0

LT"2 OF COBDEN. [cpt

1837. occupation and authority must be possessed by the pow¢
Zr 33. that would regenerate Turkey. Every public servant, fro?
the highest to the lowest, must be dismissed, as they are J
corrupt. A Turk, the moment he enters the public servic?
is necessarily a rascal. England must, if she interposes
all, take the part of a principal, not an auxiliary.”
From Smyrna, after a fortnight’s cruise among the island?
Cobden arrived at Athens, March 19th, where the politic?
and economic circumstances of the new Hellenic kingdo?
interested him more keenly than the renowned monument?
though he did not fail in attention to them also, His i¥
quiries filled him, as is usually the case with travellers, wit
admiration for the gifts of the Greek people, and confident
in their future. The perverse diplomacy which settled t¥
limits and constitution of the kingdom, he viewed with !
contempt which the course of Eastern events in the fort}
years since his visit has fully justified. His hopes for thf
future of the Greeks were not coloured by the convention?
acceptance of the glories of their past. He was amaze’
bo find the mighty states of Attica and Sparta within 8°
area something smaller than the two counties of Yorkshirt
and Lancashire. ¢ What famous puffers those old Greek!
were! Half the educated world in Europe is now devotin?
more thought to the ancient affairs of these Lilliputis®
states, the squabbles of their tribes, the wars of the!
villages, the geography of their rivulets and hillocks, the?
they bestow upon the modern history of the South and
North Americas, the politics of the United States, and th
charts of the mighty rivers and mountains of the ne"
world’?
“ The antiquities of Athens may be cursorily viewed in hal
e day. Iwas not so hig-'y impressed with the merits ©
these masterpieces from reading and plates, as I found myse!
¥ Te P. Jobden, from Smyrna, March 8rd, 1837.