2l8 CHRISTIAN GREECE AND LIVING GREEK. their own constitutional education. The chaos of administration which had so long existed — the average duration of the time a prime minister held his office was not calculated by years but by months — seemed to have ceased when Tricupis took charge of affairs for the first time and remained in office for over three years. It is one of the current remarks of a certain class of writers that Greece, until she can govern what she has, is unfit to be entrusted with a larger area. When we shall come to con.sider in what condition Greece has been at the end of the war of independence, and how she has devel- oped in spite of the difficulties which the Euro- pean powers have caused her, we shall unhesi- tatingly disagree with this view; but we have a more powerful argument against it. The dif- ficulty Greece experienced thus far in govern- ing the area she has — and this is mainly a finan- cial question — is entirely due, as Prince Leopold has so correctly foreseen and as foregoing pages of these lectures show, to the very restricted limits of that area. The constant strain on her financially is very severe and is never relaxed; the feeling of un- rest, the repeated mobilizations to liberate the
