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PROCEEDINGS OF THE GOVERNMENT.

r

ing the plan, on which the philhellenes of my own country desired to establish schools in Greece, I had stated, among other things, the kind of books we should. use, naming particularly the Psalter and New Testament translated into the modern Greek language. Referring to the plan, of which I had given him the outline, the President says in reply:-"The plan is that which I have followed, and which I purpose to follow, in order to discharge, by the help of God, my duties in this so essential a part of the difficult task confided to me. I am at present occupied in the organization of a normal school for mutual instruction, in order to be able to furnish the different provinces of Greece with a sufficient number of teachers. While these teachers are preparing themselves, school-houses must be built in the different provinces, where the war has left nothing but ruins, and all the other articles in the mean time be provided, which are necessary to the organization of these establishments. In the number of these articles I cause to be entered the Bible, the New Testament, and the Psalms, translated and printed in modern Greek."

One point, therefore, of vital interest, may be regarded as settled, so far as the declaration of the present chief magistrate can determine it;-that, whatever other books the government may admit into their system of education, and whatever others exclude from it, that great standard of the truth, that infallible regulator of the life, that original fountain of the best literature and science, THE BIBLE, is to form a component part of the system. How unlike the policy generally pursued by Roman Catholic states! And if this policy be adhered to, and if the word of God shall be placed in all the schools of Greece, and shall be read in them, as it has long been in the schools of New England-the great point is certainly gained: and it may be hoped,

(r) The word by which the Greeks denote their friends of other countries. I use it to avoid circumlocution.

POVERTY OF THE GOVERNMENT.

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that any other arrangements at variance with this in their spirit and tendency, should there be such, will be like mists of the morning twilight before the rising day.

The government has stated, that 300 and even 400 Lancasterian schools are needed. These might furnish the means of instruction to 75,000 or 100,000 children. Only twenty-five had been established when we travelled through the country. In these were about 3,000 pupils, but the number might be increased, perhaps, to 6,000. These schools were nearly all established by the Greeks themselves, with little aid from abroad. In some instances the public revenue had been taxed to assist in the erection of schools, but the national treasury is too poor to render much assistance in that manner. The government gives its countenance to the schools, it induces the people to subscribe for them, it prescribes rules for their conduct, it solicits aid for them from abroad; but it can at present do little more. There is, however, one source within the limits of the country, from which a revenue is to be obtained for the benefit of learning, and that is the numerous convents. The fourth congress authorizes the government to make such arrangements in the convents, as that they may be made to afford assistance in the establishment of schools, academies, colleges, and public presses. Some instances, in which the incomes of these institutions have been called pretty largely into requisition, will be noticed in the next chapter. Foreign aid is desired in the form of a loan to the government; and in that form the government have requested it from their friends in Europe and America: and a treasury has been established, in which all money is deposited, that is particularly designed for education and the public press.

Whether the authorities of the Greek nation will exert any direct influence to embarrass the independent exertions of philhellenes to establish and conduct seminaries of learning among them, yet remains to be

(s) See Missionary Herald, vol. xxvi, p. 44.

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seen.

GOVERNMENT PRESUMED TO BE TOLERANT.

Such an interference would be contrary to the spirit, if not to the letter, of their constitution, and injurious to their national character; and therefore I must believe, until I see decisive evidence of such interference, that it is not designed to be attempted. The acts I have quoted may be intended to apply only to such schools as are founded by the Greeks themselves, and not to those which are the result of foreign agency; and if applied to all, may yet be so discreet and tolerant in their details and execution, as to meet the views of enlightened philanthropists generally. Should, however, the apprehensions of some excellent men be realized, and Greece prove recreant to the principles of civil and religious toleration, the authors of such a bitter disappointment to her best friends, and of such an opprobrium on her name and cause, will bring on themselves deep and merited disgrace in the eyes of Protestant Europe and America.

CHAPTER III..

STATE AND PROSPECTS OF EDUCATION.

Feeling among the people at large on the subject of education-Subscriptions in towns and villages for free-schools-Contributions made by convents-Individual munificence-Rise of the female school at Syra-Letter from a Greek female-"American School" at Syra-Sabbath-school at Syra-Orphan School at gina-Schools at Nauplion, Argos, Tripolitsa, and DemetsanaScarcity of elementary books-In what manner a supply is to be furnished -What books would be acceptable-Vast importance of this branch of benevolent effort-Printing presses-On the establishment of schools-System of instruction in the IONIAN ISLANDS-Preliminary observations-Elementary schools-Classical schools-University-Theological Seminary--General re

marks.

WE heard of no diversity of opinion among the numerous foreigners in Greece as to the state of Greek feeling on the subject of education. All agreed, that there was an universal and strong desire, that the male youth might enjoy the blessing of good schools. In this desire the clergy participated with the laity. The feeling was strongest, however, among the youth themselves. With respect to female education, there was in general much apathy, and often a prejudice against it; yet both the prejudice and the apathy were beginning to yield to more liberal sentiments.

Subscriptions for the establishment and support of Lancasterian schools, have been commenced in not a few towns and villages of Greece; and, considering the poverty of the people, the great relative value of money in that part of the world, and also that the schools attempted are in the fullest sense free-schools, the alacrity which the people have thus manifested, entitles them to our sympathy and aid. From the many authentic facts in our possession, a few will be selected.

The town of Arkadia, on the western coast of the Peloponnesus, was burnt by the Egyptians, and among

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SUBSCRIPTIONS IN TOWNS AND VILLAGES.

270 families which it now contains, 108 have been deprived of their male head. The fifteenth day of March 1829 being a festival, the governor addressed the people in the church after mass, exhorting them to make the day a real feast, by taking measures to establish a Lancasterian school. A subscription was immediately opened, and in less than an hour it amounted to 2,700 piastres. In the course of the day, twenty-eight Greek females added 700 piastres to the subscription, and a number gave their gold rings and other jewels. When we were there, in June, the subscription had risen to 5,000 piastres.

The inhabitants of Mothone, in the same province, at a public meeting subscribed 3,900 piastres.

The governor of Argolis, while at Cranidi, a town in the southern part of that province, in the summer of 1828, called a meeting in one of the churches, and there, after an address from one of the priests, opened a subscription for a school, which he himself headed with 500 piastres. The inhabitants, although their native language is Albanian, showed great zeal in the project, even women and children soliciting money from their husbands and fathers, that they might contribute to it. The subscription, as reported in the Gazette in

(a) Greek Gazette.-A piastre has already been stated to be the fifteenth part of a Spanish dollar.

(b) It has already been stated, that the Albanian language is the common dialect of certain districts in Greece; as of the islands of Poros, Hydra, and Spetsæ, and of the Argolic peninsula below Epidaurus. It is spoken by more than half of the inhabitants of Argos, by those of about twenty villages between Calabryta and Patras, of several villages in the neighborhood of Paloumpa, of a number on the plain of Lacus, and in the district of Helos, and between Monembasia and Leonidi. It is also the language of about ten villages in the island of Andros. It is corrupted from the proper Albanian, and is considered, even by those who use it, as a vulgar dialect. To discourage its use, it is forbidden to be spoken in the schools of Argos and Hydra, and I believe in the Lancasterian schools generally. This fact explains the remark above, borrowed from the Greek newspaper, respecting the zeal of the Cranidiotes. Albanian is too much corrupted in liberated Greece, to allow the translation, which has been made of the New Testament into that language, to be of much use there. The Wallachian does not seem to be the common language of any district in the Peloponnesus, though there are some, and possibly many, scattered Wallachians.-The Leonidiotes have a dialect peculiar to themselves, and scarcely understood abroad, but it appears to be of Greek origin.