vantages over her illustrious competitors, that if the views and the wishes of the people in general had been consulted, the government would have been obliged to give its consent in favour of the Isthmus; but the government suffered itself to be influenced by the absurd notions of men who ought to have had no voice in the matter. They thought that in settling this great question, they ought to make a choice which would be agreeable to the views of the foreign ambassadors in the court of King Otho; pleasing to the savans of Europe; promising to the plans of some few speculators, and above all, in conformity with the wishes and the orders of the crowned antiquarian, to whom the members of the Regency owed their appointment. What could be then more suitable to all parties,— except to the Greeks who had no right to be consulted—and more flattering to the age which witnessed so many wonders, than the magnificent project of closing the splendid events of the Greek revolution with the restoration of Athens! In the meantime, as soon as it became known that the restoration of Athens was ultimately fixed upon, instead of witnessing the rise of temples and the return of their marble gods from the museum of London, there was only a flood of speculators and a rush for house lots. Before the arrival of King Otho in his capital, Athens was as busy a scene as was ever witnessed in the old or the new world. The work of buying, planning and building, went

on. Edifices, private and public, rose apace, and though the flute of Orpheus was not heard, Hymettus and Lycabetus were set in motion by the magic agency of Drachmas, and the whole city of Athens rose to view like a newly-created wonder, under the enlivening and all-confounding genius of the Bavarian architects.

One building after another rose upon the site of temples, and many venerable ruins were given up to vile purposes by the hands of those who were to restore them. The stoa of Hadrian, which, according to Pausanias, "was resplendent with alabaster and gildings, and adorned with pictures and with statues," was turned to a fish market, and to stables for the horses of the troops. In a word, the first sound of the hammer upon the foundations of modern Athens, was the last funeral knell over the ruins of the venerable city which was to be restored to beauty and life!

Nor was the destruction of the ancient edifices the only injury to the interests of the country. The prospects of modern Greece suffered as much as the antiquities of Athens, for in choosing an inland town for the capital of a maritime and commercial nation, at a time when the enlightened communities of the earth are aroused to the importance of easy communications, they committed too great an error -for men who were born and educated in the very heart of civilized Europe-and inflicted a lasting injury on the commerce of Greece. It was well to

be at a respectful distance from the sea and the pirates who infested the seas in the days of Cecrops, but what possible reason could they have for such a choice in the days of Armansperg?

One can hardly turn his attention to this state of things without suspecting the existence of something more culpable than honest stupidity-and it does appear as if the projectors of this specious scheme were actuated, not so much by their veneration for the monuments they have ruined, as by their desire to fetter the enterprising genius of the Greeks, and make them as dull as the Beotians of antiquity or the Bavarians of our day. One is the more inclined to suspect something of the kind, inasmuch as it was so easy to restore-so far as it was practicable-the monuments of Athens, and at the same time give to modern Greece a capital adapted in some measure to her condition-to her wants and her prospects!

Piræus, is now admitted by many sensible men, that in addition to the paramount advantages of a fine port, held out the equally great advantage of being national property, and this ought to have been a consideration with a government which commenced its existence with a debt of 60,000,000 francs, and which ought to have had some regard to economy. Nor is it to be supposed that this plan would have been prejudical to the " restoration of Athens," for had Piræus been fixed upon for the seat of government, Athens would

have been the most eligible situation for the schools and the literary institutions of the nation. It being sufficiently near to enjoy the advantages and far enough to avoid the inconveniences of a commercial city, it would have suffered less by the progress of modern improvements, and might have preserved more of its original features. It might have remained as nearly the old Athens as possible, and with time and care, might have regained some of its lost splendours. Under this arrangement the capital of Greece, without being in Athens, would have lost nothing of the influence of that great city; but as it is, we have impaired the interest of the one and the other-we have buried the old city of Athens and have gained a very indifferent capital.

The growth of the new city was so prejudicial to the monuments of the old, that half an hour's stay by moonlight in the Acropolis, with the faint tinklings of the sheep bells in the valley of the Illissus, and the loud hootings of the owls among the ruins, with night and solitude around the fallen pillars of the Parthenon, would afford to the traveller more real pleasure and enjoyment than whole days or a month's rambling among the din and the dust of the city by daylight. While the injury, however, to the ruins of the city was inevitable, the government and the people could not be wholly indifferent to the preservation of those monuments of antiquity which are scattered throughout Greece, and associated with her history and her glory.

The Archæological Society of Athens, which has for its object the discovery and preservation of the antiquities, was formed as early as 1837, and while the government of the country placed the monuments of Greece under the protection of the laws, the members of the Society undertook the work of excavations. The Society has more than 800 honorary and regular members, and if its resources had been properly managed, its usefulness might have been commensurate with its importance; but its President, Mons. J. R. Nerulos, and its Secretary, Mr. R. Ranghabe* have been too inefficient, and have done little else besides inflicting long speeches upon the members and their friends, who, once a year, assemble under the columns of the Parthenon for the purpose of celebrating the anniversary of the Society. Owing to the inertness of its chief officers, the Society has lost much of its life, and the interest of the antiquities might have suffered still more had it not been for the energy, the zeal, and untiring effort of Mr. Pittakes, a member of the Society, and "Conservator-General of the antiquities of the country."

Mr. Pittakes, who is a native of Athens, is almost the only man in the city who, by the simplicity of

* Mr. Ranghabe, though deficient in that activity which ought to characterize the secretary of so important a society, is nevertheless entitled to great credit for the information he has imbodied in his annual reports.