support the minister,
it became absolutely necessary to job the elections, by means
of the oliouchy holding office in the municipalities. This
was not very difficult, for the number of persons who can
read and write among the Albanian population of Attica,
which outnumbers the Greek, is very small. Even among
the Greek population of the city of Athens, the proportion
of government cffioials and street porters, who pay so tale.,
exceeds the number of the independent citic no The mid-
dle classes, and the friends of order, are excluded from all
local influence, by being excluded from any share in the mu
nicipal government. A towtociour.eil party is formed, and
this party is allowed to employ the whole local UPS of
Attica, amounting to between three and tour hundred thou-
sand &seies annually, in jobbing, on condition that they
support the ministerial candidates at the elections.
The constitutional system of political corruption, to make
universal suffrage profitable to the court, runs thus ; The
mayors are selected from men without character or local
influence. This is brought about by namine the third can
didate mayor, he being g fly some insignificant person,
whom both the leading parties agree to admit on the list.
This individual, when appointed, is nothing more than a
creature of the prefect or of the court, which alone pos-
sesses the power all protecting him in oiler, and in the re-
ceipt of • good salary for three years. The duty of the
mayor is to tailor the aldermen, by allowing them to ',eerie
with the municipal councillors how to divert the ices
.

of the city intoibeir own palest', or that of their relations,
by the creation of places. The extent to which the curt
have hrosurht jobbing, is testified by the shifts and tergiver-
sation employed to prevent the publication of any regular
amounts of the receipts and expenditure of the munici-
palities ; end toe municipal revenue. exceed the sum of two
millions of drachmas. Athens, with a ?Entitle of three
hundred thousand drachmas a year, would be the filthiest
town in Europe, were nature not kinder to it than its ma-
gistrates.
A single instance of how mutton are carried on in the
provinces, is sufficient to Gem:ribs the whole system. A rural
commune, placed on an Important line of communication,
wished to make a good mule read over a mountain pass. It
voted the sum of six hundred drachmas in it. budget,
hoping, hy its exempt!, to produce similar votes in the neigh
bouriag communes. the central government was then in-
vited to send an engineer, to trace the best line of road.
The dorsi of the province was a creature of the court. He
and the Minister of the Interior put their heads together,
sad sent do.n an inspector of the road, before it WE. cur
Toyed or commenced, with an order *a the commune which
had put six hundred drachmas in its budget, to pay him a
salary of hay drachmae monthly for a year. This minis-
terial exploit put an end to all projects of road-making on
the part of the municipalities.
Too vote by ballot is converted into a constitutional
method of counter sting any evil affects that might other
wise seri. e to ministerial candidates fruit the us., of mai-
venal suffrage; l r rasa is fallible, and the Weeks telt
inclined, in nos places, to °prise the system of Culetii.
We revene. nel L:lu plan adopted to the attention of an
eminent histories I'l ancient Orme., who has more
faith In the wood of the bellorboz than in the metal