The Sun.
London, England, 1838-11-21 00:00:00

GREECE.

ATHENS, OCT. 24.—The King has now been absent
from his capital for some days, having set out on a tour
through Continental Greece, purporting to proceed to Mis-
solonghi to meet the Queen, who was expected to embark
at Ancona in the 16th, on her rourn to this place, by the
Gulf of Lepanto ; but it is now said her Majesty would
not embark in the Greek corvette before the 20th. News
has reached us that 24 brigands were on the road by which
the King had to pass, near Salona, and that his Majesty,
not relishing a rencontre with this class of his loving sub-
jects, very prudently took another route.
Before the King's departure, Sir Edmund Lyons pre-
sented to the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs three
notes of very serious import, by order of Lord Palmers-
ton. The one insisting on satisfaction for insult to a
groom in the service of our Minister, which the Greek
Government refused. The second demanding the pay-
ment of the interest due on the first and second series
of the loan ; and the third to notify to King Otho that
England was extremely chagrined to observe that the
pledges given by King Louis of Bavaria, by Otho, and by
the allies, of a constitution to the Greeks, had not yet been
carried into effect ; that an anti-national system of govern-
ing was persisted in, in spite of the remonstrances of the
Court of England ; that the effect had been to impoverish
Greece, to permit the squandering of her resources, and to
create just and loud discontent among the Greeks ; that
England again called upon Otho to fulfil his pledges, and,
in case of refusal on the part of the King, England would
withdraw her protection from his Government, her gua-
rantee for the loan would cease, and she would take instant
measures for the recovery of what is due to her. You may
naturally imagine that these notes put Otho into a precious
quandary, although the subject of them had been repeatedly
urged upon the King's Government by Sir E. Lyons, yet
his verbal communications were disregarded, the thick-
skulled counsellors of Otho persuading their master that
it was Sir Edmund's private pique against the Bavarians
that prompted him to annoy them ; but now the pre-
sentation of diplomatic notes convinces them that Sir
Edmund was only acting agreeably to the wishes of his
Government. It is said that the King, in an audience he
gave Sir Edmund, asked if England intended to " imposer
une constitution a moi ?" To which the diplomate replied,
" England sees that the government of Greece cannot go
on without a constitution." The first step taken by Otho
was to suspend the ordonnances, which were ready for sig-
nature, changing the present Ministry to one composed en-
tirely of Russian subjects and agents, expelling Zograffos.
Spaniolaky, and Criezis. Beyond this we know not what
measures Otho means to take. He flatters himself that
Russia and Austria will carry him through in his despotic
views ; and the French Minister, Lagrene, gives his full
support to Russia ; but he is so contemptible that few pay
any attention to him. For my part, I should not be at all
surprised if Otho, finding himself closely pressed by Eng-
land and by the Greeks for a constitution, determines
on abdicating the throne, now that he and his country-
men have swallowed up all the resources. Like persons
of weak intellect, the King possesses a wonderful fund of
obstinacy.
Amongst the scandal of our capital it is said that a
daughter of Conduriotti, who has been married for several
years, without children, is at last enciente, and this is at-
tributed to the skilful treatment of an Athenian doctor.
King Otho, whose wish to have progeny is as great as any
of his subjects, has sent to question the above practitioner,
who engages that the Queen shall gratify the wishes of the
King if she be entrusted entirely to his care, and the Ba-
varian physicians dismissed. The Court is in deliberation
as to what is to be done in this dilemma.
In one word, I think no one can deny that the Govern-
ment of Greece possesses little of stability in its composi-
tion, and that the treaty of July, 1827, and subsequent
protocols, have left the question as much unsettled as ever
it was. Russia will to the last use every possible intrigue to
keep the country in a state of confusion, and prevent a con-
stitution being granted.