The Sun.
London, England, 1862-11-18 00:00:00

~~

houses, and streets, seemed all to celebrate the great
feast of redemption. I looked right and left as I
entered the street of Hermes, which leads straight
towards the Palace, but found nothing of the kind
here. All was as usual in its everyday business
garb—min, women, houses and streets—the people
at work everywhere, and nowhere a trace that
anything rather uncommon—such, for instance,
as a change of dynasty—had taken place a week
ago. But at the western entrance of Athens lies a
poor part of the town. I thought, let us wait till
we get to the so-called Four Roads," where the street
of Hermes is intersected by the long street which
runs from the Temple of the Winds across the town
into the Patissia road. This is the most crowded
and central point—the connecting artery between
the new town, to the north-west, and the old town,
which nestles at the foot of the Acropolis. There
is the cafe of the Sip= EXXar, the head-quarters of
Young Greece, which even in ordinary fives is the
rendezvous of the crowd eager for news. Well,
the crowd there was a little larger than usual, and
the addition consisted of country people who were
gazing at a caricature rudely drawn and posted up
on the wall, representing the heroes of the late
events divesting King Otho of his fustanella and
the rest of his Greek finery, while the Queen, in
the coiner, is wringing her hands in despair.

Not much more fruitful in novelties was the rest
of my drive to the hotel. The result of my search
may be summed up in a number of pictures and pho-
tographs of Grivas—with well,gummed moustache
and imperial, reminding one rather of the Emperor
Napoleon—a few broken gas lamps, a large quantity
of red and tricolour ribands in the button-holes of
the passers-by, and posts of students doing duty
as National Guards at the Bank and at the chief
guardhouse. The most timid of diplomatists and
the most petrified of Conservatives could scarcely be
frightened by the violence of the changes, and talk
of anarchy and dangers to the foundations of
society ; while the believer in popular rights could
not but hail this dearth as a symptom that the
Greeks were determined to show to the world that
they could be safely entrusted with self-govern-
ment even under exceptional circumstances.
I sauntered out again towards evening. The
crowi had considerably increased, but this is always
the case in teese warm climates. The only thing
unusual seemed to be the large proportion of the mili-
tary in the crowd. They were as quiet and orderly as
the rest ; not a trac3 of excitement or drunkenness ;
but, considering that there are little more than 1,200
or 1,500 troops of every kind in the town, they mus-
tered strong in the streets. The explanation of
this was to be found in the circumstance that it was
their last holyday. The success of the revolution
being in a great measure due to their joining the
people, it was difficult to tighten the bands of dis-
cipline at once, espcially as the infantry, above all,
contains a large number of recruits. Nothing seems
so hard to the young soldier as the constraint im-
posed upon the freedom of locomotion to which he
has been accustomed, and it was to be expected
that he would make the most of the opportu-
nity offered to him by the late events. To-day was
appointed for the taking of the oath to the Provi-
sional Government, so that the anomalous position
in which the army has found itself for the last 10
days is at end.

The Provisional Government, fully aware of the
danger which threatened the country if the army
was left much longer in its late amphibious state,
having violated its oath to the late King, and not
having bound itself to any one else, chose to•day,
as the first Sunday since things returned to their
normal state, to get the ceremony over, and at the
same time endeavoured to give it all the solemnity
which it could get up for the occasion. The place
chosen was the so-called Polygon, on the right hand
of the road to Patissia (the Champ de Mars of the
garrison of Athens).
And-difficult indeed would _I be to find a plicein
the world more impressive or superior in beauty
and historical associations. Standing between the
north-westerly slopes of Mount Lycabettus and the
slopes of another of those isolated limestone hills
which are so remarkable a feature in the plain of
Attica, and with Mount Hymettus closing in the
background, you are in a natural amphitheatre,
from which the eye can embrace at one glance the
whole plain down to the sea, and beyond it the
islands of Salamis and Egina. Every inch of that
ground is hallowed, and recalls some of the proudest
recollections in the history of humanity. To your
right towers Mount Parnes, sending down the low
spur which encloses Attica on that side and sepa-
rates it from the plain of Eleusis. At your feet ex-
tend the olive groves, watered by the Cephissus, and
with the sacred road of Eleusis passes through them,
while beyond them you see the two harbours, the
Pindus and Phalerian, the sea, Egina and Salamis,
and the mountains of Megara and Cytheron. To
the left the whole town unfolds itself, backed up by
the Acropolis, the Areopagus, the Museion. You
need only have once seen these bold and yet grace-
ful outlines, with that unique rosy tinge upon them
which the setting sun imparts to everything in the
Greek Archipelago, in order to understand why the
Athenians of old had such an eye for beauty and
harmony. Even all the dust and haze which filled
the scene this afternoon when the ceremony took
place could scarcely detract from the beauty of it.
But I am afraid it was lost both upon the actors and
spectators of the ceremony ; their minds were else-
where. Where they were I do not think I can tell.
Any one not knowing the Greeks would probably
at first sight have jumped to the conclusion that
they were everywhere except in the ceremony itself.
The troops lining the place all round, yawning and
stretching themselves, as if bored by the perfor-
mance ; the officers in the circle reserved for them
imitating the soldiers, or else chattering and loung-
ing about lice spectators in reserved seats, the spec-
tators, with few exceptions, showing little more
interest than the actors themselves, looking out from
their carriages at each other or at the passers-by,
and if on foot strolling about listlessly, and all the
while the religious ceremony going on in the open
pavilion in the centre, which is used in ordinary
times for the band of music on the Sunday afternoon.

Yet it would have been very wrong to make hasty
conclusions. The character of Eastern Christians
contains a measure of excitement and indolence
which does not admit of that power of concentra-
tion which Mussulmans exhibit in so striking a
manner in all their religious ceremonies, but is not
lets earnest and sincere in its belief. Look at those
selfsame Christians in church. They make the pre-
scribed number of crosses and genuflexions on en-
tering, and then seem altogether to forget that they
are in a place of worship until the consecration of
the Host becomes the signal for more crossings. All
the rest is a spectacle for them, yet try to touch any
of these forms and every one of them is ready to
become a martyr in their defence.

In this case, too, it was not all listlessness, as
could be seen when the Archbishop and President
of the Synod, having consecrated the colours and put
on them the red streamers, addressed the bystand-
ers, and admonished them to trust in God and them-
selves, and unite in brotherly harmony, and when,
black
veil the end of his speech, he took off the
veil and hood, and displayed his gray hdattr
hetohatbine
winds, you saw every head uncovered, a
subsided in a dead silence. Ills words could
looked as if
could only bo
heard by those close by, but the
figure
in 1821 and
that famous Archbishop Germanosro,soaf Patras, who
first raised the standard of the
ront, was again
whose picture, in the prime of
l
Cross
in
displayed on the triumphal
onlymanhood,
had
passed since, and then
o
again t he
when,4o ea
years
afterrs which
h religious ceremony, the whole
synod with cross
the
and crozier administered the oath
to one body of troops after another. There seemed
above all, among the old soldiers, at first some hesi-
I • t h
hesi-
tation about raising .
the hand and c °Brno e three
first fingers according .
to orthodox custom it
seemed as if they were rather ashamed, but by and