revented its being
carried into execution. It is said that his Majesty is strongly opposed to
the system of allowing the Greeks to get the direction of any public
business into their own hands; and that he would rather see his kingdom
without roads than see the municipal authorities boasting of performing
that which the central government was unable to accomplish.

We shall only trouble our readers with a single instance of the manner in
which commercial legislation has been treated in Greece. We could with
great ease furnish a dozen examples. Austrian timber pays an import duty
of six per cent, in virtue of a commercial treaty between Royal Greece and
Imperial Austria. Greek timber cut on the mountains round Athens pays an
excise duty of ten per cent; and the value of the Greek timber on the
mountains is fixed according to the sales made at Athens of Austrian
timber, on which the freight and duty have been paid. The effect can be
imagined. In our visit to Greece we spent a few days shooting woodcocks
with a fellow-countryman, who possesses an Attic farm in the mountains,
near Deceleia. His house was situated amidst fine woods of oak and pine;
yet he informed us that the floors, doors, and windows, were all made of
timber from Trieste, conveyed from Athens on the backs of mules. The house
had been built by contract; and though our friend gave the contractor
permission to cut the wood he required within five hundred yards of the
house, he found that, what with the high duty demanded by the government,
and with the delays and difficulties raised by the officers charged with
the valuation, who were Bavarian forest inspectors, the most economical
plan was to purchase foreign timber. The consequence of this is, the
Greeks burn down timber as unprofitable, and convert the land into
pasturage. We have seen many square miles of wood burning on Mount
Pentelicus; and on expressing our regret to a Greek minister, he shrugged
up his shoulders and said: "That, sir, is the way in which the Bavarian
foresters take care of the forests." Yet this Greek, who could sneakingly
ridicule the folly of the Bavarians, was too mean to recommend the king to
change the law.

Let us now turn to a more enlivening subject of contemplation, and see
what the Greeks have done towards improving their own condition. We shall
pass without notice all their exertions to lodge and feed themselves, or
fill their purses. We can trust any people on those points;