when it was taken by the Turks from the Venetians, populous' and exceedingly rich. The gentry lived like princes in splendor, and even the peasants had each of them at least a silver cup, spoon, knife, and fork. The number and excellency of its productions were wonderful. At present only a little cotton, some silk and wine, and a few drugs, are its produce, all to no great amount. Even the salines (or salt-works), which were so great a branch of revenue and commerce to the Venetians, have produced nothing since the Turks possessed it.

"Of the defects of the Grecian character some are doubtless owing to their ancient corruptions; but most of them take their rise in the humiliating state of depression in which they are held by the Turks. This degradation and servility of their situation has operated for centuries, and has consequently produced an accumulated effect on the mind; but were this weight taken off, the elasticity and vigour of the soul would have wide room for expansion; and though it cannot be expected that they would at once rise to the proud animation of their former heroes, they would doubtless display energies of mind, which the iron hand of despotism has long kept dormant and inert. It is rather astonishing that they have retained so much energy of character, and are not more abased, for like noble coursers they champ the bit, and spurn indignantly the yoke; when once freed from these, they will enter the course of glory. The truth of these observations will appear, whether we consider the Greeks in their common character as one people, or whether we consider them according to their local and peculiar distinctions.

"When we view the Greeks in their more comprehensive character

as a nation, their superiority over the Turks in knowledge is surpris ingly great; they possess a great degree of genius and invention, and are of so lively an imagination, that they cannot tell the same story twice without varying the embel lishments of circumstance and diction; added to this, both men and women speak much, and with wonderful volubility and boldness, and no people are such natural orators; numbers of them speak Italian, but all have an activity and sprightliness which strongly contrasts with the stupid and pompous gravity of the Turks; an European feels himself as it were at home with them, and amongst creatures of his own species, for with Mahomedans there is a distance, a non-assimilation, a total difference of ideas, and the more he knows their language the more he perceives it; on the contrary, the more intimately be knows the Greeks, the more similar does he find them in habits and manners to other Europeans: their bad reputation is more owing to the slander of the French (their mortal enemies) than to so great a degree of demerit. In general, they are an agreeable and a serviceable people, but they are much given to levity, immoderately ambitious, and fond of honourable distinctions; but this very ambition, now a weakness, when they have nobler objects to pursue, will lead them to greatness.

"From the account given by Tott (vol. i. p. 118.) of the disturbances excited by the patriarch Kirilo, it would appear that the Greeks have not yet entirely abandoned that spirit of superstition and bigotry, which was, perhaps, the main cause of their former downfall.

"It must be observed, however, that these disputes are not so much fostered upon themselves, as they

are

are owing to the efforts of the Latin church, which was the case in the instance alluded to, where the foundation of the contest was a bull of the pope, directed against the Greek church.

"They bear the Turkish yoke with greater impatience than other Christians (who have long ceased to struggle against it), and possess a spirit of enterprize which, however ridiculed by some authors, often prompts them to noble achievements. Their ancient empire is fresh in their memory; it is the subject of their popular songs, and they speak of it in common con

versation as a recent event.

"That they possess a firm and manly courage, notwithstanding the insinuations of their calumniators, has been too often testified to be in the least doubtful: the instances which they have displayed in the Russian service have been truly striking. They are passionate, and sometimes given to assassination; but, except in Zante and Cephalonia, the stiletto is not so frequent with them as with the Italians, whom they in general resemble, the best of them, if we add more energy, being very similar in character to the Venetians, and the worst to the Genoese.

"The most observable difference in the Grecian character is between those of Constantinople and their countrymen of the islands. The merchants and lower orders of the Constantinopolitan Greeks have indeed no very marked character; they are much the same as the trading Christians in all parts of the empire, that is to say, as crafty and fraudulent as the Jews, but less so than the Armenians, who are the most subtle of all usurers.

"But there is (in a suburb call ed the Fenal) a race of Greeks

who called themselves nobles, and affect to despise those of the islands; they are certain opulent families, from which are generally appointed the drogomans of the porte, and the waywodes of Walachia and Moldavia. They have kept these places amongst them, as they are mostly allied together and keep up a constant connection with the of ficers of the porte. They are continually intriguing to get those in office removed, and obtain their places; even children cabal against their fathers, and brothers against brothers, They are all people of very good education, and are polite, but haughty, vain, and ambi. tious to a most ridiculous degree, considering the contempt they are treated with by the Turks. As to their noble extraction, it is a matter of great uncertainty; most of them bear the names of those families which were illustrious when the Turks took Constantinople, but they would find it difficult to prove their descent. They have in general all the vices of the Turks of the seraglio; treachery, ingratitude, cruelty, and intrigue, which stops at no means. While they are drogomans of the porte, they are ob liged to behave with great caution and prudence, but when they become way wodes, they are in nothing different from Turkish pashas in tyranny; nor is it to be wondered at, when men are obliged to look up not only to tyrants, but to the very servants of tyrants, for honour and consequence; to flatter their ignorance and stupidity, their foibles and their vices, and to tremble for their lives at their frowns, that cunning takes the place of wisdom, vice of virtue, and treachery of fortitude. In such a situation the mind must lose its vigour, the heart its generosity: the abasement of man by

such

such causes was never more strongly exemplified than in the instance of the Greeks of the Fenal; they do not weep over the ruins which they cannot restore, nor sigh to rear others of equal magnificence.

"Strange as is the infatuation which induces these Greeks to aim at the post of waywodes, it is perhaps no less astonishing than many examples which daily occur in other nations of the power of ambition. Though styling themselves noble, and affecting a superiority over the other Greeks, they are the only part of their nation who have totally relinquished the ancient Grecian spirit; they seem not anxious, as the islanders are, for liberty, but delight in their false magnificence, and in the petty intrigues of the seraglio; and their pride is to appear in their dress like Turks; and yet the situation which they are thus eager to obtain is beset with perils, and scarcely one who holds it escapes deposition. and punishment. No sooner is a waywode appointed, than he sets out in great state for his government, attended by a crowd of relations and dependents, for all of whom, as well as for his own splendor, he must provide by oppressing the unhappy subjects of his tyranny. Meanwhile his countrymen at Constantinople are engaged in continual plots for his removal, and it becomes necessary for him to accumulate a large sum to bribe the ministers and others on his return, and to avert the perse cution, which continues for years afterward to hang over him.

"Those of Macedonia, &c. are robust, courageous, and somewhat ferocious; those of Athens and Attica are still remarkably witty and sharp; all the islanders are lively and gay, fond of singing and dan cing to an excess, affable, hospitable, and good natured; in short,

they are the best; those of the Morea are much given to piracy; but it is not to be wondered at, consider ing the cruel treatment they have met with, and the struggles they are con tinually making against the Turks, Albania, Epirus, and in general the mountaineers, are a very warlike brave people, but very savage, and make little scruple of killing and robbing travellers; a Turk cannot venture in their country alone; there is no man in the country but would make a merit of shooting him and is this to be wondered at ?

"The Greeks of Zante and Ce phalonia, subject to the Venetians, are famous for stabbing with knives.

"In some islands the people are not handsome. In Metaline, the women are remarkable for very large breasts. In Tino, the women are almost all beauties, and there the true antique head is to be found.

"In general, the people of the islands have grand and noble fea tures. From different faces you may put together, in walking through a market-place, the heads of Apollo and of the finest ancient statues.

"It is scarcely possible for any person not to be mistaken in judg ing of the conduct of the porte to wards its provinces, by any ana logy from the political operations of other European nations. Amongst us, the unsuccessful revolt of a whole province would indeed give birth to some additional rigour, and to some striking example of punishment: but the ferocious Turk proposes nothing short of extermination, in order to free himself from the fear of future defection. It was thus that, when the inhabitants of the Morea, who, instigated by the desire of liberty, had taken up arms in favour of the Russians, returned again under their yoke, a deliberate proposal was made in the divan to

slaughter

was this the first time that the massacre of all the Greeks had been seriously debated; it was however, in the present instance, successfully opposed by Gazi Hassan, both on motives of humanity and policy.* "It has been said, that long possession of a country gives an indisputable right of dominion, and that the right of the Turks to their possessions has been acknowledged by all nations in their treaties. As to treaties between the Turks and other nations, who had no right to dispose of the countries usurped by the Turks, they cannot be binding to the Greeks, who never signed such treaties, nor were consulted, or consented to their signing.

"When one nation conquers another, and they become incorporated, by having the same rights, the same religion, the same language, and by being blended together by inter-marriages, a long series of years renders them one people. Who can in England distinguish the aborigines from the Romans, Saxons, Danes, Normans, and other foreigners? They are all Englishmen.

"The Greeks were conquered by the Turks, but they were at tacked (like all other nations they conquered) by them without proVocation. It was not a war for injury or insult, for jealousy of power, or the support of an ally, contests which ought to end when sa tisfaction or submission is obtained; it was a war, having for its aim conquest, and for its principle a right to the dominion of the whole earth;

sovereigns were usurpers, and that the deposing and putting them to death was a sacred duty. Do the laws of nations establish that such a conquest gives right of possession ? They, on the contrary, declare such conquest usurpation.

"The conquered were never admitted by the Turks to the rights of citizens or fellow subjects, unless they abjured their religion and their country; they became slaves, and as, according to their cowardly law, the Turks have a right at all times to put to death their prisoners, the conquered and their posterity for ever are obliged annually to redeem their heads, by paying the price set on them: they are excluded from all offices in the state. It is death for a conquered Greek to marry a Turkish woman, or even to cohabit with a common prostititute of that nation; they are in every respect treated as enemies; they are still called and distinguished by the name of their nation, and a Turk is never called a Greek, though his family should have been settled for generations in that country. The testimony of a Greek is not valid in a court of judicature, when contrasted with that of a Turk. They are distinguished by a different dress; it is death to wear the same apparel as a Turk; even their houses are painted of a different colour; in fine they are in the same situation they were the day they were conquered; totally distinct as a nation; and they have, therefore, the same right now as they then had, to free themselves

from