The career of John Capodistrias (1776–1831) is briefly described, and his personality is discussed, in every work which deals with the diplomatic history of Europe and of Russia during the second half of the reign of the Tsar Alexander I. Entering the Russian foreign service in 1809, he rose five years later to a leading position in it and retired, disappointed, to Switzerland in 1822. As President of Greece from March 1827 until his death in October 1831 he became a more central, and a still more controversial, figure in the history of that country; this period still has a special fascination for Greek writers, and much has been added in recent years to the number of published works, including more than one biography, several studies of one period or one aspect of his career and a host of books which, directly or indirectly, throw some light upon it. But the modern Greek language is a barrier to many readers outside Greece, and there has been no biographical study in a more ‘accessible’ language since K. Mendelssohn-Bartholdy's book, Graf Kapodistrias (1864) which was intended to be sympathetic but reflected strongly the outlook of a German liberal constitutionalist of that age. Much of the early writing about Capodistrias was also coloured by the fear and suspicion of Russia which prevailed in Western Europe in the half century after his death. No English writer seems to have been attracted to him except in relation to British foreign policy; the most detailed modern study in French, perhaps, is to be found in E. Driault and M. L'Héritier, Histoire diplomatique de la Grèce de 1821 à nos jours (in vols. 1–11, 1925–6); but this is confined, as the title shows, to the diplomatic side and, though valuable, is not free from some rash judgments.
IV.—Adamantios Koraes, and his Reformation of the Greek Language
