the 23rd of July, was composed mainly of his partisans; and they occupied their time till the 18th of August, chiefly in uttering sentiments on peace, and in compliments to the president. By that date, however, the three powers were transacting the business of Greece more effectually at Constantinople, where Russia forced upon the Turkish government the acceptance of the protocol of March. To prevent Russia having too much influence, however, in the disposal of Greek affairs, the conferences on the subject were, by agreement of the three powers, now to be carried on in London, where, from this time, neither the Turkish government, nor the President of Greece, had any part in the deliberations. The three powers, seeing the helplessness of the other parties concerned, took the matter into their own hands, somewhat unceremoniously, offering some compensation to Turkey, by proposing a narrower boundary for Greece than that assigned in the March protoccl.

It was presently determined that Greece should be wholly released from Turkish rule; and that the powers which had thus created a new state should appoint its form of government. The monarchical form having been chosen, as of course, the next question was who should be its king. In order to avoid jealousies, all princes connected with the courts of the three powers were excluded. The first to whom the new crown was offered was Prince John of Saxony. He declined it. Prince Leopold of Saxe-Coburg, the widower of our Princess Charlotte, and at this day King of the Belgians, was supposed at the time to be eager for the sovereignty of Greece; and to him it was offered, in January 1830, by the representatives of England, Russia, and France.

The negotiators were rather surprised by the prince's method of proceeding. He had no idea of an unconditional acceptance or rejection; and believing the possession of Candia to be essential to the security of the sovereignty of Greece, he asked for Candia. There were other stipulations, too; and the offerers of the crown found themselves still involved in negotiations, when they had believed that they had only to confer a dignity. There was goodwill on both sides, however; and by the month of April it was understood by all parties that Prince Leopold had

accepted the crown of Greece. The prince himself, however, did not consider his acceptance to be beyond recall; for on the 21st of May he finally and conclusively declined the crown of Greece.

Various reasons for this conclusion have been assigned. One which is most generally agreed upon is, that the President of Greece had frightened him from his enterprise. Prince Leopold had written to Capo d'Istria on the 28th of February, to announce his prospects and intentions, and to address his future subjects through their present ruler. The reply of the president, and the report of the proceedings of the senate at Napoli, which reached the prince in May, and have been made public, certainly leave no ground of surprise that any rational man should decline a task so hopeless as that of governing Greece, while her internal state and foreign dangers were what they were thus shown to be. For the prince's reasons for drawing back, there is no need to look beyond the fact that the senate refused to accept the arrangements of the three powers, in regard to so important a matter as the boundaries of the state. But other causes might easily be, and were, alleged. By that month of May, it had become clear that George IV. was dying; and Prince Leopold, the uncle of the young princess who was to succeed the next aged and feeble heir to the throne, might, as brother to the regent Duchess of Kent, be a personage of great political consequence, in case of the princess coming to the throne before she was of age. Again, there is no need to go so far as this for the prince's reasons. There was perhaps scarcely a child in England who, hearing anything of the matter at all, did not feel an uneasy sense of the vulgarity of a new crown, manufactured by statesmen in a cabinet. Children, and all unsophisticated people, feel the vulgarity of new rank, and of the lowest dignity, in an assemblage of high ranks. Every one understands that it may be better to be of high station among commoners than a new-comer into the lowest order of the peerage. If it is so with the common dignities of society, how much stronger must the feeling be about that highest position whose main dignity is derived from associations of antiquity! But for historical

associations, a crown has, in our age, absolutely nothing in it at all. If conferred by the united impulse of a nation, the honour of sovereignty is still the highest conceivable; but such a position is, in the present age of the world, one of leadership-one of personal responsibility -which is only impaired by reference to hereditary associations. There may have been reasons of policy for placing a crown on the apex of the destinies of Greece; but, whatever might be the tastes of the parties most nearly concerned, it is certain that the tastes of Western Europe were offended by the act of turning a venerable symbol into a politic bauble. And it is very conceivable that though a sensible man might, in the hope of usefulness and true honour, get over his objection to the insignia of his new office, it is no wonder that, upon the hope of usefulness and true honour being reduced to painful doubt, he should give way to his disgust, and decline the office and its titles and decorations together.

It was not till two years after this time, not till the year 1832 was far advanced, that the three powers could procure the acceptance of the crown of Greece by a European prince; and then the new sovereign was a mere boy. Otho, a younger son of the King of Bavaria, with nearly three years of his minority yet to run, went to Greece, as king, in December 1833, with little chance of composing its dissensions, and affirming his empire. The only thing that can be said is, that where a boy must fail, the ablest man might have succeeded no better.

CHAPTER X.

Distress in England-State of the King-Duke of Wellington-State of Parties-Mr. Peel-Press Prosecutions-King's Speech-Reductions-Removal of Duties-East India Committee-Removal of a Judge-Welsh and Scotch Judicature-Forgery-Jewish Disabilities-Parliamentary Reform-Duke of Newcastle-Illness of the King-His Death-His Life and Character.

THE year 1830 opened gloomily-not only in England, but throughout Europe, and even in America. In Russia, great efforts were made to raise subscriptions to feed the labouring-classes, who were suffering under the depression of agriculture, from bad seasons and other causes. Throughout the whole of Germany and Switzerland there were stirrings of discontent, which gave warning of revolutionary movements to follow. In the rural districts of the north of France, that strange madness of rick-burning, which afterwards spread fearfully in England, had begun. The educated classes of England spoke of it at first with contemptuous amazement, as showing the desperate ignorance of the rural population of France; not yet dreaming how soon the proof would be brought home to them that our own agricultural labourers were in a similar condition of savagery. In the United States the pressure upon the least opulent class was extreme; and that prosperous country came to the knowledge of real and extensive distress. At home, the distress was so fearful that even the sanguine Duke of Wellington, with all his slowness to see the dark side in politics, and all his unwillingness to depress his valetudinarian sovereign, felt himself obliged to take emphatic notice of it in the royal speech; and the debates on the address, which were keen and protracted in both Houses, turned chiefly on the dispute whether the distress, which all admitted to be intolerable, was pervading or partial. The duke maintained that there were some parts of the kingdom where the distress was not

pressing; the opposition maintained that there were none. The duke spoke of the ranges of new houses that were rising in the neighbourhood of most of the large towns, and declared that he had heard of no complaints on the part of the retail traders; while his opponents looked upon these ranges of new houses as monuments of the speculative mania of five years before; declared that they stood empty, or that their inhabitants were pining with hunger within the walls, unable to pay rent, and allowed to remain only because the owners knew that they could get no other tenants, and it was better for new houses to be inhabited than left empty. The interest of money was never known to be lower; and the manufacturers' stocks, with which their shelves were too well loaded, had suffered a depreciation of 40 per cent. The chancellor of the exchequer, we find, spoke this session of topics of 'consolation,' and no longer of 'congratulation;' and one subject of earnest deliberation with the ministers was whether they should propose a property-tax. They resolved against it; but the deliberation indicates the pressure of the time. The restless spirits of the mercantile and political world, who, in seasons of distress, want to be doing something for immediate relief, turned now, as usual, to the ready device of an issue of paper-money. This was urgently demanded, not only by many half-informed people throughout the country, but by some who should at least have known that they had better not speak on this subject unless they understood it. This idea of an issue of paper-moneyseems to have lain under the opposition to the address in both Houses, and to have been the real drift of the amendments proposed. And yet money was abundant throughout this period of distress; and as has been said, the interest of money never was lower.

The national discontent with the government was very great; and the discontent of the government with itself was hardly less. The continuance of the administration would not have been permitted for a day or an hour after the meeting of parliament, but for one consideration—the understood state of the king. And some members of the administration would not have borne the galling yoke of their military chief's authority, if they could, with any