TAIT'S EDINBURGH M A G A ZI N E, JANUARY - DECEMBER, 1 853. EDINBURGH: SUTHERLAND AND KNOX; MDCCCLIII. INDEX. . . . . 706 Moliére . . 48 PAGE PAGE Alderman, The, and his Visitor 686 Last Echoes of a Public Hall 350 Áristophanes 449 Legislation, The, of the Long Session 555 Black Mads. A Romance of the Last Century Literature, 53, 118, 180, 247, 308, 372, 438, 499, 564, 551, 587 629, 692, 753 Bob Bellamy's Promissory Note 542 100 Bribery and Corruption 354 Maine Law, The, its History and Results 666 British Agriculture, its Faults and Prospects 65, 129 Brittany, The Popular Poetry of 86 Mountain Spirit, The 103 Budget, The-Old and New Chancellors of the News from Our Digger 291 Exchequer 367 Newspaper Afloat, A 76 Cabman's, A, Complaint . 493 Night Side of Civilization, The 165 Canada and the Clergy Reserves 297 Norman Hamilton . 10, 69, 134, 200 Cant 174 Numbering, The, of the People 739 Character and Modifications of Slavery 193 Parish Beadle of France Coalition Ministry - The Cabinet 108 Parlez-vous Francais ? 28 Communistic, The, Propaganda in China 742 | POETRY:Continental Europe, Governments of : An Appeal 178 X. Greece 1 Christmas 749 XI. France 96 615 XII. The Two Sicilies 154 Germany at the Advent of the Great King 37 XIII. Tuscany 243 Leaves from the Arabian Nights 147, 279, 356 Cousins, The, A Tale of Old Scottish History, 650, 709 Planctus Trevirorum 410 Darien Canal, The 683 Portrait, A . 750 Divining Rod, The . 463 Port of London, The 141 Educational Reform in Germany 220 688 Sun and Shadow . 368 532 Frenchman, A, in London 390 718 Glance at Alliances, A 257 402 Gossip on Newspapers, Criticism, and the Free Poets and Profits, The 237 List 93 Poor Man's Honey, The, and the Bees who make 230 731 Gude Wife o' Wauchope; and Memorabilia 141 Priest and People. A Story of American Life, 425, House of Commons, The, from the Strangers' 476, 536, 601, 670, 721 Gallery 488 Political Register, 50, 114, 178, 244, 306, 370, 435, How a Fortune was made 209 497, 561, 627, 689, 750 How to lose a Colony 275 REVIEWS :India, its People and its Governments, 484, 547, 609 Church, The, and the Universities of Scotland 236 Ireland, A Taste of 595 230 Joe Lockhart's Dreams; or, a Tale of the Neuk Family Romance . 413 Stick . 285, 336, 396 Frenchman, A, in London 390 John Horne Tooke, and the State Trials of 1794, 525 Gervinus and bis Introduction to the History Justice to Scotland . 360, 470 385 Jutland, Christmas Vacation in 225, 269, 328 History and Romance of Life Assurance 456 . 244 . . . . . . . . REVIEWS—continued. South African Republic—How to keep a Colony 342 Manifestations of the Spirit 157 St. Florian; or, the Adventures of a Night 734 Night Side of Civilization, The 165 Swilbury, A Vote for 321 Poets and Profits, The . 237 Triad of Great Poets :Poems by Alexander Smith . 302 Greece, Italy, and England 513 Reminiscences of a French Lady 115 Heathenism, Catholicism, and Something to Eat and Drink (The Pantropheon) 659 Protestantism 577 Story of Ruth 217 Temperament, Genius, and Art 641 University of Oxford 172 Turkey, Austria, and Russia; or, Islamism, the Word or Two on Bonnie Scotland 234 Romish, and Russo-Greek Churches 421 Rags and Wretchedness and a Human Heart 404 Unborn Epic Poem 23 Recollections of my Youth 559 University of Oxford 172 Recollections of Jamaica 727 vote for Swilbury, A 321 Russia and Turkey . 616, 677, 741 Webster, Daniel, and Anglo-American StatesSalmon and its Foes, The 81 17 Shepherd of Saint Barbara, The 405 Wellington Memoirs, The 45 Shining Ladder, The 620 Wine Trade, The Mysteries of 3 Something to Eat and Drink 659 | Woman's Rights Convention, A 39 . . . men. TAITS EDINBURGH MAGAZINE. JANUARY, 1853. THE GOVERNMENTS OF CONTINENTAL EUROPE. X. GREECE. It is impossible, in our historical and classical | Greece by the Turks, the latter, after conquering associations, to separate from modern Greece our Constantinople, partitioned Greece into feudal lord ideas of its ancient classic splendour. We cannot ships, which they distributed among the Normans, divest ourselves of the epics, lyrics, and dramas of Venetians, and French military leaders. Those her poets, the eloquence of her orators, the wisdom feudal lords oppressed the Greeks no less severely of her philosophers, and the bravery of her war- than did the Ottomans at a subsequent period. riors. We are, as it were, inspired by Homer. For 237 years—that is, from 1481 to 1718—the We can imagine Demosthenes rousing into enthu- Greeks and Turks were almost incessantly at war, siasm, courage, and patriotism all the energies of contesting every position of Greece. The treaty the popular assemblies whom he addressed in the of Passarovitz ceded to the Porte the absolute most forcible, logical, and eloquent harangues that sovereignty of all the Grecian States. were ever uttered by man. We can also in imagi- The spirit and practice of the Turkish Governnation enter into the spirit of the Olympic Games, ment—the insecurity of property during a long in which the most athletic and dexterous of the period, first of the rule of the Latins and afterGreeks contended more vigorously for honours than wards of the Turks, disheartened the majority, they would for their lives—and we, in idea at least, rendered desperate, and generally demoralised enter upon the triumphal battle-fields and sea-fights the Hellenic race. This was not only the case in which impart splendour to Grecian history. And we the Morea and Continental Greece, but especially should indeed be ungrateful did we not acknow- in the Greek islands. ledge the instruction which we have derived When the Greeks first attempted their indein learning, in science, and in art from the pendence, they met with the sympathies of all ancient Greeks. It was the civilisation of the Christian Europe, and the sincere approbation of Greeks which first enlightened and gave poetry, all who cherished the spirit of civil, political, and erudition, sculpture, architecture and painting to religious liberty. Had the Greeks been trained the Romans. It was to the Greeks that the by education and practice to exercise and to appreByzantine historians and writers owed their edu- ciate the blessings of freedom, the hopes at that cation and their knowledge. And it was imme- time of the benefactors of mankind would long ere diately after the Eastern Empire was utterly subdued this have been realised. But, unfortunately, the by the Turks that Central and Western Europe de- education and traditions for several centuries—the rived from the Greeks, who fled from Thrace, the jealousies and animosities of chiefs, and the diverbenefits which revived learning among the Latins, sity of the races of inhabitants, liave all been unand which afterwards extended erudition and civili- favourable to civilisation, and to religious and civil sation to the Teutonic and Celtic nations of the freedom. west and north. The Greeks revolted against Turkish dominaBut, with the exception of such of those magnificent tion in 1821--asserted independence, and proruins as have survived the depredations and feroci. claimed a Republican Government. A destructive ties, not only of the barbarians of the middle ages, war ensued; the Governments of Russia, France, but of some modern Vandals, and the local asso- and Great Britain interfered, and the Sultan was ciations of scenery, with the configuration, un-induced to consent to the independence of Greece. changed since the days of Herodotus, of the con- In 1827, Count Capo d'Istrias was elected Pretinent and islands of Greece, the traveller amid sident of Greece for the term of seven years ; in those classic lands will find little that is agreeable January, 1828, he entered upon the duties of his or hopeful, but he will daily encounter that dis- office, and he succeeded in establishing nearly an order and degradation which generate sorrow and efficient administration. which subdue hope. Greece was then divided provisionally into About 270 years before the utter subjugation of thirteen administrative sections ; viz., Eastern and VOL. XX.-NO. CCXXIX, B |