Page:Christian Greece and Living Greek.djvu/218

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196 CHRISTIAN GREECE AND LIVING GREEK. that blood has run in every Greek country of Europe and Asia. The great powers of Europe allowed only a small portion of the Hellenic ter- ritory and the Hellenic race to recover their in- dependence. Prince Leopold, who first had accepted the crown, resigned because he could not consent to . the mutilation of Greece and to the injustice y that Greeks should desert their brethren, who had fought along with them to set their country free ; he could not consent that these very Greeks should now be cut off to be sent back into Tur- kish slavery. This abdication of Prince Leopold was the formal condemnation of the policy of the pow- ers, especially of English policy. The English government indeed acted throughout as the ad- vocate of Turkey; its aim was to take from Turkey and to give Greece as little as possible. Prince Leopold had failed to obtain any of the concessions which he regarded as indispensable conditions of stability and progress for the state which he had been called to govern. On Feb- ruary 9th, 1830, he wrote to the Duke of Welling- ton : " I have considered the protocol of the 3d inst. ; it appears that, if its spirit be duly exe- cuted, it will affect as follows : i . It will estab-