BOOKS.
THE PROGRESS OF GREECE.*
THE publication of this elaborate and substantial work could not have been more opportune, for it has appeared at a time when the need for a full and reliable book upon the state of modern Greece is felt not only by the politician and the publicist, but also by many general readers, whose interest in certain topics is excited by public discussion upon them. The only drawback to it is that it is somewhat too much in the nature of a Blue- book ; it is full of facts and statistics, from which M. Mortiitinis leaves us, in most cases, to draw our own conclusions. Person- ally, we consider such a book preferable, because, given the facts, it is more satisfactory to adopt our own conclusions than have to agree with the generalisations of an author drawn from a basis the security of which we are not quite certain about. On the other hand, that abstract personage, the general reader, prefers, on the whole, to have put before him a work of a more literary character. In this respect, M. Morditinis's book falls in interest below the suggestive work of Mr. Tuckerman, formerly the United States Minister at Athens, The Greeks of To-day rt- but, as we have already said, La GrZce Telle Qu'elle Est is the fullest work lately published, and having appeared quite at the end of last year, has the great merit of containing in its pages the very latest information.
It would be impossible for any fair-minded man to read M. Mortiitinis's book without coming to two distinct conclusions in regard to modern Greece ; the first is, that since the proclamation of Grecian independence on February 2nd, 1830, the moral and physical condition of this country has improved in a surprising de- gree, considering the very great disadvantages under which the Grecian people have lain since they became free. To introduce a state of peace within its borders after centuries of warfare and rebellion, to found a constitution, to obtain a capable ruler, these were but the elementary difficulties of the new kingdom ; and these duties had to be fulfilled whilst it was watched with jealousy by the great European Powers, and whilst it was a free centre in the midst of a much larger territory, where people of the same race were being daily oppressed in the most barbarous manner. Thus Greece has naturally been kept in a state of ferment most adverse to peaceful progress, not powerful enough to cure the chronic malady by its own strength, but too full of vitality to succumb beneath its troubles. But this book shows plainly enough that in spite of these difficulties, Greece has made great strides in the way of civilisation, and when the Greece of 1878 is compared with the Greece of fifty
• La Greet Trite Qu'elle Est. Par Pierre A. Monfitinie, Anelen C0118111 de Greets. Pricide d'une Lettre de hi. Le Marquis de Qom= de Saint-Hilaire. Perla—Firm= Bidet at Ole; Athenea—Hari Wilberg. 1877.
t The Greeks of 2b-day. By Charles Tackerman. London: Sampson Low and .Co. 1872. years ago, anil with the Grecian provinces and islands under the dominion of the Porte, the second conclusion at which the reader will clearly arrive is that any statesman who values European peace and European liberty should aim quickly and strongly to incorporate Macedonia, Epirus, Thessaly, and the Islands, with the kingdom of Greece. For it must be remem- bered that the inhabitants of these countries are as fully entitled to their freedom as the people of Attica or Eubcea ; they have fought as long and as well for their independence as their more fortunate brethren. Thus it was in 1788, for example, that the people of Epirus, at the head of which was a confederation of four villages, rose against the tyranny of All Pasha, and after some sanguinary struggles defeated him, drove him back within the fortifications of Janina, and in July, 1792, caused him to sign a humiliating peace. But they had not sufficient strength actually to expel the Ottomans, and such successes were only momentary gleams of light, which brightened up this national darkness, and enabled them to continue what would have seemed otherwise a hopeless struggle. Moreover, as M. Moraitinis points out, Macedonians and Greeks of the other Ottoman provinces, who are either cultivated or seek cultivation, stream into the free kingdom, and seek service under the rule of King George. Hence a great disproportion exists between the higher and the lower classes, for if one Government office is vacant, it is sought after by a number of applicants, many of whom are not strictly Grecian-born citizens, and who crowd to Athens to obtain any advancement that is open to them. Thus officialism becomes rife, and the Government offices and political places are sought after by men who would make the latter a profession, and seek to multiply the former simply because the most fertile and extensive Grecian provinces are under the dominion of the Porte, and because the kingdom of Greece itself is too small to afford careers for its own proper inhabitants, as well as those from the neighbouring provinces and islands. But it will be best to follow the example which M. Mortiitinis has set us, and give some examples of the manner in which the Greeks have set themselves to work amidst all the surrounding disadvantages, and to justify their existence as a free people. The difficulty which a reviewer feels is to choose such as are at once short and suggestive, amidst so many which point the same moral. Athens itself is perhaps the most striking example ; from a small city, with ruinous houses, and no commerce or intellectual life, it has become a flourishing town of 70,000 inhabitants, containing more than 5,000 houses, and possessing some remarkable public buildings, erected since 1830, which are evidence in themselves of the material progress of the kingdom and of the cultivation which is astir. There are the Royal Palace, the University of Athens, the Academy, and the School of Art, all of them works of considerable architectural beauty. But it is in other matters that the progress of Greece is equally visible. Let us take some very matter-of-fact subjects, which will, however, speak volumes to the practical English mind. In 1856 the amount of land under cultivation for the growth of tobacco was 17,502 stremmes, in 1860 it had risen to 25,996 stremmes, in 1876 to 70,000 stremmes. In 1831, 5,000,000 pounds of grapes were produced ; in 1845, 14,000,000; in 1876, 195,000,000. The value of the figs exported in 1856 was in round numbers 751,000 drachmas, in 1876 it had attained 4,000,000 drachmas, and every kind of cultivation has increased in the same proportion. Again, here is another example which will appeal to the commercial mind, and it is one out of many which we might cite. The harbour of Chalcis is divided by a channel, which separates the mainland from the island of Euboea ; this channel was so silted up, that vessels could not pass from One side to the other of the port without sailing round the entire island, a distance of about one hundred and eighty miles. This drawback has, at the cost of 952,000 drachmas, been removed ; the port has been deepened, and Chaicis is now a safe and useful harbour. During the centuries of Turkish misrule, such an improvement was never even attempted ; and an observation of every other port in the king- dom tells the same tale of Ottoman neglect and Grecian progress, which might be made still more striking by a comparison of the substantial advance of free Greece with the state of the provinccs still blighted by the lethargy and barbarous rule of the Porte. Let us turn next to the subject of education, and especially to the University of Athens. This institution was founded in the year 1833, and it has been endowed and built to a great extent by the spontaneous generosity of the Greek people. In 1845, twelve years after its foundation, when visited by M. Leconte, the well-known writer upon Greece, it contained 240 students, and a staff of 34
professors ; now there are 74 professors, and 1,150 students, so that in thirty years the number of pupils has more than quad- rupled, an increase quite out of proportion to the increase in the po?ulation of the kingdom of Greece, although that has been very large (476,378 in thirty-two years). Of these students, 1,150 belong to the schools of medicine and law, and the remaining 250 to the other faculties. Whilst recog- nising, therefore, the value of this institution, it must be borne in mind that it fulfils more varied functions than the English Universities, and other functions besides those of a purely cultivating kind. Nor, again, are these students only natural-born Grecian subjects ; a large number belong by birth to the Greeks of Turkey in Europe and in Asia. And M. Moraitinis in regard to this point makes a noteworthy observation :—" It is curious," he says (p. 91), "to observe the movement which takes place at the conclusion of the student's course. A great number of those who have come from abroad attach themselves to the free king- dom, and remain in it ; and on the other hand, a number of the Greeks of Greece itself go to Turkey, as though a word of command from above thus separated them, to strengthen and vivify the bonds and the relations of the free with the still en- slaved provinces." No one can doubt that such a movement must have a. great effect upon the cause of Hellenic independence. The fact that every year a large number of young men well educated, and imbued with the highest aspirations for the future of Greece, go forth from the University of Athens, and scatter themselves not only over the little kingdom of Greece, but over the neighbouring lands, must strengthen the cause of Greece, and must help to bring about the event which is certain ultimately to arrive, the increase of the kingdom of Greece to a sub- stantial and prosperous kingdom. But the existence of an institution of this kind, already more than large enough for the wants of the two millions of Greek citizens, and capable of con- siderable development, not only in itself, but by means of affiliated colleges, shows that when the remaining Grecian pro- vinces are added to the present kingdom, the means for the education and cultivation of their inhabitants are at hand. And this instance of the University of Athens is similar to most parts of the organisation of modern Greece, especially those examples which are presented by the Government. As M. Morditinis truly enough points out, the cost of the Adminis- tration is high, relatively to the population, but as the Greek Administration is organised so as to fulfil all the various functions undertaken by Government in other richer and more populous countries, this disproportion is without remedy, unless disorganisation, on the one band, is to be allowed to grow up within the kingdom, or on the other, the limits of the kingdom are increased by the addition of the Greek pro- vinces now under the dominion of the Porte. That there will be no real peace in the East until this latter event occurs this book itself is one piece of evidence. For we have a work of great elaboration, which is meant and serves as one long argument to show the worthiness of Greece for the larger duties and privileges which she seeks, and the wisdom of freeing those provinces which are still enslaved. But beneath this careful array of facts and figures runs a strong current of patriotic fervour, and we cannot doubt that this exists as strongly in other able and peace- fully-disposed men as in M. Morditinis. Patience, as he says in his concluding paragraph, has its limits, and the self-control which Greece has exhibited during the last two years will only make the ultimate breaking-forth of the national will more powerful. That such will come, at no very distant future, the concluding words of the book plainly foretell, for, exclaims the writer, " L'avenir eat aux peuples qui luttent ! Les Grecs lutteront."
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