Page:Christian Greece and Living Greek.djvu/222

 200 CHRISTIAN GREECE AND LIVING GREEK, no more successful in obtaining it than had been Prince Leopold. Otho was sent to reign over a country of which Thiersch said: An Hellas which did not embrace the Ionian Islands, nor Crete, nor Thessaly, nor Epirus, did not deserve the name, and was incapable of either maintain- ing her own independence or of educating her- self for the destiny to which Providence seemed to be calling her. Leopold became King of Belgium. He has been called the first of statesman -kings of his day or perhaps of his century. How fortunate for Greece would it have been if this man had become her ruler, a full grown man of thirty, and a trained soldier! Belgium secured under him and his son Leopold II., the^^resent king, sixty-five years of wise and /Steady rule. Un- happy Greece got King Qfho, a princeling of seventeen, absolutely ignorant of kingcraft, ut- terly incompetent to govern a people new born from a bloody war. It il& true, Otho^was ani- mated by excellent intentionv^Jo^jie^of justice, and thoroughly devoted to his adopted country ; but all these good qualities were not sufficient ; it required more to meet the difficulties of the task imposed upon him. What Leopold was too wise to undertake.