The Sun.
London, England, 1825-02-04 00:00:00

THE GREEKS.

Ma. Enrron.---Every friend to liberal prin-
ciples and to independence must sincerely rejoice in the pros.
pect that the Government of a country, whose patriotism and
rational freedom may be said, with truth, to be indigenous, is
about to adopt a line of policy, in respect to Greece, highly be-
coining the rank which the nation whose Councils they are ap-
pointed to direct holds among the Powers of Europe. Great,
indeed, are the claims which the Greeks have upon the syn 3-•
pathy of their Christian brethren, at a moment when they are
engaged in an awful contest against the inveterate enemies oe
the Christian faith. The contest is assuredly truly awful in
its nature, since it may be considered as involving nothing lest
than the existence of a nation with which all our most pleas.
ing ideas are intimately connected. From the first dawn of
reason, the History of Greece formed one of the chief sources of
our amusement in our reading hours. We pored over its pages
with inexpressible delight, and our youthful hearts beat high at
the recital of the noble and the gallant deeds which are recorded
in her annals. In our riper years, when more serious studie.*
became the object of our attention, Greece again stepped forty
with her poets, or her artists, or her historians, or her philoso-
phers, to fill our mind with useful knowledge, and to awaken in
our hears sentiments of admiration for the excellencies we be-
held, and of gratitude for the many benefits that mankind
had received from the native country of the arts and of
literature.

Three centuries and a half of the most galling and oppreSe
sive yoke could not wholly eradicate from the classical soil of
Greece that patriotism which once flourished there with unex-
ampled luxuriance. At length, the voice of freedom was.
heard. It seemed to issue out of the mouldering sepulchres of
her favourite children ; nor did it strike in. vain the ears uf
their long oppressed, and now sunk and degraded descendants.
At its sound, thousands of Greeks, casting away their bonds;
grasped the avenging sword, and swore to restore freedom to •
their native land, or to die in the noble effort. The issue Of
the contest seemed, at first sight, scarcely doubtful ; for the
sons of liberty were few in number, whilst that of their men.
ciless oppressors was great. But the sons of freedom were de'
scended from men accustomed to inquire, not what was the
number of the foe, but where his host could be found. They
rushed forth with undaunted hearts and with fixed determina-i
tion, anti the spirits of their fathers, which hovered over their
heroical battalions, were not compelled to lament that courage
had for ever deserted the souls of their descendants. Many arc"
the campaigns that have now been fought, and in all of them
the once haughty and imperious crescent has been humbled to:
the dust before the Grecian cross. Both by sea and by lion
victory has constantly crowned the efforts of the Greeks ; and
both by sea and by land have the enslaved Mussulmans been
made to feel how keen is the edge of the sword, which a due
sense of injury sharpens, and how severe and unerring are the
blows dealt by the avenging hand of freedom. In vain has the
Porte called forth its numerous host from the remotest parts 01,
its dominions, or courted the assistance of its most powerful
Pachas, by concessions galling to its pride : defeat and dis..
grace have carried dismay and discouragement into its councils,
and chilled the hearts or its defenders, in the same proportion
that they have filled the souls of their opponents with the most
sanguine, and we may now venture to say it, the best founded,
hopes of their ultimate success. And with a glad heart will every
liberal mind hail such success ; and see Greece, once more,
take her place as a nation amongst the nations of Europe, go
perhaps, once more blaze forth with superior splendour in the
field of learning.
Unfortunately for the Greeks, the principles upon which the
Holy Alliance was founded, proved injurious to their cause.---•
To the Holy Allies it mattered not that the Greeks were Chri°-
tians, striving to throw off the yoke of the most inveterate ene;
mies of Christianity; and still less that they were an oppressed
people, making one last, one desperate effort, to recover an in-
dependence of which the sword of the Mussulmans had alone
deprived them. No, it was enough that they had been tend''
dered as subjects of the Porte, no matter how the latter had se'
quired its authority, to render them objects of jealousy, and even
of hatred, to Governments, bound in close union for the purPo66"
of stiffing the flames of independence which they felt appre"
hensive would- burst forth amongst their own subjects. The
Greeks, nay surely we may add, the liberal-minded of all ogy
tions, had the mortification to see the host of these foes brought
from distant countries to effect their destruction, in vessels bearing
the.flageof Christian nations ! The eleventh and the succeeding
--centuries, ages of comparative barbarism, had witnessedinnu'.
merable bands of Christians, united with re Greeks against the
Mussulmans ; and to the disgrace of the nineteenth century be
it said, that Christians were now seen aiding these same 31115"
sulmans, to oppress their fellow Christians !
Let us hope that we may, at length, hail the
.dawn of
brighter day, of one more congenial to the feelings.which no ct;
generally prevail. .Let us hope that the enlightened policy-o'
the British Cabinet, of the only Cabinet not infected' with, or
influenced by, the principles upon which the Holy Alliance is
founded, will at length adopt a line of policy not less honour-
able to the nation than it may prove advantageous to the aeon'
try. Nay, more, let us hope that the Holy Allies thetnaelvel4.
mindful of the respectable name they have bestowed upon thelr.
associations, will at length perceive that there is nothing. 11‘..1e.
in dooming a nation to slavery and death, and still less, in as°
ing the enemies of their faith, to oppress or to extermins°
thousands of their fellow Christians.

A. In