The Sun.
London, England, 1865-04-15 00:00:00

Yet at present a Greek who wishes to study the pro-
gress of Hellenic sculpture in one collection can
hardly do better than visit the museum of casts at
Bonn, formed by Professor Welcker, for many
valuable monuments of art at Athens are only hid-
den treasures. Greece does not want men able to
arrange her collection, and who by their learning
would Atract students from every other country.
Mr. Rhangabes, who is a corresponding member of
the Academy of inscriptions and belles lettres, is well
known by his collection of Greek inscriptions and
many topographical dissertations. Messrs. Pappa-
dopoulous, Koumanoudes, Rousopoulous, and
Eustratiades have rendered acknowledged services
to the learned world by their published contribu-
tions to archaiology and the history of Hellenic art.
On this day it is the duty of every Philhellne to
compare the state of Greece at present with its con-
dition when he first visited its ruined towns and de-
serted villages. Athens on the 6th of April, 1826,
presented a very different aspect from that which it
offers on the 6th of April, 1865, and the affair of
Greece becomes veiled in a brilliant peplus of bright
reminiscences and hopes.
By a singular coincidence, which I make no
attempt to explain, brigandage suddenly ceased as
soon as the day for the general election was fixed.
In Livadea its euthanasia was accelerated by the
activity of the peasantry, who, seeing the central
authorities were in earnest, aided the troops in shoot-
ing down the whole band of Loulou. The peasantry
have a well-founded objection to the capture of
brigands, who always reappear with an amnesty
worse than they were before they formed an ac-
quaintance with a jury, very much like our ticket-
of-leave men. With all the shortcomings of their
rulers, the Greeks enjoy many advantages. They
have a good system of public instruction and of
judicial procedure, a zeal for knowledge which is
not surpassed in any other people, and freedom of
the press, which experience is teaching them to use
without abusing. The Albanian pea-santry of
Attica readily adopted improvements, and they have
purchased carts wherever the state of the roads
rendered the use of carts profitable. Currants,
madder, and cotton are cultivated with great in-
dustry and considerable skill. Various commercial
companies have been formed, and Greek capital is
employed with success in improving the native
wines. But the Government, the system of taxation,
the tenure of land, and the want of roads throw
great impediments in the way of agricultural im-
provements and the employment of capital in land.
Yet at this time upwards of 20 large houses are in
the course of construction at Athens ; the emery
mines of Naxos, the sulphur mines of Milos, and
resmelting the scoria of the silver mines of Attica
are all carried on with activity.
There is a saving grace in representative institu-
tions which, if not nullified by foreign interference,
will ultimately put down brigandage and insure the
execution of every practical project of improvement
deliberately ratified by public opinion. So long,
therefore, as there is a certainty that representative
institutions are not endangered by the machinations
of their enemies at the approaching general election
there is no reason to despair of the future. Delay in
the course of improvement is very vexatious to indi-
viduals ; but, as far as the nation is concerned, it
may be advantageous. King Otho would have placed
the museum in some unapproachable position. He
would never, like King George, have removed his
stables from the centre of the city for the public
convenience. The life of nations is long, and the
problem in treating a people that has not opened its
eyes after a long sleep is to strengthen it without
intoxicating it. It would not do for all men now-a-
days to breakfast on chines of beef and strong ale
like maids of honour in the 16th century.