ABSTRACT

THE GREEK AND IONIAN CONSTITUTIONS (1843-53)

THE first difficulty of "the National Assembly of September 3," which was opened on November 20, was to decide whom it was to include. In similar conventions held during the War of Independence representatives of Greek communities still under Turkish yoke had taken part; but to this Constituent Assembly the only delegates of external Hellenism admitted were those of Crete, Thessaly, Macedonia, and Epirus; and a vote was passed excluding from all official posts those Greeks of the Turkish empire who had borne no active share in the war. Thus, the Assembly drew a distinction between the " autochthonous" Greeks of the kingdom and the "heterochthonous" Greeks of the outside world. Similarly, the second article of the Constitution, while recognising the "dogmatic union of the Orthodox Church of Greece with the Great Church in Constantinople," declared the former to be "autocephalous and administered by a Holy Synod of Archbishops." Two other questions excited considerable discussion-that of the succession and that of the Senate. The 40th article of the Constitution provided, that the heir to the Greek throne must belong to the Greek Church; another series of articles created a Second Chamber. There were some who did not desire a Senate at all; there were others, chiefly adherents of the "Russian" party, who advocated the nomination of the senators for ten years instead of for life. Thus Greece was endowed with a bi-cameral systenl, which lasted down till 1864,

its internal development. Unfortunately, the Epirote declined to fornl a coalition cabinet with the Phanariote ; and Mavrokordatos becal11e Prime 1\1inister without his co-operation and ere long had to face his opposition. Both politicians, reared under systems of government very different from that just implanted at Athens, considered the concentration of all power at the centre as the best system of adtTItnistration. It is unnecessary to examine the truth of the charges brought against Mavrokordatos by some of his contenlporaries and repudiated by others, of having used improper influence to obtain a majority at the elections of 1844; for even to-day, in many, perhaps most countries, the principle of freedom of election is more honoured in political programnles than on polling-day. But, in any case, the Ministerialists profited nothing by this alleged pressure. Mavrokordatos, like a nluch greater statesman a generation later, was defeated at Mesol6nghi; and the similar defeat of Kallerges at Athens, where the hero of the late revolution had lost his popularity and where his very candidature was considered to be tainted with illegality, led to a disturbance which provoked the King's intervention and the resignation of the Cabinet. Kolettes came into power, which he retained till his death in 1847 by the skill and tact with which he managed men. While his spectacled rival was supported by the nlore Europeanised Greeks, who wore black coats and discussed western theories of government, the former physician of Ali Pasha's son, clad in the national dress and smoking his long pipe, was surrounded by the far more numerous body of fustanella-wearing Hellenes, by braves of the war whom he had led across the Isthmus, by all the picturesque elements of what was called "the National party." From morn to eve his closet was filled by men anxious for some post, some pension, or some mark of distinction; and such was his consumrnate skill that no one quitted his presence without an assurance that the Minister would grant his petition. Enjoying the confidence of the King to an unusual degree, and supported by

This tension with Turkey was not the only difficulty which

enculnbered the long administration of Kolettes. While the society of the· Greek capital was distracted by the struggle for diplomatic influence between the British and French Ministers, the British government embarrassed the Francophil Premier by complaining of brigandage and by demanding payment of the interest on the loan. The last request was met by the generosity of Eynard, the Philhellene of Geneva, who advanced the £,20,000 required to satisfy the British clainl. But the disturbed state of the country caused nluch greater trouble. Kolettes, true to his old policy of converting the breakers of the law into its guardians, pacified The}>dore Grivas, who had raised the standard of revolt in Akarnanfa, by giving him a military post; but this remedy, as nlight have been expected, was only temporary; and ere long the veteran chieftain was again at the head of a band in the west, while !{riez6tes, another survivor of the war, championed the discontented in Eubcea. After the death of Koh~ttes, his immediate successors Kftsos Tsavellas, a Souliote chief of no political experience but a soldier ofdistinction, and George Kountouri6tes found themselves compelled to grapple with a number of these risings, among which those of Pharmakes at Lepanto, of Tzamalas and Valentzas (who invaded Greece from the rrurkish frontier and burned a fine collection of lnanuscripts at Hypate), by Perrotes at Kalamata, and of Merendites (who seized the fine castle of Patras, threatened to lay that flourishing town in ashes, and then escaped to Malta on a British ship with a large sum of money), aroused most attention. Yet, despite these disturbances, mostly due to personal motives, Thouvenel 1, a French diplomatist then at Athens, could write that, in 1849, Greece was "materially one of the happiest corners of the world." Ministries might come and go-for the repercussion caused by the French revolution of 1848 caused the fall of Tsavellas, and the

IX] 179 Cabinets of Kountouri6tes and the famous Adnliral Kanares were but short lived-but the people were little affected by political crises due to personal q~estions or court intrigu_es.