We shall now endeavour to explain why the king's government has proved so inefficient in improving the country, and afterwards examine the various causes of its extreme unpopularity. To do this, it is necessary to state what the government has really done; and also, what it was expected to do. We shall try as we go along, to explain the part the protecting powers have acted in thwarting the progress of improvement, and in encouraging the court in its lavish expenditure and anti-national policy. It must, indeed, constantly be borne in mind by the reader, that the three protecting powers in their collective capacity have all along supported the government of King Otho—and that even when the Morning Chronicle called King Otho an idiot, and Lord Palmerston quarrelled with him and scolded him, still England joined the other powers in continuing to supply him with money to continue his immense palace, and pay his Bavarian aides-de-camp. We may add, too, that if it had been otherwise, had either Great Britain, France, or Russia, deliberately abandoned the alliance, King Otho would immediately have ceased to be King of Greece, unless supported on his throne by the direct interference of the other two. Had the Greeks not looked upon him as the pledge that the protecting powers would maintain order in the country, they would have sent him back to his royal father, as ornamental at Munich, where an additional king would make the town look gayer, but as utterly useless in Greece. Though, England, France, and Russia, have therefore each in their turn acted in opposition to King Otho, still they have always as a body supported his doings, right or wrong.
Let us now see what the government of King Otho has done for Greece. From 1833 until 1837, Greece was governed by Bavarian ministers, and accordingly the king was not considered directly responsible for the conduct of the administration. These ministers were Mr Maurer, who, during 1833 and part of 1834, directed the government. He was supported with great eagerness by France, and opposed with more energy by England. The liberal and anti-Russian tendency of his measures, alarmed Russia, but she showed her opposition with considerable moderation. Count Armansperg succeeded Mr Maurer, and he ruled Greece with almost absolute power for two years. He was supported by Lord Palmerston with the energy of the most determined partizanship. The institutions of Greece, liberal policy, and sound principles of commercial legislation, were all forgotten, because Count Armansperg was anti-Russian. The opposition of France and Russia was strongly announced, but restrained within reasonable bounds. Mr Rudhart succeeded Count Armansperg. He, poor man! was assailed by England with all the artillery of Palmerston; and as neither France nor Russia would undertake to support so unfit a person, he was driven from his post.
The Greek government enjoyed every possible advantage during the administration of these Bavarians. A loan of £.2,400,000, contracted under the guarantee of the three protecting powers, kept the treasury full; so that no plan for the improvement of Greece, or for enriching the Bavarians, was arrested for want of funds. We shall now pass in review what was done.
1. A good monetary system was established. The allies, it is true, supplied the metal, but the Bavarians deserve the merit of transferring as much of it as they could into their own pockets, in a very respectable coinage.
2. The irregular troops were disbanded, and many of them driven over the frontier into Turkey. The thing was very clumsily done; but, thank Heaven! it was done, and Greece was delivered from this horde of banditti.
3. Every Bavarian officer or cadet was promoted, and every Greek officer was reduced to a lower rank. We cannot venture to describe the rage of the Greeks, nor the presumption of the Bavarians.
4. An order of knighthood was created, of which the decorations were distributed in the following manner: One hundred and twenty-five grand crosses, and crosses of grand commanders, were divided as follows: The protecting powers received ninety-one, that is thirty a-piece if they agreed to divide fairly. The odd one was really given to Baron Rothschild, as contractor of the loan. The Bavarians took twenty-three. The Greeks received ten for services during the war of the revolution, and during the national assembly which accepted King Otho, and one was bestowed among the foreigners who had served Greece during the war with Turkey. Six hundred and fourteen crosses of inferior rank were distributed, and of these the Greeks received only one hundred and forty-five; so that really the protecting powers and the Bavarians reserved for themselves rather more than a fair proportion of this portion of the loan, especially if they expected the Greeks not to become bankrupt.
5. All the Greek civil servants of King Otho were put into light blue uniforms, covered with silver lace, at one hundred pounds sterling a-head. And, O Gemini! such uniforms! Those who have seen the ambassador of his Hellenic majesty at the court of St James's, at a levee or a drawing-room, will not soon forget the merits of his tailor.
6. Ambassadors were sent to Paris, London, St. Petersburg, Munich, Madrid, Berlin, Vienna, and Constantinople, and Consuls-general to all the ends of the earth.
7. A council of state was formed.