Henry Bourne - The Life of Thomas, Lord Cochrane, Tenth Earl of Dundonald, Vol. II

One of the first and most important communications was addressed to him on the 18th of March, in the name of the National Assembly, as it styled itself, met at Kastri, by its president, Georgios Sissinis. "Greece," he said, "rejoices at your appearance in her seas. The aspirations of the Greeks are realised. Their hopes in the success of their sacred struggle revive. The Greek nation, assembled here in a third National Assembly, desires to see you and invites you here, sending to you, with that object, the General-in-Chief of the armies of the Peloponnesus, Theodore Kolokotrones, Messrs. Kanaris, Botazes, and Bulgaris, General Zavella and Count Metaxas, who will tender to you the thanks of all for your zeal on behalf of their cause." "The Government is seized with unutterable joy at your auspicious arrival," wrote the members of the rival assembly at Egina, on the same day: "the Government wishes you happy success in all your enterprises, and hopes soon to find in you a triumphant conqueror." "For a long while past," wrote the governors of Hydra, "our brave mariners have centred all their hopes on your arrival. You can understand then the joy that we felt when we saw your brig and schooner, and when we knew that you had actually arrived. We hasten to tender to you the homage of our island, and to express to you our impatience to see our little navy placed under your orders, and guided by you to new victories, by which the safety and independence of Greece may be secured." "Your arrival in our beloved country," wrote the primates of Spetzas, "has filled the soul of every inhabitant of our island with joy, and every one presents his thanks to Heaven for having at last sent such an one to fight with us and to protect our fatherland." "You have come to Greece," wrote Konduriottes, "at a moment when this unfortunate country most needs all that it can hope from the wisdom and courage of so great a defender. The announcement of your arrival will form an epoch in the history of our Revolution, and, I dare to hope, in that of our moral regeneration."

That moral regeneration was needed Lord Cochrane already well knew, and he had not been a day in Greece before the knowledge was forced upon him afresh. The unworthy disposition of most of the men in power had never been more plainly shown, nor threatened more imminent danger to the independence of Greece, than at the time of Lord Cochrane's arrival. With a few notable exceptions, of whom Miaoulis was perhaps the chief, the Greek leaders had forgotten all their national duty in personal ambition and jealousy. If they united in parties, it was only because each one hoped that, as soon as his own party was triumphant, he himself would be able to obtain the mastery over all his associates.

Two factions, especially, prevailed in Greece at this time, which, partly from the circumstance that they were supported by unwise Philhellenes of the two nations, partly because their native members looked for their chief support to those nations, were known as the French and English parties.

Among Philhellenes the leading promoter of the French party was Colonel Fabvier, who was now, with some of the troops whom he commanded, defending the Acropolis from the siege of the Turks. He was an officer of considerable merit, with the interests of the Greeks at heart, but of surpassing vanity and ambition. His hope was to become the Napoleon of the East, to convert the whole male population of Greece into a huge army, with himself at its head. With him sympathized most of the military leaders, who, originally little better than brigands, found everything to gratify their present tastes and their future hopes in a scheme which would give them endless employment in lawless warfare and martial dominion. These, coming chiefly from the Morea, caused the faction also to be known as the Moreot party.

More formidable was the English party, with little that was English about it but the name. Its ambition was not military, but diplomatic, the possession of place and power in such ways as were then possible. Its real, if not avowed, leader was Prince Mavrocordatos, with an able abettor in his brother-in-law, Mr. Spiridion Trikoupes. All through the previous year Mavrocordatos and his friends had sought zealously to win for Greece the protection of England. They had corresponded to that end with Mr. Stratford Canning, the British ambassador at Constantinople, with Captain Hamilton, who was then stationed in Greek waters to watch the interests of English shipping, and with others. They had sent an irregular deputation to treat with the British Government, and had used all the means in their power, so far as foreign intervention was concerned, for the establishment of a smaller but more organized Greek nation than that which their rivals desired. Had that end been worthily sought, they would have deserved universal sympathy. But they showed by their conduct that they cared little for good government, or for the real interests of the community. They exercised their abilities and squandered their resources in schemes for selfish aggrandisement, and the possession of authority which was to benefit none but themselves. Many of their prominent members having studied statecraft, before the time of the Revolution, as Christian officials in the employment of Turkey, to whom the name Phanariot was given from the Christian quarter of Constantinople, the whole party acquired the name of Phanariot.

This latter party had all along hoped to make Lord Cochrane its tool. It was Mavrocordatos who first invited him to enter the service of the Greeks; and when that service was agreed upon no effort was spared to attach him to the group of partizans among whom Mavrocordatos was chief. Lord Cochrane, steadily refusing this, soon incurred their opposition, and to this opposition is to be attributed some of the unreasonable blame which was afterwards brought upon him. Much further opposition to him, moreover, was soon aroused by his, in like manner, refusing to become the creature of the other leading faction. He wisely resolved, from the first – and he maintained his resolution throughout – to belong to no party, but having devoted himself to the cause of the Greek nation as a whole, to seek only those objects which were for the good of all.

That resolution was soon put to the test. Immediately after his arrival on the 19th of March, great efforts were made to implicate him in the schemes of the Governing Commission, as it was called, which, having outrun the time appointed for its duration, was continuing to assert its authority in Egina, and to use that authority in the interests of the Phanariot party. Two days after that his partizanship was sought for the Moreot faction, which had set up a rival government, styled the National Assembly, at Hermione, under the joint leadership of Kolokotrones, Konduriottes, and Kolettes. On the 20th he was waited upon by the deputation named in the congratulatory letter which has already been quoted from.

"With his whole party," said Lord Cochrane's secretary, reporting this interview, "Kolokotrones rode down to the beach opposite the ship, and sent off to say he would there wait until a boat should be sent for him and his followers, the whole being about a hundred men, armed, according to the custom of the country, with pistols or daggers stuck in the left side of a sash or belt. The two boats sent being insufficient, not more than twenty came on board with the general. Kolokotrones was the spokesman, and there appeared to be great energy in his gesticulations, which did not correspond with the translation by Count Metaxas, who, from the smile on his countenance, seemed to hold in no great respect the mental acquirements of Kolokotrones. 'Greece,' said the latter, 'required a government to bring order out of chaos. The functions of the commission appointed by the last Legislative Assembly ought to have ceased. Its continuance in power was not legal, and consequently the members of the National Assembly had met at Hermione to name their successors; to which place it was requested that Lord Cochrane would proceed, in order to be present at their deliberations.' A letter to this effect, signed by the President of the Assembly, was then put into Lord Cochrane's hands.

Читать дальше