KING GEORGE of GREECE: New Edition ON October 29th, 1863, King George made his entry into the capital of Greece; on the following day he took the oath to the Constitution.It must be acknowledged that, if the Greeks up to this moment had been opposed one to another in open conflict or secret intrigue, their differences vanished as soon as their young King appeared amongst them. Their joy at the ending of the period of disorganisation, their triumph at being able at last to gather round a common ruler, quenched the last embers of discontent and mutual jealousy. Exultation was heard over the whole country. Athens, as ever, led the way in rejoicing as in dissension; for a whole week the Acropolis and the Temple of Zeus were brilliantly illuminated, Bengal lights blazed everywhere, rockets by the thousand darted to the sky, and one f te followed another.Only with a few cool-headed sceptics-who were mostly to be found among the foreign diplomatists-did the future provide a dark and threatening background to all this warmth of popular rejoicing. Men who were prominent among the well-wishers of Greece looked on with anxiety as the boyish, open-hearted King went about so confidently among his subjects, of whom many were notorious as crafty and unscrupulous politicians, and all had broken their oath to their former sovereign. And the only adviser of this inexperienced monarch of seventeen was a Dane, no doubt extremely shrewd and a practised diplomatist, but entirely ignorant of the state of affairs in Greece, of the Greek spirit, mode of thought, language, and customs. If at least Count Sponneck had been an amiable, adaptable, ingratiating personality, there was a possibility that he might have become in course of time a really useful assistant to the young King; but all contemporary evidence shows him to have been a man who lacked adaptability and diplomatic tact in a quite remarkable degree. It was a fortunate thing that King George himself possessed an unusual share of these qualities.Half a century has now elapsed since the day when, in the presence of the National Assembly at Athens, the young sovereign of Hellas kissed the Bible, crossed himself and uttered the words: "I swear in the name of the Holy and Indivisible Trinity to defend the Greek religion, to protect and preserve the inviolability and independence of the Greek State, and to rule according to the law." It may therefore be appropriate here to review the circumstances in which King George began his reign.The Greek nation had driven out its first sovereign and chosen Queen Victoria's second son in his place. The proffered crown was declined, and it fell to the lot of a young and unknown prince from the little kingdom of Denmark to ascend the vacant throne. The difference-apart from personal qualities, of which no one was yet in a position to judge-was an exceedingly marked one; especially as the Greek State would have once more to face an uncertain future, without the support that England undoubtedly would have afforded it, if a member of the British royal family had formed a bond between the two peoples.King George's predecessor was able to rely from the moment of his arrival upon a considerable force of troops-his own countrymen, loyal to the death. The new sovereign could only dispose of a national army, the very force which had been the chief factor in the recent revolution. Instead of the comparatively well-filled treasury that King Otho found, there was now a heavy debt; and the nation that the Danish Prince had undertaken to govern was no longer surrounded by the sympathies and great expectations of other peoples; on the contrary, the halo that had crowned the Hellenic race had long since paled in the glaring light of unfulfilled obligations. |
