No. 244.
Mr. Read to Mr. Evarts .

No. 405.]

Sir: An act of brigandage was committed on the road leading to Eleusis on Friday last at 8 o’clock p.m. The clerk of the telegraph office at Eleusis was going to his post from Athens on horseback, accompanied by the owner of the horse. When they arrived at Thanasio, near Daphni, two men, dressed in foustanellas, rushed upon the clerk, sabers in hand, demanding his money or his life. The terrified clerk gave them his watch, his money, and even the purchases which he had just made in the city for his family. Thereupon he was allowed to depart to Eleusis.

This event has caused a great sensation here, as the road to Eleusis has been considered, as it really was, an entirely safe road. The administrative and judicial authorities have moved to the place, have cross-examined a great number of witnesses, and are still pursuing inquiries for the discovery of the culprits.

This event might have happened in the neighborhood of any capital in the world, and if it had happened here at a different moment it would not have produced such a great impression and such fears as it now does. But with the great number of idlers crowding the city of Athens, who have returned from the insurrections in Thessaly and Epirus, and who would not hesitate to join any band of brigands or to form one themselves, the government think that they must adopt strict measures to prevent a total disorganization of the public safety. The police act with energy, and will eventually succeed in driving out of the city these insurgents and in sending them to their respective places of residence.

The Palingenesia, in two consecutive articles in its issue of the 21st and 22d instant, advises the government to try by every means in their power to suppress any attempt to disturb the public security.

“The recent history of 1854,” says the above paper, “must be the guide of the administration. They are in duty bound to keep public order on the boundary line, in order to prevent a repetition of acts of brigandage. If they do not do this, it may be that public order will suffer from people who have shown already great inclination for highway robberies, and who are ready to pour over continental Greece. Our large army on the frontier is a guarantee for checking such criminal attempts. But this army cannot always be on the frontier in great numbers. We advise the government to do what this very important crisis requires, and to do it with energy and speed.”

The Ephemeris, published yesterday, states that the English legation is paying 15 drachmas and their passage to all the disbanded insurgents to go to their homes. But this is an error.

The disturbed condition of Greece makes the presence of a legation more than ever imperative. The crisis through which this country is [Page 375] now passing renders it absolutely essential to have a diplomatic representative here. This state of things will last until the suspense is relieved by a war, or by the enlargement of Greece through the kind offices of some of the European powers. In any event, if there is any spot in the world where we require a mission it is in Greece. As I have already frequently remarked, I should consider myself derelict in duty if I did not point to this fact in the most emphatic language. The Department is fully aware of the dangers to which American lives and American interests would be exposed in the absence of diplomatic representation, and I trust that its advice may receive that attention to which it is always entitled. In judging of the necessity of representation in any country, many persons are led to consider only the commercial advantages. But there is another point upon which the American people have always insisted, and that is that their lives and their property shall receive adequate and prompt protection. This legation has already had occasion to prove the efficacy of its support in this direction. It has been, also, fortunate in directing national attention to opportunities for trade, which were seized upon with avidity, and have proved to be of the greatest financial value. The profits derived from the movement of grain last year, in accordance with a clear statement and suggestion in one of my dispatches, were alone sufficient to pay the expenses of our whole diplomatic service. Therefore it is clear that this legation should be upheld upon the first point as well as upon the second.

I have, &c.,

JOHN MEREDITH READ.