The Sun.
London, England, 1830-05-31 00:00:00

raised in defence of the other off►cial proceedings
which now agitate this unfortunate colony, and to
which, in another article, we may direct the atten-
tion of the public.—Tintes.
A perusal of the last portion of the Papers pre-
sented to Parliament on the affairs of Greece, serves
more and mere to confirm us in the opinion we have
already pronounced, that Ministers do not appear to
any advantage in this question with his Royal High-
ness. The correspondence between Lord Aberdeen
and Prince Leopold, commences with a lecture read
by his Lordship to the Prince on the 31st of Ja-
nuary. At that time the Prince having become ac-
quainted with the determinations of the Allies re-
specting Greece, and dreading what has actually
taken place, had, it seems, testified a disinclination
to accept the Sovereignty of Greece. On this his
Lordship observes, " Your Royal Highness %I'll]
permit me to repeat the expression of the unfeigned
surprise with which you must have perceived that I
yesterday received this communication; that your
Royal Highness is free, notwithstanding all that has
passed, to decline the Sovereignty of Greece, I am
ready to admit; that your Royal Highness may
possibly have sufficient reasons for changing your
mind, it is not necessary for me to deny ; but I beg
must respectfully to submit to your Royal Highness,
that the exclusion of Candia from the Greek State
cannot offer any satisfactory explanation of such a
decision." And then follows an argument to show
that the Protocol of the 22d of March, having been
surreptitiously published in the Augsburg Gazette
in the month of July or August last, and this being
the only information to guide him, when he formed
the design of obtaining the Greek Principality, he
must have been prepared by it, not only to see
Candia excluded from Greece, but to become
a vassal and tributary to the Sultan. If sub-
sequent negotiations withdrew the Greek State
from the Suzerainty of the Sultan, that was
more than the Prince had a right to expect.
" Under these circumstances, therefore (quoth his
Lordship), I was certainly quite unprepared for the
sentiments expressed by your Royal Highness yes-
terday, for the first time, upon this subject ; and not
until after his Majesty's assent had been signified to
the nomination of your Highness. However these
sentiments may accord with the political objects of
persons in this country, by whom your Royal High-
ness may have been advised, I think your Royal
Highness cannot fail to perceive, upon reflection,
how little such a course could contribute to the real
dignity arid consistency of your own character."
His Lordship, it seems, thought his Royal Highness
had begun to display the cloven foot. So, after his
special pleading, founded on a publication in the
Augsburg Gazette, he reads him a lecture on the
danger of listening to liberal advisers, and a lecture
which would have been in character in the case of
a pedagogue and a schoolboy. His Royal Highness,
in his answer of February 3, protests against Ins
Lordship's inferences :—" The transactions between
Government and myself (he says), contained, till
now, no more than the comrnun'cations of the diffe-
rent stages of my nomination, and matters concerning
my domestic affairs. Still it seems, from your Lord-
ship's letter, that Government thinks me, by that,
unconditionally bound to the contents of a Protocol,
which I never saw before the 30th inst. (tilt.) and
which, when I saw it, I had only time to glance
over. I, on the contrary, was throughout led to
expect—

1. That the Protocol to be signed would not only
contain a formal offer, but an ample and specific statement
of what I have, even at this moment, no precise notion—
viz. : What Greece was to be.
dl 9

That on my receiving the Protocol, I should not
only be at full liberty to ask any and every explanation on
any one point contained therein, but finally, to give such
conditional or unconditional answer as, on mature reflee-
tion,l shall think proper."

The Prince seems, from the beginning, to have
entertained a very natural apprehension of his being
placed in opposition to his subjects, and consequently
unable to act beneficially. Writing to the Duke of
Wellington on the 9th of February, he says, " If
Lord Aberdeen has endeavoured to turn it to my
prejudice that, from mere newspaper information, I
must have been prepared for the exclusion of
Candia, I was, from all the information I could col-
lect on that subject, certainly not prepared to find
the projected north-western boundaries of the new
State such as they appear since I have had
an opportunity of examining the map annexed
to the Protocol. In my opinion, these boun-
daries are, in a military point of view, so weak
ar d insecure, that I beg your Grace to be pre-
pared to hear to-morrow, in my conference with
your Grace, the strongest objections against their
final adoption." Speaking of Candia, he ob-
serves," But in case force of arms be the only prac-
ticable mode of pacifying Candia, what must I be
prepared for ? That probably at the time when I
am going out to govern Greece, in consequence of
a certain Treaty, events may happen which will
make it appear, to the Greeks at least, that that same
Treaty sanctions the bloodshed and murder of their
brethren. I need not dwell on what, in such a case,
the feelings of the Greeks, an ignorant, passionate
people, would necessarily become towards me; nor
will I fatigue your Grace by hinting at the innume-
rable incidents which may arise out of those difficul-
ties, and over which I can have no controul; but
which, notwithstanding, may commit me with the
Powers, and brand my character in the eyes of
Europe." The Duke furnishes him with answers
in what is called a memorandum, which answers, in
as far as they relate to the boundaries, are not very
much in point. " The weakness or strength of a
frontier," says his Grace, " is to be measured by
the strength of the Power by which it is to be de-
fended, compared with that of the Power by which
it will probably be attacked. In this view of the
frontier, proposed for the new State, I entertain no
doubt that it is as strong as is necessary for its defence.
But it must, besides, be considered that the territory
will be guaranteed. I cannot conceive that any
small addition to the districts which are proposed
to constitute the new Greek State would greatly
improve its finances." His Graces remarks may
be true in general ; bat, surely, in the case of a bar-
barous power like Turkey, strong in cavalry, but
little acquainted with the art of war, it must be of
great moment to a small country like Greece, to have '
a frontier of mountains which can only be penetrated
through passes capable of being easily fortified and
defended. Besides, his Grace—when the Gover-
nors of provinces in Spain allowed the Portuguese
Royalists to enter Portugal from Spain, to overturn
the Constitution—remarked in his place in Parlia-
ment, in apology for Ferdinand, that he did not
believe it was in his power to prevent what had been
done by those under him. Can Turkey prevent
irregularities en his frontier ? And is it not of great
consequence to have a frontier which separates the
two nations, and thereby prevents the constant
occurrence of border feuds ? Advantage has been
taken of the ultimatum of the Prince, of the 11th
February, because, in his ignorance of the geography
of the North-western frontier, which lie shared in
common with the Plenipotentiaries, he fixed on
a line, as likely to afford security, that turns out
to be different from what he had anticipated.
" 3d. That it may be agreeable to the High
Powers that the new frontier to the West should
be fixed in such a manner as to continue to
ascend the left bank of the river Aspropotamos, as
far as the limits laid down to the North as those of
the Canton of Vlochos, following from thence to-
wards the East the natural boundary formed by the
mountains which joined Mount (Eta—a frontier in-
dispensable for the security of this important portion
of the New State." Bearing in mind what General
Church says as to the Allies laying down mountains
where there were plains, and plains where there were
mountains, the Prince cannot be blamed for relying
on the information furnished by their map. But in
this very document, he reserved to the Greeks the
right of objecting to him if they should think
proper. The Prince may have mistaken the
natural separation, but he never renounced the
wish to have one. In a letter to Lord Aber-
deen, February 23, he returns to this subject,
" i cannot conclude without reminding the Pleni-