INTRODUCTORY.

As a preliminary step to what is to follow, it may be well to preface my remarks by a few comments on the history of the existing government, which it will be recollected was imposed upon the country, not so much by the choice of the Greeks, as by a combination of circumstances they could not well avoid,-by their exhausted condition, their dissensions, and their proximity to those powerful monarchies, who, having failed to subject the rebels to their lawful masters, assumed the character of friends, and used their efforts not only in bringing the struggle to a close, but in establishing the divine institution of kings in Greece; an enterprise to the accomplishment of which, they were greatly aided by the unfortunate failures of those provisional governments which rose and sank at different times in the course of the revolution.

Count Capodistrias was provisionally the governor of Greece. While the choice of a king for the newly established state was being made, the Allied

Powers having failed* in their negociattons with Prince Leopold, turned their attention to other quarters; and on the seventh of May, 1832, "the courts of France, England, and Russia, exercising the power, conveyed to them by the Greek nation to make choice of a sovereign-raised to the rank of an independent state-and being desirous to give. to that country a fresh proof of their friendly disposition, by the election of a prince descended from a royal house, the friendship and alliance of which cannot fail to be of essential service to Greece, and which has already acquired claims to her esteem and gratitude, have resolved to offer the crown of the new Greek State to the Prince Frederick Otho, of Bavaria, second son of His Majesty the King of Bavaria."

In perusing the above preamble of the treaty, by virtue of which the sovereignty of Greece was conferred upon King Otho, one is led to believe that the rights and the interests of the people would occupy a prominent place in the body of this important state paper, but from the preamble to the closing sentence he finds, that while the privileges and the prerogatives of the throne and the monarch, are described and defined with tedious circumlocution, the unalienable rights of Greece and the Greeks are passed in silence, and that too by those who were

* Prince Leopold though willing to be the king of Greece was not willing to be imposed upon the Greeks, and it was on this ground that he resigned the crown which he at first accepted.

"desirous to give to that country a fresh proof of their friendly disposition."

It is not to be supposed for a moment that the Greeks could be so indifferent to their interests, so lost to national pride, as to transfer themselves from Sultan Mahmoud to King Otho unconditionally, nor is it to be taken for granted that the Protecting Powers were left in ignorance as to the wishes of the Greeks on this subject; on the contrary, the people of that country had no idea of exchanging masters, and the language of the European Representatives, who held their conference at Poros subsequent to the battle of Navarino, and who were the medium of communication between the Greek nation and the Allies, is clear and comprehensive. "The Representatives," say they to these courts, "in proposing the establishment of an hereditary government in Greece, do not mean to say that the Greeks shall have no part in the Legislative branch; because even during the days of the Turks they had the right of choosing their legal authorities, and their Primates enjoyed in general the right of apportioning the taxes, which were levied upon the country by the Porte. Finally the principle of representative government has been adhered to for the last eight years, and it has blended itself with their new existence. The Representatives think that it will be both unjust and dangerous to deprive the people of this right; and it is believed, that by connecting it with the succession of the highest au

thority in the state, the desires of the Greeks will be complied with to the utmost, and the public order-the great object of the Allies in behalf of Greece-will then be established on a permanent basis."*

These views and suggestions were made the subject of deliberations between the contracting parties-i. e. the Plenipotentiaries of the Allies and the minister of Bavaria, and in addition to the promises of the king of Bavaria to the Greeks, that their government was to be based on representative principles, the assurances of his minister to the members of the conference strengthens the assumption that the government of Greece was to be a Constitutional Monarchy, "The individuals," he says, "who are to surround the monarch, and the principles in which he will be instructed, will give the pledge, that instead of wishing to establish in Greece an absolute and despotic government, he will consider it his glory to rule by just laws."

Agreeably to this understanding on the part of the contracting parties, the foreign ministers at Napoli were informed by their superiors, "that one of the first objects of the Regency would be to convoke the national assembly, in order to receive the King, to express to him the devotion of Greece, and to unite her with him who is to rule her destinies. This assembly can choose from its members a com

*The above, and the extracts that are to follow, are translated from the Greek, the original not being at hand.

mittee in order to prepare, together with the Regency, the definite constitution of the kingdom, which being regulated by the joint consent of the nation and the king-when the boundaries of Greece shall have been definitively settled, and her resources better known,-will justify without any doubt her necessities, her prayers, and her interests." The Regency, however, whose first object, according to the language of the Protocols, was the convocation of the national assembly and the subsequent formation of the Constitution, thought fit to take a somewhat circuitous route, and contrary to the belief of the Protecting Powers, and the expectations of the Greeks, they directed their attention to the establishment of an irresponsible and absolute monarchy, which, however well it may be adapted to the temper and the interest of such a people as the Bavarians, was so foreign to the feelings and the genius of the Greeks as to awaken the indignation of the people, and give rise to a desperate and systematic opposition.

To the opposition of the Greeks was added the intrigues and the machinations of the foreign Representatives, who fortunately happened to differ with the Regency and each other in matters wherein they chose to consider themselves as parties, and in process of time this overthrew the Regency and the Premier, but while the members of the Regency-Count Armansperg and his successor-departed the country, with a goodly portion of gold and