vernment. Amid this severe pressure of poverty, it was once in contemplation to suspend the great undertaking of the canal of Gotha; but the Diet, impressed with its great importance, at length made arrangements with the bank to advance the necessary funds.

In Russia, Alexander, though he cheered on France to the invasion of Spain, remained himself at home very quiet. He did not assemble the Polish Diet, being probably quite satisfied with the specimen afforded of it two years previously. A good deal, however, was done, to promote the improvement of this territory. An exposition was made at Warsaw, of the products of its industry, according to a continental fashion, which seems very laudable. The result marked a decided improvement; and the state of the country seems to have been flourishing. The triennial meeting of the Diet of Courland took place. We are not much acquainted with the constitution of this body; its proceedings appear to have been harmonious; and some arrangements were made for forwarding the emancipation of the serfs.

In October, a meeting was held at Czernowitz, between the Emperor of Austria and King of Prussia. Europe had an instinctive dread of such unions, as teeming with issues dangerous to national rights and independence. The congress of Czernowitz did not bring forth any results of that nature. It lasted only six days; and Metternich, detained by illness, was not present. The only object of deliberation seems to have been Turkey and Greece; and as Lord Strangford was able, in the course of the interview, to transmit some very important concessions made by the former power, the emperor easily prevailed upon Alexander to adhere to his system of forbearance

towards that proud and weak potentate.

But the circumstance in the economy of Russia, which most excited attention, was the formation of her military colonies. The plan has been formed, to fill the extensive unoccupied fiefs in the south of the empire, with colonists holding their lands under the condition of being called out at will to military service. It has been asserted, that, when this plan is brought to maturity, Russia will be able to call forth troops to the amount of two or three millions. It appears pretty evident, however, that all this is a great illusion. The Czar can at present, by a mere ukase, call out as large an amount of the population, as prudence or conscience will allow; and it would be as much out of the question to strip these new settlements of all their cultivators, and convert them into a desert, as it would be with regard to any other portion of his dominions. The financial barriers, which have always been the most serious, would still remain in equal force. With regard to the early training of the population to arms, this could never place them on a level with the fine veteran troops of Russia; it would not even, we apprehend, be a step towards their becoming so. The loose and slovenly habits acquired in the course of practising military discipline as a secondary object, would probably render them less fit for being converted into thorough-bred soldiers, than those who had never handled a musket. The only troops which require to be trained from infancy, seem to be irregular cavalry, calculated, not for regular fighting, but for roving and flying, scouring and plundering, and who, though they do little on a field of battle, influence mightily the fate of a campaign. No trained light cavalry, it would appear, can ever equal the

Cossack, the Tartar, the Persian, or Turkish; bred on horseback, and accustomed to roam over the steppes of Russia, and the high table-lands of Asia. But with those rovers the empire is already fully provided; and infantry or heavy cavalry, fit to stand

the shock of battle, who must form the basis of an European army, will be better matured by six months of strict and constant drilling, than by twenty years of loose and occasional service.

THE affairs of Greece, at the opening of this campaign, presented a highly imposing aspect, and such as almost entitled them to take a permanent place among the powers of Europe. "A handful of men," says a dispatch from that quarter," originally armed with slings, agricultural instruments, and a few fowling-pieces, have conquered altars, laws, a country, arms, and arsenals." The issue of the last campaign was calculated to inspire peculiar confidence. With means much inferior to those which they now possessed, the whole force of the Ottoman empire, poured down upon them, had been driven back in disaster and confusion. This was the more encouraging, as it arose, not from the gaining of any single battle, or even the practising of any particular field mancuvre, but from fixed causes; the difficulties of the country, the determined spirit of the inhabitants, and the root

ed defects of the Ottoman military system.

The present year also opened in a manner unfavourable to the Turks. Missolunghi, the great depot and support of the Greek power in the west, had been blockaded for four months by Omer and Reshid Pachas. About the beginning of January, the difficulties of maintaining this position, at so severe a season, in a mountainous and hostile country, became insurmountable. After several desperate attempts to carry the place by assault, they raised the siege, and withdrew into the interior of Albania. The Greeks followed them as far as Urachori, of which they obtained temporary possession; and military operations were suspended on both sides till the beginning of summer.

The Greeks spent the spring in endeavouring to organize a government upon a regular representative basis.

About the middle of February, deputies from all its different districts assembled at Astros, a place about ten miles distant from Tripolizza. The deliberations were carried on, according to primitive custom, within the bosom of a lemon and orange grove, the thickets of which were crowded by an eagerly listening audience. The immediate proceedings of this meeting were conducted in a manner tolerably harmonious. A general revision was made of the constitution formed sixteen months before at Epidaurus; care was taken to introduce the trial by jury, and all those features which form the excellence of the British constitution, and others formed after its model. A plan of national education was arranged on the principles of Bell and Lancaster. Exertion was used to put the arrangements, connected with finance, in something like a regular and orderly state. The greatest difficulty arose from the demands of the peasant-soldiery, for the division among themselves of the lands now left unoccupied by the ejection of their Turkish proprietors. But though there was a general disposition to accede to this claim, it was judged expedient to delay any final distribution till the termination of the contest.

The rock on which the Greek government was most exposed to the peril of wreck, was the dissension among its chiefs. There had unfortunately arisen no one possessed of a command. ing and acknowledged superiority, like a Bolivar or a Washington, to whom the rest would voluntarily submit. Besides individual jealousies, two leading parties divided the candidates for the executive power; and these were parties viewing each other at once with hatred and contempt. On one side were the Fanariotes and Hetairists, exiled inhabitants of the great cities, and particularly of Constantinople. This class boasted, that they possess

ed all the noble blood of Greece; all its civilization and intelligence; and that with them originated the first ideas of civil liberty and national independence. The mountain chiefs they held as barbarians and bandits, whom, under the necessity of the case, they were obliged to employ as instruments, but who could never possess any fitness for making a part of the general government. The chiefs, on the other hand, boasted, that it was by them alone that the Morea had been delivered from the Turks, and that it was still preserved from them; that the troops followed their standard, rather from personal attachment, than from obedience to the general government, or any abstract regard for the cause of liberty; and that without them, Greece would find only a slender resource in the proud and effeminate descendants of the Emperors of the East. Circumstances, in fact, were such as to render it imperative on the congress to accept their services at any price which they might put upon them; and as the season for opening the campaign approached, this necessity was always the more strongly felt. Demetrius Ipsilanti, and Theodore Negri, who were the heads of the Hetairist party, could not obtain any place in the executive, and were with difficulty allowed to continue their residence in Greece. Prince Maurocordato formed a sort of link between the two parties; his high birth was supported by eminent political, and also by military talents; but as these last were only secondary, he had not credit, at such a moment as this, to support that situation at the head of the government, which he was perhaps fittest of any to fill. He acted, however, a moderate and conciliatory part; he concurred in placing Pietro Mauromichale, the fierce bey of the Mainotes, in the presidency, and took himself only a secondary place. Colocotroni was for some time

thrown out; but before the campaign, arrangements were made for including him also. As for Odysseus, he was in the outer districts, and was never mentioned for any part of the general government. He continued to command his own highland bands, and Maurocordato, with great difficulty, prevailed upon him to accept the services of an European artillery officer.

Matters being thus in so far accommodated as that all parties were ready to act against the common enemy, every possible preparation was made for opening the campaign. The insular rocks, in which rested the naval force of the confederacy, were particularly active; and Ipsara omitted nothing which could render it the Gibraltar of the Archipelago. Several hundred pieces of cannon were planted round the coast, forming on every side destructive batteries; while, un der their cover, numerous gun-boats were ready either to join in the fire, or to rush into the adverse fleet, and act as fire-ships. The Greeks had now arranged it so, that any of their vessels might in an exigency be easily converted into fire-ships. Thus they held themselves in an attitude to contend with the whole navy of the Ottoman empire, and we have even seen it stated that public prayers were put up, that an opportunity of contending with it might soon be granted. On land the Greeks formed grand schemes of of fensive warfare; they hoped to overrun Albania, Thessaly, Macedonia. Captain Diamantis effected a landing in the Gulf of Volo, and soon found himself at the head of a pretty extensive Greek insurrection. Plans were even formed for a descent, on a great scale, upon the coast of Asia Minor, and hopes were cherished that the capture of Smyrna might be the result.

The Porte, meantimes were very far from being indolent in their prepara

tions for war. It was even announced, that their efforts being now nearly undivided, a greater amount of force would be directed against Greece, than in any former campaign. The Sultan, recalled to wisdom by the fatal result of the barbarous measures hitherto pursued, now sent strict injunctions to his officers to protect, and even favour the submissive part of the Greek nation. Overtures were made to the insurgent government; but they appear to have included nothing beyond a complete amnesty, which was far short of what the Greeks now aimed at; and they were rejected without hesitation. The Sultan, meantime, was straining every nerve to put the military system of the Porte on a more efficient footing. He did not, however, adopt the plan which had proved fatal to so many of his predecessors, of introducing the European system of discipline, which was held in devout abhorrence as foreign and infidel. He merely sought to restore the body of janissaries to that original state of discipline, which had once rendered them the terror of Europe. This policy was managed by Dschanib Essendi, one of the leaders of the janissaries, and though enforced with rigour, yet being strictly according to the old laws and usages of the empire, and by one who was accounted a sound Mussulman, it excited comparatively little odium.

The plan of campaign formed by the Porte was, disappointing the courageous hopes of the Ipsariotes, to neglect for the present all the insular territories, and to direct the entire amount of its force, estimated at nearly 80,000 men, upon the Morea, that main and central point of resistance. It was determined, however, to move forward in a secure and cautious manner, so as to guard against the dangers which had rendered the last campaign so disastrous. The main body