A QUAINT REVENGE. 27 The excellent example, and the amiable social qualities of Sir John and the Honorable Lady Inglis (though, unfortunately, but briefly exhibited), were displayed at the right moment for the honor and reputation of the departing Protectorate. No English pair could have more worthily represented to the Ionians those qualities of heroic valour and of moral worth which have contributed so much to the glory and greatness of England. Of the English colony (as Sir Henry Storks styled it), his Excellency had no right to complain. It always treated him with the respect due to the position which he held. The only exception was the case of a gallant and excellent officer who had considered himself personally ill-treated by the Chief of the State. The officer in question, walking one day on the Esplanade, met the band of his regiment proceeding to the garrison ditch to meet the Representative of Majesty, who was then landing from his steamer after a tour of the Islands. "What are you going to play?" inquired the colonel. "God save the Queen," replied the surprised musician. "You will do no such thing," retorted his commander; " you will play a simple march." The order was duly obeyed. At the first note of the music, his Excellency's hat was raised as usual in acknowledgment; but, after a bar or two, it was replaced, and he entered his palace greatly annoyed. A sharp correspondence followed. The general re ferred the case to the Horse Guards. The Lord High Commissioner then discovered that he was not quite so great a man as he fancied himself to be. He was not a first-class Representative of Majesty, like an Ambassador, a Viceroy of Ireland, or a Governor-General of India. He had no right to have God save the Queen played in his honor. He had fallen in some measure from his high estate. He could no longer proudly say, "To me sole monarch Jove commits the sway, The officer who had thus bearded the lion in his den became, strange to say, an object of honor and of respect, rather than of anger, to the vanquished ruler. His friendship was most eagerly sought, although for a long time vainly. But a happy opportunity at length occurred to regain the good opinion of a man, who was supposed to have great influence in certain circles in England. The reconciliation was duly effected over the broken but classic head of a poor Ionian, who had ventured to pelt a military band in the open street, and who, prostrated by a Homeric blow upon the skull, fell supine upon the shore, unwept, unhonored, and unrevenged. An English judge, who thought proper to point out to his Excellency the illegality of the inflicted punishment, was informed that the matter, not having taken a judicial form, did not concern him. Care was taken to acquaint the gallant officer of this "LET US SWEAR ETERNAL FRIENDSHIP." 29 friendly act on the part of the highest authority. In consequence, a meeting at the palace took place, and “Let us swear eternal friendship," was the antiJacobinical termination to a deadly two years' hostility, which had long diverted the public. This anecdote cannot but delight every benevolent mind, for it is a consolatory proof that true Christian forgiveness is still sometimes nobly practised in the somewhat selfish and calculating nineteenth century. 30 CHAPTER III. Marriage of Priests discouraged-The Exarch-Monasteries, Churches, Priest -A limited Morality-Protestant, Greek, and Roman Churches - The Laymen for England, the Clergy for Russia-New Testament little read -Visit to the Church of the Archangel-Reading of the New Testament— Little Circulation of the Scriptures-A Priest shaved and flogged by a British Resident-The Archbishop of Corfu-Religion and Drunkenness―― A pious Usurer-The Convent of San Gerasimo-A Land-Jonah-How the Water rises in the Holy Well at Cephalonia. UPON the subject of the Ionian Church I shall not enter into many details. For the difference in the several Eastern Churches is very slight, whilst the general subject has been fully described by various writers. I shall confine my observations, therefore, chiefly to those points which appear to me to be peculiar to the Ionian Church; although the union of the Islands with Greece will doubtless include also that of their Churches. An able author states of the Oriental Church: "For the clerical body, marriage is not only permitted and frequent, but compulsory, and all but universal." He excepts only the bishops. His remark hardly, I think, applies to the Ionian Islands. MARRIAGE OF PRIESTS DISCOURAGED. 31 There, marriage is permitted amongst the priests; but far from being compulsory, it is not, I am credibly assured, even encouraged. The character of a priest who remains single is considered more holy than that of one married; other things being equal. It appears to be in the Russian, which is an independent Church, that marriage amongst the parish priests is rendered compulsory. But the Ionian Church is still dependent upon the Patriarch of Constantinople, though it will probably soon cease to be so. If a married Ionian priest loses his wife he cannot marry again. A married priest cannot be promoted. Nor can a priest marry after he has been ordained. It is clear, then, that marriage is not encouraged: but it is, nevertheless, generally contracted. Various other causes besides infidelity can occasion divorces, at the discretion of the local Bishop or Archbishop. "Those whom God hath joined,” can be "put asunder," for various trifling reasons. Incompatible tempers, or personal infirmities, are sufficient causes. It is all for better, and not at all for worse, apparently, that marriage is contracted in the Islands. So that if any worse subsequently creeps in, the compact is considered broken, and its dissolution justified. Marriage is allowed only beyond the seventh degree of relationship. This is a most inconvenient restriction; but it is a law more conducive to the health and vigor of mankind than that |