BOOKS.
GREECE AND THE GREEKS.*
GREECE, for the last twenty or thirty years, has been overrun by English, French, and German travellers ; but few of them, at least of the book-making class, have had as much opportunity and knowledge for a thorough study of the country and its in- habitants as the well-known German philologist, Ludwig Ross, who died not very long ago. Ludwig Ross was born in Holstein, in 1806, the grandson of a Scotch physician who had settled at Hamburg about the middle of the last century, married a German lady, and established his children as merchants and farmers in the neighbourhood of the old lianse town. Ludwig's father was a stout yeoman, Colin Ross, still more Scotch than German, sagacious and thrifty, and striving hard to make both ends meet with a large family on a small farm. Ludwig was sent early to school, and earlier still to the university of Kiel, where, under the guidance of the celebrated Nitzch, lie came to be passionately fond of philological studies, devoting particular attention to ancient and modern Greek. His progress in this direction was so considerable, that the Danish Government on
the recommendation of various eminent men, granted him a "travelling stipend" for a number of years, to enable him to visit Greece and practically extend his linguistic knowledge. Ross started iu the autumn of 1832, and having arrived at Nattplia, at once set to work on a thorough exploitation, archaeological,
philological, and ethnological, of modern Hellas. At the end of two years he had the reputation of knowing Greece better than most Greeks, and his travelling stipend having come to an end, the Government, to retain him in the country, ap- pointed him "conservator of antiquities" at Athens. In this new position, however, Ludwig Roes did not feel entirely comfortable, the less so as the Ministry of King Otho wanted to make him a political satellite and occasional electioneering agent. Before long, he threw up his official position, seeking a subsistence as professor and writer, and, after a few years thus spent, was elected to fill the chair of philology at the university of Athens. By this time he had become so perfect in modern Greek, as to be considered as one of the literary authorities of the country. His poli- tical views, too, gained him many friends, who all looked upon him, as he did himself to a great extent, as having become thoroughly nationalized in the country of his adoption. How- ever, ill-health, brought on by incessant studies and literary labours, compelled Ludwig Ross to leave Greece in 1845, alter a sojourn of fifteen years, and to take up hie abode in Germany. The change of air, unfortunately, did not bring renewed health, and after long-endured suffering, which he bore for many-teirs with heroic fortitude, his mental as well as physical strength gave way at last, and he ended his days on the 6th of August, 1859. His fame in Germany will remain flesh for many a day as one of the noblest and best of Philhellenists.
Of the posthumous works of Ludwig Ross, just published by his friend, Otto Jahn, Professor of Philology at the university of Bonn, a few chapters have previously been given to the world in the periodical called " Deutsches Museum ;" but the greater part of the " Erinnerungen und Mittheilungen " is entirely new, and has never before been printed. The "Communications," very in- teresting in themselves, are particularly so at the present moment, when Greece is again attracting the attention of the civilized world. Ludwig Ross, partly in the forne,of a diary, and partly in letters written to friends at home, under the fresh im- pression of events, describes with great animation the period of the establishment of the young Hellenic monarchy, a time in some respects not dissimilar to the present series of events. When the traveller landed at Nauplia, he found the whole population, as now again, waiting for a king. The joy was immense when it became known at last that the " Great Powers" had been kind enough to choose a sovereign for Greece, condescending even to forward a conga' d'Ilire to the National Assembly. On the 6th of February, 1833, King Otho and his Bavarian friends and masters set foot on the shores of the Greek realm, received with such an outburst of enthusiasm as only a youthful nation seemed capable of producing. But the narrow- mindedness, vanity, and ignorance of the new rulers became strik- ingly apparent during the very first days of their inauguration in power. The German advisers of Otho insisted that the noble Greek chieftains, who had staked their lives in the war of independence, on being admitted to audience with the young monarch, should either fall on their knees, or stand, perhaps for hours, bare- * Erinnerungen und Nittheilungen atm Grieehenland By Ludwig Ross, with it pre- lim) by Otto-Jahn. Berlin : R. Gaertner. 1803.
headed in the royal presence. It was a dreadful alternative to men who justly looked upon kneeling as degrading to their position, and who were almost as unwilling to take off their small caps, for the simple reason that beneath they had nothing to show but a bare skull, it being fashionable at the time to shave the fore part of the head and to tie the few hairs at the back together in a cue. However, Bavarian etiquette stood firm, and the poor chieftains had to give way, though they became the silent enemies of the new Government from that moment. Much of the stupid vanity and haughtiness of the Teutonic invaders of Greece was due probably to the encouragement of the great protecting Powers and their official agents. King Otho on his arrival in Greece was accompanied by a number of English and French men-of-war, among the former the steam frigate Medea, one of the finest vessels of the British navy of that period, commanded by Captain Horatio Austin, a godson of Lord Nelson. Young Otho, it so happened, had landed in his new kingdom with an insufficient wardrobe, and his friends, at the end of a few weeks, wished to put him into Greek costume, thinking it a cheap way to make him popular. But the tailors of Athens had the repute of being but poor artists in handling the shears, and it was hinted to Captain Austin that he would confer a favour by fetching a Sartor from Nauplia for the purpose of measuring royal Otho. The godson of Nelson had no sooner heard what was wanted, when he gave orders to get up steam, and the great eighty-five gun ship, the finest British vessel afloat in the Mediterranean, had to lift her anchors to fetch a little tailor. The event, probably, is unique in the history of our Royal Navy.
The causes of the utter failure of King Otho's administra- tion of Greece are very clearly indicated by Ludwig Ross. Of all forms of government prosible in a new country, the weakly offshoot of German bureaucracy, which the Great Powers chose to inflict upon poor Hellas, showed. itself the most unfit for the purpose. Ludwig Ross, no mean judge in the matter, speaks in the highest term of the intrinsic worth of the Greek people, and the marvellous capabilites existing in the race for political and social development ; but he, at the same time, lays it open to demonstration that progress is possible only under a government with strength and wisdom enough to form a policy of progress and to carry it through energetically. The monstrous incapacity of the Bavarian administration, which ruled the country for nigh thirty years, is illustrated by the single fact that for a long time the royal ordinances and decrees were actually published in
German. The officialGazette' of Athens was printed both in German and Greek, the former language predominating ; and
even the old Hellenic chieftains, desirous of being presented at Court, were expected, not only to exhibit their shaven heads and nnornamental cues, but to converse in the pure guttural of Munich. From the very beginning, royal Otho seems to have
been no more than a kind of lay figure—le grand zero, as a witty Frenchman expressed it, seeing the large 0 at official illumina-
tions—which German bureaucracy made use of for its own pur- poses. That the Greeks not only bore such despicable govern- ment, despotic and yet weakly and sickly, for a whole generation, but even-made considerable social progress under it and in spite of it, is, all things considered, the highest proof of the inherent vitality of modern Greece which can be adduced.
The signal advance which the country has made during the last thirty years is vividly shown in the sketches which Ludwig Ross gives of the state of Greece in Ism and the following years. At that time there was not a single road throughout the land, nor any means of internal communication ; and when Admiral Malcolm brought a two-wheeled cart to the Piraeus, where he was erecting a country house, all Athens turned out to see the wonder. Again, in the cold winter of 1832-33, Ludwig Ross and his companion lodger in a small hut, a German architect named ',riders, bethought themselves to build a little stove, being tired of the amusement of squatting over a tiny charcoal pan, in the accustomed Greco-Turkish fashion. They procured, at great trouble, a small quantity of sheet tin, which, by bending and hammering it over an old anvil, they succeeded in shaping into something like a closed grate for burning chips of wood of the olive tree. Tile news of the wonderful new contrivance spread like wildfire all through Attica, bringing crowds of people to the cottage of the two Germans. The venerable Patriarch of Athens himself, with an imposing suite of ecclesiastical dignitaries, came to inspect the little stove, and Greeks and Turks for the moment forgot their mutual animosity in admiration of the marvellous piece of machinery. " God is great, and there is no end to the wisdom of these Franks!" exclaimed a pious old Turk;
and Amen ! said the Bishop of Athens, with a last glance at the stove. Not much farther advanced than in social matters were the "regenerated" Greeks in political affairs. Even while the national congress was sitting at Nauplia, a week or two before the arrival of Otho of Bavaria, it was deemed unsafe to go a mile beyond the walls of the city, the whole country being in the power of the irregular troops, dis- banded, but not dissolved, at the cessation of hostilities. For a few weeks these irregulars kept the congress itself in check, by cutting off the water supply from Nauplia, and thus forcing the thirsty legislators to do their bidding. The northern part of Attica, from Eleusis to Marathon, was ruled, at the same time, by a native of Montenegro, a bold freebooter of home- lean stature, called Vassos Maurovuuiotis. He commenced his career by kidnapping the pretty young wife of an aged Greek merchant, and afterwards, gathering a few hundred adventurers of all nations around him, set up as chieftain, levying rates and taxes in the most civilized manner, and hold- ing a sort of court, with his fair partner, at Menidi, at the foot of Mount Parses, some ten miles from Athens. That, from such a state of things, the country has emerged in a comparatively short space of time to its present position, notwithstanding Bavarian and other drag-chains, is a feat for which sufficient praise has never been bestowed upon modern Greece.
Though speaking in the highest terms of the political capacity of the Greeks, with full knowledge of their character, Ludwig Ross agrees with others in saying that they possess one serious fault, which is their exaggerated "localism." To most Greeks, the welfare of their own village or town stands higher than that of the country at large ; and it was to some extent the know- ledge of this fact which made it possible for the corrupt Government of King Otho to keep so long a hold on the country. No doubt, in the bands of a strong, as well as wise ruler, this weakness might become a virtue, leading onward in the path of social improvement. But it appears more than ever doubtful whether poor Hellas will be fortunate. enough soon to meet with such a ruler, through the means hitherto employed for the purpose. "It is exceedingly difficult to understand modern Greece and the Greeks," is the constant theme of Ludwig Ross, who seemed to think that he scarce comprehended the whole inner life of the young nation, even after a study of fifteen years. The acknowledgment of like ignorance can scarcely b3 expected from heaven-born statesmen and great diplomatists; but it would be well if only the sense of that feeling were to take possession of those who have undertaken the serious task of re- commending another king to Greece and the Greeks.
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