00 Fair Play for 'Greece. [JAN. 



hospitable in proportion to their means ; and though we do not deny that 

 they often look for a full equivalent, yet, when we recollect the general 

 poverty, it is not a subject of reproach. We ourselves have no parti- 

 cular complaint to make of their dishonesty ; and if others have, it is a 

 complaint which, at times, they would be constrained to make in any 

 nation under the sun. We have seen much of Italy, and we will venture 

 to assert, that imposition there has attained its meridian. If it can be 

 equalled, it cannot be outdone ! The Greeks have excuses that the 

 Italians cannot have. If they rob, it is because their means of subsist- 

 ence have been destroyed because their lands have been devastated, 

 and their domestic hearths subjected to desecration. They have grown 

 up with wild notions of religion, and with unbecoming conceptions of 

 the Deity. They have been trained to no order ; their minds are like 

 uncultivated wildernesses, rank even in their fertility ; and it is very 

 natural that, in their present desolate condition, they should hold to 



" The simple plan, 



That they should take who have the power, 

 And they should keep who can." 



That the present unhappy period has considerably demoralized the 

 female mind is very possible ; but as it has not come within the sphere 

 of our observation, we shall pass it with a hope that the day is not far 

 distant, when both their hearts and persons will be improved the first 

 chastened by misfortune, and the latter, placed under the direction of a 

 better taste. Their frequent fasts, and the use of deleterious food, bring 

 on a premature old age ; and, in youth, their complexion, instead of the 

 fine florid glow of health, are always without colour, and more resem- 

 bling the sallowness of corpses than the warm suffusion of living beauty. 

 The faces of children are equally unearthly ; but the contour of both is 

 frequently very perfect 



By what we have previously said, it will be seen that we do not 

 intend to hold up the Greeks as a people destitute of many and great 

 defects as not guilty of many lamentable enormities. But we do most 

 conscientiously and firmly maintain, that they have been, and perhaps 

 will still be, most grossly calumniated. Of what description are the 

 generality of those who visit Greece? They are young, unthinking, 

 disappointed men ; men, who, unable to accomplish some visionary pro- 

 ject, hurl death and destruction on every thing that militates against 

 their ill-organized fancies. Or they are " travelling gentlemen/' whom 

 the first aspect of a dirty Greek town and people throws into an agony 

 of consternation ; who put their heads hastily within the gates, and 

 withdraw them as hastily ; hurry into the first ship that will receive 

 them, and bid an eternal adieu to Greece. Or they are the officers of a 

 man-of-war (let us be permitted, without intending the slightest personal 

 reflection, to speak freely) who seldom quit the ship for more than half 

 an hour, except on a shooting excursion who rarely know a syllable of 

 the language who feel little curiosity, or concern, at least, about the 

 people and who possess, most commonly, all the national prejudices of 

 Englishmen. That the officers of a man-of-war have opportunities of 

 research beyond those of other men is questionable, though it is some- 

 times believed. But though they have, they are seldom made use of; 

 nor, indeed, can they be so, consistent with the duties of their vocation. 

 Is it from these, then (and we again disclaim the most remote feeling of 



