224

seen.

GOVERNMENT PRESUMED TO BE TOLERANT.

Such an interference would be contrary to the spirit, if not to the letter, of their constitution, and injurious to their national character; and therefore I must believe, until I see decisive evidence of such interference, that it is not designed to be attempted. The acts I have quoted may be intended to apply only to such schools as are founded by the Greeks themselves, and not to those which are the result of foreign agency; and if applied to all, may yet be so discreet and tolerant in their details and execution, as to meet the views of enlightened philanthropists generally. Should, however, the apprehensions of some excellent men be realized, and Greece prove recreant to the principles of civil and religious toleration, the authors of such a bitter disappointment to her best friends, and of such an opprobrium on her name and cause, will bring on themselves deep and merited disgrace in the eyes of Protestant Europe and America.

CHAPTER III.

STATE AND PROSPECTS OF EDUCATION.

Feeling among the people at large on the subject of education-Subscriptions in towns and villages for free-schools-Contributions made by convents-Individual munificence-Rise of the female school at Syra-Letter from a Greek female-"American School" at Syra-Sabbath-school at Syra-Orphan School at gina-Schools at Nauplion, Argos, Tripolitsa, and DemetsanaScarcity of elementary books-In what manner a supply is to be furnished -What books would be acceptable-Vast importance of this branch of benevolent effort-Printing presses-On the establishment of schools-System of instruction in the IONIAN ISLANDS-Preliminary observations-Elementary schools-Classical schools-University-Theological Seminary-General re

marks.

We heard of no diversity of opinion among the numerous foreigners in Greece as to the state of Greek feeling on the subject of education. All agreed, that there was an universal and strong desire, that the male youth might enjoy the blessing of good schools. In this desire the clergy participated with the laity. The feeling was strongest, however, among the youth themselves. With respect to female education, there was in general much apathy, and often a prejudice against it; yet v both the prejudice and the apathy were beginning to yield to more liberal sentiments.

Subscriptions for the establishment and support of Lancasterian schools, have been commenced in not a few towns and villages of Greece; and, considering the poverty of the people, the great relative value of money in that part of the world, and also that the schools attempted are in the fullest sense free-schools, the alacrity which the people have thus manifested, entitles them to our sympathy and aid. From the many authentic facts in our possession, a few will be selected.

The town of Arkadia, on the western coast of the Peloponnesus, was burnt by the Egyptians, and among

226

SUBSCRIPTIONS IN TOWNS AND VILLAGES.

270 families which it now contains, 108 have been deprived of their male head. The fifteenth day of March 1829 being a festival, the governor addressed the people in the church after mass, exhorting them to make the day a real feast, by taking measures to establish a Lancasterian school. A subscription was immediately opened, and in less than an hour it amounted to 2,700 piastres. In the course of the day, twenty-eight Greek females added 700 piastres to the subscription, and a number gave their gold rings and other jewels. When we were there, in June, the subscription had risen to 5,000 piastres.

a

The inhabitants of Mothone, in the same province, at a public meeting subscribed 3,900 piastres.

The governor of Argolis, while at Cranidi, a town in the southern part of that province, in the summer of 1828, called a meeting in one of the churches, and there, after an address from one of the priests, opened a subscription for a school, which he himself headed with 500 piastres. The inhabitants, although their native language is Albanian, showed great zeal in the project, even women and children soliciting money from their husbands and fathers, that they might contribute to it. The subscription, as reported in the Gazette in

(a) Greek Gazette.—A piastre has already been stated to be the fifteenth part of a Spanish dollar.

(b) It has already been stated, that the Albanian language is the common dialect of certain districts in Greece; as of the islands of Poros, Hydra, and Spetsæ, and of the Argolic peninsula below Epidaurus. It is spoken by more than half of the inhabitants of Argos, by those of about twenty villages between Calabryta and Patras, of several villages in the neighborhood of Paloumpa, of a number on the plain of Lacus, and in the district of Helos, and between Monembasia and Leonidi. It is also the language of about ten villages in the island of Andros. It is corrupted from the proper Albanian, and is considered, even by those who use it, as a vulgar dialect. To discourage its use, it is forbidden to be spoken in the schools of Argos and Hydra, and I believe in the Lancasterian schools generally. This fact explains the remark above, borrowed from the Greek newspaper, respecting the zeal of the Cranidiotes. Albanian is too much corrupted in liberated Greece, to allow the translation, which has been made of the New Testament into that language, to be of much use there.

The Wallachian does not seem to be the common language of any district in the Peloponnesus, though there are some, and possibly many, scattered Wallachians.-The Leonidiotes have a dialect peculiar to themselves, and scarcely understood abroad, but it appears to be of Greek origin.

SUBSCRIPTIONS IN TOWNS AND VILLAGES. 227

October, amounted to 8,776 piastres, of which twelve priests contributed 670, the abbots of two convents 800, and eighteen females 845. A handsome and commodious school-house was nearly completed, when we passed through the town in May 1829.

The inhabitants of two villages in Laconia, called Kato Rise and Bardeno-chorio, wrote to the governor of that province in May 1829, that, being desirous of establishing a Lancasterian and a Hellenic school (or a school for teaching the ancient Greek,) they had subscribed 6,791 piastres. But as this would not suffice, they pray government to ratify a proposition, which the abbots of four convents in their neighborhood had cheerfully made, to contribute 3,300 piastres more to the object.

A town, situated among the rocks of eastern Mane, subscribed about 3,000 piastres, of which the bishop gave a sixth part; and because this was not enough, the people appropriated the like sum annually, from the income of a convent. This was for a Lancasterian school. They had already established a Hellenic school, which was supported by an annual subscription of 2,500 piastres, and was said to be the first school of the kind ever attempted in Mane.d

Another town among the same rocky and barren cliffs, but farther south, raised 5,250 piastres; of which, however, the archimandrite subscribed 1,500, probably from the income of some convent, and this latter sum was to be repeated annually.

The inhabitants of Calamata, in Lower Messenia, subscribed 10,365 piastres, including 5,000 from two convents, for the establishment of schools; and for their support, the citizens agreed to pay one-half per cent. of their income, and the merchants one-half per mill. of their capital.

(c) Greek Gazette.

(d) The town was Marathonesi. The facts we learned by personal inquiry. The Hellenic school, though designed for classical studies, had not a single classical book.

(e) Greek Gazette.

(f) Ibid.

228

SUBSCRIPTIONS MADE BY CONVENTS.

In the island of Santorene the inhabitants established four Lancasterian schools, and one central classical school, and, in a general meeting, voted that private landholders should pay an annual tax of one piastre on each stremma of land, and the convents five piastres, for the permanent support of those schools. The vote was sanctioned by the bishop and governor.5

The reader will have noticed in what manner the convents contribute to the schools. At Myconos the inhabitants established both a Hellenic and a Lancasterian school, by means of funds derived from a convent on their island. The monasteries of Anapha, Amorgos, and Scyros, have aided in establishing free schools in their respective islands. A considerable part of the income of the convent on the island of Poros has been appropriated to the support of a school in the town.

But the most striking facts in relation to monasteries are yet to be related. The government Gazette contains a letter from the island of Samos, written at the close of 1828, the statements of which are confirmed by the acts of the local authorities. In that letter it is said, that the governor and demogerontiæ of the province, knowing that the incomes of the convents of Samos were considerable, invited the abbots to a meeting, and represented to them the necessity of establishing Lancasterian schools for the youth of the island. "These fathers," continues the letter, "not less friendly to learning than to virtue, immediately offered, spontaneously, all the incomes of their monasteries for the support and establishment of schools, promising to live in future on the produce of their own proper estates. A truly praiseworthy zeal! May it be imitated by all the fathers of monasteries!" In the opinion of the writer, means were thus secured for putting into operation eight Lancasterian and three Hellenic schools.

(g) Greek Gazette.-A stremma is about two-thirds of an acre,