It is almost useless to try to form an estimate
of the strength of Greece until her soldiers have been tested in the field. They have as yet never seen a battle, and may behave like Americans at Bull Run, or like Americana at Gettysburg. English observers on the spot, however,. state that they number 60,000, and will number 80,000, by the spring, that they are well armed, that they are most attentive to their exercises, and that they are singularly well in hand.. The 12,000 men cantoned in and round Athens give no trouble whatever. They will be commanded by a Greek General, and will fight on ground with which they are familiar,. and for a very exciting cause, Still, they are untried troops. Of the personal valour !shown by the Greeks in the War of Inde- pendence there is no doubt, but personal courage, though in- dispensable in an army, will not of itself make soldiers success- ful. It will be observed that the difficulties of transport and commissariat, which so embarrass the British War Office,. do not seem to alarm the Greeks, any more than they do the Turks, who move over the great distances within their empire without trouble or much forethought. No report of weight has yet appeared upon the Greek artillery, the aria with which a small maritime State should be best provided:
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