If, in the course of these Extracts, instead of adopting the terms Infidels and Christians, I have made use of those of Turks and Greeks, it must not be thence inferred that I am prejudiced against the Greek Cause. On the contrary, it is impossible to be indifferent in such a Cause—it is impossible not to wish the liberation of any people from a state of thraldom so degrading as that of the Rajahs under the Ottoman dominion. But enthusiastic admiration of their character, considered as the descendants and representatives of the ancient Greeks, must not be expected from a candid observer of the manners of the modern race who boast their name. That they may again exhibit the virtues and talents that have shed a charm over their land, is ardently to be desired; but, in the meantime, it cannot be disguised that the Greeks of the present day are little advanced in intellect or moral feeling beyond their barbarian oppressors.

There is one among the numerous Publications on Greek affairs, which I cannot pass

unnoticed, viz. the work of Dr. Pouqueville, entitled "La Régénération de la Grèce," in four volumes octavo, published at Paris in 1824. My personal acquaintance with the writer and with his brother, the Consul at Patrass, and the fact of Dr. Pouqueville's works being received as authority in France, must plead my apology for introducing my remarks in this place. Without professing to have read the whole of this voluminous production of 2235 closely printed pages, a task for which, I am inclined to believe, none but the writer of it has had sufficient patience, a copious Index, in itself a work, has enabled me to refer to such parts of it as relate to the particular transactions which have come under my immediate observation.

My knowledge of the Doctor's peculiar advantages in procuring information, from his brother having been on the spot as French Consul at the moment when the Insurrection began, led me to examine his account of these transactions with curiosity and attention; but

my astonishment was great indeed, when I found that such advantages had been employed to give credit to falsehoods the most daring, to a distortion of facts the most ingenious, and in every falsehood, in every misstatement, to pursue the grand object of blackening the English name. That myself and my brothers are the individuals in whose persons he has most frequently sought to pander to the vitiated taste for such abuse that unhappily exists among our Gallic neighbours, might justify severer language than any that shall be used here. As far as we are concerned, I shall content myself at present with observing, that the persons who are thus traduced, are those on whom Monsieur Hugues Pouqueville threw himself for protection. If proof be required to shew the national character of the slander, let any of my readers who may have access to the Work, observe with what base calumny, and by what paltry acts, the authors attempt to hold up to hatred and ridicule the character of the late Lord

High Commissioner in the Ionian Islands. Will it be believed, that they have even condescended to exhibit in their history a disgusting caricature, with no resemblance to any thing human, as a likeness of Sir Thomas Maitland, who is termed "cet être incréé ?"

At one time I entertained the idea of refuting seriatim the misrepresentations contained in the " Régénération." Scarcely, however, had I entered on this Augean labour, than overcome by disgust and weariness, I was compelled to relinquish it. The refutation would have equalled in length the work itself. I have confined myself in the present volume, to subjoining, in the form of Notes, three or four quotations from the Doctor's publication, giving his statement of the transactions related in the text without comment. More than this, in compassion to my readers and myself, I could not do. That I have done thus much I must repeat the apology I have offered above, adding a hope, that the effrontery and ingenuity of the misstate

ments or fabrications quoted, may give to my readers some degree of that amusement which those acquainted with the facts referred to, have so richly enjoyed. If the consistency of the Doctor's Phil-hellenic enthusiasm should be thought worth inquiry into, his character of the Modern Greeks, as exhibited in a former Work, dedicated to Napoleon the 1st, entitled Voyage en Morée," Paris, 1805, will be found in the Appendix.

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The reader will find, subjoined to the Letters, short Notes, illustrative of the manner of this singular warfare. They have been added by my Brother to the text wherever the point stated required further elucidation, or where an individual trait might shew the characters in their true light.