The university, which is founded on the most liberal principles, the necessary expense for each student being a mere trifle, was opened on the 18th Nov. 1824, for the instruction of students in the four faculties of theology, law, medicine, and philosophy. The professors are, or ought to be, by the laws of the foundation, Greeks: two of them, however, Mr. Belfour, professor of law, and Mr. Lusignan, of belles lettres, are Englishmen. The remainder, Theoclitus Pharmachidi, professor of theology; Signor Epaminondas, of music; Prossalendi, of sculpture; and the Signori Carandino, Asopio Piccolo and Giovanni, in the different branches of humanity, science, &c, are all Greeks, either from the Islands, from the adjoining continent, or from Smyrna.
The dress of the professors is that of the ancient Greek philosophers, and differs in nothing, save colour, from the chancellor's; that of the students is likewise from the antique: it was designed by Signor Prossalendi, and is at once picturesque and classical.
The latter is worn solely by the students, or those admitted to the grade of philologi, the younger pupils of the grammar-school appearing in their ordinary costume.
It is gratifying to add, that the success of the institution is amply repaying the ardent expectations of its patron. The younger classes are crowdedly attended, and the philologi already amount to upwards of 200; the greater number of whom are from the continent of Greece, and Corfu, the other Islands supplying but a very small proportion. Its progress is giving a stimulus to literary exertion: several works have been lately printed in Romaic for the different schools. When we waited on Signor Piccolo, professor of elocution and moral philosophy, we found him engaged in translating one of Dr. Brown's essays for the use of his class; and he had, a few days before, published an edition of " Descartes' Search after Truth," in modern Greek.
The number of students is daily increasing; and I have no doubt that a few years will see this patriotic institution the agent of widely diffusing education through this now uncivilized country, and be the first means of teaching Greece the value of that liberty for which she is making so noble a struggle.
