mans. It was reconqucred by the Venetians in 1638, and retained by them till 1715, when it reverted again to the Ottoman empire. In 1770, a last and unavailing attempt was made by its inhabitants, at the instigation of Catharine II. of Russia, to throw off the Mahometan yoke ; but the Turkish oppressions have since that period increased in severity, and nothing can exceed the present wretched degradation of the once celebrated people who inhabited the plains of Peloponnesus.
But modern Greece, so long forgotten in history, and obliterated from the list of nations, has attained, in these later ages, a new species of renown ; and has be come the resort of the learned and ingenious from every land, by the mere attraction of its monumental remains. As soon as the nations of Europe were roused from their barbarism, their attention was directed to the cities of the Morea, as the repository of all that survived of an cient art and ornament. So early as the year 1465, Francesco Gat bietti made drawings on vellum of many of these Grecian monuments, which were deposited in the Barberini library at Rome, and which are the more curious and valuable, as they were taken when these structures were still entire. In 1550, Nicholas Gerbel published at Basil a description of Greece. In 1584, Martin Crusius, professor of Greek and Latin in the university of Tubingen, in a work entitled Turco-Grx cio, gave an account of Greece from the year 1444 to the time in which he wrote. About the beginning of the 17th century, the establishment of French consuls in Attica, and about 50 years afterwards, the arrival of the Jesuit niissonaries from the same country, contri buted to enlarge the knowledge of Grecian monuments in the Morea. De 1\lonccaux, who visited Greece in 1668, described antiquities, of which not a vestige now remains ; and Father Babin, published, in 1672, the most complete and circumstantial account of the city of Athens which had then appeared. But the travels of Ipion and Wheeler, in 1678, presented the ablest view that had been given, in modern times, of Grecian arts and antiquities. At the same time the earl of Winchelsea conveyed several fragments of Grecian sculpture to England; and Vernon, an English travel ler, published a rapid sketch of his travels in Greece in the Philosophical Transactions. From this date the travellers in Greece found only the ruins of many of the finest monuments hitherto described by their pre decessors, in consequence of the ravages committed by the Venetians in their reconquest of the Morea. In 1728 the Abbe Fourmont was sent to the Levant in quest of inscriptions and monuments, hut his work was never published ; and Pococke, in 1739, gave one of the most accurate descriptions that had yet been made of Grecian ruins. In 1758, the picturesque tour of Greece by Leroi, a French artist, and, 1761, the more correct views published in Stuart's Antiquities of Athens, made great additions to the topography of modern Greece ; but the work of Chandler, a few years afterwards, ren dered almost every other account superfluous. During the Russian invasion in 1770, many of the remaining monuments in the Morea were demolished, and suc ceeding travellers began soon after to carry away every portable fragment of Grecian art, as the only mode of preserving them from more barbarous destroyers. Ba ron Reidesel in 1773, M. de Choiseul in 1778, Fouchcrot and Fauvel in 1780, still found something new in addition to former descriptions. The travels of M. Scrofani in 1794, and the works of Poucqueville, who describes however what he did not visit, have rendered modern Greece more fully known in many points of consider able importance ; but the numerous researches of Eng• lisp travellers, in every corner of Grecian territory, have furnished a mass of intelligence, which cannot be brought within the compass of an article like the pre sent ; and to which we must refer our readers for the fullest information on the subjects so briefly noticed in the following paragraphs.
A few Greek families pretend to trace their descent from the distinguished names who once stood at the head of the Byzantine empire ; and are considered as forming a class of Grecian nobility at the present day. To these the Ottoman court has granted four dignities, or high offices, which are a perpetual object of ardent competition among them, and in which they are inces santly intriguing how to supplant one another. These are, the Patriarchate of Constantinople, the office of Dragoman, or chief interpreter to the Porte, and the governments of Moldavia and 'Wallachia. The first is always procured by simoniacal purchase ; the se cond generally in the same way. The person who enjoys it has the opportunity of recommending to va rious posts of honour and profit, and receives a due re muneration for every exertion of his influence. The two last, which are commonly bestowed upon the Dra goman, as a reward of his services, are held at the pleasure of the Sultan, and are seldom enjoyed above three years ; during which period the \Vaivodes of these provinces levy great sums by the most arbitrary exactions. However short a period any individual has possessed one of these three secular offices, he retains afterwards the title of prince, with the privilege of wearing yellow slippers, and riding on horseback. In the Morea, the municipal government of certain dis tricts is conferred upon native Greeks, who are enti tled Codja Bashees, and who affect considerable state, as well as maintain a numerous household. They have their physician, secretary, assistant clerk, courier, five or six chaplains, and several servants in every depart ment, to the number altogether of 40 or 50 depend ents. They arc too generally more oppressive and domineering to their countrymen, than even their Tur kish masters. The modern Greeks are completely sensible of their degraded state ; and discover a strong attachment to their country, as well as an ardent desire of political emancipation. Their ideas, however, go no farther back than the days of the Greek emperors; and they have no view of establishing any independent re publics like those of ancient Greece. Their hopes are solely directed to the restoration of the Byzantine kingdom, in the person of any Christian prince, but, particularly one of their own church. For more than half a century they have naturally turned their views towards Russia ; but two desperate attempts, in con junction with the troops of that nation, one in 1770, and another in 1790, proved completely unsuccessful. During the expedition of the French to Egypt, they began to cherish the hopes of liberty through their means ; and were ready to have joined their standard in the invasion of Turkey. They made similar advan ces to the British, during their short war with the Porte in 1807 ; but, besides receiving no encouragement from the British authorities, they consider them as too dis tant allies; and still look to the Russians and French as their natural deliverers. Without such foreign aid, they are utterly incapable of asserting their independ ece. The whole nation is not computed to exceed two millions and a half of all ages and sexes; and even these are so mixed a race, that they are rather a Christian sect, than a distinct people. It is chiefly by means of their marine, that they may regain some weight among other nations; and the establishment of some Christain power in the islands of the Archipelago has long been considered as the likeliest step to the improvement of the Greeks. The French, in consequence of employ ing only Frenchmen as agents and consuls in the Le vant, with good salaries, have the greatest influence with the natives, and it is worthy of consideration how far the interests of Great Britain might not be extended by a similar plan, and by cultivating a close intercourse with the modern inhabitants of Greece and its islands.