The Sun.
London, England, 1868-04-10 00:00:00

THE Kl 2

GRECEE.

bridging are finished, and if the rails arrive soon
the company can easily complete the line before
the end of August, which is the term fixed by the
contract for opening the railway. The stations at
Athens and the Pirus might require additional
time, as they have not yet been commenced. This
railway was much wanted, and there can be no
doubt that it would be a profitable undertaking if
the work be well executed and completed at the
time fixed by the contract. As it is the first under-
taking of an English company in Greece, it is to be
hoped that it will be every way successful. Common
roads and artesian wells must precede any great ex-
tension of railways, for a population is to be created
in many of the districts through which it would be
necessary to carry any considerable line of rail-
way.

(From the Times' Correspondent.)
ATHENS, March 25.
You have already received from me some statis-
tics of place-hunting in the governing classes.
Greece is now exhibiting examples of the same evil
in the whole frame of society, and of the depth to
which it can penetrate in the social scale. At Athens
there are 40 candidates seeking to be elected mem-
bers of the new Legislative Chamber, and 40 ballot
boxes will be ranged in order at every Athe-
nian election booth. It is fortunate that each
candidate does not require to make a speech before
going to the poll. The electoral district of At-
tica returns six representatives. The conglome-
ration of communities having very different views
and interests in large electoral districts swamps
all personal connection between the electors and
the candidat ••s, and gives full swing to the prin-
ciple of democracy to the exclusion of every other
principle, leaving the result of elections to politi-
cal gambling and party combinations controlled
by accident. The desire to obtain a seat in the
Chamber is general over the whole kingdom. At
Syra, where the inhabitants of the electoral dis-
trict are chiefly engaged in commerce, the feel-
ings and interests of the electors are more in
unison, but even there 20 candidates are con-
tending for four seats, and in other districts the
proportion is as great. The Chamber consists of
110 deputies, and more candidates appear to be
seeking for election to these 180 seats than pre-
sented themselves at the general election of 1865
for the 658 seats in the House of Commons.
The Greeks are by no means blind to the evils
that arise from this state of things, but the cure is
difficult, as a great deal can be said in favour of
large electoral districts as well as against them.
A general election makes party politicians say all
tto,ey can against their opponents, and particularly
when they have not much to say in favour of them-
selves. When the partisans of M. Bulgares were
in the Opposition they accused M. Kounioundouros,
who was then Prime Minister, of holding out pre-
miums to deputies of his party by abandoning to
them the local patronage of the central Government
in electoral districts in order to insure their re-elec-
tion. The supporters of those who were then in
power were said to give away places and to open
prisons for the escape of brigands. The men who
brought these accusations against Koumoundouros
are now in office, and the only change that has taken
place in the system of government is that those who
were formerly accused of these deeds are bringing
similar charges against the present Ministers. The
provincial jobbing created by this new system of
local administration is certainly a step towards de-
centralisation, but towards decentralisation in its
very worst form.
The Greeks are beginning to find from experience
that the political practice of Western Europe, and
the scientific theories of the 19th century, are not
invariably applicable to the condition of a country
where a large proportion of the rural population
remains very much in the same condition as it was
in the ninth century. Indeed, the Constitution of
1864 was framed on deductions from the state of
things in their owu country by the native Hel-
lenes, in opposition to the counsels of those
Bedouin Greeks who have studied politics in
Western marts " where merchants most do con-
gregate," and of their own scholastic logiotatoi, or
men skilful in words, but who could never find a
straight road to anything in the art of government
except official salaries. The Greeks found that
circumstances obliged them to construct a new
scheme of monarchical government in which the
royal power should work actively and harmoniously
with a single Chamber, and in which centralization
should be combined with liberty. The lessons of
experience in Eastern society have produced a con-
stitution very different from ;that of the United
States of America, but, on account of that differ-

The Greek Steam Navigation Company, that
carries on the blockade running to Crete, has met
with a great disaster. One of its fiuelt vessels, the
Patris, formerly the Otho, who was on 3 rock off
the western shore of the island of Zia, when its
course ought to have carried it to the south of the
island. The night was neither dark nor stormy at
the time the mishap occurred, and the island is very
high land close to the shore. There were upwards
of 400 passengers on board, who were alt safely
landed and kindly treated by the islanders until the
celebrated blockade runner Crete arrived to trans-
port them to Syra. The Patris broke to pieces
next day, and the whole cargo was lost. There is
said to have been neglect somewhere, and a court
of inquiry is to be held in order to determine who
was most in fault.

The affairs of Crete continue in the same posi-
tion. Blockade running is kept up, and the emi-
gration of Christian families continues. The pro-
portion of men who emigrate is now considerable,
judging from the number that are seen at Athens.
A new edition of a work I mentioned in a former
letter has just appeared at Vienna in octavo, pub-
lished like the first edition In quarto under the
patronage of the Imperial Academy of Sciences.
This new edition of the " Journey from Belgrade to
Salonika," by Dr. Von Hahn, the Austrian Consul
for Eastern Greece, contains an original and care-
fully constructed map of the country through which
it is proposed to carry a railway, which would form
a most important line of international commu-
nication. The volume is thin, but it contains a
mass of interesting notices concerning the physical
geography of the country, the social condition of
the population, and the characteristics of the diffe-
rent nationalities that inhabit it as well as on the
great commercial questions connected with the
construction of the railway, which is, perhaps,
the line of communication of the greatest general
utility still unexecuted in Europe. The map gives
the true configuration of the watershed between
the Danube and the Mediterranean at this point,
and shows us that the lateral chain of the Balkan,
which in most of our maps is prolonged from
the Black sea to the Adriatic, has no existence
in that form. In every point of view this work of
Consul Von Hahn is worthy the attention of the
general, as well as of the learned public, and de-
serves to be translated ; for, I think, we have no
English work that gives a description of the
valley of the Warder with the highlands that
overhang the upper part of its course. This was
one of the districts from which Macedonia drew
the soldiers who conquered the Greeks " who over-
threw proud Xerxes."

711 E PUGIN-BARRY CONTROVERSY.

A second edition of the nine-page brochilre
which Dr. Barry published a few weeks ago,
has just been issued. Nothing that we might
say could more forcibly illustrate the untenable-
ness of the position occupied by the Barry
family, and the justness of the claims of Mr.
E. W. Pugin, than the able remarks in the
Morning Herald of Tuesday, which we give
below :
It contains a letter from Mr. Talbot Bury,
stating that having written to this journal, in
reply to the letters of Mr. Herbert, he was re-
fused the insertion of his communication. We
will tell him why. In the first place, the
controversy had been closed, as we then pur-
posed, and now finally resolve ; in the second,
he desired us to believe the evidence of his
memory against the witness of our own eye-
sight. In his latest exposition he says that he
never knew Mr. A. Pugin to put his initials on
his drawings in separate letters. Moreover,
"he used to put his cipher in one corner and
not in the body of a drawing." Now, this is
a very rash assertion, considering that hun-
s are still in exist-
ednr ec de . s of
vP ugaivne' s
examined drawing
some of them with
the view of testing the value of Mr. Talbot
Bury's find—what ? Not
only
sometimes
did put his initials
thate evidence
e ; ein the body of a drawing, but that there is
hardly a drawing
and w
in the body of which they
are not to be found. We have verified signa-
tures in twelve different ways. Mr. Talbot
Bury was so intimate with Mr. A. Pugin that
he must have seen one drawing which appears
to represent a vision of St. Edward on his
death-bed. So far from not having Pugin's
initials in " the body of the drawing," this
particular drawing has his initials in two diffe-
rent shapes in two different places ! Let Mr.
Barry see this drawing, and dozens of others,
and learn from them to be less dogmatic in his
statements. The Messrs. Barry say that Mr.
E. Pugin mutilated some of the documents
to prove his case. Is it less culpable on their
part, in quoting Mr. Herbert's letter, to leave
out two important words and the whole latter
part of a clause, and moreover, by inserting a
semicolon where there was not even a comma,
to change the drift of what they do give ? Mr.
Herbert says, "I cannot, of course, tell whether
the photograph was made from the original
drawing or from a careful reproduction of it."
The Messrs. Barry seem to think that they
have settled Mr. Herbert when they leave out
the words " of course," and all after the word
" drawing." This is retorting on Mr. E. Pugin
with a vengeance.
Next, to bear out their theory that Pugin's
signature on the photograph of the throne con-
sists of the initials of the Prince of Wales, the
Messrs. Barry say :—" Even if the marks re-
ferred to represent letters, we believe that the
supposed letter A, on which all depends, cannot
be made out at all." We have previously com-
plained that Messrs. Barry wish everybody to
see with their eyes ; we now say that it is im-
posing a little too much on public credulity
to deny what thousands have seen as plainly
as they ever saw anything. But this is not
the only line of tactics. The Messrs. Barry say
that the side of the throne " on which these
letters are supposed to be traced, is actually
the side belonging to the Prince of Wales—
the very place where the letters W.P. might
naturally be found." Now, without quibbling
about the loose use of the word " belonging,
we charge Messrs. Barry with a misrepresenta-
tion here. The letters are written in the
canopy of a throne shown in section ; that is,
on the upper rail of the right hand side, and,
therefore, of course, next the Prince of Wales's
throne. But, if they had been meant for the
initials of the Prince of Wales, they would have
been written so as to be read from the floor of
the house on that side of the throne. In the
drawing of the section, instead of reading
A W P, as they do read, they would have
been P W A, which is just what they do not
read. Dr. Barry says that Mr. Herbert " can
hardly be unaware ' of the identity of the ini-
tials of A. W. Pugin and Albertus Walliae
Princeps. Could Dr. Barry have been ignorant
of the difference between the letter P read
backwards and forwards in a sectional draw-
ing ; and, if he were, could not his brothers
have told him that he was clinching the argu-
ment of Pugin's authorship even while he
was trying to do duty on the other side ?
Further, however, Dr. Barry says that " the
supposed letters on the photograph do not at
all resemble those which he (Pugin) was ac-
customed to use." To this statement we have
to apply a simple denial. The letters do pre-
cisely resemble--especially the P—those which
Pugin was accustomed to use, as we can see
in half-a-dozen instances in undoubted ex-
amples of his writing.
But as if Dr. Barry were secretly deter-

ence, especially deserving of attention. There is no
doubt the political agitation prevalent all over the
Levant is tending to produce revolutions, and it is
probable that the course of these revolutions will be
influenced by the political institutions of the Hel-
lenic kingdom. It is therefore important to observe
that the native Greeks followed their own social in-
stincts after their revolution in 1862, both in what
they did and in what they asked foreigners to do
for them. They made their constitution, and they
invited the British Government to choose their
King. They knew their own political wants, and
the evils against which it was necessary to construct
harriers ; but they knew, also, that with the courts
and dynasties of Europe they had no acquaintance.
They did their best, and time only can tell whether
they have laid the foundations of a solid and en-
during edifice. A great English statesman has said
The question of what are to be the powers of the
Crown is surely of superior importance to that of
who is to wear it."

There is now a crisis in the Hellenic Kingdom.
The first Chamber of the new Monarchy has been
dissolved by the Crown, and Greece is on the eve
of electing deputies by universal suffrage and vote
by ballot to a single Legislative Chamber. The
country is divided into large electoral districts in
order to strengthen the power of democracy against
every other influence. King George dismissed M.
Koumoundouros, who was supported by a large
Parliamentary majority, and his successor, who dis-
missed the Chamber, has made no change in the
policy and conduct of the Government. He has
only changed the names of the Ministers and offi-
cials in the public service. -It cannot, however, be
said that the country has given any sign that it
disapproved the dissolution. Though it is gene-
rally believed that the dissolution was caused by a
change of Ministers, arising principally from per-
sonal reasons and not party preferences, the sym-
pathy between the Crown and the people is so great
that there is a disposition and the people is so great
that there is a disposition always to take the part
of the Crown even against the Chamber. The
cause of this sympathy is worty of notice, for it
forms a peculiar feature in the political system of
Greece, originating partly in the state of society
and partly in the Constitution. The existence of
large electoral districts added to the strength of the
other causes by preventing any close association of
party feelings and local interests from connecting
the electors and the elected. The members of the
Chamber represented nothing but Democracy, and
their great occupation is financing, The interests of
localities and the opinions of classes must appeal to
the Crown, and not to the Chamber nor to the Ca-
binet,which is a creature of the Chamber, for sup-
port.
The people have, therefore, in all minor
questions, not unnaturally, more sympathy with the
Crown than with the deputies they have elected,
though when a national interest comes to be at
in all probability the people would regard
stake, in
Chamber as a more important part of the
Monarchy than the Monarch himself. King George
lost a great opportunity of strengthening the Byrn_

pathy between the Crown and the people by not
dissolving the Chamber of Representatives when the
deputies attempted to follow the footsteps of Kin g
Otho's Senate, and vote themselves a pecuniary in-

demnity in violation of the Constitution. His
Majesty would have been supported by a strong
national feeling, and he would have established
the Crown in the position which popular opi-
nion assigns to it, of being the guardian of the
Constitution. This probably is the strongest

position which the Crown can occupy in a
Democratic Monarchy. The state of Greece to-

day is interesting as a guide to political events
i❑ any other Christian Monarchy that may be
formed by orientals. The experience of Western
Europe has proved of little use in the Fast, so that

we can judge only from finished deeds. After
classic enthusiasm has exhausted all that can be said

about the glories of MaratUon and about " the

(1(.10 whose tomb oblivion Inver knew," practical

men will ask—But how of ploughs, ro:ids, and
railways ?

At present, though roads continue to be neglected,
two public works belonging to the highest grade of
modern civilization are going on at Athens—a tele-

graph line to Kephisia where the King and Queen
purpose passing the summer, and a railway to the
Piraeus whence the people of the Capital draw
every article of consumption. The railway is only
six miles ; all the earthwork and about half the

THE SUN, LONDON, FRIDAY EVENING, APRIL 10, 1868.

SURREY CONSUMERS GAS.

mined that his father's fame as art-architect
should be completely destroyed by the hands of
his son, he steps yet deeper into the mire of
self-contradiction. The first statement was,
" We possess the design for the throne referred
to. It is dated 17th December, 1844, and
is entirely drawn by my father." Now the
statement is that "the one-part of the building,
in respect of which Mr. Pugin's aid was most
used and most emphatically acknowledged, was
the work of the throne and the interior of the
House of Lords." It is a pity this was not
" most emphatically acknowledged " earlier in
the day. Then Dr. Barry brings forward Mr.
1 Wolfe once more to prove " that Pugin worked
on the throne, and that the greater part of
the ornamental detail of it was his is un-
doubtedly true." Here is an admission that
Pugin worked on the design for the throne,
and that the greater part of the ornamental
detail was his. Yet the drawing (signed by
Pugin) from which the photograph was taken,
and which contains the sketch of the orna-
mental detail produced by Pugin, is held up
as Barry's drawing. Be it so. But if this
be held true it follows as an absolute neces-
sity that Barry copied into his own drawing
Pugin's outlines of the ornamental detail. Even
this we do not believe, for the drawing, we
hold, was Pugin's altogether. But, admitting
it, can Dr. Barry not see that Mr. E. Pugin
has here all he contends for ? Either the
drawing is Pugin's or it is copied by Barry.
What more can be said about thethrone ?
As to Messrs. Barry's repeated assevera-
tions that they desire to submit the question
to the Institute of British Architects, we say
what we said before, that we recommend Mr.
Pugin to renew his challenge and bring the
whole matter before a competent tribunal.
For ourselves, we entirely decline to lend
ourselves to any more discussion about it.
We can have no possible interest save that jus-
tice shall be done. We think Mr. E. Pugin
was ill-advised to bring the matter forward ;
but as it is before the public, we take his view
because we believe it to be based upon truth,
and not a little because the evidence of so
many of the Messrs. Barry's witnesses is flatly
opposed to the evidence of our own senses.
Sir Charles Barry might cry from the tomb
for some one to " save him from his friends,"
and especially from his sons and Mr. Talbot
Bury.

RAILWAY AND OTHER COMPANIES.

The half-yearly general meeting of this company
was held yesterday at the Bridge-house Hotel ; Mr.
Pocock in the chair.

The report stated that the net profit for the half-
year amounted to £10,992, out of which the direc-
tors recommend the payment of a dividend of 5
per cent. from this year, and to carry forward a
balance of £492.

The CHAIRMAN said this dividend had been fairly
earned. The works ware in an efficient condition,
and capable of doing more business than was the
case at present. The position of the gas companies
was at present uncertain. During the last three
years thousands of pounds had been spent on both
sides. He considered that the gas agitation was most
unfair to the companies. Mr. Morrison had intro-
duced a bill into Parliament which, if sanctioned,
would be most injurious to the companies. It
was proposed that the companies should increase
the illuminating power and reduce the price of
gas in 1870, and if they could do that then, they
might retain the 10 per cent. dividend; but the
companies could not comply with those conditions
and divide 10 per cent. The company had 10 per
cent. guaranteed to them by two acts of Parlia-
ment, of 1847 and of 1860. He did not think that
the Government would sanction a measure which
would amount to the confiscation of the property
of thousands who had invested in gas companies.

Mr. NICHOLSON, in seconding the motion for the
adoption of the report, said the gas companies had
ben subjected to a most cruel warfare. In less
than three years £60,000 had been spent in con-
sequence of the agitation, and no one had been
benefited, except the lawyers and Parliamentary
agents.

The report was adopted.
Mr. B. Duvall and Mr. C. Nicholson were re
elected directors, and a vote of thanks to the chair
man concluded the proceedings.