FOREIGN POLICY.
The foreign policy of our administration connected with Turkey and Portugal has already been noticed; those of France and Greece require a few words. In France the ministry of M. de Villéle had fallen last year, because they lent themselves to the designs of the court and the church, instead of consulting the growing spirit and intelligence of the nation. The new ministers forced upon the king by this triumph of the liberal party were men of moderate principles; and they were only tolerated by the king as a necessary evil At the head of them was M. Roy, who possessed a considerable knowledge of finance; but the rest were of very mediocre talent. At this time the priests and Jesuits were striving in France for the absolute control of public education, as the most effectual means of recovering their domination. This attempt was resisted by the people, who raised a loud cry of “No Jesuitism!” as in England there was formerly the cry of “No popery!” The new ministers took part with the nation; and in so doing opposed the wishes of the monarch. His majesty’s speech also took a different view from our cabinet of the transaction at Navarino, thus showing that the new administration of France was hostile to our policy. The French, indeed, were in right earnest for the liberation of Greece from the power of the Ottoman Porte. In the autumn of this year the French government sent General Maison, with a strong military force, to the Morea, in order to liberate it from the hands of the Turks. On the 6th of October, the second day after Ibrahim had sailed, Navarino was summoned to surrender, and the demand was supported by a body of French troops under the walls, ready to commence operations. The Turkish governor replied, that the Porte was not at war with the French or the English, and that although no act of hostility would be committed by the Turks, yet the place would not be given up. The French soldiers, however, immediately set to work; and after making a hole in an old breach, they marched in and took possession of the place without opposition. A similar demand was made the same day of the governor of Modon; and the gates were forced open, and the garrison quietly submitted. Coron was more contumacious; but Coron, on learning the fate of Modon, followed its example, and opened its gates. The Castle of Patras had already shown the same complaisance; and the Morea castle alone remained in possession of the Turks. But this castle also, after sustaining a severe battery, surrendered; and by the end of November the Morea was freed from foreign control, and was left at liberty to select the course which she might choose to follow. It was left to the direction of its provisional government, at the head of which was the Count Capo d’Istria, who had been installed president early in the year. In his inaugural address the count told his countrymen that the first care of government should be to deliver them from anarchy, and to conduct them by degrees to national and political regeneration. He continued:—“It is only then you will be able to give the allied sovereigns the indispensable pledges which you owe them, in order that they may no longer doubt of the course which you will take to obtain the salutary object which led to the treaty of London, and the memorable day of October 20th. Before this period you have no right to hope for the assistance I have invoked for you, nor for anything which can serve the cause of good order at home, or the preservation of your reputation abroad.” The president set himself sternly against the piratical habits by which independent Greece had disgraced herself; and he had sufficient authority to make the fleet, which was placed at his disposal, carry his orders into execution. As yet, neither he nor the government had enjoyed leisure to frame any system of finance; but he obtained a loan of money from Russia, and looked forward with confidence for subsidies from Great Britain and France. The question, however, which most engaged the attention of the Greek government was, what were to be the boundaries of their new state? It belonged to the allied powers and Turkey, indeed, to settle this matter; but the government had its own ideas upon the subject, as it was right and proper it should. A commission of the national assembly proposed to the allied powers that the northern mountains of Thessaly, and the course of the river Vioussa, should form its boundary on the north, to the exclusion of Macedonia; those limits, as they observed, seeming to be pointed out by nature herself, and as they had always gotten the better of political events. These considerations were ultimately set aside. And yet they were the very best that could have been adopted. It is true that this boundary would have included some districts which had taken no share in the national struggle, and would have excluded others which had taken an active part in the war; but still it was the most proper. The natural conformation of the line gave it a special political recommendation; and where boundaries do not coincide with some great natural features, but are lines arbitrarily laid down, they tend to tempt an usurper by the dangerous facility which they offer to violation. Sooner or later they produce discord between the neighbouring states. But all these considerations were set aside; and, indeed, at this time our government displayed much apathy on the subject of Greek independence.
