Page:Christian Greece and Living Greek.djvu/231

 GREECE BEFORE THE WAR OF 1 897. 209 thought that the hour of deliverance had struck. The Crete population rose as one man, and the Cretans made themselves the masters of the whole island, but supported by England the Turks were able to drown the rising in blood. If the Greeks had possessed the necessary prep- arations, and if Europe had not come to the rescue of the Ottoman dynasty, the Greeks might even have succeeded in overthrowing it. Since then things have changed. Turkey re- gained strength ; her foreign relations became such that in case of necessity she could count upon the help of some of the European powers. Maurokodatos in a memorandum placed before King Otho in 1 848 says : " When we speak of Turkey, we of course know too much to share the delusions of the Westerns^ who, for the most part, neitjier know her nor (it would appear) wish t<5K:now her." tter ten years of absolutism, the Greeks, by a h&oodless revolution, wrested fron>^ King Otho tha^constitution of 1843. Things, Went on better but Vpt until the Crimean war-.^' The^^hopes^f the^Ucirenes were reawakened with the prospects which this war between Russia and Turks seemed to open. Russian emissaries brought about a rising in the Hel- 14