The Sun.
London, England, 1839-10-24 00:00:00

STATE OF GREECE.

ATHENS, SEPTEMBER 30, 1839.—The difficulties in
the way of agricultural improvements arise from two
sources, the insecurity of property and the defective ad-
ministration of the laws. Property near the towns is
divided into numberless lots. In the country, there is
a great want of population. The wages of labour are
very high, and the price of produce low. The want of
markets is severely felt, for the expense of transport is
enormous, and the agricultural taxes are collected in
an oppressive manner.

The division of land in the plain of Athens is carried
so far, that a vast number of the lots are less than an
acre. Of course they remain unenclosed, and thdir
boundaries are liable to continual discussions, preten-
sions, and disputes. The present Government has con-
tributed to increase the insecurity arising from this
cause by resuscitating questions already decided by the
municipal authorities and prior governments. Thus the
proprietors of these scattered morsels have a certain
number of disputes on hand, but no certain quantity
of land.

I am intimately acquainted with one of the finest es-
tates in Attica, only fifteen miles from the capital. It
consists of above 3,000 acres, with extensive woods, I
water, and a fine soil ; yet it has only fourteen inhabi-
tants or three to a square mile. The wages of a
common labourer are about two shillings a-day, and
wheat is at 28s. a quarter. Few of the large estates in
Attica are more populous than the one 1 cite.
The great road from Athens to Negropont runs through
the property ; and though King Otho arrived in
Greece in February, 1833, and has travelled along it
several times, it is not yet practicable for a cart.
I might write a long memoir on the oppressive manner
in which the taxes affecting agricultural industry are
levied. I shall only give you a few examples. As the
amount of the land-tax is paid in kind, and the payer
is bound to transport the government share to the dis-
tance of six leagues, this proves a virtual prohibition on
the cultivation of potatoes, turnips, cabbages, and beet-
root, by the Greek farmer. A Greek proprietor, who cuts
timber on his own land to build his granary, pays 15
per cent. on its value, and if he send any of it
by sea to the nearest town he pays 6 more. Thus
Greek timber at :Athens pay 21 per cent. duty,
while Austrian timber pays only an import duty of six
per cent. !!! Lime and tiles made in the country are
taxed in the same way. If a Greek at Marathon re-
ceives a few pounds of Hymettas honey by sea, he pays
six per cent., and if he send to Athens his silk cocoons
to be wound, he also pays the six per cent. You may
think with Adam Smith, that " nothing seems necessary
for the repeal of such regulations, but to convince the
public (i. e. King Otho) of the futility of that system)
e. the Bavarian), in consequence of which they have
been established." But how can this be done ?

These are the difficulties with which every man in
Greece has to contend ; but should an unfortunate agri-
culturist incur the displeasure of the court, he will have
many additional impediments to fight against. I shall
illustrate these by narrating my own sufferings.
_

My property has been seized to build a royal
printing office, and the out-buildings of King Otho's
new palace, and not one farthing of indemnity has
been paid to me. The water of my irrigable land
has been seized by the royal physician for the use
of the royal botanic garden, and recovered with
much difficulty and expense. The royal geometer
is every day putting me to considerable expense
by raising questions concerning boundaries, which
he dare not carry to the tribunals, and will not settle
amicably. The Royal Commissioner of Woods and
Forests makes the law a source of oppression to me in
the improvement of my property, and a source of impu-
nity to those who burn down hundreds of acres of timber
on Mount Pentelicus. And all this is done apparently
because I have asserted, and do assert, that the King
of Greece would be better served by Greeks than by
Bavarians. I feel lam entitled to draw the inference,
as I find that the head of every one of the departments
against which I have to complain is always a Bavarian.
Something, I grant, may be allowed for their ignorance
of the usages of a country in whose misfortunes they
have had no share, and in whose prosperity they have
no interest ; but still much will remain for political

malice.
The fact is, that no guarantee for property exists, ex-
cept in the sentiments of justice which animate the
King of Greece. His Majesty unites the whole legis-
lative, executive, and administrative powers of Govern-
ment in his single person ; and his much talked of
Bavarian Camarillo, or Privy Council, is composed of
the most incapable and inexperienced public coun-
cillors any monarch ever had the misfortune to be
surrouded by. I judge them by their acts, for Ido not
know some of them even by sight ; when I used to be ad-
mitted to the honour of frequenting his Majesty's palace,
they had not risen into notice. It is true there can be
little doubt that King Otho's love of justice would se-
cure to his subjects their rights, if his Majesty had time
to attend to all the business which the accumulation of
ministerial, legislative, and royal duties imposes upon
him. That bing impossible, business gets sometimes
four years in arrear. My land, occupied for a royal
printing-office in 1835, is still unpaid for ; and unless a
national assembly meets to relieve his Majesty from his
legislative and administrative labours, and allows him to
devote himself to his executive duties, this and many
far more important matters are likely to remain unat-
tended to, even unto the Greek Kalends.
Such being the present agricultural condition of the
country, I cannot conceive that any man, foreigner or
Greek, will find it either for his profit or his pleasure to
devote his attention to the improvement of the soil, un-

less he should be able to get himself naturalised in
Bavaria. The road to Munich may conduct him to
farms and flocks gratis, as it has an agricultural Baron
near Athens, or it may lead him to a grant of land at
Arakli,7the Bavarian colony ; but if he buy land with
his own money, I have great doubts whether he will
get bare justice—certainly not, if he is suspected of
being the advocate of a national and responsible system
of government. I say this, alas ! not in the spirit of
satire, but as sad, sober truth.
Still I do not despair of the future in Greece. I think
that, with any administration not desperately bad, she
might easily be rendered happy and prosperous ; and,
with a representative legislature and a responsible ad-
ministration, she would soon remove the difficulties in
the way of improvement which I have mentioned.
King Otho will, doubtless, very soon be convinced of
this. I hope, both for his own sake and for the sake
of Greece, that there will be very little delay, for the
political horizon of this new kingdom looks very murky
at present.—Chronicle.

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DUBLIN, MONDAY.—For the last few days a
most favourable change has taken place, and there has
not only been a cessation from rain, but there has been
actually warmth and sunshine. This happy alteration
will tell on the potatoes and oats, and the Malagrowthers
and famine writers will, with the blessing of God, be
disappointed in their heartless speculations.—Dublin
Mail.