1831.] 



[ 329 ] 



MONTHLY REVIEW OF LITERATURE, DOMESTIC AND FOREIGN, 



The History of Modern Greece, from its 

 Conquest by the Romans, B.C. 146, to the 

 present Time, byJas. Emerson, Esq.,2vols. 

 800. The affairs of Greece, from the con- 

 quest ofthe Romans, and even from that 

 of Philip and his warlike son, have of 

 course merged in the general story of 

 the master-powers, and, like those of any 

 other province, have only occasionally 

 come in for any discriminating notice. 

 Yet separated by language, and a culti- 

 vated one by never-dying recollections 

 they have never, any more than the 

 Jews, freely incorporated with their 

 conquerors, and their whole history is 

 still capable of insulation, and worthy 

 of it. Mr. Emerson has done all that 

 research can well do to accomplish the 

 object ; but he has put his materials to- 

 gether somewhat awkwardly. His pur- 

 pose was to close at the period at which 

 the recent revolution was on the point 

 of exploding ; and yet he commences, 

 by way of preface, with a sketch, in con- 

 siderable detail, of the revolution itself. 

 The Grecian story is taken up at the 

 death of Alexander, and cursorily pur- 

 sued through the Achaian league the 

 conquest of the country by the Romans 

 the successive invasions and spolia- 

 tions of Alaric, Attila, and Theodoric 

 the capture of Constantinople by the 

 Crusaders, and consequent occupation 

 of Greece by the French barons the 

 restoration of the Palseologi, and the 

 final capture ofthe capital by the Turks. 

 The story then proceeds, with more 

 particularity, through the contests of 

 the Turks with the Venetians, till the 

 peace of Passarowitz, in 1718, when the 

 Venetians lost the Morea for ever. 

 The Ionian islands were left in the 

 hands of the Venetians, and on that 

 ground their history is still gone on 

 with, not only to the peace of Campo 

 Formio, when the Venetians lost them 

 also, but up to the present time, when, 

 under the good government of England, 

 they are at least prevented from cutting 

 one another's throats, or plundering 

 their neighbours. 



After the treaty of Passarowitz, the 

 general history is suspended to afford an 

 opportunity for exhibiting, at consi- 

 derable length, the condition of the 

 Greeks under the despotism of the 

 Turks ; and under the several heads of 

 political state Greek Church Arma- 

 toli and Klephts Greeks of the Fanar 

 Hospodars of the Provinces the fate 

 of the language, literature, and fine arts 

 a general, but very adequate view, is 

 fairly exhibited of that condition. At 

 this period of her history, Greece must 

 be considered as depressed to the lowest 

 depths of her enslavement, but with 



M.M. New &?rtw._.VoL.XI. No. 63. 



still too much elasticity to be utterly 

 crushed. The Greeks had been too long 

 accustomed to subjugation, not to know 

 how to avail themselves of even its ad- 

 vantages. They were superior to their 

 conquerors in cultivation. They could 

 make themselves useful, and they were 

 of principles sufficiently flexible to work 

 by cunning, where force was useless. The 

 arts ofthe parasite were all their own. 

 Juvenal's portrait was still their like- 

 ness under the Turks : " With the 

 Romans," observes Mr.E., " they took an 

 important part in every transaction, pub- 

 lic or domestic, and concentrated in their 

 body an exclusive right of interference 

 in their affairs. With the Turks, in 

 like manner, their shrewdness and acti- 

 vity rendered them their advisers and 

 agents in every matter where ignorance 

 or indolence compelled them to call in 

 their aid ; and secret commissions, well- 

 timed attentions, and ostentatious devo- 

 tion to their masters, were alike their 

 duty in the palaces of the Caesars and 

 the seraglios of Constantinople. A ready 

 wit, consummate impudence, and fluent 

 declamation, were the characteristics of 

 the Roman parasite; whilst a perpe- 

 tual smile of adulation, a ready laugh, a 

 bow of obsequiousness, a tongue tipped 

 with flattery, and an eye twinkling with 

 cunning, completed the picture of the 

 Fanariot." 



Among other things, their services, as 

 interpreters, were invaluable to them- 

 selves, and indispensable to their mas- 

 ters. The Turk knows, and will know, 

 no other language but his own. They 

 were thus of necessity admitted to dip- 

 lomatic secrets, and by degrees wormed 

 themselves into the Hospodoriats of the 

 northern provinces. Their available 

 talents prompted them onwards in the 

 career of insinuation and influence ; and 

 the subsequent history of the Greeks 

 is but a silent and underworking course 

 towards open resistance. Their schools 

 extended the old writers were again in 

 the hands of numbers and the Fanariot 

 Greeks, visiting the colleges of Italy and 

 Germany, gathered knowledge, and, by 

 degrees, resolution, to seize the first 

 opportunity of throwing off' the yoke of 

 the Osmanlis. The first spontaneous 

 resistance originated with the Suliots 

 against old Ali ; for the wretched at- 

 tempts, in 1770, and again about twenty 

 years afterwards, were prompted by the 

 Russians, who basely deserted their un- 

 fortunate dupes. 



The Incognito ; or, Sins and Peccadil- 

 los. By Don T. de Trueba. 3 vols. 

 12mo This very clever Spaniard, who 

 handles the English language almost 

 2 U 



