GREEK GOVERNMENT-FOURTH CONGRESS. 207

Some of the proceedings in relation to the fourth National Congress, which was held at Argos in the summer of 1829, are important in their bearing upon the nationa! character.1

The decree for the convocation of this assembly was published March 16, 1829. The day appointed for the meeting of the people, and also for that of the electors was the first SABBATH, that should occur eight days after the order was received from government. The place of meeting was to be the church. As soon as mass was ended, the officiating priest was required to read with a loud voice the decrees respecting the congress. Then he must read a list of the voters, and this list must be confirmed by the majority of votes of the assembled citizens. All, except the authorized voters, now retire from the church, and the priest comes into the midst of the assembly, holding in his hand the gospel, upon which they take the oath given below, which is read by one of the oldest persons present, and repeated by the rest of the citizens, with the right hand uplifted. At this first meeting a certain number of persons were to be chosen, called electors, but in fact a committee for nominating candidates for the suffrages of the people, when they should meet to elect their representatives. These electors were designed to operate as a check upon the ignorance or thoughtlessness of the multitude.

m

(1) The 1st Congress met at Argos, and afterward adjourned to Epidaurus, where they declared their national Independence, and proclaimed a Constitution, January 27, 1822.

The 2d Congress met at Astros in April 1823.

The 3d Congress met first at Epidaurus, in April 1826, and again near Troezen, in the spring of 1827, where Capo d'Istrias, a native of Corfu, and many years Secretary of State to the emperor of Russia, was elected President of Greece for the term of seven years.

(m) "In the name of the most holy and indivisible Trinity, I swear before the altar of the God of truth, that in giving my vote I will not be influenced by any motives of friendship or hatred, of fear of loss or hope of personal gain; but that I will give it according to my conscience, and without any respect to persons."

The reader will observe, that the gospel is used in the administration of this solemn oath, and not the picture of some saint. So far as we know, this is the uniform practice in the administration of oaths by the Greek government.

208 GREEK GOVERNMENT-NEW ORGANIZATION.

From the candidates proposed by the electors in the several districts, the people were to choose the members of their national congress.

In this election, thirty-eight of the districts, or old provinces, elected the President himself for their representative; probably because the people reposed more confidence in him, than they did in their primates, from whom they might not otherwise know how to withhold their suffrages. This made it necessary to order a new election. The meeting of the congress was now appointed at Argos, to be held on the 7th of July; but it was not fully organized until the 23d, when the President delivered his message. The congress was adjourned on the 18th of August. Thirteen of the acts passed at this session have been published.

The government was now reorganized under an act of the congress, the President (who had been elected for a period of seven years) still remaining at its head. The Panhellenium was replaced by another body, consisting also of twenty-seven members, called the Gerousia." Twenty-one of these members were chosen by the President out of a list of sixty-three candidates submitted to him by the congress: the others he elected at discretion. The senate gives its opinion with regard to all acts that are of the nature of laws, but has not the power of a negative upon the decisions of the President. His decisions have equally the authority of laws, pro tempore, whether the council approve of them, or not; but where they refuse to concur, the responsibility to the national assembly rests wholly with him."

Besides the senate, there is a ministry, divided into four departments, each with a secretary; viz. the Home

It is, however the Where the word is nation, or national

(n) Tepovoía. This word properly means a Senate. word used in the Ionian Constitution for Parliament. employed to denote the representative body of the legislature, Americans would translate it Congress. (o) An exception is made in regard to the national domains and the other property of the state. Nothing can be done to affect them, without the previous consent of the Gerousia.

GREEK GOVERNMENT-ELECTION OF A PRINCE. 209

department-the Foreign department, including Commerce-the Judiciary-and that of Public Education and Ecclesiastical Affairs. The congress offered the President an annual salary of 180,000 phœnixes, but he declined it for the present. The representatives receive no pay. They are to be reassembled as soon as the executive government has completed certain preliminary duties.

The present government is regarded as provisional and experimental. The nation is looking forward to a time when the constitutional acts of Epidaurus, Astros, and Trozen shall be revised, though without any departure from the principles admitted when those acts were adopted; and also to the enacting of so many other laws, as shall be necessary to give clearness and stability to the administration of their government. Among the fundamental principles, these were expressly asserted by the last congress; viz.-that the representative assembly of the nation shall be divided into two houses, and shall exercise the legislative and executive powers, and that the judges shall be appointed for life.

It is due to the President Capo d'Istrias to say, that he appeared to enjoy the confidence and affection of the great body of the people.

Early in the present year the Plenipotentiaries of Great Britain, France and Russia, made choice of Prince Leopold of Saxe-Cobourg, as sovereign and hereditary prince of Greece; but the Prince, on learning the actual condition of Greece, and the feelings of the people with regard to an appointment in which they had no voice, declined the honor.

The Greeks suffered enough in their late struggle for the blessings of liberty, to entitle them to a government, that shall be modeled to suit their views and wishes as a people, and administered with wisdom, energy, and

(p) The new coin mentioned in the note, p. 40. The sum is equivalent to 30,000 dollars.

(q) Several acts of the government in relation to education and religion will be noticed when we speak of those matters.

210

GOVERNMENT TO BE DESIRED.

kindness; and the friends of Greece and of true Christian liberty will rejoice, if that country may be allowed the blessing of such a government, whatever be its form: only let it secure to the people the enjoyment of all those rights, which the Author of nature and of the gospel has given them.

CHAPTER II.

STATE AND PROSPECTS OF EDUCATION.

State of education in the last century-Means of instruction enjoyed by the Greeks previous to the revolution-Resort to foreign universities-Heroic patriotism of five hundred educated Greeks-Activity of the Grecian mindFew books yet in Greece-Public spirit of the Zosimades-Elementary education quite overlooked before the revolution-Great interest beginning to be taken in it-Views, plans, and proceedings of the Greek government.

PREVIOUS to the middle of the last century, the Greek nation was plunged in profound darkness. An ignorant clergy led at their pleasure a people still more ignorant. Parents were too much exhausted by oppression, or too much blinded by superstition, to give a good education to their children. If, at long intervals, a young man expatriated himself to seek that knowledge in Europe, which his own country did not afford him, his search was generally confined to Italy, and his studies directed to medicine, or theology. The former he usually commenced without any preparatory studies, and pursued just far enough to enable him to return to his country a conceited and mischievous quack; and the knowledge he acquired of the latter was directed to the composition of wordy and useless controversies. The great body of the nation scarcely knew how to read and write. With the exception of a few ecclesiastical or controversial works, issued from the presses of Jassy and Bucharest, towards the close of the 17th and at the beginning of the 18th centuries, the press at Venice was almost the only one that printed for the Greek people; and, with the exception of the books necessary for religious worship, and some few for schools where an