ever, now in
progress, one from Athens to Thebes, and another from Argos to
Tripolitza. But these roads have been made without any reference to
public utility, merely to serve for marching troops and moving artillery,
and consequently the old roads over the mountains, as they require less
time, are alone used for commercial transport.

[Footnote E: This is no exaggeration. We once visited the island of
Santorin, which has a population of 9000 souls, who own 46 vessels of 200
tons and upwards, besides many smaller craft. King Otho was sailing about
in one steamer at the time, and another was acting the man-of-war amidst
a fleet of English, French, Prussian, and Austrian frigates in the front
of the Piraeus; yet no post had been forwarded to Santorin for a
fortnight. Santorin is about 90 miles from Athens, and yields a very
considerable revenue to the Greek monarchy.]

It is evident that a poor peasantry, possessing no other means of
transport than their mules and pack-horses, must reckon distance entirely
by time, and the only way to make them perceive the advantages to be
derived from roads, is forming such bridle-paths as will enable them to
arrive at their journey's end a few hours sooner. The Greek government
never though of doing this, and every traveller who has performed the
journey from Patras to Athens, must have seen fearful proofs of this
neglect in the danger he ran of breaking his neck at the Kaka-scala or
cursed stairs of Megara.

Nay, King Otho's government has employed its _vis inertiae_ in preventing
the peasantry, even when so inclined, from forming roads at their own
expense; for the peasantry of Greece are far more enlightened than the
Bavarians. In the year 1841, the provincial council of Attica voted that
the road from Kephisia--the marble-quarry road--should be continued
through the province of Attica as far as Oropos. Provision was made for
its immediate commencement by the labour of the communes through which it
was to pass. Every farmer possessing a yoke of oxen was to give three
days' labour during the year, and every proprietor of a larger estate was
to supply a proportional amount of labour, or commute it for a fixed rate
of payment in money. This arrangement gave universal satisfaction.
Government was solicited to trace the line of road; but a year passed--one
pretext for delay succeeding another, and nothing was done. The provincial
council of 1842 renewed the vote, and government again p