he is related, will add a weightier recommendation than mine.

Corinth' is taken, and a Turkish squadron said to be beaten in the Archipelago. The public progress of the Greeks is considerable, but their internal dissensions still continue. On arriving at the seat of Government, I shall endeavour to mitigate or extinguish them-though neither is an easy task. I have remained here till now, partly in expectation of the squadron in relief of Messolonghi, partly of Mr. Parry's detachment, and partly to

1. The fortress of Corinth fell into the hands of the Greeks, January 22, 1822 (Finlay's History of Greece, vol. vi. p. 226). It was retaken by the Turks, July 17, 1822, and recovered by the Greeks, September 16, 1823.

2. William Parry, at one time a firemaster in the Navy, afterwards a clerk in the civil department of the ordnance at Woolwich, was engaged by the Greek Committee in London for the following services (The Last Days of Lord Byron, p. 324) :—

"Ist. I will engage to establish a laboratory, and instruct the "Greeks in every part of that multifarious business.

"2ndly. I will engage to construct a gunpowder manufactory, "and carry it forward in all its branches in the most economical

manner.

"3rdly. I will, if required, join the army and the navy, to act "and to give every information in my power with respect to bringing into practice field and battering artillery, and the use of "spherical case-shot rockets, and every other matter, as far as my "practical knowledge extends.

4thly. I will, if required, construct and fit fire-rockets and "bomb-ships, gun-boats, and every other thing connected with a navy, as far as my knowledge extends."

Parry landed at Mesolonghi in February, 1824; but without money or men he was unable to carry out his plans for the defence of the town. Trelawny (Records, p. 246) describes him as "a rough, "burly fellow, never quite sober, but he was no fool, and had a "fund of pot-house stories which he told in appropriately slang 'language; he was a mimic, and amused Byron by burlesquing 'Jeremy Bentham and other members of the Greek Committee. "All he did, however, was to talk and drink. He was three "months in Greece, returned to England, talked the Committee out "of £400 for his services, and drank himself into a madhouse."

Gordon (History of the Greek Revolution, vol. ii. p. 111) speaks of him as "a clever mechanic," but "garrulous, blustering, and "rather addicted to intemperance." Over Byron he gained such influence that he was appointed major of the artillery brigade.

receive from Malta or Zante the sum of four thousand pounds sterling, which I have advanced for the payment of the expected squadron. The bills are negotiating, and will be cashed in a short time, as they would have been immediately in any other mart; but the miserable Ionian merchants have little money, and no great credit, and are besides politically shy on this occasion; for although I had letters of Messrs. Webb (one of the strongest houses of the Mediterranean), and also of Messrs. Ransom, there is no business to be done on fair terms except through English merchants. These, however, have proved both able and willing, and upright as usual.1

Colonel Stanhope 2 has arrived, and will proceed

"From that day," says Millingen (Memoirs, pp. 94, 95), “all the "hopes which the rapid progress of that corps had excited were at "an end. The best officers gave in resignations." The result was not surprising, as Parry drilled his men in an apron, with a hammer in his hand.

Parry nursed Byron faithfully in his fatal illness, of which, in 1825, he published an account, The Last Days of Lord Byron.

1. Messrs. Samuel Barff and Charles Hancock, bankers of Zante and Argostoli. "Their conduct," says Gamba (Narrative, p. 55), 'as well towards Lord Byron as the Greeks, was always the most "zealous and generous."

66

2. Colonel the Hon. Leicester Stanhope (1784-1862), fifth Earl of Harrington (1851), had served in India in the Mahratta War of 1817-18. He placed his services at the disposal of the Greek Committee in September, 1823, arrived in Cephalonia from Ancona in the middle of November, and landed at Mesolonghi in December of the same year. Holding advanced political views, he favoured the establishment of a Greek Republic. On this point he differed with Byron, and the divergence led to other disagreements. The Greek newspaper, which Stanhope founded, and in which republican principles were advocated, was opposed by Byron, who feared the alienation of monarchical Powers. Stanhope also supported Odysseus against Mavrocordatos, with whose views Byron sympathized.

According to Parry (Last Days, etc., pp. 189 and 192), Byron spoke of Stanhope's "Nabob airs," and ridiculed his zeal for universal reform. "He has a plan for organizing the military force, for establishing posts, for regulating the administration of justice, "for making Mr. Bentham the apostle of the Greeks, and for "whipping little boys, in the newest and most approved mode."

VOL. VI.

T

immediately; he shall have my co-operation in all his endeavours: but, from every thing that I can learn, the formation of a brigade at present will be extremely difficult, to say the least of it. With regard to the reception of foreigners, at least of foreign officers,-I refer you to a passage in Prince Mavrocordato's recent letter, a copy of which is enclosed in my packet sent to the Deputies. It is my intention to proceed by sea to Napoli di Romania as soon as I have arranged this business for the Greeks themselves—I mean the advance of two hundred thousand piastres for their fleet.

My time here has not been entirely lost, as you will perceive by some former documents that any advantage from my then proceeding to the Morea was doubtful. We have at last moved the Deputies, and I have made a strong remonstrance on their divisions to Mavrocordato, Parry's statement is confirmed by Stanhope's account of his quarrel with Byron and Byron's attack on Bentham, liberal principles, and the press (Stanhope's Greece in 1823 and 1824, 2nd ed., pp. 96-98). Trelawny (Records, p. 230) speaks highly of Stanhope. Finlay is less eulogistic: "The typographical colonel, as Lord Byron sarcastically termed him, seemed to think that newspapers would "be more effectual in driving back the Ottoman armies than well"drilled troops and military tactics" (History of Greece, vol. vi. p. 327).

66

Gordon (History of the Greek Revolution, vol. ii. p. 108) writes to the same effect: "A zealous disciple of Mr. Bentham, neglecting "the present crisis to gaze upon an imaginary future, he turned the "question upside down, and began at the wrong end. . . . ‘We "want artillerymen and heavy ordnance,' said the Greeks. The "colonel offered them types and printers. The Turks and Egyp"tians are coming against us with a mighty power!'-' Model your "institutions on those of the United States of America.'— We "have neither money, ammunition, nor provisions.'-'Decree the "unlimited freedom of the press !'"

Stanhope left Mesolonghi in February, 1824, to arrange a conference at Salona between the Greek leaders. Recalled by the English War Office, he sailed in the Florida in June, 1824, in charge of Byron's body and papers. His Greece in 1823 and 1824, edited by Ryan, and published in 1824, contains his correspondence with the Greek Committee in London, and other documents referring to the Greek Revolution.

which, I understand, was forwarded by the Legislative to the Prince. With a loan they may do much, which is all that I, for particular reasons, can say on the subject.

I regret to hear from Colonel Stanhope, that the Committee have exhausted their funds. Is it supposed that a brigade can be formed without them? or that three thousand pounds would be sufficient? It is true that money will go farther in Greece than in most countries; but the regular force must be rendered a national concern, and paid from a national fund; and neither individuals nor committees, at least with the usual means of such as now exist, will find the experiment practicable.

I beg once more to recommend my friend, Mr. Hamilton Browne, to whom I have also personal obligations, for his exertions in the common cause, and have the honour to be

Yours very truly.

IIII. To the Countess Guiccioli.1

October 7.

Pietro has told you all the gossip of the island,-our earthquakes, our politics, and present abode in a pretty

1. The following are extracts (quoted in Moore's Life, p. 601) from Byron's letters to the Countess Guiccioli. Antonio Morandi told Maxime du Camp (Souvenirs Littéraires, tom. i. p. 538) that Byron wrote to Countess Guiccioli in English, and that she replied in Italian, writing her answers in red ink between the lines of his letters. Morandi, in his Giornale dal 1848—al 1850 (ed. 1867, pp. 77-79), himself gives an account of these letters. Pietro Gamba died in his arms in Metana, a small peninsula in the Morea, opposite the island of Egina, in 1827. The two men had made a sporting expedition together, and Gamba died from the effect of a chill. On his death-bed, Gamba gave Morandi a packet to deliver to his sister, Countess Guiccioli. The letters contained in it were about forty in number, some in Italian, some in English, a few in French, and two or three in a mixture of the three languages.

village. As his opinions and mine on the Greeks are nearly similar, I need say little on that subject. I was a fool to come here; but, being here, I must see what is to be done.

October

We are still in Cephalonia, waiting for news of a more accurate description; for all is contradiction and division in the reports of the state of the Greeks. I shall fulfil the object of my mission from the Committee, and then return into Italy; for it does not seem likely that, as an individual, I can be of use to them;-at least no other foreigner has yet appeared to be so, nor does it seem likely that any will be at present.

Pray be as cheerful and tranquil as you can; and be assured that there is nothing here that can excite any thing but a wish to be with you again,-though we are very kindly treated by the English here of all descriptions. Of the Greeks, I can't say much good hitherto, and I do not like to speak ill of them, though they do of one another.

October 29.

You may be sure that the moment I can join you again, will be as welcome to me as at any period of our recollection. There is nothing very attractive here to divide my attention; but I must attend to the Greek cause, both from honour and inclination. Messrs. B[rowne] and T[relawny] are both in the Morea, where they have been very well received, and both of them write in good spirits and hopes. I am anxious to hear how the Spanish cause will be arranged, as I think it may

Sometimes the answer to Byron's letters was written between the lines in red or blue ink. Morandi lost the packet in one of his escapes from the Italian police, and it was never recovered.