602 
their own understandings, let us not per- 
“mit them to pervert ours. Let us use the 
‘réason we have, to combat with the 
sophistry of those who would misdirect 
us; and the knowledge and the liberty 
we have acquired, as the means of at- 
taining more: and, though absolute per- 
‘fection be not attaimable, let us press 
boldly on in progress towards it ; and do 
our best to make the quarter of a cen. 
tury, that is before us, more illustrative 
of the advance of human wisdom, vir- 
tue and liberty, than that which we 
‘haye left behind: opening ‘wider and 
‘wider, to the view of posterity, the pro- 
spect of that glorious day when Slavery 
shall clank no chain, when Ignorance 
‘shall darken neither realin, nor race; 
when Truth and Morality shall be 
exalted on the ruins of Fraud and 
Superstition ; when Misery and Wretch- 
edness shall cease to be dispensed at a 
‘despot’s nod, and Tyranny shall be no 
more. MRS 
—aiae— 
M. SCHINAS’S MORAL AND POLITICAL 
PICTURE OF GREECE. 
[ Whatever may have been, or may continue 
to be, the vicissitudes of Greece, in the 
arduous struggle in which she is en- 
gaged; with whatever distractions (re- 
sulting from the disorderly passions and 
» habitudes which the anarchic tyranny of 
ages’ has engendered among her chiefs ) 
she may internally be torn; whatever 
may be the clouds of doubt and obscu- 
‘rity in which recent occurrences may be 
‘involyed—whether the great cause of 
emancipation from a barbarous, galling 
and insulting yoke be in constant pro- 
gress, or in temporary retrogression, it 
has not, we trust, lost any portion of its 
interest in British bosoms. . And, as 
we have before us, from the pen of a 
native Greek, M. Schinas, a picture of 
the progress which that fine country ap- 
peared to have made towards the attain- 
ment of its glorious object, to the end 
of the preceding year 1824, which, we 
are not conscious, has hitherto received 
an English version, we have thought 
that a translation of it might not be un- 
acceptable to our readers: we present 
it, accordingly, with no other alteration 
than a few abbreviations, and the rejec- 
tion of some of the declamatory meta- 
'=phors, of whieh the author is some- 
what too liberal; and the correction of 
some others (particularly at the eon- 
Moral and Political ‘State of Greece. 
élusion), in which he seems to have in- 
~dulged in the enthusiasm of national 
fecling, rather more than he has con- 
sulted the critical laws of congruity, or 
the correctness of literary taste, His 
picture of the year 1824, may,, perhaps, 
in parts, be rather highly coloured ; but 
we are disposed to. believe ‘that the’ out- 
line is tolerably: correct ; and we should 
hold ourselves happy, if the close of the 
year 1825 should justify another annual 
sketch—demonstrating the accomplish- 
ment of all which the one we are now 
presenting, might lead the most zealous 
partizan of the Progressive Principle to 
expect. | 
HE year 1824 will deserve parti- 
cular commemoration among those 
which will furnish the historian with 
the materials for the record’ of the 
epoch of Grecian regeneration: But, 
before we enter’ on the history of that 
year, it may be proper to cast'a retro- 
spective glance over those that have 
preceded it; and to shew the causes Sat 
this unexampled progress. ; 
The social state of a people in war 
is necessarily united with ~ military 
events. We must, therefore, comprize 
these in our examination of the moral 
and political progress of the people of 
whom we speak. 
Descended from those to whom Eu- 
rope owes its knowledge and its ‘civili- 
zation, reduced to slavery by the dis- 
ciples of a barbarous and intolerant 
faith, the Greeks (whose population 
may be estimated at nearly four mil- 
lions, of which the liberated portion, 
as yet, is only one-half) take arms in 
order to break the yoke. Pro aris et 
focis, is their motto—freedom or anni- 
hilation, their prospect. The popula- 
tion, exhausted by the loss of blood, 
and the continual increase of an impla- 
cable tyranny, are aided in the hope of 
recovering their rights, by the anarchy 
of the different parts of the Ottoman 
empire, and the evident symptoms of its 
decay :—the war of the ‘Turks with the 
Persians, and their quarrel witha great 
power in the north ;—the vicinity of the 
Bulgarians, Servians, Walachians and 
Moldavians — Christian people, who 
ought to act in concert with them ;— by 
the far-extended interests of enlightened 
commerce and politics ;—by the wishes 
of Christian Europe,and the expectedaid 
of one government especially, the watch- 
ful enemy of Turkish power, and to 
whose views Greece has been making 
perpetual 
