334 



Monthly Review of Literature, 



[MARCH, 



ther exciting disease, or employed as 

 remedies are both of them full of illu- 

 sions, and attended with endless uncer- 

 tainties. Take an example in the effects 

 of cold. Of six individuals who have 

 been exposed to cold in the same degree, 

 and, so far as we can judge, under the 

 same circumstances (of course, the cir- 

 cumstances never are the same), one is 

 seized with inflammation of the lungs 

 one with diarrhoea, and one with rheu- 

 matism while three escape without in- 

 juryat least apparently so. Not a 

 whit less remarkable is the uncertainty 

 as to the action of remedies. One case 

 appears to yield readily to the remedy 

 employed; on another, apparently the 

 very same, it has no effect in arresting 

 its fatal progress ; while a third, which 

 threatened to be equally formidable, ap- 

 pears to cease without any remedy 

 at all. 



We recommend the book to both the 

 doctors and their patients. 



Narrative of a Journey through Greece, 

 in 1830, by Captain T. A. Trant, Author 

 of " Two Years in Ava." Capt. Trant's 

 journey was taken in the winter of 

 1829-30, and extended to all the most 

 remarkable points of the Morea, and to 

 Athens. The volume is chiefly accept- 

 able for bringing information relative to 

 the condition of Greece down to a later 

 date than any that has yet been collected 

 in books, or that rests upon competent 

 authority. Capo d'Istrias had been two 

 years in authority, and had done abso- 

 lutely nothing towards bringing the 

 country into anything approaching a 

 civilized organization. Captain Trant 

 represents him as wholly absorbed with 

 his own interests. His two brothers 

 occupy the chief offices of the state one 

 at the head of the war and marine de- 

 partments, and the other generalissimo 

 and lord high admiral. Capo succeeded 

 in frightening Prince Leopold though 

 the prince probably had metal more 

 attractive at home and will apparently 

 find no more difficulty in deterring any 

 other nominee of the triple courts. His 

 object and no wonder is to continue 

 himself at the head of the government ; 

 and what sort of occasion there can be 

 for a king, and a foreign king too, is past 

 all common comprehension. The popu- 

 lation does not exceed 750,000 ; the 

 country itself is in a state of desolation ; 

 and where are the supplies to come from 

 for the support of the trappings of roy- 

 alty, after the European style ? 



In every town and village, Captain 

 Trant tracked the Arab devastations of 

 the merciless Ibrahim, who seems to 

 have visited with fire and sword every 

 corner of the peninsula. The towns 

 are completely in ruins scarcely a house 

 with a roof to it, and the condition of 



the peasantry worse than ever more 

 filthy more degenerate. 



The Mairiots, it seems, are already 

 ceasing to form a distinct class ; and 

 Muvromichalis (old Petro Bey), ceding 

 his power, now lives quietlv at Napoli 

 di Itomania. He is now a senator only, 

 and of course merely a cypher. 



A friend, says Capt. Trant, recently paid him a 

 visit at a new house he had just built, and re- 

 marked to him that he thought it extremely com- 

 fortable. "Yes," said the old chief, "but you 

 should have seen me in my Bayship of Morna." 

 " How !" said his friend, "do you regret former 

 times ? What induced you then to rise against the 

 Porte ?"" Why, the fact is, that, though I waa 

 really powerful and rich, I wished to be more so ; 

 a crowd of agents surrounded me, and promised 

 to make me Prince of Greece ; and so I threw 

 myself headlong into the revolution. What has 

 been the result ? My son was killed I was used 

 as a tool until my services were no longer requir- 

 ed, and now I am a mere man of dirtl" 



Colocotroni, though with more influ- 

 ence, is not, it seems, a whit more con- 

 tented, or was not two years ago. Cap- 

 tain T. did not see him but a friend of 

 his had some conversation with him soon 

 after Capo's arrival at Napoli. The 

 gentleman congratulated him on the 

 event, as calculated to secure the quiet 

 of the country 



" Ah !' ' exclaimed the old kleft " these new times 

 are very bad indeed ; formerly, if I wanted half- 

 a-dozen sheep, I sent to the first flock and took 

 them with or without leave. I never had to buy 

 a horse ; there were plenty in the country. I did 

 just as I pleased, and nobody dared to remon- 

 strate ; but now that this president is come, I 

 cannot take a lew sheep or fowls, but the ras- 

 cally villagers go and make a complaint and 

 then I am written to by the government about 

 them. Bad times, these !" 



They did not, it seems, prove so lad to 

 him as the old man anticipated. Capo 

 has been obliged to secure his friendship, 

 by suffering him to do pretty much as 

 he likes again. He has filled "his coffers 

 with the plunder of Tripolitza. 



The prosperity of the Hydriots is 

 wholly at an end. They can no longer 

 obtain employment under their own flag; 

 and more than 800 of them, Captain 

 Trant states, have left Greece, with the 

 intention of entering the service of Ma- 

 homed Ali. 



Captain Trant was prevented, by the 

 severity of the season, from visiting the 

 Lake of Phonia 



one of the most romantic spots in the Morea, and 

 celebrated in mythological history, as connected 

 with the labours of Hercules, who opened a pas- 

 sage for the waters of the lake to prevent their 

 overflowing. A prophecy (adds Capt. T.) exist- 

 ed, that the Greeks would obtain their liberty 

 whenever, the waters ceasing to flow, the lake 

 rose to the ancient level ; and by a most extra- 

 ordinary coincidence, this event has actually 



