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PASSIONATE PATBIOTISM 147 equal to dealing with it. " True," they say, " the English have done this. Of course they have ; but they ought to have done it sooner. Instead of thanking them for what they have done we have every cause to complain of them for taking so long in doing it, and, after all, who has paid for it ? "We have ! Greece would have done the same thing, but have done it years ago ; and Greece would have borne half, if not all, the expense of it." ' This is good. Could a Mr. O'Brien, a Mr. Dillon, or a Mr. Davitt have done better ? It is, however, outdone by the following burning sentence, with which one of the Cyprian patriots strove to arouse his countrymen : ' Under the Turks,' he said, ' you were merely poor people. Under the English you are helots ! ' All the logic of modern agitation breathes in those few syllables, which would have absolutely no connection with facts whatever if they did not happen to contain a vague inversion of them. Let me, however, do the patriots justice. If they are not very honest in the matter of means they are perfectly sincere so far as regards their ends. They do, no doubt, desire the substitution of Greek rule for English, for the definite and intelligible, if not well-founded, reason that they see in it an unlimited prospect of Government places for themselves. It would be cynical also, and perhaps even disingenuous, with the knowledge which I happen to possess, to deny that in some cases their political animosity L 2

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