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 l6o CHRISTIAN GREECE AND LIVING GREEK. SO did they make the elders responsible for the whole of each community. It facilitated the as- sessing of tribute, the regulating of the forced labor, and the getting in the kharadsh. The communal system, by binding the inter- ests of every individual to those of institutions common to all, by concerning all in the local government, in the affairs of schools and hos- pitals, prepared the people for freedom. The Greeks had and have a family life more intimate and more pure than many of the people of the South ; they treated their women with that respect which is due to their sex, and this alone already gave them the expectation for higher culture. When the war of independence broke out the communal societies served as centres of activity, and also as bases for the new organization of the country. The elders of all kinds, like the prel- ates of the church and the rest of the Phan- ariote hierarchy, now cast aside the signs of their slavery and degradation and contended for the | J^ honor of leading the national movement. '^ When the war broke out it became more man- ifest how vast a gulf separated Hellene from Turk. For four centuries had they been asso- ciated in intimate contact. Mutual familiarity had only intensified their mutual hatred. The 'j^