at the head
of which was the Count Capo d'Istria, who had been installed president
early in the year. In his inaugural address the count told his
countrymen that the first care of government should be to deliver them
from anarchy, and to conduct them by degrees to national and political
regeneration. He continued:--"It is only then you will be able to give
the allied sovereigns the indispensable pledges which you owe them, in
order that they may no longer doubt of the course which you will take
to obtain the salutary object which led to the treaty of London, and the
memorable day of October 20th. Before this period you have no right to
hope for the assistance I have invoked for you, nor for anything which
can serve the cause of good order at home, or the preservation of
your reputation abroad." The president set himself sternly against the
piratical habits by which independent Greece had disgraced herself; and
he had sufficient authority to make the fleet, which was placed at his
disposal, carry his orders into execution. As yet, neither he nor the
government had enjoyed leisure to frame any system of finance; but he
obtained a loan of money from Russia, and looked forward with confidence
for subsidies from Great Britain and France. The question, however,
which most engaged the attention of the Greek government was, what
were to be the boundaries of their new state? It belonged to the allied
powers and Turkey, indeed, to settle this matter; but the government had
its own ideas upon the subject, as it was right and proper it should. A
commission of the national assembly proposed to the allied powers that
the northern mountains of Thessaly, and the course of the river Vioussa,
should form its boundary on the north, to the exclusion of Macedonia;
those limits, as they observed, seeming to be pointed out by nature
herself, and as they had always gotten the better of political events.
These considerations were ultimately set aside. And yet they were the
very best that could have been adopted. It is true that this boundary
would have included some districts which had taken no share in the
national struggle, and would have excluded others which had taken an
active part in the war; but still it was the most proper. The natural
conformation of the line gave it a special political recommendation;
and where boundaries do not coincide with some great natural features,
but are lines arbitrarily laid down, they tend to tempt an usurpe