1830J Fair Play for Greece. 59 



but we think we could shew, that somewhat of their treachery and false- 

 hood were derived from a false religion ; and that what is wanted of these 

 qualities in the more civilized countries of modern Europe (too little, 

 God knows !) springs from the glorious light of Revelation from that 

 transcendant volume which it was the calamity of the old world not to 

 know. 



It is to those at the head of affairs, whether civil or military, that the 

 calamities of the Greeks are owing. It is solely from their misconduct 

 that Europe forms its ideas of Greece. But that such people should be 

 placed at its head, is, from the circumstances under which the present 

 state of things has originated and proceeded, nothing singular. What 

 else could be expected ? Jack Cade, at the head of his rabble, can be 

 no other than Jack Cade ; and men, undisciplined and uneducated, can 

 only conduct themselves by the lights they have received. 



This statement of affairs brings us once more to the question of the 

 present fitness of Greece for liberty. Had we not seen the doubt urged 

 in print, and circulated amongst thinking men, we could not have 

 believed it possible that such a doubt could exist for a single moment. 

 What is fitness for liberty ? Are they who talk about it aware, that the 

 men who are in that state of " fitness," which the phrase implies, do virtu- 

 ally possess their freedom ? It is the moral degradation, the moral servi- 

 tude of the Greeks, that makes their situation so pitiable, and their free- 

 dom so imperative. What could enthral men whose minds were free ? 

 Does any one believe that the impotent Turk could fetter the body, 

 when the mental energies were beyond his power ? Read the history of 

 every nation that ever yet had existence, and observe if the slavery of 

 the mind was not first accomplished, before the body bowed beneath the 

 yoke of despotism. Upon this the authority of the popes, during the 

 middle ages, was founded ; upon this tyranny erected her bloody throne, 

 and by this she has always upheld it. Invariably, when men grew 

 more enlightened they grew more free ; the shackles fell from the 

 human frame, in the exact proportion that they fell from the human 

 intellect. This is not a matter to be contested ; it is a truth as apparent 

 as the light of day to one capable of seeing. If, therefore, it be said, 

 that the Greeks are unfit for liberty, and ought to wear their chains 

 until they become fit for emancipation, a more unintelligible paradox 

 cannot be conceived. The utmost that can be drawn from it is, that 

 they should never be free : for, remaining as they are, they never will 

 be fit for it. Ignorance is religion with the Turk; and it is the most 

 effective policy that he can pursue with relation to the Greek. The 

 full importance of this has long been felt and acted upon ; and the con- 

 sequence is the present miserable darkness that everywhere prevails in 

 Greece. What but oppression like that of the Sublime Porte could have 

 prevented a quick and sensitive people from pouring out their souls in 

 poetry, and in works of imagination ? And yet how few are there to 

 be found ! Never, then, let it be said that the Greeks are not prepared 

 for freedom. Were they ten times worse were they " lower than the 

 lowest depths," they would be only so many more degrees entitled to it 

 so much the more would their condition imperiously demand it. 



The knavery of the Greeks has, like all their other vices, been pressed 

 far beyond the fact. In reality, human nature is everywhere the same. 

 Circumstances may vary the manner of its exhibition, but the quantity 

 of the evil will be found very nearly on a par. They are extremely 



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