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+*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 13351 ***
+
+THE LIFE OF
+THOMAS, LORD COCHRANE, TENTH EARL OF DUNDONALD, G.C.B.,
+
+ADMIRAL OF THE RED, REAR-ADMIRAL OF THE FLEET, ETC., ETC.,
+
+
+COMPLETING "THE AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF A SEAMAN."
+
+by THOMAS, ELEVENTH EARL OF DUNDONALD,
+AND H.R. FOX BOURNE,
+AUTHOR OF "ENGLISH SEAMEN UNDER THE TUDORS," ETC. ETC.
+
+IN TWO VOLUMES. VOL. I.
+
+Published 1869.
+
+
+TO MISS ANGELA BURDETT COUTTS,
+WHOSE HONOURED FATHER
+WAS THE FIRMEST AND MOST CONSTANT FRIEND AND SUPPORTER
+OF MY FATHER,
+DURING A CAREER DEVOTED TO THE WELFARE OF HIS COUNTRY
+AND THE HONOUR OF HIS PROFESSION,
+AND WHOM IT IS MY HAPPINESS AND PRIVILEGE TO CALL MY FRIEND,
+THIS WORK IS DEDICATED,
+WITH ALL RESPECT AND REGARD,
+BY
+HER ATTACHED AND FAITHFUL SERVANT,
+
+DUNDONALD.
+
+
+
+
+PREFACE.
+
+
+In these Volumes is recounted the public life of my late father from
+the period to which the narrative was brought down by himself in his
+unfinished "Autobiography of a Seaman." The completion of that work
+was prevented by his death, which occurred almost immediately after
+the publication of the Second Volume, eight years and a half ago.
+I had hoped to supplement it sooner; but in this hope I have been
+thwarted.
+
+My father's papers were, at the time of his death, in the hands of
+a gentleman who had assisted him in the preparation of his
+"Autobiography," and to this gentleman was entrusted the completion
+of the work. Illness and other occupations, however, interfered, and,
+after a lapse of about two years, he died, leaving the papers, of
+which no use had been made by him, to fall into the possession of
+others. Only after long delay and considerable trouble and expense was
+I able to recover them and realize my long-cherished purpose.
+
+Further delay in the publication of this book has arisen from my
+having been compelled, as my father's executor, to make three long and
+laborious journeys to Brazil, which have engrossed much time.
+
+At length, however, I find myself able to pay the debt which I
+owe both to my father's memory and to the public, by whom the
+"Autobiography of a Seaman" was read with so much interest. At the
+beginning of last year I placed all the necessary documents in the
+hands of my friend, Mr. H.R. Fox Bourne, asking him to handle them
+with the same zeal of research and impartiality of judgment which he
+has shown in his already published works. I have also furnished
+him with my own reminiscences of so much of my father's life as was
+personally known to me; and he has availed himself of all the help
+that could be obtained from other sources of information, both private
+and public. He has written the book to the best of his ability, and I
+have done my utmost to help him in making it as complete and accurate
+as possible. We hope that the late Earl of Dundonald's life and
+character have been all the better delineated in that the work has
+grown out of the personal knowledge of his son and the unbiassed
+judgment of a stranger.
+
+A long time having elapsed since the publication of the "Autobiography
+of a Seaman," it has been thought well to give a brief recapitulation
+of its story in an opening chapter.
+
+The four following chapters recount my father's history during the
+five years following the cruel Stock Exchange trial, the subject last
+treated of in the "Autobiography." It is not strange that the
+harsh treatment to which he was subjected should have led him into
+opposition, in which there was some violence, which he afterwards
+condemned, against the Government of the day. But, if there were
+circumstances to be regretted in this portion of his career, it shows
+almost more plainly than any other with what strength of philanthropy
+he sought to aid the poor and the oppressed.
+
+His occupations as Chief Admiral, first of Chili and afterwards
+of Brazil, were described by himself in two volumes, entitled, "A
+Narrative of Services in Chili, Peru, and Brazil." Therefore, the
+seven chapters of the present work which describe these episodes
+have been made as concise as possible. Only the most memorable
+circumstances have been dwelt upon, and the details introduced have
+been drawn to some extent from documents not included in the volumes
+referred to.
+
+There was no reason for abridgment in treating of my father's
+connection with Greece. In the service of that country he was less
+able to achieve beneficial results than in Chili and Brazil; but
+as, on that ground, he has been frequently traduced by critics and
+historians, it seemed especially important to show how his successes
+were greater than these critics and historians have represented, and
+how his failures sprang from the faults of others and from misfortunes
+by which he was the chief sufferer. The documents left by him,
+moreover, afford abundant material for illustrating an eventful period
+in modern history. The chapters referring to Greece and Greek affairs,
+accordingly, enter with especial fullness into the circumstances
+of Lord Dundonald's life at this time, and his connection with
+contemporary politics.
+
+Eight other chapters recount all that was of most public interest in
+the thirty years of my father's life after his return from Greece.
+Except during a brief period of active service in his profession,
+when he had command of the British squadron in North American and West
+Indian waters, those thirty years were chiefly spent in efforts—by
+scientific research, by mechanical experiment, and by persevering
+argument—to increase the naval power of his country, and in efforts
+no less zealous to secure for himself that full reversal of the
+wrongful sentence passed upon him in a former generation, which
+could only be attained by public restitution of the official rank and
+national honours of which he had been deprived.
+
+This restitution was begun by his Majesty King William IV., and
+completed by our present most gracious Queen and the Prince Consort.
+By the kindnesses which he received from these illustrious persons,
+my father's later years were cheered; and I can never cease to be
+profoundly grateful to my Sovereign, and her revered husband, for the
+personal interest with which they listened to my prayer immediately
+after his death. Through their gracious influence, the same banner of
+the Bath that had been taken from him nearly fifty years before, was
+restored to its place in Westminster Abbey, and allowed to float
+over his remains at their time of burial. Thus the last stain upon my
+father's memory was wiped out.
+
+DUNDONALD. London, May 24th, 1869.
+
+
+CONTENTS OF THE FIRST VOLUME.
+
+CHAPTER I.
+
+[1775-1814.]
+
+Introduction.—Lord Cochrane's Ancestry.—His First Occupations in
+the Navy.—His Cruise in the _Speedy_ and Capture of the _Gamo_.—His
+Exploits in the _Pallas_.—The beginning of his Parliamentary
+Life.—His two Elections as Member for Honiton.—His Election for
+Westminster.—Further Seamanship.—The Basque Roads Affair.—The
+Court-Martial on Lord Gambier, and its injurious effects on Lord
+Cochrane's Naval Career.—His Parliamentary Occupations.—His Visit to
+Malta and its Issues.—The Antecedents and Consequences of the Stock
+Exchange Trial - 1
+
+CHAPTER II.
+
+[1814.]
+
+The Issue of the Stock Exchange Trial.—Lord Cochrane's Committal to
+the King's Bench Prison.—The Debate upon his Case in the House of
+Commons, and his Speech on that Occasion.—His Expulsion from the
+House, and Re-election as Member for Westminster.—The Withdrawal of
+his Sentence to the Pillory.—The Removal of his Insignia as a Knight
+of the Bath - 35
+
+CHAPTER III.
+
+[1814-1815.]
+
+Lord Cochrane's Bearing in the King's Bench Prison.—His Street
+Lamps.—His Escape, and the Motives for it.—His Capture in the House
+of Commons, and subsequent Treatment.—His Confinement in the Strong
+Room of the King's Bench Prison.—His Release - 48
+
+CHAPTER IV.
+
+[1815-1816.]
+
+Lord Cochrane's Return to the House of Commons.—His Share in the
+Refusal of the Duke of Cumberland's Marriage Pension.—His Charges
+against Lord Ellenborough, and their Rejection by the House.—His
+Popularity.—The Part taken by him in Public Meetings for the Relief
+of the People.—The London Tavern Meeting.—His further Prosecution,
+Trial at Guildford, and subsequent Imprisonment.—The Payment of his
+Fines by a Penny Subscription.—The Congratulations of his Westminster
+Constituents - 74
+
+CHAPTER V.
+
+[1817-1818.]
+
+The State of Politics in England in 1817 and 1818, and Lord Cochrane's
+Share in them.—His Work as a Radical in and out of Parliament.—His
+futile Efforts to obtain the Prize Money due for his Services at
+Basque Roads.—The Holly Hill Siege.—The Preparations for his
+Enterprise in South America.—His last Speech in Parliament - 109
+
+CHAPTER VI.
+
+[1810-1817.]
+
+The Antecedents of Lord Cochrane's Employments in South
+America.—The War of Independence in the Spanish
+Colonies.—Mexico.—Venezuela.—Colombia.—Chili.—The first
+Chilian Insurrection.—The Carreras and O'Higgins.—The Battle of
+Rancagua.—O'Higgins's Successes.—The Establishment of the Chilian
+Republic.—Lord Cochrane invited to enter the Chilian Service - 137
+
+CHAPTER VII.
+
+[1818-1820.]
+
+Lord Cochrane's Voyage to Chili.—His Reception at Valparaiso and
+Santiago.—The Disorganization of the Chilian Fleet.—First Signs
+of Disaffection.—The Naval Forces of the Chilians and the
+Spaniards.—Lord Cochrane's first Expedition to Peru.—His Attack on
+Callao.—"Drake the Dragon" and "Cochrane the Devil."—Lord Cochrane's
+Successes in Overawing the Spaniards, in Treasure-taking, and
+in Encouragement of the Peruvians to join in the War of
+Independence.—His Plan for another Attack on Callao.—His
+Difficulties in Equipping the Expedition.—The Failure of
+the Attempt.—His Plan for Storming Valdivia.—Its Successful
+Accomplishment - 148
+
+CHAPTER VIII.
+
+[1820-1822.]
+
+Lord Cochrane's Return to Valparaiso.—His Relations with the Chilian
+Senate.—The third Expedition to Peru.—General San Martin.—The
+Capture of the _Esmeralda_, and its Issue.—Lord Cochrane's subsequent
+Work.—San Martin's Treachery.—His Assumption of the Protectorate
+of Peru.—His Base Proposals to Lord Cochrane.—Lord Cochrane's
+Condemnation of them.—The Troubles of the Chilian Squadron.—Lord
+Cochrane's Seizure of Treasure at Ancon, and Employment of it in
+Paying his Officers and Men.—His Stay at Guayaquil.—The Advantages
+of Free Trade.—Lord Cochrane's Cruise along the Mexican Coast
+in Search of the remaining Spanish Frigates.—Their Annexation by
+Peru.—Lord Cochrane's last Visit to Callao - 177
+
+CHAPTER IX.
+
+[1822-1823.]
+
+Lord Cochrane's Return to Valparaiso,—The Conduct of the Chilian
+Government towards him.—His Resignation of Chilian Employment, and
+Acceptance of Employment under the Emperor of Brazil.—His subsequent
+Correspondence with the Government of Chili.—The Results of his
+Chilian Service. - 208
+
+CHAPTER X.
+
+[1823.]
+
+The Antecedents of Brazilian Independence.—Pedro I.'s Accession.—The
+Internal and External Troubles of the New Empire.—Lord Cochrane's
+Invitation to Brazil.—His Arrival at Rio de Janeiro, and Acceptance
+of Brazilian Service.—His first Occupations.—The bad condition of
+the Squadron, and the consequent Failure of his first Attack on the
+Portuguese off Bahia.—His Plans for Improving the Fleet, and their
+Success.—His Night Visit to Bahia, and the consequent Flight of the
+Enemy.—Lord Cochrane's Pursuit of them.—His Visit to Maranham,
+and Annexation of that Province and of Para.—His Return to Rio de
+Janeiro.—The Honours conferred upon him. - 223
+
+CHAPTER XI.
+
+[1823-1824.]
+
+The Nature of the Rewards bestowed on Lord Cochrane for his first
+Services to Brazil.—Pedro I. and the Portuguese Faction.—Lord
+Cochrane's Advice to the Emperor.—The Troubles brought upon him by
+it.—The Conduct of the Government towards him and the Fleet.—The
+withholding of Prize-money and Pay.—Personal Indignities to Lord
+Cochrane.—An Amusing Episode.—Lord Cochrane's Threat of Resignation,
+and its Effect.—Sir James Mackintosh's Allusion to him in the House
+of Commons - 246
+
+CHAPTER XII.
+
+[1824-1825.]
+
+The Insurrection in Pernambuco.—Lord Cochrane's Expedition to
+suppress it.—The Success of his Work.—His Stay at Maranham.—The
+Disorganized State of Affairs in that Province.—Lord Cochrane's
+efforts to restore Order and good Government.—Their result in further
+Trouble to himself.—His Cruise in the _Piranga_, and Return to
+England.—His Treatment there.—His Retirement from Brazilian
+Service.—His Letter to the Emperor Pedro I.—The End of his South
+American Employments - 266
+
+CHAPTER XIII.
+
+[1820-1825.]
+
+The Greek Revolution and its Antecedents.—The Modern Greeks.—The
+Friendly Society.—Sultan Mahmud and Ali Pasha's Rebellion.—The
+Beginning of the Greek Insurrection.—Count John Capodistrias.—Prince
+Alexander Hypsilantes.—The Revolution in the Morca.—Theodore
+Kolokotrones.—The Revolution in the Islands.—The Greek Navy and its
+Character.—The Excesses of the Greeks.—Their bad Government.—Prince
+Alexander Mavrocordatos.—The Progress of the Revolution.—The
+Spoliation of Chios.—English Philhellenes; Thomas Gordon, Frank Abney
+Hastings, Lord Byron.—The first Greek Loan, and the bad uses to
+which it was put.—Reverses of the Greeks.—Ibrahim and his
+Successes.—Mavrocordatos's Letter to Lord Cochrane - 286
+
+CHAPTER XIV.
+
+[1825-1826.]
+
+Lord Cochrane's Dismissal from Brazilian Service, and his Acceptance
+of Employment as Chief Admiral of the Greeks.—The Greek Committee and
+the Greek Deputies in London.—The Terms of Lord Cochrane's Agreement,
+and the consequent Preparations.—His Visit to Scotland.—Sir Walter
+Scott's Verses on Lady Cochrane.—Lord Cochrane's forced Retirement to
+Boulogne, and thence to Brussels.—The Delays in fitting out the
+Greek Armament.—Captain Hastings, Mr. Hobhouse, and Sir Francis
+Burdett.—Captain Hastings's Memoir on the Greek Leaders and
+their Characters.—The first Consequences of Lord Cochrane's new
+Enterprise.—The Duke of Wellington's Message to Lord Cochrane.—The
+Greek Deputies' Proposal to Lord Cochrane and his Answer.—The Final
+Arrangements for his Departure.—The Messiah of the Greeks. - 318
+
+CHAPTER XV.
+
+[1826-1827.]
+
+Lord Cochrane's Departure for Greece.—His Visit to London and
+Voyage to the Mediterranean.—His Stay at Messina, and afterwards
+at Marseilles.—The Delays in Completing the Steamships, and the
+consequent Injury to the Greek Cause, and serious Embarrassment
+to Lord Cochrane.—His Correspondence with Messrs. J. and S.
+Ricardo.—His Letter to the Greek Government.—Chevalíer Eynard, and
+the Continental Philhellenes.—Lord Cochrane's Final Departure and
+Arrival in Greece. - 355
+
+CHAPTER XVI.
+
+[1826-1827.]
+
+The Progress of Affairs in Greece.—The Siege of Missolonghi.—Its
+Fall.—The Bad Government and Mismanagement of the Greeks.—General
+Ponsonby's Account of them.—The Effect of Lord Cochrane's Promised
+Assistance.—The Fears of the Turks, as shown in their Correspondence
+with Mr. Canning.—The Arrival of Captain Hastings in Greece, with the
+_Karteria_.—His Opinion of Greek Captains and Sailors.—The Frigate
+_Hellas_,—Letters to Lord Cochrane from Admiral Miaoulis and the
+Governing Commission of Greece. - 368
+
+APPENDIX.
+
+I. (Page 22.)—"Resumé of the Services of the late Earl of Dundonald,
+none of which have been Requited or Officially Recognised," by Thomas,
+Eleventh Earl of Dundonald. - 389
+
+II. (Page 23.)—Part of a Speech delivered by Lord Cochrane in the
+House of Commons, on the 11th of May, 1809, on Naval Abuses. - 397
+
+III. (Page 258.)—A Letter written by Lord Cochrane to the Secretary
+of State of Brazil on the 3rd of May, 1824. - 400
+
+
+
+
+THE LIFE
+OF
+THOMAS, TENTH EARL OF DUNDONALD.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I.
+
+
+INTRODUCTION.—LORD COCHRANE'S ANCESTRY.—HIS FIRST OCCUPATIONS IN
+THE NAVY.—HIS CRUISE IN THE "SPEEDY" AND CAPTURE OF THE "GAMO."—HIS
+EXPLOITS IN THE "PALLAS."—THE BEGINNING OF HIS PARLIAMENTARY
+LIFE.—HIS TWO ELECTIONS AS MEMBER FOR HONITON.—HIS ELECTION FOR
+WESTMINSTER.—FURTHER SEAMANSHIP.—THE BASQUE ROADS AFFAIR.—THE
+COURT-MARTIAL ON LORD GAMBIER, AND ITS INJURIOUS EFFECTS ON LORD
+COCHRANE'S NAVAL CAREER.—HIS PARLIAMENTARY OCCUPATIONS.—HIS VISIT TO
+MALTA AND ITS ISSUES.—THE ANTECEDENTS AND CONSEQUENCES OF THE STOCK
+EXCHANGE TRIAL.
+
+
+[1775-1814.]
+
+Thomas, Loud Cochrane, tenth Earl of Dundonald, was born at Annsfield,
+in Lanark, on the 14th of December, 1775, and died in London on the
+31st of October, 1860. Shortly before his death he wrote two volumes,
+styled "The Autobiography of a Seaman," which set forth his history
+down to 1814, the fortieth year of his age. To those volumes the
+present work, recounting his career during the ensuing six-and-forty
+years, is intended to serve as a sequel. Before entering upon the
+later narrative, however, it will be necessary briefly to recapitulate
+the incidents that have been already detailed.
+
+The Earl of Dundonald was descended from a long line of knights and
+barons, chiefly resident in Renfrew and Ayr, many of whom were men
+of mark in Scottish history during the thirteenth and following
+centuries. Robert Cochran was the especial favourite and foremost
+counsellor of James III., who made him Earl of Mar; but the favours
+heaped upon him, and perhaps a certain arrogance in the use of those
+favours, led to so much opposition from his peers and rivals that he
+was assassinated by them in 1480.[A]
+
+[Footnote A: Pinkerton, the historian, gives some curious details,
+illustrating not only Robert Cochran's character, but also the
+condition of government and society in Scotland four centuries ago.
+"The Scottish army," he says, "amounting to about fifty thousand, had
+crowded to the royal banner at Burrough Muir, near Edinburgh, whence
+they marched to Soutray and to Lauder, at which place they encamped
+between the church and the village. Cochran, Earl of Mar, conducted
+the artillery. On the morning after their arrival at Lauder, the peers
+assembled in a secret council, in the church, and deliberated upon
+their designs of revenge…. Cochran, ignorant of their designs, left
+the royal presence to proceed to the council. The earl was attended by
+three hundred men, armed with light battle-axes, and distinguished
+by his livery of white with black fillets. He was clothed in a riding
+cloak of black velvet, and wore a large chain of gold around his
+neck; his horn of the chase, or of battle, was adorned with gold
+and precious stones, and his helmet, overlaid with the same valuable
+metal, was borne before him. Approaching the door of the church,
+he commanded an attendant to knock with authority; and Sir Robert
+Douglas, of Lochleven, who guarded the passage, inquiring the name,
+was answered, 'Tis I, the Earl of Mar.' Cochran and some of his
+friends were admitted. Angus advanced to him, and pulling the gold
+chain from his neck, said, 'A rope will become thee better,' while
+Douglas of Lochleven seized his hunting-horn, declaring that he had
+been too long a hunter of mischief. Rather astonished than alarmed,
+Cochran said, 'My lords, is it jest or earnest?' To which it was
+replied, 'It is good earnest, and so thou shalt find it; for thou
+and thy accomplices have too long abused our prince's favour. But no
+longer expect such advantage, for thou and thy followers shall now
+reap the deserved reward.' Having secured Mar, the lords despatched
+some men-at-arms to the king's pavilion, conducted by two or three
+moderate leaders, who amused James, while their followers seized the
+favourites. Sir William Roger and others were instantly hanged over
+the bridge at Lauder. Cochran was now brought out, his hands bound
+with a rope, and thus conducted to the bridge, and hanged above his
+fellows."] Later scions of the family prospered, and in 1641, Sir
+William Cochrane was raised to the peerage, as Lord Cochrane of
+Cowden, by Charles I. For his adherence to the royal cause this
+nobleman was fined 5000£ by the Long Parliament in 1654; and, in
+recompense for his loyalty, he was made first Earl of Dundonald by
+Charles II. in 1669. His successors were faithful to the Stuarts, and
+thereby they suffered heavily. Archibald, the ninth Earl, inheriting a
+patrimony much reduced by the loyalty and zeal of his ancestors, spent
+it all in the scientific pursuits to which he devoted himself, and
+in which he was the friendly rival of Watt, Priestley, Cavendish, and
+other leading chemists and mechanicians of two or three generations
+ago. His eldest son, heir to little more than a famous name and a
+chivalrous and enterprising disposition, had to fight his own way in
+the world.
+
+Lord Cochrane—as the subject of these memoirs was styled in courtesy
+until his accession to the peerage in 1831—was intended by his father
+for the army, in which he received a captain's commission. But his
+own predilections were in favour of a seaman's life, and accordingly,
+after brief schooling, he joined the _Hind_, as a midshipman, in June,
+1793, when he was nearly eighteen years of age.
+
+During the next seven years he learnt his craft in various ships
+and seas, being helped in many ways by his uncle, the Hon. Alexander
+Cochrane, but profiting most by his own ready wit and hearty love
+of his profession. Having been promoted to the rank of lieutenant in
+1794, he was made commander of the _Speedy_ early in 1800. This little
+sloop, not larger than a coasting brig, but crowded with eighty-four
+men and six officers, seemed to be intended only for playing at war.
+Her whole armament consisted of fourteen 4-pounders. When her new
+commander tried to add to these a couple of 12-pounders, the deck
+proved too small and the timbers too weak for them, and they had to be
+returned. So Lilliputian was his cabin, that, to shave himself, Lord
+Cochrane was obliged to thrust his head out of the skylight and make a
+dressing-table of the quarter-deck.
+
+Yet the _Speedy_, ably commanded, was quite large enough to be of
+good service. Cruising in her along the Spanish coast, Lord Cochrane
+succeeded in capturing many gunboats and merchantmen, and the enemy
+soon learnt to regard her with especial dread. On one memorable
+occasion, the 6th of May, 1801, he fell in with the _Gamo_, a Spanish
+frigate furnished with six times as many men as were in the _Speedy_ and with seven times her weight of shot. Lord Cochrane, boldly
+advancing, locked his little craft in the enemy's rigging. It was, in
+miniature, a contest as unequal as that by which Sir Francis Drake and
+his fellows overcame the Great Armada of Spain in 1588, and with like
+result. The heavy shot of the _Gamo_ riddled the _Speedy's_ sails,
+but, passing overhead, did no mischief to her hulk or her men. During
+an hour there was desperate fighting with small arms, and twice
+the Spaniards tried in vain to board their sturdy little foe. Lord
+Cochrane then determined to meet them on their own deck, and the
+daring project was facilitated by one of the smart expedients in which
+he was never wanting. Before going into action, "knowing," as he said,
+"that the final struggle would be a desperate one, and calculating
+on the superstitious wonder which forms an element in the Spanish
+character," he had ordered his crew to blacken their faces; and, "what
+with this and the excitement of combat, more ferocious-looking objects
+could scarcely be imagined." With these men following him he promptly
+gained the frigate's deck, and then their strong arms and hideous
+faces soon frightened the Spaniards into submission.
+
+The senior officer of the _Gamo_ asked for a certificate of his
+bravery, and received one testifying that he had conducted himself
+"like a true Spaniard." To Spain, of course, this was no sarcasm,
+and on the strength of the document its holder soon obtained further
+promotion.
+
+That achievement, which cost only three men's lives, led to
+consequences greater than could have been expected. Lord Cochrane,
+after three months' waiting, received the rank of post captain. But
+his desire that the services of Lieutenant Parker, his second in
+command, should also be recompensed led to a correspondence with Earl
+St. Vincent which turned him from a jealous superior into a bitter
+enemy. In reply to Lord Cochrane's recommendation, Earl St. Vincent
+alleged that "it was unusual to promote two officers for such a
+service,—besides which the small number of men killed on board the
+_Speedy_ did not warrant the application." Lord Cochrane answered,
+with incautious honesty, that "his lordship's reasons for not
+promoting Lieutenant Parker, because there were only three men killed
+on board the _Speedy_, were in opposition to his lordship's own
+promotion to an earldom, as well as that of his flag-captain to
+knighthood, and his other officers to increased rank and honours; for
+that, in the battle from which his lordship derived his title there
+was only one man killed on board his own flagship." That was language
+too plain to be forgiven.
+
+In July, 1801, the _Speedy_ was captured by three French
+line-of-battle ships, whose senior in command, Captain Pallière,
+declined to accept the sword of an officer "who had," as he said,
+"for so many hours struggled against impossibility," and asked Lord
+Cochrane, though a prisoner, still to wear it. He, however, was
+refused employment as commander of another ship. Thereupon, with
+characteristic energy, he devoted his forced leisure from professional
+pursuits to a year of student life at Edinburgh, where, in 1802, Lord
+Palmerston was his class-fellow under Professor Dugald Stewart.
+
+This occupation, however, was disturbed by the renewal of war with
+France in 1803. Lord Cochrane, though with difficulty, then obtained
+permission to return to active service, the _Arab_, one of the
+craziest little ships in the navy, being assigned to him. On his
+representing that she was too rotten for use off the French coast, he
+was ordered to employ her in cruising in the North Sea and protecting
+the fisheries north-east of the Orkneys, "where," as he said, "no
+vessel fished, and consequently there were no fisheries to protect."
+This ignominious work lasted for a year. It was brought to a close
+in December, 1804, soon after the appointment of Lord Melville, in
+succession to Earl St. Vincent, as First Lord of the Admiralty.
+
+By him Lord Cochrane was transferred from the _Arab_ to the _Pallas_,
+a new and smart frigate of thirty-two guns, and allowed to use her in
+a famous cruise of prize-taking among the Azores and off the coast
+of Portugal. This was followed in 1806 by farther work in the same
+frigate, the closing portion of which was especially memorable. Being
+off the Basque Roads at the end of April he fixed his attention upon a
+frigate, the _Minerve_, and three brigs, forming an important part of
+the French squadron in the Mediterranean. After three weeks' waiting,
+on the 14th of May, he saw the frigate and the brigs approaching him,
+and promptly prepared to attack them. He was not deterred by knowing
+that the _Minerve_ alone, carrying forty guns, was far stronger than
+the _Pallas_, which had also to withstand the force of the three
+brigs, each with sixteen guns, and to be prepared for the fire of the
+batteries on the Isle d'Aix. "This morning, when close to Isle d'Aix,
+reconnoitring the French squadron," he wrote concisely to his admiral,
+"it gave me great joy to find our late opponent, the black frigate,
+and her companions, the three brigs, getting under sail. We formed
+high expectations that the long wished-for opportunity was at last
+arrived. The _Pallas_ remained under topsails by the wind to await
+them. At half-past eleven a smart point-blank firing commenced on both
+sides, which was severely felt by the enemy. The main topsail-yard
+of one of the brigs was cut through, and the frigate lost her
+after-sails. The batteries on I'lsle d'Aix opened on the _Pallas_, and
+a cannonade continued, interrupted on our part only by the necessity
+we were under to make various tacks to avoid the shoals, till one
+o'clock, when our endeavour to gain the wind of the enemy and get
+between him and the batteries proved successful. An effectual distance
+was now chosen. A few broadsides were poured in. The enemy's fire
+slackened. I ordered ours to cease, and directed Mr. Sutherland, the
+master, to run the frigate on board, with intention effectually to
+prevent her retreat. The enemy's side thrust our guns back into the
+ports. The whole were then discharged. The effect and crash were
+dreadful. Their decks were deserted. Three pistol-shots were the
+unequal return. With confidence I say that the frigate would have
+been lost to France, had not the unequal collision torn away our
+fore-topmast, jib-boom, fore and maintop-sails, spritsail-yards,
+bumpkin, cathead, chainplates, fore-rigging, foresail, and bower
+anchor, with which last I intended to hook on; but all proved
+insufficient. She would yet have been lost to France, had not the
+French admiral, seeing his frigate's foreyard gone, her rigging
+ruined, and the danger she was in, sent two others to her assistance.
+The _Pallas_ being a wreck, we came out with what sail could be set,
+and his Majesty's sloop the _Kingfisher_ afterwards took us in tow."
+The exploit was none the less valiant in that it was partly a failure.
+
+The waiting-times before and after that cruise were occupied by Lord
+Cochrane with brief commencement of parliamentary life. Long before
+this time Lord Cochrane had resolved on entering the House of Commons,
+in order to expose the naval abuses which were then rife, and which he
+had never been deterred, by consideration of his own interests, from
+boldly denouncing. He stood for Honiton in 1805, and was defeated
+through his refusal to vie with his opponent in the art of bribery. He
+contrived, however, to profit by corruption while he punished it.
+As soon as the election was over, he gave ten guineas to each of the
+constituents who had freely voted for him. The consequence of this was
+his triumphant return at the new election, which took place in July,
+1806. When his supporters asked for like payment to that made in the
+previous instance, it was bluntly refused. "The former gift," said
+Lord Cochrane, "was for your disinterested conduct in not taking the
+bribe of five pounds from the agents of my opponent. For me now to pay
+you would be a violation of my principles."
+
+A short cruise in the Basque Roads prevented Lord Cochrane from
+occupying in the House of Commons the seat thus won, and in April,
+1807, very soon after his return, Parliament was again dissolved. He
+then resolved to stand for Westminster, with Sir Francis Burdett for
+his associate. Both were returned, and Lord Cochrane held his seat for
+eleven years. In 1807, however, he had only time to bring forward two
+motions respecting sinecures and naval abuses, which issued in violent
+but unproductive discussion, when he received orders to join the fleet
+in the Mediterranean as captain of the _Imperiéuse_. Naval employment
+was grudgingly accorded to him; but it was thought wiser to give him
+work abroad than to suffer under his free speech at home.
+
+This employment was marked by many brilliant deeds, which procured
+for him, on his surrendering his command of the _Imperiéuse_ after
+eighteen months' duration, the reproach of having spent more sails,
+stores, gunpowder, and shot than had been used by any other captain in
+the service.
+
+The most brilliant deed of all, one of the most brilliant deeds in
+the whole naval history of England, was his well-known exploit in the
+Basque Roads on the 11th, 12th, and 13th of April, 1809. Much against
+his will, he was persuaded by Lord Mulgrave, at that time First
+Lord of the Admiralty, to bear the responsibility of attacking and
+attempting to destroy the French squadron by means of fireships
+and explosion-vessels. The project was opposed by Lord Gambier, the
+Admiral of the Fleet, as being at once "hazardous, if not desperate,"
+and "a horrible and anti-Christian mode of warfare;" and consequently
+he gave no hearty co-operation. On Lord Cochrane devolved the whole
+duty of preparing for and executing the project. His own words will
+best tell the story.
+
+"On the 11th of April," he said, "it blew hard, with a high sea. As
+all preparations were complete, I did not consider the state of
+the weather a justifiable impediment to the attack; so that, after
+nightfall, the officers who volunteered to command the fireships were
+assembled on board the _Caledonia_, and supplied with instructions
+according to the plan previously laid down by myself. The _Impérieuse_ had proceeded to the edge of the Boyart Shoal, close to which she
+anchored with an explosion-vessel made fast to her stern, it being my
+intention, after firing the one of which I was about to take charge,
+to return to her for the other, to be employed as circumstances might
+require. At a short distance from the _Impérieuse_ were anchored
+the frigates _Aigle_, _Unicorn_, and _Pallas_, for the purpose of
+receiving the crews of the fireships on their return, as well as to
+support the boats of the fleet assembled alongside the _Cæsar_, to
+assist the fireships. The boats of the fleet were not, however, for
+some reason or other made use of at all.
+
+"Having myself embarked on board the largest explosion-vessel,
+accompanied by Lieut. Bissel and a volunteer crew of four men only,
+we led the way to the attack. The night was dark, and, as the wind was
+fair, though blowing hard, we soon neared the estimated position
+of the advanced French ships, for it was too dark to discern them.
+Judging our distance, therefore, as well as we could, with regard to
+the time the fuse was calculated to burn, the crew of four men entered
+the gig, under the direction of Lieut. Bissel, whilst I kindled the
+portfires, and then, descending into the boat, urged the men to pull
+for their lives, which they did with a will, though, as wind and sea
+were strong against us, without making the expected progress.
+
+"To our consternation, the fuses, which had been constructed to burn
+fifteen minutes, lasted little more than half that time, when the
+vessel blew up, filling the air with shells, grenades, and rockets;
+whilst the downward and lateral force of the explosion raised
+a solitary mountain of water, from the breaking of which in all
+directions our little boat narrowly escaped being swamped. The
+explosion-vessel did her work well, the effect constituting one of the
+grandest artificial spectacles imaginable. For a moment, the sky was
+red with the lurid glare arising from the simultaneous ignition of
+fifteen hundred barrels of powder. On this gigantic flash subsiding,
+the air seemed alive with shells, grenades, rockets, and masses of
+timber, the wreck of the shattered vessel. The sea was convulsed as
+by an earthquake, rising, as has been said, in a huge wave, on whose
+crest our boat was lifted like a cork, and as suddenly dropped into
+a vast trough, out of which as it closed upon us with the rush of a
+whirlpool, none expected to emerge. In a few minutes nothing but
+a heavy rolling sea had to be encountered, all having again become
+silence and darkness."
+
+In spite of its bursting too soon, the explosion-vessel did excellent
+work. The strong boom, composed of large spars bound by heavy chains,
+and firmly anchored at various points in its length of more than a
+mile, which was supposed to constitute an impassable barrier between
+the English ships that were outside and the French ships locked behind
+it, was broken in several parts. The enemy's ships were thoroughly
+disorganised by the sudden and appalling occurrence of the explosion.
+In their alarm and confusion, many of them fired into one another,
+and all might have been easily destroyed had the first success of the
+explosion-vessel been properly followed up. Unfortunately, however, on
+returning to the _Impérieuse_, Lord Cochrane found that there had been
+gross mismanagement of the fireships, which, according to his plans,
+were to have been despatched against various sections of the French
+fleet while it was too confused to protect itself. One of them, fired
+at the wrong time and sent in a wrong direction, nearly destroyed
+the _Impérieuse_ and caused the wasting of a second explosion-vessel,
+which was meant to be held in reserve. The others, if not as
+mischievous in their effects, were almost as useless. "Of all the
+fire-ships, upwards of twenty in number," said Lord Cochrane, "only
+four reached the enemy's position, and not one did any damage. The
+_Impérieuse_ lay three miles from the enemy, so that the one which was
+near setting fire to her became useless at the outset; whilst several
+others were kindled a mile and a half to the windward of this, or four
+miles and a half from the enemy. Of the remainder, many were at once
+rendered harmless from being brought to on the wrong tack. Six passed
+a mile to windward of the French fleet, and one grounded on Oleron."
+
+Though the full success of Lord Cochrane's scheme was thus prevented,
+however, the work done by it was considerable. "As the fireships began
+to light up the roads," he said, "we could observe the enemy's fleet
+in great confusion. Without doubt, taking every fireship for an
+explosion-vessel, and being deceived as to their distance, not only
+did the French make no effort to divert them from their course, but
+some of their ships cut their cables and were seen drifting away
+broadside on to the wind and tide, whilst others made sail, as the
+only alternative to escape from what they evidently considered certain
+destruction. At daylight on the morning of the 12th, not a spar of the
+boom was anywhere visible, and, with the exception of the _Foudroyant_ and _Cassard_, the whole of the enemy's vessels were helplessly
+aground. The flag-ship, _L'Océan_, a three-decker, drawing the most
+water, lay outermost on the north-west edge of the Palles Shoal,
+nearest the deep water, where she was most exposed to attack; whilst
+all, by the fall of the tide, were lying on their bilge, with
+their bottoms completely exposed to shot, and therefore beyond the
+possibility of resistance."
+
+The French fleet had not been destroyed; yet it was so paralysed by
+the shock that its utter defeat seemed easy to Lord Cochrane. To the
+mast of the _Impérieuse_, between six o'clock in the morning of the
+12th and one in the afternoon, he hoisted signal after signal, urging
+Lord Gambier, who was with the main body of the fleet about fourteen
+miles off, to make an attack. Failing in all these, and growing
+desperate in his zeal, especially as every hour of delay was enabling
+the French to recover themselves and rendering success less sure, he
+suffered his single frigate to drift towards the enemy. "I did not
+venture to make sail," wrote Lord Cochrane, in his very modest account
+of this daring exploit, "lest the movement might be seen from the
+flag-ship, and a signal of recall should defeat my purpose of making
+an attack with the _Impérieuse_ ; my object being to compel the
+Commander-in-Chief to send vessels to our assistance. We drifted by
+the wind and tide slowly past the fortifications on Isle d'Aix; but,
+though they fired at us with every gun that could be brought to bear,
+the distance was too great to inflict damage. Proceeding thus till
+1.30 p.m., we then suddenly made sail after the nearest of the enemy's
+vessels escaping. In order to divert our attention from the vessels
+we were pursuing, these having thrown their guns overboard, the
+_Calcutta_, a store-ship carrying fifty-six guns, which was still
+aground, broadside on, began firing at us. Before proceeding further,
+it became therefore necessary to attack her, and at 1.50 we shortened
+sail and returned the fire. At 2.0 the _Impérieuse_ came to an anchor
+in five fathoms, and, veering to half a cable, kept fast the spring,
+firing upon the _Calcutta_ with our broadside, and at the same time
+upon the _Aquillon_ and _Ville de Varsovie_, two line-of-battle ships,
+each of seventy-four guns, with our forecastle and bow guns, both
+these ships being aground stern on, in an opposite direction. After
+some time we had the satisfaction of observing several ships sent
+to our assistance, namely, the _Emerald_, the _Unicorn_, the
+_Indefatigable_, the _Valiant_, the _Revenge_, the _Pallas_, and the
+_Aigle_. On seeing this, the captain and the crew of the _Calcutta_ abandoned their vessel, of which the boats of the _Impérieuse_ took
+possession before the vessels sent to our assistance came down." Soon
+after the arrival of the new ships, the two other vessels were also
+forced to surrender.
+
+Most of the ships sent to his assistance returned to Lord Grambier on
+the 13th. Lord Cochrane, seeing that it would be easy for him to do
+much further mischief, made ready for the work on the morrow. But from
+this he was prevented by the inexcusable conduct of Lord Gambier, who,
+having discountenanced the attempt with the fireships, now not
+only refused to take part in the victory which his comrade had made
+possible, but also hindered its achievement by him.
+
+Lord Cochrane had already overstepped the strict duty of a
+subordinate, though acting only as became an English sailor. The
+fireships with which he had been ordered to ruin the enemy's fleet had
+partly failed through the error of others. "It was then," he said, "a
+question with me whether I should disappoint the expectations of my
+country, be set down as a charlatan by the Admiralty, whose hopes had
+been raised by my plan, and have my future prospects destroyed, or
+force on an action which some had induced an easy Commander-in-Chief
+to believe impracticable." He did force on some fighting, which
+was altogether disastrous to the enemy, and rich in tokens of his
+unflinching heroism; but it was in violation of repeated orders,
+dubiously worded, from Lord Grambier, and, when at last an order was
+issued in terms too distinct to allow of any further evasion, he had
+no alternative but to abandon the enterprise. He was at once sent
+back to England, to be rewarded with much popular favour, and with a
+knighthood of the Order of the Bath, conferred by George III., but to
+become the victim of an official persecution, which, embittering his
+whole life, lasted almost to its close.
+
+It must be admitted that this persecution was in great measure
+provoked by Lord Cochrane's own fearless conduct. He was reasonably
+aggrieved at the effort made by the Admiralty authorities to attribute
+to Lord Gambier, who had taken no part at all in the achievements in
+Basque Roads, all the merit of their success. To use his own caustic
+but accurate words, "The only victory gained by Lord Gambier in Basque
+Roads was that of bringing his ships to anchor there, whilst the
+enemy's ships were quietly heaving off from the banks on which they
+had been driven nine miles distant from the fleet." When for this
+proceeding it was determined to honour Lord Gambier with the thanks
+of Parliament, Lord Cochrane, as member for Westminster, announced his
+intention of opposing the motion. As a bribe to silence he was offered
+an important command by Lord Mulgrave, and it was proposed that his
+name should be included in the vote of thanks. The bribe being
+refused and the opposition persisted in, Lord Gambier demanded a
+court-martial, in which, as he alleged, to controvert the insinuations
+thrown out against him by Lord Cochrane.
+
+The history of this court-martial, its antecedents and its
+consequences, furnishes an episode almost unique in the annals
+of official injustice. As a preparation for it, Lord Gambier, in
+obedience to orders from the Admiralty, supplemented his first account
+of the victory by another of entirely different tenour. In the first,
+written on the spot, he had avowed that he could not speak highly
+enough of Lord Cochrane's vigour and gallantry in approaching the
+enemy,—conduct, he said, "which could not be exceeded by any feat of
+valour hitherto achieved by the British Navy." In the record, written
+four weeks later and in London, he altogether ignored Lord Cochrane's
+services, and transferred the entire merit to himself.
+
+The whole conduct of the court-martial was in keeping with that
+prelude. No effort was spared in stifling all the evidence on Lord
+Cochrane's side, and in adducing false testimony against him. Logbooks
+and witnesses alike were tampered with. In support of his scheme for
+annihilating the whole French fleet, Lord Cochrane produced in court
+a chart showing the relative position of the various points in Aix
+Roads, and of the overhanging fort which was to protect the French
+ships. This chart, left lying upon the table, was tacitly accepted by
+the authorities of the Admiralty as a trustworthy document, and
+duly preserved among the official records. But at the time the court
+refused to receive it in evidence, and adopted instead two falsified
+charts, in which, by the introduction of imaginary shoals and the
+narrowing of the channel to Aix Roads from two miles to one, the
+success of the scheme appeared impossible. Although this gross
+deception was more than suspected, both then and afterwards, by Lord
+Cochrane, his repeated applications to the Admiralty for permission to
+inspect the documents were steadily refused. It was not till more than
+fifty years after the period of the court-martial that he was able to
+prove the scandalous fraud.[A]
+
+[Footnote A: Readers of "The Autobiography of a Seaman" need not be
+reminded of the copious and convincing evidence of the way in which he
+was treated by this court-martial that was adduced by Lord Dundonald
+in that work.]
+
+The result of the court-martial was, of course, such as from the first
+had been intended. Lord Grambier was acquitted, and unlimited blame
+was, by inference, thrown upon Lord Cochrane. The coveted vote
+of thanks was promptly obtained from the House of Commons; Lord
+Cochrane's proposal that the minutes of the court-martial be first
+investigated being, through ministerial influence, summarily rejected.
+
+These proceedings determined the course which men in power were to
+adopt, and fixed Lord Cochrane's future. It was a future to be made up
+of cruel disregard and of revengeful persecution.[A]
+
+[Footnote A: See Appendix (I.).]
+
+Soon after the close of the trial, the brave seaman applied to the
+Admiralty for permission to rejoin his old frigate, the _Impérieuse_,
+and accompanied his application with a bold plan for attacking the
+French fleet in the Scheldt. He received an insulting answer to the
+effect that, if he would be ready to quit the country in a week, and
+then to occupy a position subordinate to that which he had formerly
+held, his services would be accepted. On his replying that his
+great desire to be employed in his profession made him willing to
+do anything, and that all he wished for was a little longer time for
+preparation, no further communication was vouchsafed to him. He was
+quietly superseded in the command of the _Impérieuse_, and received no
+other ship.
+
+Out of this ill-treatment, however, resulted some benefit to the
+nation. Lord Cochrane employed much of his forced leisure, during the
+next few years, in exposing abuses that were then over-abundant, and
+in strenuously advocating reform. In Parliament, voting always with
+his friend Sir Francis Burdett and the Radical party, he limited
+his exertions to naval matters, and such as were within his own
+experience. Herein there was plenty to occupy him, and much that it is
+now amusing to look back upon.[A]
+
+[Footnote A: See Appendix (II.).]
+
+One scandalous grievance led to a memorable episode in his life. The
+many prizes taken by him in the Mediterranean, which, according to
+rule, had been sent to the Maltese Admiralty Court for condemnation,
+had been encumbered with such preposterous charges that, instead of
+realizing anything by his captures, he was made out to be largely
+in debt to the Court. The principal agent of this Court was a Mr.
+Jackson, who illegally held office as at the same time marshal and
+proctor. "The consequence was," said Lord Cochrane, "that every
+prize placed in his hands as proctor had to pass through his hands
+as marshal; whilst as proctor it was further in his power to consult
+himself as marshal as often as he pleased, and to any extent he
+pleased. The amount of self-consultation may be imagined." As proctor
+he charged for visiting himself, and as marshal he charged for
+receiving visits from himself. As marshal he was paid for instructing
+himself, and as proctor he was paid for listening to his own
+instructions. Ten shillings and twopence three farthings was the
+customary charge for an oath to the effect that he had served a
+monition on himself. Of the sheets composing the bill for services of
+these sorts presented to him, Lord Cochrane formed a roll which, when
+unfolded and exhibited in Parliament, stretched from the Speaker's
+table to the bar of the House.
+
+Not content, however, with laughing at the official robberies
+committed upon him, he determined, early in 1811, to proceed to Malta
+and personally investigate the matter. Reaching Valetta long before he
+was expected, he immediately presented himself at the court-house,
+and asked for a copy of the table of fees authorized by the Crown,
+and which, according to directions, ought to have been placed
+conspicuously in the public room. The existence of such a document
+being denied, he proceeded to hunt for it himself, and, after long and
+careful search, found it concealed in an out-of-the-way corner of
+the building. Having taken possession of it, he was carrying off the
+prize, which he intended to exhibit in the House of Commons, in token
+of the extent to which he and others had been defrauded, when he
+was arrested for contempt of court. He protested that the arrest was
+illegal, seeing that, as the court had not been sitting, no insult
+could have been offered to it. The plea was not accepted, and he
+was sent to gaol. No ground for punishment, however, could be found
+against him; and, after refusing to help the authorities out of their
+embarrassment by going at large on bail, and insisting on a proper
+exculpation or nothing at all, he let himself out of window by means
+of a rope. A gig was waiting for him, by which he was enabled to
+overtake the packet-boat that had quitted Malta shortly before,
+to return to London, and to present the document seized by him to
+Parliament a month before the official report of his escapade reached
+home.[A]
+
+[Footnote A: This letter from the Duke of Kent to Lord Cochrane will
+help to show that, even after the time of his Admiralty persecution,
+he was not without friends and admirers in high quarters:—"Kensington
+Palace, 7th July, 1812. My dear Lord,—I trust the acquaintance I
+have the satisfaction to possess with your lordship, and the long
+and intimate friendship subsisting between myself and your brother,
+Lieut.-Colonel Basil Cochrane, will warrant my intruding upon you for
+the purpose of seconding the wishes expressed by a young naval protégé
+of mine, and I cannot help adding my earnest request that when your
+distinguished zeal and talents in your profession are again called
+into action by Government, you will kindly oblige me by taking
+Lieutenant Edgar under your wing and protection; he is a fine young
+man, and I think would not disgrace the wardroom of your lordship's
+ship. I remain, with my sincere regard, my dear lord, yours
+faithfully, EDWARD.
+
+"
+_The Right Honourable Lord Cochrane_."]
+
+An imprisonment of very different character occurred after an interval
+of nearly three years. This was in consequence of the famous Stock
+Exchange trial, the episode last treated of by the Earl of Dundonald
+in his Autobiography, and not quite recounted to the end before death
+stayed his hand.
+
+From 1809 to 1813, Lord Cochrane was allowed to take no active part in
+the work of his profession. But at the close of the latter year, his
+uncle, Sir Alexander Cochrane, having been selected for the command
+of the fleet on the North American station, appointed him his
+flag-captain—an appointment resting only with the Commander-in-Chief,
+and one with which the Government could not interfere. It was always
+Lord Cochrane's belief that the implacable enmity of his foes in the
+Admiralty Office—determined to prevent by irregular means, since no
+regular course was open to them, his return to naval work—helped
+to bring about the cruel persecution by which his whole life was
+embittered. But it must be admitted that the dishonesty of one of his
+own kinsmen—about which a chivalrous sense of honour caused him to be
+reticent during nearly fifty years—conduced to this result.
+
+The chief agent of the fraud practised upon him was a foreigner, named
+De Berenger. This man, clever and unscrupulous, had been associated
+with Mr. Cochrane Johnstone, an uncle of Lord Cochrane's, in certain
+stock-jobbing transactions. In that or in some other way he became
+known to Lord Cochrane and to his other uncle, Sir Alexander Cochrane;
+and, being a smart chemist and pyrotechnist, it was proposed that he
+should accompany Lord Cochrane to North America, and assist him in the
+trial of his recently-discovered method of attacking forts and fleets
+in a secret and irresistible manner. With that object—of course
+clandestine—Sir Alexander Cochrane sought the permission of the
+Admiralty to employ De Berenger as a teacher of sharp-shooting, in
+which he was a well-known adept. This was not granted, and near the
+end of 1813, Sir Alexander set sail for Halifax, leaving Lord Cochrane
+to follow in the _Tonnant_, in charge of a convoy, and in getting
+the _Tonnant_ ready for sea his lordship was busy during January and
+February, 1814. In the former month De Berenger sought him out and
+earnestly requested that, his official appointment being refused, he
+might be taken on board in a private capacity and allowed to rely
+upon the success of his work for recompense. Lord Cochrane declined
+to employ him without some sort of sanction from the Admiralty, and
+De Berenger left him with the avowed intention of doing his utmost to
+procure this sanction.
+
+He was otherwise occupied. Being in urgent need of money, with which
+to evade the grasp of his numerous creditors, he returned to his
+stock-jobbing pursuits—if indeed he had not been engaging in them
+all along; using his proposal for employment under Lord Cochrane as a
+blind or as a secondary resource. Instead of furthering his efforts to
+obtain this employment, he contrived a plan for causing a sudden rise
+in the funds, and thereby securing a large profit to himself and his
+accomplices. On the 20th of February he presented himself at the Ship
+Hotel at Dover, disguised as a foreigner and calling himself Colonel
+De Bourg, professing that he brought intelligence from France to
+the effect that Buonaparte had been killed by the Cossacks, that the
+allied armies were in full march towards Paris, and that a speedy
+cessation of the war was certain. Thence he hurried up to London and
+was traced to have gone, on the following morning, to Lord Cochrane's
+house. The ostensible object of that visit was to renew his
+application for employment on board the _Tonnant_. The real object
+was, by means of a trick, to get possession of a hat and cloak, with
+which to disguise himself afresh, and thus try to elude the pursuit
+of agents of the Stock Exchange, who would soon seek to punish him for
+his fraud. The disguise was given to him in all innocence, and might
+have been successful, had not Lord Cochrane, on finding how grossly
+he had been deceived, volunteered to assist in punishing the culprit.
+Leaving the _Tonnant_, in which he was about to start from Chatham, he
+returned to London, and gave full information as to his share in the
+transaction, with the view of furthering the cause of justice and
+clearing himself from all blame.
+
+That was prevented by as wanton a prosecution and as malicious a
+perverting of the forms of justice and the principles of equity as the
+annals of English law, not often abused even in a much less degree,
+can show. The straightforward evidence furnished by him was made
+the handle to an elaborate machinery of falsehood and perjury for
+effecting his own ruin. The solicitor who had managed the cause of the
+Admiralty at the court-martial on Lord Gambier, and therein proved his
+skill, was entrusted with the ugly work. By him an elaborate case for
+prosecution was trumped up, and Lord Cochrane, hindered from sailing
+to North America in the _Tonnant_, and hindered from obtaining any
+other employment in his country's service during four-and-thirty
+years, was, on the 8th of June, placed in the prisoner's dock at the
+Court of King's Bench on a charge of conspiring with his uncle, Mr.
+Cochrane Johnstone, with De Berenger, and with some other persons,
+to defraud the Stock Exchange. Lord Ellenborough, who presided at the
+trial, delivered a charge which was even more virulent and more marked
+by political spite than was his wont, and the too compliant jury
+brought in a verdict of "guilty." Lord Cochrane vainly sought for a
+new trial, and vainly adduced abundant proof of his innocence. The
+chance of justice that is every Englishman's right was denied to him.
+He was sentenced to an hour's detention in the pillory at the entrance
+of the Royal Exchange, to a year's imprisonment in the King's Bench
+Prison, and to a fine of a thousand pounds.
+
+The first part of the sentence was not insisted upon, as Sir Francis
+Burdett, Lord Cochrane's noble-hearted colleague as member for
+Westminster, avowed his intention of standing also in the pillory, if
+his friend was subjected to that indignity, and of thus encouraging
+the storm of popular indignation, that, without any such
+encouragement, would probably have led to consequences which
+the Government, already hated by all Englishmen who loved their
+birthright, dared not brook. But the unworthy vengeance of his
+persecutors was amply satisfied in other ways. He had already suffered
+more than most men. "Neglect," he said, "I was accustomed to. But when
+an alleged offence was laid to my charge, in which, on the honour of
+a man now on the brink of the grave, I had not the slightest
+participation, and from which I never benefited, nor thought to
+benefit one farthing, and when this allegation was, by political
+rancour and legal chicanery, consummated in an unmerited conviction
+and an outrageous sentence, my heart for the first time sank within
+me, as conscious of a blow, the effect of which it has required all my
+energies to sustain."
+
+It is needless now to say anything in proof of Lord Cochrane's
+innocence of the charge brought against him. The world has long since
+reversed the verdict passed at Lord Ellenborough's dictation. That
+an officer and a gentleman of Lord Cochrane's reputation should have
+demeaned himself by becoming a party to the fraud of which he was
+accused, is, to say the least, improbable. That, if he had been guilty
+of that fraud, he should not have availed himself of the only benefit
+that could be derived from it by investing in the stocks when they
+were low and selling out during the brief time of their artificial
+value, is far more improbable. That, when the fraud was perpetrated,
+and its chief instrument was undiscovered, he should have left the
+_Tonnant_ in order to expose him, instead of taking him away from
+England, and so almost ensuring the preservation of the secret, is
+utterly impossible.
+
+His only faults were too great faith in his own innocence and a too
+chivalrous desire to protect, or rather to abstain from injuring, his
+unworthy kinsman. "I must be here distinctly understood," it was said
+by Lord Brougham, in his "Historic Sketches of British Statesmen," "to
+deny the accuracy of the opinion which Lord Ellenborough appears to
+have formed in this case, and deeply to lament the verdict of
+'guilty' which the jury returned after three hours' consultation
+and hesitation. If Lord Cochrane was at all aware of his uncle Mr.
+Cochrane Johnstone's proceedings, it was the whole extent of his
+privity to the fact. Having been one of the counsel engaged in the
+cause, I can speak with some confidence respecting it, and I take upon
+me to assert that Lord Cochrane's conviction was mainly owing to the
+extreme repugnance which he felt to giving up his uncle, or taking
+those precautions for his own safety which would have operated against
+that near relation. Even when he, the real criminal, had confessed his
+guilt by taking to flight, and the other defendants were brought up
+for judgment, we, the counsel, could not persuade Lord Cochrane to
+shake himself loose from the contamination by abandoning him."
+
+Part of a letter addressed to the Earl of Dundonald in 1859, on the
+anniversary of his eighty-fourth birthday, and shortly after the
+publication of the first volume of his "Autobiography of a Seaman," by
+the daughter of the man whose wrong-doing had conduced so terribly
+to his misfortunes, may here be fitly quoted:—"You are still active,
+still in health," says the writer, "and you have just given to the
+world a striking proof of the vigour of your mind and intellect. Many
+years I cannot wish for you; but may you live to finish your book,
+and, if it please God, may you and I have a peaceful death-bed. We
+have both suffered much mental anguish, though in various degrees; for
+yours was indeed the hardest lot that an honourable man can be called
+on to bear. Oh, my dear cousin, let me say once more, whilst we are
+still here, how, ever since that miserable time, I have felt that you
+suffered for my poor father's fault—how agonizing that conviction
+was—how thankful I am that _tardy justice_ was done you. May God
+return you fourfold for your generous though misplaced confidence in
+him, and for all your subsequent forbearance!"
+
+Another extract from a letter, from one out of a multitude of tributes
+to the Earl of Dundonald's honourable bearing, which were tendered
+after his death, shall close this introductory chapter. "Five years
+after the trial of Lord Cochrane," wrote Sir Fitzroy Kelly, now Lord
+Chief Baron, on the 17th of December, 1860, "I began to study for the
+bar, and very soon became acquainted with and interested in his case,
+and I have thought of it much and long during more than forty years;
+and I am profoundly convinced that, had he been defended singly and
+separately from the others accused, or had he at the last moment,
+before judgment was pronounced, applied, with competent legal advice
+and assistance, for a new trial, he would have been unhesitatingly and
+honourably acquitted. We cannot blot out this dark page from our legal
+and judicial history."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II.
+
+
+THE ISSUE OF THE STOCK EXCHANGE TRIAL.—LORD COCHRANE'S COMMITTAL TO
+THE KING'S BENCH PRISON.—THE DEBATE UPON HIS CASE IN THE HOUSE OF
+COMMONS, AND HIS SPEECH ON THAT OCCASION.—HIS EXPULSION FROM THE
+HOUSE, AND RE-ELECTION AS MEMBER FOR WESTMINSTER.—THE WITHDRAWAL OF
+HIS SENTENCE TO THE PILLORY.—THE REMOVAL OF HIS INSIGNIA AS A KNIGHT
+OF THE BATH.
+
+
+[1814.]
+
+The famous and infamous Stock Exchange trial occupied the 8th and 9th
+of June, 1814; but the sentence was deferred until the 21st of the
+same month, in consequence of Lord Cochrane's demand for a new trial.
+That demand was not complied with, in spite of the production
+of overwhelming evidence to justify it; and the victim of Lord
+Ellenborough and the tyrannical Government of the day was at once
+conveyed to the King's Bench Prison. No time was lost in heaping upon
+him all the indignities which, in accordance with precedent and in
+excess of all precedent, might supplement his degradation.
+
+The first was a notice of motion which would result in his expulsion
+from the House of Commons. Lord Cochrane promptly availed himself of
+the opening thus afforded for a public avowal of his innocence. To
+the Hon. Charles Abbot, then Speaker of the House, he wrote from his
+prison on the 23rd of June. "Sir," runs the letter, "I respectfully
+entreat you to communicate to the Honourable House of Commons my
+earnest desire and prayer that no question arising out of the late
+convictions in the Court of King's Bench may be agitated without
+affording me timely notice and full opportunity of attending in my
+place for the justification of my character. From the House of Commons
+I hope to obtain that justice of which too implicit reliance on the
+consciousness of my innocence, and circumstances over which I had no
+control, have hitherto deprived me. The painful situation in which I
+am placed is known to the House, and I trust that I shall be enabled
+to demonstrate that a more injured man has never sought redress
+from those to whose justice I now appeal for the preservation of my
+character and existence."
+
+In compliance with that request, and with parliamentary rules, Lord
+Cochrane was conveyed from the King's Bench Prison to the House of
+Commons, and allowed to read a carefully-prepared statement of his
+case, on the 5th of July, the day fixed for investigation of the
+subject. From this statement it is not necessary to cite the clear
+and conclusive recapitulation of the evidence adduced at the trial, or
+refused admission therein because it was too convincing, in proof of
+Lord Cochrane's innocence; but room must be found for some passages
+illustrating the independent temper of the speaker and the perversions
+of justice to which he fell a victim.
+
+"I am not here, sir," he said, "to bespeak compassion or to pave the
+way to pardon. Both ideas are alike repugnant to my feelings. That the
+public in general have felt indignation at the sentence that has been
+passed upon me does honour to their hearts, and tends still to make
+my country dear to me, in spite of what I have suffered from the
+malignity of persons in power. But, sir, I am not here to complain of
+the hardship of my case or about the cruelty of judges, who, for
+an act which was never till now ever known or thought to be a legal
+offence, have laid upon me a sentence more heavy than they have
+ever yet laid upon persons clearly convicted of the most horrid
+of crimes—crimes of which nature herself cries aloud against the
+commission. If, therefore, it was my object to complain of the cruelty
+of my judges, I should bid the public look into the calendar, and see
+if they could find a punishment like that inflicted on me; inflicted
+by these same judges on any one of these unnatural wretches. It is
+not, however, my business to complain of the cruelty of this sentence.
+I am here to assert, for the third time, my innocence in the most
+unqualified and solemn manner; I am here to expose the unfairness of
+the proceedings against me previous to the trial, at the trial,
+and subsequent to it; I am here to expose the long train of artful
+villainies which have been practised against me hitherto with so much
+success.
+
+"I am persuaded, sir, that the House will easily perceive, and every
+honourable man, I am sure, participate in my feelings, that the
+fine, the imprisonment, the pillory—even that pillory to which I am
+condemned—are nothing, that they weigh not as a feather, when put
+in the balance against my desire to show that I have been unjustly
+condemned. Therefore, sir, I trust that the House will give a fair and
+impartial hearing to what I have to say respecting the conduct of
+my enemies, to expose which conduct is a duty which I owe to my
+constituents, and to my country, not less than to myself.
+
+"In the first place, sir, I here, in the presence of this House, and
+with the eyes of the country fixed upon me, most solemnly declare that
+I am wholly innocent of the crime which has been laid to my
+charge, and for which I have been condemned to the most infamous of
+punishments. Having repeated this assertion of my innocence, I next
+proceed to complain of the means that have been made use of to effect
+my destruction. And first, sir, was it ever before known in this or in
+any other country, that the prosecutor should form a sort of court of
+his own erection, call witnesses before it of his own choosing, and,
+under offers of great rewards, take minutes of the evidence of such
+witnesses, and publish those minutes to the world under the forms and
+appearances of a judicial proceeding? Was it ever before known, that
+steps like these were taken previous to an indictment,—previous to
+the bringing of an intended victim into a court of justice? Was there
+ever before known so regular, so systematic a scheme for exciting
+suspicion against a man, and for implanting an immovable prejudice
+against him in the minds of a whole nation, previous to the preferring
+a Bill of Indictment, in order that the grand jury, be it composed
+of whomsoever it might, should be predisposed to find the bill? I ask
+you, sir, and I ask the House, whether it was ever before known, that
+means like these were resorted to, previous to a man's being legally
+accused? But, sir, what must the world think, when they see some of
+those to whom the welfare and the honour of the nation are committed
+covertly co-operating with a Committee of the Stock Exchange, and
+becoming their associates in so nefarious a scheme? Nevertheless, sir,
+this fact is now notorious to the whole world. I must confess I was
+not prepared to believe the thing possible."
+
+Thereupon followed a detailed examination of the charges brought
+against Lord Cochrane, and of the way in which those charges were
+handled, special complaint being made concerning the malicious bearing
+of Lord Ellenborough. "It must be in the recollection of the House,"
+said Lord Cochrane, "as it is in that of the public, that he urged,
+that he compelled, the counsel to enter upon my defence _after
+midnight_, at the end of fifteen hours from the commencement of the
+trial, when that counsel declared himself quite exhausted, and when
+the jury, who were to decide, were in a state of such weariness as to
+render attention to what was said totally impossible. The speeches
+of the counsel being ended, the judge, at _half-past three in the
+morning_, adjourned the court till ten; thus separating the evidence
+from the argument, and reserving his own strength, and the strength
+of my adversaries' advocates, for the close; giving to both the great
+advantage of time to consider the reply, and to insert and arrange
+arguments to meet those which had been urged in my defence."
+
+All his treatment by Lord Ellenborough, as Lord Cochrane urged, was of
+that sort, or worse. "Of all tyrannies, sir," he said, "the worst
+is that which exercises its vengeance under the guise of judicial
+proceedings, and especially if a jury make part of the means by which
+its base purposes are effected. The man who is flung into prison, or
+sent to the scaffold, at the nod of an avowed despotism, has at least
+the consolation to know that his sufferings bring down upon that
+despotism the execration of mankind; but he who is entrapped
+and entangled in the meshes of a crafty and corrupt system of
+jurisprudence; who is pursued imperceptibly by a law with leaden
+feet and iron jaws; who is not put upon his trial till the ear of the
+public has been poisoned, and its heart steeled against him,—falls,
+at last, without being cheered with a hope of seeing his tyrants
+execrated even by the warmest of his friends. In their principle, the
+ancient and settled laws of England are excellent; but of late years,
+so many injurious and fatal alterations in the law have taken place,
+that any man who ventures to meddle with public affairs, and to oppose
+persons in power, is sure and certain, sooner or later, to suffer in
+some way or other.
+
+"Sir, the punishment which the malice of my enemies has procured to be
+inflicted on me is not, in my mind, worth a moment's reflection. The
+judge supposed, apparently, that the sentence of the pillory would
+disgrace and mortify me. I can assure him, and I now solemnly assure
+this House, my constituents, and my country, that I would rather stand
+in my own name, in the pillory, every day of my life, under such a
+sentence, than I would sit upon the bench in the name and with the
+real character of Lord Ellenborough for one single hour.
+
+"Something has been said, sir, in this House, as I have heard, about
+an application for a mitigation of my sentence, in a certain quarter,
+where, it is observed, that mercy never failed to flow; but I can
+assure the House that an application for pardon, extorted from me, is
+one of the things which even a partial judge and a packed jury have
+not the power to accomplish. No, sir; I will seek for, and I look for,
+pardon _nowhere_, for _I have committed no crime_. I have sought for,
+I still seek for, and I confidently expect JUSTICE; not, however, at
+the hands of those by whose machinations I have been brought to
+what they regard as my ruin, but at the hands of my enlightened and
+virtuous constituents, to whose exertions the nation owes that there
+is still a voice to cry out against that haughty and inexorable
+tyranny which commands silence to all but parasites and hypocrites."
+
+Thus ended Lord Cochrane's written argument. It was followed by, a few
+words spoken on the spur of the moment: "Having so long occupied
+its time, I will not trouble the House longer than to implore it to
+investigate the circumstances of my case. I think I have stated enough
+to induce it to call for the minutes of the trial. All I wish is an
+inquiry. Many important facts yet remain to be considered, and I
+trust that the House will not come to a decision with its eyes shut.
+I entreat, I implore investigation. It is true that a sentence of a
+court of law has been pronounced against me; but that punishment is
+nothing, and will to me seem nothing, in comparison with what it is in
+the power of the House to inflict. I have already suffered much;
+but if after a deliberate and a fair investigation the House shall
+determine that I am guilty, then let me be deserted and abandoned by
+the world. I shall submit without repining to any the most dreadful
+penalty that the House can assign. I solemnly declare before Almighty
+God that I am ignorant of the whole transaction. Into the hearts of
+men we cannot penetrate; we cannot dive into their inmost thoughts;
+but my heart I lay open, and my most secret thoughts I disclose to
+the House. I entreat the strictest scrutiny and a patient hearing. I
+implore it at your hands, as an act of justice, and once more I call
+upon my Maker, upon Almighty God, to bear witness that I am innocent.
+He knows my heart, He knows all its secrets, and He knows that I am
+innocent."
+
+An animated debate followed upon that eloquent address. Viscount
+Castlereagh complained that Lord Cochrane, instead of defending
+himself, had only libelled Lord Ellenborough and the noblest
+institutions of the land. Other speakers expressed similar opinions;
+but others testified to the consistent character of Lord Cochrane,
+rendering it impossible that he should be guilty of the offence
+with which he was charged; and others again confessed that, having
+previously had doubts in the matter, those doubts had been removed by
+the high-minded tone and the powerful arguments of his defence. But in
+the end the House adopted the view set forth by Lord Castlereagh; that
+its duty was simply to accept the verdict of the Court of the King's
+Bench, and, according to precedent, to expel the member declared
+guilty by that court, without daring to revive the question of his
+guilt or innocence; and that it would be better for an innocent man
+thus to suffer, than for the House to assail "the bulwarks of English
+liberty," by turning itself into a Star Chamber, or an Inquisition,
+and attempting to interfere with "the regular administration of
+justice." The proposal that Lord Cochrane's case should be referred to
+a Select Committee was rejected without a division. The motion that he
+should be expelled from the House was carried by a hundred and forty
+members, against forty-four dissentients.
+
+That new act of injustice, however, though it added much to Lord
+Cochrane's suffering, brought him no fresh disgrace. It only led
+to his triumphant re-election as member for Westminster, under
+circumstances that were reasonably consoling to him. His seat having
+been taken from him on the 5th of July, a great meeting of the
+electors, attended by five thousand people, was held on the 11th.
+It was there unanimously resolved that Lord Cochrane was perfectly
+innocent of the Stock Exchange fraud, that he was a fit and proper
+person to represent the City of Westminster in Parliament, and that
+his re-election should be secured without any expense to him. Richard
+Brinsley Sheridan, his stout opponent at the previous election, who
+was now urged to oppose him again, honourably refused to do so; and
+therefore the election passed without a contest. But contest would
+only have added to its glory; unless, indeed, the people, over-zealous
+in their expression of sympathy for their representative, had been
+provoked thereby to violent exhibition of their temper. Even without
+such provocation the turmoil of the re-election day, the 16th of July,
+was great; angry crowds assembled in the streets, and menacing words
+against the Government and its myrmidons were loudly uttered. The
+wisdom of Sir Francis Burdett and other leaders of the popular party,
+however, prevented anything worse than angry speech.
+
+"Amongst all the occurrences of my life," said Lord Cochrane,
+writing from the King's Bench Prison to thank the electors for their
+confidence in him, "I can call to memory no one which has produced so
+great a degree of exultation in my breast as this, that, after all the
+machinations of corruption have been able to effect against me, the
+citizens of Westminster have, with unanimous voice, pronounced me
+worthy of continuing to be one of their representatives in Parliament.
+With regard to the case, the agitation of which has been the cause
+of this most gratifying result, I am in no apprehension as to the
+opinions and feelings of the world, and especially of the people
+of England, who, though they may be occasionally misled, are never
+deliberately cruel or unjust. Only let it be said of me: 'The Stock
+Exchange has accused; Lord Ellenborough has charged for guilty; the
+special jury have found that guilt; the Court have sentenced to the
+pillory; the House of Commons have expelled; and the Citizens of
+Westminster have re-elected,'—only let this be the record placed
+against my name, and I shall be proud to stand in the calendar of
+criminals all the days of my life."
+
+The worst part of the sentence passed upon Lord Cochrane, as has been
+already said, was not carried out. The 10th of August had been fixed
+as the day on which he was to stand in the pillory for an hour in
+front of the Royal Exchange. But the danger of a disturbance among the
+people, and of fierce opposition in the House of Commons hindered the
+perpetration of this indignity. Some sentences of a letter addressed
+to Lord Ebrington, deprecating his motion in Parliament for a
+remission of this part of the sentence, are too characteristic,
+however, to be left unquoted. "I did not expect," said Lord Cochrane,
+"to be treated by your lordship as an object of mercy, on the grounds
+of past services, or severity of sentence. I cannot allow myself to be
+indebted to that tenderness of disposition which has led your lordship
+to form an erroneous estimate of the amount of punishment due to the
+crimes of which I have been accused; nor can I for a moment consent
+that any past services of mine should be prostituted to the purpose of
+protecting me from any part of the vengeance of the laws against which
+I, if at all, have grossly offended. If I am guilty, I richly merit
+the whole of the sentence that has been passed upon me. If innocent,
+one penalty cannot be inflicted with more justice than another."
+
+If the degradation of the pillory was remitted, another degradation
+quite as painful to Lord Cochrane was substituted for it. His name
+having, on the 25th of June, been struck off the list of naval
+officers in the Admiralty, the Knights Companions of the Bath promptly
+held a chapter to consider the propriety of expelling him from their
+ranks. That was soon done, and no time was lost in making the insult
+as thorough as possible. At one o'clock in the morning of the 11th
+of August, the Bath King at Arms repaired to King Henry the Seventh's
+Chapel in Westminster Abbey, and there, under a warrant signed by Lord
+Sidmouth, the Secretary of State, removed the banner of Lord Cochrane,
+which was suspended between those of Lord Beresford and Sir Brent
+Spencer. His arms were next unscrewed, and his helmet, sword, and
+other insignia were taken down from the stall. The banner was then
+kicked out of the chapel and down the steps by the official, eager to
+omit no possible indignity. It was an indignity unparalleled since the
+establishment of the order in 1725.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III.
+
+
+LORD COCHRANE'S BEARING IN THE KING'S BENCH PRISON—HIS STREET
+LAMPS.—HIS ESCAPE, AND THE MOTIVES FOR IT.—HIS CAPTURE IN THE HOUSE
+OF COMMONS, AND SUBSEQUENT TREATMENT.—HIS CONFINEMENT IN THE STRONG
+ROOM OF THE KING'S BENCH PRISON.—HIS RELEASE.
+
+
+[1814-1815.]
+
+During the first period of his imprisonment Lord Cochrane was not
+treated with more than usual severity. Two rooms in the King's Bench
+State House were provided for him, in which, of course, all the
+expenses of his maintenance devolved upon himself. He was led
+to understand that, if he chose to ask for it, he might have the
+privilege of "the rules," which would have allowed him, on certain
+conditions, a range of about half-a-mile round the prison. But he
+did not choose to ask. Rather, he said, than seek any favour from
+the Government, he would lie in a dungeon all through the term of his
+unjust imprisonment. Throughout that period he resolutely avowed his
+perfect innocence, to friends and foes alike; and the consciousness
+of his innocence helped him to bear up under a degradation that, to
+a nature as sensitive and chivalrous as his, was doubly bitter. Good
+friends, like Sir Francis Burdett, came to cheer him in his solitude,
+and over-zealous, yet honest, friends, like William Cobbett, came to
+take counsel with him as to ways of keeping alive and quickening the
+popular indignation which, without any stimulants from headstrong
+demagogues, was strong enough on his behalf.
+
+The tedium of his captivity was further relieved by his devotion to
+those scientific and mechanical pursuits which, all through life,
+yielded employment very solacing to himself, and very profitable to
+the world. While in the King's Bench Prison he was especially occupied
+in completing a plan for lighting the public streets by means of a
+lamp invented by him, in which the main principle was the introduction
+of a steady current of fresh air into the globes, whereby all the oil
+was fairly burnt, and a brilliant light was always maintained. In this
+way lamps much cheaper than those previously in use were found to have
+a far greater illuminating power. Early in October, 1814, the lamps
+in St. Ann's parish, Westminster, numbering eight hundred in all, were
+taken down and replaced by four hundred constructed on Lord Cochrane's
+plan; and even political opponents spoke in acknowledgment of the
+excellent result of the change. Had it not been for the introduction
+of gas, the superiority of these new lamps must soon have compelled
+their adoption all over London. It is curious that the discovery of
+the illuminating power of gas—undoubtedly due to his father—should
+have superseded one of Lord Cochrane's most promising inventions as
+soon as it had been brought to recognized perfection.
+
+In such pursuits nine months of the unjust imprisonment were passed.
+"Lord Cochrane has hitherto borne all his hardships with great
+fortitude," wrote one of his most intimate friends on the 10th of
+November, "and, if there are any more in store for him, I hope he will
+continue to be cheerful and courageous." "His lordship always hopes
+for the best, and is never afraid of the worst," said the same
+authority on the 9th of December, "and therefore he is in good
+spirits."
+
+This fearless disposition led, in March, 1815, to a bold step, which
+some of Lord Cochrane's best friends deprecated. Knowing that he
+was unjustly imprisoned, he conceived that, since his re-election
+as member for Westminster, the imprisonment was illegal as well as
+unjust, in that it was contrary to the privilege of Parliament. The
+law provides that "no Member of Parliament can be imprisoned either
+for non-payment of a fine to the King, or for any other cause than
+treason, felony, or refusing to give security for the peace." It
+may be questioned whether, in the presence of this law, his first
+imprisonment, even under the sentence of the Court of King's Bench,
+was legal. But having been imprisoned, and having been expelled from
+the House of Commons, it is clear that his subsequent re-election
+could not interfere with the fulfilment, of the sentence passed
+against him, especially as he had not been able to make good his title
+to membership by taking the prescribed oaths and claiming a seat in
+the House. He, however—acting as it would seem under the advice of
+William Cobbett and other unsafe counsellors—thought otherwise,
+and considered that he was only vindicating a high constitutional
+principle, against the exercise of despotic power by the Government,
+in making his escape from the King's Bench Prison. "I did not quit
+these walls," he said in a letter addressed to the electors
+of Westminster, on the 12th of April, "to escape from personal
+oppression, but, at the hazard of my life, to assert that right to
+liberty which, as a member of the community, I have never forfeited,
+and that right, which I received from you, to attack in its very den
+the corruption which threatens to annihilate the liberties of us all.
+I did not quit them to fly from the justice of my country, but to
+expose the wickedness, fraud, and hypocrisy of those who elude that
+justice by committing their enormities under the colour of its name.
+I did not quit them from the childish motive of impatience under
+suffering. I stayed long enough to evince that I could endure
+restraint as a pain, but not as a penalty. I stayed long enough to be
+certain that my persecutors were conscious of their injustice, and to
+feel that my submission to their unmerited inflictions was losing the
+dignity of resignation, and sinking into the ignominious endurance of
+an insult."
+
+The escape was effected on the 6th of March, and by the same means
+which had proved successful in Lord Cochrane's retreat from the
+gaol at Malta, just four years before. His rooms in the King's Bench
+Prison, being on the upper storey of the building known as the
+State House, were nearly as high as the wall which formed the prison
+boundary, and the windows were only a few feet distant from it.
+The possibility of escape by this way, however, had never been
+contemplated, and therefore the windows were unprotected by bars.
+Accordingly Lord Cochrane, having been supplied, from time to time, by
+the same servant who had aided him at Malta, with a quantity of small
+strong rope, managed, soon after midnight, and while the watchman
+going his rounds was in a distant part of the prison, to get out of
+window and climb on to the roof of the building. Thence he threw a
+running noose over the iron spikes placed on the wall, and, exercising
+the agility that he had acquired during his seaman's occupations,
+easily gained the summit—to be somewhat discomfited by having to sit
+upon the iron spikes while he fastened his rope to one of them and
+prepared, with its help, to slip down to the pavement on the outer
+side of the wall. The rope was not strong enough, however, to bear his
+weight; it snapped when he was some twenty-five feet from the ground,
+and caused him to fall with his back upon the stone pavement. There he
+lay, in an almost unconscious state, for a considerable time. But no
+passer-by observed him; and before daylight he was able to crawl to
+the house of an old nurse of his eldest son's, who gladly afforded him
+concealment.
+
+Long concealment was not intended by him. "If it had not been," he
+said, "for the commotion excited by that obnoxious, injurious, and
+arbitrary measure, the Corn Bill, which began to evince itself on
+the day of my departure from prison, I should have lost no time in
+proceeding to the House of Commons; but, conjecturing that the spirit
+of disturbance might derive some encouragement from my unexpected
+appearance at that time, and having no inclination to promote tumult,
+I resolved to defer my appearance at the House, and, if possible,
+to conceal my departure from the prison, until the order of the
+metropolis should be restored."
+
+To the same effect was a letter addressed by Lord Cochrane to the
+Speaker of the House of Commons on the 9th of March. "I respectfully
+request," he said therein, "that you will state to the honourable
+the House of Commons, that I should immediately and personally
+have communicated to them my departure from the custody of Lord
+Ellenborough, by whom I have been long most unjustly detained; but I
+judged it better to endeavour to conceal my absence, and to defer my
+appearance in the House until the public agitation excited by the Corn
+Bill should subside. And I have further to request that you will also
+communicate to the House that it is my intention, on an early day, to
+present myself for the purpose of taking my seat and moving an inquiry
+into the conduct of Lord Ellenborough."
+
+On the day of that letter's delivery, the 10th of March—also famous
+as the day on which Buonaparte's escape from Elba was published in
+England—Lord Cochrane's gaolers discovered that he was no longer
+in his prison. Immediately a hue and cry was raised. This notice was
+issued: "Escaped from the King's Bench Prison, on Monday the 6th day
+of March, instant, Lord Cochrane. He is about five feet eleven inches
+in height,[A] thin and narrow-chested, with sandy hair and full eyes,
+red whiskers and eyebrows. Whoever will apprehend and secure Lord
+Cochrane in any of His Majesty's gaols in the kingdom shall have a
+reward of three hundred guineas from William Jones, Marshal of the
+King's Bench."
+
+[Footnote A: He was really about six feet two inches in height, and
+broad in proportion.]
+
+Great search was made in consequence of that notice, and Lord
+Cochrane's disappearance was an eleven days' wonder. Every newspaper
+had each day a new statement as to his whereabouts. Some declared that
+he had gone mad, and, as a madman's freak, was hiding himself in some
+corner of the prison; others that he was lodging at an apothecary's
+shop in London. According to one report, he had been seen at Hastings,
+according to another, at Farnham, and according to another, in Jersey;
+while others declared that he had been discovered in France and
+elsewhere on the Continent.
+
+None of the thousands whom political spite or the hope of reward set
+in search of him thought of looking for him in his real resting-place.
+"As soon as I had written to the Speaker," he said, "I went into
+Hampshire, where I remained eleven days, and till within one day of my
+appearance in the House of Commons. During that period I was occupied
+in regulating my affairs in that county, and in riding about the
+county, as was well known to the people of the neighbourhood, none of
+whom were base enough to be seduced by a bribe to deliver an injured
+man into the hands of his oppressors."
+
+At his own house, known as Holly Hill, in the south of Hampshire, Lord
+Cochrane remained quietly, though with no attempt to hide himself,
+until the 20th of March. He then, in fulfilment of his original
+purpose, returned to London, and on the following day entered the
+House of Commons at about two o'clock in the afternoon. Very great
+was the astonishment among the officials in attendance caused by his
+appearance, "dressed," according to one of the newspaper reports, "in
+his usual costume, grey pantaloons, frogged great-coat, &c.;" and by
+some of them the intelligence of his arrival was promptly communicated
+to the Marshal of the King's Bench. In the meanwhile, considering
+himself safe within the precincts of the House at any rate, he
+proceeded to occupy his customary seat. To that it was objected that,
+until he had taken the oaths and complied with the prescribed forms
+consequent on his re-election, he had no right within the building.
+He answered that he was willing to do this, and, to see that all was
+according to rule, went at once to the clerks' office. There it was
+pretended that the writ of his re-election had not yet been received,
+and that it must first be procured from the Crown Office, in Chancery
+Lane. Awaiting the return of the messenger, ostensibly despatched for
+this purpose, he again entered the House, and there he was found, at a
+few minutes before four, by Mr. Jones, the marshal, who, on receiving
+the information sent to him, had hurried up, with a Bow Street runner
+and some tipstaves. The runner, walking up to Lord Cochrane and
+touching him on the shoulder, bluntly claimed him as his prisoner.
+Lord Cochrane asked by what authority he dared to arrest a Member of
+Parliament in the House of Commons. "My lord," answered the man, "my
+authority is the public proclamation of the Marshal of the King's
+Bench Prison, offering a reward for your apprehension." Lord Cochrane
+declared that he neither acknowledged, nor would yield to, any
+such authority, that he was there to resume his seat as one of the
+representatives of the City of Westminster, and that any who dared to
+touch him would do so at their peril. Two tipstaves thereupon rudely
+seized him by the arms. He again cautioned them that the Marshal of
+the King's Bench had no authority within those walls, and that their
+conduct was altogether illegal. The answer was that he had better
+go quietly; his reply that he would not go at all. Other officers,
+however, came up. After a short struggle, he was overpowered, and, on
+his refusing to walk, he was carried out of the House on the shoulders
+of the tipstaves and constables.
+
+There was a halt, however, in this disgraceful march. The Bow Street
+runner expressed a fear that Lord Cochrane had firearms concealed
+under his clothes, and he was accordingly taken into one of the
+committee-rooms to be searched. Nothing more dangerous was found about
+him than a packet of snuff. "If I had thought of that before," said
+Lord Cochrane, not quite wisely, "you should have had it in your
+eyes!" On this incident was founded a foolish story, to be told next
+day, amid a score of exaggerations and falsehoods, in the Government
+newspapers. "Being asked why he had provided himself with such a
+quantity of snuff," we there read, "he said he had bought a canister
+for the purpose of throwing it in the eyes of those who might attempt
+to secure him, unless the opposing force should be too strong for
+resistance, observing that he had found the use of a similar weapon
+when he was in the Bay of Rosas, as he had thrown a mixture of lime,
+sand, &c., upon the Frenchmen who attempted to board his ship, and
+found it effectual." Another zealous organ of the Government added
+that he had also provided himself with a bottle of vitriol, to be used
+in the same way.
+
+Had a penknife been found in his pocket, perhaps the Marshal of the
+King's Bench, the Bow Street runner, the tipstaves, and the constables
+would all have fled, deeming that the possession of so deadly an
+instrument made the retention of their captive too dangerous a thing
+to be attempted. The snuff having been seized, however, he was again
+lodged on the officers' shoulders and so conveyed into the courtyard.
+He then said that, being now beyond the privilege of the House, he was
+willing to proceed quietly. A coach was called, and he was taken back
+to the King's Bench Prison.
+
+The indignity thus offered to him was small indeed in comparison with
+the indignity offered to the Parliament of England. In former times
+the slightest encroachment by the Crown, by the Government, or by
+any humbler part of the executive, was fiercely resented; and to this
+resentment some of the greatest and most memorable crises in the long
+fight for English liberty are due. But rarely had there been a
+more flagrant, never a more wanton, infringement of the hardly-won
+privileges of the House of Commons. Had Lord Cochrane been detected
+and seized violently in some out-of-the-way hiding-place, the
+over-zealous servants of the Crown would have had some excuse for
+their conduct. But in appearing publicly in the House, he showed to
+all the world that he was no runaway from justice, that he was willing
+to submit to its honest administration by honest hands, that all he
+sought was a fair hearing and a fair judgment upon his case, and that,
+believing it impossible to obtain that through the elaborate machinery
+of oppression which then went by the name of administration
+of justice, he now only asserted his right, the right of every
+Englishman, and especially the right of a Member of Parliament, to
+appeal from the agents of the law to the makers of the law, to call
+upon the legislators of his country to see whether he had not been
+wrongfully used by the men who, though practically too much their
+masters, were in theory only their servants.
+
+"I did not go to the House of Commons," he said, "to complain about
+losses or sufferings, about fine or imprisonment; or of property, to
+the amount of ten times the fine, of which I had been cheated by this
+malicious prosecution. I did not go to the House to complain of
+the mockery of having been heard in my defence, and answered by a
+reference to the decision from which that defence was an appeal. I did
+not go there to complain of those who expelled me from my profession.
+I did not go to the House to complain _generally_ of the advisers of
+the Crown. But I went there to complain of the conduct of him who has
+indeed the right of recommending to mercy, but whose privilege, as
+a Privy Councillor, of advising the confirmation of his own
+condemnations, and of interposing between the victims of
+legal vengeance and the justice of the throne, is spurious and
+unconstitutional. When it is considered that my intention of going to
+the House of Commons was announced on the day on which my absence from
+the prison was discovered; I say, when it is considered that, as soon
+as it was known that I had left the prison, it was also known that I
+had left it for the express purpose of going to the House of Commons
+to move for an inquiry into the conduct of Lord Ellenborough; when it
+is considered that every engine was set to work to tempt or intimidate
+me from that purpose, to frighten me out of the country or allure me
+back to the custody of the marshal, that assurances were given that
+the doors should be kept open for my admission at any hour of the
+night, and that I should be received with secresy, courtesy, and
+indemnity; and when it is considered that I was afterwards seized in
+the House of Commons, in defiance of the privileges of the House—can
+there be a doubt that the object of that apprehension was less the
+accomplishment of the sentence of the court than the prevention of
+the exposure which I was prepared to make of the injustice of that
+sentence? That recourse should have been had to violence to stifle the
+accusations which I was prepared to bring forward, that terror of the
+truth should have so superseded a wonted reverence for parliamentary
+privileges as to have admitted the intrusion of tipstaves and
+thief-takers into the House of Commons, to seize the person of an
+individual elected to serve as a member of that House, and avowedly
+attendant for that purpose, is extraordinary, though not unnatural."
+
+It must be admitted that the question of breach of privilege was
+somewhat more complicated than Lord Cochrane considered. His opponents
+did not think with him that he was still a member of the House of
+Commons. That membership had been taken from him, formally, though
+wrongfully, by his expulsion on the 5th of July, and he had
+himself recognized the expulsion by accepting re-election from the
+constituents of Westminster on the 16th of the same month. According
+to precedent, however, that re-election could not be perfected until
+the customary oaths had been taken; and, through a trick contrived
+in the clerks' office, he was hindered from taking them before the
+arrival of the marshal and his consequent arrest. Yet there can be no
+doubt that, in the special circumstances of the case, this arrest was
+especially indecorous, and, in the method of effecting it, altogether
+illegal. If he had no right in the House of Commons, he was a common
+trespasser, and ought to have been at once removed by the servants of
+the House, who alone could have power to touch him within the walls.
+To allow him a seat therein, without molestation, until the arrival
+of the servants of the King's Bench Prison, and then to allow those
+servants to enter the House and act upon an authority that could there
+be no authority, was wholly unwarrantable, a gross insult to Lord
+Cochrane, and, to the customs of the House of Commons, an insult yet
+more gross. But to the hardship and the insult alike the House of
+Commons, servile in its devotion to the Government of the day, was
+blind.
+
+A miserable farce ensued. While the House was sitting, a few hours
+after Lord Cochrane's capture, a letter from the Marshal of the King's
+Bench was read by the Speaker, in which his bold act was formally
+reported and apologized for. "I humbly hope," he there said, "that I
+have not committed any breach of privilege by the steps I have taken;
+and that, if I have done wrong, it will be attributed to error in
+judgment, and not to any intention of doing anything that might give
+offence."
+
+The short debate that followed the reading of that letter is very
+noteworthy. Lord Castlereagh spoke first, and dictated the view to
+be taken by all loyal members of the House. "From the nature of the
+arrest and the circumstances attending it, I do not think, sir," he
+said, "that the House is called upon to interfere. I am not aware, as
+the House was not actually sitting, with the mace on the table and the
+Speaker in the chair, when the arrest took place, that any breach of
+privilege has been committed. It must be quite obvious to every man
+that the marshal has not acted wilfully in violation of the privileges
+of the House. No blame can attach to him, since he has submitted
+himself to the judgment of the House of Commons after having done
+that which he considered his duty as a civil officer. Having had Lord
+Cochrane in his custody, from which he escaped, the marshal was bound
+not to pass over any justifiable means of putting him under arrest
+whenever a fair opportunity occurred."
+
+Most of the members thought, with Lord Castlereagh, that this was
+a "fair opportunity." Only one, Mr. Tierney—and he very
+feebly—ventured to express an opposite opinion. "I consider this,"
+he said, "to be the case of a member regularly elected to serve in
+Parliament, and coming down to take his seat. Now, sir, the House is
+regularly adjourned until ten o'clock in the morning; and I recollect
+occasions when the Speaker did take the chair at that hour. Suppose,
+then, a member, about to take his seat, came down here at an early
+hour, with the proper documents in his hand, and desired to be
+instructed in the mode of proceeding, and, while waiting, an officer
+entered, arrested him, and took his person away, would not this be a
+case to call for the interference of the House?" Mr. Tierney admitted
+that he approved of Lord Cochrane's arrest, but feared it might become
+a precedent and be put to the "improper purpose" of sanctioning the
+arrest of members more deserving of consideration.
+
+To please him, and to satisfy the formalities, therefore, the question
+was referred to a committee of privileges. This committee reported, on
+the 23rd of March, "that, under the particular circumstances, it did
+not appear that the privileges of Parliament had been violated, so as
+to call for the interposition of the House;" and the House of Commons
+being satisfied with that opinion, no further attention was paid to
+the subject.
+
+In the meanwhile Lord Cochrane was being punished, with inexcusable
+severity, for his contempt of the authority of Lord Ellenborough and
+Mr. Jones. A member of the House, during the discussion of the 21st of
+March, had said that he had just come from the King's Bench Prison.
+"I found Lord Cochrane," he had averred, "confined there in a strong
+room, fourteen feet square, without windows, fireplace, table, or
+bed. I do not think it can be necessary for the purpose of security
+to confine him in this manner. According to my own feelings, it is a
+place unfit for the noble lord, or for any other person whatsoever."
+
+In this Strong Room, however, Lord Cochrane was detained for more
+than three weeks. It was partly underground, devoid of ventilation or
+necessary warmth, and, according to the testimony of Dr. Buchan, one
+of the physicians who visited him in it, "rendered extremely damp and
+unpleasant by the exudations coming through the wall."
+
+On being taken to this den immediately after his capture, Lord
+Cochrane was informed by Mr. Jones that he would be detained in it for
+a short time only, until the apartments over the lobby of the prison
+were prepared for his reception. That was done in a few days; but no
+intimation of a change was made until the 1st of April, when a message
+to that effect was sent to the prisoner. On the following day he
+received a letter from Mr. Jones informing him that, if he would
+anticipate the payment of the fine of 1000£ levied against him, and
+would also pledge himself, and give security for the keeping of the
+promise, to make no further effort to escape, he might be allowed to
+occupy the more comfortable quarters. "It is no new thing," said Lord
+Cochrane, "for a prisoner to escape or to be retaken; but to require
+of any prisoner a bond and securities not to repeat such escape was,
+I think, a proposition without precedent, and such as the marshal knew
+could not be complied with by me without humiliation, and therefore
+could not be proposed by him without insult. Besides, he had my
+assurance that if I were again to quit his custody (which I gave him
+no reason to believe I should attempt, and which, as I observed and
+believe, it was as easy for me to effect from that room as from any
+other part of the prison), I should proceed no further than to the
+House of Commons, and that where he found me before he might find me
+again; I having had no other object in view than that of expressing,
+by some peculiar act, the keen sense which I entertained of _peculiar_ injustice, and of endeavouring to bring such additional proofs of that
+injustice before the House as were not in my possession when I was
+heard in my defence." Mr. Jones, however, resolved to keep his captive
+in the Strong Room, unless he would promise to resign himself to
+captivity in a less obnoxious part of the prison.
+
+Even for that negative favour the marshal took great credit to himself
+in a document which he issued at the time. "If a humane and kind
+concern for this unfortunate nobleman," he there averred, "had not
+softened the solicitude which I naturally felt for my own security, I
+could have committed him, on my own warrant for the escape, to the new
+gaol in Horsemonger Lane, for the space of a month; and that power
+is still within my jurisdiction. Had I thought proper to exercise it,
+Lord Cochrane would then have been confined in a solitary cell with a
+stone floor, with windows impenetrably barred and without glass; nor
+would it have proved half the size of the Strong Room in the King's
+Bench, which has a boarded floor and glazed lights." That statement
+reasonably stirred the anger of Lord Cochrane. "Though the solitary
+cell in Horsemonger Lane," he answered, "may be half the size of the
+Strong Room, it could not, I apprehend, have been more gloomy, damp,
+filthy, or injurious to health than the last-mentioned dungeon. And
+since Mr. Jones could only have confined me in the former place for
+a month, and did confine me in the latter for twenty-six days, I can
+scarcely see that degree of difference which should entitle him to
+those 'grateful sentiments for his mode of acting on the occasion'
+which, he submits to the public, it is my duty to entertain. The
+'glazed lights' mentioned by Mr. Jones were not put up till I had been
+thirty hours in the place, and I have always understood that I was
+indebted for them to the good offices of Mr. Bennet and Mr. Lambton,
+who happened [as part of a Parliamentary Committee] to be prosecuting
+their inquiry into the state of the prison at the time of my return.
+For these and all other mercies of the said marshal, my gratitude is
+due to their friendship and sense of duty, and to his dread of their
+discoveries and proceedings."
+
+It is clear that nothing but fear of the consequences induced Mr.
+Jones to remove Lord Cochrane from the Strong Room, after twenty-six
+days of confinement therein. On the 12th of April the prisoner issued
+an address to the electors of Westminster, detailing some of the
+hardships to which he was being subjected; and its publication
+immediately roused so much popular interest that the authorities of
+King's Bench Prison deemed it necessary to make at any rate a show of
+amelioration in his treatment. On the 13th, his physician, Dr. Buchan,
+was allowed to visit him, and his report was such that another medical
+man of eminence, Mr. Saumarez, was sent to examine into the state of
+the prisoner's health. Part of Dr. Buchan's certificate has already
+been quoted. The rest was as follows: "This is to certify that I have
+this day visited Lord Cochrane, who is affected with severe pain of
+the breast. His pulse is low, his hands cold, and he has many symptoms
+of a person about to have typhus or putrid fever. These symptoms are,
+in my opinion, produced by the stagnant air of the Strong Room in
+which he is now confined." "I hereby certify," wrote Mr. Saumarez,
+"that I have visited Lord Cochrane, and am of opinion, from the state
+of his health at this time, that it is essentially necessary that he
+should be removed from the room which he now inhabits to one which
+is better ventilated, and in which there is a fireplace. His lordship
+complains of pain in the chest, with difficulty of respiration,
+accompanied with great coldness of the hands; and, from the general
+state of his health, there is great reason to fear that a low typhus
+may come on."
+
+The only result of those medical opinions was a renewal of the
+offer to remove Lord Cochrane to the rooms prepared for him, on the
+conditions previously specified by Mr. Jones. Lord Cochrane answered
+that he would rather die than submit to such an insulting arrangement.
+He published the doctors' certificates, however, on the 15th of April,
+and their effect upon the public was so great that the authorities
+were forced on the following day to take him out of his dungeon. Mr.
+Jones's account of this step is worth quoting. "I again tried," he
+reported, "to induce Lord Cochrane's friends and relations to give me
+any kind of undertaking against another escape. On their refusal, I
+determined myself to become his friend, and, at my own risk, to remove
+him to the rooms which have been already mentioned, and where, I am
+confident, he can have no cause of complaint. These rooms not being
+altogether safe against such a person as Lord Cochrane, should he
+determine to risk another escape, I must look to the laws of my
+country as a safeguard, in the hope that the terrors of them will
+discourage him from attempting a repetition of his offence, and
+prevent him from incurring the penalties of another indictment."
+
+Lord Cochrane never really intended to attempt a second escape. Had it
+been otherwise, the illness induced by his confinement in the Strong
+Room would have restrained him. Being placed in healthier apartments
+on the 16th of April, he quietly remained there for the remainder of
+his term of imprisonment. On the 20th of June he was informed that,
+the term being now at an end, he was at liberty to depart on payment
+of the fine of 1000£ levied against him. This he at first refused
+to do, and accordingly he was detained in prison for a fortnight more;
+but at length the entreaties of his friends prevailed. On the 3rd of
+July he tendered to the Marshal of the King's Bench a 1000£ note,
+with this memorable endorsement: "My health having suffered by long
+and close confinement, and my oppressors being resolved to deprive
+me of property or life, I submit to robbery to protect myself from
+murder, in the hope that I shall live to bring the delinquents to
+justice." Upon that the prison doors were opened for him, and he was
+able once more to fight for the justice so cruelly withheld from
+him, and to make his innocence entirely clear to all whose selfish
+interests did not force them to be blind to the truth.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV.
+
+
+LORD COCHRANE'S RETURN TO THE HOUSE OF COMMONS.—HIS SHARE IN THE
+REFUSAL OF THE DUKE OF CUMBERLAND'S MARRIAGE PENSION.—HIS CHARGES
+AGAINST LORD ELLENBOROUGH, AND THEIR REJECTION BY THE HOUSE.—HIS
+POPULARITY.—THE PART TAKEN BY HIM IN PUBLIC MEETINGS FOR THE RELIEF
+OF THE PEOPLE.—THE LONDON TAVERN MEETING.—HIS FURTHER PROSECUTION,
+TRIAL AT GUILDFORD, AND SUBSEQUENT IMPRISONMENT.—THE PAYMENT OF HIS
+FINES BY A PENNY SUBSCRIPTION.—THE CONGRATULATIONS OF HIS WESTMINSTER
+CONSTITUENTS.
+
+
+[1815-1816.]
+
+Released from imprisonment on Monday, the 3rd of July, Lord Cochrane
+resumed his seat in the House of Commons on the evening of the
+same day, just in time to secure the defeat of a measure which was
+especially obnoxious to his Radical friends. The Duke of Cumberland
+having lately married a daughter of the Duke of Mecklenburg-Strelitz,
+it was proposed to augment his income of about 20,000£ a year by
+a further pension of 6000£ A bill to that effect was brought in by
+Lord Castlereagh, and, after much sullen opposition from independent
+members, allowed a first reading by a majority of seventeen. On the
+second division the majority was reduced to twelve. The bill was
+brought on for the third reading on the 3rd of July, and would have
+been passed through the House of Commons by the Speaker's casting vote
+but for Lord Cochrane's sudden appearance. His vote secured a majority
+against it, and thereby it was finally overthrown. Great, on the
+morrow, were the rejoicings of his supporters. "What a triumph," it
+was said in a friendly newspaper, "is this to innocence! After being
+sentenced to the scandalous and disgraceful punishment of the pillory,
+after being confined in a loathsome dungeon, fined 1000£ in money
+to the king, disgracefully removed from that service in which he had
+attained such high honours and rendered to his country such essential
+service, his escutcheon kicked out of Westminster Abbey, his order
+of knighthood taken from him; in short, after having every possible
+indignity which the most malignant imagination could invent heaped
+upon him in every way, his single vote, on the very first day of his
+returning to his parliamentary duties, has been the means of obtaining
+a signal victory over those under whose persecution he had been so
+long suffering."
+
+The one victory upon which Lord Cochrane set his heart, however—the
+reversal of the unjust sentence passed upon him, and the consequent
+restoration of the honours and offices that were now doubly dear to
+him—he was not able to obtain. On the 6th of July, just before the
+prorogation of Parliament, he gave notice that, early in the next
+session, he should move for the appointment of a committee to inquire
+into the conduct of Lord Ellenborough and others towards him during
+the Stock Exchange trial. In arranging for this new effort at
+self-justification, he was partly occupied during the ensuing autumn
+and winter, and the question was brought prominently before the House
+of Commons in the spring of 1816; only to issue, however, in further
+injustice and disappointment.
+
+His purpose from the first was, of course, virtually the impeachment
+of Lord Ellenborough; and that object was yet more apparent from the
+altered shape which the question assumed when introduced in the new
+session. During the recess, Lord Cochrane, with the help of advisers,
+some of whom were more zealous than wise, William Cobbett being the
+chief, had prepared an elaborate series of "charges of partiality,
+misrepresentation, injustice, and oppression against the Lord Chief
+Justice;" and these were formally introduced to the House of Commons
+on the 5th of March. "When I recollect," said Lord Cochrane on that
+occasion, "the imputations cast upon my character, and circulated
+industriously previous to any legal proceedings, the conduct pursued
+at my trial, the verdict obtained, the ineffectual endeavours; to
+procure a revision of my case in the Court of King's Bench, and the
+infamous sentence there pronounced, together with my expulsion from
+this House without being suffered to expose its injustice—when I call
+to mind my dismissal from a service in which I have spent the fairest
+portion of my life, at least without reproach, and my illegal and
+unmerited deprivation of the order of the Bath—it is impossible
+to speak without emotion. I have but one course now left to pursue,
+namely, to show that the charge of the Lord Chief Justice, on which he
+directed the jury to decide, was not only unsupported by, but was
+in direct contradiction to, the evidence on which it professed to
+be founded. This is the best course to pursue both in justice to the
+learned judge and to myself. Either I am unfit to sit in this House,
+or the judge has no right to his place on the bench. I have courted
+investigation in every shape; and I trust that the learned lord will
+not shrink from it or suffer his friends on the opposite side to evade
+the consideration of these charges by 'the previous question.'"
+
+Lord Cochrane thereupon tendered to the House thirteen charges against
+Lord Ellenborough, in which every point of importance in the Stock
+Exchange trial was minutely detailed and discussed; and these charges
+being read, therein occupying nearly three hours, were ordered to be
+printed. A fourteenth charge, bearing upon Lord Ellenborough's conduct
+subsequent to the trial, was introduced on the 29th of March; but
+this, as it included aspersions upon the character of another judge,
+Sir Simon Le Blanc, was objected to and withdrawn. There was further
+discussion on the subject on the 1st and the 29th of April; but not
+much was done until the 30th of April.
+
+On that evening, Lord Cochrane formally moved that his charges against
+Lord Ellenborough should be referred to a Committee of the whole
+House, and that evidence in support of them should be heard at the
+bar. A lengthy discussion then ensued, the most notable speeches
+being made by the Solicitor-General, Sir Francis Burdett, and the
+Attorney-General.
+
+The Solicitor-General of course opposed the motion. "As the House, on
+the one hand," he said, "should jealously watch over the conduct of
+judges, so, on the other, it should protect them when deserving of
+protection, not only as a debt of justice due to the judges, but as
+a debt due to justice herself, in order that the public confidence in
+the purity of the administration of our laws may not be disappointed,
+and that the course of that administration may continue the admiration
+of the world; for, unless the judges are protected in the exercise of
+their functions, the public opinion of the excellence of our laws will
+be inevitably weakened,—and to weaken public opinion is to weaken
+justice herself."
+
+That sort of argument, too frivolous and faulty, it might be supposed,
+to influence any one, had weight with the House of Commons to which it
+was addressed; and the Solicitor-General adduced much more of it.
+To him the spotless character of Lord Ellenborough appeared to be an
+ample defence against Lord Cochrane's charges. "Never," he said, with
+a truthfulness that posterity can appreciate, "never was there an
+individual at the bar or on the bench less liable to the imputation
+of corrupt motives; never was there one more remarkable for
+independence—I will say, sturdy independence—of character, than the
+noble and learned lord. For twelve years he has presided on the bench
+with unsullied honour, displaying a perfect knowledge of the
+law; evincing as much legal knowledge as was ever amassed by any
+individual; and now, in the latter part of his life, when he has
+arrived at the highest dignity to which a man can arrive, by a
+promotion well-earned at the bar, and doubly well-earned at the bench,
+we are told that he has sacrificed all his honours by acting from
+corrupt motives!"
+
+Sir Francis Burdett replied effectively to the speeches of the
+Solicitor-General and others who sided with him, and nobly defended
+his friend. He showed that the proposal to refuse investigation of
+this case because it might weaken the cause of justice, by making the
+conduct of the administrators of justice contemptible, was worse than
+frivolous. "Such language," he averred, "would operate against the
+investigation of any charges whatever against any judge; would indeed
+form a barrier against the exercise of the best privilege of this
+House—the privilege of inquiring into the conduct of courts of
+justice. It would serve equally well to shelter even those judges
+who have been dragged from the bench for their misconduct." He then
+reviewed the incidents of the Stock Exchange trial, and urged that
+Lord Cochrane had good reason for bringing forward his charges. "The
+question for the House to consider is, 'Do these charges, if admitted,
+contain criminal matter for the consideration of the House?' I
+conceive that they do. No doubt the judges who condemned Russell and
+Sidney were, at the time, spoken of as men of high character, who
+could not be supposed to suffer any base motives to influence their
+conduct. Such arguments as those ought to be banished from this House.
+It is our duty to look, with constitutional suspicion on jealousy, on
+the proceedings of the judges; and, when a grave charge is solemnly
+brought forward, justice to the country, as well as to the judge,
+demands an inquiry into it."
+
+That, however, was refused. After a long speech from the
+Attorney-General, and an eloquent reply by Lord Cochrane, the House
+divided on the motion. Eighty-nine members voted against it. Its only
+supporters were Sir Francis Burdett and Lord Cochrane himself. Not
+only did the House refuse to listen to the allegations against Lord
+Ellenborough; in the excess of its devotion to such law and such order
+as the Government of the day appointed, it even resolved that all the
+entries in its record of proceedings which referred to this subject
+should be expunged from the journals. Lord Cochrane made no
+resistance to this further insult thrown upon him. "It gives me great
+satisfaction," he said, in the brief and dignified speech with which
+he closed the discussion, "to think that the vote which has been come
+to has been come to without any of my charges having been disproved.
+Whatever may be done with them now, they will find their way to
+posterity, and posterity will form a different judgment concerning
+them than that which has been adopted by this House. So long as I have
+a seat in this House, however, I will continue to bring them forward,
+year by year and time after time, until I am allowed the opportunity
+of establishing the truth of my allegations."
+
+Other occupations prevented the full realization of that purpose. But
+to the end of his life Lord Cochrane used every occasion of asserting
+his innocence and courting a full investigation of all the incidents
+on which his assertion was based. Posterity, as he truly prophesied,
+has learnt to endorse his judgment; and therefore, in the ensuing
+pages, it will not be necessary to adduce from his letters and actions
+more than occasional illustrations of the temper which animated him
+throughout with reference to this heaviest of all his heavy troubles.
+
+By these troubles, however, even in the time of their greatest
+pressure, he was not overcome; and in the midst of them he found time
+and heart for active labour in the good work of various sorts that was
+always dear to him. He used the advantages of his liberty in striving
+to perfect the invention of improved street lamps and lighting
+material that had occupied him while in prison, and to procure their
+general adoption. His place in Parliament, moreover, all through the
+session of 1816, was employed not only in seeking justice for himself,
+but also in furthering every project advanced for benefiting the
+community and checking the pernicious action of the Government. A
+zealous, honest Whig before, he was now as zealous and as honest
+as ever in all his political conduct. And his devotion to the best
+interests of the people was yet more apparent in his unflagging
+labours, out of Parliament, for the public good. His great abilities,
+rendered all the more prominent by the cruel persecution to which he
+had been and still was subjected, made him a leading champion of the
+people during the turmoil to which misgovernment at home, and the
+distracted state of foreign politics, gave a special stimulus in 1816.
+
+A long list might be made of the great meetings which he attended,
+and took part in, both among his own constituents of Westminster
+and elsewhere, for the consideration of popular grievances and their
+remedies. One such meeting, attended by Henry Brougham and Sir Francis
+Burdett among others, was held in Palace Yard, Westminster, on the
+1st of March, for the purpose of petitioning Parliament against the
+renewal of the property-tax and the maintenance of a standing army in
+time of peace. Lord Cochrane, the hero of the day, on account of "the
+spirit of opposition which he had shown to the infringement of the
+constitution and the grievances of the people," won for himself new
+favour by the boldness with which he denounced the policy of the
+Government, which, boasting that it was ruining the French nation, was
+at the same time bringing misery also upon Englishmen by the excessive
+taxation and the reckless extravagance to which it resorted.
+
+A smaller, but much more momentous meeting assembled at the City
+of London Tavern on the 29th of July, under the auspices of the
+Association for the Relief of the Manufacturing and Labouring Poor.
+Instigated in a spirit of praiseworthy charity by many of the most
+influential persons of the day, it was used by Lord Cochrane for the
+enforcement of the views as to public right and public duty, and the
+mutual relations of the rich and the poor, which were forced upon him
+by his recent troubles, and the relations in which he was at this time
+placed with some over-zealous champions of popular reform, and some
+unreasonable exponents of popular grievances. That his conduct on this
+occasion was extravagant and even factious, he afterwards heartily
+regretted. Yet as a memorable illustration of the power and
+earnestness with which he fought for what seemed to him to be right,
+as well with word as with sword, its details, as reported at the time,
+may be here set forth at length.
+
+About half-past one o'clock the Duke of York entered and took
+the chair, supported on his right by the Duke of Kent, and on
+his left by the Duke of Cambridge. He was accompanied on
+his entrance by the Archbishop of Canterbury, the Bishop of
+London, the Duke of Rutland, Lord Manvers, the Chancellor
+of the Exchequer, Mr. Wilberforce, and other distinguished
+individuals.
+
+His Royal Highness the Duke of York immediately
+proceeded to open the business of the day, by observing that the
+present meeting had been called to consider and, as far as possible,
+to alleviate the present distress and sufferings of the labouring
+classes of the community. These distresses were, he feared, too well
+known to all who heard him to require any description; and all he
+had to add to the bare statement of them was the expression of his
+confidence that the liberality which had been so signally manifested
+in the course of foreign distress would not be found wanting when the
+direction of it was to be towards the comfort and relief of our own
+countrymen at home.
+
+THE DUKE OF KENT, after alluding to the exertions of the Committee of
+1812, observed that the immediate object was to raise a fund, in
+the subsequent accumulation and management of which many ulterior
+arrangements might be projected, and from which charity might soon
+emanate in a thousand directions. He doubted not that every county and
+every town would be quick to imitate the example of the metropolis.
+The association of 1812 had at least the merit of producing this
+effect, and had spread through the whole land that spirit of active
+benevolence which he was feebly invoking on this occasion. He trusted
+that it was necessary for him to say but little more to insure the
+adoption of the resolution which he should have the honour to propose.
+He confessed he felt gratified when he saw so great a concourse of
+his countrymen assembled together for such a purpose, and additional
+gratification at seeing by whom they were supported. He was sure,
+then, that he should not plead in vain to the national liberality; but
+that the remedy would be promptly afforded to an evil which he trusted
+would be found but temporary. If they should be so happy as but to
+succeed in discovering new sources of employment to supply the place
+of those channels which had been suddenly shut up, he should
+indeed despond if we did not soon restore the country to that
+same flourishing condition which had long made her the envy of
+the world. The royal Duke then moved the first resolution,
+as follows:—"That the transition from a state of extensive
+warfare to a system of peace has occasioned a stagnation of
+employment and a revulsion of trade, deeply affecting the
+situation of many parts of the community, and producing many
+instances of great local distress."
+
+The resolution was seconded by Mr. Harman.
+
+Lord Cochrane offered himself to the attention of the meeting,
+but was for some time unable to proceed, his voice being lost
+in the huzzas and hisses which his presence called forth.
+Silence being at length in some measure obtained, his lordship
+said he would not have addressed the meeting but that, having
+received a circular letter from the committee, and feeling
+the importance of the subject, he would have thought it a
+dereliction of his duty if he refrained from attending. He
+rose thus early because the observations he had to submit
+would not be suitable if made when the other resolutions were
+put. The first resolution was, in his opinion, founded on
+a gross fallacy; and this was his reason for saying so. The
+existing distresses could not be truly ascribed to any sudden
+transition from war to peace. Could it be pretended that it
+was peace which had occasioned the fall in the value of all
+agricultural produce? Or could any man venture to assert that
+the difficulties and sufferings of the manufacturing classes
+had any other cause than a prodigious and enormous burthen of
+taxation? He was much gratified at seeing the royal Dukes so
+active in promoting a generous and laudable undertaking, and
+he hoped he should not be understood as treating them with
+disrespect when he repeated that the resolution was founded
+on an entire fallacy. But, not to content himself with a mere
+assertion of his own belief,
+he had brought official documents to prove the correctness
+of his statements; and if he should be wrong, he saw the
+Chancellor of the Exchequer near him, who would have the
+opportunity of correcting his misrepresentation. This brief
+statement, he believed, would be quite sufficient to show that
+the financial situation of the country was such as to render
+any attempts of that meeting for the purpose of extending
+general relief utterly ineffectual. The whole revenue of the
+kingdom was 62,267,450£, deducting the property-tax, and
+the revenue was thus expended. The interest of the national
+debt, including the interest of unfunded exchequer bills, was
+upwards of 40,300,000£, leaving to support the expenses of
+Government only about 22,000,000£ It was this enormous sum
+which now hung round our necks—it was this, which unnecessary
+extravagance had caused to increase from year to year to its
+present terrible amount, which was the cause of all the
+evils of the country at this moment. This taxation, and
+extravagance, for which the country was now suffering, was
+supported and sanctioned by those who had derived and still
+derived large emoluments from them. These were truths that
+the people ought to know; for they were the source of their
+burthens, and the origin of all the mischief. It was this
+profuse expenditure of the public money, to say no worse of
+it, that occasioned the present calamities. It was the lavish
+expenditure to meet a compliant list of placemen that brought
+the country to its present state. The deficiency in the
+revenue occasioned by the enormous interest of the national
+debt, which ministers would have to supply, would, according
+to the present disbursements and receipts, amount to
+11,578,000£ unless that expenditure were reduced, every
+such attempt as they were at present making would, he was
+convinced, prove abortive: it was a mere topical application
+while a mortal distemper was raging within. He had taken
+no notice in his estimate of the charges for sinecures or
+the bounties on exports and imports: and yet the returns upon
+which he went, exclusive of these charges, showed a deficit
+for the ensuing year of 3,500,000£ Were those who heard him
+prepared to make this good? It was, he believed, undeniable
+that nothing could equalize our revenue with our expenditure,
+but the putting down entirely the army and navy, or the
+extinction of one half of the national debt; but when he
+looked to the actual receipt of the last quarter and found
+a falling off of 2,400,000£, which, with a corresponding
+decrease in the three succeeding quarters, must create a new
+deficit of 10,000,000£, and, added to the 3,500,000£
+to which he had alluded, would form a sum equal to the whole
+amount of the boasted sinking-fund, he felt that it was worse
+than trifling to suppose we could go on upon the present
+system. Were they prepared to make up this enormous
+deficiency? [A voice from the crowd cried "Yes."] He was happy
+to hear it: he supposed it was some fund-holder who answered,
+and if any class could do so, it was the fund-holders. They
+alone had the ability, they alone now derived any returns
+from their property; but even if they should be both able and
+willing, still it would only remain a positive deficit made
+good, and no new facility would be derived for alleviating
+the existing burthens. The burthens and distresses must
+still remain what they were before. He spoke not now upon
+conjecture, or loose calculation, he had brought his authority
+with him. These were the records from which he derived his
+statements—the official returns of the Treasury; and
+if false, the Chancellor of the Exchequer was present to
+contradict them. He was glad, he confessed, to see him, for
+those who heard him were, no doubt, aware that it was not
+always in the House of Commons that a minister could discover
+the genuine sentiments of the people. If, therefore, no other
+person should move an amendment, he should feel it his duty
+to propose an omission of that part of the resolution which
+ascribed the distressed state of the country to the transition
+from a state of war to a state of peace, and to state the
+cause to be an enormous debt, and a lavish expenditure. He had
+come there with the expectation of seeing the Duke of Rutland
+in the chair; and with some hopes, as he took the lead upon
+this occasion, that it was his intention to surrender that
+sinecure of 9,000£ a-year which he was now in the habit
+of putting in his pocket. He still trusted that all who were
+present and were also holders of sinecures had it in their
+intention to sacrifice them to their liberality and their
+justice; and that they did not come there to aid the
+distresses of their country by paying half-a-crown per cent,
+out of the hundreds which they took from it. If they did not,
+all he could say was, that to him their pretended charity was
+little better than a fraud. Without, however, taking up more
+of their time, he should move his amendment, with this one
+additional observation, that it would be a disgrace to an
+enlightened meeting, and particularly to a meeting which might
+be considered as comprising an aggregate mass of the property
+and intellect of the country, to place a fallacy upon the
+record of their proceedings, and to build all their following
+resolutions upon an assertion which had no foundation in
+truth. He concluded by moving the following amendment to the
+first resolution:—"That the enormous load of the national
+debt, together with the large military establishment and the
+profuse expenditure of public money, was the real cause of the
+present public distress."
+
+Mr. Wilberforce said he was himself too much of an Englishman,
+and had been too long engaged in political discussions to feel
+any surprise that those who felt warmly on such a subject as
+the present should be anxious to give
+expression to their sentiments: but he could not help thinking
+that, upon cool reflection, the noble lord would be of opinion
+that his own object would be better attained if he confined
+himself, on this occasion, to the distinct question under
+consideration. The noble lord said the country was in a
+crisis, and would they apply a mere topical remedy? but he
+might ask the noble lord if he would refuse to assuage the
+pain of a temporary distemper because he had it not in his
+power at once to cure it radically? To him the existing
+distress appeared to be a distemper which rather called for
+immediate alleviation, than for the speculative discussion of
+its cause. He thought the most charitable and manly course to
+be pursued—and that which must be most congenial to what
+he knew to be the noble lord's own charitable and manly
+disposition—was not to call upon the meeting to give any
+opinion upon a political question not under consideration,
+so as to divert them from pursuing it with diligence and
+confidence, but to postpone to a better opportunity a
+discussion of this nature, and to unite cordially in the
+general cause of finding employment and encouragement for our
+suffering fellow-citizens. If the noble lord would reflect
+upon the best mode of relieving the distresses of the people,
+he would find his amendment not likely to have that tendency.
+Let him reserve all discussion on the question it involved
+until he could do it without interrupting the stream of
+charity, and until he could enter upon it under fair and
+proper circumstances. He (Mr. Wilberforce), in a proper place,
+would not shrink from meeting the noble lord on that inquiry;
+he was twice as old in public life as the noble lord could
+pretend to be, and fully as independent; yet he would not have
+easily supposed any man, however young in politics, could have
+started such topics there. For his part, he should be sorry to
+take advantage of any credit which might be
+to supposed to belong to him upon such an occasion as this to
+cast reproaches upon those who were concurring with him in a
+benevolent design. The meeting must on the present occasion
+feel how much indebted it stood to the royal personages for
+their attendance. They had come to listen to a discussion
+which had for its avowed and direct object the relief of the
+people, and they were in the room suddenly called upon to lay
+aside the practical part of their inquiry and to enter upon
+a distinct pursuit. Was such a course fair towards those
+illustrious individuals? Was it that which was likely
+to induce them to listen to proposals for their personal
+co-operation on occasions of benevolence, if they had no
+security against the occupation of their time for discussions
+of a different character? In conclusion, he entreated the
+noble lord, of whose real disposition to relieve the people
+of England he had no doubt, and whose motives he could justly
+appreciate, to withdraw his amendment.
+
+Lord Cochrane thanked the honourable gentleman for his
+personal civilities towards him, and said that he would feel
+no hesitation in withdrawing his amendment if the honourable
+gentleman would state to the meeting, on his own personal
+veracity and honour, that he believed that the original
+resolution contained the true cause of the public distress,
+and the amendment the false one. If the honourable gentleman
+would say that—if any respectable man present would say
+it—he would be satisfied.
+
+Mr. Cotes said he was entirely unconnected with the noble
+lord, and had never even had the honour of speaking, to him.
+He agreed, however, with him in thinking that this was a
+moment when the eyes of the public ought to be open to their
+real situation. The amendment harmonized entirely with all
+the opinions which he had been able to form upon subject. Mr.
+Wilberforce, to whose humane and benevolent
+Mr. character he was happy to pay his acknowledgments, had
+attempted to get rid of the noble lord's amendment by a sort
+of side-wind; but to his judgment there was no incompatibility
+between the object of the meeting and the amendment. There was
+nothing irrelevant in it; it naturally grew out of the course
+adopted by the chair, and in which a cause of the prevailing
+distress was distinctly specified. The question was, then,
+ought their resolutions to go forth to the public with a
+falsehood upon the face of them? Ought they not to state the
+true cause, since His Royal Highness by mistake had assigned
+a fallacious one? Mr. Wilberforce, with his usual ability, but
+in a manner that still marked its duplicity—he meant the
+word in no offensive sense—had asked, would he enter into
+a political discussion when we were called upon to extend
+relief? He begged to state this was not the true question: it
+was whether they would found all the future proceedings
+upon error and misstatement, or upon incontrovertible facts.
+Another question was, would they be satisfied to patch up the
+wounds of the country for a short period or seek to remedy
+the disease in its spring and in its sources before it became
+still more alarming and incurable? The Duke of Kent said he
+had offered the resolution as it had been put into his hand;
+and if he had conceived there had been any mention of a course
+upon which difference of opinion could exist, he hoped they
+knew him sufficiently to believe that he should have been
+incapable of requiring their assent to it. He now, therefore,
+proposed an omission of all that part of the resolution
+which had any reference whatever to the cause of the present
+distress. He knew the noble lord well enough—and he had known
+him in early life—to be assured that he would agree with him,
+at least in a declaration as to the fact. Their common object,
+he believed, was to afford relief and to admit its necessity
+without assigning
+either one cause or another. For his own part, it had not been
+his intention to attend a political discussion. He would never
+enter the arena of politics with the noble lord; but he begged
+leave to say, he considered himself as competent to plead
+the cause of humanity, to advocate the interests of the
+weather-beaten sufferer, as the noble lord could be. There
+were, however, other times and other places for men to engage
+in discussion of party politics, and he therefore implored the
+noble lord not to distract the attention of the meeting by the
+introduction of these; and to keep solely in view that they
+had met as the friends of benevolence, not as the advocates of
+a party. His Royal Highness then proposed to alter the motion
+as follows:—
+
+"Resolved that there do at this moment exist a stagnation
+of employment and a revulsion of trade, deeply affecting the
+situation of many parts of the community, and producing many
+instances of great local distress."
+
+Lord Cochrane, in reply, stated that he had no wish to excite
+a difference of opinion on such an occasion, and that, after
+the alteration in the resolution, nothing gave him more
+pleasure than the opportunity of withdrawing his amendment;
+but, in justification of what he had done, it became necessary
+for him to say that he never would have thought of his
+amendment if it had not been for the assertion as to the cause
+of existing distress—he had no doubt in his mind as to the
+nature of that cause, and he held it but just and honourable
+that if a cause must be assigned, it should be the true one.
+After returning thanks to Mr. Wilberforce and the Duke of Kent
+for their expressions of personal civility, the noble lord
+consented to withdraw his motion so far as he was personally
+concerned in it.
+
+Considerable opposition, however, from various parts of the
+hall was manifested to this mode of withdrawing the
+amendment, and a great deal of disturbance took place. At last
+the resolution, as altered by the Duke of Kent, was put and
+carried.
+
+The Duke of Cambridge, in his speech, which followed, returned
+his warm thanks to the noble lord for the handsome manner in
+which he had withdrawn his amendment. He moved the following
+resolution, which was unanimously agreed to:—
+
+"From the experienced generosity of the British nation it may
+be confidently expected that those who are able to afford the
+means of relief to their fellow-subjects will contribute their
+utmost endeavours to remedy or alleviate the sufferings of
+those who are particularly distressed."
+
+The Archbishop of Canterbury moved the following resolution,
+which was seconded and carried unanimously: "That although it
+is obviously impossible for any association of individuals to
+attempt a general relief of difficulties affecting so large a
+proportion of the public, yet that it has been proved by
+the experience of this association that most important and
+extensive benefits may be derived from the co-operation and
+correspondence of a society in the metropolis encouraging the
+efforts of those benevolent individuals who may be disposed to
+associate themselves in the different districts for the relief
+of their several neighbourhoods."
+
+The Duke of Rutland afterwards addressed the meeting,
+and moved that a subscription be immediately opened, and
+contributions generally solicited for carrying into effect the
+objects of this association; which was seconded, and agreed
+to.
+
+The Earl of Manvers, after stating that he had opposed the
+amendment of the noble lord (Lord Cochrane) solely from his
+anxiety to preserve the unanimity of the meeting, as it was
+only by becoming unanimous they could gain their
+object, moved: "That subscribers of 100£ and upwards be
+added to the committee of the Association for the Relief of
+the Manufacturing and Labouring Poor; that the committee have
+full power to dispose of the funds to be collected, and to
+name sub-committees for correspondence."
+
+    The motion was seconded by Sir T. Bell, and unanimously
+    carried.
+
+    The Bishop of London proposed a vote of thanks to the Duke of
+    York, which Mr. C. Barclay was about to second, but—
+
+Lord Cochrane again stepped forward and gained the attention
+of the meeting. He repeated the explanation of the motives
+for withdrawing his proposed amendment, adding, that he had no
+wish again to press that amendment upon the consideration
+of the meeting. But he could not forbear from observing what
+would have been the fate of such a proposition, if brought
+forward in another place, which he need not name. For there,
+instead of being requested to withdraw the proposition, it
+would have been met by a direct negative or by 'the previous
+question,' in support of which, no doubt, a majority of that
+assembly, miscalled the representatives of the people, would
+have voted. Yet the manner in which this, a meeting of the
+people, would have decided, was pretty obvious; and hence it
+might be inferred how far the people concurred in sentiment
+and feeling with the House of Commons. That the proposed, or
+any charitable subscription, must be inadequate to relieve the
+actual distress of the country was a proposition which could
+not be disputed, but yet he did not intend to oppose that
+subscription; on the contrary, he should give it every
+possible support in his power; and it was, he felt, a
+consolation to them that there were still some persons in this
+country who could afford something to relieve the poor; but
+he was afraid that neither the landowner nor the mercantile
+interest had the means of
+doing so; for the former could obtain no rent, and the latter
+no trade—the only persons, in fact, who were able to assist
+the poor under present circumstances were the placemen, the
+sinecurists, and the fund-holders, who must give up at least
+half of their ill-gotten gains in order to effect the object.
+With this impression fixed upon his mind, he felt it his duty
+to propose an additional resolution, that the ministers of
+the crown, that the Government of the country, who wielded
+the power of Parliament, were alone competent to remove and
+to alleviate the national distress. This, indeed, was evident
+from the statement of our financial situation which he
+had already made. He had called upon the Chancellor of the
+Exchequer, who was present, to contradict that statement if
+he could; but the right honourable gentleman had felt it
+expedient not to utter one word, as the meeting had witnessed.
+Yet from that statement it must be obvious, as he had already
+observed, that the military and naval situation of the country
+must be abandoned, or at least half the national debt must be
+extinguished, for the resources of the empire could not endure
+such burthens. The noble lord concluded with expressing his
+intention when the present resolutions were got over, to move
+another, stating the real cause of the present distress,
+and that the Chancellor of the Exchequer and his majesty's
+ministers were alone capable of affording serious relief to
+the present distress.
+
+    Mr. Barclay seconded the motion of the Right Reverend the
+    Bishop of London, to which Lord Cochrane assured the meeting
+    he entertained no objection.
+
+    Great confusion prevailed in the meeting, some crying out
+    for Lord Cochrane's motion, while others were equally loud in
+    testifying their anxiety for the vote of thanks.
+
+The Duke of Kent then put the motion.
+
+Lord Cochrane said that his sole object was to have an
+opportunity of moving his resolution after the present was
+disposed of.
+
+A person from a distant part of the room exclaimed: "That resolution
+shall not be put, for it is a libel on the Parliament." Several other
+remarks were made, but they were generally unintelligible from the
+violent uproar and confusion that prevailed. Loud cries of "Put Lord
+Cochrane's motion first" were mixed with the cry of "Chair, chair."
+
+The Duke of Kent said that he had attended this meeting with a view
+to assist in promoting an object of charity, and he had no doubt that
+such was the intention of the noble lord (Cochrane). Of this he
+was sure from the noble lord's own declaration, as well as from his
+knowledge of the noble lord's feelings. The noble lord had, indeed,
+himself stated that he had no wish to introduce any political, or to
+press any, measure likely to interfere with the object of the
+meeting. Therefore, he called upon the noble lord, in consistency, in
+politeness and urbanity, not to urge any political principle; and the
+noble lord must be aware that his proposition had a strong political
+tendency. The proposition was indeed such, that the noble lord must be
+aware that it was calculated to injure the subscription, for those who
+were not of the noble lord's opinion in politics were but too likely
+to leave the room if that proposition were pressed to a vote, and thus
+a material object of charity would suffer through a desire to urge a
+declaration of a mere political opinion.
+
+Lord Cochrane disclaimed any wish to provoke political discussion.
+He expressed his desire merely to declare a truth which no man
+could venture to dispute in any popular assembly, in order that
+the Chancellor of the Exchequer, and others present, might have an
+opportunity of reporting to Government the decided sentiment
+and real feeling of the people.
+
+The Archbishop of Canterbury begged leave to call back the
+attention of the meeting to the motion before it, and which,
+he had no doubt, would be unanimously adopted. This motion,
+the most reverend prelate added, was not intended in any
+degree to interfere with the motion of the noble lord.
+
+Amid loud cries of "Put Lord Cochrane's motion first, for if
+the motion of thanks be disposed of, the Duke of York will
+leave the chair, and the noble lord's motion will not be put
+at all," the Duke of Kent declared that there could be
+no intention to get rid of the noble lord's motion by any
+side-wind.
+
+The motion of thanks was then passed while Lord Cochrane was
+engaged in writing his motion, and the Duke of York, having
+bowed to the meeting, immediately withdrew, amidst loud
+hissings, and cries of "Shame! shame! a trick! a trick!"
+
+The Duke of Kent, whose head was turned towards Lord Cochrane,
+was much surprised and disappointed at discovering the absence
+of the chairman.
+
+The general cry was then raised: "The Duke of Kent to the
+chair."
+
+His Royal Highness addressed the meeting. Having, he said,
+pledged himself on proposing the last resolution that there
+was no intention of getting rid of Lord Cochrane's motion by
+any side-wind, he felt himself in a very awkward predicament.
+"But," he added, "I hope that, as liberal Englishmen, you
+will consider my situation and who I am; and that after my
+illustrious relatives have retired from the meeting, you
+will not insist upon my taking the chair for the purpose of
+pressing the declaration of a political opinion;
+but that you will commend my motives, and do justice to
+those feelings which determine the propriety of my immediate
+departure." His Royal Highness accordingly withdrew.
+
+The majority of the meeting still remained, calling for the
+nomination of another chairman, and pressing the adoption of
+Lord Cochrane's motion; but the noble lord also withdrew, and
+the meeting separated.
+
+That meeting was memorable. If Lord Cochrane's bearing at it was
+factious, it must be remembered how greatly he had suffered and how
+earnestly he desired to save the people at large from the sufferings
+entailed upon them by the Government which he and they had learnt to
+regard with a common dislike. By exposing what appeared to him and
+many others to be the hypocrisy of seeming philanthropists, and
+showing what he deemed the only real cause and the only real remedy
+of the national distress, he only acted as a brave and honest man, and
+his work was appreciated by the masses in whose interest it was done.
+A thrill of satisfaction ran through the land. During the ensuing
+weeks and months congratulations were heaped upon him from all
+quarters, and from nearly every class of society. If he had lessened
+the resources of the Association for the Belief of the Manufacturing
+and Labouring Poor, he was thanked even for this, since it was
+believed to be a good thing for shallow charity to be stayed, in order
+that the cause of real justice might be promoted.
+
+The thanks were all the heartier because of the fresh persecution to
+which Lord Cochrane was subjected on account of his patriotism. This
+persecution was in the shape of legal proceedings instituted against
+him by the Marshal of the King's Bench Prison for his escape therefrom
+on the 10th of March, 1815. The action had been formally commenced
+almost immediately after the alleged offence, but on technical
+grounds, and perhaps from the consciousness that he was already
+punished enough, it was delayed for more than a year. As the
+previous punishment, however, had not been enough to silence him, the
+Government determined to revive the old charge as a further act of
+vengeance. At the special instigation of Lord Ellenborough, as it
+was averred, the prosecution had been renewed in May, 1816, almost
+immediately after the rejection by the House of Commons of Lord
+Cochrane's charges against the vindictive and unprincipled judge; but
+the time was too far gone for trial to take place during the summer
+term. It was again renewed, and at length successfully, directly after
+Lord Cochrane's fresh exhibition of his hostility to the Government at
+the London Tavern meeting.
+
+The trial was at Guildford, on the 17th of August. Its history and
+issue may best be told in the words of an autobiographical fragment,
+written by Lord Dundonald shortly before his death. "I was accompanied
+to Guildford," he said, "by Sir Francis Burdett and several other
+leading inhabitants of Westminster, whose names are forgotten by me. I
+took neither counsel nor witnesses, having determined to rest my case
+on the point of law that 'no Member of Parliament can be imprisoned,
+either for non-payment of a fine to the king, or for any other cause
+than treason or felony, or refusing to give security to keep the
+peace,' my inference being that as I was illegally imprisoned, I had
+committed no illegality in escaping. I read to the jury a general
+statement, on which they unequivocally expressed their conviction that
+the trial had better not have been instituted, for that the punishment
+already sustained was more than adequate to the offence alleged to
+have been committed. The judge, however, interfered, and told the
+jury that, as I had admitted the escape in my statement, they had no
+alternative but to bring in a verdict of guilty, which was reluctantly
+done, and judgment was deferred.
+
+"After the trial I returned to my house in Hampshire, and not hearing
+anything more of the affair, naturally concluded that, in the face of
+the opinion expressed by the jury, the Government would be ashamed to
+prosecute the matter further. Not liking, however, to trust to their
+mercy, whilst their malevolence might be exercised at an inconvenient
+season, or made to depend upon my political conduct, I directed my
+attorney to inquire whether it was intended to put in execution the
+sentence at Guildford. The reply was that no steps had been taken,
+and the impression was, that Government would be against further
+proceedings, lest they should tend to increase my popularity.
+Considering that this might be a feint to put me off my guard, I went
+to London for the purpose of attending a large political meeting, in
+the conduct of which I participated. Shortly afterwards I received
+a summons to appear at Westminster Hall and receive judgment on the
+verdict; the judgment being that I was condemned to pay a fine of
+100£ to the Crown.
+
+"On my refusal to pay the fine, on the 21st of November, I was again
+taken into custody, I alleging that the sentence would amount to
+perpetual imprisonment, for that I would never pay a fine imposed for
+escaping from an illegal detention.
+
+"On my being taken back to prison, however, a meeting of the electors
+of Westminster was held, at which it was determined that the amount
+of the fine should be paid by a penny subscription, no person being
+allowed to subscribe more. This plan was adopted in order that the
+public throughout the kingdom might have an opportunity of manifesting
+their disapprobation of the oppressive way in which I was being
+treated. Though I knew nothing of the intentions of the committee at
+the time, it was expected that the subscription would amount to a
+much larger sum than the fine, and resolved that the surplus should be
+devoted to the re-imbursement of the former fine of 1000£ and of the
+expenses to which I had been put at the trial. Receiving-houses were
+accordingly opened in the metropolis and in various other large towns,
+and the amount of the fine of 100£ was speedily collected in London
+alone.
+
+"Meanwhile meetings were constantly being held to petition Parliament
+for reform, and at these my name and sufferings formed a prominent
+topic, so that the Government would have been glad to be rid of
+me. After one of these meetings in Spafields, for the purpose of
+requesting Sir Francis Burdett and myself to present a petition to
+Parliament, a serious riot took place in the city of London, in which
+a gentleman was shot by the military. The Government, in alarm lest
+the people should proceed to the King's Bench and liberate me, did me
+the honour to send a company of infantry to guard me, the officers of
+the prison being ordered to admit no strangers whatever. The troops
+were further ordered to continue their attendance till I was released
+from custody.
+
+"The subscription having been completed in pence, sent from all parts
+of the kingdom, my secretary, Mr. Jackson, applied to the Master of
+the Crown Office to receive the amount of the fine in coppers. This
+was refused, as not being a legal tender. The Master, however, in
+token of the suffering to which I had so unworthily been subjected,
+said that, as payment of the fine in such a manner marked the sense of
+the people on my case, he would not oppose himself to the expression
+of public sentiment, but would take 10£ of the sum in coppers. This
+was accordingly paid, and the remainder in notes and silver, which
+were given by various tradesmen in exchange for the coppers of the
+people, whose money was thus literally appropriated to the payment of
+the fine.
+
+"Finding, on my liberation, whole chests filled with penny pieces, I
+wrote to the committee, stating that sufficient had been collected.
+The reply was that the subscription should go on till the amount of
+the fine of 1000£ was paid in addition. The whole of the amount of
+the fine was thus realized, with something beyond—I do not recollect
+how much—towards my law expenses, which had necessarily been
+excessive. Taking, however, the 1100£ paid in pence, this
+alone showed that two million six hundred and forty thousand
+persons—composing a very large portion of the adult population of
+the kingdom—sympathised with me. Not one of my persecutors could have
+elicited such an expression of public sympathy."
+
+The fine being thus paid, Lord Cochrane was released from the King's
+Bench Prison on the 7th of December, after a confinement of sixteen
+days, which was attended by all the wanton severity shown to him
+during his previous incarceration. Having been apprehended on a
+Thursday, he was, on his arrival at the King's Bench, placed in an
+unhealthy room protected by an iron grating. In the evening, having
+complained of such unusual treatment, he was informed that it was
+under the express directions of the Marshal. Next day, being seriously
+unwell, a physician was sent to him, who reported that he was
+suffering from palpitation of the heart and other symptoms of
+dangerous excitement, which made it necessary that he should be
+removed to better quarters. Accordingly, worse quarters were found for
+him, in a damp, dark, and very imperfectly-ventilated room, entirely
+devoid of furniture, in the middle of the building. Stedfastly
+refusing to go there, he was allowed to remain for that night in
+the room, first assigned to him. On Saturday morning, just as he
+was sitting down to breakfast, he was ordered to proceed to his new
+dungeon. Again refusing, his untasted breakfast was forcibly taken
+from him until he consented to eat it in the appointed place. Thither
+he accordingly went, and there he was detained for the fortnight that
+passed before his liberation.
+
+On the 17th of December an enthusiastic meeting of the citizens of
+Westminster was held to congratulate Lord Cochrane upon his release.
+"We, your lordship's constituents," it was stated in an address
+adopted by that meeting, "beg leave, on the present occasion, to
+declare that, after having had long and ample means for inquiry and
+reflection, we remain in the full and entire conviction of the perfect
+innocence of your lordship of every part of the offence laid to your
+charge at the outset of that series of persecutions by which, during
+the last three years of your life, you have been incessantly harassed.
+But, indeed, those persons must have very little knowledge of public
+affairs, and particularly of your distinguished naval and political
+career, who do not clearly perceive that all those persecutions have
+arisen from your public virtues, and who are not well convinced that,
+if you had not served the people by your exposure of the abuses in the
+prize courts, by your endeavours to restore to the right owners
+the immense sums unjustly alienated under the names of Droits of
+Admiralty, by your honest explanation of the causes which prevented
+the naval renown of your country being complete at Basque Roads, and
+by having caused to be produced in Parliament, and published to the
+nation, that memorable account of sinecures, pensions, and grants
+which so usefully enlightened the public, you never would have
+been prosecuted for a pretended fraud on the funds. Your lordship's
+constituents, being thus fully sensible that you have suffered and are
+still suffering solely for their and their country's sake, would deem
+themselves amongst the most ungrateful of mankind were they to neglect
+this occasion to tender you the most solemn assurances of their
+unabated attachment and their most resolute support, and, whilst they
+are endeavouring to discharge their duty towards your lordship, they
+entertain the consoling reflection that the day is not distant when
+you will mainly assist in carrying forward that measure of radical
+parliamentary reform which alone can be a safeguard against all sorts
+of oppressions, and especially oppressions under which your lordship
+has so long and so severely suffered."
+
+To that honourable address an honourable reply was penned by Lord
+Cochrane on the 24th of December, and presented to the electors of
+Westminster at another meeting assembled for the purpose on the 1st of
+January ensuing.
+
+The direct persecution which began with the Stock Exchange trial and
+its antecedents was now at an end, after three years of gross and
+untiring vindictiveness. Indirect persecution was to continue for more
+than thirty years.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V.
+
+
+THE STATE OF POLITICS IN ENGLAND IN 1817 AND 1818, AND LORD COCHRANE's
+SHARE IN THEM.—HIS WORK AS A RADICAL IN AND OUT OF PARLIAMENT.—HIS
+FUTILE ATTEMPTS TO OBTAIN THE PRIZE MONEY DUE FOR HIS SERVICES
+AT BASQUE ROADS.—THE HOLLY HILL BATTLE.—THE PREPARATIONS FOR HIS
+ENTERPRISE IN SOUTH AMERICA.—HIS LAST SPEECH IN PARLIAMENT.
+
+[1817-1818.]
+
+The years 1817 and 1818 were years of great political turmoil. The
+English people, weary of the European wars, which in two-and-twenty
+years had raised the national debt from 230,000,000£ to
+860,000,000£, thus causing a taxation which amounted, in the average,
+to 25£ a year upon every family of five persons, were in no mood to
+be made happy even by the restitution of peace. Partly by necessity,
+partly by the bad management of the Government and its officials, the
+war-burdens were continued, and to the starving multitudes they were
+more burdensome than ever. Angry complaints were uttered openly, and
+repeated again and again with steadily-increasing vehemence, in all
+parts of the country. That the ministers and agents of the Crown were
+grievously at fault was patent to all; and it is not strange that, in
+the excitement and the misery that prevailed, they should be blamed
+even more than was their due. But the men in power did not choose to
+be blamed at all; they denied that any fault attached to them, and
+fiercely reprobated every complaint as sedition, every opponent as a
+lawless and unpatriotic demagogue. Hence the Government and the people
+came to be at deadly feud. Most right was with the people, and their
+bold assertion of that right, albeit sometimes in wrong ways, has
+secured memorable benefits in later times; but power was still with
+the Government, and it was used even more roughly than in former
+years.
+
+That Lord Cochrane, having suffered so much from the vindictive
+persecution of the Tories, should have thrown in his lot with its
+most extreme opponents, is not to be wondered at. During 1817 he was
+intimately associated with the popular party in all its efforts for
+the redress of grievances and in all the assertions of its real and
+fancied rights. In and out of Parliament he was alike active and
+outspoken. The history of his public conduct at this time forms
+no small section of the history of the Radical movement during the
+period. It resulted naturally from the circumstances in which he had
+lately been placed. Energetic in thought and action, a ready writer
+and an able speaker, his recent sufferings helped to place him in the
+foremost rank of patriots, as they were called by friends—demagogues,
+as they were called by enemies. With the exception of Sir Francis
+Burdett, than whom he even went further, the people had, outside their
+own ranks, no sturdier champion.
+
+If there had been any doubt before as to his line of action, there
+could be no doubt after the re-assembling of Parliament in January,
+1817. During the recess, monster meetings had been held in all parts
+of the country to consider the popular troubles and to insist upon
+popular reforms. Lord Cochrane agreed to present to the House of
+Commons many of the petitions that resulted from these meetings, and
+this he did on the 29th of January, the very day of the re-opening of
+Parliament.
+
+In anticipation of this measure, there was a great assembling of
+reform delegates from all parts of England, and of others favourable
+to their purpose, in front of Lord Cochrane's residence at No. 7,
+Palace Yard, Westminster. Shortly before two o'clock Lord Cochrane
+showed himself at the window, and announced that he was now on his
+way to the House, there to watch over the rights and liberties of the
+people, and that he would shortly return and let them know what was
+passing. This he did at four o'clock, part of the interval being
+occupied with a fervid address from Henry Hunt. On his reappearance,
+Lord Cochrane stated that the speech with which the Prince Regent had
+opened Parliament had not disappointed his expectations, for it was
+wholly disappointing to the people. The Regent had complained of the
+disaffection pervading the country, and had announced his intention of
+using all the power given him by the Constitution for its suppression.
+Lord Cochrane expressed his confident hope that the people, having
+the right on their side, would so demean themselves as to give their
+enemies no ground of charge against them; for those enemies desired
+nothing so much as riot and disorder.
+
+Thereupon an immense bundle of petitions was handed him, and he
+himself was placed in a chair, and so conveyed on men's shoulders to
+the door of Westminster Hall, where the crowd dispersed in an orderly
+way.
+
+In the House, before the motion for an address in answer to the Prince
+Regent's speech, Lord Cochrane rose to present a petition, signed by
+more than twenty thousand inhabitants of Bristol, setting forth the
+present distress of the country, the increase of paupers and beggars,
+the grievous lack of employment for industrious persons, and
+the misery that resulted from this state of things. In these
+circumstances, the petitioners urged, it was in vain to pretend to
+relieve the sufferers by giving them soup, while, for the support of
+sinecure placemen, pensioners without number, and an insatiable
+civil list, half their earnings were taken from them by the enormous
+taxation under which the country groaned. After considerable
+opposition, the petition was allowed to lie on the table.
+
+Lord Cochrane then presented a smaller but much more outspoken
+petition from the inhabitants of Quirk, in Yorkshire. "The
+petitioners," it was there urged, "have a full and immovable
+conviction—a conviction which they believe to be universal throughout
+the kingdom—that the House does not, in any constitutional or
+rational sense, represent the nation; that, when the people have
+ceased to be represented, the Constitution is subverted; that taxation
+without representation is a state of slavery; that the scourge
+of taxation without representation has now reached a severity too
+harassing and vexatious, too intolerable and degrading, to be longer
+endured without resistance by all possible means warranted by the
+Constitution; that such a condition of affairs has now been reached
+that contending factions are alike guilty of their country's wrongs,
+alike forgetful of her rights, mocking the public patience with
+repeated, protracted, and disgusting debates on questions of
+refinement in the complicated and abstruse science of taxation, as if
+in such refinement, and not in a reformed representation, as if in a
+consolidated corruption, and not in a renovated Constitution,
+relief were to be found; that thus there are left no human means of
+redressing the people's wrongs or composing their distracted minds,
+or of preventing the subversion of liberty and the establishment of
+despotism, unless by calling the collected wisdom and virtue of the
+community into counsel by the election of a free Parliament; and
+therefore, considering that, through the usurpation of borough
+factions and other causes, the people have been put even out of a
+condition to consent to taxes; and considering also that, until their
+sacred right of election shall be restored, no free Parliament can
+have existence, it is necessary that the House shall, without delay,
+pass a law for putting the aggrieved and much-aroused people in
+possession of their undoubted right to representation co-extensive
+with taxation, to an equal distribution of such representation
+throughout the community, and to Parliaments of a continuance
+according to the Constitution, namely, not exceeding one year."
+
+A long discussion ensued as to whether this petition should be
+accepted by the House or rejected as an insulting libel. Several
+members of the House denounced it. Other members, while objecting to
+its terms, urged its acceptance. Among them the most notable was
+Mr. Brougham. The petition, he said, was rudely worded, and its
+recommendations were such as no wise lover of the English Constitution
+could wholly subscribe to; but it pointed to real grievances and
+recommended improvements which were necessary to the well-being of the
+State, and therefore it ought to be admitted. Mr. Canning was one of
+those who insisted upon its rejection, and this was ultimately done by
+a majority of 87, 48 being in favour of the petition, and 135 against
+it.
+
+Four other petitions presented by Lord Cochrane, being to the same
+effect, were also rejected; and two, more moderate in their language,
+were accepted. Lord Cochrane thus succeeded, at any rate, in forcing
+the House during several hours to take into consideration the troubled
+state of the country, and the pressing need, as it seemed to great
+masses of the people, of thorough parliamentary reform.
+
+"You will see by the 'Debates,'" he wrote next day to a friend, "that
+I presented a number of petitions last night, and had a hard battle to
+fight. Today I am quite indisposed, by reason of the corruption of the
+Honourable House. It is impossible to support a bad cause by honest
+means. God knows where all these base projects will end." That his own
+cause was a good one, and that the means used by him were honest, he
+had no doubt. In the same letter he referred to the opposition offered
+to him, even by some of his own relatives, on account of his conduct.
+"Mr. Cochrane has thought proper to disavow, through the public
+papers, any connection with my politics. The consciousness that I am
+acting as I ought makes that light which I should otherwise feel as a
+heavy clog in following that course which I think honour and justice
+require."
+
+Therefore he persevered in his Herculean task. Having presented and
+spoken upon others in the interval, he presented another monster
+petition to the House on the 5th of February. It was signed, he said,
+by twenty-four thousand inhabitants of London and the neighbourhood.
+It complained of the unbearable weight of taxation and the distresses
+of the country, and of the squandering of the money extracted from the
+pockets of an oppressed and impoverished people to support sinecure
+placemen and pensioners. "It appears to me," he said, "surprising that
+there should be any set of men so cruel and unjust as to wallow in
+wealth at the public expense while poor wretches are starving at every
+corner of the streets." He represented that the petition was drawn
+up in temperate, respectful language,—more temperate, indeed, than
+he should have employed had he dictated its phrases. He urged that the
+people had good cause for complaint as to the way in which Parliament
+neglected their interests, and good ground for asserting that the
+system of parliamentary representation then afforded them was no real
+representation at all. Members entered the House only in pursuit of
+their own selfish ends, and the Government encouraged this state of
+things by fostering a system of wholesale bribery and corruption,
+degrading in itself and fraught with terrible mischief to the
+community. What wonder, then, that the people should pray, as they did
+in this petition, for a thorough reform, and should point to annual
+Parliaments and universal suffrage as the only efficient remedies?
+
+It is needless to recapitulate all the arguments offered again
+and again by Lord Cochrane, with ever fresh-force and cogency, in
+presenting massive petitions to the House, and in introducing into
+the occasional debates on reform with which the House amused itself
+a vigour and practicalness in which few other members cared to
+sympathize. Nor need we enumerate all the meetings, in London and the
+provinces, in which he took prominent part. It is enough to say that
+in Parliament he always spoke with exceeding boldness, and that upon
+the people, notwithstanding the contrary assertions of his detractors,
+he always enjoined, if not conciliation and forbearance, at any rate
+such action as was within the strict letter of the law, and most
+likely, in the end, to obtain the realization of their wishes. On all
+occasions he defended them from the charges of sedition and conspiracy
+brought against them by their opponents, and proved, to all who were
+open to proof, that their objects were patriotic, and were being
+sought in patriotic ways.
+
+Of this, however, the Government did not choose to be convinced.
+Taking advantage of some intemperate speeches of demagogues, making
+much of some violent handbills circulated by police-officers under
+secret instructions, mightily exaggerating a few lawless acts,—as
+when a drunken old sailor summoned the keepers of the Tower of London
+to surrender,—they procured, on the 26th of February, the suspension
+of the Habeas Corpus Act. Therefrom resulted, at any rate, some good.
+The Whigs, who had hitherto mainly supported the Tory Government, were
+now turned against it, and with them the wiser Radicals, like Lord
+Cochrane, sought to effect a coalition. "You will perceive by the
+papers," he said in a letter dated February the 28th, "that I have
+resolved to steer another political course, seeing that the only means
+of averting military despotism from the country is to unite the people
+and the Whigs, so far as they can be induced to co-operate, which they
+must do if they wish to preserve the remainder of the Constitution.
+The 'Times' of yesterday contains the fullest account of the late
+debates on the suspension of the Habeas Corpus Act, and by that report
+you will perceive that the Whigs really made a good stand."
+
+In that temper, Lord Cochrane spoke at a Westminster meeting, held
+on the 11th of March, "to take into consideration the propriety
+of agreeing to an address to His Royal Highness the Prince Regent,
+beseeching that he will, in his well-known solicitude for the freedom
+and happiness of His Majesty's subjects, remove from his royal
+councils those ministers who appear resolved to adopt no effectual
+measures of economy and retrenchment, but, on the contrary, to
+persevere in measures calculated to drive a suffering people to
+despair."
+
+There was some flattery or some mockery, or something of both, in
+that announcement; and both, with much earnest enunciation of popular
+grievances, were in Lord Cochrane's speech on the subject. He said
+that the Regent had as much cause as the people to complain of his
+present ministers, seeing how shamelessly they sought to hide from him
+the real state of the country. It was to be expected, from the early
+habits and character of the Regent, that he would anxiously pursue
+the interests of the nation, if, instead of being in the hands of an
+odious oligarchy, he could act for himself. This, at any rate, Lord
+Cochrane maintained should be urged upon him, for if something were
+not quickly done for the relief of the nation, trade and commerce
+would soon be utterly ruined, and the whole community would share the
+misery that had so long oppressed the lower orders. He again dwelt
+forcibly on the causes of this misery, and again denounced the conduct
+of the ministers and placemen who, while squandering the hardly-earned
+pounds of the people, claimed respect for their exemplary charity
+in doling out a few farthings for "the relief of the poor." In the
+previous year, he showed, Lord Castlereagh, "the bell-wether of the
+House of Commons," and thirteen other persons, had drawn from the
+revenues of the country 309,861£, and out of that amount had given
+back, in "sinecure soup," only 1505£
+
+On a hundred other occasions, both outside of the House of Commons and
+within its walls, Lord Cochrane continued fearlessly to set forth
+the troubles of the people and the wrong-doing of its governors. In
+Parliament petitions without number were presented, and, amid all
+sorts of contumely, defended by him; and he took a no less active part
+in various important discussions, of which it will suffice, by way of
+illustration, to name the debates of the 3rd, 14th, and 28th of March,
+on the famous Seditious Meetings Bill, and that of the 13th of March
+on the depressed condition of English trade and its causes—a subject
+which was recurred to by Mr. Brougham in his memorable motion of the
+11th of July on the state of the nation.
+
+Six weeks before that, on the 20th of May, Lord Cochrane spoke on
+another famous motion—that made by his friend Sir Francis Burdett
+in favour of parliamentary reform. Once more, he complained that the
+existing House of Commons in no way represented the people, and was
+entirely regardless of its interests. Nothing better, he alleged,
+could be hoped for, without a radical change in the system of
+representation. "But," he continued, "reform we must have, whether we
+will or no. The state of the country is such that things cannot much
+longer be conducted as they now are. There is a general call for
+reform. If the call is not obeyed, thank God the evil will produce
+its own remedy, the mass of corruption will destroy itself, for the
+maggots it engenders will eat it up. The members of this House are the
+maggots of the Constitution. They are the locusts that devour it and
+cause all the evils that are complained of. There is nothing wicked
+which does not emanate from this House. In it originate all knavery,
+perjury, and fraud. You well know all this. You also know that the
+means by which the great majority of the House is returned is one
+great cause of the corruption of the whole people. It has been said,
+'Let the people reform themselves;' but if sums of money are offered
+for seats within these walls, there will always be found men ready to
+receive them. It is impossible to imagine that the profuse expenditure
+of the late war would have taken place, had it not been for a corrupt
+majority devoted to their selfish interests. At least it would have
+had a shorter duration, from being carried on in a more effective
+manner, had it not been conducive to the views of many to prevent its
+speedy termination. Much has been said about the glorious result of
+the war; but has not lavish expenditure loaded us with taxation which
+is impoverishing the people and annihilating commerce? Are not vessels
+seen everywhere with brooms at their mastheads? Are not sailors
+starving? Is not agriculture languishing? Are not our manufactures in
+the most distressed state?"
+
+Lord Cochrane asserted that the real revolutionists of England were
+the ministers and their followers. "I am persuaded that no man without
+doors wishes the subversion of the Constitution; but within it,
+bribery and corruption stand for the Constitution. Mr. Pitt himself
+confessed that no honest man could hold the situation of minister for
+any length of time. There can be no honest minister until measures
+have been taken to purge and purify the House. If this be not done,
+it is in vain to hope for a renewal of successful enterprise in this
+country: the sun of the country is set for ever. It may indeed exist
+as a petty military German despotism, with horsemen parading up and
+down, with large whiskers, with sabres ringing by their horses' sides,
+with fantastically-shaped caps of fantastical colours on their
+heads; but this country cannot thus be made a great military power.
+A previous speaker has instanced juries as one of the benefits of the
+Constitution; but I will affirm, with respect to the manner in which
+juries are chosen under the present system, that justice is much
+better administered, in a more summary manner, with less expense, and
+no chicanery, by the Dey of Algiers. If this country were erected at
+once into a downright, honest, open despotism, the people would be
+gainers. If a judge or despot then proved a rogue, he would at
+once appear in his true character; but now villany can be artfully
+concealed under the verdict of a packed jury. I am satisfied that the
+present system of corruption is more detrimental to the country than a
+despotism."
+
+No other speaker spoke so boldly as Lord Cochrane; but his eloquent
+words were substantially endorsed by many; by Sir Samuel Romilly and
+Mr. Brougham in especial; and on a division, though 265 voted
+against Sir Francis Burdett's motion, it was supported by a
+minority—unusually large for the time—of 77.
+
+Slowly but surely the better principles of government for which
+Lord Cochrane fought so persistently were gaining ground, destined
+ultimately to produce the changes in national temper which made plain
+the duty and expediency of adopting the changes in political systems
+in which the years 1832 and 1867 are epochs. In after years, Lord
+Cochrane himself clearly saw that he had been rash in his advocacy
+of the sweeping reforms which the excited people deemed necessary for
+their welfare in the years of trouble and misgovernment consequent on
+the tedious war-time ending with the battle of Waterloo. But he never
+had cause to regret the honest zeal and the generous sympathy with
+which he strove, though in violent ways, to lessen the weight of the
+popular distresses.
+
+Distresses were not wanting to himself during this period. The weight
+of his former troubles still hung heavily upon him. He could not
+forget the terrible disgrace—none the less terrible because it was
+unmerited—that had befallen him. And in pecuniary ways he was a
+grievous sufferer by them. In losing his naval employment he lost
+the income on which he had counted. His resources were thus seriously
+crippled; and the scientific pursuits, in which he still persevered,
+failed to bring to him the profit that he anticipated.
+
+In one characteristic way—only one among many—the Government
+persecution still clung to him. In the distribution of prize-money
+for the achievement at Basque Roads all the officers and crews of
+Lord Grambier's fleet had been considered entitled to share. To this
+arrangement Lord Cochrane objected. He urged that as the whole triumph
+was due to the _Impérieuse_ and the few ships actually engaged with
+her, the reward ought to be limited to them. "I am preparing to
+proceed in the Court of Admiralty on the question of head-money for
+Basque Roads," he wrote on the 5th of November, 1816; "my affidavit
+has reluctantly been admitted, though strenuously opposed, on the
+ground that I was not to be believed on my oath!"
+
+Lord Cochrane's council in this case was Dr. Lushington, afterwards
+the eminent judge of the Admiralty Court. Dr. Lushington showed
+plainly that the greater part of the fleet, having taken no share in
+the action, had no right to head-money, and that therefore all ought
+to be divided among those who actually shared with Lord Cochrane
+the danger and the success of the enterprise. But Sir William Scott
+(afterwards Lord Stowell), the judge at that time, was not disposed
+to sanction this view. Therefore he thwarted it by delays. The case
+having been postponed from November, 1816, was brought up again in the
+first term of 1817. "The judge has again delayed his decision," wrote
+Lord Cochrane on the 28th of February, the day of the announcement,
+"and I believe has done so until next session. He gave a curious
+reason for this, namely, that I took part at the Westminster meeting
+against the suspension of the Habeas Corpus Act!"
+
+At the next session it was again postponed, all the time available
+for its consideration being taken up with a frivolous discussion as to
+Lord Cochrane's right to give evidence. "They have gone the length,"
+wrote his secretary, Mr. Jackson, on the 3rd of May, "of denying Lord
+Cochrane's credibility in a court of justice. They had no other way
+of answering his affidavit, which would have gained his cause in the
+Court of Admiralty, as it proved that the French ships in Basque Roads
+were destroyed by his own exertions in fighting without orders from
+the Admiral. The denial-of Lord Cochrane's competency to give evidence
+has excited a great deal of interest, and the Court of Admiralty was
+quite crowded on Tuesday, when the question came on to be discussed.
+I thought that our counsel had much the best of the argument, and I
+believe the judge, Sir William Scott, thought so too, as he put off
+his sentence to a future day." On the future day the judge admitted as
+much. "We have gained a bit of a victory in the Admiralty Court," said
+the same writer in a letter dated the 9th of June, "the judge having
+been compelled to pronounce in favour of his lordship's right to
+be believed on his oath." The time taken by him to arrive at this
+decision, however, was so long that the case had to be adjourned to
+November term, and thereby Lord Cochrane's enemies so far attained
+their object, that it was impossible for him, in November term, to
+renew the suit.
+
+In the interval he had gone to France, preparatory to a much longer
+and more momentous journey to South America, in anticipation of which
+he was winding up his affairs and realizing his property during and
+after the summer of 1817.
+
+In this settlement of accounts there was at any rate one amusing
+incident. It will be remembered that, on the occasion of his being
+elected Member of Parliament for Honiton in 1806, Lord Cochrane had
+refused to follow the almost universal fashion of bribery, but, after
+the election was over, had thoughtlessly yielded to the proposal
+of his agent that he should entertain his constituents at a public
+supper.[A] This entertainment, either through spite or through wanton
+extravagance, was turned by those to whom the management of it was
+assigned into a great occasion of feasting for all the inhabitants of
+the town; and for defrayment of the expenses thus incurred a claim
+for more than 1200£ was afterwards made upon Lord Cochrane. Through
+eleven years he bluntly refused to pay the preposterous demand; but
+his creditors had the law upon their side, and in the spring of 1817
+an order was granted for putting an execution into his house at Holly
+Hill.
+
+[Footnote A: 'The Autobiography of a Seaman,' vol. i. pp. 203, 204.]
+
+Lord Cochrane, however, having resisted the demand thus far,
+determined to resist to the end. For more than six weeks he prevented
+the agents of the law from entering the house. "I still hold out,"
+he said in a letter to his secretary, "though the castle has several
+times been threatened in great force. The trumpeter is now blowing for
+a parley, but no one appears on the ramparts. Explosion-bags are set
+in the lower embrasures, and all the garrison is under arms." In
+the explosion-bags there was nothing more dangerous than powdered
+charcoal; but, supposing they contained gunpowder or some other
+combustible, the sheriff of Hampshire and twenty-five officers were
+held at bay by them, until at length one official, more daring than
+the rest, jumped in at an open window, to find Lord Cochrane sitting
+at breakfast and to be complimented by him upon the wonderful bravery
+which he had shown in coming up to a building defended by charcoal
+dust.
+
+That battle with the sheriff and bailiffs of Hampshire occupied nearly
+the whole of April and May, 1817. In the latter month, if not before,
+Lord Cochrane began to think seriously of proceeding to join in
+battles of a more serious sort in South America, under inducements and
+with issues that will presently be detailed. "His lordship has made up
+his mind to go to South America," wrote his secretary on the 31st of
+May. "Numbers of gentlemen of great respectability are desirous of
+accompanying him, and even Sir Francis Burdett has declared that he
+feels a great temptation to do so; but Lord Cochrane discourages all.
+They think he is going to immolate the Spaniards by his secret plans;
+but he is not going to do anything of the kind, having promised the
+Prince Regent not to divulge or use them otherwise than in the service
+of his country."
+
+With this expedition in view, and purposing to start upon it nearly a
+year sooner than he found himself able to do, Lord Cochrane sold Holly
+Hill and his other property in Hampshire, in July. In August he went
+for a few months to France, partly for the benefit of Lady Cochrane's
+health, partly, as it would seem, in the hope of introducing into
+that country the lamps which he had lately invented, and from which he
+hoped to derive considerable profit.
+
+To this matter, and to his efforts to obtain some share, at any rate,
+of his rights from the English Government, the letters written by
+him from France chiefly refer. But there are in them some notes and
+illustrations of more general interest. "I am quite astonished at the
+state of Boulogne," he wrote thence on the 14th of August. "Neither
+the town nor the heights are fortified; so great was Napoleon's
+confidence in the terror of his name and the knowledge he possessed
+of the stupidity and ignorance of our Government." In a letter from
+Paris, dated the 23rd of August, we read: "Everything is looking much
+more settled than when I was formerly here, and I do really think that
+the Government, from the conciliatory measures wisely adopted, will
+stand their ground against the adherents of Buonaparte. We are to have
+a great rejoicing to-morrow. All Paris will be dancing, fiddling, and
+singing. They are a light-hearted people. I wish I could join in their
+fun. I was hopeful that I should; but the cursed recollection of the
+injustice that has been done to me is never out of my mind; so that
+all my pleasures are blasted, from whatever source they might be
+expected to arise."
+
+That last sentence fairly indicates the state of Lord Cochrane's mind
+during these painful years. Weighed down by troubles heavy enough to
+break the heart of an ordinary man, he fought nobly for the thorough
+justification of his character and for the protection of others from
+such persecution as had befallen him. In both objects, altogether
+praise-worthy in themselves, he may have sometimes been intemperate;
+but ample excuse for far greater intemperance would be found in the
+troubles that oppressed him. "The cursed recollection of the injustice
+that has been done to me is never out of my mind; all my pleasures are
+blasted!"
+
+In the same temper, after a lapse of nine months, about which it is
+only necessary to say that, like their forerunners, they were
+employed in private cares, and, especially after the reassembling of
+Parliament, in zealous action for the public good, he made his last
+speech in the House of Commons on the 2nd of June, 1818. The occasion
+was a debate upon a second motion by Sir Francis Burdett in favour of
+parliamentary reform, more cogent and effective than that of the
+20th of May, 1817, to Lord Cochrane's share in which we have already
+referred. The former speech was wholly of public interest. This has a
+personal significance, very painful and very memorable. It brings to a
+pathetic close the saddest epoch in Lord Cochrane's life—so very full
+of sadness.
+
+"I rise, sir," he said, "to second the motion of my honourable friend.
+In what I have to say, I do not presume to think that I can add to
+the able arguments that have just been uttered; but it is my duty
+distinctly to declare my opinions on the subject. When I recollect all
+the proceedings of this House, I confess that I do not entertain much
+hope of a favourable result to the present motion. To me it seems
+chiefly serviceable as an exhibition of sound principles, and as
+showing the people for what they ought to petition. I shall perhaps be
+told that it is unparliamentary to say there are any representatives
+of the people in this House who have sold themselves to the purposes
+and views of any set of men in power; but the history of the
+degenerate senate of that once free people, the Romans, will serve
+to show how far corruption may make inroads upon public virtue or
+patriotism. The tyranny inflicted on the Roman people, and on mankind
+in general, under the form of acts passed by the Roman senate, will
+ever prove a useful memento to nations which have any freedom to lose.
+It is not for me to prophesy when our case will be like theirs; but
+this I will say, that those who are the slaves of a despotic
+monarch are far less reprehensible for their actions than those who
+voluntarily sell themselves when they have the means of remaining
+free.
+
+"And here," he continued, in sentences broken by his emotions, "as it
+is probably the last time I shall ever have the honour of addressing
+the House on any subject, I am anxious to tell its members what I
+think of their conduct. It is now nearly eleven years since I have
+had the honour of a seat in this House, and since then there have
+been very few measures in which I could agree with the opinions of the
+majority. To say that these measures were contrary to justice would
+not be parliamentary. I will not even go into the inquiry whether
+they tend to the national good or not; but I will merely appeal to the
+feelings of the landholders present, I will appeal to the knowledge
+of those members who are engaged in commerce, and ask them whether the
+acts of the legislative body have not been of a description, during
+the late war, that would, if not for the timely intervention of the
+use of machinery, have sent this nation to total ruin? The country is
+burthened to a degree which, but for this intervention, it would have
+been impossible for the people to bear. The cause of these measures
+having such an effect upon the country has been examined and gone
+into by my honourable colleague (Sir Francis Burdett); they are to
+be traced to that patronage and influence which, a number of powerful
+individuals possess over the nomination of a great proportion of the
+members of this House; a power which, devolving on a few, becomes
+thereby the more liable to be affected by the influence of the Crown;
+and which has in fact been rendered almost entirely subservient to
+that influence. To reform the abuses which arise out of this system
+is the object of my honourable friend's motion. I will not, cannot,
+anticipate the success of the motion; but I will say, as has been
+said before by the great Chatham, the father of Mr. Pitt, that, if the
+House does not reform itself from within, it will be reformed with
+a vengeance from without. The people will take up the subject, and
+a reform will take place which will make many members regret their
+apathy in now refusing that reform which might be rendered efficient
+and permanent. But, unfortunately, in the present formation of the
+House, it appears to me that from within no reform can be expected,
+and for the truth of this I appeal to the experience of the few
+members, less than a hundred, who are now present, nearly six hundred
+being absent; I appeal to their experience to say whether they have
+ever known of any one instance in which a petition of the people for
+reform has been taken into consideration, or any redress afforded in
+consequence of such a petition? This I regret, because I foresee the
+consequence which must necessarily result from it. I do trust and
+hope that before it is too late some measures shall be adopted for
+redressing the grievances of the people; for certain I am that
+unless some measures are taken to stop the feelings which the people
+entertain towards this House and to restore their confidence in it,
+you will one day have ample cause to repent the line of conduct you
+have pursued. The gentlemen who now sit on the benches opposite
+with such triumphant feelings will one day repent their conduct. The
+commotions to which that conduct will inevitably give rise will shake,
+not only this House, but the whole framework of Government and society
+to its foundations. I have been actuated by the wish to prevent this,
+and I have had no other intention.
+
+"I shall not trespass longer on your time," he continued, in a few
+broken sentences, uttered painfully and with agitation that aroused
+much sympathy in the House. "The situation I have held for
+eleven years in this House I owe to the favour of the electors of
+Westminster. The feelings of my heart are gratified by the manner
+in which they have acted towards me. They have rescued me from a
+desperate and wicked conspiracy which has nearly involved me in total
+ruin. I forgive those who have so done; and I hope when they depart to
+their graves they will be equally able to forgive themselves. All
+this is foreign to the subject before the House, but I trust you will
+forgive me. I shall not trespass on your time longer now—perhaps
+never again on any subject. I hope his Majesty's ministers will take
+into their serious consideration what I now say. I do not utter it
+with any feelings of hostility—such feelings have now left me—but
+I trust they will take my warning, and save the country by abandoning
+the present system before it is too late."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI.
+
+
+THE ANTECEDENTS OF LORD COCHRANE'S EMPLOYMENTS IN AMERICA.—THE WAR
+OF INDEPENDENCE IN THE SPANISH COLONIES.—MEXICO.—VENEZUELA.
+—COLOMBIA.—CHILI.—THE FIRST CHILIAN INSURRECTION.—THE CARRERAS
+AND O'HIGGINS.—THE BATTLE OF BANCAGUA.—O'HIGGINS'S SUCCESSES.—THE
+ESTABLISHMENT OF THE CHILIAN REPUBLIC.—LORD COCHRANE INVITED TO ENTER
+THE CHILIAN SERVICE.
+
+
+(1810—1817.)
+
+To an understanding of Lord Cochrane's share in the South American
+wars of independence a brief recapitulation of their antecedents, and
+of the state of affairs at the time of his first connection with them,
+is necessary.
+
+The Spanish possessions in both North and South America, which had
+reached nearly their full dimensions before the close of the sixteenth
+century, had been retained, with little opposition from without,
+and with still less from within, down to the close of the eighteenth
+century. These possessions, including Mexico and Central America, New
+Granada, Venezuela, Peru, La Plata, and Chili, covered an area larger
+than that of Europe, more than twice as large as that of the present
+United States. Through half a dozen generations they had been governed
+with all the short-sighted tyranny for which the Spanish Government is
+famous; the resources of the countries had been crippled in order that
+each day's greed might be satisfied; and the inhabitants, who, for the
+most part, were the mixed offspring of Spanish and native parents,
+had been kept in abject dependence and in ignorant ferocity. There
+was plenty of internal hatred and strife; but no serious thought of
+winning their liberty and working out their own regeneration seems to
+have existed among the people of the several provinces, until it was
+suggested by the triumphant success of the United States in throwing
+off the stronger but much less oppressive thraldom of Great Britain.
+That success having been achieved, however, it was soon emulated by
+the colonial subjects of Spain.
+
+The first leader of agitation was Francisco Miranda, a Venezuelan
+Creole. He visited England in 1790, and received some encouragement in
+his revolutionary projects from Pitt. He went to France in 1792, and
+there, while waiting some years for fit occasion of prosecuting the
+work on which his heart was set, he helped to fight the battle of the
+revolution against the Bourbons and the worn-out feudalism of which
+they were representatives. During his absence, in 1794, conspiracies
+against Spain arose in Mexico and New Granada, and, these continuing,
+he went in 1794, armed by secret promises of assistance from Pitt, to
+help in fomenting them. They prospered for several years; and in 1806
+Miranda obtained substantial aid from Sir Alexander Cochrane, Lord
+Cochrane's uncle, then the admiral in command of the West India
+station. But in 1806 Pitt died. The Whigs came into power, and with
+their coming occurred a change in the English policy. In 1807, General
+Crawfurd was ordered to throw obstacles in the way of Miranda, then
+heading a formidable insurrection. The result was a temporary check
+to the work of revolution. In 1810 Miranda renewed his enterprise
+in Venezuela, still with poor success; and in the same year a fresh
+revolt was stirred up in Mexico by Miguel Hidalgo, of Costilla, a
+priest of Dolores. Hidalgo's insurrection was foolish in design and
+bloodthirsty in execution. It was continued, in better spirit, but
+with poor success, by Morelos and Rayon, who, sustaining a serious
+defeat in 1815, left the strife to degenerate into a coarse bandit
+struggle, very disastrous to Spain, but hardly beneficial to the cause
+of Mexican independence.
+
+In the meanwhile a more prosperous and worthier contest was being
+waged in South America. Besides the efforts of Miranda in Venezuela,
+which were renewed between 1810 and 1812, when he was taken prisoner
+and sent to Spain, there to die in a dungeon, a separate standard of
+revolt was raised in Quito by Narinno and his friends in 1809. After
+fighting desperately, in guerilla fashion, for five years, Narinno
+was captured and forced to share Miranda's lot. A greater man, the
+greatest hero of South American independence, Simon Bolivar, succeeded
+them.
+
+Bolivar, a native of Caraccas, had passed many years in Europe, when
+in 1810, at the age of twenty-seven, he went to serve under Miranda
+in Venezuela. Miranda's defeat in 1812 compelled him to retire to New
+Granada, but there he did good service. He improved the fighting ways
+and extended the fighting area, and in December, 1814, was appointed
+captain-general of Venezuela and New Granada, soon, however, to be
+driven back and forced to take shelter in Jamaica by the superior
+strength of Morillo, the Spanish general, who arrived with a
+formidable army in 1815. In 1816 Bolivar again showed himself in the
+field at the head of his famous liberating army, which, crossing
+over from Trinidad, and gaining reinforcements at every step, planted
+freedom, such as it was, all along the northern parts of South
+America, in which the new republic of Colombia was founded under his
+presidency, in the neighbouring district of New Granada, and down to
+the La Plata province, where he established the republic of Bolivia,
+so named in his honour. With these patriotic labours he was busied
+upon land, while Lord Cochrane was securing the independence of the
+Spanish colonies by his brave warfare on the sea.
+
+As the cause of liberty progressed in South America, it became
+apparent that it had poor chance of permanence, while the
+revolutionists were unable to cope with the Spaniards in naval
+strife or to wrest from Spain her strongholds on the coast. This was
+especially the case with the maritime provinces of Chili and Peru.
+Peru, held firmly by the army garrisoned in Lima, to which Callao
+served as an almost impregnable port, had been unable to share in the
+contest waged on the other side of the Andes; and Chili, though
+strong enough to declare its independence, was too weak to maintain it
+without foreign aid.
+
+The Chilian struggle began in 1810, when the Spanish captain-general,
+Carrasco, was deposed, and a native government set up under Count de
+la Conquista. By this government the sovereignty of Spain was still
+recognised, although various reforms were adopted which Spain could
+not be expected to endorse. Accordingly, in April, 1811, an attempt
+was made by the Spanish soldiers to overturn the new order of
+things. The result was that, after brief fighting, the revolutionists
+triumphed, and the yoke of Spain was thrown off.
+
+But the independence of Chili, thus easily begun, was not easily
+continued. Three brothers, Jose Miguel, Juan Jose, and Luis Carreras,
+and their sister, styled the Anne Boleyn of Chili, determined to
+pervert the public weal to their own aggrandisement. Winning their way
+into popularity, they overturned the national congress that had been
+established in June, and in December set up a new junta, with Jose
+Miguel Carrera at its head. A dismal period of misrule ensued, which
+encouraged the Spanish generals, Pareja and Sanchez, to attempt the
+reconquest of Chili in 1813. Pareja and Sanchez were successfully
+resisted, and a better man, General Bernardo O'Higgins, the republican
+son of an Irishman who had been Viceroy of Peru, was put at the
+head of affairs. He succeeded to the command of the Chilian army in
+November, 1813, when a fresh attack from the Spaniards was expected.
+At first his good soldiership was successful. The enemy, having come
+almost to the gates of Santiago, was forced to retire in May, 1814;
+and the Chilian cause might have continued to prosper under O'Higgins,
+had not the Carreras contrived, in hopes of reinstating themselves in
+power, to divide the republican interests, and so, while encouraging
+renewed invasion by the Spaniards from Lima, make their resistance
+more difficult. Wisely deeming it right to set aside every other
+consideration than the necessity of saving Chili from the danger
+pressing upon it from without, O'Higgins effected a junction with the
+Carreras, hoping thus to bring the whole force of the republic against
+the royalist army, larger than its predecessors, which was marching
+towards Santiago and Valparaiso. Had his magnanimous proposals been
+properly acted upon, the issue might have been very different. But
+the Carreras, even in the most urgent hour of danger, could not forget
+their private ambitions. Holding aloof with their part of the army,
+they allowed O'Higgins and his force of nine hundred to be defeated
+by four thousand royalists under General Osorio, in the preliminary
+fight which took place at the end of September. They were guilty of
+like treachery during the great battle of the 1st of October. On that
+day the royalists entered Rancagua, the town in which O'Higgins and
+his little band had taken shelter. They were fiercely resisted, and
+the fighting lasted through thirty-six hours. So brave was the conduct
+of the patriots that the Spanish general was, after some hours'
+contest, on the point of retreating. He saw that he would have no
+chance of success, had the Carreras brought up their troops, as
+was expected by both sides of the combatants. But the Carreras,
+short-sighted in their selfishness, and nothing loth that O'Higgins
+should be defeated, still held aloof. Thereupon the Spaniards took
+heart, and made one more desperate effort. With hatchets and swords
+they forced their way, inch by inch and hour by hour, into the centre
+of the town. There, in an open square, O'Higgins, with two hundred
+men—all the remnant of his little army—made a last resistance. When
+only a few dozen of his soldiers were left alive, and when he himself
+was seriously wounded, he determined, not to surrender, but to end the
+battle. The residue of the patriots dashed through the town, cutting
+a road through the astonished crowd of their opponents, and effected
+a retreat in which those opponents, though more than twenty times as
+numerous, durst not pursue them.
+
+That memorable battle of Rancagua caused throughout the American
+continent, and, across the Atlantic, through Europe, a thrill of
+sympathy for the Chilian war of independence. But its immediate
+effects were most disastrous. The Carreras, too selfish to fight
+before, were now too cowardly. They and their followers fled.
+O'Higgins had barely soldiers enough left to serve as a weak escort
+to the fourteen hundred old men, women, and children who crossed the
+Andes with him on foot, to pass two years and a half in voluntary
+exile at Mendoza.
+
+During those two years and a half the Spaniards were masters in
+Santiago, and Chili was once more a Spanish province, in which the
+inhabitants were punished terribly in confiscations, imprisonments,
+and executions for their recent defection. Deliverance, however,
+was at hand. General San Martin, through whom chiefly La Plata had
+achieved its freedom, gave assistance to O'Higgins and the Chilian
+patriots. The main body of the Spanish army, numbering about five
+thousand, had been stationed on the heights of Chacabuco, whence
+Santiago, Valparaiso, and the other leading towns of Chili were
+overawed. On the 12th of February, 1817, San Martin and O'Higgins,
+with a force nearly as large, surprised this garrison, and, with
+excellent strategy and very little loss of life, to the patriots at
+any rate, it was entirely subdued. Santiago was entered in triumph on
+the 14th of February, and a few weeks served for the entire dispersion
+of the royalist forces. The supreme directorship of the renovated
+republic was offered to San Martin. On his declining the honour, it
+was assigned, to the satisfaction of all parties, to O'Higgins.
+
+The new dictator and the wisest of his counsellors, however, were not
+satisfied with the temporary advantage that they had achieved. They
+knew that armies would continue to come down from Peru, the defeat
+of which, even if that could be relied upon, would waste all the
+resources of the republic. They knew, too, that the Spanish war-ships
+which supplied Peru with troops and ammunition from home, passing the
+Chilian coast on their way, would seriously hinder the commerce on
+which the young state had to depend for its development, even if
+they did not destroy that commerce at its starting-point by seizing
+Valparaiso and the other ports. Therefore they resolved to seek
+for efficient help from Europe. With that end Don Jose Alvarez,
+a high-minded patriot, who had done much good service to Chili in
+previous years, was immediately sent to Europe, commissioned to borrow
+money, to build or buy warships, and in all the ways in his power to
+enlist the sympathies of the English people in the republican cause.
+In the last of these projects, at any rate, he succeeded beyond all
+reasonable expectation.
+
+Beaching London in April, 1817, Alvarez was welcomed by many friends
+of South American freedom—Sir Francis Burdett, Sir James Mackintosh,
+Mr. Henry Brougham, and Mr. Edward Ellice among the number. Lord
+Cochrane was just then out of London, fighting his amusing battle with
+the sheriffs and bailiffs of Hampshire; but as soon as that business
+was over he took foremost place among the friends of Don Alvarez and
+the Chilian cause which he represented. With a message to him, indeed,
+Alvarez was specially commissioned. He was invited by the Chilian
+Government to undertake the organization and command of an improved
+naval force, and so, by exercise of the prowess which he had displayed
+in the Mediterranean and elsewhere, to render invaluable service to
+the young republic.
+
+He promptly accepted the invitation, being induced thereto by many
+sufficient reasons. Sick at heart, as we have seen, under the cruel
+treatment to which for so many years he had been subjected by his
+enemies in power, he saw here an opportunity of, at the same
+time, escaping from his persecutors, returning to active work in
+a profession very dear to him, and giving efficient aid to a noble
+enterprise.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII.
+
+
+LORD COCHRANE'S VOYAGE TO CHILI.—HIS RECEPTION AT VALPARAISO AND
+SANTIAGO.—THE DISORGANIZATION OF THE CHILIAN FLEET.—FIRST SIGNS
+OF DISAFFECTION.—THE NAVAL FORCES OF THE CHILIANS AND THE
+SPANIARDS.—LORD COCHRANE'S FIRST EXPEDITION TO PERU.—HIS ATTACK ON
+CALLAO.—"DRAKE THE DRAGON" AND "COCHRANE THE DEVIL."—LORD COCHRANE'S
+SUCCESSES IN OVERAWING THE SPANIARDS, IN TREASURE-TAKING, AND
+IN ENCOURAGEMENT OF THE PERUVIANS TO JOIN IN THE WAR OF
+INDEPENDENCE.—HIS PLAN FOE ANOTHER ATTACK ON CALLAO.—HIS
+DIFFICULTIES IN EQUIPPING THE EXPEDITION.—THE FAILURE OF
+THE ATTEMPT.—HIS PLAN FOR STORMING VALDIVIA.—ITS SUCCESSFUL
+ACCOMPLISHMENT.
+
+
+[1818-1820.]
+
+Having accepted, in May, 1817, the offer conveyed to him by the
+Chilian Government through Don Jose Alvarez, Lord Cochrane's departure
+from England was delayed for more than a year. This was chiefly on
+account of the war-steamer, the _Rising Star_, which it was arranged
+to build and equip in London under his superintendence. But the work
+proceeded so slowly, in consequence of the difficulty experienced by
+Alvarez in raising the requisite funds, that, at last, Lord Cochrane,
+being urgently needed in South America, where the Spaniards were
+steadily gaining ground, was requested to leave the superintendence
+of the _Rising Star_ in other hands, and to cross the Atlantic without
+her.
+
+Accompanied by Lady Cochrane and his two children, he went first from
+Rye to Boulogne, and there, on the 15th of August, 1818, embarked in
+the _Rose_, a merchantman which had formerly been a warsloop. The long
+voyage was uninteresting until Cape Horn was reached. There, and in
+passing along the rugged coast-line of Tierra del Fuego, Lord Cochrane
+was struck by its wild scenery. He watched the lazy penguins that
+crowded on the rocks, among evergreens that showed brightly amid the
+imposing mass of snow, and caught with hooks the lazier sea-pigeons
+that skimmed the heavy waves and hovered round the bulwarks and got
+entangled among the rigging of the _Rose_. He shot several of the
+huge albatrosses that floated fearlessly over the deck, but was not
+successful in his efforts to catch the fish that were seen coming to
+the surface of the troubled sea. The sea was made so boisterous by
+rain and snow, and such a stiff wind blew from the west, that for two
+or three days the _Rose_ could not double the Cape. She was forced to
+tack towards the south until a favourable gale set in, which carried
+her safely to Valparaiso.
+
+Valparaiso was reached on the 28th of November, after ten weeks passed
+on shipboard. There and at Santiago, the seat of government, to which
+he proceeded as soon as the congratulations of his new friends
+would allow him, Lord Cochrane was heartily welcomed. So profuse and
+prolonged were the entertainments in his favour—splendid dinners,
+at which zealous patriots tendered their hearty compliments, being
+followed by yet more splendid balls, at which handsome women showed
+their gratitude in smiles, and eagerly sought the honour of being led
+by him through the dances which were their chief delight—that he had
+to remind his guests that he had come to Chili not to feast but to
+fight.
+
+There was prompt need of fighting. The Spaniards had a strong land
+force pressing up from the south and threatening to invest Santiago.
+Their formidable fleet swept the seas, and was being organized for an
+attack on Valparaiso. Admiral Blanco Encalada had just returned from
+a cruise in which he had succeeded in capturing, in Talcuanho Bay, a
+fine Spanish fifty-gun frigate, the Maria Isabel; but his fleet
+was ill-ordered and poorly equipped, quite unable, without thorough
+re-organization, to withstand the superior force of the enemy. An
+instance of the bad state of affairs was induced by Lord Cochrane's
+arrival, and seemed likely to cause serious trouble to him and worse
+misfortune to his Chilian employers. One of the republican vessels was
+the _Hecate_, a sloop of eighteen guns which had been sold out of the
+British navy and bought as a speculation by Captains Guise and Spry.
+Having first offered her in vain to the Buenos Ayrean Government,
+they had brought her on to Chili, and there contrived to sell her with
+advantage and to be themselves taken into the Chilian service. They
+and another volunteer, Captain Worcester, a North American, liking
+the ascendancy over Admiral Bianco which their experience had won
+for them, formed a cabal with the object of securing Admiral Blanco's
+continuance in the chief command, or its equal division between him
+and Lord Cochrane. Nothing but the Chilian admiral's disinterested
+patriotism prevented a serious rupture. He steadily withstood all
+temptations to his vanity, and avowed his determination to accept no
+greater honour—if there could be a greater—than that of serving as
+second in command under the brave Englishman who had come to fight
+for the independence of Chili. Thus, though some troubles afterwards
+sprang from the disaffections of Guise, Spry, and Worcester, the
+mischief schemed by them was prevented at starting.
+
+A few days after his arrival Lord Cochrane received his commission as
+"Vice-Admiral of Chili, Admiral, and Commander-in-Chief of the
+Naval Forces of the Republic." His flag was hoisted, on the 22nd
+of December, on board the _Maria Isabel_, now rechristened the
+_O'Higgins_, and fitted out as the principal ship in the small Chilian
+fleet. The other vessels of the fleet were the _San Martin_, formerly
+an Indiaman in the English service, of fifty-six guns; the _Lautaro_,
+also an old Indiaman, of forty-four guns; the _Galvarino_, as the
+_Hecate_ of Captains Cruise and Spry was now styled, of eighteen guns;
+the _Chacabuco_, of twenty guns; the _Aracauno_, of sixteen guns; and
+a sloop of fourteen guns named the _Puyrredon_.
+
+The Spanish fleet, which these seven ships had to withstand, comprised
+fourteen vessels and twenty-seven gunboats. Of the former three were
+frigates, the _Esmeralda_, of forty-four guns, the _Venganza_, of
+forty-two guns, and the _Sebastiana_, of twenty-eight guns; four were
+brigs, the _Maypeu_, of eighteen guns, the _Pezuela_, of twenty-two
+guns, the _Potrilla_, of eighteen guns, and another, whose name is not
+recorded, also of eighteen guns. There was a schooner, name unknown,
+which carried one large gun and twenty culverins. The rest were armed
+merchantmen, the _Resolution_, of thirty-six guns; the _Cleopatra_, of
+twenty-eight guns; the _La Focha_, of twenty guns; the _Guarmey_, of
+eighteen guns; the Fernando, of twenty-six guns, and the San Antonio,
+of eighteen guns. Only ten out of the fourteen, however, were ready
+for sea; and before the whole naval force could be got ready for
+service, it had been partly broken up by Lord Cochrane.
+
+There was delay, also, in getting the Chilian fleet under sail. After
+waiting at Valparaiso as long as he deemed prudent, Lord Cochrane left
+the three smaller vessels to complete their equipment under Admiral
+Blanco's direction, and passed out of port on the 16th of January,
+with the O'Higgins, the San Martin, the Lautaro, and the Chacabuco. He
+had hardly started before a mutiny broke out on board the last-named
+vessel, which compelled him to halt at Coquimbo long enough to try
+and punish the mutineers. Resuming the voyage, he proceeded along the
+Chilian and Peruvian coast as far northward as Callao Bay, where he
+cruised about for some days, awaiting an opportunity of attacking the
+Spanish shipping there collected in considerable force.
+
+While thus waiting he employed his leisure in observations, great and
+small, of the sort and in the way characteristic of him all through
+life. One of his rough notes runs thus:—"Cormorants resort in
+enormous nights, coming in the morning from the northward to Callao
+Bay, and proceeding along shore to the southward, diving in regular
+succession one after another on the fish which, driven at the same
+time from below by shoals of porpoises, seem to have no chance but to
+be devoured under water or scooped up in the large bags pendent from
+the enormous bills of the cormorants." "Prodigious seals," we read in
+another note, "inhabit the rocks, whose grave faces and grey beards
+look more like the human countenance than the faces of most other
+animals. They are very unwieldy in their movements when on shore, but
+most expert in the water. There is a small kind of duck in the bay,
+which, from the clearness of the water, can be seen flying with its
+wings under water in chase of small fry, which it speedily overtakes
+from its prodigious speed."
+
+From note-making of that sort, Lord Cochrane turned to more serious
+business. The batteries of Callao and of San Lorenzo, a little island
+in the bay which helped to form the port, mounted one hundred and
+sixty guns, and more than twice as many were at the command of vessels
+there lying-to. Direct attack of a force so very much superior to
+that of the Chilian fleet seemed out of the question. Therefore
+Lord Cochrane bethought him of a subterfuge. Learning that two North
+American war-ships were expected at Callao, he determined to personate
+them with the _O'Higgins_ and _Lautaro_, and so enter the port under
+alien colours. It was then carnival-time, and on the 21st of February,
+deeming that the Spaniards were more likely to be off their guard, he
+proposed "to make a feint of sending a boat ashore with despatches,
+and in the mean time suddenly to dash at the frigates and cut them
+out." Unfortunately a dense fog set in, which lasted till the 28th,
+and made it impossible for him to effect his purpose before the
+carnival was over. Let the sequel be told in his own words.
+
+"On the 28th, hearing heavy firing and imagining that one of the ships
+was engaged with the enemy, I stood with the flag-ship into the
+bay. The other ships, imagining the same thing, also steered in the
+direction of the firing, when, the fog clearing for a moment, we
+discovered each other, as well as a strange sail near us. This proved
+to be a Spanish gunboat, with a lieutenant and twenty men, who, on
+being made prisoners, informed us that the firing was a salute
+in honour of the Viceroy, who had that morning been on a visit of
+inspection to the batteries and shipping, and was then on board the
+brig-of-war _Pezuela_, which we saw crowding sail in the direction
+of the batteries. The fog, again coming on, suggested to me the
+possibility of a direct attack. Accordingly, still maintaining our
+disguise under American colours, the _O'Higgins_ and _Lautaro_ stood
+towards the batteries, narrowly escaping going ashore in the fog. The
+Viceroy, having no doubt witnessed the capture of the gunboat, had,
+however, provided for our reception, the garrison being at their guns,
+and the crews of the ships-of-war at their quarters. Notwithstanding
+the great odds, I determined to persist in an attack, as our
+withdrawing, without firing a shot, would produce an effect upon the
+minds of the Spaniards the reverse of that intended. I had sufficient
+experience in war to know that moral effect, even if the result of a
+degree of temerity, will not unfrequently supply the place of superior
+force.
+
+"The wind falling light, I did not venture on laying the flag-ship and
+the _Lautaro_ alongside the Spanish frigates, as I at first intended,
+but anchored with springs on our cables, abreast of the shipping,
+which was arranged in a half-moon of two lines, the rear-rank being
+judiciously disposed so as to cover the intervals of the ships in the
+front line. A dead calm succeeded, and we were for two hours exposed
+to a heavy fire from the batteries, in addition to that from the
+two frigates, the brigs _Pezuela_ and _Maypeu_, and seven or eight
+gunboats. Nevertheless the northern angle of one of the principal
+forts was silenced by our fire. As soon as a breeze sprang up, we
+weighed anchor, standing to and fro in front of the batteries,
+and returning their fire, until Captain Guise, who commanded the
+_Lautaro_, being severely wounded, that ship sheered off and never
+again came within range. As, from want of wind, or doubt of the
+result, neither the _San Martin_ nor the _Chacabuco_ had ever got
+within fire, the flag-ship was thus left alone, and I was reluctantly
+compelled to relinquish the attack. I withdrew to the island of San
+Lorenzo, about three miles distant from the forts; the Spaniards,
+though nearly quadruple our numbers, exclusive of their gunboats, not
+venturing to follow us.
+
+"The action having been commenced in a fog, the Spaniards imagined
+that all the Chilian vessels were engaged. They were not a little
+surprised, as it again cleared, to find that their own frigate, the
+quondam _Maria Isabella_, was almost their only opponent. So much were
+they dispirited by this discovery that, as soon as possible after the
+close of the contest, their ships-of-war were dismantled, the topmasts
+and spars being formed into a double boom across the anchorage, so as
+to prevent approach. The Spaniards were also previously unaware of my
+being in command of the Chilian squadron. On becoming acquainted with
+this fact, they bestowed upon me the not very complimentary title of
+'El Diablo,' by which I was afterwards known amongst them."
+
+Two hundred and forty years before, almost to a day, Sir Francis
+Drake—whom, of all English seamen, Lord Cochrane most resembled in
+chivalrous daring and in chivalrous hatred of oppression—had secretly
+led his little _Golden Hind_ into the harbour of Callao, and there
+despoiled a Spanish fleet of seventeen vessels; for which and for his
+other brave achievements he won the nickname of El Dracone. Drake the
+Dragon and Cochrane the Devil were kinsmen in noble hatred, and noble
+punishment, of Spanish wrong-doing.
+
+Retiring to San Lorenzo, after the fight in Callao Bay on the 28th
+of February, Lord Cochrane occupied the island, and from it blockaded
+Callao for five weeks. On the island he found thirty-seven Chilian
+soldiers, whom the Spaniards had made prisoners eight years before.
+"The unhappy men," he said, "had ever since been forced to work in
+chains under the supervision of a military guard—now prisoners in
+turn; their sleeping-place during the whole of this period being a
+filthy shed, in which they were every night chained by one leg to an
+iron bar." Yet worse, as he was informed by the poor fellows whom he
+freed from their misery, was the condition of some Chilian officers
+and seamen imprisoned in Lima, and so cruelly chained that the fetters
+had worn bare their ankles to the bone. He accordingly, under a flag
+of truce, sent to the Spanish Viceroy, Don Joaquim de la Pezuela,
+offering to exchange for these Chilian prisoners a larger number of
+Spaniards captured by himself and others. This proposal was bluntly
+refused by the Viceroy, who took occasion, in his letter, to avow
+his surprise that a British nobleman should come to fight for a
+rebel community "unacknowledged by all the powers of the globe."
+Lord Cochrane replied that "a British nobleman was a free man, and
+therefore had a right to assist any country which was endeavouring to
+re-establish the rights of aggrieved humanity." "I have," he added,
+"adopted the cause of Chili with the same freedom of judgment that I
+previously exercised when refusing the offer of an admiral's rank in
+Spain, made to me not long ago by the Spanish ambassador in London."
+
+Except in blockading Callao and repairing his ships little was done by
+Lord Cochrane during his stay at San Lorenzo. On the 1st of March he
+went into the harbour again and opened a destructive fire upon
+the Spanish gunboats, but as these soon sought shelter under the
+batteries, which the _O'Higgins_ and the _Lautaro_ were not strong
+enough to oppose, the demonstration did not last long. Unsuccessful
+also was an attempt made upon the batteries, with the aid of an
+explosion-vessel, on the 22nd of March. The explosion-vessel, when
+just within musket-range, was struck by a round shot, and foundered,
+thus spoiling the intended enterprise. But other plans fared better.
+
+At the beginning of April, Lord Cochrane left San Lorenzo and
+proceeded to Huacho, a few leagues north of Callao. Its inhabitants
+were for the most part in sympathy with the republican cause, and the
+Spanish garrison fled at almost the first gunshot, leaving a large
+quantity of government property and specie in the hands of the
+assailants. Much other treasure, which proved very serviceable to
+the impoverished Chilian exchequer, was captured by the little fleet
+during a two months' cruise about the coast of Peru, both north and
+south of Callao. Everywhere, too, the Spanish cause was weakened,
+and the natives were encouraged to share in the great work of South
+American rebellion against a tyranny of three centuries' duration. "It
+was my object," said Lord Cochrane, "to make friends of the Peruvian
+people, by adopting towards them a conciliatory course, and by strict
+care that none but Spanish property should be taken. Confidence was
+thus inspired, and the universal dissatisfaction with Spanish rule
+speedily became changed into an earnest desire to be freed from it."
+
+Having cruised about the Peruvian coast during April and May, Lord
+Cochrane returned to Valparaiso on the 16th of June. "The objects of
+the first expedition," he said, "had been fully accomplished, namely,
+to reconnoitre, with a view to future operations, when the squadron
+should be rendered efficient; but more especially to ascertain the
+inclinations of the Peruvians—a point of the first importance to
+Chili, as being obliged to be constantly on the alert for her own
+newly-acquired liberties so long as the Spaniards were in undisturbed
+possession of Peru. To the accomplishment of these objects had been
+superadded the restriction of the Spanish naval force to the
+shelter of the forts, the defeat of their military forces wherever
+encountered, and the capture of no inconsiderable amount of treasure."
+That was work enough to be done by four small ships, ill-manned and
+ill-provisioned, during a five months' absence from Valparaiso; and
+the Chilians were not ungrateful.
+
+Their gratitude, however, was not strong enough to make them zealous
+co-operators in his schemes for their benefit. Lord Cochrane was eager
+to start upon another expedition, in which he hoped for yet greater
+success. But for this were needed preparations which the poverty and
+mismanagement of the Chilian Government made almost impossible. He
+asked for a thousand troops with which to facilitate a second attack
+on Callao. This force, certainly not a large one, was promised, but,
+when he was about to embark, only ninety soldiers were ready, and even
+then a private subscription had to be raised for giving them decent
+clothing instead of the rags in which they appeared. For the assault
+on Callao, also, an ample supply of rockets was required. An engineer
+named Goldsack had gone from England to construct them, and, that
+there might be no stinting in the work, Lord Cochrane offered to
+surrender all his share of prize-money. The offer was refused; but, to
+save money, their manufacture was assigned to some Spanish prisoners,
+who showed their patriotism in making them so badly that, when tried,
+they were found utterly worthless. There were other instances of false
+economy, whereby Lord Cochrane's intended services to his Chilian
+employers were seriously hindered. The vessels were refitted, however,
+and a new one, an American-built corvette, named the _Independencia_,
+of twenty-eight guns, was added to the number.
+
+After nearly three months' stay at Valparaiso, he again set sail on
+the 12th of September, 1819. Admiral Blanco was his second in command,
+and his squadron consisted of the _O'Higgins_, the _San Martin_, the
+_Lautaro_, the _Independencia_, the _Galvarino_, the _Araucano_, and
+the _Puyrredon_, mounting two hundred and twenty guns in all. There
+were also two old vessels, to be used as fireships.
+
+The fleet entered Callao Roads on the 29th of September. On this
+occasion there was no subterfuge. On the 30th Lord Cochrane despatched
+a boat to Callao with a flag of truce, and a challenge to the Viceroy
+to send out his ships—nearly twice as strong as those of Chili in
+guns and men—for a fair fight in the open sea. The challenge was
+bluntly rejected, and an attack on the batteries and the ships in
+harbour was then planned. On the 1st of October, the smaller vessels
+reconnoitred the bay, and there was some fighting, in which the
+_Araucano_ was damaged. Throughout the night of the 2nd, a formidable
+attack was attempted, in which the main reliance was placed in the
+Goldsack rockets; but, in consequence of the treacherous handling
+of the Spanish soldiers who had filled them, they proved worse than
+useless, doing nearly as much injury to the men who fired them as
+to the enemy. Only one gunboat was sunk by the shells from a raft
+commanded by Major Miller, who also did some damage to the forts and
+shipping. On the night of the 4th, Lord Cochrane amused himself, while
+a fireship was being prepared, by causing a burning tar-barrel to be
+drifted with the tide towards the enemy's shipping. It was, in the
+darkness, supposed to be a much more formidable antagonist, and
+volleys of Spanish shot were spent upon it. On the following evening
+a fireship was despatched; but this also was a failure. A sudden calm
+prevented her progress. She was riddled through and through by the
+enemy's guns, and, rapidly gaining water in consequence, had to be
+fired so much too soon that she exploded before getting near enough to
+work any serious mischief among the Spanish shipping.
+
+By these misfortunes Lord Cochrane was altogether disheartened. The
+rockets, on which he had chiefly relied, had proved worthless, and,
+one fireship having been wasted, he did not care to risk the loss of
+the other. He found too that the Spaniards, profiting by the warning
+which he had previously given, had so strengthened their booms that it
+was quite impossible, with the small force at his command, to get at
+them or to reach the port. His store of provisions, also, was nearly
+exhausted, and the fresh supply promised from Chili had not arrived.
+He therefore reluctantly, for the time, abandoned his project for
+taking Callao.
+
+He continued to watch the port for a few weeks, however, hoping for
+some chance opportunity of injuring it; and, in the interval, sent
+three hundred and fifty soldiers and marines, under Lieutenant-Colonel
+Charles and Major Miller, in the _Lautaro_, the _Galvarino_, and the
+remaining fireship, commanded by Captain Guise, to attack Pisco and
+procure from it and the neighbourhood the requisite provisions. This
+was satisfactorily done; but the sickness of many of his men caused
+his further detention at Santa, whither he had gone from Callao. On
+the 21st of November the sick were sent to Valparaiso, in the charge
+of the _San Martin_, the _Independencia_, and the _Araucano_. With the
+remaining ships, the _O'Higgins_, the _Lautaro_, the _Galvarino_, and
+the _Puyrredon_, Lord Cochrane proceeded to the mouth of the River
+Guayaquil. There, on the 28th of the month, he captured two large
+Spanish vessels, one of twenty and the other of sixteen guns, laden
+with timber, and took possession of the village of Puna. At Guayaquil
+there was another delay of a fortnight, owing to a mutiny attempted
+by Captains Guise and Spry, whose treacherous disposition has already
+been mentioned.
+
+Not till the middle of December was he able to escape from the
+troubles brought upon him by others, and to return to work worthy of
+his great name and character. Then, however, sending one of his ships,
+with the prizes, to Valparaiso, and leaving two others to watch
+the Peruvian coast, he started, with only his flag-ship, upon an
+enterprise as brilliant in conception and execution as any in his
+whole eventful history. "The Chilian people," he said, "expected
+impossibilities; and I. had for some time been revolving in my mind
+a plan to achieve one which should gratify them, and allay my own
+wounded feelings. I had now only one ship, so that there were no
+other inclinations to consult; and I felt quite sure of Major Miller's
+concurrence where there was any fighting to be done. My design was,
+with the flag-ship alone, to capture by a _coup de main_ the
+numerous forts and garrison of Valdivia, a fortress previously deemed
+impregnable, and thus to counteract the disappointment which would
+ensue in Chili from our want of success at Callao. The enterprise
+was a desperate one; nevertheless, I was not about to do anything
+desperate, having resolved that, unless I was fully satisfied as to
+its practicability, I would not attempt it. Rashness, though often
+imputed to me, forms no part of my composition. There is a rashness
+without calculation of consequences; but with that calculation
+well-founded, it is no longer rashness. And thus, now that I was
+unfettered by people who did not second my operations as they ought
+to have done, I made up my mind to take Valdivia, if the attempt came
+within the scope of my calculations."
+
+Valdivia was the stronghold and centre of Spanish attack upon Chili
+from the south, just as were Lima and Callao on the north. To reach it
+Lord Cochrane had to sail northwards along the coast of Peru and Chili
+to some distance below Valparaiso. This he did without loss of time,
+to work out an excellent strategy which will be best understood from
+his own report of it.
+
+"The first step," he said, "clearly was to reconnoitre Valdivia. The
+flag-ship arrived on the 18th of January, 1820, under Spanish colours,
+and made a signal for a pilot, who—as the Spaniards mistook the
+_O'Higgins_ for a ship of their own—promptly came off, together with
+a complimentary retinue of an officer and four soldiers, all of whom
+were made prisoners as soon as they came on board. The pilot was
+ordered to take us into the channels leading to the forts, whilst the
+officer and his men, knowing there was little chance of their finding
+their way on shore again, thought it most conducive to their interests
+to supply all the information demanded, the result being increased
+confidence on my part as to the possibility of a successful attack.
+Amongst other information obtained was the expected arrival of the
+Spanish brig _Potrillo_, with money on board for the payment of the
+garrison.
+
+"As we were busily employing ourselves in inspecting the channels, the
+officer commanding the garrison began to suspect that our object might
+not altogether be pacific, a suspicion which was confirmed by the
+detention of his officer. Suddenly a heavy fire was opened upon
+us from the various forts, to which we did not reply, but, our
+reconnoissance being now complete, withdrew beyond its reach. Two days
+were occupied in reconnoitring. On the third day the _Potrillo_ hove
+in sight, and she, being also deceived by our Spanish colours, was
+captured without a shot, twenty thousand dollars and some important
+despatches being found on board."
+
+That first business having been satisfactorily achieved, Lord Cochrane
+proceeded to Concepcion, there to ask and obtain from its Chilian
+governor, General Freire, a force of two hundred and fifty soldiers,
+under Major Beauchef, a French volunteer. In Talcahuano Bay, moreover,
+he found a Chilian schooner, the _Montezuma_, and a Brazilian brig,
+the _Intrepido_. He attached the former to his service, and accepted
+the volunteered aid of the latter. With this augmented but still
+insignificant force, very defective in some important respects, he
+returned to Valdivia. "The flag-ship," he said, "had only two naval
+officers on board, one of these being under arrest for disobedience
+of orders, whilst the other was incapable of performing the duty of
+lieutenant; so that I had to act as admiral, captain and lieutenant,
+taking my turn in the watch—or rather being constantly on the
+watch—as the only available officer was so incompetent."
+
+"We sailed from Talcahuano on the 25th of January," the narrative
+proceeds, "when I communicated my intentions to the military officers,
+who displayed great eagerness in the cause—alone questioning their
+success from motives of prudence. On my explaining to them that, if
+unexpected projects are energetically put in execution, they almost
+invariably succeed in spite of odds, they willingly entered into my
+plans.
+
+"On the night of the 29th, we were off the island of Quiriquina, in
+a dead calm. From excessive fatigue in the execution of subordinate
+duties, I had lain down to rest, leaving the ship in charge of
+the lieutenant, who took advantage of my absence to retire also,
+surrendering the watch to the care of a midshipman, who fell asleep.
+Knowing our dangerous position, I had left strict orders that I was
+to be called the moment a breeze sprang up; but these orders were
+neglected. A sudden wind took the ship unawares, and the midshipman,
+in attempting to bring her round, ran her upon the sharp edge of a
+rock, where she lay beating, suspended, as it were, upon her keel;
+and, had the swell increased, she must inevitably have gone to pieces.
+
+"We were forty miles from the mainland, the brig and schooner being
+both out of sight. The first impulse, both of officers and crew, was
+to abandon the ship, but, as we had six hundred men on board, whilst
+not more than a hundred and fifty could have entered the boats, this
+would have been but a scramble for life. Pointing out to the men that
+those who escaped could only reach the coast of Arauco, where they
+would meet nothing but torture and inevitable death at the hands of
+the Indians, I with some difficulty got them to adopt the alternative
+of attempting to save the ship. The first sounding gave five feet
+of water in the hold, and the pumps were entirely out of order. Our
+carpenter, who was only one by name, was incompetent to repair them;
+but, having myself some skill in carpentry, I took off my coat, and
+by midnight, got them into working order, the water in the meanwhile
+gaining on us, though the whole crew were engaged in baling it out
+with buckets.
+
+"To our great delight, the leak did not increase, upon which I got
+out the stream anchor and commenced heaving off the ship; the officers
+clamoured first to ascertain the extent of the leak; but this I
+expressly forbade, as calculated to damp the energy of the men,
+whilst, as we now gained on the leak, there was no doubt the ship
+would swim as far as Valdivia, which was the chief point to be
+regarded, the capture of the fortress being my object, after which the
+ship might be repaired at leisure. As there was no lack of physical
+force on board, she was at length floated; but the powder magazine
+having been under water, the ammunition of every kind, except a little
+upon deck and in the cartouche-boxes of the troops, was rendered
+unserviceable; though about this I cared little, as it involved the
+necessity of using the bayonet in our anticipated attack; and to
+facing this weapon the Spaniards had, in every case, evinced a rooted
+aversion."
+
+The _O'Higgins_, thus bravely saved from wreck, was soon joined by the
+_Intrepido_ and the _Montezuma_, and these vessels being now most fit
+for action, as many men as possible were transferred to them, and the
+_O'Higgins_ was ordered to stand out to sea, only to be made use of in
+case of need. The _Montezuma_ now became the flag-ship, and with her
+and her consort Lord Cochrane sailed into Valdivia Harbour on the 2nd
+of February.
+
+"The fortifications of Valdivia," he said, "are placed on both sides
+of a channel three quarters of a mile in width, and command the
+entrance, anchorage, and river leading to the town, crossing their
+fire in all directions so effectually that, with proper caution on the
+part of the garrison, no ship could enter without suffering severely,
+while she would be equally exposed at anchor. The principal forts on
+the western shore are placed in the following order:—El Ingles, San
+Carlos, Amargos, Chorocomayo, Alto, and Corral Castle. Those on the
+eastern side are Niebla, directly opposite Amargos, and Piojo; whilst
+on the island of Manzanera is a strong fort mounted with guns of large
+calibre, commanding the whole range of the entrance channel. These
+forts and a few others, fifteen in all, would render the place in the
+hands of a skilful garrison almost impregnable, the shores on
+which they stand being inaccessible by reason of the surf, with the
+exception of a small landing-place at Fort Ingles.
+
+"It was to this landing-place that we first directed our attention,
+anchoring the brig and schooner off the guns of Fort Ingles on the
+afternoon of February the 3rd, amidst a swell which rendered immediate
+disembarkation impracticable. The troops were carefully kept below;
+and, to avert the suspicion of the Spaniards, we had trumped up a
+story of our having just arrived from Cadiz and being in want of a
+pilot. They told us to send a boat for one. To this we replied that
+our boats had been washed away in the passage round Cape Horn.
+Not being quite satisfied, they began to assemble troops at the
+landing-place, firing alarm-guns, and rapidly bringing up the
+garrisons of the western forts to Fort Ingles, but not molesting us.
+
+"Unfortunately for the credit of the story about the loss of the
+boats, which were at the time carefully concealed under the lee of the
+vessels, one drifted astern, so that our object became apparent, and
+the guns of Fort Ingles, under which we lay, forthwith opened upon
+us, the first shots passing through the sides of the _Intrepido_ and
+killing two men, so that it became necessary to land in spite of the
+swell. We had only two launches and a gig. I directed the operation in
+the gig, whilst Major Miller, with forty-four marines, pushed off in
+the first launch, under the fire of the party at the landing-place,
+on to which they soon leaped, driving the Spaniards before them at
+the point of the bayonet. The second launch then pushed off from the
+_Intrepido_, while the other was returning; and in this way, in less
+than an hour, three hundred men had made good their footing on shore.
+
+"The most difficult task, the capture of the forts, was to come. The
+only way in which the first, Fort Ingles, could be approached, was
+by a precipitous path, along which the men could only pass in single
+file, the fort itself being inaccessible except by a ladder, which the
+enemy, after being routed by Major Miller, had drawn up.
+
+"As soon as it was dark, a picked party, under the guidance of one
+of the Spanish prisoners, silently advanced to the attack. This party
+having taken up its position, the main body moved forward, cheering
+and firing in the air, to intimate to the Spaniards that their
+chief reliance was on the bayonet. The enemy, meanwhile, kept up
+an incessant fire of artillery and musketry in the direction of the
+shouts, but without effect, as no aim could be taken in the dark.
+
+"Whilst the patriots were thus noisily advancing, a gallant young
+officer, Ensign Vidal, got under the inland flank of the fort, and,
+with a few men, contrived to tear up some pallisades, by which a
+bridge was made across the ditch. In that way he and his small party
+entered and formed noiselessly under cover of some branches of trees,
+while the garrison, numbering about eight hundred soldiers, were
+directing their whole attention in an opposite direction.
+
+"A volley from Vidal's party convinced the Spaniards that they had
+been taken in flank. Without waiting to ascertain the number of those
+who had outflanked them, they instantly took to flight, filling with a
+like panic a column of three hundred men drawn up behind the fort.
+The Chilians, who were now well up, bayoneted them by dozens as they
+attempted to gain the forts; and when the forts were opened to receive
+them the patriots entered at the same time, and thus drove them from
+fort to fort into the Castle of Corral, together with two hundred more
+who had abandoned some guns advantageously placed on a height at Fort
+Chorocomayo. The Corral was stormed with equal rapidity, a number
+of the enemy escaping in boats to Valdivia, others plunging into the
+forest. Upwards of a hundred fell into our hands, and on the following
+morning the like number were found to have been bayoneted. Our loss
+was seven men killed and nineteen wounded.
+
+"On the 5th, the _Intrepido_ and _Montezuma_, which had been left near
+Fort Ingles, entered the harbour, being fired at in their passage by
+Fort Niebla, on the eastern shore. On their coming to an anchor at the
+Corral, two hundred men were again embarked to attack Forts Niebla,
+Carbonero, and Piojo. The _O'Higgins_ also appeared in sight off the
+mouth of the harbour. The Spaniards thereupon summarily abandoned the
+forts on the eastern side; no doubt judging that, as the western forts
+had been captured without the aid of the frigate, they had, now that
+she had arrived, no chance of successfully defending them.
+
+"On the 6th, the troops were again embarked to pursue the flying
+garrison up the river, when we received a flag of truce, informing us
+that the enemy had abandoned the town, after plundering the private
+houses and magazines, and with the governor, Colonel Montoya, had
+fled in the direction of Chiloe. The booty which fell into our
+hands, exclusive of the value of the forts and public buildings, was
+considerable, Valdivia being the chief military depôt in the southern
+side of the continent. Amongst the military stores were upwards of 50
+tons of gunpowder, 10,000 cannon-shot, 170,000 musket-cartridges, a
+large quantity of small arms, 128 guns, of which 53 were brass and the
+remainder iron, the ship _Dolores_ —afterwards sold at Valparaiso for
+twenty thousand dollars—with public stores sold for the like value,
+and plate, of which General Sanchez had previously stripped the
+churches of Concepcion, valued at sixteen thousand dollars."
+Those prizes compensated over and over again for the loss of the
+_Intrepido_, which grounded in the channel, and the injuries done to
+the _O'Higgins_ on her way to Valdivia.
+
+But the value of Lord Cochrane's capture of this stronghold was not to
+be counted in money. By its daring conception and easy completion
+the Spaniards, besides losing their great southern starting-point for
+attacks on Chili and the other states that were fighting for their
+freedom, lost heart, to a great extent, in their whole South American
+warfare. They saw that their insurgent colonists had now found a
+champion too bold, too cautious, too honest, and too prosperous for
+them any longer to hope that they could succeed in their efforts to
+win back the dependencies which were shaking off the thraldom of three
+centuries.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII.
+
+
+LORD COCHRANE'S RETURN TO VALPARAISO.—HIS ILL-TREATMENT BY
+THE CHILIAN SENATE.—THE THIRD EXPEDITION TO PERU.—GENERAL SAN
+MARTIN.—THE CAPTURE OF THE "ESMERALDA," AND ITS ISSUE.—LORD
+COCHRANE'S SUBSEQUENT WORK.—SAN MARTIN'S TREACHERY.—HIS
+ASSUMPTION OF THE PROTECTORATE OF PERU.—HIS BASE PROPOSALS TO LORD
+COCHRANE.—LORD COCHRANE'S CONDEMNATION OF THEM.—THE TROUBLES OF THE
+CHILIAN SQUADRON.—LORD COCHRANE'S SEIZURE OF TREASURE AT ANCON,
+AND EMPLOYMENT OF IT IN PAYING HIS OFFICERS AND MEN.—HIS STAY AT
+GUAYAQUIL.—THE ADVANTAGES OF FREE TRADE.—LORD COCHRANE'S
+CRUISE ALONG THE MEXICAN COAST IN SEARCH OF THE REMAINING SPANISH
+FRIGATES.—THEIR ANNEXATION BY PERU.—LORD COCHRANE'S LAST VISIT TO
+CALLAO.
+
+
+[1820-1822.]
+
+Lord Cochrane returned to Valparaiso on the 27th of February, 1820.
+By General O'Higgins, the Supreme Director, and by the populace he was
+enthusiastically received. But Zenteno, the Minister of Marine, and
+other members of the Government, jealous of the fresh renown which he
+had won by his conquest of Valdivia, showed their jealousy in various
+offensive ways.
+
+In anticipation of his failure they had prepared an elaborate charge
+of insubordination, in that he had not come back direct from
+Callao. Now that he had triumphed, they sought at first to have him
+reprimanded for attempting so hazardous an exploit, and afterwards
+to rob him of his due on the ground that his achievement was
+insignificant and valueless. When they were compelled by the voice of
+the people to declare publicly that "the capture of Valdivia was the
+happy result of an admirably-arranged plan and of the most daring
+execution," they refused to award either to him or to his comrades any
+other recompense than was contained in the verbal compliment; and,
+on his refusing to give up his prizes until the seamen had been
+paid their arrears of wages, he was threatened with prosecution for
+detention of the national property.
+
+The threat was impotent, as the people of Chili would not for a moment
+have permitted such an indignity to their champion. But so irritating
+were this and other attempted persecutions to Lord Cochrane that, on
+the 14th of May, he tendered to the Supreme Director his resignation
+of service under the Chilian Government. That proposal was, of course,
+rejected; but with the rejection came a promise of better treatment.
+The seamen were paid in July, and the Valdivian prize-money was
+nominally awarded. Lord Cochrane's share amounted to 67,000 dollars,
+and to this was added a grant of land at Rio Clara. But the money was
+never paid, and the estate was forcibly seized a few years afterwards.
+
+Other annoyances, which need not here be detailed, were offered to
+Lord Cochrane, and thus six months were wasted by Zenteno and his
+associates in the Chilian senate. "The senate," said Lord Cochrane,
+"was an anomaly in state government. It consisted of five members,
+whose functions were to remain only during the first struggles of the
+country for independence; but this body had now assumed a permanent
+right to dictatorial control, whilst there was no appeal from their
+arbitrary conduct, except to themselves. They arrogated the title
+of 'Most Excellent,' whilst the Supreme Director was simply 'His
+Excellency;' his position, though nominally head of the executive,
+being really that of mouthpiece to the senate, which, assuming all
+power, deprived the Executive Government of its legitimate influence,
+so that no armament could be equipped, no public work undertaken,
+no troops raised, and no taxes levied, except by the consent of this
+irresponsible body. For such a clique the plain, simple good sense
+of the Supreme Director was no match. He was led to believe that a
+crooked policy was a necessary evil of government, and, as such a
+policy was adverse to his own nature, he was the more easily induced
+to surrender its administration to others who were free from his
+conscientious principles." Those sentences explain the treatment to
+which, now and afterwards, Lord Cochrane was subjected.
+
+He was allowed, however, to do further excellent service to the nation
+which had already begun to reward him with nothing but ingratitude. As
+soon as the Chilian Government could turn from its spiteful exercise
+to its proper duty of consolidating the independence of the insurgents
+from Spanish dominion, it was resolved to despatch as strong a force
+as could be raised for another and more formidable expedition to
+Peru, whereby at the same time the Peruvians should be freed from the
+tyranny by which they were still oppressed, and the Chilians should be
+rid of the constant danger that they incurred from the presence of a
+Spanish army in Lima, Callao, and other garrisons, ready to bear down
+upon them again and again, as it had often done before. In 1819 Lord
+Cochrane had vainly asked for a suitable land force with which to aid
+his attack upon Callao. It was now resolved to organize a Liberating
+Army, after the fashion of that with which Bolivar had nobly scoured
+the northern districts of South America, and to place it under the
+direction of General San Martin, in co-operation with whom Lord
+Cochrane was to pursue his work as chief admiral of the fleet.
+San Martin had fought worthily in La Plata, and he had earned the
+gratitude of the Chilians by winning back their freedom in conjunction
+with O'Higgins in 1817. Vanity and ambition, however, had since
+unhinged him, and he now proved himself a champion of liberty very
+inferior, both in prowess and in honesty, to Bolivar.
+
+His army, numbering four thousand two hundred men, was collected by
+the 21st of August, and on that day it was embarked at Valparaiso in
+the whole Chilian squadron. Lord Cochrane proposed to go at once to
+Chilca, the nearest point both to Lima and to Callao. San Martin,
+however, decided upon Pisco as a safer landing-place, and there the
+troops were deposited on the 8th of September. For fifty days they
+were detained there, and the fleet was forced to share their idleness,
+capturing only a few passing merchantmen. On the 28th of October they
+were re-embarked, and Lord Cochrane again urged a vigorous attack on
+the capital and its port. Again he was thwarted by San Martin, who
+requested to be landed at Ancon, considerably to the north of Callao,
+and as unsuitable a halting-place as was the southerly town of Pisco.
+Lord Cochrane had to comply; but he bethought him of a plan for
+achieving a great work, in spite of San Martin. Sending the main body
+of his fleet to Ancon with the troops, no the 20th, he retained
+the _O'Higgins_, the _Independencia_, and the _Lautaro_, with the
+professed object of merely blockading Callao at a safe distance.
+"The fact was," he said, "that, annoyed, in common with the whole
+expedition, at this irresolution on the part of General San Martin, I
+determined that the means of Chili, furnished with great difficulty,
+should not be wholly wasted, without some attempt at accomplishing the
+object of the expedition. I accordingly formed a plan of attack with
+the three ships which I had kept back, though, being apprehensive
+that my design would be opposed by General San Martin, I had not
+even mentioned to him my intentions. This design was, to cut out the
+_Esmeralda_ frigate from under the fortifications, and also to get
+possession of another ship, on board of which we had learned that a
+million of dollars was embarked."
+
+The plan was certainly a bold one. The _Esmeralda_, of forty-four
+guns, was the finest Spanish ship in the Pacific Ocean. Now especially
+well armed and manned, in readiness for any work that had to be done,
+she was lying in Callao Harbour, protected by three hundred pieces
+of artillery on shore and by a strong boom with chain moorings,
+by twenty-seven gunboats and several armed block-ships. These
+considerations, however, only induced Lord Cochrane to proceed
+cautiously upon his enterprise. Three days were spent in preparations,
+the purpose of which was known only to himself and to his chief
+officers. On the afternoon of the 5th of November he issued this
+proclamation:—"Marines and seamen,—This night we shall give the
+enemy a mortal blow. To-morrow you will present yourself proudly
+before Callao, and all your comrades will envy your good fortune.
+One hour of courage and resolution is all that is required for you
+to triumph. Remember that you have conquered in Valdivia, and have no
+fear of those who have hitherto fled from you. The value of all the
+vessels captured in Callao will be yours, and the same reward will be
+distributed amongst you as has been offered by the Spaniards in Lima
+to those who should capture any of the Chilian squadron. The moment of
+glory is approaching. I hope that the Chilians will fight as they have
+been accustomed to do, and that the English will act as they have ever
+done at home and abroad."
+
+A request was made for volunteers, and the whole body of seamen and
+marines on board the three ships offered to follow Lord Cochrane
+wherever he might lead. This was more than he wanted. "A hundred
+and sixty seamen and eighty marines," said Lord Cochrane, whose own
+narrative of the sequel will best describe it, "were placed, after
+dark, in fourteen boats alongside the flag-ship, each man, armed with
+cutlass and pistol, being, for distinction's sake, dressed in white,
+with a blue band on the left arm. The Spaniards, I expected, would
+be off their guard, and consider themselves safe from attack for that
+night, since, by way of ruse, the other ships had been sent out of the
+bay under the charge of Captain Foster, as though in pursuit of some
+vessels in the offing.
+
+"At ten o'clock all was in readiness, the boats being formed in two
+divisions, the first commanded by Flag-Captain Crosbie and the second
+by Captain Gruise,—my boat leading. The strictest silence and the
+exclusive use of cutlasses were enjoined; so that, as the oars were
+muffled and the night was dark, the enemy had not the least suspicion
+of the impending attack.
+
+"It was just upon midnight when we neared the small opening left in
+the boom, our plan being well-nigh frustrated by the vigilance of a
+guard-boat upon which my launch had unluckily stumbled. The challenge
+was given, upon which, in an undertone, I threatened the occupants of
+the boat with instant death if they made the least alarm. No reply
+was made to the threat, and in a few minutes our gallant fellows
+were alongside the frigate in line, boarding at several points
+simultaneously. The Spaniards were completely taken by surprise,
+the whole, with the exception of the sentries, being asleep at their
+quarters; and great was the havoc made amongst them by the Chilian
+cutlasses whilst they were recovering themselves. Retreating to the
+forecastle, they there made a gallant stand, and it was not until the
+third charge that the position was carried. The fight was for a short
+time renewed on the quarterdeck, where the Spanish marines fell to
+a man, the rest of the enemy leaping overboard and into the hold to
+escape slaughter.
+
+"On boarding the ship by the main-chains, I was knocked back by the
+sentry's musket, and falling on the tholl-pin of the boat, it entered
+my back near the spine, inflicting a severe injury, which caused me
+many years of subsequent suffering. Immediately regaining my footing,
+I reascended the side, and, when on deck, was shot through the thigh.
+But, binding a handkerchief tightly round the wound, I managed, though
+with great difficulty, to direct the contest to its close.
+
+"The whole affair, from beginning to end, occupied only a quarter of
+an hour, our loss being eleven killed and thirty wounded, whilst that
+of the Spaniards was a hundred and sixty, many of whom fell under
+the cutlasses of the Chilians before they could stand to their arms.
+Greater bravery I never saw displayed than by our gallant fellows.
+Before boarding, the duties of all had been appointed, and a party
+was told off to take possession of the tops. We had not been on deck
+a minute, when I hailed the foretop, and was instantly answered by our
+own men, an equally prompt answer being returned from the frigate's
+main-top. No British man-of-war's crew could have excelled this minute
+attention to orders.
+
+"The uproar speedily alarmed the garrison, who, hastening to their
+guns, opened fire on their own frigate, thus paying us the compliment
+of having taken it; though, even in this case, their own men must
+still have been on board, so that firing on them was a wanton
+proceeding. Several Spaniards were killed or wounded by the shot of
+the fortress. Amongst the wounded was Captain Coig, the commander of
+the _Esmeralda_, who, after he was made prisoner, received a severe
+contusion by a shot from his own party.
+
+"The fire from the fortress was, however, neutralized by a successful
+expedient. There were two foreign ships of war present during the
+contest, the United States frigate _Macedonian_ and the British
+frigate _Hyperion_ ; and these, as had been previously agreed upon with
+the Spanish authorities in case of a night attack, hoisted peculiar
+lights as signals, to prevent being fired upon. This contingency being
+provided for by us, as soon as the fortress commenced its fire on the
+_Esmeralda_, we also ran up similar lights, so that the garrison did
+not know which vessel to fire at. The _Hyperion_ and _Macedonian_ were several times struck, while the _Esmeralda_ was comparatively
+untouched. Upon this the neutral vessels cut their cables and moved
+away. Contrary to my orders, Captain Gruise then cut the _Esmeralda's_ cables also, so that there was nothing to be done but to loose her
+topsails and follow. The fortress thereupon ceased its fire.
+
+"I had distinctly ordered that the cables of the _Esmeralda_ were not
+to be cut, but that after taking her, the force was to capture the
+_Maypeu_, a brig of war previously taken from Chili, and then to
+attack and cut adrift every ship near, there being plenty of time
+before us. I had no doubt that, when the _Esmeralda_ was taken, the
+Spaniards would desert the other ships as fast as their boats would
+permit them, so that the whole might have been either captured or
+burnt. To this end all my previous plans had been arranged; but, on
+my being placed _hors de combat_ by my wounds, Captain Gruise, on whom
+the command of the prize devolved, chose to interpose his own judgment
+and content himself with the _Esmeralda_ alone; the reason assigned
+being that the English had broken into her spirit-room and were
+getting drunk, whilst the Chilians were disorganized by plundering.
+It was a great mistake. If we could capture the _Esmeralda_ with her
+picked and well-appointed crew, there would have been little or no
+difficulty in cutting the other ships adrift in succession. It would
+only have been the rout of Valdivia over again, chasing the enemy,
+without loss, from ship to ship instead of from fort to fort."
+
+Lord Cochrane's exploit, however, though less complete than he had
+intended, was as successful in its issue as it was brilliant in its
+achievement. "This loss of the _Esmeralda_," wrote Captain Basil Hall,
+then commanding a British war-ship in South American waters, "was a
+death-blow to the Spanish naval force in that quarter of the world;
+for, although there were still two Spanish frigates and some smaller
+vessels in the Pacific, they never afterwards ventured to show
+themselves, but left Lord Cochrane undisputed master of the coast."
+The speedy liberation of Peru was its direct consequence, although
+that good work was seriously impaired by the continued and increasing
+misconduct of General San Martin, inducing troubles, of which Lord
+Cochrane received his full share.
+
+In the first burst of his enthusiasm at the intelligence of Lord
+Cochrane's action, San Martin was generous for once. "The importance
+of the service you have rendered to the country, my lord," he wrote on
+the 10th of November, "by the capture of the frigate _Esmeralda_, and
+the brilliant manner in which you conducted the gallant officers and
+seamen under your orders to accomplish that noble enterprise, have
+augmented the gratitude due to your former services by the Government,
+as well as that of all interested in the public welfare and in your
+fame. All those who participated in the risks and glory of the deed
+also deserve well of their countrymen; and I have the satisfaction to
+be the medium of transmitting the sentiments of admiration which such
+transcendent success has excited in the chiefs of the army under my
+command." "It is impossible for me to eulogize in proper language,"
+he also wrote to the Chilian administration, "the daring enterprise
+of the 5th of November, by which Lord Cochrane has decided the
+superiority of our naval forces, augmented the splendour and power of
+Chili, and secured the success of this campaign."
+
+A few days later, however, San Martin wrote in very different terms.
+"Before the General-in-Chief left the Vice-Admiral of the squadron,"
+he said, in a bulletin to the army, "they agreed on the execution of
+a memorable project, sufficient to astonish intrepidity itself, and to
+make the history of the liberating expedition of Peru eternal." "This
+glory," he added, "was reserved for the Liberating Army, whose efforts
+have snatched the victims of tyranny from its hands." Thus impudently
+did he arrogate to himself a share, at any rate, in the initiation of
+a project which Lord Cochrane, knowing that he would oppose it, had
+purposely kept secret from him, and assign the whole merit of its
+completion to the army which his vacillation and incompetence were
+holding in unwelcome inactivity.
+
+Lord Cochrane was too much accustomed to personal injustice, however,
+to be very greatly troubled by that fresh indignity. It was a far
+heavier trouble to him that his first triumph was not allowed to be
+supplemented by prompt completion of the work on which, and not on
+any individual aggrandisement, his heart was set—the establishment of
+Peruvian as well as Chilian freedom.
+
+San Martin, having done nothing hitherto but allow his army to waste
+its strength and squander its resources, first at Pisco and afterwards
+at Ancon, now fixed upon Huacha as another loitering-place. Thither
+Lord Cochrane had to convey it, before he was permitted to resume the
+blockade of Callao. This blockade lasted, though not all the while
+under his personal direction, for eight months.
+
+"Several attempts were now made," said Lord Cochrane, with reference
+to the first few weeks of the blockade, "to entice the remaining
+Spanish naval force from their shelter under the batteries by placing
+the _Esmeralda_ apparently within reach, and the flagship herself in
+situations of some danger. One day I carried her through an intricate
+strait called the Boqueron, in which nothing beyond a fifty-ton
+schooner was ever seen. The Spaniards, expecting every moment to see
+the ship strike, manned their gunboats, ready to attack as soon as she
+was aground; of which there was little danger, for we had found, and
+buoyed off with small bits of wood invisible to the enemy, a channel
+through which a vessel could pass without much difficulty. At another
+time, the Esmeralda being in a more than usually tempting position,
+the Spanish gunboats ventured out in the hope of recapturing her, and
+for an hour maintained a smart fire; but on seeing the _O'Higgins_ manoeuvring to cut them off, they precipitately retreated."
+
+In ways like those the Spaniards were locked in, and harassed, in
+Callao Bay. Good result came in the steady weakening of the Spanish
+cause. On the 3rd of December, six hundred and fifty soldiers deserted
+to the Chilian army. On the 8th they were followed by forty officers;
+and after that hardly a day passed without some important defections
+to the patriot force.'
+
+Unfortunately, however, there was weakness also among the patriots.
+San Martin, idle himself, determined to profit by the advantages,
+direct and indirect, which Lord Cochrane's prowess had secured and
+was securing. It began to be no secret that, as soon as Peru was
+freed from the Spanish yoke, he proposed to subject it to a military
+despotism of his own. This being resented by Lord Cochrane, who on
+other grounds could have little sympathy or respect for his associate,
+coolness arose between the leaders. Lord Cochrane, anxious to do
+some more important work, if only a few troops might be allowed to
+co-operate with his sailors, was forced to share some of San Martin's
+inactivity. In March, 1821, he offered, if two thousand soldiers were
+assigned to him, to capture Lima; and when this offer was rejected, he
+declared himself willing to undertake the work with half the number of
+men. With difficulty he at last obtained a force of six hundred; and
+by them and the fleet nearly all the subsequent fighting in Peru
+was done. Lord Cochrane did not venture upon a direct assault on the
+capital with so small an army; but he used it vigorously from point to
+point on the coast, between Callao and Arica, and thus compelled the
+capitulation of Lima on the 6th of July.
+
+Again, as heretofore, he was thanked in the first moment of triumph,
+to be slighted at leisure. Lord Cochrane, on entering the city, was
+welcomed as the great deliverer of Peru: the medals distributed on
+the 28th of July—the day on which Peru's independence was
+proclaimed—testified that the honour was due to General San Martin
+and his Liberating Army. That, however, was only part of a policy long
+before devised. "It is now became evident to me," said Lord Cochrane,
+"that the army had been kept inert for the purpose of preserving it
+entire to further the ambitious views of the General, and that, with
+the whole force now at Lima, the inhabitants were completely at the
+mercy of their pretended liberator, but in reality their conqueror."
+
+With that policy, however much he reprobated it, Lord Cochrane wisely
+judged that it was not for him to quarrel. "As the existence of this
+self-constituted authority," he said, "was no less at variance with
+the institutions of the Chilian Republic than with its solemn
+promises to the Peruvians, I hoisted my flag on board the _O'Higgins_,
+determined to adhere solely to the interests of Chili; but not
+interfering in any way with General San Martin's proceedings till they
+interfered with me in my capacity as Commander-in-Chief of the Chilian
+navy." He was not, therefore, in Lima on the 3rd of August, when San
+Martin issued a proclamation declaring himself Protector of Peru, and
+appointing three of his creatures as his Ministers of State. Of the
+way in which he became acquainted of this violent and lawless measure,
+a precise description has been given by an eye-witness, Mr. W.B.
+Stevenson.
+
+"On the following morning, the 4th of August," he says, "Lord
+Cochrane, uninformed of the change which had taken place in the
+title of San Martin, visited the palace, and began to beg the
+General-in-Chief to propose some means for the payment of the seamen
+who had served their time and fulfilled their contract. To this San
+Martin answered that 'he would never pay the Chilian squadron unless
+it was sold to Peru, and then the payment should be considered part of
+the purchase-money.' Lord Cochrane replied that 'by such a transaction
+the squadron of Chili would be transferred to Peru by merely paying
+what was due to the officers and crews for services done to that
+State.' San Martin knit his brows and, turning to his ministers,
+Garcia and Monteagudo, ordered them to retire; to which his lordship
+objected, stating that, 'as he was not master of the Spanish language,
+he wished them to remain as interpreters, being fearful that some
+expression, not rightly understood, might be considered offensive.'
+San Martin now turned round to the Admiral and said, 'Are you aware,
+my lord, that I am Protector of Peru?' 'No,' said his lordship. 'I
+ordered my secretaries to inform you of it,' returned San Martin.
+'That is now unnecessary, for you have personally informed me,' said
+his lordship: 'I hope that the friendship which has existed between
+General San Martin and myself will continue to exist between the
+Protector of Peru and myself.' San Martin then, rubbing his hands,
+said, 'I have only to say that I am Protector of Peru.' The manner
+in which this last sentence was expressed roused the Admiral, who,
+advancing, said, 'Then it becomes me, as senior officer of Chili,
+and consequently the representative of the nation, to request the
+fulfilment of all the promises made to Chili and the squadron; but
+first, and principally, the squadron.' San Martin returned, 'Chili!
+Chili! I will never pay a single real to Chili! As to the squadron,
+you may take it where you please, and go where you choose. A couple
+of schooners are quite enough for me.' On hearing this Garcia left the
+room, and Monteagudo walked to the balcony. San Martin paced the room
+for a short time, and, turning to his lordship, said, 'Forget, my
+lord, what is past.' The Admiral replied, 'I will when I can,' and
+immediately left the palace.[A] "One thing has been omitted in
+the preceding narrative," said Lord Cochrane. "General San Martin,
+following me to the staircase, had the temerity to propose to me
+to follow his example—namely, to break faith with the Chilian
+Government, to which we had both sworn, to abandon the squadron to his
+interests, and to accept the higher grade of First Admiral of Peru.
+I need scarcely say that a proposition so dishonourable was declined;
+when, in a tone of irritation, he declared that 'he would neither give
+the seamen their arrears of pay nor the gratuity he had promised.'"
+
+[Footnote A: W.B. Stevenson, "Twenty Years' Residence in South
+America." 1825.]
+
+Lord Cochrane lost no time in returning to his flagship in Callao
+Roads. Thence, however, on the 7th of August, he wrote a letter to San
+Martin, couched in terms as temperate and persuasive as he could bring
+himself to use. "My dear General," he there said, "I address you
+for the last time under your late designation, being aware that the
+liberty I may take as a friend might not be deemed decorous to you
+under the title of Protector, for I shall not, with a gentleman of
+your understanding, take into account, as a motive for abstaining to
+speak truth, any chance of your resentment. Nay, were I certain that
+such would be the effect of this letter, I would nevertheless perform
+such an act of friendship, in repayment of the support you gave me
+at a time when the basest plots were laid for my dismissal from the
+Chilian service. Permit me to give you the experience of eleven years,
+during which I sat in the first senate in the world, and to say what I
+anticipate on the one hand, and what I fear on the other—nay, what
+I foresee. You have it in your power to be the Napoleon of South
+America; but you have also the power to choose your course, and if the
+first steps are false, the eminence on which you stand will, as though
+from the brink of a precipice, make your fall the more heavy and the
+more certain. The real strength of government is public opinion. What
+would the world say, were the Protector of Peru, as his first act, to
+cancel the bonds of San Martin, even though gratitude may be a private
+and not a public virtue? What would they say, were the Protector to
+refuse to pay the expense of that expedition which placed him in his
+present elevated situation? What would they say, were it promulgated
+to the world that he intended not even to remunerate those employed
+in the navy which contributed to his success?" Much more to the same
+effect Lord Cochrane wrote, urging honesty upon San Martin as the only
+path by which he could win for himself a permanent success, and making
+a special claim upon his honesty in the interests of the seamen and
+naval officers, to whom neither pay nor prize-money had been given
+since their departure from Chili nearly a year before.
+
+It was all in vain. San Martin wrote, on the 9th of August, a
+letter making professions of virtue and acknowledging much personal
+indebtedness to Lord Cochrane and the fleet, but evading the whole
+question at issue. "I am disposed," he said, "to recompense valour
+displayed in the cause of the country. But you know, my lord, that the
+wages of the crews do not come under these circumstances, and that I,
+never having engaged to pay the amount, am not obliged to do so. That
+debt is due from Chili, whose Government engaged the seamen."
+
+Lord Cochrane knew that Chili would decline to pay for work that, if
+intended to be done in its interests, had been perverted from that
+intention; and his crews, also knowing it, became reasonably mutinous.
+After much further correspondence—in which San Martin suggested as
+his only remedy that Lord Cochrane should accept the dishonourable
+proposal made to him, and, becoming himself First Admiral of Peru,
+should induce the fleet to join in the same rebellion against Chili to
+which the army had been brought by its general, and in which Captains
+Guise and Spry, always evil-minded, had already joined—Lord Cochrane
+adopted a bold but altogether justifiable manoeuvre. A large quantity
+of treasure, seized from the Spaniards, having been deposited by San
+Martin at Ancon, he sailed thither, in the middle of September, and
+quietly took possession of it. So much as lawful owners could be
+found for was given up to them. With the residue, amounting to 285,000
+dollars, Lord Cochrane paid off the year's arrears to every officer
+and man in his employ, taking nothing for himself, but reserving the
+small surplus for the pressing exigencies and re-equipment of the
+squadron.
+
+It is unnecessary to detail the angry correspondence that arose out
+of that rough act of justice. Before the money was distributed,
+treacherous offers to restore it and enter into rebellious league with
+San Martin were made to Lord Cochrane; and with these were alternated
+mock-virtuous complaints and bombastic threats. Both bribes and
+threats were treated by him with equal contempt.
+
+"After a lapse of nearly forty years' anxious consideration," he wrote
+in 1858, "I cannot reproach myself with having done any wrong in
+the seizure of the money of the Protectorial Government. General San
+Martin and myself had been in our respective departments deputed to
+liberate Peru from Spain, and to give to the Peruvians the same free
+institutions which Chili herself enjoyed. The first part of our object
+had been fully effected by the achievements and vigilance of the
+squadron; the second part was frustrated by General San Martin
+arrogating to himself despotic power, which set at naught the wishes
+and voice of the people. As 'my fortune in common with his own' was
+only to be secured by acquiescence in the wrong he had done to Chili
+by casting off his allegiance to her, and by upholding him in the
+still greater wrong he was inflicting on Peru, I did not choose to
+sacrifice my self-esteem and professional character by lending myself
+as an instrument to purposes so unworthy. I did all in my power
+to warn General San Martin of the consequences of ambition so
+ill-directed, but the warning was neglected, if not despised. Chili
+trusted to him to defray the expenses of the squadron, when its
+objects, as laid down by the Supreme Director, should be accomplished;
+but, in place of fulfilling the obligation, he permitted the squadron
+to starve, its crews to go in rags, and the ships to be in perpetual
+danger for want of the proper equipment which Chili could not afford
+to give them when they sailed from Valparaiso. The pretence for this
+neglect was want of means, though, at the same time, money to a
+vast amount was sent away from the capital to Ancon. Seeing that no
+intention existed on the part of the Protector's Government to do
+justice to the Chilian squadron, whilst every effort was made to
+excite discontent among the officers and men with the purpose of
+procuring their transfer to Peru, I seized the public money, satisfied
+the men, and saved the navy to the Chilian Republic, which afterwards
+warmly thanked me for what I had done. Despite the obloquy cast upon
+me by the Protector's Government, there was nothing wrong in the
+course I pursued, if only for the reason that, if the Chilian squadron
+was to be preserved, it was impossible for me to have done otherwise.
+Years of reflection have only produced the conviction that, were I
+again placed in similar circumstances, I should adopt precisely the
+same course."
+
+In spite of his treachery to the Chilian Government, General San
+Martin professed to retain his functions as Commander-in-Chief of the
+Chilian liberating expedition to Peru; and, accordingly, when he found
+it useless to make further efforts, by bribes or threats, to seduce
+Lord Cochrane from his allegiance, he ordered him to return at once to
+Valparaiso. This order Lord Cochrane refused to obey, seeing that the
+work entrusted to him—the entire destruction of the Spanish squadron
+in the Pacific—had not yet been completed.
+
+He determined to complete that work, first going to Guayaquil to
+repair and refit his ships, which San Martin would not allow him to do
+in any Peruvian port. He was thus employed during six weeks following
+the 18th of October, 1821.
+
+On his departure, a complimentary address from the townsmen afforded
+him an opportunity of offering some good advice on a matter in which
+his long and intelligent political experience showed him that they
+were especially at fault. The inhabitants of Guayaquil, like many
+other young communities, sought to increase their revenues and
+strengthen their independence by violent restrictions upon foreign
+commerce and arbitrary support of native monopolists. Lord Cochrane
+eloquently propounded to them the doctrine of free trade. "Let your
+public press," he said, "declare the consequences of monopoly, and
+affix your names to the defence of your enlightened system. Let it
+show, if your province contains eighty thousand inhabitants, and if
+eighty of these are privileged merchants according to the old system,
+that nine hundred and ninety-nine persons out of a thousand must
+suffer because their cotton, coffee, tobacco, timber, and other
+productions, must come into the hands of the monopolist, as the only
+purchaser of what they have to sell, and the only seller of what they
+must necessarily buy; the effect being that he will buy at the lowest
+possible rate and sell at the dearest, so that not only are the nine
+hundred and ninety-nine injured, but the lands will remain waste, the
+manufactories without workmen, and the people will be lazy and poor
+for want of a stimulus, it being a law of nature that no man will
+labour solely for the gain of another. Tell the monopolist that the
+true method of acquiring general riches, political power, and even his
+own private advantage, is to sell his country's produce as high, and
+foreign goods as low, as possible, and that public competition can
+alone accomplish this. Let foreign merchants, who bring capital,
+and those who practise any art or handicraft, be permitted to settle
+freely. Thus a competition will be formed, from which all must reap
+advantage. Then will land and fixed property increase in value. The
+magazines, instead of being the receptacles of filth and crime, will
+be full of the richest foreign and domestic productions; and all will
+be energy and activity, because the reward will be in proportion to
+the labour. Your river will be filled with ships, and the monopolist
+degraded and shamed. You will bless the day in which Omnipotence
+permitted to be rent asunder the veil of obscurity, under which the
+despotism of Spain, the abominable tyranny of the Inquisition, and the
+want of liberty of the press, so long hid the truth from your sight.
+Let your customs' duties be moderate, in order to promote the greatest
+possible consumption of foreign and domestic goods; then smuggling
+will cease and the returns to the treasury increase. Let every man
+do as he pleases as regards his own property, views, and interests;
+because each individual will watch over his own with more zeal than
+senates, ministers, or kings. By your enlarged views set an example
+to the New World; and thus, as Guayaquil is, from its situation,
+the central republic, it will become the centre of the agriculture,
+commerce, and riches of the Pacific."
+
+Lord Cochrane left Guayaquil on the 3rd of December, and cruised
+northwards in search of the _Prueba_ and the _Venganza_, the only two
+remaining Spanish frigates, which had made their escape from Callao
+and gone in the direction of Mexico. He sailed along the Colombian
+and Mexican coasts as far as Acapulco, where he called on the 29th
+of January, 1822, without finding the objects of his search. He there
+learned, on the 2nd of February, from an in-coming merchantman, that
+the frigates had eluded him and were now somewhere to the southwards.
+Upon that he at once retraced his course, and, in spite of a storm
+which nearly wrecked his two best ships, one of them being the
+captured _Esmeralda_, now christened the _Valdivia_, was at Guayaquil
+again on the 13th of March. There, as he expected, from information
+received on the passage, he found the _Venganza._ Both the frigates
+had been compelled, by want of provisions, to run the risk of halting
+at Guayaquil, whither also an envoy from San Martin had arrived,
+instructed to tempt the Guayaquilians into friendship with Peru and
+jealousy of Chili. On the appearance of the Spanish frigates, he had
+persuaded their captains, as the only means of averting the certain
+ruin that Lord Cochrane was planning for them, quietly to surrender to
+the Peruvian Government. In this way Chili was cheated of its prizes,
+although Lord Cochrane's main object, the entire overthrow of the
+Spanish war shipping in the Pacific, was accomplished without further
+use of powder and shot. The _Prueba_ had been sent to Callao, and the
+_Venganza_ was now being refitted at Guayaquil.
+
+Lord Cochrane had now done all that it was possible for him to do in
+fulfilment of the naval mission on which he had quitted Chili a year
+and a half before. Proceeding southward, he anchored in Callao Roads
+from the 25th of April till the 10th of May. San Martin's Government,
+fearing punishment for their misdeeds, prepared to defend Callao. Lord
+Cochrane, however, wrote to say that he had no intention of making
+war upon the Peruvians; that all he asked was adequate payment for
+the services rendered to them by his officers and seamen. In the
+same letter he denounced the new treachery that had been shown with
+reference to the _Venganza_ and the _Prueba_.
+
+The answer to that letter was a visit from San Martin's chief
+minister, who begged Lord Cochrane to recall it, and impudently
+repeated the old offers of service under the Peruvian Government,
+adding that San Martin had written a private letter to the same
+effect. "Tell the Protector from me," said Lord Cochrane, "that if,
+after the conduct he has pursued, he had sent me a private letter, it
+would certainly have been returned unanswered. You may also tell him
+that it is not my wish to injure him, that I neither fear him nor hate
+him, but that I disapprove of his conduct."
+
+Lord Cochrane's brief stay off Callao sufficed to convince him that,
+though the people of Peru were being for the time subjected to a
+tyranny almost equal to that practised by Spain, no one was likely to
+be long in fear of San Martin, as his treacheries and his vices were
+already bringing upon him well-deserved disgrace and punishment. To
+that purport Lord Cochrane wrote to O'Higgins on the 2nd of May. "As
+the attached and sincere friend of your excellency," he said, "I hope
+you will take into your serious consideration the propriety of at once
+fixing the Chilian Government upon a base not to be shaken by the
+fall of the present tyranny in Peru, of which there are not only
+indications, but the result is inevitable—unless, indeed, the
+mischievous counsels of vain and mercenary men can suffice to prop up
+a fabric of the most barbarous political architecture, serving as a
+screen from whence to dart their weapons against the heart of liberty.
+Thank God, my hands are free from the stain of labouring in any such
+work; and having finished all you gave me to do, I may now rest till
+you shall command my further endeavours for the honour and security of
+my adopted land."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX.
+
+
+LORD COCHRANE'S RETURN TO VALPARAISO.—HIS FURTHER ILL-TREATMENT BY
+THE CHILIAN GOVERNMENT.—HIS RESIGNATION OF CHILIAN EMPLOYMENT, AND
+ACCEPTANCE OF EMPLOYMENT UNDER THE EMPEROR OF BRAZIL.—HIS SUBSEQUENT
+CORRESPONDENCE WITH THE GOVERNMENT OF CHILI.—THE RESULTS OF HIS
+CHILIAN SERVICE.
+
+
+[1822-1823.]
+
+Lord Cochrane returned to Valparaiso on the 3rd of June, 1822, having
+been absent more than twenty months. An enthusiastic welcome awaited
+him. Medals were struck in his honour, and in various ephemeral ways
+the public gratitude was expressed.
+
+It was, however, only ephemeral. There was no substantial recognition
+of his great services. His men were left unpaid, and he himself was
+subjected to further indignities of the sort already described. It is
+not necessary here to give any detailed account of them, or to enter
+into a particular rehearsal of his efforts during the next six months
+to continue his beneficial services to Chili. He had done the great
+service for which he had been invited to South America. In the course
+of about three years he had scoured the Pacific of the Spanish ships,
+which had offered an obstacle too serious for the patriots to overcome
+by any force or wisdom of their own. He had made it possible for
+them to assert their independence of a foreign yoke, and, if their
+patriotism had been genuine enough, to work out internal reforms, by
+which the sometime colonies of Spain in South America might have been
+able to vie in greatness with the sometime colonies of England in the
+northern continent. The benefits which he conferred especially upon
+Chili were shared by all the liberated communities along the whole
+Pacific coastline up to Mexico. But all were alike ungrateful, except
+in fitful words and in sentiments that prompted to no action.
+
+Shortly after his return to Chili, Lord Cochrane went to live upon the
+estates that had been conferred upon him. Soon, however, he was forced
+to go back to Valparaiso, there to look after the interests of the
+officers and crews who had served him and Chili during the previous
+fighting time. His earnest arguments on their behalf were not heeded.
+The poor fellows were left to starve and be perished by the cold of
+a South American winter, against which the pitiful rags in which they
+were clothed afforded no protection. And before long fresh incidents
+arose which made it impossible for him to persevere in fighting their
+battle.
+
+General San Martin, having run his course of petty tyranny in Peru,
+was soon forced to resign his protectorate and seek safety in Chili.
+He reached Valparaiso on the 12th of October, and then Lord Cochrane,
+who had long before seen good reasons for suspecting it, was convinced
+that Zenteno and many other influential men in Chili were in league
+with him. He claimed that San Martin should be tried by court-martial
+for his treasons, known to all the world. Instead of that San Martin
+was loaded with honours, and fresh indignities were heaped upon
+his chief accuser. This monstrous action of the ministers led to a
+revolution, which, if Lord Cochrane had stayed to the end, might have
+proved much to his advantage. But the revolution, headed by General
+Freire, an honest man, had for its object the overthrow of O'Higgins,
+also an honest man, though too weak to withstand the influences
+brought to bear upon him by the bad men by whom he was surrounded.
+Lord Cochrane refused Freire's offers to join in opposition to
+O'Higgins, always, as far as his small powers permitted, his good
+friend. He preferred to abandon Chili, or rather to allow it to
+abandon one who had done for it so much and had received so little in
+return. "The difficulties," he said, in a dignified letter addressed
+to General O'Higgins, still nominally the Supreme Director, in which
+he virtually resigned his appointment as Vice-Admiral of the Republic,
+"the difficulties which I have experienced in accomplishing the naval
+enterprises successfully achieved during the period of my command as
+Admiral of Chili have not been mastered without responsibility such as
+I would scarcely again undertake, not because I would hesitate to make
+any personal sacrifice in a cause of so much interest, but because
+even these favourable results have led to the total alienation of
+the sympathies of meritorious officers—whose co-operation was
+indispensable—in consequence of the conduct of the Government.
+That which has made most impression on their minds has been, not the
+privations they have suffered, nor the withholding of their pay
+and other dues, but the absence of any public acknowledgment by the
+Government of the honours and distinctions promised for their fidelity
+and constancy to Chili; especially at a time when no temptation was
+withheld that could induce them to abandon the cause of Chili for the
+service of the Protector of Peru. Ever since that time, though there
+was no want of means or knowledge of facts on the part of the Chilian
+Government, it has submitted itself to the influence of the agents
+of an individual whose power, having ceased in Peru, has been again
+resumed in Chili. The effect of this on me is so keen that I cannot
+trust myself in words to express my personal feelings. Whatever I
+have recommended or asked for the good of the naval service has been
+scouted or denied, though acquiescence would have placed Chili in
+the first rank of maritime states in this quarter of the globe. My
+requisitions and suggestions were founded on the practice of the first
+naval service in the world—that of England. They have, however, met
+with no consideration, as though their object had been directed to
+my own personal benefit. Until now I have never eaten the bread of
+idleness. I cannot reconcile to my mind a state of inactivity which
+might even now impose upon the Chilian Republic an annual pension for
+past services; especially as an Admiral of Peru is actually in command
+of a portion of the Chilian squadron, whilst other vessels are sent to
+sea without the orders under which they act being communicated to
+me, and are despatched through the instrumentality of the governor of
+Valparaiso [Zenteno]. I mention these circumstances incidentally as
+having confirmed me in the resolution to withdraw myself from Chili
+for a time, asking nothing for myself during my absence; whilst, as
+regards the sums owing to me, I forbear to press for their payment
+till the Government shall be more freed from its difficulties. I have
+complied with all that my public duty demanded, and, if I have
+not been able to accomplish more, the deficiency has arisen from
+circumstances beyond my control. At any rate, having the world still
+before me, I hope to prove that it is not owing to me. I have received
+proposals from Mexico, from Brazil, and from a European state, but
+have not as yet accepted any of these offers. Nevertheless, the habits
+of my life do not permit me to refuse my services to those labouring
+under oppression, as Chili was before the annihilation of the Spanish
+naval force in the Pacific. In this I am prepared to justify whatever
+course I may pursue. In thus taking leave of Chili, I do so with
+sentiments of deep regret that I have not been suffered to be more
+useful to the cause of liberty, and that I am compelled to separate
+myself from individuals with whom I hoped to live for a long period,
+without violating such sentiments of honour as, were they broken,
+would render me odious to myself and despicable in their eyes."
+
+That letter sufficiently explains the reasons which induced Lord
+Cochrane to resign his Chilian command. He had, as he said, received
+invitations to enter the service of Brazil, of Mexico, and of Greece.
+The Mexican offer he declined at once, as acceptance of it would
+involve little of the active work in fighting which, if for a good
+cause, was always attractive to him. Assistance of the Greeks who, a
+year and a half before, had begun to throw off their long servitude to
+Turkey, and who were now fighting desperately for their freedom,
+was an enterprise on which he would gladly have embarked, but
+the invitation from Brazil was more pressing, and he therefore
+conditionally accepted it. "The war in the Pacific," he said, on the
+29th of November, in answer to two letters written on behalf of the
+newly-elected Emperor of Brazil, "having been happily terminated by
+the total destruction of the Spanish naval force, I am, of course,
+free for the crusade of liberty in any other quarter of the globe. I
+confess, however, that I have not hitherto directed my attention
+to the Brazils; considering that the struggle for the liberties of
+Greece, the most oppressed of modern states, afforded the fairest
+opportunity for enterprise and exertion. I have to-day tendered my
+ultimate resignation to the Government of Chili, and am not at this
+moment aware that any material delay will be necessary previous to my
+setting off, by way of Cape Horn, for Rio de Janeiro; it being, in the
+meantime, understood that I hold myself free to decline, as well as
+entitled to accept, the offer which has, through you, been made to me
+by his Imperial Majesty. I only mention this from a desire to preserve
+a consistency of character, should the Government (which I by no means
+anticipate) differ so widely in its nature from those which I have
+been in the habit of supporting as to render the proposed situation
+repugnant to my principles, and so justly expose me to suspicion, and
+render me unworthy the confidence of his Majesty and the nation."
+
+In accordance with the terms of that letter, Lord Cochrane wrote as we
+have seen to the Supreme Director of Chili, not completely resigning
+his employment, but proposing to absent himself for an indefinite
+period. His proposal was at once accepted by the Chilian Government,
+to whom his honesty and his popularity with the people made him
+particularly obnoxious. He thereupon made prompt arrangements for his
+departure. He quitted Valparaiso on the 18th of January, 1823, in a
+vessel chartered for his own use and that of several European officers
+and seamen, who, like him, were tired of Chilian ingratitude, and who
+begged to be employed under him wherever he might serve.
+
+Of the subsequent occurrences in the Western States, for which he had
+done so much, and tried to do so much more than was permitted, it is
+enough to say that Peru, sadly abused by San Martin, and almost won
+back to Spain, was rescued by the valour and wisdom of Bolivar, and
+that Chili, destined to much future trouble through the bad action
+of its false patriots, was temporarily benefited by the successful
+revolution which placed General Freire in the Supreme Directorship.
+
+Lord Cochrane had not been absent three months before a new Minister
+of Marine wrote to inform him of Freire's accession and to solicit his
+return. From this, however, he excused himself, on the grounds that
+he had now entered into engagements with Brazil which he was bound
+to fulfil, and that his past treatment by the Chilian Government
+discouraged him from renewal of relations which had been so full of
+annoyance to him. "On my quitting Chili," he said in his reply, "there
+was no looking to the past without regret, nor to the future without
+despair, for I had learned by experience what were the views and
+motives which guided the counsels of the State. Believe me that
+nothing but a thorough conviction that it was impracticable to
+render the good people of Chili any further service under existing
+circumstances, or to live in tranquillity under such a system, could
+have induced me to remove myself from a country which I had vainly
+hoped would have afforded me that tranquil asylum which, after
+the anxieties I had suffered, I felt needful to my repose. My
+inclinations, too, were decidedly in favour of a residence in Chili,
+from a feeling of the congeniality which subsisted between my own
+habits and the manners and customs of the people, those few only
+excepted who were corrupted by contiguity with the court, or debased
+in their minds and practices by that species of Spanish colonial
+education which inculcates duplicity as the chief qualification of
+statesmen in all their dealings, both with individuals and the
+public. I now speak more particularly of the persons lately in power,
+excepting, however, the Supreme Director, whom I believe to have been
+the dupe of their deceit. Point out to me one engagement that has been
+honourably fulfilled, one military enterprise of which the professed
+object has not been perverted, or one solemn pledge that has not been
+forfeited. Look at my representations on the necessities of the navy,
+and see how they were relieved. Look at my memorial, proposing to
+establish a nursery for seamen by encouraging the coasting trade, and
+compare its principles with the code of Rodriguez, which annihilated
+both. You will see in this, as in all other cases, that whatever I
+recommended, in regard to the promotion of the good of the marine, was
+set at nought, or opposed by measures directly the reverse. Look to
+the orders which I received, and see whether I had more liberty of
+action than a schoolboy in the execution of his task. Sir, that which
+I suffered from anxiety of mind whilst in the Chilian service, I will
+never again endure for any consideration. To organize new crews, to
+navigate ships destitute of sails, cordage, provisions, and stores,
+to secure them in port without anchors and cables, except so far as I
+could supply these essentials by accidental means, were difficulties
+sufficiently harassing; but to live amongst officers and men
+discontented and mutinous on account of arrears of pay and other
+numerous privations, to be compelled to incur the responsibility
+of seizing by force from Peru funds for their payment, in order to
+prevent worse consequences to Chili, and then to be exposed to the
+reproach of one party for such seizure, and the suspicions of
+another that the sums were not duly applied, are all circumstances so
+disagreeable and so disgusting that, until I have certain proof that
+the present ministers are disposed to act in another manner, I cannot
+possibly consent to renew my services where, under such circumstances,
+they would be wholly unavailing to the true interests of the people."
+
+Writing thus to the Minister of Marine, Lord Cochrane wrote also at
+the same time to General Freire, who, as has been said, asked him to
+join his revolutionary movement. "It would give me great pleasure, my
+respected friend, to learn that the change which has been effected in
+the government of Chili proves alike conducive to your happiness and
+to the interests of the State. For my own part, like yourself, I have
+suffered so long and so much that I could not bear the neglect and
+double-dealing of those in power any longer, but adopted other means
+of freeing myself from an unpleasant situation. Not being under
+those imperious obligations which, as a native Chilian, rendered it
+incumbent on you to rescue your country from the mischiefs with which
+it was assailed, I could not accept your offer. My heart was with you
+in the measures you adopted for their removal; and my hand was only
+restrained by a conviction that my interference, as a foreigner, in
+the internal affairs of the State would not only have been improper
+in itself, but would have tended to shake that confidence in my
+undeviating rectitude which it was my ambition that the people of
+Chili should ever justly entertain. Permit me to add my opinion that,
+whoever may possess the supreme authority in Chili, until after the
+present generation, educated as it has been under the Spanish colonial
+yoke, shall have passed away, will have to contend with so much error
+and so many prejudices as to be disappointed in his utmost endeavours
+to pursue steadily the course best calculated to promote the freedom
+and happiness of the people. I admire the middle and lower classes
+of Chili, but I have ever found the senate, the ministers, and the
+convention actuated by the narrowest policy, which led them to adopt
+the worst measures. It is my earnest wish that you may find better men
+to co-operate with you. If so, you may be fortunate and may succeed in
+what you have most at heart, the promotion of your country's good."
+
+For the real welfare of Chili Lord Cochrane was always eager; but in
+the treatment which he himself experienced he had strong proof, both
+during his four years' active service under the republic and in all
+after times, of the difficulties in the way of its advancement.
+Not only was he subjected to the contumely and neglect of which he
+complained in the letters just quoted from: he was also directly
+mulcted to a very large extent in the scanty recompense for his
+services to which he was legally entitled, and indirectly injured to
+a yet larger extent. "I was compelled to quit Chili," he wrote at
+a later date, "without any of the emoluments due to my position as
+Commander-in-Chief of the Navy, or any share of the sums belonging
+to myself and the officers and seamen; which sums, on the faith of
+repayment, had, at my solicitation, been appropriated to the repairs
+and maintenance of the squadron generally, but more especially at
+Guayaquil and Acapulco, when in pursuit of the _Prueba_ and the
+_Venganza_. Neither was any compensation made for the value of stores
+captured and collected by the squadron, whereby its efficiency was
+chiefly maintained during the whole period of the Peruvian blockade.
+The Supreme Director of Chili, recognizing the justice of payment
+being made by the Peruvians for at least the value of the _Esmeralda_,
+the capture of which inflicted the death-blow on Spanish power, sent
+me a bill on the Peruvian Government for 120,000 dollars, which
+was dishonoured, and has never since been paid by any succeeding
+Government. Even the 40,000 dollars stipulated by the authorities
+at Guayaquil as the penalty for giving up the _Venganza_ was never
+liquidated. No compensation for the severe wounds received during the
+capture of the _Esmeralda_ was either offered or received.
+Shortly after my departure for Brazil, the Government forcibly and
+indefensibly resumed the estate at Rio Clara, which had been awarded
+to me and my family in perpetuity, as a remuneration for the capture
+of Valdivia, and my bailiff, who had been left upon it for its
+management and direction, was summarily ejected. Unhappily, this
+ingratitude for services rendered was the least misfortune which my
+devotedness to Chili brought upon me. On my return to England in
+1825, after the termination of my services in Brazil, I found myself
+involved in litigation on account of the seizure of neutral vessels
+by authority of the then unacknowledged Government of Chili. These
+litigations cost me, directly, upwards of 14,000£, and, indirectly,
+more than double that amount. Thus, in place of receiving anything for
+my efforts in the cause of Chilian and Peruvian independence, I was a
+loser of upwards of 25,000£, this being more than double the
+whole amount I had received as pay whilst in command of the Chilian
+squadron."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X.
+
+
+THE ANTECEDENTS OF BRAZILIAN INDEPENDENCE.—PEDRO I.'s ACCESSION.—THE
+INTERNAL AND EXTERNAL TROUBLES OF THE NEW EMPIRE.—LORD COCHRANE'S
+INVITATION TO BRAZIL.—HIS ARRIVAL AT RIO DE JANEIRO, AND ACCEPTANCE
+OF BRAZILIAN SERVICE.—HIS FIRST MISFORTUNES.—THE BAD CONDITION OF
+HIS SQUADRON, AND THE CONSEQUENT FAILURE OF HIS FIRST ATTACK ON THE
+PORTUGUESE OFF BAHIA.—HIS PLANS FOR IMPROVING THE FLEET, AND THEIR
+SUCCESS.—HIS NIGHT VISIT TO BAHIA, AND THE CONSEQUENT FLIGHT OF THE
+ENEMY.—LORD COCHRANE'S PURSUIT OF THEM.—HIS VISIT TO MARANHAM,
+AND ANNEXATION OF THAT PROVINCE AND OF PARÀ.—HIS RETURN TO RIO DE
+JANEIRO.—THE HONOURS CONFERRED UPON HIM.
+
+[1823.]
+
+In 1808, King John VI. of Portugal, driven by Buonaparte from his
+European dominions, took refuge in his great colonial possession of
+Brazil, and the result of his emigration was considerable enlargement
+of the liberties of the Brazilians. Thereby the immense Portuguese
+colony in South America was prevented from following in the
+revolutionary steps of the numerous Spanish provinces adjoining it.
+In Brazil, however, during the ensuing years party faction produced
+nearly as much turmoil as attended the struggle for independence in
+Chili and the other Spanish, colonies. Those Brazilians who were
+still intimately connected with the inhabitants of the mother country
+rallied under Portuguese leaders, and did their utmost to maintain
+the Portuguese supremacy over the colony. Quite as many, on the other
+hand, were eager to take advantage of the new state of things as a
+means of consolidating the freedom of Brazil. Plots and counterplots,
+broils and insurrections, lasted, almost without intermission, until
+1821, when King John returned to Portugal, leaving his son, Don Pedro,
+as lieutenant and regent, to cope with yet greater difficulties. The
+Cortes of Portugal, able to get back their king, desired also to bring
+back Brazil to all its former servitude. So great was the opposition
+thus provoked that the native or true Brazilian party induced Don
+Pedro to throw off allegiance to his father. In October, 1822, the
+independence of the colony was publicly declared, and on the 1st of
+December Don Pedro assumed the title of Emperor of Brazil.
+
+Only the southern part of Brazil, however, acknowledged his authority.
+The northern provinces, including Bahia, Maranham, and Para, were
+ruled by the Portuguese faction and held by Portuguese troops. A
+formidable fleet, moreover, swept the seas, and the independent
+provinces were threatened with speedy subjection to the sway of
+Portugal.
+
+That was the state of affairs in the young empire of Brazil during the
+months in which Lord Cochrane, having destroyed the Spanish fleet
+in the Pacific, was being subjected to the worst ingratitude of his
+Chilian employers. Don Pedro and his advisers, hearing of this, lost
+no time in inviting him to enter the service of the Brazilian nation.
+Equal rank and position to those held by him under Chili were offered
+to him. "Abandonnez vous, milord," wrote the official who conveyed the
+Emperor's message, on the 4th of November, 1822, "à la reconnaisance
+Brésilienne, à la munificence du Prince, à la probité sans tache de
+l'actuel Gouvernement; on vous fera justice; on ne rabaissera
+d'un seul point la haute considération, rang, grade, caractère, et
+avantages qui vous sont dûs." In yet stronger terms a second letter
+was written soon afterwards. "Venez, milord; l'honneur vous invite;
+la gloire vous appelle. Venez donner à nos armes navales cet ordre
+merveilleux et discipline incomparable de puissante Albion."
+
+Lord Cochrane, as we have seen, accepted this invitation; not,
+however, without some misgivings, which, in the end, were fully
+justified. Having quitted Valparaiso on the 18th of January, 1823, he
+arrived at Rio de Janeiro on the 13th of March. He had not been there
+a week before he discovered that, while all classes were anxious to
+secure his aid, the Emperor Pedro I. stood almost alone in the desire
+to treat him honourably and in a way worthy of his character and
+reputation. Vague promises were made to him; but, when a statement
+of his position was asked for in writing, very different terms were
+employed. He was only to have the rank of a subordinate admiral, with
+pay of less amount than the Chilian pension that he had resigned. His
+employment was to be temporary and informal, subjecting him to the
+chance of dismissal at any moment. When, however, resenting these
+trickeries, he announced his intention of proceeding at once to
+Europe, and accepting the Greek service offered to him, a different
+tone was adopted. Under the Emperor's signature he was appointed, on
+the 21st of March, First Admiral of the National and Imperial Navy,
+with emoluments equal to those he had received from Chili.
+
+He did not then know, though he was soon to learn it by hard
+experience, how strong, even at the imperial court, was the influence
+of the Portuguese party, and by what meanness and trickery it sought
+to maintain and augment that influence. "Where the Portuguese party
+was really to blame," he afterwards said, "was in this,—that, seeing
+disorder everywhere more or less prevalent, they strained every nerve
+to increase it, hoping to paralyze further attempts at independence by
+exposing whole provinces to the evils of anarchy and confusion. Their
+loyalty also partook more of self-interest than of attachment to the
+supremacy of Portugal; for the commercial classes, which formed the
+real strength of the Portuguese faction, hoped, by preserving the
+authority of the mother country in her distant provinces, to obtain as
+their reward the revival of old trade monopolies which, twelve years
+before, had been thrown open, enabling the English traders—whom
+they cordially hated—to supersede them in their own markets. Being
+a citizen of the rival nation, their aversion to me personally was
+undisguised—the more so, perhaps, that they believed me capable
+of achieving at Bahia, whither the squadron was destined, that
+irreparable injury to their own cause which the imperial troops had
+been unable to effect. Had I, at the time, been aware of the influence
+and latent power of the Portuguese party in the empire, nothing would
+have induced me to accept the command of the Brazilian navy; for to
+contend with faction is more dangerous than to engage an enemy, and a
+contest of intrigue is foreign to my nature and inclination."
+
+Having entered the Brazilian service, however, Lord Cochrane applied
+himself to his work with characteristic energy and success. He hoisted
+his flag on board the _Pedro Primiero_ on the 21st of March, and
+put to sea on the 3rd of April. His squadron consisted of the _Pedro
+Primiero_, a fine and well-appointed ship, rated rather too highly for
+seventy-four guns, commanded by Captain Crosbie; of the _Piranga_, a
+fine frigate, entrusted to Captain Jowett; of the _Maria de Gloria_,
+a showy but comparatively worthless clipper, mounting thirty-two
+small guns, under Captain Beaurepaire; of the _Liberal_, under Captain
+Garcaõ. He was accompanied by two old vessels, the _Guarani_ and
+the _Real_, to be used as fireships. Two other ships of war, the
+_Nitherohy_, assigned to Captain Taylor, and the _Carolina_, were left
+behind to complete their equipment, and the first of these joined
+the squadron on its way to Bahia, which, being the nearest of the
+disaffected provinces, was the first to be subdued.
+
+The coast of Bahia was reached on the 1st of May, and Lord Cochrane
+was arranging to blockade its capital and port, on the 4th, when the
+Portuguese fleet came out of the harbour. It comprised the _Don Joaõ_,
+of seventy-four guns; the _Constitucaõ_, of fifty; the _Perola_, of
+forty-four; the _Princeza Real_, of twenty-eight; the _Regeneracaõ_,
+the _Dez de Fevereiro_, the _San Gaulter_, the _Principe de Brazil_,
+and the _Restauracaõ_, of twenty-six each; the _Calypso_ and the
+_Activa_, of twenty-two; the _Audaz_, of twenty; and the _Canceicaõ_,
+of eight; being one line-of-battle ship, five frigates, five
+corvettes, a brig, and a schooner. Lord Cochrane did not venture with
+his small and as yet untried force to attack the whole squadron, but
+he proceeded to cut off the four rearmost ships. This he did with the
+_Pedro Primiero_, but, to his disgust, the other vessels, heedless
+of his orders, failed to follow him. "Had the rest of the Brazilian
+squadron," he said, "come down in obedience to signals, the ships cut
+off might have been taken or dismantled, as with the flag-ship I
+could have kept the others at bay, and no doubt have crippled all in
+a position to render them assistance. To my astonishment, the signals
+were disregarded, and no efforts were made to second my operations."
+The _Pedro Primiero_, after fighting alone for some time, and during
+that time even doing but little mischief, by reason of the clumsy way
+in which her guns were handled, had to be withdrawn.
+
+At that failure Lord Cochrane was reasonably chagrined. Worse than the
+fact that the Portuguese had escaped uninjured for this once, was the
+knowledge that he could not hope thoroughly to punish them without
+first effecting great reform in the materials at his disposal. On the
+5th of May he wrote to the Government to complain of the miserable
+condition of the ships and crews provided for him by the Brazilian
+Government. "From the defective sailing and manning of the squadron,"
+he said, "it seems to me that the _Pedro Primiero_ is the only one
+that can assail an enemy's ship-of-war, or act in the face of a
+superior force so as not to compromise the interests of the empire and
+the character of the officers commanding. Even this ship, in common
+with the rest, is so ill-equipped as to be much less efficient than
+she otherwise would be. Our cartridges are all unfit for service,
+and I have been obliged to cut up every flag and ensign that could
+be spared to render them serviceable, so as to prevent the men's arms
+being blown off whilst working the guns. The guns are without locks.
+The bed of the mortar which I received on board this ship was crushed
+on the first fire, being entirely rotten. The fuses for the shells are
+formed of such wretched composition that it will not take fire with
+the discharge of the mortar. Even the powder is so bad that six pounds
+will not throw out shells more than a thousand yards. The marines
+understand neither gun exercise, the use of small arms, nor the sword,
+and yet have so high an opinion of themselves that they will not
+assist to wash the decks, or even to clean out their own berths, but
+sit and look on whilst these operations are being performed by seamen.
+I warned the Minister of Marine that every native of Portugal put on
+board the squadron, with the exception of officers of known character,
+would prove prejudicial to the expedition, and yesterday we had clear
+proof of the fact. The Portuguese stationed in the magazine actually
+withheld the powder whilst this ship was in the midst of the enemy,
+and I have since learnt that they did so from feelings of attachment
+to their own countrymen. I enclose two letters, one from the officer
+commanding the _Real_, whose crew were on the point of carrying that
+vessel into the enemy's squadron for the purpose of delivering her
+up. I have also reason to believe that the conduct of the _Liberal_ yesterday in not bearing down upon the enemy, and not complying with
+the signal which I had made to break the line, was owing to her being
+manned by Portuguese. The _Maria de Gloria_ also has a great number
+of Portuguese, which is the more to be regretted as otherwise her
+superior sailing, with the zeal and activity of her captain, would
+render her an effective vessel. To disclose to you the truth, it
+appears to me that one half of the squadron is necessary to watch over
+the other half. Assuredly this is a system which ought to be put an
+end to without delay."
+
+Other indignant complaints of that sort, which need not here be
+repeated, were reasonably made by Lord Cochrane. The bad equipment
+of his squadron, both in men and in material, had hindered him, at
+starting, from achieving a brilliant success over the enemy, and
+though his subsequent achievements were of unsurpassed brilliance,
+he was to the end seriously hindered by the wilful and accidental
+mismanagement of his employers.
+
+Lord Cochrane lost no time, however, in correcting by his own prudent
+action the evil effects of this mismanagement. Not choosing to run the
+risk of a second failure, and believing that two good ships would be
+more serviceable than any number of bad ones, he took his squadron to
+the Moro San Paulo, where he transferred all the best men and the most
+serviceable fittings to the flag-ship and the _Maria de Gloria_. There
+he left the other vessels to be improved as far as possible, directing
+that instruction should be given in seamanship to all the incompetent
+men who showed any promise of being made efficient, and that several
+small prizes which he had taken on his way from Rio de Janeiro should
+be turned into fireships for future use. With the two refitted ships
+he then went back to Bahia, to watch its whole coast and blockade the
+port.
+
+The wisdom of this course was at once apparent. Several minor captures
+were made; the supplies of Bahia were cut off, and the enemy's
+squadron was locked in the harbour for three weeks. Lord Cochrane went
+to the Moro San Paulo on the 26th, leaving the _Maria de Gloria_ to
+overlook the port, and then the Portuguese fleet ventured out for a
+few days. It dared not show fight, however, and was driven back by the
+flag-ship, which returned on the 2nd of June. "On the 11th of June,"
+said Lord Cochrane, "information was received that the enemy was
+seriously thinking of evacuating the port before the fireships were
+completed. I therefore ordered the _Maria de Gloria_ to water and
+re-victual for three months, so as to be in readiness for anything
+which might occur, as, in case the rumour proved correct, our
+operations might take a different turn to those previous intended.
+The _Piranga_ was also directed to have everything in readiness for
+weighing immediately on the flag-ship appearing off the Moro and
+making signals to that effect. The whole squadron was at the same time
+ordered to re-victual, and to place its surplus articles in a large
+shed constructed of trees and branches felled in the neighbourhood of
+the Moro. Whilst the other ships were thus engaged, I determined to
+increase the panic of the enemy with the flag-ship alone. The position
+of their fleet was about nine miles up the bay, under shelter of
+fortifications, so that an attack by day would have been more perilous
+than prudent. Nevertheless, it appeared practicable to pay them a
+hostile visit on the first dark night, when, if we were unable
+to effect any serious mischief, it would at least be possible
+to ascertain their exact position, and to judge what could be
+accomplished when the fireships were brought to bear upon them.
+
+"Accordingly," the narrative proceeds, "having during the day
+carefully taken bearings at the mouth of the river, on the night
+of the 12th of June, I decided on making the attempt, which might
+possibly result in the destruction of part of the enemy's fleet, in
+consequence of the confused manner in which the ships were
+anchored. As soon as it became dark we proceeded up the river; but,
+unfortunately, when we were within hail of the outermost ship, the
+wind failed, and, the tide soon after turning, our plan of attack was
+rendered abortive. Determined, however, to complete the reconnoisance,
+we threaded our way amongst the outermost vessels. In spite of the
+darkness, the presence of a strange ship under sail was discovered,
+and some beat to quarters, hailing to know what ship it was. The
+reply, 'An English vessel,' satisfied them, however, and so our
+investigation was not molested. The chief object thus accomplished, we
+succeeded in dropping out with the ebb-tide, now rapidly running,
+and were enabled to steady our course stern-foremost with the stream
+anchor adrag, whereby we reached our former position."
+
+That exploit was more daring than Lord Cochrane's modest description
+would imply; and, though the bold hope that it might be possible for
+a single invading ship to conquer the whole Portuguese squadron in its
+moorings was not realized, the effect was all that could be desired.
+The Portuguese Admiral and his chief officers were at a ball in
+Bahia while Lord Cochrane was quietly sailing round and amongst their
+squadron, and the report of this achievement was brought to them in
+the midst of their festivities. "What!" exclaimed the Admiral,
+"Lord Cochrane's line-of-battle ship in the very midst of our fleet!
+Impossible! No large ship can have come up in the dark." When it was
+known that the thing had really been done, and that the construction
+of fireships at the Moro San Paulo was being rapidly proceeded with,
+the Portuguese authorities, both naval and military, considered that
+it would be no longer safe to remain in Bahia Harbour. They were
+seriously inconvenienced, moreover, by the success with which Lord
+Cochrane had blockaded the port and all its approaches. "The means
+of subsistence fail us, and we cannot secure the entrance of any
+provisions," said the Commander-in-Chief, in the proclamation
+intimating that the so-called defenders of the province were
+thinking of abandoning their post. This they did after a fortnight's
+consideration. On the 2nd of July the whole squadron of thirteen
+war-vessels and about seventy merchantmen and transports, filled with a
+large body of troops, evacuated the port.
+
+That was a movement with which Lord Cochrane was well pleased. He had
+been in doubt as to the prudence of leading his small fleet into a
+desperate action in the harbour, by which the inexperience of his
+crews might ruin everything, and which might have to be followed
+by fighting on land. But now that the Portuguese, both soldiers and
+sailors, were in the open sea, he could give them chase without much
+risk, as, in the event of their turning round upon him with more
+valour than he gave them credit for, the worst that could happen would
+be his forced abandonment of the pursuit. The valour was not shown.
+No sooner were the Portuguese out of port, with their sails set for
+Maranham, where they hoped to join other ships and troops, and so
+augment their strength, than Lord Cochrane proceeded to follow them
+and dog their progress.
+
+His scheme was a bold one, but as successful as it was bold.
+Attended first by the _Maria de Gloria_ alone, and afterwards by the
+_Carolina_, the _Nitherohy_, and a small merchant brig, the _Colonel
+Allen_, in which he had placed a few guns, he pursued and harassed
+the cumbrous crowd of Portuguese warships, troop-ships, and trading
+vessels, about eighty in all, through fourteen days. The chase,
+indeed, was practically conducted by his flag-ship, the _Pedro
+Primiero_, alone. The other vessels were ordered to look out for any
+of the enemy's fleet that lagged behind or were borne away from the
+main body of the fugitives, either to the right hand or to the left.
+Of these there were plenty, and none were allowed to escape. The
+pursuers had easy work in prize-taking. "I have the honour to inform
+you," wrote Lord Cochrane in a concise despatch to the Brazilian
+Minister of Marine, on the 7th of July, "that half the enemy's army,
+their colours, cannon, ammunition, stores, and baggage have been
+taken. We are still in pursuit, and shall endeavour to intercept the
+remainder of the troops, and shall then look after the ships of war,
+which would have been my first object but that, in pursuing
+this course, the military would have escaped to occasion further
+hostilities against the Brazilian empire."
+
+Most of his prizes and prisoners Lord Cochrane sent into Pernambuco,
+the port then nearest to him, and he despatched two officers to hold
+Bahia for Brazil. With his flag-ship he continued his pursuit of the
+enemy, losing them once during a fog, and, when, he found them,
+being prevented from doing all the mischief which he hoped, as a calm
+enabled them to keep close together and present a front too formidable
+for attack by a single assailant. The Portuguese, however, continued
+their flight as soon as the wind permitted. Lord Cochrane did not
+trouble them much during the day, but each night he swept down on
+them, like a hawk upon its prey, and harassed them with wonderful
+effect. They were chased past Fernando Island, past the Equator, and
+more than half way to Cape Verde. Then, on the 16th of July, Lord
+Cochrane, after a parting broadside, left them to make their way in
+peace to Lisbon, there to tell how, by one daring vessel, thirteen
+ships of war had been ignominiously driven home, accompanied by only
+thirteen out of the seventy vessels that had placed themselves under
+their protection.
+
+Lord Cochrane would have continued the pursuit still farther, had not
+some of the troop-ships contrived to escape; and as he was anxious
+that these should not get into shelter at Maranham, or, if there,
+should not have time to recover their spirits, he deemed it best to
+hasten thither. He reached Maranham before them, and thus found it
+possible to carry through an excellent expedient which he had devised
+on the way.
+
+Maranham, the wealthiest province of the old Brazilian colony, was
+best guarded by the Portuguese, and now served as the centre and
+stronghold of resistance to the authority of the new Emperor. Lord
+Cochrane's plan had for its object nothing less than the annexation of
+the whole province singlehanded and without a blow. With this intent,
+he entered the River Maranham, which served as a harbour to the port
+of the same name, on the 26th of July, with Portuguese colours flying
+from the mast of the _Pedro Primiero_. The authorities, deceived
+thereby, promptly sent a messenger with despatches and congratulations
+on the safe arrival of what was supposed to be a valuable
+reinforcement from Portugal. The messenger was soon undeceived, but
+Lord Cochrane at once made him the agent of a much more elaborate
+and altogether justifiable deception Announcing to him that the swift
+sailing of the _Pedro Primiero_ had brought her first to Maranham, but
+that she was being followed by a formidable squadron, intended for the
+invasion of the province, he sent him back with letters to the same
+effect, addressed to the Portuguese commandant and to the local Junta
+of Maranham. "The naval and military forces under my command," he
+wrote to the former, "leave me no room to doubt the success of
+the enterprise in which I am about to engage, in order to free the
+province of Maranham from foreign domination, and to allow the people
+free choice of government. Of the flight of the Portuguese naval and
+military forces from Bahia you are aware. I have now to inform you of
+the capture of two-thirds of the transports and troops, with all their
+stores and ammunition. I am anxious not to let loose the imperial
+troops of Bahia upon Maranham, exasperated as they are at the injuries
+and cruelties exercised towards themselves and their countrymen, as
+well as by the plunder of the people and churches of Bahia. It is
+for you to decide whether the inhabitants of these countries shall be
+further exasperated by resistance, which appears to me unavailing, and
+alike prejudicial to the best interests of Portugal and Brazil," "The
+forces of his Imperial Majesty," he said to the Junta, "having freed
+the city and province of Bahia from the enemies of independence, I now
+hasten—in conformity with the will of his Majesty that the beautiful
+province of Maranham should be free also—to offer to the oppressed
+inhabitants whatever aid and protection they need against a foreign
+yoke; desiring to accomplish their liberation and to hail them
+as brethren and friends. Should there, however, be any who, from
+self-interested motives, oppose themselves to the deliverance of their
+country, let such be assured that the naval and military forces which
+have driven the Portuguese from the south are again ready to draw the
+sword in the like just cause, and the result cannot be long doubtful."
+
+Those mingled promises and threats took prompt effect. On the
+following day, the 27th of July, after a conditional offer of
+capitulation had been rejected, the members of the Junta, the Bishop
+of Maranham, and other leading persons, went on board the _Pedro
+Primiero_ to tender their submission to the Emperor of Brazil. The
+city and forts were surrendered without reserve, and in less than
+twenty-four hours from Lord Cochrane's first appearance in the river
+the flag of Portugal was replaced by that of Brazil. A great province
+had been added to the dominions of Pedro I. without bloodshed, and
+with no more expenditure of ammunition than was needed for the volleys
+discharged in honour of the triumph.
+
+The liberation of Maranham was publicly celebrated on the 28th of
+July, and on the following day the Portuguese troops embarked for
+Europe, special concessions being made to them by Lord Cochrane, who
+deemed it well that they should be out of the way before the device
+by which he had outwitted them was made known. No resentment was to
+be expected from the civilians, as even those most hearty in their
+adherence to the Portuguese faction in Brazil would not dare to offer
+direct opposition to the sentiments of the majority. But Lord Cochrane
+wisely set himself to conciliate all. "To the inhabitants of the
+city," he said, "I was careful to accord complete liberty, claiming
+in return that perfect order should be preserved and property of all
+kinds respected. The delight of the people was unbounded at being
+freed from a terrible system of exaction and imprisonment which, when
+I entered the river, was being carried on with unrelenting rigour by
+the Portuguese authorities towards all suspected of a leaning to
+the Imperial Government. Instead of retaliating, as would have been
+gratifying to those so recently labouring under oppression, I directed
+oaths to the constitution to be administered, not to Brazilians only,
+but also to all Portuguese who chose to remain and conform to the new
+order of things; a privilege of which many influential persons of that
+nation availed themselves."
+
+With the capture of Maranham alone, however, Lord Cochrane was not
+satisfied. Without a day's delay, he despatched a Portuguese brig
+which he had seized in the river and christened by its name, under
+Captain Grenfell, to follow at Parà, the only important province of
+Brazil still under the Portuguese yoke, the same course which he
+had just adopted with such wonderful success. He himself found it
+necessary to remain at Maranham for more than two months, where he had
+to curb with a strong hand the passions of the liberated inhabitants,
+eager to use their liberty in lawless ways and to retaliate upon the
+Portuguese still resident among them for all the hardships which they
+had hitherto endured.
+
+On the 20th of September, having heard that Captain Grenfell had
+entirely succeeded in his designs on Parà, he started for Rio de
+Janeiro, and there he arrived on the 9th of November. "I immediately
+forwarded to the Minister of Marine," he said, "a recapitulation of
+all transactions since my departure seven months before; namely,—the
+evacuation of Bahia by the Portuguese in consequence of our nocturnal
+visit, connected with the dread of my reputed skill in the use of
+fireships, arising from the affair of Basque Roads; the pursuit of
+their fleet beyond the Equator, and the dispersion of its convoy; the
+capture and disabling of the transports filled with troops intended
+to maintain Portuguese domination on Maranham and Parà; the device
+adopted to obtain the surrender, to the _Pedro Primiero_ alone, of
+the enemy's naval and military forces at Maranham; the capitulation of
+Parà, with the ships of war, to my summons sent by Captain Grenfell;
+the deliverance of the Brazilian patriots whom the Portuguese had
+imprisoned; the declaration of independence by the intermediate
+provinces thus liberated, and their union with the empire; the
+appointment of provisional governments; the embarkation and departure
+of every Portuguese soldier from Brazil; and the enthusiasm with which
+all my measures—though unauthorised and therefore extra-official—had
+been, received by the people of the northern provinces, who, thus
+relieved from the dread of further oppression, had everywhere
+acknowledged and proclaimed his Majesty as constitutional Emperor."
+
+Lord Cochrane's services had, indeed, been, many of them,
+"unauthorised and therefore extra-official." He had been sent out
+merely to recover Bahia; but, besides doing that, he had gained for
+Brazil other territories more than half as large as Europe. For this,
+however, nothing but gratitude could be shown, and the gratitude was,
+for the time at any rate, unalloyed. On the very day of the _Pedro
+Primiero's_ return, the Emperor went on board to offer his thanks in
+person. Further, thanks were voted by the legislature, and tendered by
+all classes of the people.
+
+"Taking into consideration the great services which your excellency
+has just rendered to the nation," wrote the Emperor on the 25th of
+November, "and desiring to give your excellency a public testimonial
+of gratitude for those high and extraordinary services on behalf
+of the generous Brazilian people, who will ever preserve a lively
+remembrance of such illustrious acts, I deem it right to confer upon
+your excellency the title of Marquis of Maranham." The decoration
+of the Imperial Order of the Cruizeiro was also bestowed upon Lord
+Cochrane, and on the 19th of December he was made a Privy Councillor
+of Brazil, the highest honour which it was in the Emperor's power to
+grant. On the same day he also received from the Emperor a charter
+confirming his rank and emoluments as First Admiral of Brazil, "seeing
+how advantageous it would be for the interests of this empire to avail
+itself of the skill of so valuable an officer," and in recognition of
+"the valour, intelligence, and activity by which he had distinguished
+himself in the different services with which he had been entrusted."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI.
+
+
+THE NATURE OF THE REWARDS BESTOWED ON LORD COCHRANE FOR HIS FIRST
+SERVICES TO BRAZIL.—PEDRO I. AND THE PORTUGUESE FACTION.—LORD
+COCHRANE'S ADVICE TO THE EMPEROR.—THE FRESH TROUBLES BROUGHT UPON HIM
+BY IT.—THE UNJUST TREATMENT ADOPTED TOWARDS HIM AND THE FLEET.—THE
+WITHHOLDING OF PRIZE-MONEY AND PAY.—PERSONAL INDIGNITIES TO LORD
+COCHRANE.—AN AMUSING EPISODE.—LORD COCHRANE'S THREAT OF RESIGNATION,
+AND ITS EFFECT.—SIR JAMES MACKINTOSH'S ALLUSION TO LORD COCHRANE IN
+THE HOUSE OF COMMONS.
+
+
+[1823-1824.]
+
+All the rewards bestowed upon Lord Cochrane for his wonderful
+successes in the northern part of Brazil, except the confirmation of
+his patent as First Admiral, be it noted, were unsubstantial. He had
+for ever crushed the power of Portugal in South America; he had added
+vast provinces to the imperial dominion, and had thus augmented the
+imperial revenues by considerably more than a million dollars a-year,
+besides the great and immediate profits of his prize-taking. And all
+this had been done with a small fleet, poorly equipped and unpaid.
+The ships entrusted to him had been rendered efficient by his own
+ingenuity, unaided by the Government, and with scant addition to his
+resources from the numerous captures made by him. In excess of his
+instructions, and with nothing but cheap compliments and cheaper
+promises to encourage him, he had acquired Maranham and Parà, and all
+the provinces dependent upon them, as well as Bahia. Relying on the
+honour of his employers, he had pledged his own honour, that on their
+returning to Rio de Janeiro, his crews, who were clamouring for
+some part, at any rate, of the wages due to them, should be fully
+recompensed, and he had the reasonable expectation, that, out of
+the abundant wealth that he had gained for Brazil, he himself should
+receive his lawful share of the prize-money gained by his exertions.
+Instead of that he and his subordinates, both officers and men, were
+subjected to an unparalleled course of meanness, trickery, and fraud.
+
+This partly resulted from an unfortunate change in the Government that
+had occurred during his absence. When he left Rio de Janeiro, Pedro
+I.'s chief secretary of state had been Don José Bonifacio de Andrada
+y Silva, a wise and patriotic Brazilian. The Emperor and his minister
+had all along been seriously crippled in fulfilment of their good
+purposes by subordinates of the Portuguese faction, who persistently
+twisted their instructions, when they did not act in direct
+opposition to those instructions, so as to promote their own and their
+countrymen's selfish and unpatriotic objects; but there had been hope
+that the zeal of Pedro and José de Andrada would overcome these evil
+devices, and secure the healthy consolidation of the empire. When Lord
+Cochrane returned, however, he found that the honest minister had
+been deposed, that his party had been ousted, and that the Emperor was
+surrounded by bad counsellors, who, unable to pervert his judgment,
+were strong enough to restrain its action, and who were robbing him,
+one by one, of all his constitutional functions, and doing their
+best to bring Brazil into a state of anarchy, with a view to the
+re-establishment of Portuguese authority in its old or in some new but
+no less obnoxious form. The Emperor, desiring to do well, had hardly
+improved his position, a few days before the _Pedro Primiero's_ arrival, by violently dissolving the Legislative Assembly, banishing
+some of its members, and threatening to place Rio de Janeiro itself
+under military law.
+
+That was the state of affairs when Lord Cochrane entered the port.
+Only five days afterwards, on the 14th of November, 1823, he wrote a
+bold letter to the Emperor. "My sense of the impropriety of intruding
+myself on the attention of your Imperial Majesty on any subject
+unconnected with the official position with which your Majesty has
+been pleased to honour me," he said, "could only have been overcome by
+an irresistible desire, under existing circumstances, to contribute to
+the service of your Majesty, and the empire. The conduct of the late
+Legislative Assembly, which sought to derogate from the dignity and
+prerogatives of your Majesty, even presuming to require you to divest
+yourself of your crown in their presence—which deprived you of your
+Council of State and denied you a voice in the enactment of laws and
+the formation of the constitution—and which dared to object to your
+exercising the only remaining function of royalty, that of rewarding
+services and conferring honours—could no longer be tolerated; and
+the justice and wisdom of your Imperial Majesty in dissolving such
+an assembly will be duly appreciated by discerning men, and by those
+whose love of good order and their country supersedes their ambition
+or personal interests. There are, however, individuals who will
+wickedly take advantage of the late proceedings to kindle the flames
+of discord, and throw the empire into anarchy and confusion, unless
+timely prevented by the wisdom and energy of your Imperial Majesty.
+The declaration that you will give to your people a practical
+constitution, more free even than that which the late Assembly
+professed an intention to establish, cannot—considering the spirit
+which now pervades South America—have the effect of averting
+impending evils, unless your Imperial Majesty shall be pleased to
+dissipate all doubts by at once declaring—before the news of the
+recent events can be dispersed throughout the provinces, and before
+the discontented members of the late congress can return to their
+constituents—what is the precise nature of that constitution which
+your Imperial Majesty intends to bestow. As no monarch is more happy
+or more truly powerful than the limited monarch of England, surrounded
+by a free people, enriched by that industry which the security of
+property by means of just laws never fails to create, permit me humbly
+and respectfully to suggest, that if your Majesty were to decree that
+the English constitution, in its most perfect practical form—which,
+with slight alteration, and chiefly in name, is also the constitution
+of the United States of North America—shall be the model for the
+government of Brazil under your Imperial Majesty, with power to the
+Constituent Assembly to alter particular parts as local circumstances
+may render advisable, it would excite the sympathy of powerful states
+abroad, and the firm allegiance of the Brazilian people to your
+Majesty's throne. Were your Majesty, by a few brief lines in the
+'Gazette,' to announce your intention so to do, and were you to banish
+all distrust from the public mind by removing from your person for a
+time, and finding employment on honourable missions abroad for, those
+Portuguese individuals of whom the Brazilians are jealous, the purity
+of your Majesty's motives would be secured from the possibility of
+misrepresentation, the factions which disturb the country would be
+silenced or converted, and the feelings of the world, especially those
+of England and North America, would be interested in promoting the
+glory, happiness, and prosperity of your Imperial Majesty."
+
+That advice, in the main adopted by the Emperor, led to a
+reconstruction of the Brazilian Constitution in its present shape, and
+so added another to the many great benefits which Brazil owes to Lord
+Cochrane. But the whole, and especially the last part of it, being
+directly at variance with the plans and interests of the Portuguese
+faction, it won for him much hatred and many personal troubles.
+
+"That I, a foreigner, having nothing to do with national politics," he
+said, "should have counselled his Majesty to banish those who opposed
+him, was not to be borne, and the resentment caused by my recent
+services was increased to bitter enmity for meddling in affairs which,
+it was considered, did not concern me; though I could have had no
+other object than the good of the empire by the establishment of
+a constitution which should give it stability in the estimation of
+European states."
+
+Consequently, in return for the great services he had conferred to
+Brazil, he received, as had been the case in Chili, little but insult
+and injury, the course of insult and injury being hardly stayed
+even during the period in which he was needed to engage in further
+services. The Emperor honestly tried to be generous; but he could not
+rid himself of the Portuguese faction, generally dominant in Brazil,
+and his worthy intentions were thwarted in every possible way. With
+difficulty could he secure for Lord Cochrane the confirmation of his
+patent as First Admiral, which has been already referred to. No great
+resistance was made to his conferment of the empty title of Marquis of
+Maranham, but he was not allowed to make the grant of land which was
+intended to go with the title and enable it to be borne with dignity.
+Prevented from being generous, he was even hindered from exercising
+the barest justice.
+
+The injustice was shown not only to Lord Cochrane, but also to all
+the officers and crews who, serving under him, had enabled Brazil
+to maintain its resistance to the tyranny of Portugal, though not to
+shake off the tyranny of the faction which still had the interests of
+Portugal at heart. It is not necessary to describe in detail the long
+course of ill-usage to which he and his subordinates were exposed.
+Part of that ill-usage will be best and most briefly indicated by
+citing a portion of an eloquent memorial which Lord Cochrane addressed
+to the Imperial Government on the 30th of January, 1825.
+
+The memorial began by enumerating the achievements of the fleet at
+Bahia, Maranham, Parà, and elsewhere. "The imperial squadron," it
+proceeds, "made sail for Rio de Janeiro, in the full expectation of
+reaping a reward for their labours; not only because they had been
+mainly instrumental in rescuing from the hands of the Portuguese,
+and adding to the imperial dominion, one half of the empire; but also
+because their hopes seemed to be firmly grounded, independently of
+such services, on the capture of upwards of one hundred transports and
+merchant vessels, exclusive of ships of war, all of which, they had a
+just right to expect, would, under the existing laws, be adjudged to
+the captors. The whole of them were seized under Portuguese colours,
+with Portuguese registers, manned by Portuguese seamen, having on
+board Portuguese troops and ammunition or Portuguese produce and
+manufacture. On arriving at Rio de Janeiro, there was no feeling but
+one of satisfaction among the officers and seamen, and the Brazilian
+marine might from that moment, without the expense of one milrei to
+the nation, have been rapidly raised to a state of efficiency and
+discipline which had not yet been attained in any marine in South
+America, and which the navies of Portugal and Spain do not possess.
+It could not, however, be long concealed from the knowledge of the
+squadron that political or other reasons had prevented any proceedings
+being had in the adjudication of their prizes; and the extraordinary
+declaration that was made by the Tribunal of Prizes,—'that they were
+not aware that hostilities existed between Brazil and Portugal'—led
+to an inquiry of whom that tribunal was composed. All surprise at
+so extraordinary a declaration then ceased; but other sentiments
+injurious to the imperial service, arose,—those of indignation and
+disgust that the power of withholding their rights should be placed
+in the hands of persons who were natives of that very nation against
+which they were employed in war. His Imperial Majesty, however, having
+signified to this tribunal his pleasure that they should delay no
+longer in proceeding to the adjudication of the captured vessels,
+the result was that, in almost every instance, at the commencement of
+their proceedings, the vessels were condemned, not as lawful prizes to
+the captors, but as droits to the Crown. His Majesty was then pleased
+to desire that the said droits should be granted to the squadron, and
+about one-fifth part of the value of the prizes taken was eventually
+paid under the denomination of a 'grant of the droits of the Crown.'
+But when this decree of his Imperial Majesty was promulgated,
+the tribunal altered their course of proceeding, and, instead of
+condemning to the Crown, did, in almost every remaining instance,
+pronounce the acquittal of the vessels captured, and adjudged them
+to be given up to pretended Brazilian owners, notwithstanding that
+Brazilian property embarked in enemy's vessels was, by the law,
+declared to be forfeited; and that, too, with such indecent
+precipitancy that, in cases where the hull only had been claimed, the
+cargo also was decreed to be given up to the claimants of the hull,
+without any part of it having, at any time, been even pretended to be
+their property. Other ships and cargoes were given up without any form
+of trial, and without any intimation whatever to the captors and their
+agents; and, in most cases, costs and quadruple damages were unjustly
+decreed against the captors, to the amount of 300,000 milreis. That
+the prizes of which the captors were thus fraudulently deprived,
+chiefly under the unlawful and false pretence of their belonging to
+Brazilians, were really the property of Portuguese and well known so
+to be by the said tribunal, has since been fully demonstrated, by
+the arrival in Lisbon of the whole of the vessels liberated by their
+decisions. Thus the charge of a system of wilful injustice, brought
+by the squadron against the Portuguese Tribunal of Prizes at Rio de
+Janeiro, is established beyond the possibility of contradiction."
+
+It was only an aggravation of that injustice that, when Lord Cochrane
+claimed the prompt and equitable adjudication of the prizes, an
+attempt was made to silence him on the 24th of November by a message
+from the Minister of Marine, to the effect that the Emperor would do
+everything in his power for him personally. "His Majesty," answered
+Lord Cochrane, "has already conferred honours upon me quite equal to
+my merits, and the greatest personal favour he can bestow is to urge
+on the speedy adjudication of the prizes, so that the officers and
+seamen may reap the reward decreed by the Emperor's own authority."
+
+A hardship to the fleet even greater than the withholding of its
+prize-money was the withholding of the arrears of pay, which had been
+accumulating ever since the departure from Rio de Janeiro in April. On
+the 27th of November, three months' wages were offered to men to whom
+more than twice the amount was due. This they indignantly refused, and
+all Lord Cochrane's tact was needed to restrain them from open mutiny.
+
+In spite of the Emperor's friendship towards Lord Cochrane, or rather
+in consequence of it, he was in all sorts of ways insulted by the
+ministry, the head of which was now Severiano da Costa. A new ship,
+the _Atulanta_, was on the 27th of December, without reference to him,
+ordered for service at Monte Video. He was on the same day publicly
+described as "Commander of the Naval Forces in the Port of Rio de
+Janeiro," being thus placed on a level with other officers in the
+service of which, by the Emperor's patent, he was First Admiral, and
+no notice was taken of his protest against that insult. On the 24th
+of February he was gazetted as "Commander-in-Chief of all the Naval
+Forces of the Empire during the present war," by which his functions,
+though not now limited in extent, were limited in time. At length,
+reasonably indignant at these and other violations of the contract
+made with him, he offered to resign his command altogether. "If
+I thought that the course pursued towards me was dictated by his
+Imperial Majesty," he wrote to the Minister of Marine on the 20th of
+March, "it would be impossible for me to remain an hour longer in
+his service, and I should feel it my duty, at the earliest possible
+moment, to lay my commission at his feet. If I have not done so
+before, from the treatment which, in common with the navy. I have
+experienced, it has been solely from an anxious desire to promote his
+Majesty's real interests. Indeed, to struggle against prejudices, and
+at the same time against those in power whose prepossessions are at
+variance with the interests of his Majesty and the tranquillity and
+independence of Brazil, is a task to which I am by no means equal.
+I am, therefore, perfectly willing to resign the situation I
+hold, rather than contend against difficulties which appear to me
+insurmountable."[A]
+
+[Footnote A: See Appendix (III).]
+
+That letter was answered with complimentary phrases, and Lord Cochrane
+was induced to continue in the employment from which he could not be
+spared; but there was no diminution of the ill-treatment to which
+he was subjected. One special indignity was attended by some amusing
+incidents. On the 3rd of June, while he was residing on shore, it was
+proposed to search his flag-ship, on the pretext that he had there
+concealed large sums of money which were the property of the nation.
+"Late in the evening," he said, "I received a visit from Madame
+Bonpland, the talented wife of the distinguished French naturalist.
+This lady, who had singular opportunities for becoming acquainted with
+state secrets, came expressly to inform me that my house was at that
+moment surrounded by a guard of soldiers. She further informed me
+that, under the pretence of a review to be held at the opposite side
+of the harbour early in the following morning, preparations had
+been made by the ministers to board the flag-ship, which was to be
+thoroughly overhauled whilst I was detained on shore, and all the
+money found taken possession of. Thanking my friend for her timely
+warning, I clambered over my garden fence, as the only practicable way
+to the stables, selected a horse, and, notwithstanding the lateness
+of the hour, proceeded to San Christoval, the country palace of the
+Emperor, where, on my arrival, I demanded to see his Majesty. The
+request being refused by the gentleman in waiting, in such a way as to
+confirm the statement of Madame Bonpland, I dared him at his peril to
+refuse me admission, adding that the matter on which I had come was
+fraught with grave consequences to his Majesty and the empire. 'But,'
+said he, 'his Majesty has retired to bed long ago.' 'No matter,' I
+replied; 'in bed or not in bed, I demand to see him, in virtue of my
+privilege of access to him at all times, and, if you refuse to concede
+permission, look to the consequences.' His Majesty was not, however,
+asleep, and, the royal chamber being close at hand, he recognized my
+voice in the altercation with the attendant. Hastily coming out of his
+apartments, he asked what could have brought me there at that time of
+night. My reply was that, understanding that the troops ordered for
+review were destined to proceed to the flag-ship in search of supposed
+treasure, I had come to request his Majesty immediately to appoint
+confidential persons to accompany me on board, when the keys of every
+chest in the ship should be placed in their hands and every place
+thrown open to inspection, but that, if any of his anti-Brazilian
+administration ventured to board the ship in perpetration of the
+contemplated insult, they would certainly be regarded as pirates and
+treated as such; adding at the same time, 'Depend upon it, they are
+not more my enemies than the enemies of your Majesty and the empire,
+and an intrusion so unwarrantable the officers and crew are bound
+to resist.' 'Well,' replied his Majesty, 'you seem to be apprised of
+everything; but the plot is not mine, being, as far as I am concerned,
+convinced that no money would be found more than we already know of
+from yourself.' I then entreated his Majesty to take such steps for
+my justification as would be satisfactory to the public. 'There is no
+necessity for any,' he replied. 'But how to dispense with the review
+is the puzzle. I will be ill in the morning; so go home and think
+no more of the matter. I give you my word, your flag shall not be
+outraged.' The Emperor kept his word, and in the night was taken
+suddenly ill. As his Majesty was really beloved by his Brazilian
+subjects, all the native respectability of Rio was early next day on
+its way to the palace to inquire after the royal health, and ordering
+my carriage, I also proceeded to the palace, lest my absence might
+seem singular. On my entering the room,—where the Emperor was in
+the act of explaining the nature of his disease to the anxious
+inquirers,—his Majesty burst into a fit of uncontrollable laughter,
+in which I as heartily joined, the bystanders evidently, from the
+gravity of their countenances, considering that we had both taken
+leave of our senses. The ministers looked astounded, but said nothing.
+His Majesty kept his secret, and I was silent."
+
+That anecdote fairly illustrates the treatment adopted towards Lord
+Cochrane, and the straits to which the Emperor was reduced in his
+efforts to protect him from his enemies in power. The ill-treatment
+both of himself and of the whole fleet continuing, he addressed an
+indignant protest to his Majesty in July. "The time has at length
+arrived," he there said, "when it is impossible to doubt that the
+influence which the Portuguese faction has so long exerted, with the
+view of depriving the officers and seamen of their stipulated rights,
+has succeeded in its object, and has even prevailed against the
+expressed wishes and intentions of your Majesty. The determined
+perseverance in a course so opposed to justice must come to an end.
+The general discontent which prevails in the squadron has rendered
+the situation in which I am placed one of the most embarrassing
+description; for, though a few may be aware that my own cause of
+complaint is equal to theirs, many cannot perceive the consistency
+of my patient continuance in the service with disapprobation of the
+measures pursued. Even the honours which your Majesty has been pleased
+to bestow upon me are deemed by most of the officers, and by the whole
+of the men, who know not the assiduity with which I have persevered in
+earnest but unavailing remonstrance, as a bribe by which I have been
+induced to abandon their interests. Much, therefore, as I prize those
+honours, as the gracious gift of your Imperial Majesty, yet, holding
+in still dearer estimation my character as an officer and a man, I
+cannot hesitate in choosing which to sacrifice when the retention of
+both is evidently incompatible. I can, therefore, no longer delay to
+demonstrate to the squadron and the world that I am no partner in the
+deceptions and oppressions which are practised on the naval service;
+and, as the first and most painful step in the performance of this
+imperious duty, I crave permission, with all humility and respect,
+to return those honours, and lay them at the feet of your Imperial
+Majesty. I should, however, fall short of my duty to those who were
+induced to enter the service by my example or invitation, were I to
+do nothing more than convince them that I had been deceived. It is
+incumbent on me to make every effort to obtain for them the fulfilment
+of engagements for which I made myself responsible. As far as I am
+personally concerned, I could be content to quit the service of your
+Imperial Majesty, either with or without the expectation of obtaining
+compensation at a future period. After effectually fighting the
+battles of freedom and independence on both sides of South America,
+and clearing the two seas of every vessel of war, I could submit to
+return to my native country unrewarded; but I cannot submit to adopt
+any course which shall not redeem my pledge to my brother officers and
+seamen."
+
+That and other arguments contained in the same letter, aided by
+inducements of a different sort, to be presently referred to, had
+partial effect. A small portion of the prize-money and wages due to
+the squadron was issued, and Lord Cochrane remained for another year
+in the service of Brazil. His weary waiting-time at Rio de Janeiro,
+however, extending over nearly nine months, was almost at an end. On
+the 2nd of August he left it, never to return.
+
+While the ingratitude shown to him in Brazil was at its worst it is
+interesting to notice that a few, at any rate, of his own countrymen
+were remembering his past troubles and his present worth. On the 21st
+of June, Sir James Mackintosh, in one of the many speeches in the
+British House of Commons in which he nobly advocated the recognition
+of the independence of the South American states, both as a political
+duty and as a necessary measure in the interests of commerce, made a
+graceful allusion to Lord Cochrane. "I know," he said, "that I am here
+touching on a topic of great delicacy; but I must say that commerce
+has been gallantly protected by that extraordinary man who was once a
+British officer, who once filled a distinguished post in the
+British navy at the brightest period of its annals. I mention this
+circumstance with struggling and mingled emotions—emotions of pride
+that the individual I speak of is a Briton, emotions of regret that
+he is no longer a British officer. Can any one imagine a more gallant
+action than the cutting out of the _Esmeralda_ from Callao? Never
+was there a greater display of judgment, calmness, and enterprising
+British valour than was shown on that memorable occasion. No man ever
+felt a more ardent, a more inextinguishable love of country, a more
+anxious desire to promote its interests and extend its prosperity,
+than the gallant individual to whom I allude. I speak for myself. No
+person is responsible for the opinions which I now utter. But ask,
+what native of this country can help wishing that such a man were
+again amongst us? I hope I shall be excused for saying thus much; but
+I cannot avoid fervently wishing that such advice may be given to
+the Crown by his Majesty's constitutional advisers as will induce his
+Majesty graciously to restore Lord Cochrane to the country which he
+so warmly loves, and to that noble service to the glory of which, I am
+convinced, he willingly would sacrifice every earthly consideration."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII.
+
+
+THE INSURRECTION IN PERNAMBUCO.—LORD COCHRANE's EXPEDITION TO
+SUPPRESS IT.—THE SUCCESS OF HIS WORK.—HIS STAY AT MARANHAM.—THE
+DISORGANISED STATE OF AFFAIRS IN THAT PROVINCE.—LORD COCHRANE's
+EFFORTS TO RESTORE ORDER AND GOOD GOVERNMENT.—THEIR RESULT IN FURTHER
+TROUBLE TO HIMSELF.—HIS CRUISE IN THE "PIRANGA," AND RETURN TO
+ENGLAND.—THE FRESH INDIGNITIES THERE OFFERED TO HIM.—HIS RETIREMENT
+FROM BRAZILIAN SERVICE.—HIS LETTER TO THE EMPEROR PEDRO I.—THE END
+OF HIS SOUTH AMERICAN EMPLOYMENTS.
+
+[1824-1825.]
+
+The political turmoils which Lord Cochrane found to be prevalent
+in Rio de Janeiro, on his return from Maranham, were, as he had
+anticipated, very disastrous to the whole Brazilian empire. The
+unpatriotic action of men in power at head-quarters encouraged yet
+more unpatriotic action in the outlying and newly-acquired provinces.
+Portuguese sympathizers in Pernambuco, in Maranham, and in the
+neighbouring districts, following the policy of the Portuguese faction
+at the centre of government, and acting even more unworthily,
+induced serious trouble; and the trouble was aggravated by the fierce
+opposition which was in many cases offered to them. Before the end of
+1823 information arrived that an insurrection, having for its object
+the establishment in the northern provinces of a government distinct
+from both Brazil and Portugal, had broken out in Pernambuco, and
+nearly every week brought fresh intelligence of the spread of this
+insurrection and of the troubles induced by it. The Emperor Pedro I.
+was eager to send thither the squadron under Lord Cochrane, and so to
+win back the allegiance of the inhabitants; and for this Lord Cochrane
+was no less eager. To the Portuguese partizans, however, whose great
+effort was to weaken the resources of the empire, the news of the
+insurrection was welcome; and perhaps their strongest inducement to
+the long course of injustice detailed in the last chapter was the
+knowledge that by so doing they were most successfully preventing the
+despatch of an armament strong enough to restore order in the northern
+provinces. Herein they prospered. For more than six months the Emperor
+was prevented from suppressing the insurrection, which all through
+that time was extending and becoming more and more formidable. Not
+till July was anything done to satisfy the claims of the seamen for
+payment of their prize-money and the arrears of wages due to them,
+without which they refused to return to their work and render possible
+the equipment and despatch of the squadron; and even then only 200,000
+milreis—less than a tenth of the prize-money that was owing—were
+granted as an instalment of the payment to be made to them.
+
+With that money, however, Lord Cochrane, using his great personal
+influence with the officers and crews, induced them to rejoin the
+fleet. The funds were placed in his hands on the 12th of July, 1824,
+and equitably disbursed by him during the following three weeks. On
+the 2nd of August he set sail in the _Pedro Primiero_ from Rio de
+Janeiro, attended by the _Maranham_ and three transports containing
+twelve hundred soldiers.
+
+Having landed General Lima and the troops at Alagoas on the 16th,
+he arrived off Pernambuco on the 18th. There he found that a strong
+republican Government had been set up under the presidentship of
+Manoel de Carvalho Pais d'Andrade, whose authority, secret or open,
+extended far into the interior and along the adjoining coasts.
+"Knowing that it would take some time for the troops to come up," he
+said, "I determined to try the effect of a threat of bombardment, and
+issued a proclamation remonstrating with the inhabitants on the folly
+of permitting themselves to be deceived by men who lacked the ability
+to execute their schemes; pointing out, moreover, that persistence in
+revolt would involve both the town and its rulers in one common ruin,
+for, if forced to the necessity of bombardment, I would reduce the
+port and city to insignificance. On the other hand, I assured them
+that, if they retraced their steps and rallied round the imperial
+throne, thus aiding to protect it from foreign influence, it would be
+more gratifying to me to act the part of a mediator, and to restore
+Pernambuco to peace, prosperity, and happiness, than to carry out the
+work of destruction which would be my only remaining alternative. In
+another proclamation I called the attention of the inhabitants to the
+distracted state of the Spanish republics on the other side of the
+continent, asking whether it would be wise to risk the benefits of
+orderly government for social and political confusion, and entreating
+them not to compel me to proceed to extremities, as it would become my
+duty to destroy their shipping and block up their port, unless, within
+eight days, the integrity of the empire were acknowledged."
+
+While waiting to see the result of those proclamations Lord Cochrane
+received a message from Carvalho, offering him immediate payment of
+400,000 milreis if he would abandon the imperial cause and go over to
+the republicans. "Frankness is the distinguishing character of free
+men," wrote Carvalho, "but your excellency has not found it in your
+connection with the Imperial Government. Your not having been rewarded
+for the first expedition affords a justifiable inference that you will
+get nothing for the second." That audacious proposal, it need hardly
+be said, was indignantly resented by Lord Cochrane. "If I shall have
+an opportunity of becoming personally known to your excellency," he
+wrote, "I can afford you proof that the opinion you have formed of me
+has had its origin in the misrepresentations of those in power, whose
+purposes I was incapable of serving."
+
+The threats and promises of Lord Cochrane's proclamation did not lead
+to the peaceable surrender of Pernambuco, and at the end of the eight
+days' waiting-time he proceeded to bombard the town. In that, however,
+he was hindered by bad weather, which made it impossible for him to
+enter the shallow water without great risk of shipwreck. He was in
+urgent need, also, of anchors and other fittings. Therefore, after
+a brief show of attack, which frightened the inhabitants, but had no
+other effect, he left the smaller vessels to maintain the blockade,
+and went on the 4th of September in the flag-ship to Bahia, there to
+procure the necessary articles. On his return he found that General
+Lima had marched against Pernambuco on the 11th, and, with the
+assistance of the blockading vessels, made an easy capture of it.
+
+There was plenty of other work, however, to be done. All the
+northern provinces were disaffected, if not in actual revolt, and, in
+compliance with the Emperor's directions, Lord Cochrane proceeded to
+visit their ports and reduce them to order. Some other ships having
+arrived from Rio de Janeiro, he selected the _Piranga_ and two smaller
+vessels for service with the flag-ship, leaving the others at the
+disposal of General Lima, and sailed from Pernambuco on the 10th of
+October.
+
+He reached Cearà on the 18th, and then, by his mere presence,
+compelled the insurgents, who had seized the city, to retire, and
+enabled the well-disposed inhabitants to organize a vigorous scheme of
+self-protection.
+
+A harder task awaited him at Maranham, at which he arrived on the
+9th of November. There the utmost confusion prevailed. The Portuguese
+faction had the supremacy, and there were special causes of animosity
+and misconduct among the members of the opposite party of native
+Brazilians.
+
+"In Maranham," said Lord Cochrane, "as in the other northern provinces
+of the empire, there had been no amelioration whatever in the
+condition of the people, and, without such amelioration, it was absurd
+to place reliance on the hyperbolical professions of devotion to
+the Emperor which were now abundantly avowed by those who, before my
+arrival, had been foremost in promoting and cherishing disturbance.
+The condition of the province, and indeed of all the provinces, was
+in no way better than they had been under the dominion of Portugal,
+though they presented one of the finest fields imaginable for
+improvement. All the old colonial imports and duties remained without
+alteration; the manifold hindrances to commerce and agriculture still
+existed; and arbitrary power was everywhere exercised uncontrolled: so
+that, in place of being benefited by emancipation from the Portuguese
+yoke, the condition of the great mass of the population was literally
+worse than before. To amend this state of things it was necessary
+to begin with the officers of Government, of whose corruption and
+arbitrary conduct complaints, signed by whole communities, were daily
+arriving from every part of the province. To such an extent, indeed,
+wad this misrule carried that neither the lives nor the property of
+the inhabitants were safe."
+
+This state of things Lord Cochrane set himself zealously to remedy;
+and, during his six months' stay at Maranham, he did all that, with
+the bad materials at his disposal and in the harassing circumstances
+of his position, it was possible for him to do. Unable to break down
+the cabals and intrigues, the mutual jealousies and the unworthy
+ambitions that had prevailed previous to his arrival, he held them all
+in check while he was present and secured the observance of law and
+the freedom of all classes of the community.
+
+Thereby, however, he brought upon himself much fresh hatred. The
+governor of the province, being devoted to the Portuguese party and a
+chief cause of the existing troubles, had to be suspended and sent to
+Rio de Janeiro; and though the suspension occurred after orders had
+been despatched by the Emperor for his recall, it afforded an excuse
+to the governor and his friends in office for denunciation of Lord
+Cochrane's conduct, alleged to be greatly in excess of his powers and
+in contempt of the constituted authority. In fact, the same bad policy
+that had embarrassed him before, while he was in Rio de Janeiro,
+continued to embarrass him yet more during his service in Maranham.
+That that service was very helpful to the best interests of Brazil
+no one attempted to deny. The French and English consuls, speaking
+on behalf of all their countrymen resident in the northern provinces,
+overstepped the line of strict neutrality, and entreated him to
+persevere in the measures by which he was making it possible for
+commerce to prosper and the rules of civilized life to be observed.
+The Emperor sent to thank him for his work. "His Majesty," wrote the
+secretary on the 2nd of December, "approves of the First Admiral's
+determination to establish order and obedience in the northern
+provinces, a duty which he has so wisely and judiciously undertaken,
+and in which he must continue until the provinces submit themselves
+to the authorities lately appointed, and enjoy the benefits of the
+paternal government of his Imperial Majesty."
+
+The Emperor, however, was at this time almost powerless. The leaders
+of the Portuguese faction reigned, and by them Lord Cochrane continued
+to be treated with every possible indignity and insult. Not daring
+openly to dismiss him or even to accept the resignation which he
+frequently offered, they determined to wear out his patience, and, if
+possible, to drive him to some act on which they could fasten as
+an excuse for degrading him. They partly succeeded, though the only
+wonder is that Lord Cochrane should have been, for so long a time, as
+patient as he proved. His temper is well shown in the numerous
+letters which he addressed to Pedro I. and the Government during these
+harassing months. "The condescension," he wrote, "with which your
+Imperial Majesty has been pleased to permit me to approach your royal
+person, on matters regarding the public service, and even on those
+more particularly relating to myself, emboldens me to adopt the only
+means in my power, at this distance, of craving that your Majesty will
+be graciously pleased to judge of my conduct in the imperial service
+by the result of my endeavours to promote your Majesty's interests,
+and not by the false reports spread by those who, for reasons best
+known to themselves, desire to alienate your Majesty's mind from me,
+and thus to bring about my removal from your Majesty's service. I
+trust that your Imperial Majesty will please to believe me to be
+sensible that the honours which you have so graciously bestowed upon
+me it is my duty not to tarnish, and that your Majesty will further
+believe that, highly as I prize those honours, I hold the maintenance
+of my reputation in my native country in equal estimation. I
+respectfully crave permission to add that, perceiving it is impossible
+to continue in the service of your Imperial Majesty without at
+all times subjecting my professional character, under the present
+management of the Marine Department, to great risks, I trust your
+Majesty will be graciously pleased to grant me leave to retire
+from your imperial service, in which it appears to me I have now
+accomplished all that can be expected from me, the authority of your
+Imperial Majesty being established throughout the whole extent of
+Brazil."
+
+That request was not granted, or in any way answered; and the
+statement that the whole of Brazil was finally subjected to the
+Emperor's authority proved to be not quite correct. Fresh turmoils
+arose in Parà, and Lord Cochrane had to send thither a small force,
+by which order was restored. He himself found ample employment in
+restraining the factions that could not be suppressed at Maranham.
+
+That was the state of things in the early months of 1825, until
+unlooked-for circumstances arose, by which Lord Cochrane's Brazilian
+employment was brought to a termination in a way that he had not
+anticipated. "The anxiety occasioned by the constant harassing which
+I had undergone, unalleviated by any acknowledgment on the part of the
+Imperial Government of the services which had a second time saved the
+empire from intestine war, anarchy, and revolution," he said, "began
+to make serious inroads on my health; whilst that of the officers and
+men, in consequence of the great heat and pestilential exhalations of
+the climate, and of the double duty which they had to perform afloat
+and ashore, was even less satisfactory. As I saw no advantage in
+longer contending with factious intrigues at Maranham, unsupported and
+neglected as I was by the Administration at Rio de Janeiro, I resolved
+upon a short run into a more bracing northerly atmosphere, which would
+answer the double purpose of restoring our health and of giving us a
+clear offing for our subsequent voyage to the capital.
+
+"Accordingly," the narrative proceeds, "I shifted my flag into the
+_Piranga_, despatched the _Pedro Primiero_ to Rio, and, leaving
+Captain Manson, of the _Cacique_, in charge of the naval department
+at Maranham, put to sea on the 18th of May. On the 21st we crossed
+the Equator, and, meeting with a succession of easterly winds, were
+carried to the northward of the Azores, passing St. Michael's on the
+11th of June. It had been my intention to sail into the latitude of
+the Azores, and then to return to Rio de Janeiro. But, strong gales
+coming on, we made the unpleasant discovery that the frigate's
+main-topmast was sprung, and, when putting her about, the main and
+main-topsail yards were discovered to be unserviceable. For the
+condition of the ship's spars I had depended on others, not deeming
+it necessary to take upon myself such investigation. It was, however,
+possible that we might have patched these up, had not the running
+rigging been as rotten as the masts, and we had no spare cordage on
+board. A still worse disaster was that the salt provisions shipped at
+Maranham were reported bad, mercantile ingenuity having resorted to
+the device of placing good meat at the top and bottom of the barrels,
+whilst the middle, being composed of unsound articles, had tainted
+the whole, thereby rendering it not only unpalatable but positively
+dangerous to health. The good provisions on board being little more
+than sufficient for a week's subsistence, a direct return to Rio de
+Janeiro was out of the question."
+
+It was therefore absolutely necessary to seek some nearer harbour; but
+Lord Cochrane was considerably embarrassed in his choice of a
+port. Portugal was an enemy's country, and Spain, by reason of his
+achievements in Chili and Peru, was no less hostile to him. France had
+not yet recognised the independence of Brazil, and therefore a stay on
+any part of its coast might lead to difficulties. England afforded the
+only safe halting-place, though there Lord Cochrane was uncertain as
+to the way in which, in consequence of the Foreign Enlistment Act,
+he might be received. To England, however, he resolved to go; and,
+sighting its coast on the 25th of June, he anchored at Spithead on
+the following day. Salutes were exchanged with a British ship lying
+in harbour, and in the afternoon he landed at Portsmouth, to be
+enthusiastically welcomed by nearly all classes of his countrymen,
+whose admiration for his personal character and his excellence as a
+naval officer was heightened by the renown of his exploits in South
+America during an absence of six years and a half.
+
+His subsequent relations with Brazil can be briefly told. His
+unavoidable return to England afforded just the excuse which his
+enemies in Brazil had been seeking for ousting him from his command.
+They and the Chevalier Manoel Rodriguez Gameiro Pessoa, the Brazilian
+Envoy in London, who altogether sympathised with them, chose to regard
+this occurrence as an act of desertion. Lord Cochrane lost no time in
+reporting his arrival and requesting to be provided with the necessary
+means for refitting the _Piranga_ and preparing for a speedy return to
+Rio de Janeiro. To expedite matters, he even advanced 2000£ out of
+his own property—which was never repaid to him—for this purpose. His
+repeated applications for instructions were either unheeded or only
+answered with insult. He was ordered to return to Brazil at once,
+towards which no assistance was given to him; and at the same time
+his officers and crew were ordered to repudiate his authority and to
+return without him.
+
+Lord Cochrane had no room to doubt that by going back to Brazil he
+should only expose himself to yet worse treatment than that from which
+he had been suffering during nearly two years; but at the same time
+he was resolved to do nothing at variance with his duty to the Emperor
+from whom he had received his commission, and nothing invalidating his
+claims to the recompense which was clearly due to him. At length he
+was relieved from some of his perplexities, after they had lasted more
+than three months. On the 3rd of November, 1825, peace was declared
+between Brazil and Portugal; and thereby his relations with his
+employers were materially altered. The work which he had pledged
+himself to do was completed, and he was justified in resigning his
+command, or at any rate in declining to resume it until the causes of
+his recent troubles were removed.
+
+This he did in a letter addressed to the Emperor Pedro I., from
+London, on the 10th of November. "The gracious condescension which I
+experienced from your Imperial Majesty, from the first moment of my
+arrival in the Brazils, the honorary distinctions which I received
+from your Majesty, and the attention with which you were pleased to
+listen to all my personal representations relating to the promotion
+of the naval power of your empire," he wrote, "have impressed upon
+my mind a high sense of the honour which your Majesty conferred, and
+forbid my entertaining any other sentiments than those of attachment
+to your Majesty and devotion to your true interests. But, whilst I
+express these my unfeigned sentiments towards your Imperial Majesty,
+it is with infinite pain and regret that I recall to my recollection
+the conduct that has been pursued towards the naval service, and to
+myself personally, since the members of the Brazilian administration
+of José Bonifacio de Andrade were superseded by persons devoted to
+the views and interests of Portugal,—views and interests which are
+directly opposed to the adoption of that line of conduct which can
+alone promote and secure the true interests and glory of your Imperial
+Majesty, founded on the tranquillity and happiness of the Brazilian
+people. Without imputing to such ministers as Severiano, Gomez, and
+Barboza disaffection to the person of your Imperial Majesty, it is
+sufficient to know that they are men bigoted to the unenlightened
+opinions of their ancestors of four centuries ago, that they are men
+who, from their limited intercourse with the world, from the paucity
+of the literature of their native language, and from their want of
+all rational instruction in the service of government and political
+economy, have no conception of governing Brazil by any other than the
+same wretched and crooked policy to which the nation had been so long
+subjected in its condition as a colony. Nothing further need be said,
+while we acquit them of treason, to convict them of unfitness to be
+the counsellors of your Imperial Majesty.
+
+"None but such ministers as these could have endeavoured to impress
+upon the mind of your Imperial Majesty that the refugee Portuguese
+from the provinces and many thousands from Europe, collected in Rio
+de Janeiro, were the only true friends and supporters of the imperial
+crown of Brazil. None but such ministers would have endeavoured to
+impress your Imperial Majesty with a belief that the Brazilian people
+were inimical to your person and the imperial crown, merely because
+they were hostile to the system pursued by those ministers. None but
+such ministers would have placed in important offices of trust the
+natives of a nation with which your Imperial Majesty was at war. None
+but such ministers would have endeavoured to induce your Imperial
+Majesty to believe that officers who had abandoned their King and
+native country for their own private interests could be depended on as
+faithful servants to a hostile Government and a foreign land. None but
+such ministers could have induced your Imperial Majesty to place
+in the command of your fortresses, regiments, and ships of war such
+individuals as these. None but such ministers would have attempted to
+excite in the breast of your Imperial Majesty suspicions with respect
+to the fidelity of myself and of those other officers who, by the most
+zealous exertions, had proved our devotion to the best interests
+of your Imperial Majesty and your Brazilian people. None but such
+ministers would have endeavoured by insults and acts of the grossest
+injustice, to drive us from the service of your Imperial Majesty and
+to place Portuguese officers in our stead. And, above all, none but
+such ministers could have suggested to your Imperial Majesty that
+extraordinary proceeding which was projected to take place on the
+night of the 3rd of June, 1824, a proceeding which, had it not been
+averted by a timely discovery and prompt interposition on my part,
+would have tarnished for ever the glory of your Imperial Majesty, and
+which, if it had failed to prove fatal to myself and officers, must
+inevitably have driven us from your imperial service. When placed
+in competition with this plot of these ministers and the false
+insinuations by which they induced your Imperial Majesty to listen to
+their insidious counsel, all their previous intrigues, and those of
+the whole Portuguese faction, to ruin the naval power of Brazil, sink
+into insignificance. But for the advancement of Portuguese interests
+there was nothing too treacherous or malignant for such ministers and
+such men as these to insinuate to your Imperial Majesty, especially
+when they had discovered that it was not possible by their unjust
+conduct to provoke me to abandon the service of Brazil so long as my
+exertions could be useful to secure its independence, which I believed
+to be alike the object of your Imperial Majesty and the interest of
+the Brazilian people.
+
+"If the counsels of such persons should prove fatal to the interests
+of your Imperial Majesty, no one will regret the event more sincerely
+than myself. My only consolation will be the knowledge that your
+Imperial Majesty cannot but be conscious that I, individually, have
+discharged my duty, both in a military and in a private capacity,
+towards your Majesty, whose true interest, I may venture to add, I
+have held in greater regard than my own; for, had I connived at the
+views of the Portuguese faction, even without dereliction of my duty
+as an officer, I might have shared amply in the honours and emoluments
+which such influence has enabled these persons to obtain, instead of
+being deprived, by their means, of even the ordinary rewards of my
+labours in the cause of independence which your Imperial Majesty had
+engaged me to maintain,—which cause I neither have abandoned nor will
+abandon, if ever it should be in my power successfully to renew my
+exertions for the true interests of your Imperial Majesty and those of
+the Brazilian people.
+
+"Meanwhile my office as Commander-in-Chief of your Imperial Majesty's
+Naval Forces having terminated by the conclusion of peace and by the
+decree promulgated on the 28th of February, 1824, I have notified to
+your Imperial Majesty's Envoy, the Chevalier de Gameiro, that I have
+directed my flag to be struck this day. Praying that the war now
+terminated abroad may be accompanied by tranquillity at home, I
+respectfully take leave of your Imperial Majesty."
+
+All Lord Cochrane's subsequent correspondence with Brazil had for its
+object the recovery of the payments due to him and to his officers and
+crews for the great services done by them to the empire. Lord Cochrane
+had saved that empire from being brought back to the position of
+a Portuguese colony, and had enabled it to enter on a career of
+independence. In return for it he was subjected to more than two years
+of galling insult, was deprived of his proper share of the prizes
+taken by him and his squadron, was refused the estate in Maranham
+which the Emperor, more grateful than his ministers, had bestowed upon
+him, and was mulcted of a portion of his pay and of all the pension
+to which he was entitled by imperial decree and the ordinances of the
+Government. His services to Brazil, like his services to Chili, adding
+much to his renown as a disinterested champion of liberty and an
+unrivalled seaman and warrior, brought upon him personally little but
+trouble and misfortune. Only near the end of his life, when a worthy
+Emperor and honest ministers succeeded to power, was any recompence
+accorded to him.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII.
+
+
+THE GREEK REVOLUTION AND ITS ANTECEDENTS.—THE MODERN GREEKS.—THE
+FRIENDLY SOCIETY.—SULTAN MAHMUD AND ALI PASHA'S REBELLION.—THE
+BEGINNING OF THE GREEK INSURRECTION.—COUNT JOHN CAPODISTRIAS.—PRINCE
+ALEXANDER HYPSILANTES.—THE REVOLUTION IN THE MOREA.—THEODORE
+KOLKOTRONES.—THE REVOLUTION IN THE ISLANDS.—THE GREEK NAVY AND ITS
+CHARACTER.—THE EXCESSES OF THE GREEKS.—THEIR BAD GOVERNMENT.—PRINCE
+ALEXANDER MAVROCORDATOS.—THE PROGRESS OF THE REVOLUTION.—THE
+SPOLIATION OF THE CHIOS.—ENGLISH PHILHELLENES; THOMAS GORDON, FRANK
+ABNEY HASTINGS, LORD BYRON.—THE FIRST GREEK LOAN, AND THE BAD USES
+TO WHICH IT WAS PUT.—REVERSES OF THE GREEKS.—IBRAHIM AND HIS
+SUCCESSES.—MAVROCORDATOS'S LETTER TO LORD COCHRANE.
+
+
+[1820-1825.]
+
+While Lord Cochrane was rendering efficient service to the cause of
+freedom in South America, another war of independence was being waged
+in Europe; and he had hardly been at home a week before solicitations
+pressed upon him from all quarters that he should lend his great name
+and great abilities to this war also. As he consented to do so, and
+almost from the moment of his arrival was intimately connected with
+the Greek Revolution, the previous stages of this memorable episode,
+the incidents that occurred during his absence in Chili and Brazil,
+need to be here reviewed and recapitulated.
+
+The Greek Revolution began openly in 1821. But there had been long
+previous forebodings of it. The dwellers in the land once peopled by
+the noble race which planned and perfected the arts and graces, the
+true refinements and the solid virtues that are the basis of our
+modern civilization, had been for four centuries and more the slaves
+of the Turks. They were hardly Greeks, if by that name is implied
+descent from the inhabitants of classic Greece. With the old stock had
+been blended, from generation to generation, so many foreign elements
+that nearly all trace of the original blood had disappeared, and the
+modern Greeks had nothing but their residence and their language to
+justify them in maintaining the old title. But their slavery was only
+too real. Oppressed by the Ottomans on account of their race and their
+religion, the oppression was none the less in that it induced many of
+them to cast off the last shreds of freedom and deck themselves in the
+coarser, but, to slavish minds, the pleasanter bondage of trickery and
+meanness. During the eighteenth century, many Greeks rose to eminence
+in the Turkish service, and proved harder task-masters to their
+brethren than the Turks themselves generally were. The hope of further
+aggrandisement, however, led them to scheme the overthrow of their
+Ottoman employers, and their projects were greatly aided by the truer,
+albeit short-sighted, patriotism that animated the greater number of
+their kinsmen. They groaned under Turkish thraldom, and yearned to
+be freed from it, in the temper so well described and so worthily
+denounced by Lord Byron in 1811:—
+
+  "And many dream withal the hour is nigh
+  That gives them back their fathers' heritage:
+  For foreign arms and aid they loudly sigh,
+  Nor solely dare encounter hostile rage.
+  Hereditary bondsmen! know ye not
+  Who would be free themselves must strike the blow?
+  By their right arm the conquest must be wrought.
+  Will Gaul or Muscovite redress ye?—No!
+  True, they may lay your proud despoilers low,
+  But not for you will Freedom's altars flame."
+
+The Greeks, all but a few genuine patriots, thought otherwise. They
+sought deliverance at the hands of Gauls and Muscovites; and, as the
+Muscovites had good reason for desiring the overthrow of Turkey, they
+listened to their prayers, and other ties than that of community in
+religion bound the persecuted Greeks to Russia. The Philiké Hetaira,
+or Friendly Society, chief representative of a very general movement,
+was founded at Odessa in 1814. It was a secret society, which speedily
+had ramifications among the Greek Christians in every part of Turkey,
+encouraging them to prepare for insurrection as soon as the Czar
+Alexander I. deemed it expedient to aid them by open invasion of
+Turkey, or as soon as they themselves could take the initiative,
+trusting to Russia to complete the work of revolution. The Friendly
+Society increased its influence and multiplied its visionary schemes
+during many years previous to 1821.
+
+Its strength was augmented by the political condition of Turkey at the
+time. The Sultan Mahmud—a true type of the Ottoman sovereign at
+his worst—had attempted to perfect his power by a long train of
+cruelties, of which murder was the lightest. Defeating his own purpose
+thereby, he aroused the opposition of Mahometan as well as Christian
+subjects, and induced the rebellious schemes of Ali Pasha of Joannina,
+the boldest of his vassals. In Albania Ali ruled with a cruelty that
+was hardly inferior to Mahmud's. Byron tells how his
+
+  "dread command
+  Is lawless law; for with a bloody hand
+  He sways a nation turbulent and told."
+
+The cruelty could be tolerated; but not opposition to Mahmud's
+will. Long and growing jealousy existed between the Sultan and his
+tributary. At length, in 1820, there was an open rupture. Ali was
+denounced as a traitor, and ordered to surrender his pashalik. Instead
+of so doing, he organized his army for prompt rebellion, trusting for
+success partly to the support of the Greeks. Most of the Greeks held
+aloof; but the Suliots, a race of Christian marauders, the fiercest of
+the fierce community of Albanians, sided with him, and for more than a
+year rendered him valuable aid by reason of their hereditary skill in
+lawless warfare. Not till January, 1822, was Ali forced to surrender,
+and then only, perhaps, through the defection of the Suliots.
+
+The Suliots, dissatisfied with Ali's recompense for their services,
+had gone over to the Greeks, who, not caring to serve under Ali in his
+rebellion, had welcomed that rebellion as a Heaven-sent opportunity
+for realising their long-cherished hopes. The Turkish garrisons in
+Greece being half unmanned in order that the strongest possible force
+might be used in subduing Ali, and Turkish government in the peninsula
+being at a standstill, the Greeks found themselves in an excellent
+position for asserting their freedom. Had they been less degraded than
+they were by their long centuries of slavery, or had there been some
+better organization than that which the purposes and the methods of
+the Friendly Society afforded for developing the latent patriotism
+which was honest and wide-spread, they might have achieved a triumph
+worthy of the classic name they bore and the heroic ancestry that they
+claimed.
+
+Unfortunately, the Friendly Society, already degenerated from the
+unworthy aim with which it started, now an elaborate machinery of
+personal ambition, private greed, and local spite, the willing tool of
+Russia, was master of the situation. The mastery, however, was by no
+means thorough. The society had dispossessed all other organizations,
+but had no organization of its own adequate to the working out of
+a successful rebellion. Its machinery was tolerably perfect, but
+efficient motive-power was wanting. Its exchequer was empty; its
+counsels were divided; above all, it had alienated the sympathies of
+the worthiest patriots of Greece. Finding itself suddenly in the
+way of triumph, it was incapable of rightly progressing in that way.
+Obstacles of its own raising, and obstacles raised by others, stood
+in the path, and only a very wise man had the chance of successfully
+removing them.
+
+The wise man did not exist, or was not to be obtained. Perhaps the
+wisest, though, as later history proved, not very wise, was Count John
+Capodistrias, a native of Corfu. Born in 1777, he had gone to Italy to
+study and practise medicine. There also he studied, afterwards to put
+in practice, the effete Machiavellianism then in vogue. In 1803 he
+entered political life as secretary to the lately-founded republic
+of the Ionian Islands. Napoleon's annexation of the Ionian Islands in
+1807 drove him into the service of Russia, and, as Russian agent, he
+advocated, at the Vienna Conference of 1815, the reconstruction of the
+Ionian republic. The partial concession of Great Britain towards that
+project, by which the Ionian Islands were established as a sort of
+commonwealth, dependent upon England, enabled him to live and work
+in Corfu, awaiting the realization of his own patriotic schemes, and
+watching the patriotic movement in Greece. Italian in his education,
+and Russian in his sympathies, he was still an honest Greek, worthier
+and abler than most other influential Greeks. "He had many virtues and
+great abilities," says a competent critic. "His conduct was firm and
+disinterested, his manners simple and dignified. His personal feelings
+were warm, and, as a consequence of this virtue, they were sometimes
+so strong as to warp his judgment. He wanted the equanimity and
+impartiality of mind, and the elevation of soul necessary to make
+a great man."[A] In spite of his defects, he might have done good
+service to the Greek Revolution, had he accepted the offer of its
+leadership, shrewdly tendered to him by the Friendly Society. But this
+he declined, having no liking for the society, and no trust in its
+methods and designs.
+
+[Footnote A: Finlay, "History of the Greek Revolution" (1861), vol.
+ii., p. 196. Mr. Finlay served as a volunteer in Greece under Captain
+Abney Hastings. His work is certainly the best on the subject, though
+we shall have in later pages to differ widely from its strictures on
+Lord Cochrane's motives and action. But our complaints will be less
+against his history than against the two other leading ones—General
+Gordon's "History of the Greek Revolution" (1832), and M. Trikoupes's
+"[Greek: Historia tês Hellênikês Epanastaseôs]" (1853-6), which is not
+very much more than a paraphrase of Gordon's work.]
+
+The Friendly Society then sought and found a leader, far inferior
+to Count Capodistrias, in Prince Alexander Hypsilantes, the son of a
+Hospodar of Wallachia who had been deposed in 1806. Hypsilantes had
+been educated in Russia, and had there risen to some rank, high enough
+at any rate to quicken his ambition and vanity, both as a soldier and
+as a courtier. He was not without virtues; but he was utterly unfit
+for the duties imposed upon him as leader of the Greek Revolution.
+Not a Greek himself, his purpose in accepting the office seems to have
+been to make Greece an appendage of the despotic monarchy, which, by
+means of the political crisis, he hoped to establish in Wallachia,
+under Russian protection. With that view, in March 1821, he led the
+first crude army of Greek and other Christian rebels into Moldavia.
+There and in Wallachia he stirred up a brief revolt, attended by
+military blunders and lawless atrocities which soon brought vengeance
+upon himself and made a false beginning of the revolutionary work.
+Moldavia and Wallachia were quickly restored to Turkish rule, and
+Hypsilantes had in June to fly for safety into Austria. But the bad
+example that he set, and the evil influence that he and his promoters
+and followers of the Friendly Society exerted, initiated a false
+policy and encouraged a pernicious course of action, by which the
+cause of the Greeks was injured for years.
+
+The real Greek revolution began in the Morea. There the Friendly
+Society did good work in showing the people that the hour for action
+had come; but its direction of that action was for the most part
+mischievous. The worst Greeks were the leaders, and, under their
+guidance, the play of evil passions—inevitable in all efforts of the
+oppressed to overturn their oppressors—was developed to a grievous
+extent. Turkish blood was first shed on the 25th of March, 1821, and
+within a week the whole of the Morea was in a ferment of rebellion. By
+the 22nd of April, which was Easter Sunday, it is reckoned that from
+ten to fifteen thousand Mahometans had been slaughtered in cold blood,
+and about three thousand Turkish homes destroyed.
+
+The promoters of all that wanton atrocity were the directors of the
+Friendly Society, among whom the Archimandrate Gregorios Dikaios,
+nicknamed Pappa Phlesas, and Petros Mavromichales, or Petro-Bey, were
+the most conspicuous. Its principal agents were the klepht or brigand
+chieftains, best represented by Theodore Kolokotrones.
+
+Born about 1770, of a family devoted to the use of arms in predatory
+ways, Kolokotrones had led a lawless life until 1806, when the Greek
+peasantry called in the assistance of their Turkish rulers in hunting
+down their persecutors of their own race, and when, several of his
+family being slain, he himself had to seek refuge in Zante. There he
+maintained himself, partly by piracy, partly by cattle-dealing.
+In 1810 the English annexation of the Ionian Islands led to his
+employment, first as captain and afterwards as major, in the Greek
+contingent of the British army. He had amassed much wealth, and was
+in the prime of life when, in January, 1821, he returned to his early
+home, to revive his old brigand life under the name of legitimate
+warfare. His thorough knowledge of the country, its passes and its
+strongholds, and his familiarity with the modes of fighting proper to
+them, his handsome person and agreeable deportment, his shrewd wit and
+persuasive oratory, made him one of the most influential agents of
+the Revolution at its commencement, and his influence grew during the
+ensuing years.
+
+The flame of rebellion, having spread through the Morea during the
+early weeks of April, extended rapidly over the adjoining districts of
+the mainland. By the end of June the insurgents were masters of
+nearly all the country now possessed by modern Greece. Their cause
+was heartily espoused by the Suliots of Albania and other
+fellow-Christians in the various Turkish provinces, and their kinsmen
+of the outlying islands were eager to join in the work of national
+regeneration, and to contribute largely to the completion of that work
+by their naval prowess.
+
+It was naval prowess, as our later pages will abundantly show, of
+a very barbarous and undeveloped sort. Besides the two principal
+seaports on the mainland, Tricheri on Mount Pelion and Galaxidhi on
+the Gulf of Corinth, there were famous colonies of Greek seamen in the
+islands of Psara and Kasos, and similar colonies of Albanians in Hydra
+and Spetzas. These and the other islands had long practised irregular
+commerce, and protected that commerce by irregular fighting with the
+Turks. At the first sound of revolution they threw in their lot with
+the insurgents of the mainland, and thus a nondescript navy of some
+four hundred brigs and schooners, of from sixty to four hundred tons'
+burthen, and manned by about twelve thousand sailors, adepts alike
+in trade and piracy, but very unskilled in orderly warfare, and very
+feebly inspired by anything like disinterested patriotism, was ready
+to use and abuse its powers during the ensuing seven years' fight for
+Greek independence.
+
+During the summer of 1821, while the continental Greeks were rushing
+to arms, murdering the Turkish residents among them by thousands, and
+thus bringing down upon themselves, or upon those of their own race
+who, as peasants and burghers, took no important share in actual
+fighting, the murderous vengeance of the Turkish troops sent to
+attempt the suppression of the revolt, these sailors were pursuing an
+easier and more profitable game. The Turkish ports were not warlike,
+and the Turkish trading ships were not prepared for fighting. In May,
+a formidable crowd of vessels left the islands on a cruise, from which
+they soon returned with an immense store of booty. Early in June, the
+best Turkish fleet that could be brought together, consisting of two
+line-of-battle ships, three frigates, and three sloops, went out to
+harass, if not to destroy, the swarm of smaller enemies. Jakomaki
+Tombazes, with thirty-seven of these smaller enemies, set off to meet
+them, and falling in with one of the ships, gave her chase, till, in
+the roads of Eripos, she was attacked on the 8th of June, and, with
+the help of a fireship, destroyed with a loss of nearly four hundred
+men. That victory caused the flight of the other Turkish vessels, and
+was the beginning of much cruel work at sea and with ships, which,
+not often daring to meet in open fight, wrought terrible mischief to
+unprotected ports and islands.
+
+The mischief wrought upon the land was yet more terrible. A seething
+tide of Greek and Moslem blood heaved to and fro, as, during the
+second half of 1821, each party in turn gained temporary ascendency in
+one district after another. Greeks murdered Turks, and Turks murdered
+Greeks, with equal ferocity; or perhaps the ferocity of the Greeks,
+stirred by bad leaders to revenge themselves for all their previous
+sufferings, even surpassed that of the Turks. Of their cruelty a
+glaring instance occurred in their capture of Navarino. The Turkish
+inhabitants having held out as long as a mouthful of food was left
+in the town, were forced to capitulate on the 19th of August. It was
+promised that, upon their surrendering, the Greek vessels were to
+convey them, their wearing apparel, and their household furniture,
+either to Egypt or to Tunis. No sooner were the gates opened than
+a wholesale plunder and slaughter ensued. A Greek ecclesiastic has
+described the scene. "Women wounded with musket-balls and sabre-cuts
+rushed to the sea, seeking to escape, and were deliberately shot.
+Mothers robbed of their clothes, with infants in their arms, plunged
+into the water to conceal themselves from shame, and they were then
+made a mark for inhuman riflemen. Greeks seized infants from their
+mothers' breasts and dashed them against the rocks. Children, three
+and four years old, were hurled, living, into the sea, and left to
+drown. When the massacre was ended, the dead bodies washed ashore, or
+piled on the beach, threatened to cause a pestilence."[A] At the sack
+of Tripolitza, on the 8th of October, about eight thousand Moslems
+were murdered, the last two thousand, chiefly women and children,
+being taken into a neighbouring ravine, there to be slaughtered at
+leisure. Two years afterwards a ghastly heap of bones attested the
+inhuman deed.
+
+[Footnote A: Finlay, vol. i.; p. 263, citing Phrantzes.]
+
+In ways like these the first stage of the Greek Revolution was
+achieved. Before the close of 1821, it appeared to the Greeks
+themselves, to their Moslem enemies, and to their many friends in
+England, France, and other countries, that the triumph was complete.
+Unfortunately, the same bad motives and the same bad methods that had
+so grievously polluted the torrent of patriotism continued to poison
+and disturb the stream which might otherwise have been henceforth
+clear, steady, and health-giving. Greece was free, but, unless another
+and a much harder revolution could be effected in the temper and
+conduct of its own people, unfit to put its freedom to good use or
+even to maintain it. "The rapid success of the Greeks during the first
+few weeks of the revolution," says their ablest historian, "threw the
+management of much civil and financial business into the hands of the
+proësti and demogeronts in office. The primates, who already exercised
+great official authority, instantly appropriated that which had been
+hitherto exercised by murdered voivodes and beys. Every primate strove
+to make himself a little independent potentate, and every captain of
+a district assumed the powers of a commander-in-chief. The Revolution,
+before six months had passed, seemed to have peopled Greece with a
+host of little Ali Pashas. When the primate and the captain acted in
+concert, they collected the public revenues; administered the Turkish
+property, which was declared national; enrolled, paid, and provisioned
+as many troops as circumstances required, or as they thought fit;
+named officers; formed a local guard for the primate of the best
+soldiers in the place, who were thus often withdrawn from the public
+service; and organised a local police and a local treasury. This I
+system of local self-government, constituted in a very self-willed
+manner, and relieved from almost all responsibility, was soon
+established as a natural result of the Revolution over all Greece.
+The Sultan's authority having ceased, every primate assumed the
+prerogatives of the Sultan. For a few weeks this state of things was
+unavoidable, and, to an able and honest chief or government, it would
+have facilitated the establishment of a strong central authority; but
+by the vices of Greek society it was perpetuated into an organised
+anarchy. No improvement was made in financial arrangements, or in the
+system of taxation; no measures were adopted for rendering property
+more secure; no attempt was made to create an equitable administration
+of justice; no courts of law were established; and no financial
+accounts were published. Governments were formed, constitutions were
+drawn up, national assemblies met, orators debated, and laws were
+passed according to the political fashion patronised by the liberals
+of the day. But no effort was made to prevent the Government
+being virtually absolute, unless it was by rendering it absolutely
+powerless. The constitutions were framed to remain a dead letter. The
+national assemblies were nothing but conferences of parties, and the
+laws passed were intended to fascinate Western Europe, not to operate
+with effect in Greece."[A]
+
+[Footnote A: Finlay, vol. i., pp. 280, 281.]
+
+The supreme government of Greece had been assumed in June by Prince
+Demetrius Hypsilantes, a worthier man than his brother Alexander, but
+by no means equal to the task he took in hand. At first the brigand
+chiefs and local potentates, not willing to surrender any of the power
+they had acquired, were disposed to render to him nominal submission,
+believing that his name and his Russian influence would be serviceable
+to the cause of Greece. But Hypsilantes showed himself utterly
+incompetent, and it was soon apparent that his sympathies were wholly
+alien to those both of the Greek people and of their military and
+civil leaders. Therefore another master had to be chosen. Kolokotrones
+might have succeeded to the dignity, and he certainly had vigour
+enough of disposition, and enough honesty and dishonesty combined, to
+make the position one of power as well as of dignity. For that very
+reason, however, his comrades and rivals were unwilling to place him
+in it. They desired a president skilful enough to hold the reins of
+government with a very loose hand, yet so as to keep them from getting
+hopelessly entangled—one who should be a smart secretary and adviser,
+without assuming the functions of a director.
+
+Such a man they found in Prince Alexander Mavrocordatos, then about
+thirty-two years old. He was a kinsman of a Hospodar of Wallachia,
+by whom he had in his youth been employed in political matters. After
+that he had resided in France, where he acquired much fresh knowledge,
+and where his popularity helped to quicken sympathy on behalf of
+the Greek Revolution at its first outburst. He had lately come
+to Missolonghi with a ship-load of ammunition and other material,
+procured and brought at his own expense, and soon attained
+considerable influence. Always courteous in his manners, only
+ungenerous in his actions where the interests of others came into
+collision with his own, less strong-willed and less ambitious than
+most of his associates, those associates were hardly jealous of his
+popularity at home, and wholly pleased with his popularity among
+foreigners. It was a clear gain to their cause to have Shelley writing
+his "Hellas," and dedicating the poem to Mavrocordatos, as "a token of
+admiration, sympathy, and friendship."
+
+Mavrocordatos was named President of Greece in the Constitution of
+Epidaurus, chiefly his own workmanship, which was proclaimed on the
+13th of January—New Year's Day, according to the reckoning of the
+Greek Church—1822. It is not necessary here to detail his own acts or
+those of his real or professing subordinates. All we have to do is to
+furnish a general account, and a few characteristic illustrations, of
+the course of events during the Greek Revolution, in explanation of
+the state of parties and of politics at the time of Lord Cochrane's
+advent among them. These events were marked by continuance of the same
+selfish policy, divided interests, class prejudice, and individual
+jealousy that have been already referred to. The mass of the Greek
+people were, as they had been from the first, zealous in their desire
+for freedom, and, having won it, they were not unwilling to use it
+honestly. For their faults their leaders are chiefly to be blamed; and
+in apology for those leaders, it must be remembered that they were an
+assemblage of soldiers who had been schooled in oriental brigandage,
+of priests whose education had been in a corrupt form of Christianity
+made more corrupt by persecution, of merchants who had found it hard
+to trade without trickery, and of seamen who had been taught to
+regard piracy as an honourable vocation. Perhaps we have less cause to
+condemn them for the errors and vices that they exhibited during their
+fight for freedom, than to wonder that those errors and vices were not
+more reprehensible in themselves and disastrous in their issues.
+
+For about six years the fight was maintained without foreign aid, save
+that given by private volunteers and generous champions in Western
+Europe, against a state numerically nearly twenty times as strong as
+the little community of revolutionists. In it, along with much wanton
+cruelty, was displayed much excellent heroism. But the heroism was
+reckless and undisciplined, and therefore often worse than useless.
+
+Memorable instances both of recklessness and of want of discipline
+appeared in the attempts made to wrest Chios from the Turks in 1822.
+The Greek inhabitants of this island, on whom the Turkish yoke pressed
+lightly, had refused to join in the insurgent movement of their
+brethren on the mainland and in the neighbouring islands. But it was
+considered that a little coercion would induce them to share in
+the Revolution and convert their prosperous island into a Greek
+possession. Therefore, in March, a small force of two thousand five
+hundred men crossed the archipelago, took possession of Koutari,
+the principal town, and proceeded to invest the Turkish citadel.
+The Chiots, though perhaps not very willingly, took part in the
+enterprise; but the invading party was quite unequal to the work it
+had undertaken. In April a formidable Turkish squadron arrived, and
+by it Chios was easily recovered, to become the scene of vindictive
+atrocities, which brought all the terrified inhabitants who were
+not slaughtered, or who could not escape, into abject submission.
+Thereupon, on the 10th of May, a Greek fleet of fifty-six vessels was
+despatched by Mavrocordatos to attempt a more thorough capture of the
+island. Its commander was Andreas Miaoulis, a Hydriot merchant, who
+proved himself the best sea-captain among the Greeks. Had Miaoulis
+been able, as he wished, to start sooner and meet the Turkish squadron
+on its way to Chios, a brilliant victory might have resulted, instead
+of one of the saddest catastrophes in the whole Greek war. Being
+deterred therefrom by the vacillation of Mavrocordatos and the
+insubordination of his captains and their crews, he was only able to
+reach the island when it was again in the hands of the enemy, and when
+all was ready for withstanding him. There was useless fighting on the
+31st of May and the two following days. On the 18th of June, Miaoulis
+made another attack; but he was only able to destroy the Turkish
+flag-ship, and nearly all on board, by means of a fire-vessel. His
+fleet was unmanageable, and he had to abandon the enterprise and to
+leave the unfortunate Chiots to endure further punishment for offences
+that were not their own. This punishment was so terrible that, in six
+months, the population of Chios was reduced from one hundred thousand
+to thirty thousand. Twenty thousand managed to escape. Fifty thousand
+were either put to death or sold as slaves in Asia Minor.
+
+That failure of the Greeks at Chios, quickly followed by their
+defeat on land at Petta, greatly disheartened the revolutionists.
+Mavrocordatos virtually resigned his presidentship, and there was
+anarchy in Greece till 1828. Athens, captured from the Turks in June,
+1822, became the centre of jealous rivalry and visionary scheming,
+mismanagement, and government that was worse than no government at
+all. Odysseus, the vilest of the vile men whom the Revolution brought
+to the surface, was its master for some time; and, when he played
+traitor to the Turks, he was succeeded by others hardly better than
+himself.
+
+In spite of some heavy disasters, however, the Greeks were so far
+successful during 1822 that in 1823 they were able to hold their
+newly-acquired territory and to wrest some more fortresses from their
+enemies. The real heroism that they had displayed, moreover—the foul
+cruelties of which they were guilty and the selfish courses which they
+pursued being hardly reported to their friends, and, when reported,
+hardly believed—awakened keen sympathy on their behalf. Shelley and
+Byron, and many others of less note, had sung their virtues and their
+sufferings in noble verse and enlarged upon them in eloquent prose,
+and in England and France, in Switzerland, Germany, and the United
+States, a strong party of Philhellenes was organized to collect money
+and send recruits for their assistance.
+
+The two Philhellenes of greatest note who served in Greece during the
+earlier years of the Revolution were Thomas Gordon and Frank Abney
+Hastings. Gordon, who attained the rank of general in the army of
+independence, had the advantage of a long previous and thorough
+acquaintance with the character of both Turks and Greeks and with the
+languages that they spoke. He watched all the revolutionary movements
+from the beginning, and took part in many of them. In the "History
+of the Greek Revolution," which he published in 1832, he gave such
+a vivid and, in the main, so accurate an account of them that his
+narrative has formed the basis of the more ambitious work of the
+native historian, Mr. Trikoupes. Of the vices and errors of the
+people on whose behalf he fought and wrote he spoke boldly. "Whatever
+national or individual wrong the Greeks may have endured," he said
+in one place, "it is impossible to justify the ferocity of their
+vengeance or to deny that a comparison instituted between them and the
+Ottoman generals, Mehemet Aboulaboud, Omer Vrioni, and the Kehaya Bey
+of Kurshid, would give to the latter the palm of humanity. Humanity,
+however, is a word quite out of place when applied either to them or
+to their opponents." In another page, further denouncing the Greek
+leaders, he wrote: "Panourias was the worst of these local despots,
+whom some writers have elevated into heroes. He was, in fact, an
+ignoble robber, hardened in evil. He enriched himself with the spoils
+of the Mahometans; yet he and his retinue of brigands compelled the
+people to maintain them at free quarters, in idleness and luxury,
+exacting not only bread, meat, wine, and forage, but also sugar and
+coffee. Hence springs the reflection that the Greeks had cause to
+repent their early predilection for the klephts, who were almost all,
+beginning with Kolokotrones, infamous for the sordid perversity of
+their dispositions."[A] Gordon's disinterested and brave efforts to
+bring about a better state of things and to help on the cause of
+real patriotism in Greece were highly praiseworthy; but, as another
+historian has truly said, "he did not possess the activity and
+decision of character necessary to obtain commanding influence in
+council, or to initiate daring measures in the field."[B]
+
+[Footnote A: Gordon, vol. i., pp. 313, 400.]
+
+[Footnote B: Finlay, vol. ii., p. 129.]
+
+Frank Abney Hastings was an abler man. Born in 1794, he was started in
+the naval profession when only eleven years old. Six months after the
+commencement of his midshipman's life he was present, on board the
+_Neptune_, at the battle of Trafalgar, and during the ensuing fourteen
+years he served in nearly every quarter of the globe. His independent
+spirit, however—something akin to Lord Cochrane's—brought him into
+disfavour, and, in 1819, for challenging a superior officer who had
+insulted him, he was dismissed from the British navy. Disheartened and
+disgusted, he resided in France for about three years. At length he
+resolved to go and fight for the Greeks, partly out of sympathy for
+their cause, partly as a relief from the misery of forced idleness,
+partly with the view of developing a plan which he had been devising
+for extending the use of steamships in naval warfare,—to which last
+excellent improvement he greatly contributed. He arrived at Hydra in
+April, 1822, just in time to take part in the fighting off Chios.
+One of his ingenious suggestions, made to Andreas Miaoulis, and its
+reception, have been described by himself. "I proposed to direct a
+fireship and three other vessels upon the frigate, and, when near the
+enemy, to set fire to certain combustibles which should throw out
+a great flame. The enemy would naturally conclude they were all
+fireships. The vessels were then to attach themselves to the frigate,
+fire broadsides, double-shotted, throwing on board the enemy at the
+same time combustible balls which gave a great smoke without flame.
+This would doubtless induce him to believe he was on fire, and give
+a most favourable opportunity for boarding him. However, the admiral
+returned my plan, saying only [Greek: kalo], without asking a single
+question, or wishing me to explain its details; and I observed a kind
+of insolent contempt in his manner. This interview with the admiral
+disgusted me. They place you in a position in which it is impossible
+to render any service, and then they boast of their own superiority,
+and of the uselessness of the Franks, as they call us, in Turkish
+warfare." Miaoulis, however, soon gained wisdom and made good use of
+Captain Hastings, who spent more than 7000£—all his patrimony—in
+serving the Greeks. He was almost the only officer in their employ
+who, during the earlier years of the Revolution, succeeded in
+establishing any sort of discipline or good management.
+
+Lord Byron, the most illustrious of all the early Philhellenes, used
+to say, shortly before his death, that with Napier at the head of the
+army and Hastings in command of a fleet the triumph of Greece might
+be insured. Byron was then at Missolonghi, whither he had gone in
+January, 1824, to die in April. Long before, while stirring up the
+sympathy of all lovers of liberty for the cause of regeneration in
+Greece, he had shown that regeneration could be by no means a short or
+easy work, and now he had to report that the real work was hardly
+yet begun—nay, that it seemed almost further off than ever. "Of the
+Greeks," he wrote, "I can't say much good hitherto, and I do not like
+to speak ill of them, though they do of one another."
+
+It was chiefly at Byron's instigation that the first Greek loan was
+contracted, in London, early in 1824. Its proceeds, 300,000£, were
+spent partly in unprofitable outlay upon ships, ammunition, and the
+like, of which the people were in no position to make good use, but
+mostly in civil war and in pandering to the greed and vanity of the
+members of the Government and their subordinate officials. "Phanariots
+and doctors in medicine," says an eye-witness, "who, in the month
+of April, 1824, were clad in ragged coats, and who lived on scanty
+rations, threw off that patriotic chrysalis before summer was past,
+and emerged in all the splendour of brigand life, fluttering about in
+rich Albanian habiliments, refulgent with brilliant and unused arms,
+and followed by diminutive pipe-bearers and tall henchmen."[A]
+
+[Footnote A: Finky, vol. ii. p. 39.]
+
+Even the scanty allowance made by the Greek Government out of its
+newly-acquired wealth for fighting purposes was for the most part
+squandered almost as frivolously. One general who drew pay and rations
+for seven hundred soldiers went to fight and die at Sphakteria at
+the head of seventeen armed peasants.[A] And that is only a glaring
+instance of peculations that were all but universal.
+
+[Footnote A: Trikoupes, vol. iii., p. 206.]
+
+That being the degradation to which the leaders of the Greek
+Revolution had sunk, it is not strange that its gains in previous
+years should have begun in 1824 to be followed by heavy losses. The
+Greek people—the peasants and burghers—were still patriots, though
+ill-trained and misdirected. They could defend their own homesteads
+with unsurpassed heroism, and hold their own mountains and valleys
+with fierce persistency. But they were unfit for distant fighting,
+even when their chiefs consented to employ them in it. Sultan Mahmud,
+therefore, who had been profiting by the hard experience of former
+years, and whose strength had been steadily growing while the power
+of the insurgents had been rapidly weakening, entered on a new and
+successful policy. He left the Greeks to waste their energies in their
+own possessions, and resolved to recapture, one after another, the
+outposts and ill-protected islands. For this he took especial care
+in augmenting his navy, and, besides developing his own resources,
+induced his powerful and turbulent vassal, Mohammed Ali, the Pasha of
+Egypt, to equip a formidable fleet and entrust it to his son Ibrahim,
+on whom was conferred the title of Vizier of the Morea.
+
+Even without that aid Mahmud was able to do much in furtherance of his
+purpose. The island of Kasos was easily recovered, and full vengeance
+was wreaked on its Greek inhabitants on the 20th of June. Soon
+afterwards Psara was seized and punished yet more hardly.
+
+On the 19th of July Ibrahim left Alexandria with a naval force which
+swept the southern seas of Greek pirates or privateers. On the 1st
+of September he effected a junction with the Turkish fleet at Budrun.
+Their united strength comprised forty-six ships, frigates, and
+corvettes, and about three hundred transports, large and small. The
+Greek fleet, between seventy and eighty sail, would have been strong
+enough to withstand it under any sort of good management; but good
+management was wanting, and the crews were quite beyond the control of
+their masters. The result was that in a series of small battles during
+the autumn of 1824 the Mahometans were generally successful, and their
+enemies found themselves at the close of the year terribly discomfited
+The little organization previously existing was destroyed, and the
+revolutionists felt that they had no prospect of advantageously
+carrying on their strife at sea without assistance and guidance that
+could not be looked for among themselves.
+
+Their troubles were increased in the following year. In February and
+March, 1825, Ibrahim landed a formidable army in the Morea, and began
+a course of operations in which the land forces and the fleet
+combined to dispossess the Greeks of their chief strongholds. The
+strongly-fortified island of Sphakteria, the portal of Navarino and
+Pylos, was taken on the 8th of May. Pylos capitulated on the 11th,
+and Navarino on the 21st of the same month. Other citadels, one after
+another, were surrendered; and Ibrahim and his army spent the summer
+in scouring the Morea and punishing its inhabitants, with the utmost
+severity, for the lawless brigandage and the devoted patriotism of
+which they had been guilty during the past four years.
+
+The result was altogether disheartening to the Greeks. They saw that
+their condition was indeed desperate. George Konduriottes, a Hydriot
+merchant, an Albanian who could not speak Greek, and who was alike
+unable to govern himself or others, had, in June, 1824, been named
+president of the republic, and since then the rival interests of the
+primates, the priests, and the military leaders had been steadily
+causing the decay of all that was left of patriotism and increase of
+the selfishness that had so long been rampant.
+
+There was one consequence of this degradation, however, which promised
+to be very beneficial. Seeing that their cause was being rapidly
+weakened, and that their hard-fought battle for liberty was in danger
+of speedy and ignominious reversal by their own divisions, by the
+stealthy encroachments of the Ottomans in the north, and by the more
+energetic advances of the Egyptians in the south, the Greeks resolved
+to abandon some of their jealousies and greeds, to look for a saviour
+from without, and, on his coming, to try and submit themselves
+honestly and heartily to his leadership. The issue of that resolution
+was the following letter, written by Mavrocordatos, then Secretary to
+the National Assembly:—
+
+"Milord,—Tandis que vos rares talens étaient consacrés à procurer le
+bonheur d'un pays séparé par un espace immense de la Grèce, celle-ci
+ne voyait pas sans admiration, sans intérêt, sans une espèce de
+jalousie secrète même, les succès brillants qui ont toujours couronné
+vos nobles efforts, et rendu à l'indépendance un des plus beaux, des
+plus riches pays du monde. Votre retour en Angleterre a excité la plus
+vive joie dans le coeur du citoyen Grèc et de ses représentans par
+l'espoir flattereur qu'ils commencent à concevoir que, celui qui s'est
+si noblement dédié à procurer le bonheur d'une nation, ne refusera
+pas d'en faire autant pour celui d'une autre, qui ne lui offre pas
+une carrière moins brillante et moins digne de lui et par son nom
+historique, et par ses malheurs passés et par ses efforts actuels pour
+reconquérir sa liberté et son indépendance. Les mers qui rappellent
+les victoires des Thémistocles et des Timon, ne seront pas un théâtre
+indifférent pour celui qui sait apprécier les grands hommes, et un des
+premiers amiraux de notre siècle ne verra qu' avec plaisir qu'il est
+appellé à renouveler les beaux jours de Salamine et de Mycale à la
+tête des Miaoulis, des Sachtouris et des Kanaris.
+
+"C'est avec la plus grande satisfaction, milord, que je me vois chargé
+de faire, au nom du Gouvernement, à votre seigneurie, la proposition
+du commandement général des forces navales de la Grèce. Si votre
+seigneurie est disposée à l'accepter, Messieurs les Deputés
+du Gouvernement Grèc à Londres ont toute l'autorisation et les
+instructions nécessaires pour combiner avec elle sur les moyens à
+mettre à sa disposition, afin d'utiliser le plutôt possible
+votre noble décision et accélérer l'heureux moment que la Grèce
+reconnaissante et enthousiasmée vous verra combattre pour la cause de
+sa liberté.
+
+"Je profite de cette occasion pour prier votre seigneurie de vouloir
+bien agréer l'assurance de mon respect et de la plus haute estime avec
+laquelle j'ai l'honneur d'être, milord, de votre seigneurie le très
+humble et très obéissant serviteur,
+
+"A. Mavrocordatos,
+
+"Naples de Romanie,
+
+"Secre-genl d'Etat.
+
+"
+_le 20 Août_, —————- 1825 1er 7bre
+
+"A Sa Seigneurie le très Honorable Lord Cochrane, à Londres."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV.
+
+
+LORD COCHRANE's DISMISSAL FROM BRAZILIAN SERVICE, AND HIS ACCEPTANCE
+OF EMPLOYMENT AS CHIEF ADMIRAL OF THE GREEKS.—THE GREEK COMMITTEE AND
+THE GREEK DEPUTIES IN LONDON—THE TERMS OF LORD COCHRANE's AGREEMENT,
+AND THE CONSEQUENT PREPARATIONS.—HIS VISIT TO SCOTLAND—SIR WALTER
+SCOTT'S VERSES ON LADY COCHRANE.—LORD COCHRANE'S FORCED RETIREMENT TO
+BOULOGNE, AND THENCE TO BRUSSELS.—THE DELAYS IN FITTING OUT THE
+GREEK ARMAMENT.—CAPTAIN HASTINGS, MR. HOBHOUSE, AND SIR FRANCES
+BURDETT.—CAPTAIN HASTINGS'S MEMOIR ON THE GREEK LEADERS AND
+THEIR CHARACTERS.—THE FIRST CONSEQUENCE OF LORD COCHRANE's NEW
+ENTERPRISE.—THE DUKE OF WELLINGTON'S INDIRECT MESSAGE TO LORD
+COCHRANE.—THE GREEK DEPUTIES' PROPOSAL TO LORD COCHRANE AND HIS
+ANSWER.—THE FINAL ARRANGEMENTS FOR HIS DEPARTURE.—THE MESSIAH OF THE
+GREEKS.
+
+[1825-1826.]
+
+The letter from Mavrocordatos quoted in the last chapter was only part
+of a series of negotiations that had been long pending. Lord Cochrane,
+as we have seen, had arrived at Portsmouth on the 26th of June, 1825,
+in command of a Brazilian war-ship and still holding office as First
+Admiral of the Empire of Brazil. His intention in visiting England
+had been only to effect the necessary repairs in his ship before going
+back to Rio de Janeiro. He had no sooner arrived, however, than it was
+clear to him, from the vague and insolent language of the Brazilian
+envoy in London, that it was designed by that official, if not by the
+authorities in Rio de Janeiro, to oust him from his command. During
+four months he remained in uncertainty, determined not willingly to
+retire from his Brazilian service, but gradually convinced by the
+increasing insolence of the envoy's treatment of him that it would
+be inexpedient for him hastily to return to Brazil, where, before
+his departure, he had experienced the grossest ingratitude for his
+brilliant achievements and neglect and abuse of all sorts. At length,
+in November, upon learning that his captain and crew had been formally
+instructed to "cast off all subordination" to him, he deemed that he
+had no alternative but to consider himself dismissed from Brazilian
+employment and free to enter upon a new engagement.
+
+That engagement had been urged upon him even while he was in South
+America by his friends in England, who were also devoted friends to
+the cause of Greek independence, and the proposal had been renewed
+very soon after his arrival at Portsmouth. It was so freely talked of
+among all classes of the English public and so openly discussed in the
+newspapers before the middle of August that by it Lord Cochrane's last
+relations with the Brazilian envoy were seriously complicated. "Lord
+Cochrane is looking very well, after eight years of harassing and
+ungrateful service," wrote Sir Francis Burdett on the 20th of August,
+"and, I trust, will be the liberator of Greece. What a glorious
+title!"
+
+It is needless to say that Sir Francis Burdett, always the noble
+and disinterested champion of the oppressed, and the far-seeing and
+fearless advocate of liberty both at home and abroad, was a leading
+member of the Greek Committee in London. This committee was a
+counterpart—though composed of more illustrious members than any of
+the others—of Philhellenic associations that had been organized in
+nearly every capital of Europe and in the chief towns of the United
+States. Everywhere a keen sympathy was aroused on behalf of the
+down-trodden Greeks; and the sympathy only showed itself more
+zealously when it appeared that the Greeks were still burdened with
+the moral degradation of their long centuries of slavery, and needed
+the guidance and support of men more fortunately trained than they
+had been in ways of freedom. Such a man, and foremost among such men,
+always generous, wise, and earnest, was Sir Francis Burdett, Lord
+Cochrane's oldest and best political friend, his readiest adviser
+and stoutest defender all through the weary time of his subjection to
+unmerited disgrace and heartless contumely. Another leading member
+of the Greek Committee was Mr. John Cam Hobhouse, afterwards Lord
+Broughton, Lord Byron's friend and fellow-traveller, now Sir Francis
+Burdett's colleague in the representation of Westminster as successor
+to Lord Cochrane. Another of high note was Mr. Edward Ellice, eminent
+alike as a merchant and as a statesman. Another, no less eminent, was
+Joseph Hume. Another was Mr. (afterwards Sir) John Bowring, secretary
+to the Greek Committee. By them and many others the progress of the
+Greek Revolution was carefully watched and its best interests were
+strenuously advocated, and by all the return of Lord Cochrane to
+England and the prospect of his enlistment in the Philhellenic
+enterprise afforded hearty satisfaction. To them the real liberty of
+Greece was a cherished object; and one and all united in welcoming the
+great promoter of Chilian and Brazilian independence as the liberator
+of Greece.
+
+Other honest friends of Greece were less sanguine, and more disposed
+to urge caution upon Lord Cochrane. "My very dear friend," wrote one
+of them, Dr. William Porter, from Bristol on the 25th of August, "I
+will not suffer you to be longer in England without welcoming you; for
+your health, happiness, and fame are all dear to me. I have followed
+you in your Transatlantic career with deep feelings of anxiety for
+your life, but none for your glory: I know you too well to entertain
+a fear for that. I had hoped that you would repose on your laurels and
+enjoy the evening of life in peace, but am told that you are about to
+launch a thunderbolt against the Grand Seignior on behalf of Greece.
+I wish to see Greece free; but could also wish you to rest from your
+labours. For a sexagenarian to command a fleet in ordinary war is an
+easy task, and even threescore and ten might do it; but fifty years
+are too many to conduct a naval war for a people whose pretensions to
+nautical skill you will find on a thousand occasions to give rise to
+jealousies against you. You will also find that on some important day
+they will withhold their co-operation, in order to rob you of your
+glory. The cause of Greece is, nevertheless, a glorious cause. Our
+remembrance of what their ancestors did at Salamis, at Marathon, at
+Thermopylae, gives an additional interest to all that concerns them.
+But, to say the truth of them, they are a race of tigers, and their
+ancestors were the same. I shall be glad to see them fall upon their
+aigretted keeper and his pashas; but, confound them! I would not
+answer for their destroying the man that would break their fetters and
+set them loose in all the power of recognised freedom."
+
+There was much truth in those opinions, and Lord Cochrane was not
+blind to it. That he, though now in his fiftieth year, was too old
+for any difficult seamanship or daring warfare that came in his way
+he certainly was not inclined to admit; but he was not quite as
+enthusiastic as Sir Francis Burdett and many of his other friends
+regarding the immediate purposes and the ultimate issue of the Greek
+Revolution. He was now as hearty a lover of liberty, and as willing
+to employ all his great experience and his excellent ability in its
+service, as he had been eight years before when he went to aid the
+cause of South American independence. But both in Chili and in Brazil
+he had suffered much himself, and, what was yet more galling to one
+of his generous disposition, had seen how grievously his disinterested
+efforts for the benefit of others had been stultified, by the
+selfishness and imprudence, the meanness and treachery of those whom
+he had done his utmost to direct in a sure and rapid way of freedom.
+He feared, and had good reason for fearing, like disappointments in
+any relations into which he might enter with Greece. Therefore, though
+he readily consented to work for the Hellenic revolutionists, as he
+had worked for the Chilians and Brazilians, he did so with
+something of a forlorn hope, with a fear—which in the end was fully
+justified—that thereby his own troubles might only be augmented, and
+that his philanthropic plans might in great measure be frustrated.
+Coming newly to England, where the real state of affairs in Greece,
+the selfishness of the leaders, the want of discipline among
+the masses, and the consequent weakness and embarrassment to the
+revolutionary cause, were not thoroughly understood, and where this
+understanding was especially difficult for him without previous
+acquaintance even with all the details that were known and apprehended
+by his friends, he yet saw enough to lead him to the belief that
+the work they wished him to do in Greece would be harder and more
+thankless than they supposed.
+
+This must be remembered as an answer to the first of the
+misstatements—misstatements that will have to be controverted
+at every stage of the ensuing narrative—which were carefully
+disseminated, and have been persistently recorded by political
+opponents and jealous rivals of Lord Cochrane. It has been alleged
+that he was induced by mercenary motives, and by them alone, to enter
+the service of the Greeks. His sole inducements were a desire to do
+his best on all occasions towards the punishment of oppressors and
+the relief of the oppressed, and a desire, hardly less strong, to seek
+relief in the naval enterprise that was always very dear to him
+from the oppression under which he himself suffered so heavily.
+The ingratitude that he had lately experienced in Chili and Brazil,
+however, bringing upon him much present embarrassment in lawsuits and
+other troubles, led him to use what was only common prudence in his
+negotiations with the Greek Committee and with the Greek deputies,
+John Orlando and Andreas Luriottis, who were in London at the time,
+and on whom devolved the formal arrangements for employing him and
+providing him with suitable equipments for his work.
+
+These were done with help of a second Greek loan, contracted in London
+in 1825, for 2,000,000£ Out of this sum it was agreed that Lord
+Cochrane was to receive 37,000£ at starting, and a further sum of
+20,000£ on the completion of his services; and that he was to be
+provided with a suitable squadron, for which purpose 150,000£ were
+to be expended in the construction of six steamships in England, and a
+like sum on the building and fitting out of two sixty-gun frigates in
+the United States. With the disappointments that he had experienced
+in Chili and Brazil fresh in his mind, he refused to enter on this new
+engagement without a formidable little fleet, manned by English and
+American seamen, and under his exclusive direction; and he further
+stipulated that the entire Greek fleet should be at his sole
+command, and that he should have full power to carry out his views
+independently of the Greek Government.
+
+These arrangements were completed on the 16th of August, except that
+Lord Cochrane, not having yet been actually dismissed by the Brazilian
+envoy, refused formally to pledge himself to his new employers. In
+conjunction with Sir Francis Burdett, Mr. Hobhouse, Mr. Ellice, and
+the Ricardos, as contractors, however, he made all the preliminary
+arrangements, and before the end of August he went for a two months'
+visit to his native county and other parts of Scotland, from which he
+had been absent more than twenty years.
+
+One incident in that visit was noteworthy. On the 3rd of October, Lord
+and Lady Cochrane, being in Edinburgh, went to the theatre, where
+an eager crowd assembled to do them honour. Into the after-piece an
+allusion to South America was specially introduced. Upon that
+the whole audience rose and, turning to the seats occupied by the
+visitors, showed their admiration by plaudits so long and so vehement
+that Lady Cochrane, overpowered by her feelings, burst into tears.
+Thereupon Sir Walter Scott, who was in the theatre, wrote the
+following verses:—
+
+  "I knew thee, lady, by that glorious eye,
+  By that pure brow and those dark locks of thine,
+  I knew thee for a soldier's bride, and high
+  My full heart bounded: for the golden mine
+  Of heavenly thought kindled at sight of thee,
+  Radiant with all the stars of memory.
+
+  "I knew thee, and, albeit, myself unknown,
+  I called on Heaven to bless thee for thy love,
+  The strength, the constancy thou long hast shown,
+  Each selfish aim, each womanish fear above:
+  And, lady, Heaven is with thee; thou art blest,
+  Blest in whatever thy immortal soul loves best.
+
+  "Thy name, ask Brazil, for she knows it well;
+  It is a name a hero gave to thee;
+  In every letter lurks there not a spell,—
+  The mighty spell of immortality?
+  Ye sail together down time's glittering stream;
+  Around your heads two glittering haloes gleam.
+
+  "Even now, as through the air the plaudits rung,
+  I marked the smiles that in her features came;
+  She caught the word that fell from every tongue,
+  And her eye brightened at her Cochrane's name;
+  And brighter yet became her bright eyes' blaze;
+  It was his country, and she felt the praise,—
+
+  "Ay, even as a woman, and his bride, should feel,
+  With all the warmth of an o'erflowing soul:
+  Unshaken she had seen the ensanguined steel,
+  Unshaken she had heard war's thunders roll,
+  But now her noble heart could find relief
+  In tears alone, though not the tears of grief.
+
+  "May the gods guard thee, lady, whereso'er
+  Thou wanderest in thy love and loveliness!
+  For thee may every scene and sky be fair,
+  Each hour instinct with more than happiness!
+  May all thou valuest be good and great,
+  And be thy wishes thy own future fate!"
+
+Those aspirations were very far from realised. Even during his brief
+holiday in Scotland, Lord Cochrane was troubled by the news that Mr.
+Galloway, the engineer to whom had been entrusted the chief work in
+constructing steam-boilers for the Greek vessels, was proceeding very
+slowly with his task. "My conviction is," wrote Mr. Ellice, "that
+Galloway, in undertaking so much, has promised what he can never
+perform, and that it will be Christmas, if not later, before the
+whole work is completed. No engines are to be got either in Glasgow or
+Liverpool. You know I am not sanguine, and the sooner you are here to
+judge for yourself the better. There has been no hesitation about the
+means from the beginning, but money will not produce steam-engines and
+vessels in these times."
+
+In consequence of that letter, Lord Cochrane hurried up to London at
+once, intending personally to superintend and hasten on the work. He
+arrived on the 3rd of November; but only to find that fresh troubles
+were in store for him. He had already been exposed to vexatious
+litigation, arising out of groundless and malicious prosecutions with
+reference to his Brazilian enterprise. He was now informed that a more
+serious prosecution was being initiated. The Foreign Enlistment Act,
+passed shortly after his acceptance of service under the Chilian
+Republic, and at the special instigation of the Spanish Government,
+had made his work in South America an indictable offence; but it was
+supposed that no action would be taken against him now that he had
+returned to England. As soon as it was publicly known, however, that
+he was about to embark in a new enterprise, on behalf of Greece, steps
+were taken to restrain him by means of an indictment on the score of
+his former employment. "There is a most unchristian league against
+us," he wrote to his secretary, "and fearful odds too. To be
+prosecuted at home, and not permitted to go abroad, is the devil. How
+can I be prosecuted for fighting in Brazil for the heir-apparent
+to the throne, who, whilst his father was held in restraint by the
+rebellious Cortes, contended for the legitimate rights of the royal
+House of Braganza, then the ally of England, who had, during the
+contest, by the presence of her consuls and other official agents,
+sanctioned the acts of the Prince Regent of Brazil?"
+
+It soon became clear, however, that the Government had found some
+justification of its conduct, and that active measures were being
+adopted for Lord Cochrane's punishment. He was warned by Mr. Brougham
+that, if he stayed many days longer in England, he would be arrested
+and so prevented not only from facilitating the construction of the
+Greek vessels, but even from going to Greece at all. Therefore, at the
+earnest advice of his friends, he left London for Calais on the 9th
+of November, soon to proceed to Boulogne, where he was joined by his
+family, and where he waited for six weeks, vainly hoping that in
+his absence the contractors and their overseers would see that the
+ship-building was promptly and properly executed.
+
+While at Boulogne, foreseeing the troubles that would ensue from
+these new difficulties, he was half inclined to abandon his Greek
+engagement, and in that temper he wrote to Sir Francis Burdett for
+advice. "I have taken four-and-twenty hours," wrote his good friend
+in answer, on the 18th of November, "to consider your last letter, and
+have not one moment varied in my first opinion as to the propriety
+of your persevering in your glorious career. According to Brougham's
+opinion, you cannot be put in a worse situation,—that is, more in
+peril of Government here,—by continuing foreign service in the Greek
+cause than you already stand in by having served the Emperor of the
+Brazils. In my opinion you will be in a great deal less; for, the
+greater your renown, the less power will your enemies have, whatever
+may be their inclination, to meddle with you. Perhaps they only at
+present desist to look out for a better opportunity, 'reculer pour
+mieux sauter,' like the tiger. I don't mean to accuse them of this
+baseness; but, should it be the case, the less you do the more power
+they will have to injure you, if so inclined. Were they to prosecute
+you for having served the Brazilian Emperor, it would call forth no
+public sympathy, or but slight, in your favour. The case would be
+thought very hard, to be sure; but that would be all. Not so, should
+you triumph in the Greek cause. Transcendent glory would not only
+crown but protect you. No minister would dare to wag a finger—no, nor
+even Crown lawyer a tongue—against you; and, if they did, the feeling
+of the whole English public would surround you with an impenetrable
+shield. Fines would be paid; imprisonment protested and petitioned
+against; in short, I am convinced the nation would be in a flame, and
+you in far less danger of any attempt to your injury than at present.
+This, my dear Lord Cochrane, is my firm conviction."
+
+Encouraged by that letter and other like expressions of opinion from
+his English friends, Lord Cochrane determined to persevere in his
+Greek enterprise, and to reside at Boulogne until the fleet that was
+being prepared for him was ready for service. He had to wait, however,
+very much longer than had been anticipated, and he was unable to wait
+all the time in Boulogne. There also prosecution threatened him. About
+the middle of December he heard that proceedings were about to be
+instituted against him for his detention, while in the Pacific, of a
+French brig named _La Gazelle_, the real inducement thereto being in
+the fact, as it was reported, that the French Government had espoused
+the cause of the Pasha of Egypt, and so was averse to such a plan
+for destroying the Egyptian fleet under Ibrahim as Lord Cochrane
+was concocting. Therefore, he deemed it expedient to quit French
+territory, and accordingly he left Boulogne on the 23rd of December,
+and took up his residence at Brussels, with his family, on the 28th of
+the same month.
+
+Through four weary months and more he was waiting at Brussels,
+harassed by the prosecutions arising out of the lawsuits that have
+been already alluded to, in reference to which he said in one letter,
+"I think I must make up my mind, though it is a hard task, to quit
+England for ever;" harassed even more by the knowledge that the
+building and fitting out of the vessels for his Greek expedition were
+being delayed on frivolous pretexts and for selfish ends, which his
+presence in London, if that had been possible, might, to a great
+extent, have averted. "The welfare of Greece at this moment rests much
+on your lordship," wrote Orlando, the chief deputy in London, "and
+I dare hope that you will hasten her triumph:" yet Orlando and his
+fellows were idling in London, profiting by delays that increased
+their opportunities of peculation, and doing nothing to quicken the
+construction of the fleet. Galloway, the engineer, wrote again and
+again to promise that his work should be done in three weeks,—it was
+always "three weeks hence;" yet he was well informed that Galloway
+was wilfully negligent, though he did not know till afterwards that
+Galloway, having private connections with the Pasha of Egypt, never
+intended to do the work which he was employed to do. Lord Cochrane had
+good friends at home in Sir Francis Burdett, Mr. Hobhouse, and others;
+but they were not competent to take personal supervision of the
+details. He had an experienced deputy in Captain Abney Hastings, who
+had come from Greece some time before, and who was now to return
+as Lord Cochrane's second in command; but Captain Hastings,
+single-handed, could not exert much influence upon the rogues with
+whom he had to deal. "The _Perseverance_," he wrote of the largest of
+the ships, which was to be ready first, on the 10th of December, "may
+perhaps be ready to sail in six weeks—Mr. Galloway has said three
+weeks for the last month; but to his professions I do not, and have
+not for a length of time, paid the slightest attention. I believe he
+does all he can do; all I object against him is that he promises
+more than he can perform, and promises with the determination of not
+performing it. The _Perseverance_ is a fine vessel. Her power of two
+forty-horses will, however, be feeble. I suspect you are not quite
+aware of the delay which will take place." Lord Cochrane soon became
+quite aware of the delay, but was unable to prevent it, and the
+next few months were passed by him in tedious anxiety and ceaseless
+chagrin.
+
+There was one desperate mode of lessening the delay—for Lord Cochrane
+to go out in the _Perseverance_ as soon as it was ready to start,
+leaving the other vessels to follow as soon as they were ready.
+Captain Abney Hastings went to Brussels on purpose to urge him to that
+course, and Mr. Hobhouse also recommended it. "There are two points,"
+he wrote on the 23rd of December, "to which your attention will
+probably be chiefly directed by Captain Hastings. These are, the
+expediency of your going with the _Perseverance_, instead of waiting
+for the other boats, and the propriety of immediately disposing of the
+two frigates in America"—about which frequent reports had arrived,
+showing that their preparation was in even worse hands than was that
+of the London vessels—"to the highest bidder. As to the first, I
+am confident that, although it would have been desirable to have got
+together the whole force in the first instance, yet, as the salvation
+of Greece is a question of time only, and as it will be probably so
+late either as May or June next before the two larger boats can leave
+the river, it would be in every way inexpedient for you to wait until
+you could have the whole armament under your orders. Be assured, your
+presence in Greece would do more than the activity of any man living,
+and, as far as anything can be done in pushing forward the business at
+home, neither time nor pains shall be spared. I wish indeed you could
+have the whole of the boats at once; but Galloway has determined
+otherwise, and we must do the next best thing. Captain Hastings will
+tell you how much may be done even by one steam-vessel, commanded by
+you, and directing the operations of the fire-vessels. On such a
+topic I should not have the presumption to enlarge to you. As to the
+American frigates, it is Mr. Ellice's decided opinion, as well as my
+own, that you should have the money instead of the frigates. First and
+last, the frigates _never will be finished_. The rogues at New York
+demand 60,000£ above the 157,000£ which they have already received,
+and protest they will not complete their work without the additional
+sum. Now 70,000£ in your hands will be better than the _hopes_ —and
+they will be nothing but _hopes_ —of having the frigates. If you agree
+in this view, perhaps you will be so good as to state it in writing,
+which may remove Mr. Ricardo's objections."
+
+Lord Cochrane was tempted to follow Captain Hastings's and Mr.
+Hobhouse's advice; but he first, as was his wont, sought Sir Francis
+Burdett's opinion; and Sir Francis dissuaded him, for the time, at any
+rate. "I would by no means have you proceed with the first vessel, nor
+at all without adequate means," he wrote on the 15th of January, 1826;
+"for besides thinking of the Greeks, for whom I am, I own, greatly
+interested, I must think, and certainly not with less interest, of
+you, and, I may add, in some degree of myself too; for I am placed
+under much responsibility, and I don't mean to be a party to making
+shipwreck of you and your great naval reputation; nor will I ever
+consent to your going upon a forlorn and desperate attempt—that is,
+without the means necessary for the fair chance of success—in other
+words, adequate means. Although you have worked miracles, we can never
+be justified in expecting them, and still less in requiring them."
+
+Following that sound advice, Lord Cochrane resolved to wait until, at
+any rate, a good part of his fleet was ready. He wrote to that effect,
+and in as good spirits as he could muster, to Mr. Hobhouse, who in
+the answer which he despatched on the 5th of February acknowledged the
+wisdom of the decision. "I am very glad to perceive," he said in that
+answer, "that you have good heart and hope for the great cause.
+I assure you we have been doing all we can to induce the parties
+concerned to second your wishes in every respect; and I now learn from
+Mr. Hastings, who is our sheet anchor, that matters go on pretty well.
+I hope you write every now and then to Galloway, in whose hands is the
+fate of Greece—the worse our luck, for he is the great cause of our
+sad delay."
+
+"You see our House is opened," said Mr. Hobhouse in the same letter.
+"Not a word of Greece in the Speech, and I spoke to Hume and Wilson,
+and begged them not to touch upon the subject. It is much better to
+keep all quiet, in order to prevent angry words from the ministers,
+who, if nothing is said, will, I think, shut their eyes at what we are
+doing. There is a very prevalent notion here that the (Holy) Alliance
+have resolved to recommend something to Turkey in favour of the
+Greeks. Whether this is true or not signifies nothing. The Turks will
+promise anything, and do just what suits them. They have always lost
+in war, for more than a hundred years, and have uniformly gained by
+diplomacy. They will never abandon the hope of reconquering Greece
+until driven out of Europe themselves, which they ought to be. By
+the way, the Greeks really appear to have been doing a little better
+lately; but I still fear these disciplined Arabians. I have written
+a very strong letter to Prince Mavrocordatos, telling them to hold
+out:—no surrender on any terms. I have not mentioned your name; but I
+have stated vaguely that they may expect the promised assistance early
+in the spring. It would indeed be a fine thing if you could commence
+operations during the Rhamadan; but I fear that is impossible. Any
+time, however, will do against the stupid, besotted Turks. Were they
+not led by Frenchmen, even the Greeks would beat them."
+
+Of the leisure forced upon him, Lord Cochrane made good use in
+studying for himself the character of "the stupid, besotted Turks,"
+and the nature of the war that was being waged against them by the
+Greeks; and he asked Mr. Hobhouse to procure for him all the books
+published on the subject or in any way related to it, of which he was
+not already master. "With respect to books," wrote Mr. Hobhouse, in
+reply to this request, "there are very few that are not what you have
+found those you have read to be, namely, romances; but I will take
+care to send out with you such as are the best, together with the
+most useful map that can be got." More than fifty volumes were thus
+collected for Lord Cochrane's use.
+
+From Captain Abney Hastings, moreover, he obtained precise information
+about Greek waters, forts, and armaments, as well as "a list of the
+names of the principal persons in Greece, with their characters." This
+list, as showing the opinions of an intelligent Englishman, based
+on personal knowledge, as to the parties and persons with whom Lord
+Cochrane was soon to deal, is worth quoting entire, especially as it
+was the chief basis of Lord Cochrane's own judgment during this time
+of study and preparation.
+
+I. Archontes, or men influential by their riches.
+
+Lazaros Konduriottes.—A Hydriot merchant, the elder of the two
+brothers, who are the most wealthy men in that island, and even in all
+Greece. This one, by intrigue, by distributing his money adroitly
+in Hydra, and keeping in pay the most dissolute and unruly of the
+sailors, and protecting them in the commission of their crimes,
+has acquired almost unlimited power at Hydra. He asserts democracy,
+appealing on all occasions to the people, who are his creatures. The
+other primates hate him, of course. Lazaros has the reputation of
+being clever. He never quits Hydra for an instant, for fear of finding
+himself supplanted on his return.
+
+George Konduriottes.—Brother of the former, and, like him a Hydriot
+merchant; an ignorant weak man; said to be vindictive; espouses the
+party of his brother at Hydra, by which means he has obtained the
+Presidency [of Greece]. He made the land captains his enemies, and had
+not good men enough to form an army of his own, viz., regular troops.
+His penetration went no further than bribing one captain to destroy
+another; which had for effect merely the changing the names of
+chieftains without diminishing the power. I understand he has lately
+retired to Hydra, and takes no active part in affairs.
+
+EMANUEL TOMBAZES.—A Hydriot merchant and captain. There are two
+brothers, at the head of the party opposed to Konduriottes. This
+man was the first who ventured on the voyage from the Black Sea to
+Marseilles in a latteen-rigged vessel. This traffic afterwards gave
+birth to the colossal fortunes in Hydra. These men are the most
+enlightened in Hydra. This one is dignified, energetic, and a good
+sailor. However, he lost in Candia much of the reputation he had
+previously acquired; but with all the errors he committed there, the
+loss of that island is not attributable to him. 'Twould have been
+lost, under similar circumstances, had Cæsar commanded there.
+Konduriottes and his adherents hate him, of course, and did all they
+could to paralyze his operations in Crete. All considered, this man is
+more capable of introducing order and regularity into the ships than
+any other Greek.
+
+JAKOMAKI TOMBAZES.—A Hydriot merchant and captain, brother of the
+former. He commanded the fleet the first year of the Revolution, and
+to him is due the introduction of fire-vessels, by which he destroyed
+the first Turkish line-of-battle ship at Mytelene. He is perhaps the
+best-informed Hydriot; but he wants decision, and demands the advice
+of everybody at the moment he should be acting. This man takes little
+part in politics and follows his mercantile pursuits. His hobby-horse
+is ship-building, in which art he is such a proficient as to be
+quite the Seppings of Hydra. As to the rest, he is a very worthy,
+warm-hearted man, but excessively phlegmatic.
+
+MIAOULIS.—A Hydriot merchant and captain, who obtained command of the
+Hydriot fleet after Jakomaki resigned. He is a very dignified,
+worthy old man, possesses personal courage and decision, and is less
+intriguing than any Greek that I know.
+
+SAKTOURES.—A Hydriot captain. He has risen from a sailor, and is
+considered by the Archontes rather in the light of a _parvenu_. He is
+courageous and enterprising, but a bit of a pirate.
+
+BONDOMES, SAMADHOFF, GHIKA, ORLANDO.—Hydriot merchants without
+anything but their money to recommend them.
+
+PEPINOS.—A Hydriot sailor of the clan of Tombazes, who has
+distinguished himself frequently in fireships.
+
+KANARIS.—A Psarian sailor; the most distinguished of the commanders
+of fire-vessels.
+
+BOTAZES.—A Spetziot merchant; the most influential person in his
+island. But the Hydriot merchants possess so much property in Spetziot
+vessels that, in some measure, they rule that island.
+
+PETRO-BEY [or PETROS MAVROMICHALES].—The principal Archonte of Maina;
+was governor of that province under the Turks. A fat, stupid, worthy
+man; is sincere in the cause, in which he has lost two if not three
+sons.
+
+DELIYANNES.—A Moreot Archonte, and one of the most intriguing and
+ambitious; was formerly sworn enemy to Kolokotrones and the captains,
+but, having betrothed his daughter to Kolokotrones's son, they have
+become allies. This man, if not the richest Archonte in the Morea, is
+the one who affected the most pomp in the time of the Turks, and
+he cannot now easily brook his diminished influence. He is reported
+clever and unprincipled.
+
+NOTABAS.—A Moreot Archonte, considered the most ancient of the noble
+families in the Morea; is a well-meaning old blockhead; has a son, a
+good-looking youth, who commanded the Government forces against the
+captains in 1824; is said to be an egregious coward.
+
+LONDOS.—A Moreot Archonte; was much flattered by the Government, but
+afterwards leagued against them. He is a drunkard, and a man of no
+consideration but for his wealth.[A]
+
+[Footnote A: Lord Byron used to describe an evening passed in the
+company of Londos at Vostitza, when both were young men. After supper
+Londos, who had the face and figure of a chimpanzee, sprang upon
+a table, and commenced singing through his nose Rhiga's "Hymn to
+Liberty." A new cadi, passing near the house, inquired the cause of
+the discordant hubbub. A native Mussulman replied, "It is only the
+young primate Londos, who is drunk, and is singing hymns to the new
+franaghia of the Greeks, whom they call 'Eleftheria.'"—Finlay, vol.
+ii., p. 35.]
+
+ZAIMES.—A Moreot Archonte; said to possess considerable talent, and
+he exercises a very considerable influence. His brother was formerly a
+deputy in England.
+
+SISSINES.—A Moreot Archonte; was formerly a doctor at Patras; has
+risen into wealth and consequence since the Revolution; has great
+talent, and is a great rogue.
+
+SOTIRES XARALAMBI.—A Moreot Archonte of influence. I do not know his
+character.
+
+SPELIOTOPOLOS.—A Moreot Archonte, whose name would never have
+been heard by a foreigner, if he had not been made a member of the
+executive body; a stupid old man, possessing little influence of any
+kind.
+
+KOLETTES.—A Romeliot; was formerly doctor to Ali Pasha; possesses
+some talent; has held various situations in the ministry; is detested,
+yet I know not why. I never could ascertain any act of his that
+merited the dislike he has inspired a large party with. I fancy 'tis
+alone attributable to jealousy—the peculiar feature of the Greek
+character. It must nevertheless be acknowledged that he has sometimes
+made himself ridiculous by assuming the sword, for which profession
+he is totally incapacitated by want of courage. He is, however, poor,
+although in employment since the commencement of the Revolution.
+
+THIKOUPES.—An Archonte of Missolonghi; of some importance from the
+English education he has received from Lord Guildford; a worthy man,
+possessed of instruction, but, I think, not genius. He has married
+Mavrocordatos's sister.
+
+II. Phanaeiots.
+
+[DEMETRIUS] HYPSILANTES.—Is of a Phanariot family; was a Russian
+officer; although young, is bald and feeble. His appearance and voice
+are much against him. He does not so much want talent as ferocity. He
+possesses personal courage and probity, and may be said to be the only
+honest man that has figured upon the stage of the Revolution. He does
+not favour, but has never openly opposed, the party of the captains.
+He felt he had not the power to do it with success, and therefore
+showed his good sense in refraining. The Archontes, fearing the
+influence he might acquire would destroy theirs, have uniformly
+opposed him, secretly and openly; and they hate one another so
+cordially now that it is impossible they should ever unite.
+
+MAVROCORDATOS.—Of a Phanariot family; came forward under the auspices
+of Hypsilantes, and then tried to supplant him; and to do this he made
+himself the tool of the Hydriots, who, as soon as they had obtained
+all power in their hands, endeavoured to kick down the stepping-stool
+by which they had mounted. Perceiving this, he entered into
+negotiations with the captains, and frightened the Hydriots into an
+acknowledgment of some power for himself. He possesses quickness and
+intrigue; but I doubt if he has solid talent, and it is reported that
+he is particularly careful not to court danger.
+
+III. Captains or Land-Chieftains.
+
+KOLOKOTRONES.—A captain of the Morea, and the most powerful one in
+all Greece. He owes this partly to the numerous ramifications of his
+family, partly to his reputation as a hereditary robber, and also
+to the wealth he has amassed in his vocation. He is a fine,
+decided-looking man, and knows perfectly all the localities of the
+country for carrying on mountain warfare, and he knows also, better
+than any other, how to manage the Greek mountaineers. He is, however,
+entirely ignorant of any other species of warfare, and is not
+sufficiently civilized to look forward for any other advantage to
+himself or his country than that of possessing the mountains and
+keeping the Turks at bay. He proposed destroying all the fortresses
+except Nauplia. 'Twas an error of Mavrocordatos to have made this man
+an open enemy to himself and to organization. Had he been allowed to
+have profited by order, he would have espoused it. At present he may
+be considered irreconcilably opposed to order and the Hydriot party.
+
+NIKETAS.—There are two of this name; but the only one that merits
+notice is the Moreot captain, a relation of Kolokrotones. He is
+as ignorant and dirty as the rest of his brethren, but bears the
+reputation of being disinterested and courageous. He is always poor.
+All the chieftains are good bottle-men; but this one excels them so
+much that 'tis confidently asserted he drinks three bottles of rum per
+day.
+
+STAIKOS.—A Moreot captain who took part early with the Hydriot party
+from jealousy of Kolokotrones. When that party gained the ascendency,
+not finding himself sufficiently rewarded, he joined the captains.
+
+MOMGINOS.—A Mainot chieftain, a rival of Petro-Bey; is
+undistinguished, except by his colossal stature and ferocious
+countenance.
+
+GOURA.—A Romeliot captain; was a soldier of Odysseus, and employed
+by him in various assassinations, and thus he rose to preferment and
+supplanted his protector, and at length assassinated him. This man
+possesses courage and extreme ferocity, but is remarkably ignorant.
+In the hands of a similar master, he would have been a perfect Tristan
+l'Hermite. To supplant Odysseus, he was obliged to range himself with
+the Hydriot party.
+
+CONSTANTINE BOTZARES.—A Suliot captain; nephew to the celebrated
+Makrys, who, from all accounts, was a phenomenon among the captains.
+This man bears a good character.
+
+KARAÏSKAKES, RANGO, KALTZAS, ZAVELLA, &c. &c.—Romeliot captains; all
+more or less opposed to order, according as they see it suits their
+immediate interest.
+
+That estimate of the Greek heroes—in the main wonderfully
+accurate—was certainly not encouraging to Lord Cochrane. He
+determined, however, to go on with the work he had entered upon, and
+in doing his duty to the Greeks, to try to bring into healthy play the
+real patriotism that was being perverted by such unworthy leaders.
+
+Great benefit was conferred upon the Greeks by his entering into their
+service from its very beginning, in spite of the obstacles which were
+thrown in his way at starting, and which materially damaged all his
+subsequent work on their behalf. No sooner was it known that he was
+coming to aid them with his unsurpassed bravery and his unrivalled
+genius than they took heart and held out against the Turkish and
+Egyptian foes to whom they had just before been inclined to yield.
+And his enlistment in their cause had another effect, of which they
+themselves were ignorant. The mere announcement that he intended to
+fight and win for them, as he had fought and won for Chili, for Peru,
+and for Brazil, while it caused both England and France to do their
+utmost in hindering him from achieving an end which was more thorough
+than they desired, forced both England and France to shake off the
+listlessness with which they had regarded the contest during nearly
+five years, and initiate the temporizing action by which Greece was
+prevented from becoming as great and independent a state as it might
+have been, yet by which a smaller independence was secured for it.
+Hardly had Lord Cochrane consented to serve as admiral of the Greeks
+than the Duke of Wellington was despatched, in the beginning of 1826,
+on a mission to Russia, which issued in the protocol of April, 1826,
+and the treaty of July, 1827—both having for their avowed object the
+pacification of Greece—and in the battle of Navarino, by which that
+pacification was secured.
+
+The Duke of Wellington passed through Brussels, on his way to
+St. Petersburg, in March, 1826. Halting there, he informed the
+hotel-keeper that he could see no one _except Lord Cochrane_, which
+was as distinct an intimation that he desired an interview as,
+in accordance with the rules of etiquette, he could make. The
+hotel-keeper, however, was too dull to take the hint. He did not
+acquaint Lord Cochrane of the indirect message intended for him
+until the Duke of Wellington had proceeded on his journey. Thus was
+prevented a meeting between one of England's greatest soldiers and one
+of her greatest sailors, which could not but have been very memorable
+in itself, and which might have been far more memorable in its
+political consequences.
+
+The meeting was hindered, and, without listening either to the
+personal courtesies or to the diplomatic arguments of the Duke of
+Wellington, Lord Cochrane continued his preparations for active
+service in Greek waters. The details of these preparations and their
+practical execution, as has been shown, he was forced to leave in
+other and less competent hands, and their actual supervision was still
+impossible to him. Gradually the irritating and wasteful obstacles for
+which Mr. Galloway was chiefly responsible induced him to resolve upon
+following the advice tendered in December by Mr. Hobhouse and Captain
+Hastings—that is, to go to Greece with a small portion only of
+the naval armament for which he had stipulated, and which his most
+cautious friends deemed necessary to his enterprise. To this he was
+driven, not only by a desire to do something worthy of his great name,
+and something really helpful to the cause which he had espoused,
+but also by the knowledge that the tedious delays that arose were
+squandering all the money with which he had counted upon rendering his
+work efficient when he could get to Greece.
+
+Of this he received frequent and clear intimation from all his
+friends in London, though from none so emphatically as from the Greek
+deputies, Orlando and Luriottis, who, being themselves grievously to
+blame for their peculations and their bad management, threw all the
+blame upon Mr. Galloway and the other defaulters. Finding that the
+proceeds of the second Greek loan were being rapidly exhausted by
+their own and others' wrong-doing, they were even audacious enough to
+propose to Lord Cochrane that, not abandoning his Greek engagement,
+but rather continuing it under conditions involving much greater risk
+and anxiety than had been anticipated, he should return the 37,000£
+which had been handed over to Sir Francis Burdett on his account, and
+take as sole security for his ultimate recompense the two frigates
+half built in America, acknowledged to be of so little value that no
+purchaser could be found for them. "Our only desire." they said,
+"is to rescue the millions of souls that are praying with a thousand
+supplications that they may not fall victims to the despair which is
+only averted by the hope of your lordship's arrival."
+
+To that preposterous request Lord Cochrane made a very temperate
+answer. "I have perused your letter of the 18th," he wrote on the 28th
+of February, "with the utmost attention, and have since considered its
+contents with the most anxious desire to promote the objects you have
+in view in all ways in my power. But I have not been able to convince
+myself that, under existing circumstances, there is any means by which
+Greece can be so readily saved as by steady perseverance in equipping
+the steam-vessels, which are so admirably calculated to cut off the
+enemies' communication with Alexandria and Constantinople, and for
+towing fire-vessels and explosion-vessels by night into ports and
+places where the hostile squadrons anchor on the shores of Greece.
+With steam-vessels constructed for such purposes, and a few gunboats
+carrying heavy cannon, I have no doubt but that the Morea might in a
+few weeks be cleared of the enemy's naval force. I wish I could give
+you, without writing a volume, a clear view of the numerous reasons,
+derived from thirty-five years' experience, which induce me to prefer
+a force that can move in all directions in the obscurity of night
+through narrow channels, in shoal water, and with silence and
+celerity, over a naval armament of the usual kind, though of far
+superior force. You would then perceive with what efficacy the counsel
+of Demosthenes to your countrymen might be carried into effect by
+desultory attacks on the enemy; and, in fact, you would perceive that
+steam-vessels, whenever they shall be brought into war for hostile
+purposes, will prove the most formidable means that ever has been
+employed in naval warfare. Indeed, it is my opinion that twenty-four
+vessels moved by steam (such as the largest constructed for
+your service) could commence at St. Petersburg, and finish at
+Constantinople, the destruction of every ship of war in the European
+ports. I therefore hold that you ought to strain every nerve to get
+the steam-vessels equipped. For on these, next to the valour of
+the Greeks themselves, depends the fate of Greece, and not on large
+unwieldy ships, immovable in calms, and ill-calculated for nocturnal
+operations on the shores of the Morea and adjacent islands. Having
+thus repeated to you my opinions, I have only to add that, if
+you judge you can follow a better course, I release you from the
+engagement you entered into with me, and I am ready to return you the
+37,000£ on your receiving as part thereof 72,500 Greek scrip, at
+the price I gave for it on the day following my engagement (under the
+faith of the stipulations then entered into), as a further stimulus
+to my exertion, by casting my property, as well as my life, into the
+scale with Greece. This release I am ready to make at once; but I
+cannot consent to accept as security, for the fruits of seven years'
+toil, vessels manned by Americans, whose pay and provisions I see no
+adequate or regular means of providing. But should the 150,000£
+placed at the disposal of the Committee not prove sufficient for the
+objects _I have required_, I will advance the 37,000£ for the pay
+and provisions necessary for the steamboats on the security of the
+boats themselves. Thus you have the option of releasing me from
+the service, or of continuing my engagement, although I shall lose
+severely by my temporary acceptance of your offer."
+
+In that letter Lord Cochrane conceded more than ought to have been
+expected of him. In a supplementary letter written on the same day
+he added: "I again assure you that I am ready to do whatever is
+reasonable for the interest of Greece; but it cannot be expected that
+for such interest I ought to sacrifice totally those of my family
+and myself, as would be the case were I to give up both the means I
+possess to obtain justice in South America and my indemnification, on
+so slender a security as that offered to me. Believe me, I should have
+tendered the 37,000£, without reference to the Greek scrip I
+had purchased, had it not been evident to me that, under such
+circumstances, the security of your public funds would be dependent
+on chances which I cannot foresee, and over which I should have no
+control."
+
+Thus temperately rebuked, the Greek deputies did not urge their
+proposal any further. They only wrote to promise all possible
+expedition in completing the steam-vessels. Lord Cochrane, however,
+voluntarily acceded to one of their wishes. Hearing that the largest
+of the steamers, the _Perseverance_, was nearly ready for sea, and
+that Mr. Galloway had again solemnly pledged himself to complete the
+others in a short time, he determined not to wait for the whole force,
+but to start at once for the Mediterranean. It had been all along
+decided that the _Perseverance_ should be placed under Captain
+Hastings's command; and it was now arranged that he should take her to
+Greece as soon as she was ready, and that Lord Cochrane should follow
+in a schooner, the _Unicorn_, of 158 tons. It was not intended, of
+course, that with that boat alone he should go all the way to Greece;
+but it was considered—perhaps not very wisely—that if he were
+actually on his way to Greece, the completion of the other five
+steamships would be proceeded with more rapidly; and he agreed that,
+as soon as he was joined in the Mediterranean by the first two of
+these, the _Enterprise_ and the _Irresistible_, he would hasten on
+to the Archipelago, and there make the best of the small force at his
+disposal. Not only was it supposed that Mr. Galloway and the other
+agents would thus be induced to more vigorous action: it was also
+deemed that the effect of this step upon the Hellenic nation would
+be very beneficial. "As soon as the Greek Government know that your
+lordship is on your way to Greece," wrote the London deputies on the
+13th of April, "their courage will be animated, and their confidence
+renewed. We may with truth assert that your lordship is regarded by
+all classes of our countrymen as a Messiah, who is to come to their
+deliverance; and, from the enthusiasm which will prevail amongst the
+people, we may venture to predict that your lordship's valour and
+success at sea will give energy and victory to their arms on land."
+
+With the new arrangements necessitated by this change of plans the
+last two or three weeks of April and the first of May were occupied.
+Lord Cochrane put to sea on the 8th of May. "As a Greek citizen," one
+of the deputies in London, Andreas Luriottis, had written on the
+17th of April, "I cannot refrain from expressing my sincere gratitude
+towards your lordship for the resolution which you have taken to
+depart almost immediately for Greece. This generous determination, at
+a moment when my country is really in want of every assistance, cannot
+be regarded with indifference by my countrymen, who already look upon
+your lordship as a Messiah. Your talents and intrepidity cannot allow
+us for a moment to doubt of success. My countrymen will afford you
+every assistance, and confer on you all the powers necessary for your
+undertaking; although your lordship must be aware that Greece, after
+five years' struggle, cannot be expected to present a very favourable
+aspect to a stranger. Your lordship will, however, find men full of
+devotion and courage—men who have founded, their best hopes on you,
+and from whom, under such a leader, everything may be expected. Your
+lordship's previous exploits encourage me to hope that Greece will not
+be less successful than the Brazils, since the materials she offers
+for cultivation are superior. With patience and perseverance in the
+outset, all difficulties will soon vanish, and the course will be
+direct and unimpeded. The resources of Greece are not to be despised,
+and, if successful, she will find ample means to reward those who will
+have devoted themselves to her service and to the cause of liberty."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV.
+
+
+LORD COCHRANE'S DEPARTURE FOR GREECE.—HIS VISIT TO LONDON AND
+VOYAGE TO THE MEDITERRANEAN.—HIS STAY AT MESSINA, AND AFTERWARDS
+AT MARSEILLES.—THE DELAYS IN COMPLETING THE STEAMSHIPS, AND THE
+CONSEQUENT INJURY TO THE GREEK CAUSE, AND SERIOUS EMBARRASSMENT
+TO LORD COCHRANE.—HIS CORRESPONDENCE WITH MESSRS. J. AND S.
+RICARDO.—HIS LETTER TO THE GREEK GOVERNMENT.—CHEVALIER EYNARD, AND
+THE CONTINENTAL PHILHELLENES.—LORD COCHRANE'S FINAL DEPARTURE, AND
+ARRIVAL IN GREECE.
+
+
+[1826-1827.]
+
+Lord Cochrane, having passed from Brussels to Flushing, sailed thence
+in the _Unicorn_ on the 8th of May, 1826. Before proceeding to the
+Mediterranean, he determined, in spite of the personal risk he would
+thus be subjected to through the Foreign Enlistment Act, to see for
+himself in what state were the preparations for his enterprise in
+Greece. He accordingly landed at Weymouth, and hurrying up to London,
+spent the greater part of Sunday, the 16th of May, in Mr. Galloway's
+building yard at Greenwich.
+
+He found that the _Perseverance_ was apparently completed, though
+waiting for some finishing touches to be put to her boilers. "The two
+other vessels," he said, "were filled with pieces of the high-pressure
+engines, all unfixed, and scattered about in the engine-room and on
+deck. The boilers were in the small boats, and occupied nearly one
+half of their length, Mr. Galloway having, through inattention or
+otherwise, caused them to be made of the same dimensions as the
+boilers for the great vessels, which, by the by, had been improperly
+increased from sixteen feet, the length determined on, to twenty-three
+feet." The inspection was unsatisfactory; but Mr. Galloway pledged
+himself on his honour that the _Perseverance_ should start in a day or
+two, that the _Enterprise_ and the _Irresistible_ should be completed
+and sent to sea within a fortnight, and that the other three vessels
+should be out of hand in less than a month.
+
+Trusting to that promise, or at any rate hoping that it might be
+fulfilled, and after a parting interview with Sir Francis Burdett, Mr.
+Ellice, and other friends, Lord Cochrane left London on Monday, and
+joined the _Unicorn_, at Dartford, on the 20th of May. It had
+been arranged that he should wait in British waters for the first
+instalment of his little fleet, at any rate. With that object he
+called at Falmouth, and, receiving no satisfactory information there,
+went to make a longer halt in Bantry Bay. At length, hearing that the
+_Perseverance_ had actually started, with Captain Hastings for its
+commander, and that the other two large vessels were on the point of
+leaving the Thames, he left the coast of Ireland on the 12th of June.
+
+He vainly hoped that the vessels would promptly join him in the
+Mediterranean, and that within four or five weeks' time he should
+be at work in Greek waters. The journey, however, was to last nine
+months. The mismanagement and the wilful delays of Mr. Galloway and
+the other contractors and agents continued as before. The urgent
+need of Greece was unsatisfied; the funds collected for promoting her
+deliverance were wantonly perverted; and the looked-for deliverer was
+doomed to nearly a year of further inactivity—hateful to him at all
+times, but now a special source of annoyance, as it involved not
+only idleness to himself, but also serious injury to the cause he had
+espoused.
+
+He passed Oporto on the 18th, Lisbon on the 20th, and Gibraltar on the
+26th of June. He was off Algiers on the 3rd of July, and on the 12th
+he anchored in the harbour of Messina. There, and in the adjoining
+waters, he waited nearly three months, in daily expectation of
+the arrival of his vessels, Messina having been the appointed
+meeting-place. No vessels came, but instead only dismal and
+procrastinating letters. "We deeply lament," wrote Messrs. J. and S.
+Ricardo, the contractors for the Greek loan, in one of them, dated the
+9th of September, "that, after all the exertions which have been used,
+we have not yet been able to despatch the two large steam-vessels.
+Everything has been ready for some time; but Mr. Galloway's failure
+in the engines will now occasion a much longer detention. We leave to
+your brother, who writes by the same opportunity, to explain fully to
+your lordship how all this has arisen, and what measures it has been
+considered expedient to adopt. In the whole of this unfortunate affair
+we have endeavoured to follow your wishes; and our conduct towards Mr.
+Galloway, who has much to answer for, has been chiefly directed by
+his representations." "Galloway is the evil genius that pursues us
+everywhere," wrote the same correspondents on the 25th of September;
+"his presumption is only equalled by his incompetency. Whatever he has
+to do with is miserably deficient. We do not think his misconduct has
+been intentional; but it has proved most fatal to the interests of
+Greece, and of those engaged in her behalf. On your lordship it has
+pressed peculiarly hard; and most sincerely do we lament that an
+undertaking, which promised so fairly in the commencement should
+hitherto have proved unavailing, and that your power of assisting
+this unhappy country should have been rendered nugatory by the want of
+means to put it in effect."
+
+Those letters, and others written before and after, did not reach Lord
+Cochrane till the end of October. In the meanwhile, finding that the
+expected vessels did not arrive at Messina, and that in that place it
+was impossible even for him to receive accurate information as to the
+progress of affairs in London, he called at Malta about the middle
+of September, and thence proceeded to Marseilles, as a convenient
+halting-place, in which he had better chance of hearing how matters
+were proceeding, and from which he could easily go to meet the vessels
+when, if ever, they were ready to join him. He reached Marseilles
+on the 12th of October, and on the same day he forwarded a letter
+to Messrs. Ricardo. "I wrote to you a few days ago," he said, "from
+Malta, and, as the packet sailed with a fair wind, you will receive
+that letter very shortly. You will thereby perceive the distressing
+suspense in which I have been held, and the inconvenience to which
+I have been exposed, by remaining on board this small vessel for a
+period of five months, during all the heat of a Mediterranean summer,
+without exercise or recreation. This situation has been rendered
+the more unpleasant, as I have had no means to inform myself, except
+through the public papers, relative to the concern in which we are now
+engaged. My patience, however, is now worn out, and I have come here
+to learn whether I am to expect the steam-vessels or not,—whether
+the scandalous blunders of Mr. Galloway are to be remedied by
+those concerned, or if an ill-timed parsimony is to doom Greece to
+inevitable destruction; for such will be the consequence, if Ibrahim's
+resources are not cut up before the period at which it is usual for
+him to commence operations. You know my opinions so well, that it is
+unnecessary to repeat them to you. I shall, however, add, that
+the intelligence and plans I have obtained since my arrival in the
+Mediterranean confirm these opinions, and enable me to predict, with
+as much certainty as I ever could do on any enterprise, that if the
+vessels and the means to pay six months' expenses are forwarded, there
+shall not be a Turkish or Egyptian ship in the Archipelago at the
+termination of the winter. It may have been expected that I should
+immediately proceed to Greece in this vessel. I might have done so at
+an earlier period of my life, before I had proved by experience that
+advice is thrown away upon persons in the situation and circumstances
+in which the Greek rulers and their people are unfortunately placed.
+Having made up my mind on this subject, I must entreat you to let me
+know by the earliest possible means what I am to expect in regard to
+the steamships. I see by the 'Globe' of the 2nd of last month that the
+holders of Greek stock were to have a meeting. I conclude they came
+to some resolution, and this resolution I want to know. I wish I could
+give them my eyes to see with—they would then pursue a course which
+would secure their interests. This, however, is impossible; therefore
+they must, like the Greeks, be left to follow their own notions.
+I have, however, no objections to your stating to these gentlemen,
+either publicly or privately, that I pledge my reputation to free
+Greece if they will, by the smallest additional sacrifice that may be
+required, put the stipulated force at my disposal."[A]
+
+[Footnote A: This letter, like some others of this nature, is partly
+written in cypher, the key to which is lost. Its concluding sentences,
+therefore, are not given.]
+
+At Marseilles, Lord Cochrane received information, disheartening
+enough, though more encouraging than was justified by the real state
+of affairs, with reference to his intended fleet. On the 14th of
+October he wrote to explain his position, as he himself understood it,
+to the Greek Government. "By the most fortunate accident," he said, "I
+have met Mr. Hobhouse here, who, from his correspondence with Messrs.
+Ricardo and others in London, enables me to state to you that the two
+large steamboats will be completed on the 28th day of this month, and
+that they will proceed on the following day for the _rendezvous_ which
+I had assigned to them previous to my departure. You may, therefore,
+count on their being in Greece about the 14th of next month. The
+American frigate is said to be completed and on her way, and I feel a
+confident hope that I shall be able here to add a very efficient ship
+of war to the before-mentioned vessels.[A] It is probable," he added,
+"that many idle reports will be circulated here and through the public
+prints, because, under existing circumstances, I find it necessary to
+appear now as a person travelling about for private amusement. I can
+assure you, however, that the hundred and sixty days which I have
+already spent in this small vessel, without ever having my foot on
+shore till the day before yesterday, has been a sacrifice which I
+should not have made for any other cause than that in which I
+am engaged; but I considered it essential to conceal the real
+insignificance of my situation and allow rumours to circulate of
+squadrons collecting in various parts, judging that the effect would
+be to embarrass the operations of the enemy."
+
+[Footnote A: It should here be explained that the building and fitting
+out of the two frigates contracted for in New York, at a cost of
+150,000£, having been assigned to persons whose mismanagement was
+as scandalous as that which perplexed the Greek cause in London, one
+of them had been sold, and with the proceeds and some other funds the
+other had been completed and fitted out, more than 200,000£ having
+been spent upon her. She reached Greece at the end of 1826, there to
+be known as the _Hellas_.]
+
+That concealment had to be maintained, and the wearisome delays
+continued, for three months more. All the promises of Mr. Galloway and
+all the efforts, real or pretended, of the Greek deputies in London,
+were vain. The completion of the steam-vessels was retarded on all
+sorts of pretexts, and when each little portion of the work was said
+to be done, it was found to be so badly executed that it had to be
+cancelled and the whole thing done afresh. In this way all the residue
+of the loan of 1825 was exhausted, and all for worse than nothing.
+
+Lord Cochrane would never have been able to proceed to Greece at all,
+had the Greek deputies, Orlando and Luriottis, who had contracted for
+his employment, been his only supporters. Fortunately, however, he had
+other and worthier coadjutors. The Greek Committee in Paris did
+much on his behalf, and yet more was done by the Philhellenes of
+Switzerland, with Chevalier Eynard at their head, of whom one zealous
+member, Dr. L.A. Gosse, of Geneva, "well-informed, very zealous, full
+of genuine enthusiasm for the cause of humanity, and an excellent
+physician," as M. Eynard described him, was about to go in person
+to Greece, as administrator of the funds collected by the Swiss
+Committee. Lord Cochrane's disconsolate arrival at Marseilles, and the
+miserable failure of the plans for his enterprise, had not been known
+to M. Eynard and his friends a week, before they set themselves to
+remedy the mischief as far as lay in their power. As a first and
+chief movement they proposed to buy a French corvette, then lying
+in Marseilles Harbour, and fit her out as a stout auxiliary to Lord
+Cochrane's little force expected from London and New York. Lord
+Cochrane, being consulted on the scheme, eagerly acceded to it in a
+letter written on the 25th of October. "As I have yet no certainty,"
+he said, "that the person employed to fit the machinery of the
+steam-vessels will now perform his task better than he has heretofore
+done, I recommend purchasing the corvette, provided that she can be
+purchased for the sum of 200,000 francs, and, if funds are wanting, I
+personally am willing to advance enough to provision the corvette,
+and am ready to proceed in that or any fit vessel. But I am quite
+resolved, without a moral certainty of something following me, not
+to ruin and disgrace the cause by presenting myself in Greece in a
+schooner of two carronades of the smallest calibre."
+
+The corvette was bought and equipped; but in this several weeks
+were employed. In the interval, for a week or two after the 8th of
+December, Lord Cochrane went to Geneva, there to be the guest of
+Chevalier Eynard, to be introduced to Dr. Gosse, and to become
+personally acquainted with many other Philhellenes.
+
+Neither Lord Cochrane nor his friends could quite abandon hope of the
+ultimate completion of the London steam-vessels. They felt, too,
+that with nothing but the new vessel, the American frigate, and the
+_Perseverance_, Lord Cochrane would have very poor provision for his
+undertaking. "I have this moment received a letter from his lordship,"
+wrote M. Eynard to Mr. Hobhouse on the 12th of January, 1827, "wherein
+he appears rather disappointed with respect to the scantiness of the
+forces and the means placed at his disposal. He informs me that he has
+no officers, few sailors; and that, in case the steamers should
+not arrive, he will not feel qualified to encounter the Turkish and
+Egyptian naval forces, as well as the Algerines, who of all are the
+best manned. 'I therefore shall not be able to undertake anything
+of moment,' continues his lordship. 'Thus to stake my character and
+existence would be a mere Quixotic act. I will put to sea, however,
+but still with a heavy heart; yet not until I have with me all
+requisites, and my stores and ammunition be embarked likewise.'
+Discouragement appears throughout his lordship's letter."
+
+The discouragement is not to be wondered at. It is hardly necessary,
+however, to give further illustration of it, or of the troubles
+incident to this long waiting-time. Enough has been said to show Lord
+Cochrane's position in relation to this deplorable state of affairs,
+and to exonerate him from all blame in the matter. That he should have
+been blamed at all is only part of the wanton injustice that attended
+him nearly all through his life. He had consented, in the autumn
+of 1825, to enter the service of the Greeks, on the distinct
+understanding that six English-built steamships should be placed at
+his disposal, and to facilitate the arrangements he did and bore
+far more than could have been expected of him. For the delays and
+disasters that befel those arrangements he was in no way responsible:
+he was only thereby a very great sufferer. But his sufferings would
+have been greater, and he would have been really at fault, had he
+consented to go to Greece without any sort of provision, as a few
+rash friends and many eager enemies desired him to do, and afterwards
+blamed him for not doing.
+
+As it was, he greatly increased his difficulties by at last proceeding
+to Greece with the miserable equipment provided for him. In his little
+schooner, the _Unicorn_, he left Marseilles on the 14th of February,
+1827, and proceeded to St. Tropezy, where the French corvette, the
+_Sauveur_, was being fitted out under the direction of Captain Thomas,
+a brave and energetic officer. Thence he set sail, with the two
+vessels, on the 23rd of February. He reached Poros, and entered
+upon his service in Greek waters, on the 19th of March. "He had been
+wandering about the Mediterranean in a fine English yacht, purchased
+for him out of the proceeds of the loan, in order to accelerate his
+arrival in Greece, ever since the month of June, 1826," says the
+ablest historian of the Greek Revolution.[A] The preceding paragraphs
+will show how much truth is contained in that sarcastic sentence.
+
+[Footnote A: Finlay, vol. ii., p. 137.]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI.
+
+
+THE PROGRESS OF AFFAIRS IN GREECE.—THE SIEGE OF MISSOLONGHI.—ITS
+FALL.—THE BAD GOVERNMENT AND MISMANAGEMENT OF THE GREEKS.—GENERAL
+PONSONBY'S ACCOUNT OF THEM.—THE EFFECT OF LORD COCHRANE'S PROMISED
+ASSISTANCE.—THE FEARS OF THE TURKS, AS SHOWN IN THEIR CORRESPONDENCE
+WITH MR. CANNING.—THE ARRIVAL OF CAPTAIN HASTINGS IN GREECE, WITH THE
+"KARTERIA."—HIS OPINION OF GREEK CAPTAINS AND SAILORS.—THE FRIGATE
+"HELLAS."—LETTERS TO LORD COCHRANE FROM ADMIRAL MIAOULIS AND THE
+GOVERNING COMMISSION OF GREECE.
+
+
+[1826-1827.]
+
+During the one-and-twenty weary months that elapsed between Lord
+Cochrane's acceptance of service in the Greek War of Independence and
+his actual participation in the work, the Revolution passed through a
+new and disastrous stage. In the summer of 1825, when the invitation
+was sent to him, the disorganisation of the Greeks and the superior
+strength of the Turks, and yet more of their Egyptian and Arabian
+allies under Ibrahim Pasha, were threatening to undo all that had been
+achieved in the previous years. One bold stand had begun to be made,
+in which, throughout nearly a whole year, the Greeks fought with
+unsurpassed heroism, and then the whole struggle for liberty fell into
+the lawless and disordered condition which already had prevailed in
+many districts, and which was then to become universal and to offer
+obstacles too great even for Lord Cochrane's genius to overcome in
+his efforts to revive genuine patriotism and to render thoroughly
+successful the cause that he had espoused.
+
+The last great stand was at Missolonghi. Built on the edge of a marshy
+plain, bounded on the north by the high hills of Zygos and protected
+on the south by shallow lagoons at the mouth of the Gulf of Lepanto,
+and chiefly tenanted by hardy fishermen, this town had been the first
+in Western Greece to take part in the Revolution. Here in June, 1821,
+nearly all the Moslem residents had been slaughtered, the wealthiest
+and most serviceable only being spared to become the slaves of their
+Christian masters. In the last two months of 1822 the Ottomans
+had made a desperate attempt to win back the stronghold; but its
+inhabitants, led by Mavrocordatos, who had lately come to join in the
+work of regeneration, had resolutely beaten off the invaders and taken
+revenge upon the few Turks still resident among them. "The wife of one
+of the Turkish inhabitants of Missolonghi," said an English visitor
+in 1824, "imploring my pity, begged me to allow her to remain under
+my roof, in order to shelter her from the brutality and cruelty of the
+Greeks. They had murdered all her relations. A little girl, nine years
+old, remained to be the only companion of her misery."[A] Missolonghi
+continued to be one of the chief strongholds of independence in
+continental Greece; and, the revolutionists being forced into it by
+the Turks, who scoured the districts north and east of it in 1824 and
+1825, it became in the latter year the main object of attack and the
+scene of most desperate resistance. Here were concentrated the chief
+energies of the Greek warriors and of their Moslem antagonists, and
+here was exhibited the last and most heroic effort of the patriots,
+unaided by foreign champions of note, in their long and hard-fought
+battle for freedom.
+
+[Footnote A: Millingen, "Memoirs on the Affairs of Greece," p. 99.]
+
+Reshid Pasha, the ablest of the Turkish generals, having advanced into
+the neighbourhood of Missolonghi towards the end of April, began to
+besiege it in good earnest, at the head of an army of some seven
+or eight thousand picked followers, on the 7th of May. While he was
+forming his entrenchments and erecting his batteries, the townsmen,
+augmented by a number of fierce Suliots and others, were strengthening
+their defences. They increased their ramparts, and organised a
+garrison of four thousand soldiers and armed peasants, with a thousand
+citizens and boatmen as auxiliaries. At first the tide of fortune was
+with them. The Turks had to defend themselves as best they could from
+numerous sorties, well-planned and well-executed, in May and June; and
+fresh courage came to the Greeks with the intelligence that Admiral
+Miaoulis was on his way to the port, with as powerful a fleet as he
+could muster. While he was being expected, however, on the 10th of
+July, the Turkish Capitan Pasha of Greece arrived with fifty-five
+vessels. Miaoulis, with forty Greek sail, made his appearance on the
+2nd of August. Thus the naval and military forces of both sides were
+brought into formidable opposition.
+
+At first the Greeks triumphed on the sea. In the night of the 3rd of
+August, Miaoulis, finding that Missolonghi was being greatly troubled
+by the blockade established by the Turks, cleverly placed himself to
+windward of the enemy's line, and at daybreak on the 4th he dispersed
+the squadron nearest the shore. At noon the whole Turkish force came
+against him. He met them bravely, but being able to do no more
+than hold his own by the ordinary method of warfare, he sent three
+fireships against them in the afternoon. The Turks did not wait to be
+injured by them. They fled at once, going all the way to Alexandria
+in search of safety. Miaoulis then lost no time in seconding his first
+exploit by another. A detachment of the army of Eastern Greece, under
+the brave generals Karaïskakes and Zavellas, having been sent to
+harass Reshid Pasha's operations, the admiral assisted them in a
+successful piece of strategy. The Turks were, on the 6th of August,
+attacked simultaneously by the ships and by the outlying battalion
+of Greeks, while fifteen hundred of the garrison rushed out upon the
+invaders. Four Turkish batteries were seized, and a great number of
+their defenders were killed and captured; the remainder, after tough
+fighting during three hours and a half, being driven so far back that
+much of the besieging work had to be done over again.
+
+Miaoulis then went in search of the Ottoman fleet, leaving the
+townsmen, who were enabled, by the raising of the blockade, to receive
+fresh supplies of food, ammunition, and men, to continue their
+defence with a good heart. Reshid Pasha vigorously restored his siege
+operations, but, attempting to force his way into the town on the 21st
+of September, was again seriously repulsed. The Turks were allowed,
+and even tempted, to advance to a point which had been skilfully
+undermined by the besieged. The mine was then fired, and a great
+number of Moslems were blown into the air, while their comrades,
+fleeing in disorder, were further injured by a storm of shot from the
+ramparts. A similar device was resorted to, with like success, on the
+13th of October. Reshid had to retire to a safe distance and
+there build winter quarters for his diminished and starving army.
+Karaïskakes and Zavellas entered Missolonghi without hindrance, there
+to concert measures which, had they been promptly adopted, might have
+utterly destroyed the besieging force.
+
+They delayed their plans too long. The Capitan Pasha having in August
+fled in a cowardly way to Alexandria, there effected a junction with
+the Egyptians, and returned to the neighbourhood of Missolonghi in
+the middle of November with a huge fleet of a hundred and thirty-five
+vessels, well supplied with troops and provisions. These he landed at
+Patras on the 18th, just in time to be free from any annoyance that
+might have been occasioned by Miaoulis, who returned to Missolonghi
+on the 28th with a fleet of only thirty-three sail. He had vainly
+attacked a part of the Moslem force on its way, and now, after landing
+some stores at Missolonghi, made several vain attempts to overcome a
+force four times as strong as his own. He soon retired, intending to
+return as promptly as he could collect a large fleet and bring with
+him further supplies of the provisions of which the Missolonghites
+were beginning to be in need.
+
+The need was greater even than he imagined. Not only had the Capitan
+Pasha brought temporary assistance, in men and food, to the besieging
+force. Yet greater assistance soon came in the shape of an Egyptian
+army, led by Ibrahim Pasha himself. An overwhelming power was
+thus organized during the last weeks of 1825, and the defenders of
+Missolonghi were left to succumb to it, almost unaided. Their previous
+successes had induced the Greeks of other districts to believe that
+they could continue their defence alone, and almost the only relief
+obtained by them was from the Zantiots, who had all along been zealous
+in the despatch of money and provisions, and from Miaoulis and the
+small fleet and equipment that he was able to collect from the islands
+of the Archipelago. Miaoulis returned in January, 1826, and did much
+injury to the Turkish and Egyptian vessels. But he could offer no
+hindrance to the action of the Turks and Egyptians upon land. The
+rainy months of December and January, in which no important attack
+could be entered upon, were spent by Ibrahim and his companions in
+preparation for future work. The invaders were now well provided
+with every requisite. The besieged were in want of nearly everything.
+"Invested for ten months," says the contemporary historian,
+"frequently on the verge of starvation, thinned by fatigue, watching,
+and wounds, they had already buried fifteen hundred soldiers. The
+town was in ruins, and they lived amongst the mire and water of their
+ditches, exposed to the inclemency of a rigorous season, without shoes
+and in tattered clothing. As far as their vision stretched over the
+waves they beheld only Turkish flags. The plain was studded with
+Mussulman tents and standards; and the gradual appearance of new
+batteries more skilfully disposed, the field days of the Arabs, and
+the noise of saws and hammers, gave fearful warning. Yet these gallant
+Acarnanians, Etolians, and Epirots never flinched for an instant."[A]
+
+[Footnote A: Gordon, vol. ii., p. 253.]
+
+On the 13th of January, Ibrahim Pasha sent to say that he was willing
+to treat with them for an honourable surrender if they would convey
+their terms by deputies who could speak Albanian, Turkish, and French.
+"We are illiterate, and do not understand so many languages," was
+their blunt reply; "pashas we do not recognize; but we know how to
+handle the sword and gun."[A]
+
+[Footnote A: Ibid.]
+
+Sword and gun were handled with desperate prowess during February and
+March and the early part of April. In April, offers of capitulation
+were renewed by Ibrahim, and more disinterested attempts to avert
+the worst calamity were made by Sir Frederick Adam, the Lord High
+Commissioner of the Ionian Islands. Both proposals were stoutly
+rejected. The Missolonghiotes declared that they would defend their
+town to the last, and trust only in God and in their own strong arms.
+But on the 1st of April the last scanty distribution of public rations
+was exhausted. For three weeks the inhabitants subsisted upon nothing
+but cats, rats, hides, seaweed, and whatever other refuse and vermin
+they could collect. At length, on the 22nd of April, finding it
+impossible to hold out for a day longer, they resolved to evacuate the
+town in a body, and, cutting their way through the enemy, to try to
+join Karaïskakes and his small force, who, hiding among the mountain
+fastnesses, were vainly seeking for some way of assisting them, and to
+whom they now despatched a message, asking them to advance and help to
+clear a passage for their flight.
+
+After sunset four bridges of planks were secretly laid over the outer
+ditch of Missolonghi, and the inhabitants were ordered to prepare to
+leave in two hours. Many—about two thousand—lost heart at last; some
+betaking themselves to the powder stores, there, when all hope was
+over, to end their lives by easier death than the enemy might allow
+them; others, crouching in corners of their homesteads, deeming it
+better to be murdered there than in the open country. The rest obeyed
+the orders of the generals. All the women dressed themselves as men,
+with swords or daggers at their waists. Every child who could hold a
+weapon had one placed in his hand. There was bitter leave-taking, and
+desperate words of encouragement passed from one to another, as the
+patriots were marshalled in the order of their departure;—three
+thousand fighting men to open a passage and four thousand women and
+children to follow;—the whole being divided into three separate
+parties. At length all was ready, and the first party silently passed
+out of the town and advanced to the bridges. To their amazement,
+they no sooner appeared than they were met by volley after volley of
+Turkish fire. A traitor had revealed their plan, and every measure had
+been taken for their destruction. Some rushed on in despite; others
+hurried back, to fall into confusion, which it was hard indeed to
+overcome. They felt, however, that this deadly chance was their only
+chance of life, and they pressed on through the fire, and the swords
+of their foes, and by the sheer heroism of despair forced a passage
+to the mountains. Karaiskakes's aid—apparently through no fault of
+his—was only obtained when the worst dangers had been surmounted or
+succumbed to. Of the nine thousand persons who were in Missolonghi on
+the day of the evacuation, four thousand were killed in the town or on
+the way out of it. Only thirteen hundred men and two hundred women and
+children lived to reach Salona after more than a week of wandering and
+hiding among the mountains.
+
+The long siege of Missolonghi illustrates all the best and some of
+the worst features of the Greek Revolution. In it there was patriotism
+worthy, in its bursts of splendour, of the nation that claimed descent
+from the heroes of Plataea and Thermopylae. But the patriotism was
+often fitful in its working, and oftener wholly wanting. The Greeks
+could not shake off the pernicious influences that sprang, almost
+necessarily, from their long centuries of thraldom. Heroism was
+closely linked with treachery and meanness. The worthiest and most
+disinterested energy was intimately associated with ignorance as to
+the right methods of action, and with wilful action in wrong ways. The
+elements of weakness that had been apparent from the first were more
+and more developed as the painful struggle reached its termination.
+It seems as if, in spite of Reshid Pasha and Ibrahim and their
+fierce armies, it would have been easy for Missolonghi and its
+brave defenders to have been saved. But rival ambitions and
+paltry jealousies divided the leaders of the Revolution. They were
+quarrelling while the power that each one coveted for himself was,
+step by step, being wrested from them all; and when they tried to do
+well their want of discipline often rendered their efforts of small
+avail. No adequate attempt was made to relieve Missolonghi by land,
+and the brave conduct of Miaoulis on the sea was almost neutralized
+by the disorganization of his crews and the selfish policy of the
+islanders who sent him out.
+
+"With respect to the Greek army," wrote General Ponsonby to the Duke
+of Wellington, from Corfu, on the 15th of June, "it is, generally
+speaking, a mob; and a chief can only calculate upon keeping it
+together as long as he has provisions to give it or the prospect of
+plunder without danger. There is nothing to oppose the Egyptian
+army but a mob kept together by the small sums sent by the different
+committees in foreign countries. The Greeks have a great horror of
+the bayonet, which, however, they have never seen near, except at
+Missolonghi. The Suliots, who chiefly formed the garrison of that
+place, are fine men, and certainly fought with great courage. Much
+has been said of naval actions, but there is no truth in any of the
+accounts. The Greeks are better sailors than the Turks, but no action
+has been fought since the beginning of the war, if it is understood by
+action that there is risk and loss on both sides. The Greeks, however,
+have done wonders with their fleet. They have destroyed many large
+ships, and, in the month of February last, with twenty-three brigs,
+they out-manoeuvred the Turkish fleet of sixty sail, and threw
+provisions into Missolonghi. This, though done by seamanship, and not
+fighting, was called a great battle and a great victory. I was
+within two miles of the fleets, and the cannonade for six hours was
+tremendous; but when I spoke to Miaoulis the following morning he told
+me he had not lost a man in his fleet."[A]
+
+[Footnote A: "Despatches of the Duke of Wellington," vol. iii., p.
+338.]
+
+During the summer and winter following the fall of Missolonghi a
+series of small disasters, the aggregate of which was by no means
+small, befel the Greeks. It was the opinion of all parties, and
+admitted even by jealous rivals, that the tottering cause of
+independence was only sustained by the constant and eager expectation
+of the arrival of the powerful fleet which was supposed to be on its
+way to the Archipelago, under the able leadership of Lord Cochrane,
+the world-famous champion of Chilian and Brazilian freedom.
+
+His approach was hardly more a cause of hope to the Greeks than a
+subject of fear to the Turks. No sooner was it publicly known that he
+had espoused the cause of the insurgents than angry complaints were
+made by the Turkish Government to the British ministry, and Mr.
+Canning, then Foreign Secretary, had more than once to avow that the
+authorities in England knew nothing of his movements, and had done all
+that the law rendered possible to restrain him. He had also to promise
+that everything legal should be done to keep him in check on his
+arrival in Greek waters. "We have heard," he wrote in August to his
+cousin, Mr. Stratford Canning, afterwards Lord Stratford de Redcliffe,
+the ambassador at Constantinople, "that Lord Cochrane is gone to
+the Mediterranean; whether it be really so, we know not." He then
+proceeded to define the bearing of English and international law
+in the existing circumstances. "Lord Cochrane may enter the Greek
+service, and continue therein. He may even, as a Greek commander,
+institute (as he did in Brazil) blockades which British officers will
+respect, and exercise the belligerent rights of search on British
+merchant-ships, without exposing himself to any other penalty than
+that which the law will inflict upon him if ever hereafter he shall
+again bring himself within its reach, and be duly convicted of the
+offence for the punishment of which that law was enacted. If, indeed,
+he should do any of such things without a commission he would become a
+pirate, and liable to the summary justice to which, without reference
+to the municipal laws of his country, he would, as an enemy of the
+human race, be liable; and liable just as much from the officers of
+any other country as of his own."[A]
+
+[Footnote A: "Despatches of the Duke of Wellington," vol. iii., pp.
+357, 358.]
+
+While that correspondence was going on, Lord Cochrane, as we have
+seen, was battling with a long series of delays, as irksome to himself
+as they were unfortunate to the Greeks. It was not till the 14th of
+September, about eight months after the time fixed for the arrival of
+his whole fleet, that the first instalment of it, the _Perseverance_,
+which he had sent on as soon as it was completed, with Captain Abney
+Hastings as its commander, entered the harbour of Nauplia. On the 26th
+of October, Captain Hastings wrote a letter, giving curious evidence
+of the estimate formed by him of the Greek character. It was left
+at Nauplia and addressed to "the commander of the first American
+or English vessel that arrives in Greece to join the Greeks." "An
+apprenticeship in Greece tolerably long," he wrote, "has taught me the
+risks to which anybody newly arrived, and possessed of some place and
+power, is exposed. They know me, and they also know that I know them;
+yet they have not ceased, and never will cease, intriguing to get this
+vessel out of my hands and into their own, which would be
+tantamount to ruining her. Knowing all this, I take the liberty
+of leaving this letter, to be delivered to the first officer
+that arrives in Greece in the command of a vessel, to caution
+him not to receive on board his vessel any Greek captain. They
+will endeavour, under various pretences, to introduce themselves on
+board, and when once they have got a footing, they will gradually
+encroach until they feel themselves strong enough to turn out the
+original commander. The presence of such men can only be attended with
+inconvenience, for, if you are obliged to take a certain number of
+Greek sailors, these captains will render subordination among them
+impossible by their own irregularity and bad example. If you want
+seamen, take some from Hydra, Spetzas, Kranidi, or Poros. The Psarians
+may be trusted in very small numbers. Take a few men from one, a few
+from another island, and thus you will be best enabled to establish
+some kind of discipline. Take a good number of marines. Choose them
+from the peasantry and foreign Greeks, and you may make something of
+them. You must see, sir, that, in this my advice to the first officer
+arriving in command of a vessel, I can have no interest any further
+than inasmuch as I wish well to the Greek cause, and therefore do not
+wish to see a force that can be of great service rendered ineffective
+by falling into the hands of people totally incapable and unwilling to
+adopt a single right measure. In Greece there cannot be any military
+operations except such as are carried on by foreigners in their
+service."
+
+That letter was written after Captain Hastings had endured a month's
+annoyance from the trouble brought upon him by the Hydriot officers
+and seamen who tried to oust him from the command of his fine vessel,
+whose name was now changed from the _Perseverance_ to the _Karteria_.
+Unfortunately, his letter, left at Nauplia, did not reach the captain
+of the next reinforcement, the American frigate, which arrived at
+Egina on the 8th of December. "She was one of the finest ships in the
+world," we are told, "carrying sixty-four guns—long 32-pounders on
+the main, and 42-pound carronades on the upper deck—and was filled
+with flour, ammunition, medicines, and marine stores for eighteen
+months' consumption. The Greeks contemplated her with delight, but,
+upon the departure of the American officers and seamen who navigated
+her out, they discovered that she would be more embarrassing than
+useful to them. To manage vessels of such a size was beyond their
+capacity, and the mutual jealousy of the islanders suggested to the
+Government the absurd notion of putting the frigate into commission,
+Hydra, Spetzas, and the Psarian community being desired to send quotas
+of men. This plan was now found to be impracticable. Repeated fights
+occurred on board. The ship was twice in danger of being wrecked at
+Egina, and at Poros she actually drifted ashore, luckily on soft mud.
+She was finally given up to Miaoulis, with a Hydriot crew of his own
+selection."[A]
+
+[Footnote A: Gordon, vol. ii., p. 326.]
+
+This frigate, christened the _Hellas_, came too late to be of much
+service to Admiral Miaoulis, before the arrival of Lord Cochrane. In
+the previous summer and autumn, however, he had been harassing and
+keeping at bay the Turkish and Egyptian fleets—work in which Hastings
+was in time to assist him.
+
+Andreas Miaoulis, one of the least obtrusive, was almost the worthiest
+of all the Greek patriots. During five years he had never ceased to do
+the best that it was possible for him to do with the bad materials
+at his disposal. When the Greek Revolution was at its height, he
+had contributed largely to its success; and in the ensuing years
+of disaster upon land, he had maintained its dignity on the sea by
+offering bold resistance to the great naval power of the combined
+Turkish and Egyptian fleets. No better proof of his patriotism could
+be given than in the zeal with which he surrendered to Lord Cochrane
+the leadership of the fleet which had devolved upon him for so long
+and been so ably conducted by him. "I received four days ago," he
+wrote from Poros on the 23rd of February, 1827, "your amiable
+letter of the 19th of last month, and my great satisfaction at the
+announcement of your approaching arrival in Greece is joined with a
+special pleasure at the honour you do me in associating me with your
+important operations. I shall be happy, my admiral, if, in serving
+you, I can do my duty. I await you with impatience."
+
+Just a month before that, on the 23rd of January, a like letter
+of congratulation was addressed to Lord Cochrane from Egina by the
+Governing Commission of Greece. "The intelligence of your speedy
+coming to Greece," they said, "has awakened the liveliest joy and
+satisfaction, and has already begun to rekindle in the hearts of
+the Greeks that enthusiasm which is the most powerful weapon and the
+surest support of a nation that has devoted itself to the recovery of
+its most sacred rights. The Government of Greece is waiting with
+the utmost impatience for the most zealous defender of the nation's
+liberty. It hopes to see you in its midst as soon as possible after
+your arrival at Hydra, and then to make you acquainted with the actual
+state of Greece, and to furnish you with all the means in its power
+for the achievement of the grand results proposed by your lordship."
+The letter was signed by Andreas Zaimes, as President of
+the Commission, and by seven of its members, among whom were
+Mavromichales, or Petro-Bey, who, with Zaimes and two others,
+represented the Morea, Spiridion Trikoupes, the deputy for Roumelia,
+Zamados from Hydra, Monarchides from Psara, and Demetrakopoulos from
+the islands of the Egean Sea.
+
+By the same body was issued, on the 21st of February, a preliminary
+commission, intended to protect him in case of any opposition being
+raised to his progress by the authorities of other nations. "The
+Governing Commission of Greece," it was written, "makes known that
+Admiral Lord Cochrane is recognised as being in the service of Greece,
+and accordingly has the permission of the Government to hoist the
+Greek flag on all the vessels that are under his command. He has
+power, also, to fight the enemies of Greece to the utmost of his
+power. Therefore the officers of neutral powers, being informed of
+this, are implored, not only to offer no opposition to his movements,
+but also, if necessary, to supply him with any assistance he may
+require, seeing that it is our custom to do the same to all friendly
+nations." Armed with this document, and provided with the necessary
+means by the Philhellenes of England, France, and Switzerland, Lord
+Cochrane proceeded from Marseilles to Greece.
+
+
+
+
+APPENDIX.
+
+
+I.
+
+(Page 22.)
+
+The following "Resumé of the Services of the late Earl of Dundonald,
+none of which have been Requited or Officially Recognized," was
+written by his son, one of the authors of the present work, and
+printed for private circulation in 1861.
+
+1. The destruction of three heavily-armed French corvettes, near the
+mouth of the Garonne, the crew of Lord Cochrane's frigate, _Pallas_,
+being at the time, with the exception of forty men, engaged in cutting
+out the _Tapageuse_, lying under the protection of two batteries
+thirty miles up the river, in which operation they were also
+successful, four ships of war being thus captured or destroyed in a
+single day. For these services Lord Cochrane obtained nothing but
+his share of the _Tapageuse_, sold by auction for a trifling sum,
+the Government refusing to purchase her as a ship of war, though of
+admirable build and construction. Contrary to the usual rule, no ship
+ever taken by Lord Cochrane, throughout his whole career, was ever
+allowed to be bought into the navy. For the corvettes, which Lord
+Cochrane destroyed with so small a crew, he never received reward or
+thanks, the alleged reason being, that, having become wrecks, they
+were not in existence, and therefore could not have value attached
+to them. This decision of the Admiralty was contrary to custom, as
+admitted to the present day. In the late Russian war a gunboat of the
+enemy having been driven on shore and wrecked, compensation is said to
+have been awarded to the officers and crew of the British vessel
+which drove her on shore. The importance of wrecking a gunboat, in
+comparison with the destruction of three fast-sailing ships, which
+were picking up our merchantmen, in all directions, needs no comment.
+
+2. Lord Cochrane's services on the coast of Catalonia, of which Lord
+Collingwood, then commander-in-chief in the Mediterranean, testified
+of his lordship to the Admiralty that by his energy and foresight
+he had, with a single frigate, stopped a French army from occupying
+Eastern Spain. The services by which this was effected were as
+follows:—Preventing the reinforcement of the French garrison in
+Barcelona, by harassing the newly-arrived troops in their march along
+the coast, and organising and assisting the Spanish militia to oppose
+their progress, Lord Cochrane himself capturing one of their forts on
+shore, and taking the garrison prisoners.
+
+On the approach of a powerful French _corps d'armée_ towards
+Barcelona, Lord Cochrane blew up the roads along the coast, and taught
+the Spanish peasantry how to do so inland. By blowing up the cliff
+roads, near Mongat, Lord Cochrane interposed an insurmountable
+obstacle between the army and its artillery, capturing and throwing
+into the sea a considerable number of field-pieces, so that the
+operations of the French were rendered nugatory. For these services,
+Lord Cochrane, notwithstanding the strong representations of Lord
+Collingwood to the Board of Admiralty, neither received thanks nor
+reward of any kind; notwithstanding that whilst so engaged, and that
+voluntarily, in successfully accomplishing the work of an army, he
+patriotically gave up all chances of prize money, though easily to be
+obtained by cruising after the enemy's vessels. In place of this, he
+neither searched for nor captured a single prize, whilst engaged
+in harassing the French army on shore, devoting his whole energies
+towards the enterprise which he considered most conducive to the
+interests of his country.
+
+3. Having effected his object, Lord Cochrane sailed for the Gulf
+of Lyons, with the intention of cutting off the enemy's shore
+communications. This he accomplished by destroying their signal
+stations, telegraphs, and shore batteries along nearly the whole
+coast, navigating his frigate with perfect safety throughout this
+proverbially perilous part of the Mediterranean. In order further
+to paralyse the enemy's movements, Lord Cochrane made a practice
+of burning paper near the demolished stations, so as to deceive the
+French into the belief that he had burned their signal books; he
+rightly judging that from this circumstance they might not deem it
+necessary to alter their code of signals. The ruse succeeded, and,
+transmitting the signal books to Lord Collingwood, then watching the
+enemy's preparations in Toulon, the commander-in-chief was thus
+fully apprised, by the enemy's signals, not only of all their naval
+movements, but also of the position and movements of all British
+ships of war on the French coast. Lord Cochrane's single frigate
+thus performed the work of many vessels of observation, and Lord
+Collingwood testified of him to the Admiralty that "his resources
+seemed to have no end." Notwithstanding this testimony from his
+commander-in-chief, Lord Cochrane neither received reward nor thanks
+for the service rendered.
+
+4. On his return to the Spanish coast, Lord Cochrane found the French
+besieging Rosas, the Spaniards maintaining possession of the citadel,
+whilst Fort Trinidad had just been evacuated by the British officer
+who had been co-operating with the Spaniards in the larger fortress.
+Lord Cochrane, believing that if Fort Trinidad were held till
+reinforcements arrived, the French must be compelled to raise the
+siege of Rosas, persuaded the Spanish Governor not to surrender, as he
+was about to do, on its evacuation by the British officer aforesaid,
+and threw himself into the fort with a detachment from the seamen
+and marines of the _Impérieuse_, with which frigate he maintained
+uninterrupted communication, in spite of the enemy, who, on
+ascertaining it to be Lord Cochrane who was keeping them at bay,
+redoubled their efforts to capture the fort, the gallant defence of
+which is amongst the most remarkable events of naval warfare. Lord
+Cochrane held Fort Trinidad till, the Spaniards surrendering the
+citadel, he would not allow his men to run further risk in their
+behalf, and withdrew the seamen and marines in safety. For this
+remarkable exploit Lord Cochrane, though himself severely wounded,
+neither received reward nor thanks, except from Lord Collingwood,
+who again, without effect, warmly applauded his gallantry to the
+Admiralty.
+
+5. Immediately on his arrival at Plymouth, on leave of absence in
+consequence of ill health from his extraordinary exertions, Lord
+Cochrane was immediately summoned by the Admiralty to Whitehall,
+and asked for a plan whereby the French fleet in Basque Roads, then
+threatening our West India possessions, might be destroyed at one
+blow; this extraordinary request from a junior captain, after the most
+experienced officers in the navy had pronounced its impracticability,
+forcibly proving the very high opinion entertained by the Admiralty
+of Lord Cochrane's skill and resources. He gave in a plan, and was
+ordered to execute it, which order he reluctantly obeyed, having done
+all in his power to decline an invidious command, for fear of arousing
+the jealousy of officers to whom he was junior in the service. What
+followed is matter of history, and needs not to be recapitulated.
+Yet for the destruction of that powerful armament he neither received
+reward nor thanks from the Admiralty, though rewarded by his sovereign
+with the highest order of the Bath, a distinction which marked his
+Majesty's sense of the important service rendered.
+
+Nine years afterwards head money was awarded to the whole fleet,
+of which only the vessels directed by Lord Cochrane and a few sent
+afterwards, when too late for effective measures, took part in the
+action. The alleged reason of this award was that the _Calcutta_, one
+of the ships driven ashore by Lord Cochrane, did not surrender to him,
+but to ships sent to his assistance. This was not true, though after
+protracted deliberation so ruled by the Admiralty Court, and officers
+now living and present in the action have recently come forward to
+testify to the ship being in Lord Cochrane's possession before the
+arrival of the ships which subsequently came to his assistance. A
+small sum was therefore only awarded to him as a junior captain, in
+common with those who had been spectators only, and this he declined
+to receive. Such was his recompense for a service to the high merit of
+which Napoleon himself afterwards testified in the warmest manner; and
+it may be mentioned as a further testimony that a French Court Martial
+shot Captain Lafont, the commander of the _Calcutta_, because he
+surrendered to a vessel of inferior power, viz., Lord Cochrane's
+frigate, the _Impérieuse_ of forty-four guns, the _Calcutta_ carrying
+sixty guns.[A]
+
+[Footnote A: Captain Lafont was shot on board the _Ocean_, on
+September 9, 1809, _for surrendering the Calcutta to a ship of
+inferior force_, thus proving that she surrendered to Lord Cochrane
+alone, though Sir William Scott ruled in opposition to the facts
+adopted by the French Court Martial, which condemned Captain Lafont
+to death for the act. The surrender to Lord Cochrane alone is further
+proved by the additional fact, that the captains of the _Ville de
+Varsovie_ and _Aquilon_, which _did_ surrender to the other ships in
+conjunction with Lord Cochrane's frigate, were not even accused, much
+less punished for so doing.]
+
+The exploits of Lord Cochrane in the _Speedy_ and _Pallas_ are too
+well known in naval history to require recapitulation, and of these
+it may be said that the numerous prizes captured by these vessels
+constituted their own reward. It may here be mentioned in confirmation
+of what has previously been said, that the _Gamo_, a magnificent
+xebeque frigate of thirty-two guns, was not allowed to be bought into
+the navy, but was sold for a small sum to one of the piratical Barbary
+States, notwithstanding that Lord Cochrane had said that if he
+were allowed to have her in place of the _Speedy_, then in a very
+dilapidated condition, he would sweep the Mediterranean of the enemy's
+cruisers and privateers. His capacity so to do may be judged from what
+he effected with the _Speedy_, mounting only fourteen 4-pounders.
+
+With regard to the services previously enumerated, the case is
+different, notwithstanding their national importance in comparison
+with his minor acts, which may be classed as brilliant exploits only.
+But that no reward should have been conferred for doing effectively
+the work of an army, and that without the cost of a shilling to the
+nation beyond the ordinary expenditure of a small frigate, necessary
+to be disbursed whether she performed any effective service or not,
+is a neglect which, unless repaired in the persons of his successors,
+will for ever remain a blot on the British Government. Still more so
+will the worse neglect of not having in any way rewarded him for the
+destruction of the French fleet in Basque Roads, for though only four
+ships were destroyed at the moment, the whole fleet of the enemy was
+so damaged by having been driven on shore from terror of the explosive
+vessel, fired with Lord Cochrane's own hand, that it eventually became
+a wreck; and thus our West India commerce, then the most important
+branch of national export and import, was in a month after Lord
+Cochrane's arrival from the Mediterranean relieved from the panic
+which paralysed it, and restored to its wonted security;—a service
+which can only be estimated by the gloom and panic which had
+previously pervaded the whole country.
+
+Were reference made to the pension list, and note taken of the
+pensions granted to other officers and their successors for services
+which in point of national importance do not admit of comparison with
+those of Lord Cochrane, the present generation would be surprised at
+the national ingratitude manifested towards one, who, in his great
+exploits, had so patriotically sacrificed every consideration
+of private interest to his country's service. His cruise in the
+_Impérieuse_, which has no parallel in naval history, procured for
+Lord Cochrane nothing whatever but shattered health from the
+incessant anxiety and exertion he had undergone in the profitless but
+high-minded course he adopted to thwart the French in their attempts
+to establish a permanent footing in Eastern Spain. His exploits in
+Basque Roads procured him nothing but absolute ruin; for, from his
+refusal as a Member of Parliament to acquiesce in a vote of thanks to
+Lord Gambier, even though the same thanks were promised to himself,
+may be dated that active political persecution which commenced by
+depriving him of further naval employment and did not cease till it
+had accomplished his utter ruin, even to striking his name out of the
+_Navy List_.
+
+The animosity of this political partisanship towards one who had
+effected so much for his country is an anomaly even in political
+history. That amended representation of the people in Parliament, for
+which he strove up to 1818, had only fourteen years afterwards become
+the law of the land, and the boast of some who had persecuted Lord
+Cochrane for no offence beyond having been amongst the first to give
+expression to the popular will subsequently adopted by themselves.
+
+The efforts of Lord Cochrane in favour of reforming the abuses of the
+Navy and of Greenwich Hospital, which at that time brought upon him
+the wrath of the Administration, are at this moment seriously engaging
+the attention of parliament, as being of paramount national necessity.
+The doctrine then openly laid down, that no naval officer in
+parliament had a right to interfere with naval administration, has
+long been abrogated, and many of the brightest ornaments of the navy
+are now amongst the foremost to denounce naval abuses in the House of
+Commons. It is, in fact, to them that the country now looks for
+that vigilance which shall preserve the navy in a proper state of
+efficiency. Yet for these very things was Lord Cochrane persecuted,
+though modern Governments, which have been liberal enough to acquiesce
+in popular reforms, of which he was the early advocate, have not been
+liberal enough to make him amends for the wrongs he suffered as one of
+the indefatigable originators of their now-cherished measures. Still
+less have they deemed it inconsistent with the honour of this great
+country to refrain from rewarding him in the ordinary manner for his
+most important services, rendered when others shrank from them, as was
+the case at Basque Roads, where his plans, declined by his seniors in
+the service, were successfully executed by himself under the greatest
+possible discouragement and disadvantage.
+
+But the injustice manifested towards the late Earl of Dundonald did
+not end here. Driven from the service of his own country, and without
+fortune, he was compelled by his necessities to embark in the service
+of foreign states. With his own hand, directed by his own genius,
+which had to supply the place of adequate naval force, he liberated
+Chili, Peru, and Brazil from thraldom, consolidating the rebellious
+provinces of the latter empire on so permanent a basis, that its
+internal peace has never again been disturbed. Yet not one of these
+states has to this day satisfied the stipulated and indisputable
+arrangements by which he was induced to espouse their cause; the
+reason of their breach of contract being distinctly traceable to the
+course pursued towards Lord Dundonald in England. Seeing that the
+British Government paid no attention to the yet more important claims
+he had upon its gratitude, the South American States believed that
+they might with impunity disregard their own stipulations, and the
+dictates of national honour; the chief of one of them having had the
+audacity to tell Lord Cochrane that he would find no sympathy in the
+British Government.
+
+Three of the most distinguished officers in the British service, Sir
+Thomas Hastings, Sir John Burgoyne, and Colonel Colquhoun, have felt
+it their duty, when officially reporting on the efficacy of Lord
+Dundonald's war plans, to give him the highest credit for having kept
+his secret "
+_under peculiarly trying circumstances_," and from
+pure love of his native country. The "trying circumstances" were
+these,—that he had been driven from the service of that country by
+the machinations of a political faction, which, in the conscientious
+performance of his parliamentary duties, he had offended. Even this
+injury, which blasted his whole life and prospects, did not detract
+one _iota_ from the love of country, which to the day of his death
+was with him a passion; his acute mind well knowing how to draw the
+distinction between his country and those who were sacrificing its
+best interests to their love of power, if not to less worthy purposes.
+Never was praise more honourably given, than in the Ordnance Report
+of the above-named distinguished officers, and never was it more nobly
+deserved.
+
+Another "peculiarly trying circumstance" alluded to by those officers,
+was that, when compelled by actual pecuniary necessity, in consequence
+of the deprivation of his rank and pay, and the demands of increasing
+family, to accept service under a foreign state as his only means of
+subsistence, he lay before the castles of Callao, into which had been
+removed for security the whole wealth of the rich capital of Peru,
+including bullion and plate, estimated at upwards of a million
+sterling, he preserved his war secret, though strongly urged to put
+it in execution. Had he listened to the temptation, in six hours
+the whole of that wealth must have been in his possession. For not
+listening to it, he incurred the enmity of his employers, who urged
+that they were entitled to all his professional skill and knowledge,
+as a part of his bargain with them; and his non-compliance with their
+wishes is doubtless amongst the chief reasons why they have not, to
+this day, satisfied their own offered stipulations for his services.
+Yet, at the very moment when he was displaying this self-sacrificing
+patriotism, lest his country might suffer from his secret being
+divulged, the Government of Great Britain had, at the suggestion of
+the Spanish Government, passed a "Foreign Enlistment Act," with the
+express intention of enveloping him in its meshes.[A]
+
+[Footnote A: On Lord Cochrane's return from Brazil, having occasion
+to go before the Attorney-General, on the subject of a patent, that
+learned functionary rudely asked him, "
+_Whether he was not afraid to
+appear in his presence?_ " Lord Cochrane's reply was, "
+_No, nor in
+the presence of any man living_." Evidence exists that the
+Attorney-General asked the Ministry if he should prosecute Lord
+Cochrane under the Foreign Enlistment Act, the reply being in the
+negative.]
+
+II.
+
+(Page 23.)
+
+As a striking instance of Lord Cochrane's method of exposing naval
+abuses, part of a speech delivered by him in the House of Commons, on
+the 11th of May, 1809, is here copied from his "Autobiography," vol.
+ii. pp. 142-144.
+
+An admiral, worn out in the service, is superannuated at
+410£. a year, a captain at 210£., a clerk of the ticket office
+retires on 700£. a year! The widow of Admiral Sir Andrew
+Mitchell has one third of the allowance given to the widow of
+a Commissioner of the Navy.
+
+I will give the House another instance. Four daughters of the
+gallant Captain Courtenay have 12£. 10s. each, the daughter of
+Admiral Sir Andrew Mitchell has 25£., two daughters of Admiral
+Epworth have 25l. each, the daughter of Admiral Keppel 24£.,
+the daughter of Captain Mann, who was killed in action, 25£.,
+four children of Admiral Moriarty 25£. each. That is—thirteen
+daughters of admirals and captains, several of whose fathers
+fell in the service of their country, receive from the
+gratitude of the nation a sum less than Dame Mary Saxton, the
+widow of a commissioner.
+
+The pension list is not formed on any comparative rank or
+merit, length of service, or other rational principle, but
+appears to me to be dependent on parliamentary influence
+alone. Lieutenant Ellison, who lost his arm, is allowed 91£.
+5s., Captain Johnstone, who lost his arm, has only 45£.
+12s. 6d., Lieutenant Arden, who lost his arm, has 9£.
+5s., Lieutenant Campbell, who lost his leg, 40£., and poor
+Lieutenant Chambers, who lost both his legs, has only 80£.,
+whilst Sir A.S. Hamond retires on 1500£. per annum. The brave
+Sir Samuel Hood, who lost his arm, has only 500£., whilst the
+late Secretary of the Admiralty retires, in full health, on a
+pension of 1500£. per annum.
+
+To speak less in detail, 32 flag officers, 22 captains, 50
+lieutenants, 180 masters, 36 surgeons, 23 pursers, 91 boatswains, 97
+gunners, 202 carpenters, and 41 cooks, in all 774 persons, cost the
+country 4028l. less than the nett proceeds of the sinecures of Lords
+Arden (20,358£), Camden (20,536£), and Buckingham (20,693£).
+
+All the superannuated admirals, captains, and lieutenants put
+together, have but 1012l. more than Earl Camden's sinecure alone! All
+that is paid to the wounded officers of the whole British navy, and
+to the wives and children of those dead or killed in action, do
+not amount by 214l. to as much as Lord Arden's sinecure alone, viz.
+20,358£. What is paid to the mutilated officers themselves is but half
+as much.
+
+Is this justice? Is this the treatment which the officers of the
+navy deserve at the hands of those who call themselves his Majesty's
+Government? Does the country know of this injustice? Will this too be
+defended? If I express myself with warmth I trust in the indulgence
+of the House. I cannot suppress my feelings. Should 31 commissioners,
+commissioners' wives, and clerks have 3899l. more amongst them than
+all the wounded officers of the navy of England?
+
+I find upon examination that the Wellesleys receive from the public
+34,729£, a sum equal to 426 pairs of lieutenants' legs, calculated at
+the rate of allowance of Lieutenant Chambers's legs. Calculating
+for the pension of Captain Johnstone's arm, viz. 45l., Lord Arden's
+sinecure is equal to the value of 1022 captains' arms. The Marquis
+of Buckingham's sinecure alone will maintain the whole ordinary
+establishment of the victualling department at Chatham, Dover,
+Gibraltar, Sheerness, Downs, Heligoland, Cork, Malta, Mediterranean,
+Cape of Good Hope, Rio de Janeiro, and leave 5460£ in the Treasury.
+Two of these comfortable sinecures would victual the officers and men
+serving in all the ships in ordinary in Great Britain, viz. 117 sail
+of the line, 105 frigates, 27 sloops, and 50 hulks. Three of them
+would maintain the dockyard establishments at Portsmouth and Plymouth.
+The addition of a few more would amount to as much as the whole
+ordinary establishments of the royal dockyards at Chatham, Woolwich,
+Deptford, and Sheerness; whilst the sinecures and offices executed
+wholly by deputy would more than maintain the ordinary establishment
+of all the royal dockyards in the kingdom.
+
+Even Mr. Ponsonby, who lately made so pathetic an appeal to the good
+sense of the people of England against those whom he was pleased to
+term demagogues, actually receives, for having been thirteen months in
+office, a sum equal to nine admirals who have spent their lives in
+the service of their country; three times as much as all the pensions
+given to all the daughters and children of all the admirals,
+captains, lieutenants, and other officers who have died in indigent
+circumstances, or who have been killed in the service.
+
+III.
+
+(Page 258.)
+
+The following letter, too long to be quoted in the body of the work,
+but too important to be omitted, was addressed by Lord Cochrane to
+the Brazilian Secretary of State. It gives memorable evidence of
+the treatment to which he was subjected by the Portuguese faction in
+Brazil.
+
+Rio de Janeiro, May 3rd, 1824.
+
+MOST EXCELLENT SIR,
+
+
+I have received the honour of your excellency's reply to my letter
+of the 30th of March, and as I am thereby taught that the subjects on
+which I wrote are not now considered so intimately connected with your
+excellency's department as they were by your immediate predecessor,
+nor even so far relevant as to justify a direct communication to your
+excellency, I should feel it my duty to avoid troubling you farther
+on those subjects, were it not that you at the same time have freely
+expressed such opinions with respect to my conduct and motives as
+justice to myself requires me to controvert and refute.
+
+With regard to your excellency's assurance that it has ever been
+the intention of his Imperial Majesty and Council to act favourably
+towards me, I can in return assure your excellency that I have never
+doubted the just and benign intention of his Imperial Majesty himself,
+neither have I doubted that a part of his Privy Council has thought
+well of my services; and if I have imagined that a majority has been
+prejudiced against me, I have formed that conclusion merely from the
+effects which I have seen and experienced, and not from any undue
+prepossession against particular individuals, whether Brazilian or
+Portuguese. But when your excellency adds that those transactions
+between the late minister and myself, which, owing to their having
+been conducted verbally, have been ill-understood, have invariably
+been decided in a manner favourable to me, I confess myself at a loss
+to understand your excellency's meaning, not having any recollection
+of such favourable decisions, and therefore not feeling myself
+competent either to admit or deny unless in the first place your
+excellency shall be pleased to descend to particulars. I do indeed
+recollect that the late ministers, professing to have the authority of
+his Imperial Majesty, and which, from the personal countenance I
+have experienced from that august personage, I am sure they did not
+clandestinely assume, proffered to me the command of the imperial
+squadron, with every privilege, emolument, and advantage which
+I possessed in the command of the navy of Chili; and this, your
+excellency is desired to observe, was not a verbal transaction, but
+a written one, and therefore not liable to any of those
+misunderstandings to which verbal transactions, as your excellency
+observes, are naturally subject. Now, in Chili my commission was that
+of commander-in-chief of the squadron, without limitation as to time
+or any other restriction. My command, of course, was only to cease by
+my own voluntary resignation, or by sentence of court-martial, or by
+death, or other uncontrollable event. And accordingly the appointment
+which I accepted in the service of his Imperial Majesty, and in virtue
+of which I sailed in command of the expedition to Bahia, was that of
+commander-in-chief of the whole squadron, without limitation as to
+time or otherwise; and this, too, your excellency will be pleased
+to observe, was not a verbal transaction, but a solemn engagement
+in writing, bearing date the 26th day of March, 1823, and now in my
+possession. I had also the assurance in writing of the Minister of
+Marine, that the formalities of engrossment and registration of
+such appointment were only deferred from want of time, and should be
+executed immediately after my return.
+
+And now I most respectfully put it home to your excellency whether
+these engagements have or have not been fully confirmed and complied
+with under the present administration. I ask your excellency whether
+the patent which I received, bearing date the 25th November, 1823,
+did not contain a clause of limitation by which I might at any time be
+dismissed from the service under any pretence or without any pretence
+whatever—without even the form of a hearing in my own defence. Then
+again I ask your excellency whether my office as commander-in-chief of
+the squadron was not reduced for a period of three months—as appears
+by every official communication of the Minister of Marine to me during
+that period—to the command only of the vessels of war anchored
+in this port?[A] and further on this subject I ask your excellency
+whether after my repeated remonstrances against this injurious
+limitation of my stipulated authority, it was not pretended by the
+decree published in the Gazette of the 28th February, that I was then
+for the first time, as a mark of special favour, elevated to the rank
+of commander-in-chief of the squadron, and that too during the period
+only of the existing war: although nothing less than the chief command
+had been offered to me at the first, without any restriction as to
+time, and although it was only in that capacity I had consented to
+enter into the service, and under a written appointment as such I had
+then been in the service nearly twelve months. And then I ask your
+excellency whether the limitation introduced into the patent of the
+25th of November last, in violation of the original agreement, and
+confirmed and defined by the decree published on the 28th of February
+following; to which may be added the communication which I received
+from your excellency, excluding me from taking the oath, and becoming
+a party to the constitution, the 149th article of which provides for
+the protection of officers until lawfully deprived by sentence of
+court-martial; I say that I respectfully ask your excellency whether
+these proceedings were not well adapted for the purpose of casting me
+off with the utmost facility at the earliest moment that convenience
+might dictate; either with or without the admission of those claims
+for the future to which past services are usually considered entitled,
+as might best suit the inclination of those with whom my dismissal
+might originate. And is it not most probable that their inclination
+would run counter to those claims, especially when it is considered
+that my letter of the 6th of March to the Minister of Marine, in which
+I made the inquiry whether my right to half-pay would be recognized
+on the termination of the war, has never been answered, although my
+application for a reply has been repeated?[B] If then the explicit
+engagements in writing between the late minister of his Imperial
+Majesty and myself have, as I have shown, been set aside by the
+present ministry and council, and other arrangements far less
+favourable to me, and destructive of the lawful security of my present
+and future rights, have without my consent been substituted in their
+stead, where, I entreat your excellency, am I to look for those
+favourable constructions of "ill-understood verbal transactions,"
+which your excellency requires me to accept as a proof that the
+intentions of the present ministry and council, in respect to me, have
+ever been of the most favourable and obliging nature?
+
+[Footnote A: This was resorted to, in order to prevent Lord Cochrane
+from stationing the cruisers to annoy the enemy, to deprive him of
+any interest in future captures, and prevent his opposition to the
+unlawful restoration of enemy's property.]
+
+[Footnote B: An answer was at last given, a few days before Lord
+Cochrane's assistance was called for to put down the revolution
+at Pernambuco; and _half_ of the originally-granted _half-pay_ was
+decreed when he should return, after the termination of hostilities,
+to his native country.]
+
+I would beg permission, too, to inquire how it happened that
+portarias[A] from the Minister of Marine, charging me unjustly from
+time to time with neglecting to obey the command of his Imperial
+Majesty, were constantly made public, while my answers in refutation
+were always suppressed. And why, when I remonstrated against this
+injustice, was I answered that the same course should be persisted
+in, and that I had no alternative but to acquiesce, or to descend to
+a newspaper controversy by publishing my exculpations myself? Is it
+possible not to perceive that the _ex parte_ publication of
+these accusatory portarias was intended to lower me in the public
+estimation, and to prepare the way for the exercise of that power of
+summary dismissal which was so unfairly acquired by the means above
+described?
+
+[Footnote A: Official communications.]
+
+On the subject of the prizes your excellency is pleased to state: "Les
+difficultés survenues dans le jugement des prizes ont eu des motifs si
+connus et positifs qu'il est assez doloureux de les voir attribuir à
+la mauvaise volonté du Conseil de S.M.I." To this I reply that I know
+of no just cause for the delay which has arisen in the decision of the
+prizes, and consequently I have a right to impute blame for that delay
+to those who have the power to cause it or remove it. If the majority
+of the voices in council had been for a prompt condemnation to the
+captors of the prizes taken from the Portuguese nation, is
+it possible that individuals of that nation would be suffered
+to continue to be the judges of those prizes after an experience
+of many months has demonstrated either their determination
+to do nothing, or nothing favourable to the captors? The
+repugnance of Portuguese judges to condemn property captured from
+their fellow-countrymen, as a reward to those who have engaged in
+hostilities against Portugal, is natural enough, and is the only
+well-known and positive cause of the delay with which I am acquainted;
+but it is not such a cause for delay as ought to have been permitted
+to operate by the ministers and council of his Imperial Majesty, who
+are bound in honour and duty to act with fidelity towards those who
+have been engaged as auxiliaries in the attainment and maintenance of
+the independence of the empire. I did, however, inform your excellency
+that I had heard it stated that another difficulty had arisen in the
+apprehension that this Government might be under the necessity of
+eventually restoring the prizes to the original Portuguese owners as
+a condition of peace. But this, your excellency assures me, proves
+nothing but that I am a listener to "rapporteurs," whom I ought
+to drive from my presence. Unfortunately, however, for this bold
+explanation of your excellency, the individual whom I heard make the
+observation was no other than his excellency the present Minister of
+Marine, Francisco Villala Barboza. If your excellency considers that
+gentleman in the light of a "rapporteur," or talebearer, it is not for
+me to object; but the imputation of being a listener to or encourager
+of talebearers, so rashly advanced by your excellency against me,
+is without foundation in truth. It may be necessary for ministers
+of state to have their eavesdroppers and informers, but mine is a
+straightforward course, which needs no such precautions. And if there
+be any who volunteer information or advice, I can appreciate the value
+of it, and the motives of those who offer it. Those who know me much
+better than your excellency does, will admit that I am in the habit of
+thinking for myself, and not apt to act on the suggestions of others,
+especially if officiously tendered.
+
+As to the successive appointment and removal of incompetent auditors
+of marine, for which your excellency gives credit to the council,
+I can only say that the benefit of such repeated changes is by no
+means apparent. And to revert again to the difficulty of decision, for
+which your excellency intimates there is sufficient cause, I beg leave
+to ask your excellency what just reason can exist for not condemning
+these prizes to the captors. Can it be denied that the orders
+under which I sailed for the blockade of Bahia authorized me to act
+hostilely against the ships and property of the crown and subjects of
+Portugal? Can it be denied that war was regularly declared between
+the two nations? Was it not even promulgated under the sanction of his
+Imperial Majesty in a document giving to privateers certain privileges
+which it is admitted were possessed by the ships of war in the making
+and sale of captures? And yet did not the Prize Tribunal (consisting
+chiefly, as I before observed, of Portuguese), on the return of the
+squadron, eight months afterwards, pretend to be ignorant whether his
+Imperial Majesty was at war or at peace with the kingdom of Portugal?
+And did they not under that pretence avoid proceeding to adjudication?
+Was not this pretence a false one, or is it one of those well-founded
+causes of difficulty to which your excellency alludes? Can it be
+denied that the squadron sailed and acted in the full expectation,
+grounded on the assurance and engagements of the Government, that all
+captures made under the flag of the enemy, whether ships of war or
+merchant vessels, were to be prize to the captors? and yet when
+the prize judges were at length under the necessity of commencing
+proceedings, did they not endeavour to set aside the claims of the
+captors by the monstrous pretence that they had no interest in their
+captures when made within the distance of two leagues from the shore?
+Will your excellency contend that this was a good and sufficient
+reason? Was it founded in common sense, or on any rational precedent,
+or indeed any precedent whatever? Was it either honest to the squadron
+or faithful to the country? Was it not calculated to prevent the
+squadron from ever again assailing an invading enemy, or again
+expelling him from the shores of the empire? Then, in the next place,
+did not these most extraordinary judges pretend that at least all
+vessels taken in ports and harbours should be condemned as droits to
+the crown, and not as prize to the captors? Was not this another most
+pernicious attempt to deprive the imperial squadron not only of its
+reward for the past but of any adequate motive for the risk of
+future enterprise? And in effect, were not these successive pretences
+calculated to operate as invitations to invasions? Did they not tend
+to encourage the enemy to resume his occupation of the port of Bahia,
+and generally to renew his aggressions against the independence of
+the empire on her shores and in her ports without the probability
+of resistance by the squadrons of his Imperial Majesty? And have not
+these same judges actually condemned almost every prize as a droit
+to the crown, thereby doing as much as in them lay to defraud the
+squadron and to damp its zeal and destroy its energies? Nay, have
+not the auditors of marine actually issued decrees pronouncing the
+captures made at Maranhão to have been illegal, alleging that they
+were seized under the Brazilian flag, although in truth the flag
+of the enemy was flying at the time both in the forts and ships;
+declaring me a violator of the law of nations and law of the land;
+accusing me of having been guilty of an insult to the Emperor and
+the empire, and decreeing costs and damages against me under these
+infamous pretences? Can your excellency perceive either justice or
+decency in these decrees? Do they in any degree breathe the spirit of
+gratitude for the union of so important a province to the empire, or
+are they at all in accordance with the distinguished approbation which
+his Imperial Majesty himself has evinced of my services at Maranhão?
+
+Can it be unknown to your excellency that the late ministers, acting
+doubtless under the sanction of his Imperial Majesty, and assuredly
+under the guidance of common sense, held out that the value of ships
+of war taken from the enemy was to be the reward of the enterprise of
+the captors? And yet are we not now told that a law exists decreeing
+all captured men-of-war to the crown, and so rendering the engagements
+of the late ministers illegal and nugatory? Can anything be more
+contrary to justice, to good faith, to common sense, or to sound
+policy? Was it ever expected by any government employing foreign
+seamen in a war in which they can have no personal rights at stake,
+that those seamen will incur the risk of attacking a superior, or even
+an equal, force, without prospect of other reward than their ordinary
+pay? Is it not notorious that even in England it is found essential,
+or at least highly advantageous, to reward the officers and seamen,
+though fighting their own battles, not only with the full value of
+captured vessels of war, but even with additional premiums; and was
+it ever doubted that such liberal policy has mainly contributed to the
+surpassing magnitude of the naval power of that little island, and her
+consequent greatness as a nation?
+
+Can your excellency deny that the delay, the neglect, and the conduct
+generally of the prize judges, have been the cause of an immense
+diminution in the value of the captures? Have not the consequences
+been a wanton and shameful waste of property by decay and plunder?
+Can your excellency really believe in the existence of a good and
+sufficient motive for consigning such property to destruction, rather
+than at once awarding it to the captors in recompense for their
+services to the empire? Is it not true that all control over the sales
+and cargoes of the vessels, most of which are without invoices, have
+been taken from the captors and their agents and placed in the hands
+of individuals over whom they have no authority or influence, and from
+whom they can have no security of receiving a just account? And can
+it be doubted that the gracious intentions of his Imperial Majesty, as
+announced by himself, of rewarding the captors with the value of
+the prizes, are in the utmost danger of being defeated by such
+proceedings?
+
+Since the 12th day of February, when his Imperial Majesty was
+graciously pleased to signify his pleasure in his own handwriting that
+the prizes, though condemned to the crown, should be paid for to
+the captors, and that valuators should be appointed to estimate the
+amount, is it not true that nothing whatever, up to the date of my
+former letter to your excellency, had been done by his ministers
+and council in furtherance of such his gracious intentions? On the
+contrary, is it not notorious that, since the announcement of the
+imperial intention, numerous vessels and cargoes have been arbitrarily
+disposed of by authority of the auditors of marine, by being delivered
+to pretended owners and others without legal adjudication, and even
+without the decency of acquainting the captors or their agents that
+the property had been so transferred? And has not the whole cost
+of litigation, watching and guarding the vessels and cargoes, been
+entirely at the expense of the captors, notwithstanding the disposal
+of the property and the receipt of the proceeds by the agents of
+Government and others?
+
+So little hope of justice has been presented by the proceedings of the
+Prize Tribunal, that it has appeared quite useless to label the stores
+found in the naval and military arsenals of Maranhão, or the 66,000
+dollars in the chests of the Treasury and Custom House, with double
+that sum in bills, all of which was left for the use of the province,
+or permitted to be disbursed to satisfy the clamorous troops of Ceara
+and Pianhy. Has any remuneration been offered to the navy for these
+sacrifices, of which ministers were duly informed by my official
+despatches? or has any recompense been awarded for the Portuguese brig
+and schooner of war, both completely stored and equipped, which were
+surrendered at Maranhão, and which have ever since been employed in
+the naval service? To a proportion of all this I should have been
+entitled in Chili, as well as in the English service; and why, I ask,
+must I here be contented to be deprived of every hope of these the
+fruits of my labours? In addition to the prize vessels delivered to
+claimants without trial, have not the ministers appropriated others
+_to the uses of the state without valuation or recompense_?[A]
+
+[Footnote A: This conduct was afterwards more flagrantly exemplified
+on the arrival of the new and noble prize frigate _Imperatrice_, the
+equipment whereof had cost the captors 12,000 milreas, which sum has
+never been returned.]
+
+In short, is it not true that though more than a year has elapsed
+since the sailing of the imperial squadron under my command, and
+nearly half a year since its return, after succeeding in expelling the
+naval and military forces of the enemy from Bahia, and liberating the
+northern provinces, and uniting them to the empire; I say is it not
+true that not one shilling of prize money has yet been distributed
+to the squadron, and that no prospect is even now apparent of any
+distribution being speedily made? Is it not true that the only
+substantial reward of the officers and seamen of the squadron for the
+important services they have rendered has hitherto been nothing
+more than their mere pittance of ordinary pay; and even that in
+many instances vexatiously delayed and miserably curtailed? And with
+respect to myself individually, is it not notorious that I necessarily
+consume my whole pay in my current expenses; that my official rank
+cannot be upheld with less, and that it is wholly inadequate to the
+due support of the dignity of those high honours which his Imperial
+Majesty has been graciously pleased to confer?
+
+Under all these circumstances, it is in vain that I endeavour to
+make that discovery which your excellency assures me requires only
+a moment's reflection: "Au reste" (your excellency says), "que V'e.
+Ex'ce. réfléchisse un moment, celle trouverá que le Gouvernement de
+S.M.I. simplement et uniquement pour faire plaisir à V'e. Ex'ce. á
+s'est attiré une enormé responsabilité dans les engagemens pris
+avec V'e. Ex'ce." It is not one moment only nor one hour that I have
+reflected on these words, but without making the promised discovery,
+or any probable guess at your excellency's meaning. I would therefore
+entreat your excellency to tell me what it is that the Government
+has engaged to do. All that I know is they have engaged to pay me a
+certain sum per annum as commander-in-chief of the squadron; and this
+engagement, I admit, they have so far fulfilled. But the amount is
+little more than is received by the commander-in-chief of an English
+squadron; and is it not found in that service, and in every regular
+or established naval service, that for one officer qualified for any
+considerable command there are probably ten that are not qualified;
+though all have necessarily been reared and paid at the national
+expense? Whereas, in this case, so far from your having been at the
+expense of money in order to procure a few that are effective, you
+obtained at once, without any previous cost whatever, the services
+of myself and the officers that accompanied me, all of whom were
+experienced and efficient. Now, the united amount of the salaries you
+are engaged to pay to myself and the officers whom I brought with
+me does not exceed 25,000 dollars a year. To speak of this as an
+"enormous responsibility" as an empire, requires more than a "moment's
+reflection" to be clearly understood. The Government did, however,
+engage to pay to myself and my brother officers and seamen the value
+of our captures from the enemy, pursuant to the practice of all
+maritime belligerents, but this engagement has not hitherto been
+fulfilled. If, however, your excellency admits the responsibility of
+the Government to fulfil this engagement also, I am still equally at
+a loss to conceive in what sense that responsibility can be considered
+enormous, inasmuch as these prizes were not the property of the state,
+nor of individuals belonging to this nation, but were the property of
+Portugal, with whom this nation was and is engaged in lawful war.
+The payment, therefore, of the value of these prizes to the captors,
+supposing even the full value to be paid, does not in effect take
+one penny out of the national treasury, or out of the pocket of any
+Brazilian. If it be false—and your excellency appears to scout the
+idea—that any danger exists of having to pay twice for these prizes;
+if there really is no danger of being compelled to purchase peace
+with a defeated enemy by restoring them their forfeited property—it
+follows that the responsibility of the Government in fulfilling its
+engagement with the captors is so far from being enormous, that it is
+literally nothing. How the fulfilment of a lawful engagement by the
+simple act of paying over to the squadron the value of its prizes
+taken in time of war from the foreign enemies of the state (such
+payment occasioning no expense, and no loss to the state itself) can
+be attended with an enormous responsibility, I am utterly unable to
+comprehend. So far as the engagements of the Government with me,
+or with the captors in general of the Portuguese prizes, are of
+a pecuniary nature, they appear to me to lay no great weight of
+responsibility on the herculean shoulders of this vast empire. And it
+is only in a pecuniary sense that I can conceive it to be possible for
+your excellency to have thought of complaining of the responsibility
+attending the fulfilment of the engagements of the Government with me.
+
+It is no less difficult to comprehend how this supposed enormous
+responsibility has been incurred, "simplement et uniquement pour faire
+plaisir" to me; and it is still more difficult to comprehend how it
+happens that your excellency, "after all that you have heard and seen"
+(après ce que j'ai entendu et vu), should be at a loss to know in what
+manner I am to be contented (je ne saurais pas dequelle maniére on
+puisse vous contenter). If, indeed, your excellency imagines that I
+ought to be contented with honorary distinctions alone, however highly
+I may prize them as the free gift of his Imperial Majesty; if
+your excellency is of opinion that I ought with "remercimens et
+satisfaction" to put up with those honours in lieu of those stipulated
+substantial rewards, which even those very honours render more
+necessary; if your excellency thinks that I ought, like the dog in the
+fable, to resign the substance for a grasp at the shadow; if this is
+all that your excellency knows on the subject of giving me content, it
+is then very true that your excellency does not know in what manner it
+is to be done. But if, "after all that your excellency has heard and
+seen," you would be pleased to render yourself conversant with those
+written engagements under which I was induced to enter into the
+service, all that your excellency and the rest of the ministers and
+council of his Imperial Majesty would then have to do in order
+to content me to the full, would be to desist from evading the
+performance of those engagements, and to cause them at once to
+be fully and honourably fulfilled. And I do believe that my
+"Correspondance Officielle une fais rendue publique, en faira foi;"
+for I am not conscious that I have ever called on the Government to
+incur one farthing of expense on my account beyond the fulfilment of
+their written engagements, which were the same as those which I had
+with Chili, which were formed precisely on the practice of England.
+There was, indeed, a verbal and conditional engagement with the late
+ministers that certain losses which I might incur in consequence of
+leaving the service of Chili should be made good;[A] and the question
+as to the obligation of fulfilling that engagement I submitted (in
+my letter of the 6th of March to the Minister of Marine) to the
+consideration of their successors. It will be fortunate for me if this
+should prove to be one of those "ill-understood verbal transactions"
+which your excellency assures me the present ministers and council
+always decide in my favour. I shall not in that case be backward to
+receive the benefit of the decision with "thanks and satisfaction;"
+but I am willing to resign it rather than it should add an
+overwhelming weight to that "enormous responsibility" which your
+excellency complains has already been incurred with a view to
+my contentment. I repeat that I have never asked for more than I
+possessed in Chili, or than any officer of the same rank is entitled
+to in England; though British officers have heretofore received in the
+service of Portugal double the amount of their English pay; and though
+the burning climate of Brazil is injurious to health, while those
+of Chili and Portugal are salubrious. Your excellency, therefore, is
+perfectly welcome to publish the whole of my official correspondence,
+because instead of proving, as your excellency asserts, the great
+difficulty of contenting me, it would go far to prove the much greater
+difficulty of inducing those with whom I have to do to take any one
+step for that purpose.
+
+[Footnote A: As the Brazilian Government had obtained possession of a
+new corvette, named the _Maria de Gloria_, which cost the Government
+of Chili 90,000 dollars, without reimbursing to that State one single
+farthing; and by the said act had deprived Lord Cochrane of the
+benefit he would have derived, as commander-in-chief, from the
+services of that ship in the Pacific, the non-fulfilment of this
+engagement seems the more unjust.]
+
+I confess, however, that in order to content me effectually it is
+necessary to fulfil not only all written engagements with myself
+individually, but generally with all the officers and seamen with
+whom, while I hold the command, I consider myself identified; and the
+more particularly because, in my own firm reliance on the good faith
+of the Government, I did in some sort become responsible for that good
+faith to my brother officers and seamen. But with whom, I put it to
+your excellency, has good faith been kept? Is it not notorious that
+previous to the departure of the expedition to Bahia, declarations
+were made to the seamen in writing by the late Minister of Marine,
+through my medium, and in printed proclamations, that their dues
+should be paid with all possible regularity, and all their arrears
+discharged immediately on their return? And is not your excellency
+aware that specific contracts were entered into by the accredited
+agent of his Imperial Majesty in England, with a number of officers
+and seamen, who, in consequence, were induced to quit their native
+country and enter into the employ of his Imperial Majesty? Can it be
+denied that these declarations and contracts, written and printed,
+were known to, and are actually in the possession of the ministers, or
+in the hands of the officers of the pay department, and yet is it not
+true that they were neglected to be fulfilled for a period of upwards
+of three months after the return of the _Pedro Primiero_ ; and was
+not the tardy fulfilment which at length took place procured by my
+incessant representations and remonstrances?
+
+Permit me also to ask whether the good effects of prompt payment
+were not illustrated on the arrival of the frigates _Nitherohy_ and
+_Caroline_, which happened just at the period I had succeeded in
+procuring payment to be made. Was it not in consequence of immediate
+payment that the greater part of the English crew of the _Nitherohy_ remained quietly on board, and are now actually engaged on an
+important service to his Imperial Majesty? And, on the other hand, is
+it not equally true that the English seamen of the _Pedro Primiero_ were so disheartened and disgusted with the long delay which in their
+case had occurred, and the manifest bad faith which had been evinced,
+that by far the greater part of them actually abandoned the ship?
+And generally, is it not true that the violations of promise, the
+obstructions of justice, and the arbitrary acts of severity, have
+produced dissatisfaction and irritation in the minds of the officers
+and seamen, and done infinite prejudice to the service of his Imperial
+Majesty and to the interests and prospects of the empire?
+
+Can it be denied that the treatment to which the officers are exposed
+is in the highest degree cruel and unjust? Have they not in many
+instances been confined in a fortress or prison-ship without being
+told who is their accuser or what is the accusation? And are they not
+kept for many months at a time in that cruel state of suspense
+and restraint without the means or opportunity of justification or
+defence? Have not some of them while incarcerated in the fortress of
+the Island of Cobras been deprived of their pay for a great length of
+time, and even denied the provisions necessary for their subsistence?
+And if, after all, they are brought to trial, are not their judges
+composed of the natives of a nation with whom they are at war? Is it
+possible that English, or other foreign officers in the service,
+can be satisfied with such a system? Can your excellency entertain a
+doubt, that open accusation, prompt trial, unsuspected justice, and
+speedy punishment, if merited, are essential to the good government of
+a naval service? Nay, is it possible that your excellency should not
+know that the system of government in the naval service of Portugal is
+the most wretched in the world, and consequently the last that ought
+to have been adopted for the naval service of Brazil?
+
+And here I would respectfully ask your excellency whether you know of
+any one thing recommended by me for the benefit of the naval service
+being complied with? Have the laws been revised to adapt them to the
+better government of the service? Has a corps of marine artillery
+been formed and taught their duty? Have young gentlemen intended for
+officers been sent on board to learn their profession? Have young men
+been enlisted and sent on board to be bred up as seamen? Or has
+any encouragement been given to the employment of Brazilians in the
+commerce of the coast?[A]
+
+[Footnote A: It was the policy of Portugal to navigate the
+coasting-trade of Brazil by slaves; and that of Spain to allow none
+but Indians to exercise the trade of fishermen on the shores of their
+South American colonies.]
+
+With regard to those difficulties, delays, and other impediments of
+which I have complained as existing in the arsenal and other offices,
+and which your excellency supposes me to have represented as being
+caused, or at least tolerated, by the minister, and which you are
+pleased to characterise as "tout a fait imaginaires, et n'ayant
+d'outré source que l'ambition sordide de quelque intrigant," I shall
+not now enter into them again at any length, as much that I have
+already written tends to refute your excellency's notions on the
+subject. That such abuses do really exist I have proved beyond the
+power of contradiction; and that they are at least tolerated by
+those—whoever they may be—who possess without exercising the means
+of preventing, does not require the ingenuity of an "intrigant" to
+discover, as the fact is self-evident. I cannot, therefore, admit that
+either my complaints or suspicions are "tout a fait imaginaires,"
+or that they are "des petitesses," as your excellency is pleased
+contemptuously to term them; but whatever they are, they originate in
+my own observation, without any assistance from the spectacles of
+an "intrigant," with which I am so gratuitously accommodated by your
+excellency.
+
+In still further proof, however, of the real existence of the evils
+in question, I may just observe that since the return of the _Pedro
+Primiero_, that ship has been kept in constant disorder by the delay
+in commencing and the idle and negligent mode of executing even the
+trifling alterations in the channels, which were necessary to enable
+the rigging to be set up, and which, after the lapse of upwards of
+five months, is now scarcely finished, though it might have been
+accomplished in forty-eight hours. Even the time of caulking was
+spun out to a period nearly as long as was occupied last year in the
+accomplishment of that thorough repair which the ship then underwent;
+and the painting is far from being completed after sixteen or eighteen
+days' labour, though a British ship of war is usually painted in a
+day. Even my own cabin is in such a state that when I am on board
+I have no place to sit down in. All these things may appear to your
+excellency as "des petitesses," or even "tout a fait imaginaires,"
+but to me they appear matters of a serious nature, injurious and
+disgraceful to the service.
+
+I may not, perhaps, succeed in convincing your excellency, but I have
+the satisfaction of being inwardly conscious that, independent of my
+natural desire to obtain justice for myself and for all the officers
+and men of the squadron, no small part of my anxiety for the
+fulfilment of the engagements of the Government proceeds from a desire
+to see the navy of his Imperial Majesty rendered efficient; which it
+can never be unless the same good faith is observed with the officers
+and men as is kept between the Government and navy of England, and
+unless indeed many other important considerations are attended to,
+which appear to have hitherto escaped the regard of the Imperial
+Government. Why, for instance, is there that indifference in regard
+to the clothing of the men? What but discontent, debasement, and
+enervation, can be the effects of that ragged and almost naked
+condition in which they have so long been suffered to remain,
+notwithstanding the numerous applications that have been made for the
+necessary clothing? I would also inquire the reason that officers and
+men, strangers to each other, and destitute of attachment and mutual
+confidence, are hastily shipped together in vessels of war going on
+active service, when better arrangements might easily be made. What
+can be expected from the vessels of war just gone out, in case they
+should meet with any serious opposition, but disgrace to those by whom
+they were so imperfectly and improperly equipped?
+
+If this communication were not already too long, or if, after the
+letter I have received from your excellency, it were possible for me
+to continue my representations in the hope of redress, I could add to
+the list of those causes of complaint which I have already pointed out
+many particulars which none but those who are blindly attached to that
+wretched system which has been so injurious to the marine and kingdom
+of Portugal could consider either trifling or imaginary. But as my
+present object has been chiefly to repel those imputations in which
+your excellency has so freely indulged, and believing that I have
+fully succeeded in that object, and have shown clearly that your
+excellency has unjustly and untruly accused me of encouraging
+talebearers, making unfounded complaints, and of being of a nature so
+avaricious as never to be satisfied—which latter, by-the-by, is
+an extraordinary accusation to prefer against me—a man whom your
+excellency must know has not hitherto been benefited, after being
+more than a year in the service, to the amount of one shilling for the
+important services he has rendered, but who, on the contrary, as
+he can show by his accounts, has necessarily expended more in his
+official situation than he has received in the service; so that the
+"remercimens" and the "satisfaction," which your excellency accuses
+him of being deficient in, can scarcely yet be due, unless it is
+proper to be satisfied and grateful too for less than nothing—having,
+I say, fully repelled and refuted these unjust accusations, I shall
+avoid troubling your excellency with any further detail. But I repeat
+that your excellency has my free consent to cause the whole of my
+official correspondence to be published; for in all that I have
+advanced with respect to the violations of contracts, and on the
+subject of the unsatisfied claims of the squadron, and relative to
+the ill-usage of officers under arrest, and to the misconduct of the
+judges of prizes, and of those who have the management of the civil
+department of the marine,[A] and in all matters whatever in question
+between the Government of Brazil and myself, I am confident I may
+safely rely on the decision of the public. And if, at the same time,
+your excellency can give a satisfactory explanation of the motives of
+that line of conduct on the part of the ministers and council, which,
+without such explanation, would have the appearance of originating in
+bad faith, the publication would be doubly beneficial by placing the
+conduct and character of all parties in a proper point of view.
+
+[Footnote A: Also Portuguese.]
+
+    I have the honour to be, Most excellent sir, Your respectful
+    and most obedient Servant, COCHRANE AND MARANHAM.
+
+    His Excellency, João Sereriano Maciele da Costa, Secretary of
+    State for the Home Department, &c., &c., &c.
+
+END OF VOL. I.
+
+
+LONDON: PRINTED BY WILLIAM CLOWES AND SONS, STAMFORD STREET AND CHARING CROSS.
+
+*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 13351 ***
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+<title>The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Life of Thomas, Lord Cochrane, Tenth
+Earl of Dundonald, G.C.B., Admiral of the Red, Rear-Admiral of the Fleet, Etc.,
+Etc., by Thomas Cochrane, Earl of Dundonald</title>
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+<div>*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 13351 ***</div>
+
+<h1>THE LIFE OF<br />
+THOMAS, LORD COCHRANE, TENTH EARL OF DUNDONALD, G.C.B.,</h1>
+
+<h5>ADMIRAL OF THE RED, REAR-ADMIRAL OF THE FLEET, ETC., ETC.,</h5>
+
+<h5>COMPLETING "THE AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF A SEAMAN."</h5>
+
+<h2 class="no-break">by THOMAS, ELEVENTH EARL OF DUNDONALD,<br />
+AND H.R. FOX BOURNE,<br />
+AUTHOR OF "ENGLISH SEAMEN UNDER THE TUDORS," ETC. ETC.</h2>
+
+<h4>IN TWO VOLUMES. VOL. I.</h4>
+
+<p class="center">
+Published 1869.
+</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<p class="center">
+TO MISS ANGELA BURDETT COUTTS,<br />
+WHOSE HONOURED FATHER<br />
+WAS THE FIRMEST AND MOST CONSTANT FRIEND AND SUPPORTER<br />
+OF MY FATHER,<br />
+DURING A CAREER DEVOTED TO THE WELFARE OF HIS COUNTRY<br />
+AND THE HONOUR OF HIS PROFESSION,<br />
+AND WHOM IT IS MY HAPPINESS AND PRIVILEGE TO CALL MY FRIEND,<br />
+THIS WORK IS DEDICATED,<br />
+WITH ALL RESPECT AND REGARD,<br />
+BY
+HER ATTACHED AND FAITHFUL SERVANT,
+</p>
+
+<p class="center">
+DUNDONALD.
+</p>
+
+<div class="chapter">
+
+<h2>PREFACE.</h2>
+
+<p>
+In these Volumes is recounted the public life of my late father from
+the period to which the narrative was brought down by himself in his
+unfinished "Autobiography of a Seaman." The completion of that work
+was prevented by his death, which occurred almost immediately after
+the publication of the Second Volume, eight years and a half ago.
+I had hoped to supplement it sooner; but in this hope I have been
+thwarted.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+My father's papers were, at the time of his death, in the hands of
+a gentleman who had assisted him in the preparation of his
+"Autobiography," and to this gentleman was entrusted the completion
+of the work. Illness and other occupations, however, interfered, and,
+after a lapse of about two years, he died, leaving the papers, of
+which no use had been made by him, to fall into the possession of
+others. Only after long delay and considerable trouble and expense was
+I able to recover them and realize my long-cherished purpose.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Further delay in the publication of this book has arisen from my
+having been compelled, as my father's executor, to make three long and
+laborious journeys to Brazil, which have engrossed much time.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+At length, however, I find myself able to pay the debt which I
+owe both to my father's memory and to the public, by whom the
+"Autobiography of a Seaman" was read with so much interest. At the
+beginning of last year I placed all the necessary documents in the
+hands of my friend, Mr. H.R. Fox Bourne, asking him to handle them
+with the same zeal of research and impartiality of judgment which he
+has shown in his already published works. I have also furnished
+him with my own reminiscences of so much of my father's life as was
+personally known to me; and he has availed himself of all the help
+that could be obtained from other sources of information, both private
+and public. He has written the book to the best of his ability, and I
+have done my utmost to help him in making it as complete and accurate
+as possible. We hope that the late Earl of Dundonald's life and
+character have been all the better delineated in that the work has
+grown out of the personal knowledge of his son and the unbiassed
+judgment of a stranger.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+A long time having elapsed since the publication of the "Autobiography
+of a Seaman," it has been thought well to give a brief recapitulation
+of its story in an opening chapter.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The four following chapters recount my father's history during the
+five years following the cruel Stock Exchange trial, the subject last
+treated of in the "Autobiography." It is not strange that the
+harsh treatment to which he was subjected should have led him into
+opposition, in which there was some violence, which he afterwards
+condemned, against the Government of the day. But, if there were
+circumstances to be regretted in this portion of his career, it shows
+almost more plainly than any other with what strength of philanthropy
+he sought to aid the poor and the oppressed.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+His occupations as Chief Admiral, first of Chili and afterwards
+of Brazil, were described by himself in two volumes, entitled, "A
+Narrative of Services in Chili, Peru, and Brazil." Therefore, the
+seven chapters of the present work which describe these episodes
+have been made as concise as possible. Only the most memorable
+circumstances have been dwelt upon, and the details introduced have
+been drawn to some extent from documents not included in the volumes
+referred to.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+There was no reason for abridgment in treating of my father's
+connection with Greece. In the service of that country he was less
+able to achieve beneficial results than in Chili and Brazil; but
+as, on that ground, he has been frequently traduced by critics and
+historians, it seemed especially important to show how his successes
+were greater than these critics and historians have represented, and
+how his failures sprang from the faults of others and from misfortunes
+by which he was the chief sufferer. The documents left by him,
+moreover, afford abundant material for illustrating an eventful period
+in modern history. The chapters referring to Greece and Greek affairs,
+accordingly, enter with especial fullness into the circumstances
+of Lord Dundonald's life at this time, and his connection with
+contemporary politics.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Eight other chapters recount all that was of most public interest in
+the thirty years of my father's life after his return from Greece.
+Except during a brief period of active service in his profession,
+when he had command of the British squadron in North American and West
+Indian waters, those thirty years were chiefly spent in efforts&mdash;by
+scientific research, by mechanical experiment, and by persevering
+argument&mdash;to increase the naval power of his country, and in efforts
+no less zealous to secure for himself that full reversal of the
+wrongful sentence passed upon him in a former generation, which
+could only be attained by public restitution of the official rank and
+national honours of which he had been deprived.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+This restitution was begun by his Majesty King William IV., and
+completed by our present most gracious Queen and the Prince Consort.
+By the kindnesses which he received from these illustrious persons,
+my father's later years were cheered; and I can never cease to be
+profoundly grateful to my Sovereign, and her revered husband, for the
+personal interest with which they listened to my prayer immediately
+after his death. Through their gracious influence, the same banner of
+the Bath that had been taken from him nearly fifty years before, was
+restored to its place in Westminster Abbey, and allowed to float
+over his remains at their time of burial. Thus the last stain upon my
+father's memory was wiped out.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+DUNDONALD. London, May 24th, 1869.
+</p>
+
+<h3>CONTENTS OF THE FIRST VOLUME.</h3>
+
+<hr />
+
+<p class="center">
+<a href="#chap01">CHAPTER I.</a>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+[1775-1814.]
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Introduction.&mdash;Lord Cochrane's Ancestry.&mdash;His First Occupations in
+the Navy.&mdash;His Cruise in the <i>Speedy</i> and Capture of the <i>Gamo</i>.&mdash;His
+Exploits in the <i>Pallas</i>.&mdash;The beginning of his Parliamentary
+Life.&mdash;His two Elections as Member for Honiton.&mdash;His Election for
+Westminster.&mdash;Further Seamanship.&mdash;The Basque Roads Affair.&mdash;The
+Court-Martial on Lord Gambier, and its injurious effects on Lord
+Cochrane's Naval Career.&mdash;His Parliamentary Occupations.&mdash;His Visit to
+Malta and its Issues.&mdash;The Antecedents and Consequences of the Stock
+Exchange Trial - 1
+</p>
+
+<p class="center">
+<a href="#chap02">CHAPTER II.</a>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+[1814.]
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The Issue of the Stock Exchange Trial.&mdash;Lord Cochrane's Committal to
+the King's Bench Prison.&mdash;The Debate upon his Case in the House of
+Commons, and his Speech on that Occasion.&mdash;His Expulsion from the
+House, and Re-election as Member for Westminster.&mdash;The Withdrawal of
+his Sentence to the Pillory.&mdash;The Removal of his Insignia as a Knight
+of the Bath - 35
+</p>
+
+<p class="center">
+<a href="#chap03">CHAPTER III.</a>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+[1814-1815.]
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Lord Cochrane's Bearing in the King's Bench Prison.&mdash;His Street
+Lamps.&mdash;His Escape, and the Motives for it.&mdash;His Capture in the House
+of Commons, and subsequent Treatment.&mdash;His Confinement in the Strong
+Room of the King's Bench Prison.&mdash;His Release - 48
+</p>
+
+<p class="center">
+<a href="#chap04">CHAPTER IV.</a>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+[1815-1816.]
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Lord Cochrane's Return to the House of Commons.&mdash;His Share in the
+Refusal of the Duke of Cumberland's Marriage Pension.&mdash;His Charges
+against Lord Ellenborough, and their Rejection by the House.&mdash;His
+Popularity.&mdash;The Part taken by him in Public Meetings for the Relief
+of the People.&mdash;The London Tavern Meeting.&mdash;His further Prosecution,
+Trial at Guildford, and subsequent Imprisonment.&mdash;The Payment of his
+Fines by a Penny Subscription.&mdash;The Congratulations of his Westminster
+Constituents - 74
+</p>
+
+<p class="center">
+<a href="#chap05">CHAPTER V.</a>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+[1817-1818.]
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The State of Politics in England in 1817 and 1818, and Lord Cochrane's
+Share in them.&mdash;His Work as a Radical in and out of Parliament.&mdash;His
+futile Efforts to obtain the Prize Money due for his Services at
+Basque Roads.&mdash;The Holly Hill Siege.&mdash;The Preparations for his
+Enterprise in South America.&mdash;His last Speech in Parliament - 109
+</p>
+
+<p class="center">
+<a href="#chap06">CHAPTER VI.</a>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+[1810-1817.]
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The Antecedents of Lord Cochrane's Employments in South
+America.&mdash;The War of Independence in the Spanish
+Colonies.&mdash;Mexico.&mdash;Venezuela.&mdash;Colombia.&mdash;Chili.&mdash;The first
+Chilian Insurrection.&mdash;The Carreras and O'Higgins.&mdash;The Battle of
+Rancagua.&mdash;O'Higgins's Successes.&mdash;The Establishment of the Chilian
+Republic.&mdash;Lord Cochrane invited to enter the Chilian Service - 137
+</p>
+
+<p class="center">
+<a href="#chap07">CHAPTER VII.</a>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+[1818-1820.]
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Lord Cochrane's Voyage to Chili.&mdash;His Reception at Valparaiso and
+Santiago.&mdash;The Disorganization of the Chilian Fleet.&mdash;First Signs
+of Disaffection.&mdash;The Naval Forces of the Chilians and the
+Spaniards.&mdash;Lord Cochrane's first Expedition to Peru.&mdash;His Attack on
+Callao.&mdash;"Drake the Dragon" and "Cochrane the Devil."&mdash;Lord Cochrane's
+Successes in Overawing the Spaniards, in Treasure-taking, and
+in Encouragement of the Peruvians to join in the War of
+Independence.&mdash;His Plan for another Attack on Callao.&mdash;His
+Difficulties in Equipping the Expedition.&mdash;The Failure of
+the Attempt.&mdash;His Plan for Storming Valdivia.&mdash;Its Successful
+Accomplishment - 148
+</p>
+
+<p class="center">
+<a href="#chap08">CHAPTER VIII.</a>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+[1820-1822.]
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Lord Cochrane's Return to Valparaiso.&mdash;His Relations with the Chilian
+Senate.&mdash;The third Expedition to Peru.&mdash;General San Martin.&mdash;The
+Capture of the <i>Esmeralda</i>, and its Issue.&mdash;Lord Cochrane's subsequent
+Work.&mdash;San Martin's Treachery.&mdash;His Assumption of the Protectorate
+of Peru.&mdash;His Base Proposals to Lord Cochrane.&mdash;Lord Cochrane's
+Condemnation of them.&mdash;The Troubles of the Chilian Squadron.&mdash;Lord
+Cochrane's Seizure of Treasure at Ancon, and Employment of it in
+Paying his Officers and Men.&mdash;His Stay at Guayaquil.&mdash;The Advantages
+of Free Trade.&mdash;Lord Cochrane's Cruise along the Mexican Coast
+in Search of the remaining Spanish Frigates.&mdash;Their Annexation by
+Peru.&mdash;Lord Cochrane's last Visit to Callao - 177
+</p>
+
+<p class="center">
+<a href="#chap09">CHAPTER IX.</a>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+[1822-1823.]
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Lord Cochrane's Return to Valparaiso,&mdash;The Conduct of the Chilian
+Government towards him.&mdash;His Resignation of Chilian Employment, and
+Acceptance of Employment under the Emperor of Brazil.&mdash;His subsequent
+Correspondence with the Government of Chili.&mdash;The Results of his
+Chilian Service. - 208
+</p>
+
+<p class="center">
+<a href="#chap10">CHAPTER X.</a>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+[1823.]
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The Antecedents of Brazilian Independence.&mdash;Pedro I.'s Accession.&mdash;The
+Internal and External Troubles of the New Empire.&mdash;Lord Cochrane's
+Invitation to Brazil.&mdash;His Arrival at Rio de Janeiro, and Acceptance
+of Brazilian Service.&mdash;His first Occupations.&mdash;The bad condition of
+the Squadron, and the consequent Failure of his first Attack on the
+Portuguese off Bahia.&mdash;His Plans for Improving the Fleet, and their
+Success.&mdash;His Night Visit to Bahia, and the consequent Flight of the
+Enemy.&mdash;Lord Cochrane's Pursuit of them.&mdash;His Visit to Maranham,
+and Annexation of that Province and of Para.&mdash;His Return to Rio de
+Janeiro.&mdash;The Honours conferred upon him. - 223
+</p>
+
+<p class="center">
+<a href="#chap11">CHAPTER XI.</a>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+[1823-1824.]
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The Nature of the Rewards bestowed on Lord Cochrane for his first
+Services to Brazil.&mdash;Pedro I. and the Portuguese Faction.&mdash;Lord
+Cochrane's Advice to the Emperor.&mdash;The Troubles brought upon him by
+it.&mdash;The Conduct of the Government towards him and the Fleet.&mdash;The
+withholding of Prize-money and Pay.&mdash;Personal Indignities to Lord
+Cochrane.&mdash;An Amusing Episode.&mdash;Lord Cochrane's Threat of Resignation,
+and its Effect.&mdash;Sir James Mackintosh's Allusion to him in the House
+of Commons - 246
+</p>
+
+<p class="center">
+<a href="#chap12">CHAPTER XII.</a>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+[1824-1825.]
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The Insurrection in Pernambuco.&mdash;Lord Cochrane's Expedition to
+suppress it.&mdash;The Success of his Work.&mdash;His Stay at Maranham.&mdash;The
+Disorganized State of Affairs in that Province.&mdash;Lord Cochrane's
+efforts to restore Order and good Government.&mdash;Their result in further
+Trouble to himself.&mdash;His Cruise in the <i>Piranga</i>, and Return to
+England.&mdash;His Treatment there.&mdash;His Retirement from Brazilian
+Service.&mdash;His Letter to the Emperor Pedro I.&mdash;The End of his South
+American Employments - 266
+</p>
+
+<p class="center">
+<a href="#chap13">CHAPTER XIII.</a>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+[1820-1825.]
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The Greek Revolution and its Antecedents.&mdash;The Modern Greeks.&mdash;The
+Friendly Society.&mdash;Sultan Mahmud and Ali Pasha's Rebellion.&mdash;The
+Beginning of the Greek Insurrection.&mdash;Count John Capodistrias.&mdash;Prince
+Alexander Hypsilantes.&mdash;The Revolution in the Morca.&mdash;Theodore
+Kolokotrones.&mdash;The Revolution in the Islands.&mdash;The Greek Navy and its
+Character.&mdash;The Excesses of the Greeks.&mdash;Their bad Government.&mdash;Prince
+Alexander Mavrocordatos.&mdash;The Progress of the Revolution.&mdash;The
+Spoliation of Chios.&mdash;English Philhellenes; Thomas Gordon, Frank Abney
+Hastings, Lord Byron.&mdash;The first Greek Loan, and the bad uses to
+which it was put.&mdash;Reverses of the Greeks.&mdash;Ibrahim and his
+Successes.&mdash;Mavrocordatos's Letter to Lord Cochrane - 286
+</p>
+
+<p class="center">
+<a href="#chap14">CHAPTER XIV.</a>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+[1825-1826.]
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Lord Cochrane's Dismissal from Brazilian Service, and his Acceptance
+of Employment as Chief Admiral of the Greeks.&mdash;The Greek Committee and
+the Greek Deputies in London.&mdash;The Terms of Lord Cochrane's Agreement,
+and the consequent Preparations.&mdash;His Visit to Scotland.&mdash;Sir Walter
+Scott's Verses on Lady Cochrane.&mdash;Lord Cochrane's forced Retirement to
+Boulogne, and thence to Brussels.&mdash;The Delays in fitting out the
+Greek Armament.&mdash;Captain Hastings, Mr. Hobhouse, and Sir Francis
+Burdett.&mdash;Captain Hastings's Memoir on the Greek Leaders and
+their Characters.&mdash;The first Consequences of Lord Cochrane's new
+Enterprise.&mdash;The Duke of Wellington's Message to Lord Cochrane.&mdash;The
+Greek Deputies' Proposal to Lord Cochrane and his Answer.&mdash;The Final
+Arrangements for his Departure.&mdash;The Messiah of the Greeks. - 318
+</p>
+
+<p class="center">
+<a href="#chap15">CHAPTER XV.</a>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+[1826-1827.]
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Lord Cochrane's Departure for Greece.&mdash;His Visit to London and
+Voyage to the Mediterranean.&mdash;His Stay at Messina, and afterwards
+at Marseilles.&mdash;The Delays in Completing the Steamships, and the
+consequent Injury to the Greek Cause, and serious Embarrassment
+to Lord Cochrane.&mdash;His Correspondence with Messrs. J. and S.
+Ricardo.&mdash;His Letter to the Greek Government.&mdash;Chevalíer Eynard, and
+the Continental Philhellenes.&mdash;Lord Cochrane's Final Departure and
+Arrival in Greece. - 355
+</p>
+
+<p class="center">
+<a href="#chap16">CHAPTER XVI.</a>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+[1826-1827.]
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The Progress of Affairs in Greece.&mdash;The Siege of Missolonghi.&mdash;Its
+Fall.&mdash;The Bad Government and Mismanagement of the Greeks.&mdash;General
+Ponsonby's Account of them.&mdash;The Effect of Lord Cochrane's Promised
+Assistance.&mdash;The Fears of the Turks, as shown in their Correspondence
+with Mr. Canning.&mdash;The Arrival of Captain Hastings in Greece, with the
+<i>Karteria</i>.&mdash;His Opinion of Greek Captains and Sailors.&mdash;The Frigate
+<i>Hellas</i>,&mdash;Letters to Lord Cochrane from Admiral Miaoulis and the
+Governing Commission of Greece. - 368
+</p>
+
+<p class="center">
+<a href="#chap17">APPENDIX.</a>
+</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<p>
+I. (Page 22.)&mdash;"Resumé of the Services of the late Earl of Dundonald,
+none of which have been Requited or Officially Recognised," by Thomas,
+Eleventh Earl of Dundonald. - 389
+</p>
+
+<p>
+II. (Page 23.)&mdash;Part of a Speech delivered by Lord Cochrane in the
+House of Commons, on the 11th of May, 1809, on Naval Abuses. - 397
+</p>
+
+<p>
+III. (Page 258.)&mdash;A Letter written by Lord Cochrane to the Secretary
+of State of Brazil on the 3rd of May, 1824. - 400
+</p>
+
+</div><!--end chapter-->
+
+<div class="chapter">
+
+<h2>THE LIFE<br />
+OF<br />
+THOMAS, TENTH EARL OF DUNDONALD.
+</h2>
+
+</div><!--end chapter-->
+
+<div class="chapter">
+
+<h2><a name="chap01"></a>CHAPTER I.</h2>
+
+<p class="letter">
+INTRODUCTION.&mdash;LORD COCHRANE'S ANCESTRY.&mdash;HIS FIRST OCCUPATIONS IN
+THE NAVY.&mdash;HIS CRUISE IN THE "SPEEDY" AND CAPTURE OF THE "GAMO."&mdash;HIS
+EXPLOITS IN THE "PALLAS."&mdash;THE BEGINNING OF HIS PARLIAMENTARY
+LIFE.&mdash;HIS TWO ELECTIONS AS MEMBER FOR HONITON.&mdash;HIS ELECTION FOR
+WESTMINSTER.&mdash;FURTHER SEAMANSHIP.&mdash;THE BASQUE ROADS AFFAIR.&mdash;THE
+COURT-MARTIAL ON LORD GAMBIER, AND ITS INJURIOUS EFFECTS ON LORD
+COCHRANE'S NAVAL CAREER.&mdash;HIS PARLIAMENTARY OCCUPATIONS.&mdash;HIS VISIT TO
+MALTA AND ITS ISSUES.&mdash;THE ANTECEDENTS AND CONSEQUENCES OF THE STOCK
+EXCHANGE TRIAL.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+[1775-1814.]
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Thomas, Loud Cochrane, tenth Earl of Dundonald, was born at Annsfield,
+in Lanark, on the 14th of December, 1775, and died in London on the
+31st of October, 1860. Shortly before his death he wrote two volumes,
+styled "The Autobiography of a Seaman," which set forth his history
+down to 1814, the fortieth year of his age. To those volumes the
+present work, recounting his career during the ensuing six-and-forty
+years, is intended to serve as a sequel. Before entering upon the
+later narrative, however, it will be necessary briefly to recapitulate
+the incidents that have been already detailed.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The Earl of Dundonald was descended from a long line of knights and
+barons, chiefly resident in Renfrew and Ayr, many of whom were men
+of mark in Scottish history during the thirteenth and following
+centuries. Robert Cochran was the especial favourite and foremost
+counsellor of James III., who made him Earl of Mar; but the favours
+heaped upon him, and perhaps a certain arrogance in the use of those
+favours, led to so much opposition from his peers and rivals that he
+was assassinated by them in 1480.[A]
+</p>
+
+<p>
+[Footnote A: Pinkerton, the historian, gives some curious details,
+illustrating not only Robert Cochran's character, but also the
+condition of government and society in Scotland four centuries ago.
+"The Scottish army," he says, "amounting to about fifty thousand, had
+crowded to the royal banner at Burrough Muir, near Edinburgh, whence
+they marched to Soutray and to Lauder, at which place they encamped
+between the church and the village. Cochran, Earl of Mar, conducted
+the artillery. On the morning after their arrival at Lauder, the peers
+assembled in a secret council, in the church, and deliberated upon
+their designs of revenge…. Cochran, ignorant of their designs, left
+the royal presence to proceed to the council. The earl was attended by
+three hundred men, armed with light battle-axes, and distinguished
+by his livery of white with black fillets. He was clothed in a riding
+cloak of black velvet, and wore a large chain of gold around his
+neck; his horn of the chase, or of battle, was adorned with gold
+and precious stones, and his helmet, overlaid with the same valuable
+metal, was borne before him. Approaching the door of the church,
+he commanded an attendant to knock with authority; and Sir Robert
+Douglas, of Lochleven, who guarded the passage, inquiring the name,
+was answered, 'Tis I, the Earl of Mar.' Cochran and some of his
+friends were admitted. Angus advanced to him, and pulling the gold
+chain from his neck, said, 'A rope will become thee better,' while
+Douglas of Lochleven seized his hunting-horn, declaring that he had
+been too long a hunter of mischief. Rather astonished than alarmed,
+Cochran said, 'My lords, is it jest or earnest?' To which it was
+replied, 'It is good earnest, and so thou shalt find it; for thou
+and thy accomplices have too long abused our prince's favour. But no
+longer expect such advantage, for thou and thy followers shall now
+reap the deserved reward.' Having secured Mar, the lords despatched
+some men-at-arms to the king's pavilion, conducted by two or three
+moderate leaders, who amused James, while their followers seized the
+favourites. Sir William Roger and others were instantly hanged over
+the bridge at Lauder. Cochran was now brought out, his hands bound
+with a rope, and thus conducted to the bridge, and hanged above his
+fellows."] Later scions of the family prospered, and in 1641, Sir
+William Cochrane was raised to the peerage, as Lord Cochrane of
+Cowden, by Charles I. For his adherence to the royal cause this
+nobleman was fined 5000£ by the Long Parliament in 1654; and, in
+recompense for his loyalty, he was made first Earl of Dundonald by
+Charles II. in 1669. His successors were faithful to the Stuarts, and
+thereby they suffered heavily. Archibald, the ninth Earl, inheriting a
+patrimony much reduced by the loyalty and zeal of his ancestors, spent
+it all in the scientific pursuits to which he devoted himself, and
+in which he was the friendly rival of Watt, Priestley, Cavendish, and
+other leading chemists and mechanicians of two or three generations
+ago. His eldest son, heir to little more than a famous name and a
+chivalrous and enterprising disposition, had to fight his own way in
+the world.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Lord Cochrane&mdash;as the subject of these memoirs was styled in courtesy
+until his accession to the peerage in 1831&mdash;was intended by his father
+for the army, in which he received a captain's commission. But his
+own predilections were in favour of a seaman's life, and accordingly,
+after brief schooling, he joined the <i>Hind</i>, as a midshipman, in June,
+1793, when he was nearly eighteen years of age.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+During the next seven years he learnt his craft in various ships
+and seas, being helped in many ways by his uncle, the Hon. Alexander
+Cochrane, but profiting most by his own ready wit and hearty love
+of his profession. Having been promoted to the rank of lieutenant in
+1794, he was made commander of the <i>Speedy</i> early in 1800. This little
+sloop, not larger than a coasting brig, but crowded with eighty-four
+men and six officers, seemed to be intended only for playing at war.
+Her whole armament consisted of fourteen 4-pounders. When her new
+commander tried to add to these a couple of 12-pounders, the deck
+proved too small and the timbers too weak for them, and they had to be
+returned. So Lilliputian was his cabin, that, to shave himself, Lord
+Cochrane was obliged to thrust his head out of the skylight and make a
+dressing-table of the quarter-deck.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Yet the <i>Speedy</i>, ably commanded, was quite large enough to be of
+good service. Cruising in her along the Spanish coast, Lord Cochrane
+succeeded in capturing many gunboats and merchantmen, and the enemy
+soon learnt to regard her with especial dread. On one memorable
+occasion, the 6th of May, 1801, he fell in with the <i>Gamo</i>, a Spanish
+frigate furnished with six times as many men as were in the <i>Speedy</i> and with seven times her weight of shot. Lord Cochrane, boldly
+advancing, locked his little craft in the enemy's rigging. It was, in
+miniature, a contest as unequal as that by which Sir Francis Drake and
+his fellows overcame the Great Armada of Spain in 1588, and with like
+result. The heavy shot of the <i>Gamo</i> riddled the <i>Speedy's</i> sails,
+but, passing overhead, did no mischief to her hulk or her men. During
+an hour there was desperate fighting with small arms, and twice
+the Spaniards tried in vain to board their sturdy little foe. Lord
+Cochrane then determined to meet them on their own deck, and the
+daring project was facilitated by one of the smart expedients in which
+he was never wanting. Before going into action, "knowing," as he said,
+"that the final struggle would be a desperate one, and calculating
+on the superstitious wonder which forms an element in the Spanish
+character," he had ordered his crew to blacken their faces; and, "what
+with this and the excitement of combat, more ferocious-looking objects
+could scarcely be imagined." With these men following him he promptly
+gained the frigate's deck, and then their strong arms and hideous
+faces soon frightened the Spaniards into submission.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The senior officer of the <i>Gamo</i> asked for a certificate of his
+bravery, and received one testifying that he had conducted himself
+"like a true Spaniard." To Spain, of course, this was no sarcasm,
+and on the strength of the document its holder soon obtained further
+promotion.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+That achievement, which cost only three men's lives, led to
+consequences greater than could have been expected. Lord Cochrane,
+after three months' waiting, received the rank of post captain. But
+his desire that the services of Lieutenant Parker, his second in
+command, should also be recompensed led to a correspondence with Earl
+St. Vincent which turned him from a jealous superior into a bitter
+enemy. In reply to Lord Cochrane's recommendation, Earl St. Vincent
+alleged that "it was unusual to promote two officers for such a
+service,&mdash;besides which the small number of men killed on board the
+<i>Speedy</i> did not warrant the application." Lord Cochrane answered,
+with incautious honesty, that "his lordship's reasons for not
+promoting Lieutenant Parker, because there were only three men killed
+on board the <i>Speedy</i>, were in opposition to his lordship's own
+promotion to an earldom, as well as that of his flag-captain to
+knighthood, and his other officers to increased rank and honours; for
+that, in the battle from which his lordship derived his title there
+was only one man killed on board his own flagship." That was language
+too plain to be forgiven.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+In July, 1801, the <i>Speedy</i> was captured by three French
+line-of-battle ships, whose senior in command, Captain Pallière,
+declined to accept the sword of an officer "who had," as he said,
+"for so many hours struggled against impossibility," and asked Lord
+Cochrane, though a prisoner, still to wear it. He, however, was
+refused employment as commander of another ship. Thereupon, with
+characteristic energy, he devoted his forced leisure from professional
+pursuits to a year of student life at Edinburgh, where, in 1802, Lord
+Palmerston was his class-fellow under Professor Dugald Stewart.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+This occupation, however, was disturbed by the renewal of war with
+France in 1803. Lord Cochrane, though with difficulty, then obtained
+permission to return to active service, the <i>Arab</i>, one of the
+craziest little ships in the navy, being assigned to him. On his
+representing that she was too rotten for use off the French coast, he
+was ordered to employ her in cruising in the North Sea and protecting
+the fisheries north-east of the Orkneys, "where," as he said, "no
+vessel fished, and consequently there were no fisheries to protect."
+This ignominious work lasted for a year. It was brought to a close
+in December, 1804, soon after the appointment of Lord Melville, in
+succession to Earl St. Vincent, as First Lord of the Admiralty.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+By him Lord Cochrane was transferred from the <i>Arab</i> to the <i>Pallas</i>,
+a new and smart frigate of thirty-two guns, and allowed to use her in
+a famous cruise of prize-taking among the Azores and off the coast
+of Portugal. This was followed in 1806 by farther work in the same
+frigate, the closing portion of which was especially memorable. Being
+off the Basque Roads at the end of April he fixed his attention upon a
+frigate, the <i>Minerve</i>, and three brigs, forming an important part of
+the French squadron in the Mediterranean. After three weeks' waiting,
+on the 14th of May, he saw the frigate and the brigs approaching him,
+and promptly prepared to attack them. He was not deterred by knowing
+that the <i>Minerve</i> alone, carrying forty guns, was far stronger than
+the <i>Pallas</i>, which had also to withstand the force of the three
+brigs, each with sixteen guns, and to be prepared for the fire of the
+batteries on the Isle d'Aix. "This morning, when close to Isle d'Aix,
+reconnoitring the French squadron," he wrote concisely to his admiral,
+"it gave me great joy to find our late opponent, the black frigate,
+and her companions, the three brigs, getting under sail. We formed
+high expectations that the long wished-for opportunity was at last
+arrived. The <i>Pallas</i> remained under topsails by the wind to await
+them. At half-past eleven a smart point-blank firing commenced on both
+sides, which was severely felt by the enemy. The main topsail-yard
+of one of the brigs was cut through, and the frigate lost her
+after-sails. The batteries on I'lsle d'Aix opened on the <i>Pallas</i>, and
+a cannonade continued, interrupted on our part only by the necessity
+we were under to make various tacks to avoid the shoals, till one
+o'clock, when our endeavour to gain the wind of the enemy and get
+between him and the batteries proved successful. An effectual distance
+was now chosen. A few broadsides were poured in. The enemy's fire
+slackened. I ordered ours to cease, and directed Mr. Sutherland, the
+master, to run the frigate on board, with intention effectually to
+prevent her retreat. The enemy's side thrust our guns back into the
+ports. The whole were then discharged. The effect and crash were
+dreadful. Their decks were deserted. Three pistol-shots were the
+unequal return. With confidence I say that the frigate would have
+been lost to France, had not the unequal collision torn away our
+fore-topmast, jib-boom, fore and maintop-sails, spritsail-yards,
+bumpkin, cathead, chainplates, fore-rigging, foresail, and bower
+anchor, with which last I intended to hook on; but all proved
+insufficient. She would yet have been lost to France, had not the
+French admiral, seeing his frigate's foreyard gone, her rigging
+ruined, and the danger she was in, sent two others to her assistance.
+The <i>Pallas</i> being a wreck, we came out with what sail could be set,
+and his Majesty's sloop the <i>Kingfisher</i> afterwards took us in tow."
+The exploit was none the less valiant in that it was partly a failure.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The waiting-times before and after that cruise were occupied by Lord
+Cochrane with brief commencement of parliamentary life. Long before
+this time Lord Cochrane had resolved on entering the House of Commons,
+in order to expose the naval abuses which were then rife, and which he
+had never been deterred, by consideration of his own interests, from
+boldly denouncing. He stood for Honiton in 1805, and was defeated
+through his refusal to vie with his opponent in the art of bribery. He
+contrived, however, to profit by corruption while he punished it.
+As soon as the election was over, he gave ten guineas to each of the
+constituents who had freely voted for him. The consequence of this was
+his triumphant return at the new election, which took place in July,
+1806. When his supporters asked for like payment to that made in the
+previous instance, it was bluntly refused. "The former gift," said
+Lord Cochrane, "was for your disinterested conduct in not taking the
+bribe of five pounds from the agents of my opponent. For me now to pay
+you would be a violation of my principles."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+A short cruise in the Basque Roads prevented Lord Cochrane from
+occupying in the House of Commons the seat thus won, and in April,
+1807, very soon after his return, Parliament was again dissolved. He
+then resolved to stand for Westminster, with Sir Francis Burdett for
+his associate. Both were returned, and Lord Cochrane held his seat for
+eleven years. In 1807, however, he had only time to bring forward two
+motions respecting sinecures and naval abuses, which issued in violent
+but unproductive discussion, when he received orders to join the fleet
+in the Mediterranean as captain of the <i>Imperiéuse</i>. Naval employment
+was grudgingly accorded to him; but it was thought wiser to give him
+work abroad than to suffer under his free speech at home.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+This employment was marked by many brilliant deeds, which procured
+for him, on his surrendering his command of the <i>Imperiéuse</i> after
+eighteen months' duration, the reproach of having spent more sails,
+stores, gunpowder, and shot than had been used by any other captain in
+the service.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The most brilliant deed of all, one of the most brilliant deeds in
+the whole naval history of England, was his well-known exploit in the
+Basque Roads on the 11th, 12th, and 13th of April, 1809. Much against
+his will, he was persuaded by Lord Mulgrave, at that time First
+Lord of the Admiralty, to bear the responsibility of attacking and
+attempting to destroy the French squadron by means of fireships
+and explosion-vessels. The project was opposed by Lord Gambier, the
+Admiral of the Fleet, as being at once "hazardous, if not desperate,"
+and "a horrible and anti-Christian mode of warfare;" and consequently
+he gave no hearty co-operation. On Lord Cochrane devolved the whole
+duty of preparing for and executing the project. His own words will
+best tell the story.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"On the 11th of April," he said, "it blew hard, with a high sea. As
+all preparations were complete, I did not consider the state of
+the weather a justifiable impediment to the attack; so that, after
+nightfall, the officers who volunteered to command the fireships were
+assembled on board the <i>Caledonia</i>, and supplied with instructions
+according to the plan previously laid down by myself. The <i>Impérieuse</i> had proceeded to the edge of the Boyart Shoal, close to which she
+anchored with an explosion-vessel made fast to her stern, it being my
+intention, after firing the one of which I was about to take charge,
+to return to her for the other, to be employed as circumstances might
+require. At a short distance from the <i>Impérieuse</i> were anchored
+the frigates <i>Aigle</i>, <i>Unicorn</i>, and <i>Pallas</i>, for the purpose of
+receiving the crews of the fireships on their return, as well as to
+support the boats of the fleet assembled alongside the <i>Cæsar</i>, to
+assist the fireships. The boats of the fleet were not, however, for
+some reason or other made use of at all.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Having myself embarked on board the largest explosion-vessel,
+accompanied by Lieut. Bissel and a volunteer crew of four men only,
+we led the way to the attack. The night was dark, and, as the wind was
+fair, though blowing hard, we soon neared the estimated position
+of the advanced French ships, for it was too dark to discern them.
+Judging our distance, therefore, as well as we could, with regard to
+the time the fuse was calculated to burn, the crew of four men entered
+the gig, under the direction of Lieut. Bissel, whilst I kindled the
+portfires, and then, descending into the boat, urged the men to pull
+for their lives, which they did with a will, though, as wind and sea
+were strong against us, without making the expected progress.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"To our consternation, the fuses, which had been constructed to burn
+fifteen minutes, lasted little more than half that time, when the
+vessel blew up, filling the air with shells, grenades, and rockets;
+whilst the downward and lateral force of the explosion raised
+a solitary mountain of water, from the breaking of which in all
+directions our little boat narrowly escaped being swamped. The
+explosion-vessel did her work well, the effect constituting one of the
+grandest artificial spectacles imaginable. For a moment, the sky was
+red with the lurid glare arising from the simultaneous ignition of
+fifteen hundred barrels of powder. On this gigantic flash subsiding,
+the air seemed alive with shells, grenades, rockets, and masses of
+timber, the wreck of the shattered vessel. The sea was convulsed as
+by an earthquake, rising, as has been said, in a huge wave, on whose
+crest our boat was lifted like a cork, and as suddenly dropped into
+a vast trough, out of which as it closed upon us with the rush of a
+whirlpool, none expected to emerge. In a few minutes nothing but
+a heavy rolling sea had to be encountered, all having again become
+silence and darkness."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+In spite of its bursting too soon, the explosion-vessel did excellent
+work. The strong boom, composed of large spars bound by heavy chains,
+and firmly anchored at various points in its length of more than a
+mile, which was supposed to constitute an impassable barrier between
+the English ships that were outside and the French ships locked behind
+it, was broken in several parts. The enemy's ships were thoroughly
+disorganised by the sudden and appalling occurrence of the explosion.
+In their alarm and confusion, many of them fired into one another,
+and all might have been easily destroyed had the first success of the
+explosion-vessel been properly followed up. Unfortunately, however, on
+returning to the <i>Impérieuse</i>, Lord Cochrane found that there had been
+gross mismanagement of the fireships, which, according to his plans,
+were to have been despatched against various sections of the French
+fleet while it was too confused to protect itself. One of them, fired
+at the wrong time and sent in a wrong direction, nearly destroyed
+the <i>Impérieuse</i> and caused the wasting of a second explosion-vessel,
+which was meant to be held in reserve. The others, if not as
+mischievous in their effects, were almost as useless. "Of all the
+fire-ships, upwards of twenty in number," said Lord Cochrane, "only
+four reached the enemy's position, and not one did any damage. The
+<i>Impérieuse</i> lay three miles from the enemy, so that the one which was
+near setting fire to her became useless at the outset; whilst several
+others were kindled a mile and a half to the windward of this, or four
+miles and a half from the enemy. Of the remainder, many were at once
+rendered harmless from being brought to on the wrong tack. Six passed
+a mile to windward of the French fleet, and one grounded on Oleron."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Though the full success of Lord Cochrane's scheme was thus prevented,
+however, the work done by it was considerable. "As the fireships began
+to light up the roads," he said, "we could observe the enemy's fleet
+in great confusion. Without doubt, taking every fireship for an
+explosion-vessel, and being deceived as to their distance, not only
+did the French make no effort to divert them from their course, but
+some of their ships cut their cables and were seen drifting away
+broadside on to the wind and tide, whilst others made sail, as the
+only alternative to escape from what they evidently considered certain
+destruction. At daylight on the morning of the 12th, not a spar of the
+boom was anywhere visible, and, with the exception of the <i>Foudroyant</i> and <i>Cassard</i>, the whole of the enemy's vessels were helplessly
+aground. The flag-ship, <i>L'Océan</i>, a three-decker, drawing the most
+water, lay outermost on the north-west edge of the Palles Shoal,
+nearest the deep water, where she was most exposed to attack; whilst
+all, by the fall of the tide, were lying on their bilge, with
+their bottoms completely exposed to shot, and therefore beyond the
+possibility of resistance."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The French fleet had not been destroyed; yet it was so paralysed by
+the shock that its utter defeat seemed easy to Lord Cochrane. To the
+mast of the <i>Impérieuse</i>, between six o'clock in the morning of the
+12th and one in the afternoon, he hoisted signal after signal, urging
+Lord Gambier, who was with the main body of the fleet about fourteen
+miles off, to make an attack. Failing in all these, and growing
+desperate in his zeal, especially as every hour of delay was enabling
+the French to recover themselves and rendering success less sure, he
+suffered his single frigate to drift towards the enemy. "I did not
+venture to make sail," wrote Lord Cochrane, in his very modest account
+of this daring exploit, "lest the movement might be seen from the
+flag-ship, and a signal of recall should defeat my purpose of making
+an attack with the <i>Impérieuse</i> ; my object being to compel the
+Commander-in-Chief to send vessels to our assistance. We drifted by
+the wind and tide slowly past the fortifications on Isle d'Aix; but,
+though they fired at us with every gun that could be brought to bear,
+the distance was too great to inflict damage. Proceeding thus till
+1.30 p.m., we then suddenly made sail after the nearest of the enemy's
+vessels escaping. In order to divert our attention from the vessels
+we were pursuing, these having thrown their guns overboard, the
+<i>Calcutta</i>, a store-ship carrying fifty-six guns, which was still
+aground, broadside on, began firing at us. Before proceeding further,
+it became therefore necessary to attack her, and at 1.50 we shortened
+sail and returned the fire. At 2.0 the <i>Impérieuse</i> came to an anchor
+in five fathoms, and, veering to half a cable, kept fast the spring,
+firing upon the <i>Calcutta</i> with our broadside, and at the same time
+upon the <i>Aquillon</i> and <i>Ville de Varsovie</i>, two line-of-battle ships,
+each of seventy-four guns, with our forecastle and bow guns, both
+these ships being aground stern on, in an opposite direction. After
+some time we had the satisfaction of observing several ships sent
+to our assistance, namely, the <i>Emerald</i>, the <i>Unicorn</i>, the
+<i>Indefatigable</i>, the <i>Valiant</i>, the <i>Revenge</i>, the <i>Pallas</i>, and the
+<i>Aigle</i>. On seeing this, the captain and the crew of the <i>Calcutta</i> abandoned their vessel, of which the boats of the <i>Impérieuse</i> took
+possession before the vessels sent to our assistance came down." Soon
+after the arrival of the new ships, the two other vessels were also
+forced to surrender.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Most of the ships sent to his assistance returned to Lord Grambier on
+the 13th. Lord Cochrane, seeing that it would be easy for him to do
+much further mischief, made ready for the work on the morrow. But from
+this he was prevented by the inexcusable conduct of Lord Gambier, who,
+having discountenanced the attempt with the fireships, now not
+only refused to take part in the victory which his comrade had made
+possible, but also hindered its achievement by him.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Lord Cochrane had already overstepped the strict duty of a
+subordinate, though acting only as became an English sailor. The
+fireships with which he had been ordered to ruin the enemy's fleet had
+partly failed through the error of others. "It was then," he said, "a
+question with me whether I should disappoint the expectations of my
+country, be set down as a charlatan by the Admiralty, whose hopes had
+been raised by my plan, and have my future prospects destroyed, or
+force on an action which some had induced an easy Commander-in-Chief
+to believe impracticable." He did force on some fighting, which
+was altogether disastrous to the enemy, and rich in tokens of his
+unflinching heroism; but it was in violation of repeated orders,
+dubiously worded, from Lord Grambier, and, when at last an order was
+issued in terms too distinct to allow of any further evasion, he had
+no alternative but to abandon the enterprise. He was at once sent
+back to England, to be rewarded with much popular favour, and with a
+knighthood of the Order of the Bath, conferred by George III., but to
+become the victim of an official persecution, which, embittering his
+whole life, lasted almost to its close.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+It must be admitted that this persecution was in great measure
+provoked by Lord Cochrane's own fearless conduct. He was reasonably
+aggrieved at the effort made by the Admiralty authorities to attribute
+to Lord Gambier, who had taken no part at all in the achievements in
+Basque Roads, all the merit of their success. To use his own caustic
+but accurate words, "The only victory gained by Lord Gambier in Basque
+Roads was that of bringing his ships to anchor there, whilst the
+enemy's ships were quietly heaving off from the banks on which they
+had been driven nine miles distant from the fleet." When for this
+proceeding it was determined to honour Lord Gambier with the thanks
+of Parliament, Lord Cochrane, as member for Westminster, announced his
+intention of opposing the motion. As a bribe to silence he was offered
+an important command by Lord Mulgrave, and it was proposed that his
+name should be included in the vote of thanks. The bribe being
+refused and the opposition persisted in, Lord Gambier demanded a
+court-martial, in which, as he alleged, to controvert the insinuations
+thrown out against him by Lord Cochrane.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The history of this court-martial, its antecedents and its
+consequences, furnishes an episode almost unique in the annals
+of official injustice. As a preparation for it, Lord Gambier, in
+obedience to orders from the Admiralty, supplemented his first account
+of the victory by another of entirely different tenour. In the first,
+written on the spot, he had avowed that he could not speak highly
+enough of Lord Cochrane's vigour and gallantry in approaching the
+enemy,&mdash;conduct, he said, "which could not be exceeded by any feat of
+valour hitherto achieved by the British Navy." In the record, written
+four weeks later and in London, he altogether ignored Lord Cochrane's
+services, and transferred the entire merit to himself.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The whole conduct of the court-martial was in keeping with that
+prelude. No effort was spared in stifling all the evidence on Lord
+Cochrane's side, and in adducing false testimony against him. Logbooks
+and witnesses alike were tampered with. In support of his scheme for
+annihilating the whole French fleet, Lord Cochrane produced in court
+a chart showing the relative position of the various points in Aix
+Roads, and of the overhanging fort which was to protect the French
+ships. This chart, left lying upon the table, was tacitly accepted by
+the authorities of the Admiralty as a trustworthy document, and
+duly preserved among the official records. But at the time the court
+refused to receive it in evidence, and adopted instead two falsified
+charts, in which, by the introduction of imaginary shoals and the
+narrowing of the channel to Aix Roads from two miles to one, the
+success of the scheme appeared impossible. Although this gross
+deception was more than suspected, both then and afterwards, by Lord
+Cochrane, his repeated applications to the Admiralty for permission to
+inspect the documents were steadily refused. It was not till more than
+fifty years after the period of the court-martial that he was able to
+prove the scandalous fraud.[A]
+</p>
+
+<p>
+[Footnote A: Readers of "The Autobiography of a Seaman" need not be
+reminded of the copious and convincing evidence of the way in which he
+was treated by this court-martial that was adduced by Lord Dundonald
+in that work.]
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The result of the court-martial was, of course, such as from the first
+had been intended. Lord Grambier was acquitted, and unlimited blame
+was, by inference, thrown upon Lord Cochrane. The coveted vote
+of thanks was promptly obtained from the House of Commons; Lord
+Cochrane's proposal that the minutes of the court-martial be first
+investigated being, through ministerial influence, summarily rejected.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+These proceedings determined the course which men in power were to
+adopt, and fixed Lord Cochrane's future. It was a future to be made up
+of cruel disregard and of revengeful persecution.[A]
+</p>
+
+<p>
+[Footnote A: See Appendix (I.).]
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Soon after the close of the trial, the brave seaman applied to the
+Admiralty for permission to rejoin his old frigate, the <i>Impérieuse</i>,
+and accompanied his application with a bold plan for attacking the
+French fleet in the Scheldt. He received an insulting answer to the
+effect that, if he would be ready to quit the country in a week, and
+then to occupy a position subordinate to that which he had formerly
+held, his services would be accepted. On his replying that his
+great desire to be employed in his profession made him willing to
+do anything, and that all he wished for was a little longer time for
+preparation, no further communication was vouchsafed to him. He was
+quietly superseded in the command of the <i>Impérieuse</i>, and received no
+other ship.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Out of this ill-treatment, however, resulted some benefit to the
+nation. Lord Cochrane employed much of his forced leisure, during the
+next few years, in exposing abuses that were then over-abundant, and
+in strenuously advocating reform. In Parliament, voting always with
+his friend Sir Francis Burdett and the Radical party, he limited
+his exertions to naval matters, and such as were within his own
+experience. Herein there was plenty to occupy him, and much that it is
+now amusing to look back upon.[A]
+</p>
+
+<p>
+[Footnote A: See Appendix (II.).]
+</p>
+
+<p>
+One scandalous grievance led to a memorable episode in his life. The
+many prizes taken by him in the Mediterranean, which, according to
+rule, had been sent to the Maltese Admiralty Court for condemnation,
+had been encumbered with such preposterous charges that, instead of
+realizing anything by his captures, he was made out to be largely
+in debt to the Court. The principal agent of this Court was a Mr.
+Jackson, who illegally held office as at the same time marshal and
+proctor. "The consequence was," said Lord Cochrane, "that every
+prize placed in his hands as proctor had to pass through his hands
+as marshal; whilst as proctor it was further in his power to consult
+himself as marshal as often as he pleased, and to any extent he
+pleased. The amount of self-consultation may be imagined." As proctor
+he charged for visiting himself, and as marshal he charged for
+receiving visits from himself. As marshal he was paid for instructing
+himself, and as proctor he was paid for listening to his own
+instructions. Ten shillings and twopence three farthings was the
+customary charge for an oath to the effect that he had served a
+monition on himself. Of the sheets composing the bill for services of
+these sorts presented to him, Lord Cochrane formed a roll which, when
+unfolded and exhibited in Parliament, stretched from the Speaker's
+table to the bar of the House.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Not content, however, with laughing at the official robberies
+committed upon him, he determined, early in 1811, to proceed to Malta
+and personally investigate the matter. Reaching Valetta long before he
+was expected, he immediately presented himself at the court-house,
+and asked for a copy of the table of fees authorized by the Crown,
+and which, according to directions, ought to have been placed
+conspicuously in the public room. The existence of such a document
+being denied, he proceeded to hunt for it himself, and, after long and
+careful search, found it concealed in an out-of-the-way corner of
+the building. Having taken possession of it, he was carrying off the
+prize, which he intended to exhibit in the House of Commons, in token
+of the extent to which he and others had been defrauded, when he
+was arrested for contempt of court. He protested that the arrest was
+illegal, seeing that, as the court had not been sitting, no insult
+could have been offered to it. The plea was not accepted, and he
+was sent to gaol. No ground for punishment, however, could be found
+against him; and, after refusing to help the authorities out of their
+embarrassment by going at large on bail, and insisting on a proper
+exculpation or nothing at all, he let himself out of window by means
+of a rope. A gig was waiting for him, by which he was enabled to
+overtake the packet-boat that had quitted Malta shortly before,
+to return to London, and to present the document seized by him to
+Parliament a month before the official report of his escapade reached
+home.[A]
+</p>
+
+<p>
+[Footnote A: This letter from the Duke of Kent to Lord Cochrane will
+help to show that, even after the time of his Admiralty persecution,
+he was not without friends and admirers in high quarters:&mdash;"Kensington
+Palace, 7th July, 1812. My dear Lord,&mdash;I trust the acquaintance I
+have the satisfaction to possess with your lordship, and the long
+and intimate friendship subsisting between myself and your brother,
+Lieut.-Colonel Basil Cochrane, will warrant my intruding upon you for
+the purpose of seconding the wishes expressed by a young naval protégé
+of mine, and I cannot help adding my earnest request that when your
+distinguished zeal and talents in your profession are again called
+into action by Government, you will kindly oblige me by taking
+Lieutenant Edgar under your wing and protection; he is a fine young
+man, and I think would not disgrace the wardroom of your lordship's
+ship. I remain, with my sincere regard, my dear lord, yours
+faithfully, EDWARD.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"
+<i>The Right Honourable Lord Cochrane</i>."]
+</p>
+
+<p>
+An imprisonment of very different character occurred after an interval
+of nearly three years. This was in consequence of the famous Stock
+Exchange trial, the episode last treated of by the Earl of Dundonald
+in his Autobiography, and not quite recounted to the end before death
+stayed his hand.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+From 1809 to 1813, Lord Cochrane was allowed to take no active part in
+the work of his profession. But at the close of the latter year, his
+uncle, Sir Alexander Cochrane, having been selected for the command
+of the fleet on the North American station, appointed him his
+flag-captain&mdash;an appointment resting only with the Commander-in-Chief,
+and one with which the Government could not interfere. It was always
+Lord Cochrane's belief that the implacable enmity of his foes in the
+Admiralty Office&mdash;determined to prevent by irregular means, since no
+regular course was open to them, his return to naval work&mdash;helped
+to bring about the cruel persecution by which his whole life was
+embittered. But it must be admitted that the dishonesty of one of his
+own kinsmen&mdash;about which a chivalrous sense of honour caused him to be
+reticent during nearly fifty years&mdash;conduced to this result.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The chief agent of the fraud practised upon him was a foreigner, named
+De Berenger. This man, clever and unscrupulous, had been associated
+with Mr. Cochrane Johnstone, an uncle of Lord Cochrane's, in certain
+stock-jobbing transactions. In that or in some other way he became
+known to Lord Cochrane and to his other uncle, Sir Alexander Cochrane;
+and, being a smart chemist and pyrotechnist, it was proposed that he
+should accompany Lord Cochrane to North America, and assist him in the
+trial of his recently-discovered method of attacking forts and fleets
+in a secret and irresistible manner. With that object&mdash;of course
+clandestine&mdash;Sir Alexander Cochrane sought the permission of the
+Admiralty to employ De Berenger as a teacher of sharp-shooting, in
+which he was a well-known adept. This was not granted, and near the
+end of 1813, Sir Alexander set sail for Halifax, leaving Lord Cochrane
+to follow in the <i>Tonnant</i>, in charge of a convoy, and in getting
+the <i>Tonnant</i> ready for sea his lordship was busy during January and
+February, 1814. In the former month De Berenger sought him out and
+earnestly requested that, his official appointment being refused, he
+might be taken on board in a private capacity and allowed to rely
+upon the success of his work for recompense. Lord Cochrane declined
+to employ him without some sort of sanction from the Admiralty, and
+De Berenger left him with the avowed intention of doing his utmost to
+procure this sanction.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+He was otherwise occupied. Being in urgent need of money, with which
+to evade the grasp of his numerous creditors, he returned to his
+stock-jobbing pursuits&mdash;if indeed he had not been engaging in them
+all along; using his proposal for employment under Lord Cochrane as a
+blind or as a secondary resource. Instead of furthering his efforts to
+obtain this employment, he contrived a plan for causing a sudden rise
+in the funds, and thereby securing a large profit to himself and his
+accomplices. On the 20th of February he presented himself at the Ship
+Hotel at Dover, disguised as a foreigner and calling himself Colonel
+De Bourg, professing that he brought intelligence from France to
+the effect that Buonaparte had been killed by the Cossacks, that the
+allied armies were in full march towards Paris, and that a speedy
+cessation of the war was certain. Thence he hurried up to London and
+was traced to have gone, on the following morning, to Lord Cochrane's
+house. The ostensible object of that visit was to renew his
+application for employment on board the <i>Tonnant</i>. The real object
+was, by means of a trick, to get possession of a hat and cloak, with
+which to disguise himself afresh, and thus try to elude the pursuit
+of agents of the Stock Exchange, who would soon seek to punish him for
+his fraud. The disguise was given to him in all innocence, and might
+have been successful, had not Lord Cochrane, on finding how grossly
+he had been deceived, volunteered to assist in punishing the culprit.
+Leaving the <i>Tonnant</i>, in which he was about to start from Chatham, he
+returned to London, and gave full information as to his share in the
+transaction, with the view of furthering the cause of justice and
+clearing himself from all blame.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+That was prevented by as wanton a prosecution and as malicious a
+perverting of the forms of justice and the principles of equity as the
+annals of English law, not often abused even in a much less degree,
+can show. The straightforward evidence furnished by him was made
+the handle to an elaborate machinery of falsehood and perjury for
+effecting his own ruin. The solicitor who had managed the cause of the
+Admiralty at the court-martial on Lord Gambier, and therein proved his
+skill, was entrusted with the ugly work. By him an elaborate case for
+prosecution was trumped up, and Lord Cochrane, hindered from sailing
+to North America in the <i>Tonnant</i>, and hindered from obtaining any
+other employment in his country's service during four-and-thirty
+years, was, on the 8th of June, placed in the prisoner's dock at the
+Court of King's Bench on a charge of conspiring with his uncle, Mr.
+Cochrane Johnstone, with De Berenger, and with some other persons,
+to defraud the Stock Exchange. Lord Ellenborough, who presided at the
+trial, delivered a charge which was even more virulent and more marked
+by political spite than was his wont, and the too compliant jury
+brought in a verdict of "guilty." Lord Cochrane vainly sought for a
+new trial, and vainly adduced abundant proof of his innocence. The
+chance of justice that is every Englishman's right was denied to him.
+He was sentenced to an hour's detention in the pillory at the entrance
+of the Royal Exchange, to a year's imprisonment in the King's Bench
+Prison, and to a fine of a thousand pounds.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The first part of the sentence was not insisted upon, as Sir Francis
+Burdett, Lord Cochrane's noble-hearted colleague as member for
+Westminster, avowed his intention of standing also in the pillory, if
+his friend was subjected to that indignity, and of thus encouraging
+the storm of popular indignation, that, without any such
+encouragement, would probably have led to consequences which
+the Government, already hated by all Englishmen who loved their
+birthright, dared not brook. But the unworthy vengeance of his
+persecutors was amply satisfied in other ways. He had already suffered
+more than most men. "Neglect," he said, "I was accustomed to. But when
+an alleged offence was laid to my charge, in which, on the honour of
+a man now on the brink of the grave, I had not the slightest
+participation, and from which I never benefited, nor thought to
+benefit one farthing, and when this allegation was, by political
+rancour and legal chicanery, consummated in an unmerited conviction
+and an outrageous sentence, my heart for the first time sank within
+me, as conscious of a blow, the effect of which it has required all my
+energies to sustain."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+It is needless now to say anything in proof of Lord Cochrane's
+innocence of the charge brought against him. The world has long since
+reversed the verdict passed at Lord Ellenborough's dictation. That
+an officer and a gentleman of Lord Cochrane's reputation should have
+demeaned himself by becoming a party to the fraud of which he was
+accused, is, to say the least, improbable. That, if he had been guilty
+of that fraud, he should not have availed himself of the only benefit
+that could be derived from it by investing in the stocks when they
+were low and selling out during the brief time of their artificial
+value, is far more improbable. That, when the fraud was perpetrated,
+and its chief instrument was undiscovered, he should have left the
+<i>Tonnant</i> in order to expose him, instead of taking him away from
+England, and so almost ensuring the preservation of the secret, is
+utterly impossible.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+His only faults were too great faith in his own innocence and a too
+chivalrous desire to protect, or rather to abstain from injuring, his
+unworthy kinsman. "I must be here distinctly understood," it was said
+by Lord Brougham, in his "Historic Sketches of British Statesmen," "to
+deny the accuracy of the opinion which Lord Ellenborough appears to
+have formed in this case, and deeply to lament the verdict of
+'guilty' which the jury returned after three hours' consultation
+and hesitation. If Lord Cochrane was at all aware of his uncle Mr.
+Cochrane Johnstone's proceedings, it was the whole extent of his
+privity to the fact. Having been one of the counsel engaged in the
+cause, I can speak with some confidence respecting it, and I take upon
+me to assert that Lord Cochrane's conviction was mainly owing to the
+extreme repugnance which he felt to giving up his uncle, or taking
+those precautions for his own safety which would have operated against
+that near relation. Even when he, the real criminal, had confessed his
+guilt by taking to flight, and the other defendants were brought up
+for judgment, we, the counsel, could not persuade Lord Cochrane to
+shake himself loose from the contamination by abandoning him."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Part of a letter addressed to the Earl of Dundonald in 1859, on the
+anniversary of his eighty-fourth birthday, and shortly after the
+publication of the first volume of his "Autobiography of a Seaman," by
+the daughter of the man whose wrong-doing had conduced so terribly
+to his misfortunes, may here be fitly quoted:&mdash;"You are still active,
+still in health," says the writer, "and you have just given to the
+world a striking proof of the vigour of your mind and intellect. Many
+years I cannot wish for you; but may you live to finish your book,
+and, if it please God, may you and I have a peaceful death-bed. We
+have both suffered much mental anguish, though in various degrees; for
+yours was indeed the hardest lot that an honourable man can be called
+on to bear. Oh, my dear cousin, let me say once more, whilst we are
+still here, how, ever since that miserable time, I have felt that you
+suffered for my poor father's fault&mdash;how agonizing that conviction
+was&mdash;how thankful I am that <i>tardy justice</i> was done you. May God
+return you fourfold for your generous though misplaced confidence in
+him, and for all your subsequent forbearance!"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Another extract from a letter, from one out of a multitude of tributes
+to the Earl of Dundonald's honourable bearing, which were tendered
+after his death, shall close this introductory chapter. "Five years
+after the trial of Lord Cochrane," wrote Sir Fitzroy Kelly, now Lord
+Chief Baron, on the 17th of December, 1860, "I began to study for the
+bar, and very soon became acquainted with and interested in his case,
+and I have thought of it much and long during more than forty years;
+and I am profoundly convinced that, had he been defended singly and
+separately from the others accused, or had he at the last moment,
+before judgment was pronounced, applied, with competent legal advice
+and assistance, for a new trial, he would have been unhesitatingly and
+honourably acquitted. We cannot blot out this dark page from our legal
+and judicial history."
+</p>
+
+</div><!--end chapter-->
+
+<div class="chapter">
+
+<h2><a name="chap02"></a>CHAPTER II.</h2>
+
+<p class="letter">
+THE ISSUE OF THE STOCK EXCHANGE TRIAL.&mdash;LORD COCHRANE'S COMMITTAL TO
+THE KING'S BENCH PRISON.&mdash;THE DEBATE UPON HIS CASE IN THE HOUSE OF
+COMMONS, AND HIS SPEECH ON THAT OCCASION.&mdash;HIS EXPULSION FROM THE
+HOUSE, AND RE-ELECTION AS MEMBER FOR WESTMINSTER.&mdash;THE WITHDRAWAL OF
+HIS SENTENCE TO THE PILLORY.&mdash;THE REMOVAL OF HIS INSIGNIA AS A KNIGHT
+OF THE BATH.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+[1814.]
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The famous and infamous Stock Exchange trial occupied the 8th and 9th
+of June, 1814; but the sentence was deferred until the 21st of the
+same month, in consequence of Lord Cochrane's demand for a new trial.
+That demand was not complied with, in spite of the production
+of overwhelming evidence to justify it; and the victim of Lord
+Ellenborough and the tyrannical Government of the day was at once
+conveyed to the King's Bench Prison. No time was lost in heaping upon
+him all the indignities which, in accordance with precedent and in
+excess of all precedent, might supplement his degradation.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The first was a notice of motion which would result in his expulsion
+from the House of Commons. Lord Cochrane promptly availed himself of
+the opening thus afforded for a public avowal of his innocence. To
+the Hon. Charles Abbot, then Speaker of the House, he wrote from his
+prison on the 23rd of June. "Sir," runs the letter, "I respectfully
+entreat you to communicate to the Honourable House of Commons my
+earnest desire and prayer that no question arising out of the late
+convictions in the Court of King's Bench may be agitated without
+affording me timely notice and full opportunity of attending in my
+place for the justification of my character. From the House of Commons
+I hope to obtain that justice of which too implicit reliance on the
+consciousness of my innocence, and circumstances over which I had no
+control, have hitherto deprived me. The painful situation in which I
+am placed is known to the House, and I trust that I shall be enabled
+to demonstrate that a more injured man has never sought redress
+from those to whose justice I now appeal for the preservation of my
+character and existence."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+In compliance with that request, and with parliamentary rules, Lord
+Cochrane was conveyed from the King's Bench Prison to the House of
+Commons, and allowed to read a carefully-prepared statement of his
+case, on the 5th of July, the day fixed for investigation of the
+subject. From this statement it is not necessary to cite the clear
+and conclusive recapitulation of the evidence adduced at the trial, or
+refused admission therein because it was too convincing, in proof of
+Lord Cochrane's innocence; but room must be found for some passages
+illustrating the independent temper of the speaker and the perversions
+of justice to which he fell a victim.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"I am not here, sir," he said, "to bespeak compassion or to pave the
+way to pardon. Both ideas are alike repugnant to my feelings. That the
+public in general have felt indignation at the sentence that has been
+passed upon me does honour to their hearts, and tends still to make
+my country dear to me, in spite of what I have suffered from the
+malignity of persons in power. But, sir, I am not here to complain of
+the hardship of my case or about the cruelty of judges, who, for
+an act which was never till now ever known or thought to be a legal
+offence, have laid upon me a sentence more heavy than they have
+ever yet laid upon persons clearly convicted of the most horrid
+of crimes&mdash;crimes of which nature herself cries aloud against the
+commission. If, therefore, it was my object to complain of the cruelty
+of my judges, I should bid the public look into the calendar, and see
+if they could find a punishment like that inflicted on me; inflicted
+by these same judges on any one of these unnatural wretches. It is
+not, however, my business to complain of the cruelty of this sentence.
+I am here to assert, for the third time, my innocence in the most
+unqualified and solemn manner; I am here to expose the unfairness of
+the proceedings against me previous to the trial, at the trial,
+and subsequent to it; I am here to expose the long train of artful
+villainies which have been practised against me hitherto with so much
+success.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"I am persuaded, sir, that the House will easily perceive, and every
+honourable man, I am sure, participate in my feelings, that the
+fine, the imprisonment, the pillory&mdash;even that pillory to which I am
+condemned&mdash;are nothing, that they weigh not as a feather, when put
+in the balance against my desire to show that I have been unjustly
+condemned. Therefore, sir, I trust that the House will give a fair and
+impartial hearing to what I have to say respecting the conduct of
+my enemies, to expose which conduct is a duty which I owe to my
+constituents, and to my country, not less than to myself.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"In the first place, sir, I here, in the presence of this House, and
+with the eyes of the country fixed upon me, most solemnly declare that
+I am wholly innocent of the crime which has been laid to my
+charge, and for which I have been condemned to the most infamous of
+punishments. Having repeated this assertion of my innocence, I next
+proceed to complain of the means that have been made use of to effect
+my destruction. And first, sir, was it ever before known in this or in
+any other country, that the prosecutor should form a sort of court of
+his own erection, call witnesses before it of his own choosing, and,
+under offers of great rewards, take minutes of the evidence of such
+witnesses, and publish those minutes to the world under the forms and
+appearances of a judicial proceeding? Was it ever before known, that
+steps like these were taken previous to an indictment,&mdash;previous to
+the bringing of an intended victim into a court of justice? Was there
+ever before known so regular, so systematic a scheme for exciting
+suspicion against a man, and for implanting an immovable prejudice
+against him in the minds of a whole nation, previous to the preferring
+a Bill of Indictment, in order that the grand jury, be it composed
+of whomsoever it might, should be predisposed to find the bill? I ask
+you, sir, and I ask the House, whether it was ever before known, that
+means like these were resorted to, previous to a man's being legally
+accused? But, sir, what must the world think, when they see some of
+those to whom the welfare and the honour of the nation are committed
+covertly co-operating with a Committee of the Stock Exchange, and
+becoming their associates in so nefarious a scheme? Nevertheless, sir,
+this fact is now notorious to the whole world. I must confess I was
+not prepared to believe the thing possible."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Thereupon followed a detailed examination of the charges brought
+against Lord Cochrane, and of the way in which those charges were
+handled, special complaint being made concerning the malicious bearing
+of Lord Ellenborough. "It must be in the recollection of the House,"
+said Lord Cochrane, "as it is in that of the public, that he urged,
+that he compelled, the counsel to enter upon my defence <i>after
+midnight</i>, at the end of fifteen hours from the commencement of the
+trial, when that counsel declared himself quite exhausted, and when
+the jury, who were to decide, were in a state of such weariness as to
+render attention to what was said totally impossible. The speeches
+of the counsel being ended, the judge, at <i>half-past three in the
+morning</i>, adjourned the court till ten; thus separating the evidence
+from the argument, and reserving his own strength, and the strength
+of my adversaries' advocates, for the close; giving to both the great
+advantage of time to consider the reply, and to insert and arrange
+arguments to meet those which had been urged in my defence."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+All his treatment by Lord Ellenborough, as Lord Cochrane urged, was of
+that sort, or worse. "Of all tyrannies, sir," he said, "the worst
+is that which exercises its vengeance under the guise of judicial
+proceedings, and especially if a jury make part of the means by which
+its base purposes are effected. The man who is flung into prison, or
+sent to the scaffold, at the nod of an avowed despotism, has at least
+the consolation to know that his sufferings bring down upon that
+despotism the execration of mankind; but he who is entrapped
+and entangled in the meshes of a crafty and corrupt system of
+jurisprudence; who is pursued imperceptibly by a law with leaden
+feet and iron jaws; who is not put upon his trial till the ear of the
+public has been poisoned, and its heart steeled against him,&mdash;falls,
+at last, without being cheered with a hope of seeing his tyrants
+execrated even by the warmest of his friends. In their principle, the
+ancient and settled laws of England are excellent; but of late years,
+so many injurious and fatal alterations in the law have taken place,
+that any man who ventures to meddle with public affairs, and to oppose
+persons in power, is sure and certain, sooner or later, to suffer in
+some way or other.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Sir, the punishment which the malice of my enemies has procured to be
+inflicted on me is not, in my mind, worth a moment's reflection. The
+judge supposed, apparently, that the sentence of the pillory would
+disgrace and mortify me. I can assure him, and I now solemnly assure
+this House, my constituents, and my country, that I would rather stand
+in my own name, in the pillory, every day of my life, under such a
+sentence, than I would sit upon the bench in the name and with the
+real character of Lord Ellenborough for one single hour.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Something has been said, sir, in this House, as I have heard, about
+an application for a mitigation of my sentence, in a certain quarter,
+where, it is observed, that mercy never failed to flow; but I can
+assure the House that an application for pardon, extorted from me, is
+one of the things which even a partial judge and a packed jury have
+not the power to accomplish. No, sir; I will seek for, and I look for,
+pardon <i>nowhere</i>, for <i>I have committed no crime</i>. I have sought for,
+I still seek for, and I confidently expect JUSTICE; not, however, at
+the hands of those by whose machinations I have been brought to
+what they regard as my ruin, but at the hands of my enlightened and
+virtuous constituents, to whose exertions the nation owes that there
+is still a voice to cry out against that haughty and inexorable
+tyranny which commands silence to all but parasites and hypocrites."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Thus ended Lord Cochrane's written argument. It was followed by, a few
+words spoken on the spur of the moment: "Having so long occupied
+its time, I will not trouble the House longer than to implore it to
+investigate the circumstances of my case. I think I have stated enough
+to induce it to call for the minutes of the trial. All I wish is an
+inquiry. Many important facts yet remain to be considered, and I
+trust that the House will not come to a decision with its eyes shut.
+I entreat, I implore investigation. It is true that a sentence of a
+court of law has been pronounced against me; but that punishment is
+nothing, and will to me seem nothing, in comparison with what it is in
+the power of the House to inflict. I have already suffered much;
+but if after a deliberate and a fair investigation the House shall
+determine that I am guilty, then let me be deserted and abandoned by
+the world. I shall submit without repining to any the most dreadful
+penalty that the House can assign. I solemnly declare before Almighty
+God that I am ignorant of the whole transaction. Into the hearts of
+men we cannot penetrate; we cannot dive into their inmost thoughts;
+but my heart I lay open, and my most secret thoughts I disclose to
+the House. I entreat the strictest scrutiny and a patient hearing. I
+implore it at your hands, as an act of justice, and once more I call
+upon my Maker, upon Almighty God, to bear witness that I am innocent.
+He knows my heart, He knows all its secrets, and He knows that I am
+innocent."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+An animated debate followed upon that eloquent address. Viscount
+Castlereagh complained that Lord Cochrane, instead of defending
+himself, had only libelled Lord Ellenborough and the noblest
+institutions of the land. Other speakers expressed similar opinions;
+but others testified to the consistent character of Lord Cochrane,
+rendering it impossible that he should be guilty of the offence
+with which he was charged; and others again confessed that, having
+previously had doubts in the matter, those doubts had been removed by
+the high-minded tone and the powerful arguments of his defence. But in
+the end the House adopted the view set forth by Lord Castlereagh; that
+its duty was simply to accept the verdict of the Court of the King's
+Bench, and, according to precedent, to expel the member declared
+guilty by that court, without daring to revive the question of his
+guilt or innocence; and that it would be better for an innocent man
+thus to suffer, than for the House to assail "the bulwarks of English
+liberty," by turning itself into a Star Chamber, or an Inquisition,
+and attempting to interfere with "the regular administration of
+justice." The proposal that Lord Cochrane's case should be referred to
+a Select Committee was rejected without a division. The motion that he
+should be expelled from the House was carried by a hundred and forty
+members, against forty-four dissentients.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+That new act of injustice, however, though it added much to Lord
+Cochrane's suffering, brought him no fresh disgrace. It only led
+to his triumphant re-election as member for Westminster, under
+circumstances that were reasonably consoling to him. His seat having
+been taken from him on the 5th of July, a great meeting of the
+electors, attended by five thousand people, was held on the 11th.
+It was there unanimously resolved that Lord Cochrane was perfectly
+innocent of the Stock Exchange fraud, that he was a fit and proper
+person to represent the City of Westminster in Parliament, and that
+his re-election should be secured without any expense to him. Richard
+Brinsley Sheridan, his stout opponent at the previous election, who
+was now urged to oppose him again, honourably refused to do so; and
+therefore the election passed without a contest. But contest would
+only have added to its glory; unless, indeed, the people, over-zealous
+in their expression of sympathy for their representative, had been
+provoked thereby to violent exhibition of their temper. Even without
+such provocation the turmoil of the re-election day, the 16th of July,
+was great; angry crowds assembled in the streets, and menacing words
+against the Government and its myrmidons were loudly uttered. The
+wisdom of Sir Francis Burdett and other leaders of the popular party,
+however, prevented anything worse than angry speech.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Amongst all the occurrences of my life," said Lord Cochrane,
+writing from the King's Bench Prison to thank the electors for their
+confidence in him, "I can call to memory no one which has produced so
+great a degree of exultation in my breast as this, that, after all the
+machinations of corruption have been able to effect against me, the
+citizens of Westminster have, with unanimous voice, pronounced me
+worthy of continuing to be one of their representatives in Parliament.
+With regard to the case, the agitation of which has been the cause
+of this most gratifying result, I am in no apprehension as to the
+opinions and feelings of the world, and especially of the people
+of England, who, though they may be occasionally misled, are never
+deliberately cruel or unjust. Only let it be said of me: 'The Stock
+Exchange has accused; Lord Ellenborough has charged for guilty; the
+special jury have found that guilt; the Court have sentenced to the
+pillory; the House of Commons have expelled; and the Citizens of
+Westminster have re-elected,'&mdash;only let this be the record placed
+against my name, and I shall be proud to stand in the calendar of
+criminals all the days of my life."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The worst part of the sentence passed upon Lord Cochrane, as has been
+already said, was not carried out. The 10th of August had been fixed
+as the day on which he was to stand in the pillory for an hour in
+front of the Royal Exchange. But the danger of a disturbance among the
+people, and of fierce opposition in the House of Commons hindered the
+perpetration of this indignity. Some sentences of a letter addressed
+to Lord Ebrington, deprecating his motion in Parliament for a
+remission of this part of the sentence, are too characteristic,
+however, to be left unquoted. "I did not expect," said Lord Cochrane,
+"to be treated by your lordship as an object of mercy, on the grounds
+of past services, or severity of sentence. I cannot allow myself to be
+indebted to that tenderness of disposition which has led your lordship
+to form an erroneous estimate of the amount of punishment due to the
+crimes of which I have been accused; nor can I for a moment consent
+that any past services of mine should be prostituted to the purpose of
+protecting me from any part of the vengeance of the laws against which
+I, if at all, have grossly offended. If I am guilty, I richly merit
+the whole of the sentence that has been passed upon me. If innocent,
+one penalty cannot be inflicted with more justice than another."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+If the degradation of the pillory was remitted, another degradation
+quite as painful to Lord Cochrane was substituted for it. His name
+having, on the 25th of June, been struck off the list of naval
+officers in the Admiralty, the Knights Companions of the Bath promptly
+held a chapter to consider the propriety of expelling him from their
+ranks. That was soon done, and no time was lost in making the insult
+as thorough as possible. At one o'clock in the morning of the 11th
+of August, the Bath King at Arms repaired to King Henry the Seventh's
+Chapel in Westminster Abbey, and there, under a warrant signed by Lord
+Sidmouth, the Secretary of State, removed the banner of Lord Cochrane,
+which was suspended between those of Lord Beresford and Sir Brent
+Spencer. His arms were next unscrewed, and his helmet, sword, and
+other insignia were taken down from the stall. The banner was then
+kicked out of the chapel and down the steps by the official, eager to
+omit no possible indignity. It was an indignity unparalleled since the
+establishment of the order in 1725.
+</p>
+</div><!--end chapter-->
+
+<div class="chapter">
+
+<h2><a name="chap03"></a>CHAPTER III.</h2>
+
+<p class="letter">
+LORD COCHRANE'S BEARING IN THE KING'S BENCH PRISON&mdash;HIS STREET
+LAMPS.&mdash;HIS ESCAPE, AND THE MOTIVES FOR IT.&mdash;HIS CAPTURE IN THE HOUSE
+OF COMMONS, AND SUBSEQUENT TREATMENT.&mdash;HIS CONFINEMENT IN THE STRONG
+ROOM OF THE KING'S BENCH PRISON.&mdash;HIS RELEASE.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+[1814-1815.]
+</p>
+
+<p>
+During the first period of his imprisonment Lord Cochrane was not
+treated with more than usual severity. Two rooms in the King's Bench
+State House were provided for him, in which, of course, all the
+expenses of his maintenance devolved upon himself. He was led
+to understand that, if he chose to ask for it, he might have the
+privilege of "the rules," which would have allowed him, on certain
+conditions, a range of about half-a-mile round the prison. But he
+did not choose to ask. Rather, he said, than seek any favour from
+the Government, he would lie in a dungeon all through the term of his
+unjust imprisonment. Throughout that period he resolutely avowed his
+perfect innocence, to friends and foes alike; and the consciousness
+of his innocence helped him to bear up under a degradation that, to
+a nature as sensitive and chivalrous as his, was doubly bitter. Good
+friends, like Sir Francis Burdett, came to cheer him in his solitude,
+and over-zealous, yet honest, friends, like William Cobbett, came to
+take counsel with him as to ways of keeping alive and quickening the
+popular indignation which, without any stimulants from headstrong
+demagogues, was strong enough on his behalf.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The tedium of his captivity was further relieved by his devotion to
+those scientific and mechanical pursuits which, all through life,
+yielded employment very solacing to himself, and very profitable to
+the world. While in the King's Bench Prison he was especially occupied
+in completing a plan for lighting the public streets by means of a
+lamp invented by him, in which the main principle was the introduction
+of a steady current of fresh air into the globes, whereby all the oil
+was fairly burnt, and a brilliant light was always maintained. In this
+way lamps much cheaper than those previously in use were found to have
+a far greater illuminating power. Early in October, 1814, the lamps
+in St. Ann's parish, Westminster, numbering eight hundred in all, were
+taken down and replaced by four hundred constructed on Lord Cochrane's
+plan; and even political opponents spoke in acknowledgment of the
+excellent result of the change. Had it not been for the introduction
+of gas, the superiority of these new lamps must soon have compelled
+their adoption all over London. It is curious that the discovery of
+the illuminating power of gas&mdash;undoubtedly due to his father&mdash;should
+have superseded one of Lord Cochrane's most promising inventions as
+soon as it had been brought to recognized perfection.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+In such pursuits nine months of the unjust imprisonment were passed.
+"Lord Cochrane has hitherto borne all his hardships with great
+fortitude," wrote one of his most intimate friends on the 10th of
+November, "and, if there are any more in store for him, I hope he will
+continue to be cheerful and courageous." "His lordship always hopes
+for the best, and is never afraid of the worst," said the same
+authority on the 9th of December, "and therefore he is in good
+spirits."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+This fearless disposition led, in March, 1815, to a bold step, which
+some of Lord Cochrane's best friends deprecated. Knowing that he
+was unjustly imprisoned, he conceived that, since his re-election
+as member for Westminster, the imprisonment was illegal as well as
+unjust, in that it was contrary to the privilege of Parliament. The
+law provides that "no Member of Parliament can be imprisoned either
+for non-payment of a fine to the King, or for any other cause than
+treason, felony, or refusing to give security for the peace." It
+may be questioned whether, in the presence of this law, his first
+imprisonment, even under the sentence of the Court of King's Bench,
+was legal. But having been imprisoned, and having been expelled from
+the House of Commons, it is clear that his subsequent re-election
+could not interfere with the fulfilment, of the sentence passed
+against him, especially as he had not been able to make good his title
+to membership by taking the prescribed oaths and claiming a seat in
+the House. He, however&mdash;acting as it would seem under the advice of
+William Cobbett and other unsafe counsellors&mdash;thought otherwise,
+and considered that he was only vindicating a high constitutional
+principle, against the exercise of despotic power by the Government,
+in making his escape from the King's Bench Prison. "I did not quit
+these walls," he said in a letter addressed to the electors
+of Westminster, on the 12th of April, "to escape from personal
+oppression, but, at the hazard of my life, to assert that right to
+liberty which, as a member of the community, I have never forfeited,
+and that right, which I received from you, to attack in its very den
+the corruption which threatens to annihilate the liberties of us all.
+I did not quit them to fly from the justice of my country, but to
+expose the wickedness, fraud, and hypocrisy of those who elude that
+justice by committing their enormities under the colour of its name.
+I did not quit them from the childish motive of impatience under
+suffering. I stayed long enough to evince that I could endure
+restraint as a pain, but not as a penalty. I stayed long enough to be
+certain that my persecutors were conscious of their injustice, and to
+feel that my submission to their unmerited inflictions was losing the
+dignity of resignation, and sinking into the ignominious endurance of
+an insult."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The escape was effected on the 6th of March, and by the same means
+which had proved successful in Lord Cochrane's retreat from the
+gaol at Malta, just four years before. His rooms in the King's Bench
+Prison, being on the upper storey of the building known as the
+State House, were nearly as high as the wall which formed the prison
+boundary, and the windows were only a few feet distant from it.
+The possibility of escape by this way, however, had never been
+contemplated, and therefore the windows were unprotected by bars.
+Accordingly Lord Cochrane, having been supplied, from time to time, by
+the same servant who had aided him at Malta, with a quantity of small
+strong rope, managed, soon after midnight, and while the watchman
+going his rounds was in a distant part of the prison, to get out of
+window and climb on to the roof of the building. Thence he threw a
+running noose over the iron spikes placed on the wall, and, exercising
+the agility that he had acquired during his seaman's occupations,
+easily gained the summit&mdash;to be somewhat discomfited by having to sit
+upon the iron spikes while he fastened his rope to one of them and
+prepared, with its help, to slip down to the pavement on the outer
+side of the wall. The rope was not strong enough, however, to bear his
+weight; it snapped when he was some twenty-five feet from the ground,
+and caused him to fall with his back upon the stone pavement. There he
+lay, in an almost unconscious state, for a considerable time. But no
+passer-by observed him; and before daylight he was able to crawl to
+the house of an old nurse of his eldest son's, who gladly afforded him
+concealment.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Long concealment was not intended by him. "If it had not been," he
+said, "for the commotion excited by that obnoxious, injurious, and
+arbitrary measure, the Corn Bill, which began to evince itself on
+the day of my departure from prison, I should have lost no time in
+proceeding to the House of Commons; but, conjecturing that the spirit
+of disturbance might derive some encouragement from my unexpected
+appearance at that time, and having no inclination to promote tumult,
+I resolved to defer my appearance at the House, and, if possible,
+to conceal my departure from the prison, until the order of the
+metropolis should be restored."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+To the same effect was a letter addressed by Lord Cochrane to the
+Speaker of the House of Commons on the 9th of March. "I respectfully
+request," he said therein, "that you will state to the honourable
+the House of Commons, that I should immediately and personally
+have communicated to them my departure from the custody of Lord
+Ellenborough, by whom I have been long most unjustly detained; but I
+judged it better to endeavour to conceal my absence, and to defer my
+appearance in the House until the public agitation excited by the Corn
+Bill should subside. And I have further to request that you will also
+communicate to the House that it is my intention, on an early day, to
+present myself for the purpose of taking my seat and moving an inquiry
+into the conduct of Lord Ellenborough."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+On the day of that letter's delivery, the 10th of March&mdash;also famous
+as the day on which Buonaparte's escape from Elba was published in
+England&mdash;Lord Cochrane's gaolers discovered that he was no longer
+in his prison. Immediately a hue and cry was raised. This notice was
+issued: "Escaped from the King's Bench Prison, on Monday the 6th day
+of March, instant, Lord Cochrane. He is about five feet eleven inches
+in height,[A] thin and narrow-chested, with sandy hair and full eyes,
+red whiskers and eyebrows. Whoever will apprehend and secure Lord
+Cochrane in any of His Majesty's gaols in the kingdom shall have a
+reward of three hundred guineas from William Jones, Marshal of the
+King's Bench."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+[Footnote A: He was really about six feet two inches in height, and
+broad in proportion.]
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Great search was made in consequence of that notice, and Lord
+Cochrane's disappearance was an eleven days' wonder. Every newspaper
+had each day a new statement as to his whereabouts. Some declared that
+he had gone mad, and, as a madman's freak, was hiding himself in some
+corner of the prison; others that he was lodging at an apothecary's
+shop in London. According to one report, he had been seen at Hastings,
+according to another, at Farnham, and according to another, in Jersey;
+while others declared that he had been discovered in France and
+elsewhere on the Continent.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+None of the thousands whom political spite or the hope of reward set
+in search of him thought of looking for him in his real resting-place.
+"As soon as I had written to the Speaker," he said, "I went into
+Hampshire, where I remained eleven days, and till within one day of my
+appearance in the House of Commons. During that period I was occupied
+in regulating my affairs in that county, and in riding about the
+county, as was well known to the people of the neighbourhood, none of
+whom were base enough to be seduced by a bribe to deliver an injured
+man into the hands of his oppressors."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+At his own house, known as Holly Hill, in the south of Hampshire, Lord
+Cochrane remained quietly, though with no attempt to hide himself,
+until the 20th of March. He then, in fulfilment of his original
+purpose, returned to London, and on the following day entered the
+House of Commons at about two o'clock in the afternoon. Very great
+was the astonishment among the officials in attendance caused by his
+appearance, "dressed," according to one of the newspaper reports, "in
+his usual costume, grey pantaloons, frogged great-coat, &amp;c.;" and by
+some of them the intelligence of his arrival was promptly communicated
+to the Marshal of the King's Bench. In the meanwhile, considering
+himself safe within the precincts of the House at any rate, he
+proceeded to occupy his customary seat. To that it was objected that,
+until he had taken the oaths and complied with the prescribed forms
+consequent on his re-election, he had no right within the building.
+He answered that he was willing to do this, and, to see that all was
+according to rule, went at once to the clerks' office. There it was
+pretended that the writ of his re-election had not yet been received,
+and that it must first be procured from the Crown Office, in Chancery
+Lane. Awaiting the return of the messenger, ostensibly despatched for
+this purpose, he again entered the House, and there he was found, at a
+few minutes before four, by Mr. Jones, the marshal, who, on receiving
+the information sent to him, had hurried up, with a Bow Street runner
+and some tipstaves. The runner, walking up to Lord Cochrane and
+touching him on the shoulder, bluntly claimed him as his prisoner.
+Lord Cochrane asked by what authority he dared to arrest a Member of
+Parliament in the House of Commons. "My lord," answered the man, "my
+authority is the public proclamation of the Marshal of the King's
+Bench Prison, offering a reward for your apprehension." Lord Cochrane
+declared that he neither acknowledged, nor would yield to, any
+such authority, that he was there to resume his seat as one of the
+representatives of the City of Westminster, and that any who dared to
+touch him would do so at their peril. Two tipstaves thereupon rudely
+seized him by the arms. He again cautioned them that the Marshal of
+the King's Bench had no authority within those walls, and that their
+conduct was altogether illegal. The answer was that he had better
+go quietly; his reply that he would not go at all. Other officers,
+however, came up. After a short struggle, he was overpowered, and, on
+his refusing to walk, he was carried out of the House on the shoulders
+of the tipstaves and constables.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+There was a halt, however, in this disgraceful march. The Bow Street
+runner expressed a fear that Lord Cochrane had firearms concealed
+under his clothes, and he was accordingly taken into one of the
+committee-rooms to be searched. Nothing more dangerous was found about
+him than a packet of snuff. "If I had thought of that before," said
+Lord Cochrane, not quite wisely, "you should have had it in your
+eyes!" On this incident was founded a foolish story, to be told next
+day, amid a score of exaggerations and falsehoods, in the Government
+newspapers. "Being asked why he had provided himself with such a
+quantity of snuff," we there read, "he said he had bought a canister
+for the purpose of throwing it in the eyes of those who might attempt
+to secure him, unless the opposing force should be too strong for
+resistance, observing that he had found the use of a similar weapon
+when he was in the Bay of Rosas, as he had thrown a mixture of lime,
+sand, &amp;c., upon the Frenchmen who attempted to board his ship, and
+found it effectual." Another zealous organ of the Government added
+that he had also provided himself with a bottle of vitriol, to be used
+in the same way.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Had a penknife been found in his pocket, perhaps the Marshal of the
+King's Bench, the Bow Street runner, the tipstaves, and the constables
+would all have fled, deeming that the possession of so deadly an
+instrument made the retention of their captive too dangerous a thing
+to be attempted. The snuff having been seized, however, he was again
+lodged on the officers' shoulders and so conveyed into the courtyard.
+He then said that, being now beyond the privilege of the House, he was
+willing to proceed quietly. A coach was called, and he was taken back
+to the King's Bench Prison.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The indignity thus offered to him was small indeed in comparison with
+the indignity offered to the Parliament of England. In former times
+the slightest encroachment by the Crown, by the Government, or by
+any humbler part of the executive, was fiercely resented; and to this
+resentment some of the greatest and most memorable crises in the long
+fight for English liberty are due. But rarely had there been a
+more flagrant, never a more wanton, infringement of the hardly-won
+privileges of the House of Commons. Had Lord Cochrane been detected
+and seized violently in some out-of-the-way hiding-place, the
+over-zealous servants of the Crown would have had some excuse for
+their conduct. But in appearing publicly in the House, he showed to
+all the world that he was no runaway from justice, that he was willing
+to submit to its honest administration by honest hands, that all he
+sought was a fair hearing and a fair judgment upon his case, and that,
+believing it impossible to obtain that through the elaborate machinery
+of oppression which then went by the name of administration
+of justice, he now only asserted his right, the right of every
+Englishman, and especially the right of a Member of Parliament, to
+appeal from the agents of the law to the makers of the law, to call
+upon the legislators of his country to see whether he had not been
+wrongfully used by the men who, though practically too much their
+masters, were in theory only their servants.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"I did not go to the House of Commons," he said, "to complain about
+losses or sufferings, about fine or imprisonment; or of property, to
+the amount of ten times the fine, of which I had been cheated by this
+malicious prosecution. I did not go to the House to complain of
+the mockery of having been heard in my defence, and answered by a
+reference to the decision from which that defence was an appeal. I did
+not go there to complain of those who expelled me from my profession.
+I did not go to the House to complain <i>generally</i> of the advisers of
+the Crown. But I went there to complain of the conduct of him who has
+indeed the right of recommending to mercy, but whose privilege, as
+a Privy Councillor, of advising the confirmation of his own
+condemnations, and of interposing between the victims of
+legal vengeance and the justice of the throne, is spurious and
+unconstitutional. When it is considered that my intention of going to
+the House of Commons was announced on the day on which my absence from
+the prison was discovered; I say, when it is considered that, as soon
+as it was known that I had left the prison, it was also known that I
+had left it for the express purpose of going to the House of Commons
+to move for an inquiry into the conduct of Lord Ellenborough; when it
+is considered that every engine was set to work to tempt or intimidate
+me from that purpose, to frighten me out of the country or allure me
+back to the custody of the marshal, that assurances were given that
+the doors should be kept open for my admission at any hour of the
+night, and that I should be received with secresy, courtesy, and
+indemnity; and when it is considered that I was afterwards seized in
+the House of Commons, in defiance of the privileges of the House&mdash;can
+there be a doubt that the object of that apprehension was less the
+accomplishment of the sentence of the court than the prevention of
+the exposure which I was prepared to make of the injustice of that
+sentence? That recourse should have been had to violence to stifle the
+accusations which I was prepared to bring forward, that terror of the
+truth should have so superseded a wonted reverence for parliamentary
+privileges as to have admitted the intrusion of tipstaves and
+thief-takers into the House of Commons, to seize the person of an
+individual elected to serve as a member of that House, and avowedly
+attendant for that purpose, is extraordinary, though not unnatural."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+It must be admitted that the question of breach of privilege was
+somewhat more complicated than Lord Cochrane considered. His opponents
+did not think with him that he was still a member of the House of
+Commons. That membership had been taken from him, formally, though
+wrongfully, by his expulsion on the 5th of July, and he had
+himself recognized the expulsion by accepting re-election from the
+constituents of Westminster on the 16th of the same month. According
+to precedent, however, that re-election could not be perfected until
+the customary oaths had been taken; and, through a trick contrived
+in the clerks' office, he was hindered from taking them before the
+arrival of the marshal and his consequent arrest. Yet there can be no
+doubt that, in the special circumstances of the case, this arrest was
+especially indecorous, and, in the method of effecting it, altogether
+illegal. If he had no right in the House of Commons, he was a common
+trespasser, and ought to have been at once removed by the servants of
+the House, who alone could have power to touch him within the walls.
+To allow him a seat therein, without molestation, until the arrival
+of the servants of the King's Bench Prison, and then to allow those
+servants to enter the House and act upon an authority that could there
+be no authority, was wholly unwarrantable, a gross insult to Lord
+Cochrane, and, to the customs of the House of Commons, an insult yet
+more gross. But to the hardship and the insult alike the House of
+Commons, servile in its devotion to the Government of the day, was
+blind.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+A miserable farce ensued. While the House was sitting, a few hours
+after Lord Cochrane's capture, a letter from the Marshal of the King's
+Bench was read by the Speaker, in which his bold act was formally
+reported and apologized for. "I humbly hope," he there said, "that I
+have not committed any breach of privilege by the steps I have taken;
+and that, if I have done wrong, it will be attributed to error in
+judgment, and not to any intention of doing anything that might give
+offence."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The short debate that followed the reading of that letter is very
+noteworthy. Lord Castlereagh spoke first, and dictated the view to
+be taken by all loyal members of the House. "From the nature of the
+arrest and the circumstances attending it, I do not think, sir," he
+said, "that the House is called upon to interfere. I am not aware, as
+the House was not actually sitting, with the mace on the table and the
+Speaker in the chair, when the arrest took place, that any breach of
+privilege has been committed. It must be quite obvious to every man
+that the marshal has not acted wilfully in violation of the privileges
+of the House. No blame can attach to him, since he has submitted
+himself to the judgment of the House of Commons after having done
+that which he considered his duty as a civil officer. Having had Lord
+Cochrane in his custody, from which he escaped, the marshal was bound
+not to pass over any justifiable means of putting him under arrest
+whenever a fair opportunity occurred."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Most of the members thought, with Lord Castlereagh, that this was
+a "fair opportunity." Only one, Mr. Tierney&mdash;and he very
+feebly&mdash;ventured to express an opposite opinion. "I consider this,"
+he said, "to be the case of a member regularly elected to serve in
+Parliament, and coming down to take his seat. Now, sir, the House is
+regularly adjourned until ten o'clock in the morning; and I recollect
+occasions when the Speaker did take the chair at that hour. Suppose,
+then, a member, about to take his seat, came down here at an early
+hour, with the proper documents in his hand, and desired to be
+instructed in the mode of proceeding, and, while waiting, an officer
+entered, arrested him, and took his person away, would not this be a
+case to call for the interference of the House?" Mr. Tierney admitted
+that he approved of Lord Cochrane's arrest, but feared it might become
+a precedent and be put to the "improper purpose" of sanctioning the
+arrest of members more deserving of consideration.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+To please him, and to satisfy the formalities, therefore, the question
+was referred to a committee of privileges. This committee reported, on
+the 23rd of March, "that, under the particular circumstances, it did
+not appear that the privileges of Parliament had been violated, so as
+to call for the interposition of the House;" and the House of Commons
+being satisfied with that opinion, no further attention was paid to
+the subject.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+In the meanwhile Lord Cochrane was being punished, with inexcusable
+severity, for his contempt of the authority of Lord Ellenborough and
+Mr. Jones. A member of the House, during the discussion of the 21st of
+March, had said that he had just come from the King's Bench Prison.
+"I found Lord Cochrane," he had averred, "confined there in a strong
+room, fourteen feet square, without windows, fireplace, table, or
+bed. I do not think it can be necessary for the purpose of security
+to confine him in this manner. According to my own feelings, it is a
+place unfit for the noble lord, or for any other person whatsoever."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+In this Strong Room, however, Lord Cochrane was detained for more
+than three weeks. It was partly underground, devoid of ventilation or
+necessary warmth, and, according to the testimony of Dr. Buchan, one
+of the physicians who visited him in it, "rendered extremely damp and
+unpleasant by the exudations coming through the wall."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+On being taken to this den immediately after his capture, Lord
+Cochrane was informed by Mr. Jones that he would be detained in it for
+a short time only, until the apartments over the lobby of the prison
+were prepared for his reception. That was done in a few days; but no
+intimation of a change was made until the 1st of April, when a message
+to that effect was sent to the prisoner. On the following day he
+received a letter from Mr. Jones informing him that, if he would
+anticipate the payment of the fine of 1000£ levied against him, and
+would also pledge himself, and give security for the keeping of the
+promise, to make no further effort to escape, he might be allowed to
+occupy the more comfortable quarters. "It is no new thing," said Lord
+Cochrane, "for a prisoner to escape or to be retaken; but to require
+of any prisoner a bond and securities not to repeat such escape was,
+I think, a proposition without precedent, and such as the marshal knew
+could not be complied with by me without humiliation, and therefore
+could not be proposed by him without insult. Besides, he had my
+assurance that if I were again to quit his custody (which I gave him
+no reason to believe I should attempt, and which, as I observed and
+believe, it was as easy for me to effect from that room as from any
+other part of the prison), I should proceed no further than to the
+House of Commons, and that where he found me before he might find me
+again; I having had no other object in view than that of expressing,
+by some peculiar act, the keen sense which I entertained of <i>peculiar</i> injustice, and of endeavouring to bring such additional proofs of that
+injustice before the House as were not in my possession when I was
+heard in my defence." Mr. Jones, however, resolved to keep his captive
+in the Strong Room, unless he would promise to resign himself to
+captivity in a less obnoxious part of the prison.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Even for that negative favour the marshal took great credit to himself
+in a document which he issued at the time. "If a humane and kind
+concern for this unfortunate nobleman," he there averred, "had not
+softened the solicitude which I naturally felt for my own security, I
+could have committed him, on my own warrant for the escape, to the new
+gaol in Horsemonger Lane, for the space of a month; and that power
+is still within my jurisdiction. Had I thought proper to exercise it,
+Lord Cochrane would then have been confined in a solitary cell with a
+stone floor, with windows impenetrably barred and without glass; nor
+would it have proved half the size of the Strong Room in the King's
+Bench, which has a boarded floor and glazed lights." That statement
+reasonably stirred the anger of Lord Cochrane. "Though the solitary
+cell in Horsemonger Lane," he answered, "may be half the size of the
+Strong Room, it could not, I apprehend, have been more gloomy, damp,
+filthy, or injurious to health than the last-mentioned dungeon. And
+since Mr. Jones could only have confined me in the former place for
+a month, and did confine me in the latter for twenty-six days, I can
+scarcely see that degree of difference which should entitle him to
+those 'grateful sentiments for his mode of acting on the occasion'
+which, he submits to the public, it is my duty to entertain. The
+'glazed lights' mentioned by Mr. Jones were not put up till I had been
+thirty hours in the place, and I have always understood that I was
+indebted for them to the good offices of Mr. Bennet and Mr. Lambton,
+who happened [as part of a Parliamentary Committee] to be prosecuting
+their inquiry into the state of the prison at the time of my return.
+For these and all other mercies of the said marshal, my gratitude is
+due to their friendship and sense of duty, and to his dread of their
+discoveries and proceedings."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+It is clear that nothing but fear of the consequences induced Mr.
+Jones to remove Lord Cochrane from the Strong Room, after twenty-six
+days of confinement therein. On the 12th of April the prisoner issued
+an address to the electors of Westminster, detailing some of the
+hardships to which he was being subjected; and its publication
+immediately roused so much popular interest that the authorities of
+King's Bench Prison deemed it necessary to make at any rate a show of
+amelioration in his treatment. On the 13th, his physician, Dr. Buchan,
+was allowed to visit him, and his report was such that another medical
+man of eminence, Mr. Saumarez, was sent to examine into the state of
+the prisoner's health. Part of Dr. Buchan's certificate has already
+been quoted. The rest was as follows: "This is to certify that I have
+this day visited Lord Cochrane, who is affected with severe pain of
+the breast. His pulse is low, his hands cold, and he has many symptoms
+of a person about to have typhus or putrid fever. These symptoms are,
+in my opinion, produced by the stagnant air of the Strong Room in
+which he is now confined." "I hereby certify," wrote Mr. Saumarez,
+"that I have visited Lord Cochrane, and am of opinion, from the state
+of his health at this time, that it is essentially necessary that he
+should be removed from the room which he now inhabits to one which
+is better ventilated, and in which there is a fireplace. His lordship
+complains of pain in the chest, with difficulty of respiration,
+accompanied with great coldness of the hands; and, from the general
+state of his health, there is great reason to fear that a low typhus
+may come on."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The only result of those medical opinions was a renewal of the
+offer to remove Lord Cochrane to the rooms prepared for him, on the
+conditions previously specified by Mr. Jones. Lord Cochrane answered
+that he would rather die than submit to such an insulting arrangement.
+He published the doctors' certificates, however, on the 15th of April,
+and their effect upon the public was so great that the authorities
+were forced on the following day to take him out of his dungeon. Mr.
+Jones's account of this step is worth quoting. "I again tried," he
+reported, "to induce Lord Cochrane's friends and relations to give me
+any kind of undertaking against another escape. On their refusal, I
+determined myself to become his friend, and, at my own risk, to remove
+him to the rooms which have been already mentioned, and where, I am
+confident, he can have no cause of complaint. These rooms not being
+altogether safe against such a person as Lord Cochrane, should he
+determine to risk another escape, I must look to the laws of my
+country as a safeguard, in the hope that the terrors of them will
+discourage him from attempting a repetition of his offence, and
+prevent him from incurring the penalties of another indictment."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Lord Cochrane never really intended to attempt a second escape. Had it
+been otherwise, the illness induced by his confinement in the Strong
+Room would have restrained him. Being placed in healthier apartments
+on the 16th of April, he quietly remained there for the remainder of
+his term of imprisonment. On the 20th of June he was informed that,
+the term being now at an end, he was at liberty to depart on payment
+of the fine of 1000£ levied against him. This he at first refused
+to do, and accordingly he was detained in prison for a fortnight more;
+but at length the entreaties of his friends prevailed. On the 3rd of
+July he tendered to the Marshal of the King's Bench a 1000£ note,
+with this memorable endorsement: "My health having suffered by long
+and close confinement, and my oppressors being resolved to deprive
+me of property or life, I submit to robbery to protect myself from
+murder, in the hope that I shall live to bring the delinquents to
+justice." Upon that the prison doors were opened for him, and he was
+able once more to fight for the justice so cruelly withheld from
+him, and to make his innocence entirely clear to all whose selfish
+interests did not force them to be blind to the truth.
+</p>
+
+</div><!--end chapter-->
+
+<div class="chapter">
+
+<h2><a name="chap04"></a>CHAPTER IV.</h2>
+
+<p class="letter">
+LORD COCHRANE'S RETURN TO THE HOUSE OF COMMONS.&mdash;HIS SHARE IN THE
+REFUSAL OF THE DUKE OF CUMBERLAND'S MARRIAGE PENSION.&mdash;HIS CHARGES
+AGAINST LORD ELLENBOROUGH, AND THEIR REJECTION BY THE HOUSE.&mdash;HIS
+POPULARITY.&mdash;THE PART TAKEN BY HIM IN PUBLIC MEETINGS FOR THE RELIEF
+OF THE PEOPLE.&mdash;THE LONDON TAVERN MEETING.&mdash;HIS FURTHER PROSECUTION,
+TRIAL AT GUILDFORD, AND SUBSEQUENT IMPRISONMENT.&mdash;THE PAYMENT OF HIS
+FINES BY A PENNY SUBSCRIPTION.&mdash;THE CONGRATULATIONS OF HIS WESTMINSTER
+CONSTITUENTS.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+[1815-1816.]
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Released from imprisonment on Monday, the 3rd of July, Lord Cochrane
+resumed his seat in the House of Commons on the evening of the
+same day, just in time to secure the defeat of a measure which was
+especially obnoxious to his Radical friends. The Duke of Cumberland
+having lately married a daughter of the Duke of Mecklenburg-Strelitz,
+it was proposed to augment his income of about 20,000£ a year by
+a further pension of 6000£ A bill to that effect was brought in by
+Lord Castlereagh, and, after much sullen opposition from independent
+members, allowed a first reading by a majority of seventeen. On the
+second division the majority was reduced to twelve. The bill was
+brought on for the third reading on the 3rd of July, and would have
+been passed through the House of Commons by the Speaker's casting vote
+but for Lord Cochrane's sudden appearance. His vote secured a majority
+against it, and thereby it was finally overthrown. Great, on the
+morrow, were the rejoicings of his supporters. "What a triumph," it
+was said in a friendly newspaper, "is this to innocence! After being
+sentenced to the scandalous and disgraceful punishment of the pillory,
+after being confined in a loathsome dungeon, fined 1000£ in money
+to the king, disgracefully removed from that service in which he had
+attained such high honours and rendered to his country such essential
+service, his escutcheon kicked out of Westminster Abbey, his order
+of knighthood taken from him; in short, after having every possible
+indignity which the most malignant imagination could invent heaped
+upon him in every way, his single vote, on the very first day of his
+returning to his parliamentary duties, has been the means of obtaining
+a signal victory over those under whose persecution he had been so
+long suffering."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The one victory upon which Lord Cochrane set his heart, however&mdash;the
+reversal of the unjust sentence passed upon him, and the consequent
+restoration of the honours and offices that were now doubly dear to
+him&mdash;he was not able to obtain. On the 6th of July, just before the
+prorogation of Parliament, he gave notice that, early in the next
+session, he should move for the appointment of a committee to inquire
+into the conduct of Lord Ellenborough and others towards him during
+the Stock Exchange trial. In arranging for this new effort at
+self-justification, he was partly occupied during the ensuing autumn
+and winter, and the question was brought prominently before the House
+of Commons in the spring of 1816; only to issue, however, in further
+injustice and disappointment.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+His purpose from the first was, of course, virtually the impeachment
+of Lord Ellenborough; and that object was yet more apparent from the
+altered shape which the question assumed when introduced in the new
+session. During the recess, Lord Cochrane, with the help of advisers,
+some of whom were more zealous than wise, William Cobbett being the
+chief, had prepared an elaborate series of "charges of partiality,
+misrepresentation, injustice, and oppression against the Lord Chief
+Justice;" and these were formally introduced to the House of Commons
+on the 5th of March. "When I recollect," said Lord Cochrane on that
+occasion, "the imputations cast upon my character, and circulated
+industriously previous to any legal proceedings, the conduct pursued
+at my trial, the verdict obtained, the ineffectual endeavours; to
+procure a revision of my case in the Court of King's Bench, and the
+infamous sentence there pronounced, together with my expulsion from
+this House without being suffered to expose its injustice&mdash;when I call
+to mind my dismissal from a service in which I have spent the fairest
+portion of my life, at least without reproach, and my illegal and
+unmerited deprivation of the order of the Bath&mdash;it is impossible
+to speak without emotion. I have but one course now left to pursue,
+namely, to show that the charge of the Lord Chief Justice, on which he
+directed the jury to decide, was not only unsupported by, but was
+in direct contradiction to, the evidence on which it professed to
+be founded. This is the best course to pursue both in justice to the
+learned judge and to myself. Either I am unfit to sit in this House,
+or the judge has no right to his place on the bench. I have courted
+investigation in every shape; and I trust that the learned lord will
+not shrink from it or suffer his friends on the opposite side to evade
+the consideration of these charges by 'the previous question.'"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Lord Cochrane thereupon tendered to the House thirteen charges against
+Lord Ellenborough, in which every point of importance in the Stock
+Exchange trial was minutely detailed and discussed; and these charges
+being read, therein occupying nearly three hours, were ordered to be
+printed. A fourteenth charge, bearing upon Lord Ellenborough's conduct
+subsequent to the trial, was introduced on the 29th of March; but
+this, as it included aspersions upon the character of another judge,
+Sir Simon Le Blanc, was objected to and withdrawn. There was further
+discussion on the subject on the 1st and the 29th of April; but not
+much was done until the 30th of April.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+On that evening, Lord Cochrane formally moved that his charges against
+Lord Ellenborough should be referred to a Committee of the whole
+House, and that evidence in support of them should be heard at the
+bar. A lengthy discussion then ensued, the most notable speeches
+being made by the Solicitor-General, Sir Francis Burdett, and the
+Attorney-General.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The Solicitor-General of course opposed the motion. "As the House, on
+the one hand," he said, "should jealously watch over the conduct of
+judges, so, on the other, it should protect them when deserving of
+protection, not only as a debt of justice due to the judges, but as
+a debt due to justice herself, in order that the public confidence in
+the purity of the administration of our laws may not be disappointed,
+and that the course of that administration may continue the admiration
+of the world; for, unless the judges are protected in the exercise of
+their functions, the public opinion of the excellence of our laws will
+be inevitably weakened,&mdash;and to weaken public opinion is to weaken
+justice herself."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+That sort of argument, too frivolous and faulty, it might be supposed,
+to influence any one, had weight with the House of Commons to which it
+was addressed; and the Solicitor-General adduced much more of it.
+To him the spotless character of Lord Ellenborough appeared to be an
+ample defence against Lord Cochrane's charges. "Never," he said, with
+a truthfulness that posterity can appreciate, "never was there an
+individual at the bar or on the bench less liable to the imputation
+of corrupt motives; never was there one more remarkable for
+independence&mdash;I will say, sturdy independence&mdash;of character, than the
+noble and learned lord. For twelve years he has presided on the bench
+with unsullied honour, displaying a perfect knowledge of the
+law; evincing as much legal knowledge as was ever amassed by any
+individual; and now, in the latter part of his life, when he has
+arrived at the highest dignity to which a man can arrive, by a
+promotion well-earned at the bar, and doubly well-earned at the bench,
+we are told that he has sacrificed all his honours by acting from
+corrupt motives!"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Sir Francis Burdett replied effectively to the speeches of the
+Solicitor-General and others who sided with him, and nobly defended
+his friend. He showed that the proposal to refuse investigation of
+this case because it might weaken the cause of justice, by making the
+conduct of the administrators of justice contemptible, was worse than
+frivolous. "Such language," he averred, "would operate against the
+investigation of any charges whatever against any judge; would indeed
+form a barrier against the exercise of the best privilege of this
+House&mdash;the privilege of inquiring into the conduct of courts of
+justice. It would serve equally well to shelter even those judges
+who have been dragged from the bench for their misconduct." He then
+reviewed the incidents of the Stock Exchange trial, and urged that
+Lord Cochrane had good reason for bringing forward his charges. "The
+question for the House to consider is, 'Do these charges, if admitted,
+contain criminal matter for the consideration of the House?' I
+conceive that they do. No doubt the judges who condemned Russell and
+Sidney were, at the time, spoken of as men of high character, who
+could not be supposed to suffer any base motives to influence their
+conduct. Such arguments as those ought to be banished from this House.
+It is our duty to look, with constitutional suspicion on jealousy, on
+the proceedings of the judges; and, when a grave charge is solemnly
+brought forward, justice to the country, as well as to the judge,
+demands an inquiry into it."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+That, however, was refused. After a long speech from the
+Attorney-General, and an eloquent reply by Lord Cochrane, the House
+divided on the motion. Eighty-nine members voted against it. Its only
+supporters were Sir Francis Burdett and Lord Cochrane himself. Not
+only did the House refuse to listen to the allegations against Lord
+Ellenborough; in the excess of its devotion to such law and such order
+as the Government of the day appointed, it even resolved that all the
+entries in its record of proceedings which referred to this subject
+should be expunged from the journals. Lord Cochrane made no
+resistance to this further insult thrown upon him. "It gives me great
+satisfaction," he said, in the brief and dignified speech with which
+he closed the discussion, "to think that the vote which has been come
+to has been come to without any of my charges having been disproved.
+Whatever may be done with them now, they will find their way to
+posterity, and posterity will form a different judgment concerning
+them than that which has been adopted by this House. So long as I have
+a seat in this House, however, I will continue to bring them forward,
+year by year and time after time, until I am allowed the opportunity
+of establishing the truth of my allegations."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Other occupations prevented the full realization of that purpose. But
+to the end of his life Lord Cochrane used every occasion of asserting
+his innocence and courting a full investigation of all the incidents
+on which his assertion was based. Posterity, as he truly prophesied,
+has learnt to endorse his judgment; and therefore, in the ensuing
+pages, it will not be necessary to adduce from his letters and actions
+more than occasional illustrations of the temper which animated him
+throughout with reference to this heaviest of all his heavy troubles.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+By these troubles, however, even in the time of their greatest
+pressure, he was not overcome; and in the midst of them he found time
+and heart for active labour in the good work of various sorts that was
+always dear to him. He used the advantages of his liberty in striving
+to perfect the invention of improved street lamps and lighting
+material that had occupied him while in prison, and to procure their
+general adoption. His place in Parliament, moreover, all through the
+session of 1816, was employed not only in seeking justice for himself,
+but also in furthering every project advanced for benefiting the
+community and checking the pernicious action of the Government. A
+zealous, honest Whig before, he was now as zealous and as honest
+as ever in all his political conduct. And his devotion to the best
+interests of the people was yet more apparent in his unflagging
+labours, out of Parliament, for the public good. His great abilities,
+rendered all the more prominent by the cruel persecution to which he
+had been and still was subjected, made him a leading champion of the
+people during the turmoil to which misgovernment at home, and the
+distracted state of foreign politics, gave a special stimulus in 1816.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+A long list might be made of the great meetings which he attended,
+and took part in, both among his own constituents of Westminster
+and elsewhere, for the consideration of popular grievances and their
+remedies. One such meeting, attended by Henry Brougham and Sir Francis
+Burdett among others, was held in Palace Yard, Westminster, on the
+1st of March, for the purpose of petitioning Parliament against the
+renewal of the property-tax and the maintenance of a standing army in
+time of peace. Lord Cochrane, the hero of the day, on account of "the
+spirit of opposition which he had shown to the infringement of the
+constitution and the grievances of the people," won for himself new
+favour by the boldness with which he denounced the policy of the
+Government, which, boasting that it was ruining the French nation, was
+at the same time bringing misery also upon Englishmen by the excessive
+taxation and the reckless extravagance to which it resorted.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+A smaller, but much more momentous meeting assembled at the City
+of London Tavern on the 29th of July, under the auspices of the
+Association for the Relief of the Manufacturing and Labouring Poor.
+Instigated in a spirit of praiseworthy charity by many of the most
+influential persons of the day, it was used by Lord Cochrane for the
+enforcement of the views as to public right and public duty, and the
+mutual relations of the rich and the poor, which were forced upon him
+by his recent troubles, and the relations in which he was at this time
+placed with some over-zealous champions of popular reform, and some
+unreasonable exponents of popular grievances. That his conduct on this
+occasion was extravagant and even factious, he afterwards heartily
+regretted. Yet as a memorable illustration of the power and
+earnestness with which he fought for what seemed to him to be right,
+as well with word as with sword, its details, as reported at the time,
+may be here set forth at length.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+About half-past one o'clock the Duke of York entered and took
+the chair, supported on his right by the Duke of Kent, and on
+his left by the Duke of Cambridge. He was accompanied on
+his entrance by the Archbishop of Canterbury, the Bishop of
+London, the Duke of Rutland, Lord Manvers, the Chancellor
+of the Exchequer, Mr. Wilberforce, and other distinguished
+individuals.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+His Royal Highness the Duke of York immediately
+proceeded to open the business of the day, by observing that the
+present meeting had been called to consider and, as far as possible,
+to alleviate the present distress and sufferings of the labouring
+classes of the community. These distresses were, he feared, too well
+known to all who heard him to require any description; and all he
+had to add to the bare statement of them was the expression of his
+confidence that the liberality which had been so signally manifested
+in the course of foreign distress would not be found wanting when the
+direction of it was to be towards the comfort and relief of our own
+countrymen at home.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+THE DUKE OF KENT, after alluding to the exertions of the Committee of
+1812, observed that the immediate object was to raise a fund, in
+the subsequent accumulation and management of which many ulterior
+arrangements might be projected, and from which charity might soon
+emanate in a thousand directions. He doubted not that every county and
+every town would be quick to imitate the example of the metropolis.
+The association of 1812 had at least the merit of producing this
+effect, and had spread through the whole land that spirit of active
+benevolence which he was feebly invoking on this occasion. He trusted
+that it was necessary for him to say but little more to insure the
+adoption of the resolution which he should have the honour to propose.
+He confessed he felt gratified when he saw so great a concourse of
+his countrymen assembled together for such a purpose, and additional
+gratification at seeing by whom they were supported. He was sure,
+then, that he should not plead in vain to the national liberality; but
+that the remedy would be promptly afforded to an evil which he trusted
+would be found but temporary. If they should be so happy as but to
+succeed in discovering new sources of employment to supply the place
+of those channels which had been suddenly shut up, he should
+indeed despond if we did not soon restore the country to that
+same flourishing condition which had long made her the envy of
+the world. The royal Duke then moved the first resolution,
+as follows:&mdash;"That the transition from a state of extensive
+warfare to a system of peace has occasioned a stagnation of
+employment and a revulsion of trade, deeply affecting the
+situation of many parts of the community, and producing many
+instances of great local distress."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The resolution was seconded by Mr. Harman.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Lord Cochrane offered himself to the attention of the meeting,
+but was for some time unable to proceed, his voice being lost
+in the huzzas and hisses which his presence called forth.
+Silence being at length in some measure obtained, his lordship
+said he would not have addressed the meeting but that, having
+received a circular letter from the committee, and feeling
+the importance of the subject, he would have thought it a
+dereliction of his duty if he refrained from attending. He
+rose thus early because the observations he had to submit
+would not be suitable if made when the other resolutions were
+put. The first resolution was, in his opinion, founded on
+a gross fallacy; and this was his reason for saying so. The
+existing distresses could not be truly ascribed to any sudden
+transition from war to peace. Could it be pretended that it
+was peace which had occasioned the fall in the value of all
+agricultural produce? Or could any man venture to assert that
+the difficulties and sufferings of the manufacturing classes
+had any other cause than a prodigious and enormous burthen of
+taxation? He was much gratified at seeing the royal Dukes so
+active in promoting a generous and laudable undertaking, and
+he hoped he should not be understood as treating them with
+disrespect when he repeated that the resolution was founded
+on an entire fallacy. But, not to content himself with a mere
+assertion of his own belief,
+he had brought official documents to prove the correctness
+of his statements; and if he should be wrong, he saw the
+Chancellor of the Exchequer near him, who would have the
+opportunity of correcting his misrepresentation. This brief
+statement, he believed, would be quite sufficient to show that
+the financial situation of the country was such as to render
+any attempts of that meeting for the purpose of extending
+general relief utterly ineffectual. The whole revenue of the
+kingdom was 62,267,450£, deducting the property-tax, and
+the revenue was thus expended. The interest of the national
+debt, including the interest of unfunded exchequer bills, was
+upwards of 40,300,000£, leaving to support the expenses of
+Government only about 22,000,000£ It was this enormous sum
+which now hung round our necks&mdash;it was this, which unnecessary
+extravagance had caused to increase from year to year to its
+present terrible amount, which was the cause of all the
+evils of the country at this moment. This taxation, and
+extravagance, for which the country was now suffering, was
+supported and sanctioned by those who had derived and still
+derived large emoluments from them. These were truths that
+the people ought to know; for they were the source of their
+burthens, and the origin of all the mischief. It was this
+profuse expenditure of the public money, to say no worse of
+it, that occasioned the present calamities. It was the lavish
+expenditure to meet a compliant list of placemen that brought
+the country to its present state. The deficiency in the
+revenue occasioned by the enormous interest of the national
+debt, which ministers would have to supply, would, according
+to the present disbursements and receipts, amount to
+11,578,000£ unless that expenditure were reduced, every
+such attempt as they were at present making would, he was
+convinced, prove abortive: it was a mere topical application
+while a mortal distemper was raging within. He had taken
+no notice in his estimate of the charges for sinecures or
+the bounties on exports and imports: and yet the returns upon
+which he went, exclusive of these charges, showed a deficit
+for the ensuing year of 3,500,000£ Were those who heard him
+prepared to make this good? It was, he believed, undeniable
+that nothing could equalize our revenue with our expenditure,
+but the putting down entirely the army and navy, or the
+extinction of one half of the national debt; but when he
+looked to the actual receipt of the last quarter and found
+a falling off of 2,400,000£, which, with a corresponding
+decrease in the three succeeding quarters, must create a new
+deficit of 10,000,000£, and, added to the 3,500,000£
+to which he had alluded, would form a sum equal to the whole
+amount of the boasted sinking-fund, he felt that it was worse
+than trifling to suppose we could go on upon the present
+system. Were they prepared to make up this enormous
+deficiency? [A voice from the crowd cried "Yes."] He was happy
+to hear it: he supposed it was some fund-holder who answered,
+and if any class could do so, it was the fund-holders. They
+alone had the ability, they alone now derived any returns
+from their property; but even if they should be both able and
+willing, still it would only remain a positive deficit made
+good, and no new facility would be derived for alleviating
+the existing burthens. The burthens and distresses must
+still remain what they were before. He spoke not now upon
+conjecture, or loose calculation, he had brought his authority
+with him. These were the records from which he derived his
+statements&mdash;the official returns of the Treasury; and
+if false, the Chancellor of the Exchequer was present to
+contradict them. He was glad, he confessed, to see him, for
+those who heard him were, no doubt, aware that it was not
+always in the House of Commons that a minister could discover
+the genuine sentiments of the people. If, therefore, no other
+person should move an amendment, he should feel it his duty
+to propose an omission of that part of the resolution which
+ascribed the distressed state of the country to the transition
+from a state of war to a state of peace, and to state the
+cause to be an enormous debt, and a lavish expenditure. He had
+come there with the expectation of seeing the Duke of Rutland
+in the chair; and with some hopes, as he took the lead upon
+this occasion, that it was his intention to surrender that
+sinecure of 9,000£ a-year which he was now in the habit
+of putting in his pocket. He still trusted that all who were
+present and were also holders of sinecures had it in their
+intention to sacrifice them to their liberality and their
+justice; and that they did not come there to aid the
+distresses of their country by paying half-a-crown per cent,
+out of the hundreds which they took from it. If they did not,
+all he could say was, that to him their pretended charity was
+little better than a fraud. Without, however, taking up more
+of their time, he should move his amendment, with this one
+additional observation, that it would be a disgrace to an
+enlightened meeting, and particularly to a meeting which might
+be considered as comprising an aggregate mass of the property
+and intellect of the country, to place a fallacy upon the
+record of their proceedings, and to build all their following
+resolutions upon an assertion which had no foundation in
+truth. He concluded by moving the following amendment to the
+first resolution:&mdash;"That the enormous load of the national
+debt, together with the large military establishment and the
+profuse expenditure of public money, was the real cause of the
+present public distress."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Mr. Wilberforce said he was himself too much of an Englishman,
+and had been too long engaged in political discussions to feel
+any surprise that those who felt warmly on such a subject as
+the present should be anxious to give
+expression to their sentiments: but he could not help thinking
+that, upon cool reflection, the noble lord would be of opinion
+that his own object would be better attained if he confined
+himself, on this occasion, to the distinct question under
+consideration. The noble lord said the country was in a
+crisis, and would they apply a mere topical remedy? but he
+might ask the noble lord if he would refuse to assuage the
+pain of a temporary distemper because he had it not in his
+power at once to cure it radically? To him the existing
+distress appeared to be a distemper which rather called for
+immediate alleviation, than for the speculative discussion of
+its cause. He thought the most charitable and manly course to
+be pursued&mdash;and that which must be most congenial to what
+he knew to be the noble lord's own charitable and manly
+disposition&mdash;was not to call upon the meeting to give any
+opinion upon a political question not under consideration,
+so as to divert them from pursuing it with diligence and
+confidence, but to postpone to a better opportunity a
+discussion of this nature, and to unite cordially in the
+general cause of finding employment and encouragement for our
+suffering fellow-citizens. If the noble lord would reflect
+upon the best mode of relieving the distresses of the people,
+he would find his amendment not likely to have that tendency.
+Let him reserve all discussion on the question it involved
+until he could do it without interrupting the stream of
+charity, and until he could enter upon it under fair and
+proper circumstances. He (Mr. Wilberforce), in a proper place,
+would not shrink from meeting the noble lord on that inquiry;
+he was twice as old in public life as the noble lord could
+pretend to be, and fully as independent; yet he would not have
+easily supposed any man, however young in politics, could have
+started such topics there. For his part, he should be sorry to
+take advantage of any credit which might be
+to supposed to belong to him upon such an occasion as this to
+cast reproaches upon those who were concurring with him in a
+benevolent design. The meeting must on the present occasion
+feel how much indebted it stood to the royal personages for
+their attendance. They had come to listen to a discussion
+which had for its avowed and direct object the relief of the
+people, and they were in the room suddenly called upon to lay
+aside the practical part of their inquiry and to enter upon
+a distinct pursuit. Was such a course fair towards those
+illustrious individuals? Was it that which was likely
+to induce them to listen to proposals for their personal
+co-operation on occasions of benevolence, if they had no
+security against the occupation of their time for discussions
+of a different character? In conclusion, he entreated the
+noble lord, of whose real disposition to relieve the people
+of England he had no doubt, and whose motives he could justly
+appreciate, to withdraw his amendment.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Lord Cochrane thanked the honourable gentleman for his
+personal civilities towards him, and said that he would feel
+no hesitation in withdrawing his amendment if the honourable
+gentleman would state to the meeting, on his own personal
+veracity and honour, that he believed that the original
+resolution contained the true cause of the public distress,
+and the amendment the false one. If the honourable gentleman
+would say that&mdash;if any respectable man present would say
+it&mdash;he would be satisfied.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Mr. Cotes said he was entirely unconnected with the noble
+lord, and had never even had the honour of speaking, to him.
+He agreed, however, with him in thinking that this was a
+moment when the eyes of the public ought to be open to their
+real situation. The amendment harmonized entirely with all
+the opinions which he had been able to form upon subject. Mr.
+Wilberforce, to whose humane and benevolent
+Mr. character he was happy to pay his acknowledgments, had
+attempted to get rid of the noble lord's amendment by a sort
+of side-wind; but to his judgment there was no incompatibility
+between the object of the meeting and the amendment. There was
+nothing irrelevant in it; it naturally grew out of the course
+adopted by the chair, and in which a cause of the prevailing
+distress was distinctly specified. The question was, then,
+ought their resolutions to go forth to the public with a
+falsehood upon the face of them? Ought they not to state the
+true cause, since His Royal Highness by mistake had assigned
+a fallacious one? Mr. Wilberforce, with his usual ability, but
+in a manner that still marked its duplicity&mdash;he meant the
+word in no offensive sense&mdash;had asked, would he enter into
+a political discussion when we were called upon to extend
+relief? He begged to state this was not the true question: it
+was whether they would found all the future proceedings
+upon error and misstatement, or upon incontrovertible facts.
+Another question was, would they be satisfied to patch up the
+wounds of the country for a short period or seek to remedy
+the disease in its spring and in its sources before it became
+still more alarming and incurable? The Duke of Kent said he
+had offered the resolution as it had been put into his hand;
+and if he had conceived there had been any mention of a course
+upon which difference of opinion could exist, he hoped they
+knew him sufficiently to believe that he should have been
+incapable of requiring their assent to it. He now, therefore,
+proposed an omission of all that part of the resolution
+which had any reference whatever to the cause of the present
+distress. He knew the noble lord well enough&mdash;and he had known
+him in early life&mdash;to be assured that he would agree with him,
+at least in a declaration as to the fact. Their common object,
+he believed, was to afford relief and to admit its necessity
+without assigning
+either one cause or another. For his own part, it had not been
+his intention to attend a political discussion. He would never
+enter the arena of politics with the noble lord; but he begged
+leave to say, he considered himself as competent to plead
+the cause of humanity, to advocate the interests of the
+weather-beaten sufferer, as the noble lord could be. There
+were, however, other times and other places for men to engage
+in discussion of party politics, and he therefore implored the
+noble lord not to distract the attention of the meeting by the
+introduction of these; and to keep solely in view that they
+had met as the friends of benevolence, not as the advocates of
+a party. His Royal Highness then proposed to alter the motion
+as follows:&mdash;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Resolved that there do at this moment exist a stagnation
+of employment and a revulsion of trade, deeply affecting the
+situation of many parts of the community, and producing many
+instances of great local distress."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Lord Cochrane, in reply, stated that he had no wish to excite
+a difference of opinion on such an occasion, and that, after
+the alteration in the resolution, nothing gave him more
+pleasure than the opportunity of withdrawing his amendment;
+but, in justification of what he had done, it became necessary
+for him to say that he never would have thought of his
+amendment if it had not been for the assertion as to the cause
+of existing distress&mdash;he had no doubt in his mind as to the
+nature of that cause, and he held it but just and honourable
+that if a cause must be assigned, it should be the true one.
+After returning thanks to Mr. Wilberforce and the Duke of Kent
+for their expressions of personal civility, the noble lord
+consented to withdraw his motion so far as he was personally
+concerned in it.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Considerable opposition, however, from various parts of the
+hall was manifested to this mode of withdrawing the
+amendment, and a great deal of disturbance took place. At last
+the resolution, as altered by the Duke of Kent, was put and
+carried.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The Duke of Cambridge, in his speech, which followed, returned
+his warm thanks to the noble lord for the handsome manner in
+which he had withdrawn his amendment. He moved the following
+resolution, which was unanimously agreed to:&mdash;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"From the experienced generosity of the British nation it may
+be confidently expected that those who are able to afford the
+means of relief to their fellow-subjects will contribute their
+utmost endeavours to remedy or alleviate the sufferings of
+those who are particularly distressed."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The Archbishop of Canterbury moved the following resolution,
+which was seconded and carried unanimously: "That although it
+is obviously impossible for any association of individuals to
+attempt a general relief of difficulties affecting so large a
+proportion of the public, yet that it has been proved by
+the experience of this association that most important and
+extensive benefits may be derived from the co-operation and
+correspondence of a society in the metropolis encouraging the
+efforts of those benevolent individuals who may be disposed to
+associate themselves in the different districts for the relief
+of their several neighbourhoods."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The Duke of Rutland afterwards addressed the meeting,
+and moved that a subscription be immediately opened, and
+contributions generally solicited for carrying into effect the
+objects of this association; which was seconded, and agreed
+to.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The Earl of Manvers, after stating that he had opposed the
+amendment of the noble lord (Lord Cochrane) solely from his
+anxiety to preserve the unanimity of the meeting, as it was
+only by becoming unanimous they could gain their
+object, moved: "That subscribers of 100£ and upwards be
+added to the committee of the Association for the Relief of
+the Manufacturing and Labouring Poor; that the committee have
+full power to dispose of the funds to be collected, and to
+name sub-committees for correspondence."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+    The motion was seconded by Sir T. Bell, and unanimously
+    carried.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+    The Bishop of London proposed a vote of thanks to the Duke of
+    York, which Mr. C. Barclay was about to second, but&mdash;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Lord Cochrane again stepped forward and gained the attention
+of the meeting. He repeated the explanation of the motives
+for withdrawing his proposed amendment, adding, that he had no
+wish again to press that amendment upon the consideration
+of the meeting. But he could not forbear from observing what
+would have been the fate of such a proposition, if brought
+forward in another place, which he need not name. For there,
+instead of being requested to withdraw the proposition, it
+would have been met by a direct negative or by 'the previous
+question,' in support of which, no doubt, a majority of that
+assembly, miscalled the representatives of the people, would
+have voted. Yet the manner in which this, a meeting of the
+people, would have decided, was pretty obvious; and hence it
+might be inferred how far the people concurred in sentiment
+and feeling with the House of Commons. That the proposed, or
+any charitable subscription, must be inadequate to relieve the
+actual distress of the country was a proposition which could
+not be disputed, but yet he did not intend to oppose that
+subscription; on the contrary, he should give it every
+possible support in his power; and it was, he felt, a
+consolation to them that there were still some persons in this
+country who could afford something to relieve the poor; but
+he was afraid that neither the landowner nor the mercantile
+interest had the means of
+doing so; for the former could obtain no rent, and the latter
+no trade&mdash;the only persons, in fact, who were able to assist
+the poor under present circumstances were the placemen, the
+sinecurists, and the fund-holders, who must give up at least
+half of their ill-gotten gains in order to effect the object.
+With this impression fixed upon his mind, he felt it his duty
+to propose an additional resolution, that the ministers of
+the crown, that the Government of the country, who wielded
+the power of Parliament, were alone competent to remove and
+to alleviate the national distress. This, indeed, was evident
+from the statement of our financial situation which he
+had already made. He had called upon the Chancellor of the
+Exchequer, who was present, to contradict that statement if
+he could; but the right honourable gentleman had felt it
+expedient not to utter one word, as the meeting had witnessed.
+Yet from that statement it must be obvious, as he had already
+observed, that the military and naval situation of the country
+must be abandoned, or at least half the national debt must be
+extinguished, for the resources of the empire could not endure
+such burthens. The noble lord concluded with expressing his
+intention when the present resolutions were got over, to move
+another, stating the real cause of the present distress,
+and that the Chancellor of the Exchequer and his majesty's
+ministers were alone capable of affording serious relief to
+the present distress.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+    Mr. Barclay seconded the motion of the Right Reverend the
+    Bishop of London, to which Lord Cochrane assured the meeting
+    he entertained no objection.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+    Great confusion prevailed in the meeting, some crying out
+    for Lord Cochrane's motion, while others were equally loud in
+    testifying their anxiety for the vote of thanks.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The Duke of Kent then put the motion.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Lord Cochrane said that his sole object was to have an
+opportunity of moving his resolution after the present was
+disposed of.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+A person from a distant part of the room exclaimed: "That resolution
+shall not be put, for it is a libel on the Parliament." Several other
+remarks were made, but they were generally unintelligible from the
+violent uproar and confusion that prevailed. Loud cries of "Put Lord
+Cochrane's motion first" were mixed with the cry of "Chair, chair."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The Duke of Kent said that he had attended this meeting with a view
+to assist in promoting an object of charity, and he had no doubt that
+such was the intention of the noble lord (Cochrane). Of this he
+was sure from the noble lord's own declaration, as well as from his
+knowledge of the noble lord's feelings. The noble lord had, indeed,
+himself stated that he had no wish to introduce any political, or to
+press any, measure likely to interfere with the object of the
+meeting. Therefore, he called upon the noble lord, in consistency, in
+politeness and urbanity, not to urge any political principle; and the
+noble lord must be aware that his proposition had a strong political
+tendency. The proposition was indeed such, that the noble lord must be
+aware that it was calculated to injure the subscription, for those who
+were not of the noble lord's opinion in politics were but too likely
+to leave the room if that proposition were pressed to a vote, and thus
+a material object of charity would suffer through a desire to urge a
+declaration of a mere political opinion.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Lord Cochrane disclaimed any wish to provoke political discussion.
+He expressed his desire merely to declare a truth which no man
+could venture to dispute in any popular assembly, in order that
+the Chancellor of the Exchequer, and others present, might have an
+opportunity of reporting to Government the decided sentiment
+and real feeling of the people.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The Archbishop of Canterbury begged leave to call back the
+attention of the meeting to the motion before it, and which,
+he had no doubt, would be unanimously adopted. This motion,
+the most reverend prelate added, was not intended in any
+degree to interfere with the motion of the noble lord.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Amid loud cries of "Put Lord Cochrane's motion first, for if
+the motion of thanks be disposed of, the Duke of York will
+leave the chair, and the noble lord's motion will not be put
+at all," the Duke of Kent declared that there could be
+no intention to get rid of the noble lord's motion by any
+side-wind.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The motion of thanks was then passed while Lord Cochrane was
+engaged in writing his motion, and the Duke of York, having
+bowed to the meeting, immediately withdrew, amidst loud
+hissings, and cries of "Shame! shame! a trick! a trick!"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The Duke of Kent, whose head was turned towards Lord Cochrane,
+was much surprised and disappointed at discovering the absence
+of the chairman.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The general cry was then raised: "The Duke of Kent to the
+chair."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+His Royal Highness addressed the meeting. Having, he said,
+pledged himself on proposing the last resolution that there
+was no intention of getting rid of Lord Cochrane's motion by
+any side-wind, he felt himself in a very awkward predicament.
+"But," he added, "I hope that, as liberal Englishmen, you
+will consider my situation and who I am; and that after my
+illustrious relatives have retired from the meeting, you
+will not insist upon my taking the chair for the purpose of
+pressing the declaration of a political opinion;
+but that you will commend my motives, and do justice to
+those feelings which determine the propriety of my immediate
+departure." His Royal Highness accordingly withdrew.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The majority of the meeting still remained, calling for the
+nomination of another chairman, and pressing the adoption of
+Lord Cochrane's motion; but the noble lord also withdrew, and
+the meeting separated.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+That meeting was memorable. If Lord Cochrane's bearing at it was
+factious, it must be remembered how greatly he had suffered and how
+earnestly he desired to save the people at large from the sufferings
+entailed upon them by the Government which he and they had learnt to
+regard with a common dislike. By exposing what appeared to him and
+many others to be the hypocrisy of seeming philanthropists, and
+showing what he deemed the only real cause and the only real remedy
+of the national distress, he only acted as a brave and honest man, and
+his work was appreciated by the masses in whose interest it was done.
+A thrill of satisfaction ran through the land. During the ensuing
+weeks and months congratulations were heaped upon him from all
+quarters, and from nearly every class of society. If he had lessened
+the resources of the Association for the Belief of the Manufacturing
+and Labouring Poor, he was thanked even for this, since it was
+believed to be a good thing for shallow charity to be stayed, in order
+that the cause of real justice might be promoted.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The thanks were all the heartier because of the fresh persecution to
+which Lord Cochrane was subjected on account of his patriotism. This
+persecution was in the shape of legal proceedings instituted against
+him by the Marshal of the King's Bench Prison for his escape therefrom
+on the 10th of March, 1815. The action had been formally commenced
+almost immediately after the alleged offence, but on technical
+grounds, and perhaps from the consciousness that he was already
+punished enough, it was delayed for more than a year. As the
+previous punishment, however, had not been enough to silence him, the
+Government determined to revive the old charge as a further act of
+vengeance. At the special instigation of Lord Ellenborough, as it
+was averred, the prosecution had been renewed in May, 1816, almost
+immediately after the rejection by the House of Commons of Lord
+Cochrane's charges against the vindictive and unprincipled judge; but
+the time was too far gone for trial to take place during the summer
+term. It was again renewed, and at length successfully, directly after
+Lord Cochrane's fresh exhibition of his hostility to the Government at
+the London Tavern meeting.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The trial was at Guildford, on the 17th of August. Its history and
+issue may best be told in the words of an autobiographical fragment,
+written by Lord Dundonald shortly before his death. "I was accompanied
+to Guildford," he said, "by Sir Francis Burdett and several other
+leading inhabitants of Westminster, whose names are forgotten by me. I
+took neither counsel nor witnesses, having determined to rest my case
+on the point of law that 'no Member of Parliament can be imprisoned,
+either for non-payment of a fine to the king, or for any other cause
+than treason or felony, or refusing to give security to keep the
+peace,' my inference being that as I was illegally imprisoned, I had
+committed no illegality in escaping. I read to the jury a general
+statement, on which they unequivocally expressed their conviction that
+the trial had better not have been instituted, for that the punishment
+already sustained was more than adequate to the offence alleged to
+have been committed. The judge, however, interfered, and told the
+jury that, as I had admitted the escape in my statement, they had no
+alternative but to bring in a verdict of guilty, which was reluctantly
+done, and judgment was deferred.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"After the trial I returned to my house in Hampshire, and not hearing
+anything more of the affair, naturally concluded that, in the face of
+the opinion expressed by the jury, the Government would be ashamed to
+prosecute the matter further. Not liking, however, to trust to their
+mercy, whilst their malevolence might be exercised at an inconvenient
+season, or made to depend upon my political conduct, I directed my
+attorney to inquire whether it was intended to put in execution the
+sentence at Guildford. The reply was that no steps had been taken,
+and the impression was, that Government would be against further
+proceedings, lest they should tend to increase my popularity.
+Considering that this might be a feint to put me off my guard, I went
+to London for the purpose of attending a large political meeting, in
+the conduct of which I participated. Shortly afterwards I received
+a summons to appear at Westminster Hall and receive judgment on the
+verdict; the judgment being that I was condemned to pay a fine of
+100£ to the Crown.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"On my refusal to pay the fine, on the 21st of November, I was again
+taken into custody, I alleging that the sentence would amount to
+perpetual imprisonment, for that I would never pay a fine imposed for
+escaping from an illegal detention.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"On my being taken back to prison, however, a meeting of the electors
+of Westminster was held, at which it was determined that the amount
+of the fine should be paid by a penny subscription, no person being
+allowed to subscribe more. This plan was adopted in order that the
+public throughout the kingdom might have an opportunity of manifesting
+their disapprobation of the oppressive way in which I was being
+treated. Though I knew nothing of the intentions of the committee at
+the time, it was expected that the subscription would amount to a
+much larger sum than the fine, and resolved that the surplus should be
+devoted to the re-imbursement of the former fine of 1000£ and of the
+expenses to which I had been put at the trial. Receiving-houses were
+accordingly opened in the metropolis and in various other large towns,
+and the amount of the fine of 100£ was speedily collected in London
+alone.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Meanwhile meetings were constantly being held to petition Parliament
+for reform, and at these my name and sufferings formed a prominent
+topic, so that the Government would have been glad to be rid of
+me. After one of these meetings in Spafields, for the purpose of
+requesting Sir Francis Burdett and myself to present a petition to
+Parliament, a serious riot took place in the city of London, in which
+a gentleman was shot by the military. The Government, in alarm lest
+the people should proceed to the King's Bench and liberate me, did me
+the honour to send a company of infantry to guard me, the officers of
+the prison being ordered to admit no strangers whatever. The troops
+were further ordered to continue their attendance till I was released
+from custody.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"The subscription having been completed in pence, sent from all parts
+of the kingdom, my secretary, Mr. Jackson, applied to the Master of
+the Crown Office to receive the amount of the fine in coppers. This
+was refused, as not being a legal tender. The Master, however, in
+token of the suffering to which I had so unworthily been subjected,
+said that, as payment of the fine in such a manner marked the sense of
+the people on my case, he would not oppose himself to the expression
+of public sentiment, but would take 10£ of the sum in coppers. This
+was accordingly paid, and the remainder in notes and silver, which
+were given by various tradesmen in exchange for the coppers of the
+people, whose money was thus literally appropriated to the payment of
+the fine.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Finding, on my liberation, whole chests filled with penny pieces, I
+wrote to the committee, stating that sufficient had been collected.
+The reply was that the subscription should go on till the amount of
+the fine of 1000£ was paid in addition. The whole of the amount of
+the fine was thus realized, with something beyond&mdash;I do not recollect
+how much&mdash;towards my law expenses, which had necessarily been
+excessive. Taking, however, the 1100£ paid in pence, this
+alone showed that two million six hundred and forty thousand
+persons&mdash;composing a very large portion of the adult population of
+the kingdom&mdash;sympathised with me. Not one of my persecutors could have
+elicited such an expression of public sympathy."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The fine being thus paid, Lord Cochrane was released from the King's
+Bench Prison on the 7th of December, after a confinement of sixteen
+days, which was attended by all the wanton severity shown to him
+during his previous incarceration. Having been apprehended on a
+Thursday, he was, on his arrival at the King's Bench, placed in an
+unhealthy room protected by an iron grating. In the evening, having
+complained of such unusual treatment, he was informed that it was
+under the express directions of the Marshal. Next day, being seriously
+unwell, a physician was sent to him, who reported that he was
+suffering from palpitation of the heart and other symptoms of
+dangerous excitement, which made it necessary that he should be
+removed to better quarters. Accordingly, worse quarters were found for
+him, in a damp, dark, and very imperfectly-ventilated room, entirely
+devoid of furniture, in the middle of the building. Stedfastly
+refusing to go there, he was allowed to remain for that night in
+the room, first assigned to him. On Saturday morning, just as he
+was sitting down to breakfast, he was ordered to proceed to his new
+dungeon. Again refusing, his untasted breakfast was forcibly taken
+from him until he consented to eat it in the appointed place. Thither
+he accordingly went, and there he was detained for the fortnight that
+passed before his liberation.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+On the 17th of December an enthusiastic meeting of the citizens of
+Westminster was held to congratulate Lord Cochrane upon his release.
+"We, your lordship's constituents," it was stated in an address
+adopted by that meeting, "beg leave, on the present occasion, to
+declare that, after having had long and ample means for inquiry and
+reflection, we remain in the full and entire conviction of the perfect
+innocence of your lordship of every part of the offence laid to your
+charge at the outset of that series of persecutions by which, during
+the last three years of your life, you have been incessantly harassed.
+But, indeed, those persons must have very little knowledge of public
+affairs, and particularly of your distinguished naval and political
+career, who do not clearly perceive that all those persecutions have
+arisen from your public virtues, and who are not well convinced that,
+if you had not served the people by your exposure of the abuses in the
+prize courts, by your endeavours to restore to the right owners
+the immense sums unjustly alienated under the names of Droits of
+Admiralty, by your honest explanation of the causes which prevented
+the naval renown of your country being complete at Basque Roads, and
+by having caused to be produced in Parliament, and published to the
+nation, that memorable account of sinecures, pensions, and grants
+which so usefully enlightened the public, you never would have
+been prosecuted for a pretended fraud on the funds. Your lordship's
+constituents, being thus fully sensible that you have suffered and are
+still suffering solely for their and their country's sake, would deem
+themselves amongst the most ungrateful of mankind were they to neglect
+this occasion to tender you the most solemn assurances of their
+unabated attachment and their most resolute support, and, whilst they
+are endeavouring to discharge their duty towards your lordship, they
+entertain the consoling reflection that the day is not distant when
+you will mainly assist in carrying forward that measure of radical
+parliamentary reform which alone can be a safeguard against all sorts
+of oppressions, and especially oppressions under which your lordship
+has so long and so severely suffered."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+To that honourable address an honourable reply was penned by Lord
+Cochrane on the 24th of December, and presented to the electors of
+Westminster at another meeting assembled for the purpose on the 1st of
+January ensuing.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The direct persecution which began with the Stock Exchange trial and
+its antecedents was now at an end, after three years of gross and
+untiring vindictiveness. Indirect persecution was to continue for more
+than thirty years.
+</p>
+
+</div><!--end chapter-->
+
+<div class="chapter">
+
+<h2><a name="chap05"></a>CHAPTER V.</h2>
+
+<p>
+THE STATE OF POLITICS IN ENGLAND IN 1817 AND 1818, AND LORD COCHRANE's
+SHARE IN THEM.&mdash;HIS WORK AS A RADICAL IN AND OUT OF PARLIAMENT.&mdash;HIS
+FUTILE ATTEMPTS TO OBTAIN THE PRIZE MONEY DUE FOR HIS SERVICES
+AT BASQUE ROADS.&mdash;THE HOLLY HILL BATTLE.&mdash;THE PREPARATIONS FOR HIS
+ENTERPRISE IN SOUTH AMERICA.&mdash;HIS LAST SPEECH IN PARLIAMENT.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+[1817-1818.]
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The years 1817 and 1818 were years of great political turmoil. The
+English people, weary of the European wars, which in two-and-twenty
+years had raised the national debt from 230,000,000£ to
+860,000,000£, thus causing a taxation which amounted, in the average,
+to 25£ a year upon every family of five persons, were in no mood to
+be made happy even by the restitution of peace. Partly by necessity,
+partly by the bad management of the Government and its officials, the
+war-burdens were continued, and to the starving multitudes they were
+more burdensome than ever. Angry complaints were uttered openly, and
+repeated again and again with steadily-increasing vehemence, in all
+parts of the country. That the ministers and agents of the Crown were
+grievously at fault was patent to all; and it is not strange that, in
+the excitement and the misery that prevailed, they should be blamed
+even more than was their due. But the men in power did not choose to
+be blamed at all; they denied that any fault attached to them, and
+fiercely reprobated every complaint as sedition, every opponent as a
+lawless and unpatriotic demagogue. Hence the Government and the people
+came to be at deadly feud. Most right was with the people, and their
+bold assertion of that right, albeit sometimes in wrong ways, has
+secured memorable benefits in later times; but power was still with
+the Government, and it was used even more roughly than in former
+years.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+That Lord Cochrane, having suffered so much from the vindictive
+persecution of the Tories, should have thrown in his lot with its
+most extreme opponents, is not to be wondered at. During 1817 he was
+intimately associated with the popular party in all its efforts for
+the redress of grievances and in all the assertions of its real and
+fancied rights. In and out of Parliament he was alike active and
+outspoken. The history of his public conduct at this time forms
+no small section of the history of the Radical movement during the
+period. It resulted naturally from the circumstances in which he had
+lately been placed. Energetic in thought and action, a ready writer
+and an able speaker, his recent sufferings helped to place him in the
+foremost rank of patriots, as they were called by friends&mdash;demagogues,
+as they were called by enemies. With the exception of Sir Francis
+Burdett, than whom he even went further, the people had, outside their
+own ranks, no sturdier champion.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+If there had been any doubt before as to his line of action, there
+could be no doubt after the re-assembling of Parliament in January,
+1817. During the recess, monster meetings had been held in all parts
+of the country to consider the popular troubles and to insist upon
+popular reforms. Lord Cochrane agreed to present to the House of
+Commons many of the petitions that resulted from these meetings, and
+this he did on the 29th of January, the very day of the re-opening of
+Parliament.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+In anticipation of this measure, there was a great assembling of
+reform delegates from all parts of England, and of others favourable
+to their purpose, in front of Lord Cochrane's residence at No. 7,
+Palace Yard, Westminster. Shortly before two o'clock Lord Cochrane
+showed himself at the window, and announced that he was now on his
+way to the House, there to watch over the rights and liberties of the
+people, and that he would shortly return and let them know what was
+passing. This he did at four o'clock, part of the interval being
+occupied with a fervid address from Henry Hunt. On his reappearance,
+Lord Cochrane stated that the speech with which the Prince Regent had
+opened Parliament had not disappointed his expectations, for it was
+wholly disappointing to the people. The Regent had complained of the
+disaffection pervading the country, and had announced his intention of
+using all the power given him by the Constitution for its suppression.
+Lord Cochrane expressed his confident hope that the people, having
+the right on their side, would so demean themselves as to give their
+enemies no ground of charge against them; for those enemies desired
+nothing so much as riot and disorder.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Thereupon an immense bundle of petitions was handed him, and he
+himself was placed in a chair, and so conveyed on men's shoulders to
+the door of Westminster Hall, where the crowd dispersed in an orderly
+way.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+In the House, before the motion for an address in answer to the Prince
+Regent's speech, Lord Cochrane rose to present a petition, signed by
+more than twenty thousand inhabitants of Bristol, setting forth the
+present distress of the country, the increase of paupers and beggars,
+the grievous lack of employment for industrious persons, and
+the misery that resulted from this state of things. In these
+circumstances, the petitioners urged, it was in vain to pretend to
+relieve the sufferers by giving them soup, while, for the support of
+sinecure placemen, pensioners without number, and an insatiable
+civil list, half their earnings were taken from them by the enormous
+taxation under which the country groaned. After considerable
+opposition, the petition was allowed to lie on the table.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Lord Cochrane then presented a smaller but much more outspoken
+petition from the inhabitants of Quirk, in Yorkshire. "The
+petitioners," it was there urged, "have a full and immovable
+conviction&mdash;a conviction which they believe to be universal throughout
+the kingdom&mdash;that the House does not, in any constitutional or
+rational sense, represent the nation; that, when the people have
+ceased to be represented, the Constitution is subverted; that taxation
+without representation is a state of slavery; that the scourge
+of taxation without representation has now reached a severity too
+harassing and vexatious, too intolerable and degrading, to be longer
+endured without resistance by all possible means warranted by the
+Constitution; that such a condition of affairs has now been reached
+that contending factions are alike guilty of their country's wrongs,
+alike forgetful of her rights, mocking the public patience with
+repeated, protracted, and disgusting debates on questions of
+refinement in the complicated and abstruse science of taxation, as if
+in such refinement, and not in a reformed representation, as if in a
+consolidated corruption, and not in a renovated Constitution,
+relief were to be found; that thus there are left no human means of
+redressing the people's wrongs or composing their distracted minds,
+or of preventing the subversion of liberty and the establishment of
+despotism, unless by calling the collected wisdom and virtue of the
+community into counsel by the election of a free Parliament; and
+therefore, considering that, through the usurpation of borough
+factions and other causes, the people have been put even out of a
+condition to consent to taxes; and considering also that, until their
+sacred right of election shall be restored, no free Parliament can
+have existence, it is necessary that the House shall, without delay,
+pass a law for putting the aggrieved and much-aroused people in
+possession of their undoubted right to representation co-extensive
+with taxation, to an equal distribution of such representation
+throughout the community, and to Parliaments of a continuance
+according to the Constitution, namely, not exceeding one year."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+A long discussion ensued as to whether this petition should be
+accepted by the House or rejected as an insulting libel. Several
+members of the House denounced it. Other members, while objecting to
+its terms, urged its acceptance. Among them the most notable was
+Mr. Brougham. The petition, he said, was rudely worded, and its
+recommendations were such as no wise lover of the English Constitution
+could wholly subscribe to; but it pointed to real grievances and
+recommended improvements which were necessary to the well-being of the
+State, and therefore it ought to be admitted. Mr. Canning was one of
+those who insisted upon its rejection, and this was ultimately done by
+a majority of 87, 48 being in favour of the petition, and 135 against
+it.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Four other petitions presented by Lord Cochrane, being to the same
+effect, were also rejected; and two, more moderate in their language,
+were accepted. Lord Cochrane thus succeeded, at any rate, in forcing
+the House during several hours to take into consideration the troubled
+state of the country, and the pressing need, as it seemed to great
+masses of the people, of thorough parliamentary reform.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"You will see by the 'Debates,'" he wrote next day to a friend, "that
+I presented a number of petitions last night, and had a hard battle to
+fight. Today I am quite indisposed, by reason of the corruption of the
+Honourable House. It is impossible to support a bad cause by honest
+means. God knows where all these base projects will end." That his own
+cause was a good one, and that the means used by him were honest, he
+had no doubt. In the same letter he referred to the opposition offered
+to him, even by some of his own relatives, on account of his conduct.
+"Mr. Cochrane has thought proper to disavow, through the public
+papers, any connection with my politics. The consciousness that I am
+acting as I ought makes that light which I should otherwise feel as a
+heavy clog in following that course which I think honour and justice
+require."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Therefore he persevered in his Herculean task. Having presented and
+spoken upon others in the interval, he presented another monster
+petition to the House on the 5th of February. It was signed, he said,
+by twenty-four thousand inhabitants of London and the neighbourhood.
+It complained of the unbearable weight of taxation and the distresses
+of the country, and of the squandering of the money extracted from the
+pockets of an oppressed and impoverished people to support sinecure
+placemen and pensioners. "It appears to me," he said, "surprising that
+there should be any set of men so cruel and unjust as to wallow in
+wealth at the public expense while poor wretches are starving at every
+corner of the streets." He represented that the petition was drawn
+up in temperate, respectful language,&mdash;more temperate, indeed, than
+he should have employed had he dictated its phrases. He urged that the
+people had good cause for complaint as to the way in which Parliament
+neglected their interests, and good ground for asserting that the
+system of parliamentary representation then afforded them was no real
+representation at all. Members entered the House only in pursuit of
+their own selfish ends, and the Government encouraged this state of
+things by fostering a system of wholesale bribery and corruption,
+degrading in itself and fraught with terrible mischief to the
+community. What wonder, then, that the people should pray, as they did
+in this petition, for a thorough reform, and should point to annual
+Parliaments and universal suffrage as the only efficient remedies?
+</p>
+
+<p>
+It is needless to recapitulate all the arguments offered again
+and again by Lord Cochrane, with ever fresh-force and cogency, in
+presenting massive petitions to the House, and in introducing into
+the occasional debates on reform with which the House amused itself
+a vigour and practicalness in which few other members cared to
+sympathize. Nor need we enumerate all the meetings, in London and the
+provinces, in which he took prominent part. It is enough to say that
+in Parliament he always spoke with exceeding boldness, and that upon
+the people, notwithstanding the contrary assertions of his detractors,
+he always enjoined, if not conciliation and forbearance, at any rate
+such action as was within the strict letter of the law, and most
+likely, in the end, to obtain the realization of their wishes. On all
+occasions he defended them from the charges of sedition and conspiracy
+brought against them by their opponents, and proved, to all who were
+open to proof, that their objects were patriotic, and were being
+sought in patriotic ways.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Of this, however, the Government did not choose to be convinced.
+Taking advantage of some intemperate speeches of demagogues, making
+much of some violent handbills circulated by police-officers under
+secret instructions, mightily exaggerating a few lawless acts,&mdash;as
+when a drunken old sailor summoned the keepers of the Tower of London
+to surrender,&mdash;they procured, on the 26th of February, the suspension
+of the Habeas Corpus Act. Therefrom resulted, at any rate, some good.
+The Whigs, who had hitherto mainly supported the Tory Government, were
+now turned against it, and with them the wiser Radicals, like Lord
+Cochrane, sought to effect a coalition. "You will perceive by the
+papers," he said in a letter dated February the 28th, "that I have
+resolved to steer another political course, seeing that the only means
+of averting military despotism from the country is to unite the people
+and the Whigs, so far as they can be induced to co-operate, which they
+must do if they wish to preserve the remainder of the Constitution.
+The 'Times' of yesterday contains the fullest account of the late
+debates on the suspension of the Habeas Corpus Act, and by that report
+you will perceive that the Whigs really made a good stand."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+In that temper, Lord Cochrane spoke at a Westminster meeting, held
+on the 11th of March, "to take into consideration the propriety
+of agreeing to an address to His Royal Highness the Prince Regent,
+beseeching that he will, in his well-known solicitude for the freedom
+and happiness of His Majesty's subjects, remove from his royal
+councils those ministers who appear resolved to adopt no effectual
+measures of economy and retrenchment, but, on the contrary, to
+persevere in measures calculated to drive a suffering people to
+despair."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+There was some flattery or some mockery, or something of both, in
+that announcement; and both, with much earnest enunciation of popular
+grievances, were in Lord Cochrane's speech on the subject. He said
+that the Regent had as much cause as the people to complain of his
+present ministers, seeing how shamelessly they sought to hide from him
+the real state of the country. It was to be expected, from the early
+habits and character of the Regent, that he would anxiously pursue
+the interests of the nation, if, instead of being in the hands of an
+odious oligarchy, he could act for himself. This, at any rate, Lord
+Cochrane maintained should be urged upon him, for if something were
+not quickly done for the relief of the nation, trade and commerce
+would soon be utterly ruined, and the whole community would share the
+misery that had so long oppressed the lower orders. He again dwelt
+forcibly on the causes of this misery, and again denounced the conduct
+of the ministers and placemen who, while squandering the hardly-earned
+pounds of the people, claimed respect for their exemplary charity
+in doling out a few farthings for "the relief of the poor." In the
+previous year, he showed, Lord Castlereagh, "the bell-wether of the
+House of Commons," and thirteen other persons, had drawn from the
+revenues of the country 309,861£, and out of that amount had given
+back, in "sinecure soup," only 1505£
+</p>
+
+<p>
+On a hundred other occasions, both outside of the House of Commons and
+within its walls, Lord Cochrane continued fearlessly to set forth
+the troubles of the people and the wrong-doing of its governors. In
+Parliament petitions without number were presented, and, amid all
+sorts of contumely, defended by him; and he took a no less active part
+in various important discussions, of which it will suffice, by way of
+illustration, to name the debates of the 3rd, 14th, and 28th of March,
+on the famous Seditious Meetings Bill, and that of the 13th of March
+on the depressed condition of English trade and its causes&mdash;a subject
+which was recurred to by Mr. Brougham in his memorable motion of the
+11th of July on the state of the nation.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Six weeks before that, on the 20th of May, Lord Cochrane spoke on
+another famous motion&mdash;that made by his friend Sir Francis Burdett
+in favour of parliamentary reform. Once more, he complained that the
+existing House of Commons in no way represented the people, and was
+entirely regardless of its interests. Nothing better, he alleged,
+could be hoped for, without a radical change in the system of
+representation. "But," he continued, "reform we must have, whether we
+will or no. The state of the country is such that things cannot much
+longer be conducted as they now are. There is a general call for
+reform. If the call is not obeyed, thank God the evil will produce
+its own remedy, the mass of corruption will destroy itself, for the
+maggots it engenders will eat it up. The members of this House are the
+maggots of the Constitution. They are the locusts that devour it and
+cause all the evils that are complained of. There is nothing wicked
+which does not emanate from this House. In it originate all knavery,
+perjury, and fraud. You well know all this. You also know that the
+means by which the great majority of the House is returned is one
+great cause of the corruption of the whole people. It has been said,
+'Let the people reform themselves;' but if sums of money are offered
+for seats within these walls, there will always be found men ready to
+receive them. It is impossible to imagine that the profuse expenditure
+of the late war would have taken place, had it not been for a corrupt
+majority devoted to their selfish interests. At least it would have
+had a shorter duration, from being carried on in a more effective
+manner, had it not been conducive to the views of many to prevent its
+speedy termination. Much has been said about the glorious result of
+the war; but has not lavish expenditure loaded us with taxation which
+is impoverishing the people and annihilating commerce? Are not vessels
+seen everywhere with brooms at their mastheads? Are not sailors
+starving? Is not agriculture languishing? Are not our manufactures in
+the most distressed state?"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Lord Cochrane asserted that the real revolutionists of England were
+the ministers and their followers. "I am persuaded that no man without
+doors wishes the subversion of the Constitution; but within it,
+bribery and corruption stand for the Constitution. Mr. Pitt himself
+confessed that no honest man could hold the situation of minister for
+any length of time. There can be no honest minister until measures
+have been taken to purge and purify the House. If this be not done,
+it is in vain to hope for a renewal of successful enterprise in this
+country: the sun of the country is set for ever. It may indeed exist
+as a petty military German despotism, with horsemen parading up and
+down, with large whiskers, with sabres ringing by their horses' sides,
+with fantastically-shaped caps of fantastical colours on their
+heads; but this country cannot thus be made a great military power.
+A previous speaker has instanced juries as one of the benefits of the
+Constitution; but I will affirm, with respect to the manner in which
+juries are chosen under the present system, that justice is much
+better administered, in a more summary manner, with less expense, and
+no chicanery, by the Dey of Algiers. If this country were erected at
+once into a downright, honest, open despotism, the people would be
+gainers. If a judge or despot then proved a rogue, he would at
+once appear in his true character; but now villany can be artfully
+concealed under the verdict of a packed jury. I am satisfied that the
+present system of corruption is more detrimental to the country than a
+despotism."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+No other speaker spoke so boldly as Lord Cochrane; but his eloquent
+words were substantially endorsed by many; by Sir Samuel Romilly and
+Mr. Brougham in especial; and on a division, though 265 voted
+against Sir Francis Burdett's motion, it was supported by a
+minority&mdash;unusually large for the time&mdash;of 77.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Slowly but surely the better principles of government for which
+Lord Cochrane fought so persistently were gaining ground, destined
+ultimately to produce the changes in national temper which made plain
+the duty and expediency of adopting the changes in political systems
+in which the years 1832 and 1867 are epochs. In after years, Lord
+Cochrane himself clearly saw that he had been rash in his advocacy
+of the sweeping reforms which the excited people deemed necessary for
+their welfare in the years of trouble and misgovernment consequent on
+the tedious war-time ending with the battle of Waterloo. But he never
+had cause to regret the honest zeal and the generous sympathy with
+which he strove, though in violent ways, to lessen the weight of the
+popular distresses.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Distresses were not wanting to himself during this period. The weight
+of his former troubles still hung heavily upon him. He could not
+forget the terrible disgrace&mdash;none the less terrible because it was
+unmerited&mdash;that had befallen him. And in pecuniary ways he was a
+grievous sufferer by them. In losing his naval employment he lost
+the income on which he had counted. His resources were thus seriously
+crippled; and the scientific pursuits, in which he still persevered,
+failed to bring to him the profit that he anticipated.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+In one characteristic way&mdash;only one among many&mdash;the Government
+persecution still clung to him. In the distribution of prize-money
+for the achievement at Basque Roads all the officers and crews of
+Lord Grambier's fleet had been considered entitled to share. To this
+arrangement Lord Cochrane objected. He urged that as the whole triumph
+was due to the <i>Impérieuse</i> and the few ships actually engaged with
+her, the reward ought to be limited to them. "I am preparing to
+proceed in the Court of Admiralty on the question of head-money for
+Basque Roads," he wrote on the 5th of November, 1816; "my affidavit
+has reluctantly been admitted, though strenuously opposed, on the
+ground that I was not to be believed on my oath!"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Lord Cochrane's council in this case was Dr. Lushington, afterwards
+the eminent judge of the Admiralty Court. Dr. Lushington showed
+plainly that the greater part of the fleet, having taken no share in
+the action, had no right to head-money, and that therefore all ought
+to be divided among those who actually shared with Lord Cochrane
+the danger and the success of the enterprise. But Sir William Scott
+(afterwards Lord Stowell), the judge at that time, was not disposed
+to sanction this view. Therefore he thwarted it by delays. The case
+having been postponed from November, 1816, was brought up again in the
+first term of 1817. "The judge has again delayed his decision," wrote
+Lord Cochrane on the 28th of February, the day of the announcement,
+"and I believe has done so until next session. He gave a curious
+reason for this, namely, that I took part at the Westminster meeting
+against the suspension of the Habeas Corpus Act!"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+At the next session it was again postponed, all the time available
+for its consideration being taken up with a frivolous discussion as to
+Lord Cochrane's right to give evidence. "They have gone the length,"
+wrote his secretary, Mr. Jackson, on the 3rd of May, "of denying Lord
+Cochrane's credibility in a court of justice. They had no other way
+of answering his affidavit, which would have gained his cause in the
+Court of Admiralty, as it proved that the French ships in Basque Roads
+were destroyed by his own exertions in fighting without orders from
+the Admiral. The denial-of Lord Cochrane's competency to give evidence
+has excited a great deal of interest, and the Court of Admiralty was
+quite crowded on Tuesday, when the question came on to be discussed.
+I thought that our counsel had much the best of the argument, and I
+believe the judge, Sir William Scott, thought so too, as he put off
+his sentence to a future day." On the future day the judge admitted as
+much. "We have gained a bit of a victory in the Admiralty Court," said
+the same writer in a letter dated the 9th of June, "the judge having
+been compelled to pronounce in favour of his lordship's right to
+be believed on his oath." The time taken by him to arrive at this
+decision, however, was so long that the case had to be adjourned to
+November term, and thereby Lord Cochrane's enemies so far attained
+their object, that it was impossible for him, in November term, to
+renew the suit.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+In the interval he had gone to France, preparatory to a much longer
+and more momentous journey to South America, in anticipation of which
+he was winding up his affairs and realizing his property during and
+after the summer of 1817.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+In this settlement of accounts there was at any rate one amusing
+incident. It will be remembered that, on the occasion of his being
+elected Member of Parliament for Honiton in 1806, Lord Cochrane had
+refused to follow the almost universal fashion of bribery, but, after
+the election was over, had thoughtlessly yielded to the proposal
+of his agent that he should entertain his constituents at a public
+supper.[A] This entertainment, either through spite or through wanton
+extravagance, was turned by those to whom the management of it was
+assigned into a great occasion of feasting for all the inhabitants of
+the town; and for defrayment of the expenses thus incurred a claim
+for more than 1200£ was afterwards made upon Lord Cochrane. Through
+eleven years he bluntly refused to pay the preposterous demand; but
+his creditors had the law upon their side, and in the spring of 1817
+an order was granted for putting an execution into his house at Holly
+Hill.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+[Footnote A: 'The Autobiography of a Seaman,' vol. i. pp. 203, 204.]
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Lord Cochrane, however, having resisted the demand thus far,
+determined to resist to the end. For more than six weeks he prevented
+the agents of the law from entering the house. "I still hold out,"
+he said in a letter to his secretary, "though the castle has several
+times been threatened in great force. The trumpeter is now blowing for
+a parley, but no one appears on the ramparts. Explosion-bags are set
+in the lower embrasures, and all the garrison is under arms." In
+the explosion-bags there was nothing more dangerous than powdered
+charcoal; but, supposing they contained gunpowder or some other
+combustible, the sheriff of Hampshire and twenty-five officers were
+held at bay by them, until at length one official, more daring than
+the rest, jumped in at an open window, to find Lord Cochrane sitting
+at breakfast and to be complimented by him upon the wonderful bravery
+which he had shown in coming up to a building defended by charcoal
+dust.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+That battle with the sheriff and bailiffs of Hampshire occupied nearly
+the whole of April and May, 1817. In the latter month, if not before,
+Lord Cochrane began to think seriously of proceeding to join in
+battles of a more serious sort in South America, under inducements and
+with issues that will presently be detailed. "His lordship has made up
+his mind to go to South America," wrote his secretary on the 31st of
+May. "Numbers of gentlemen of great respectability are desirous of
+accompanying him, and even Sir Francis Burdett has declared that he
+feels a great temptation to do so; but Lord Cochrane discourages all.
+They think he is going to immolate the Spaniards by his secret plans;
+but he is not going to do anything of the kind, having promised the
+Prince Regent not to divulge or use them otherwise than in the service
+of his country."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+With this expedition in view, and purposing to start upon it nearly a
+year sooner than he found himself able to do, Lord Cochrane sold Holly
+Hill and his other property in Hampshire, in July. In August he went
+for a few months to France, partly for the benefit of Lady Cochrane's
+health, partly, as it would seem, in the hope of introducing into
+that country the lamps which he had lately invented, and from which he
+hoped to derive considerable profit.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+To this matter, and to his efforts to obtain some share, at any rate,
+of his rights from the English Government, the letters written by
+him from France chiefly refer. But there are in them some notes and
+illustrations of more general interest. "I am quite astonished at the
+state of Boulogne," he wrote thence on the 14th of August. "Neither
+the town nor the heights are fortified; so great was Napoleon's
+confidence in the terror of his name and the knowledge he possessed
+of the stupidity and ignorance of our Government." In a letter from
+Paris, dated the 23rd of August, we read: "Everything is looking much
+more settled than when I was formerly here, and I do really think that
+the Government, from the conciliatory measures wisely adopted, will
+stand their ground against the adherents of Buonaparte. We are to have
+a great rejoicing to-morrow. All Paris will be dancing, fiddling, and
+singing. They are a light-hearted people. I wish I could join in their
+fun. I was hopeful that I should; but the cursed recollection of the
+injustice that has been done to me is never out of my mind; so that
+all my pleasures are blasted, from whatever source they might be
+expected to arise."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+That last sentence fairly indicates the state of Lord Cochrane's mind
+during these painful years. Weighed down by troubles heavy enough to
+break the heart of an ordinary man, he fought nobly for the thorough
+justification of his character and for the protection of others from
+such persecution as had befallen him. In both objects, altogether
+praise-worthy in themselves, he may have sometimes been intemperate;
+but ample excuse for far greater intemperance would be found in the
+troubles that oppressed him. "The cursed recollection of the injustice
+that has been done to me is never out of my mind; all my pleasures are
+blasted!"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+In the same temper, after a lapse of nine months, about which it is
+only necessary to say that, like their forerunners, they were
+employed in private cares, and, especially after the reassembling of
+Parliament, in zealous action for the public good, he made his last
+speech in the House of Commons on the 2nd of June, 1818. The occasion
+was a debate upon a second motion by Sir Francis Burdett in favour of
+parliamentary reform, more cogent and effective than that of the
+20th of May, 1817, to Lord Cochrane's share in which we have already
+referred. The former speech was wholly of public interest. This has a
+personal significance, very painful and very memorable. It brings to a
+pathetic close the saddest epoch in Lord Cochrane's life&mdash;so very full
+of sadness.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"I rise, sir," he said, "to second the motion of my honourable friend.
+In what I have to say, I do not presume to think that I can add to
+the able arguments that have just been uttered; but it is my duty
+distinctly to declare my opinions on the subject. When I recollect all
+the proceedings of this House, I confess that I do not entertain much
+hope of a favourable result to the present motion. To me it seems
+chiefly serviceable as an exhibition of sound principles, and as
+showing the people for what they ought to petition. I shall perhaps be
+told that it is unparliamentary to say there are any representatives
+of the people in this House who have sold themselves to the purposes
+and views of any set of men in power; but the history of the
+degenerate senate of that once free people, the Romans, will serve
+to show how far corruption may make inroads upon public virtue or
+patriotism. The tyranny inflicted on the Roman people, and on mankind
+in general, under the form of acts passed by the Roman senate, will
+ever prove a useful memento to nations which have any freedom to lose.
+It is not for me to prophesy when our case will be like theirs; but
+this I will say, that those who are the slaves of a despotic
+monarch are far less reprehensible for their actions than those who
+voluntarily sell themselves when they have the means of remaining
+free.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"And here," he continued, in sentences broken by his emotions, "as it
+is probably the last time I shall ever have the honour of addressing
+the House on any subject, I am anxious to tell its members what I
+think of their conduct. It is now nearly eleven years since I have
+had the honour of a seat in this House, and since then there have
+been very few measures in which I could agree with the opinions of the
+majority. To say that these measures were contrary to justice would
+not be parliamentary. I will not even go into the inquiry whether
+they tend to the national good or not; but I will merely appeal to the
+feelings of the landholders present, I will appeal to the knowledge
+of those members who are engaged in commerce, and ask them whether the
+acts of the legislative body have not been of a description, during
+the late war, that would, if not for the timely intervention of the
+use of machinery, have sent this nation to total ruin? The country is
+burthened to a degree which, but for this intervention, it would have
+been impossible for the people to bear. The cause of these measures
+having such an effect upon the country has been examined and gone
+into by my honourable colleague (Sir Francis Burdett); they are to
+be traced to that patronage and influence which, a number of powerful
+individuals possess over the nomination of a great proportion of the
+members of this House; a power which, devolving on a few, becomes
+thereby the more liable to be affected by the influence of the Crown;
+and which has in fact been rendered almost entirely subservient to
+that influence. To reform the abuses which arise out of this system
+is the object of my honourable friend's motion. I will not, cannot,
+anticipate the success of the motion; but I will say, as has been
+said before by the great Chatham, the father of Mr. Pitt, that, if the
+House does not reform itself from within, it will be reformed with
+a vengeance from without. The people will take up the subject, and
+a reform will take place which will make many members regret their
+apathy in now refusing that reform which might be rendered efficient
+and permanent. But, unfortunately, in the present formation of the
+House, it appears to me that from within no reform can be expected,
+and for the truth of this I appeal to the experience of the few
+members, less than a hundred, who are now present, nearly six hundred
+being absent; I appeal to their experience to say whether they have
+ever known of any one instance in which a petition of the people for
+reform has been taken into consideration, or any redress afforded in
+consequence of such a petition? This I regret, because I foresee the
+consequence which must necessarily result from it. I do trust and
+hope that before it is too late some measures shall be adopted for
+redressing the grievances of the people; for certain I am that
+unless some measures are taken to stop the feelings which the people
+entertain towards this House and to restore their confidence in it,
+you will one day have ample cause to repent the line of conduct you
+have pursued. The gentlemen who now sit on the benches opposite
+with such triumphant feelings will one day repent their conduct. The
+commotions to which that conduct will inevitably give rise will shake,
+not only this House, but the whole framework of Government and society
+to its foundations. I have been actuated by the wish to prevent this,
+and I have had no other intention.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"I shall not trespass longer on your time," he continued, in a few
+broken sentences, uttered painfully and with agitation that aroused
+much sympathy in the House. "The situation I have held for
+eleven years in this House I owe to the favour of the electors of
+Westminster. The feelings of my heart are gratified by the manner
+in which they have acted towards me. They have rescued me from a
+desperate and wicked conspiracy which has nearly involved me in total
+ruin. I forgive those who have so done; and I hope when they depart to
+their graves they will be equally able to forgive themselves. All
+this is foreign to the subject before the House, but I trust you will
+forgive me. I shall not trespass on your time longer now&mdash;perhaps
+never again on any subject. I hope his Majesty's ministers will take
+into their serious consideration what I now say. I do not utter it
+with any feelings of hostility&mdash;such feelings have now left me&mdash;but
+I trust they will take my warning, and save the country by abandoning
+the present system before it is too late."
+</p>
+
+</div><!--end chapter-->
+
+<div class="chapter">
+
+<h2><a name="chap06"></a>CHAPTER VI.</h2>
+
+<p class="letter">
+THE ANTECEDENTS OF LORD COCHRANE'S EMPLOYMENTS IN AMERICA.&mdash;THE WAR
+OF INDEPENDENCE IN THE SPANISH COLONIES.&mdash;MEXICO.&mdash;VENEZUELA.
+&mdash;COLOMBIA.&mdash;CHILI.&mdash;THE FIRST CHILIAN INSURRECTION.&mdash;THE CARRERAS
+AND O'HIGGINS.&mdash;THE BATTLE OF BANCAGUA.&mdash;O'HIGGINS'S SUCCESSES.&mdash;THE
+ESTABLISHMENT OF THE CHILIAN REPUBLIC.&mdash;LORD COCHRANE INVITED TO ENTER
+THE CHILIAN SERVICE.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+(1810&mdash;1817.)
+</p>
+
+<p>
+To an understanding of Lord Cochrane's share in the South American
+wars of independence a brief recapitulation of their antecedents, and
+of the state of affairs at the time of his first connection with them,
+is necessary.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The Spanish possessions in both North and South America, which had
+reached nearly their full dimensions before the close of the sixteenth
+century, had been retained, with little opposition from without,
+and with still less from within, down to the close of the eighteenth
+century. These possessions, including Mexico and Central America, New
+Granada, Venezuela, Peru, La Plata, and Chili, covered an area larger
+than that of Europe, more than twice as large as that of the present
+United States. Through half a dozen generations they had been governed
+with all the short-sighted tyranny for which the Spanish Government is
+famous; the resources of the countries had been crippled in order that
+each day's greed might be satisfied; and the inhabitants, who, for the
+most part, were the mixed offspring of Spanish and native parents,
+had been kept in abject dependence and in ignorant ferocity. There
+was plenty of internal hatred and strife; but no serious thought of
+winning their liberty and working out their own regeneration seems to
+have existed among the people of the several provinces, until it was
+suggested by the triumphant success of the United States in throwing
+off the stronger but much less oppressive thraldom of Great Britain.
+That success having been achieved, however, it was soon emulated by
+the colonial subjects of Spain.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The first leader of agitation was Francisco Miranda, a Venezuelan
+Creole. He visited England in 1790, and received some encouragement in
+his revolutionary projects from Pitt. He went to France in 1792, and
+there, while waiting some years for fit occasion of prosecuting the
+work on which his heart was set, he helped to fight the battle of the
+revolution against the Bourbons and the worn-out feudalism of which
+they were representatives. During his absence, in 1794, conspiracies
+against Spain arose in Mexico and New Granada, and, these continuing,
+he went in 1794, armed by secret promises of assistance from Pitt, to
+help in fomenting them. They prospered for several years; and in 1806
+Miranda obtained substantial aid from Sir Alexander Cochrane, Lord
+Cochrane's uncle, then the admiral in command of the West India
+station. But in 1806 Pitt died. The Whigs came into power, and with
+their coming occurred a change in the English policy. In 1807, General
+Crawfurd was ordered to throw obstacles in the way of Miranda, then
+heading a formidable insurrection. The result was a temporary check
+to the work of revolution. In 1810 Miranda renewed his enterprise
+in Venezuela, still with poor success; and in the same year a fresh
+revolt was stirred up in Mexico by Miguel Hidalgo, of Costilla, a
+priest of Dolores. Hidalgo's insurrection was foolish in design and
+bloodthirsty in execution. It was continued, in better spirit, but
+with poor success, by Morelos and Rayon, who, sustaining a serious
+defeat in 1815, left the strife to degenerate into a coarse bandit
+struggle, very disastrous to Spain, but hardly beneficial to the cause
+of Mexican independence.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+In the meanwhile a more prosperous and worthier contest was being
+waged in South America. Besides the efforts of Miranda in Venezuela,
+which were renewed between 1810 and 1812, when he was taken prisoner
+and sent to Spain, there to die in a dungeon, a separate standard of
+revolt was raised in Quito by Narinno and his friends in 1809. After
+fighting desperately, in guerilla fashion, for five years, Narinno
+was captured and forced to share Miranda's lot. A greater man, the
+greatest hero of South American independence, Simon Bolivar, succeeded
+them.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Bolivar, a native of Caraccas, had passed many years in Europe, when
+in 1810, at the age of twenty-seven, he went to serve under Miranda
+in Venezuela. Miranda's defeat in 1812 compelled him to retire to New
+Granada, but there he did good service. He improved the fighting ways
+and extended the fighting area, and in December, 1814, was appointed
+captain-general of Venezuela and New Granada, soon, however, to be
+driven back and forced to take shelter in Jamaica by the superior
+strength of Morillo, the Spanish general, who arrived with a
+formidable army in 1815. In 1816 Bolivar again showed himself in the
+field at the head of his famous liberating army, which, crossing
+over from Trinidad, and gaining reinforcements at every step, planted
+freedom, such as it was, all along the northern parts of South
+America, in which the new republic of Colombia was founded under his
+presidency, in the neighbouring district of New Granada, and down to
+the La Plata province, where he established the republic of Bolivia,
+so named in his honour. With these patriotic labours he was busied
+upon land, while Lord Cochrane was securing the independence of the
+Spanish colonies by his brave warfare on the sea.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+As the cause of liberty progressed in South America, it became
+apparent that it had poor chance of permanence, while the
+revolutionists were unable to cope with the Spaniards in naval
+strife or to wrest from Spain her strongholds on the coast. This was
+especially the case with the maritime provinces of Chili and Peru.
+Peru, held firmly by the army garrisoned in Lima, to which Callao
+served as an almost impregnable port, had been unable to share in the
+contest waged on the other side of the Andes; and Chili, though
+strong enough to declare its independence, was too weak to maintain it
+without foreign aid.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The Chilian struggle began in 1810, when the Spanish captain-general,
+Carrasco, was deposed, and a native government set up under Count de
+la Conquista. By this government the sovereignty of Spain was still
+recognised, although various reforms were adopted which Spain could
+not be expected to endorse. Accordingly, in April, 1811, an attempt
+was made by the Spanish soldiers to overturn the new order of
+things. The result was that, after brief fighting, the revolutionists
+triumphed, and the yoke of Spain was thrown off.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+But the independence of Chili, thus easily begun, was not easily
+continued. Three brothers, Jose Miguel, Juan Jose, and Luis Carreras,
+and their sister, styled the Anne Boleyn of Chili, determined to
+pervert the public weal to their own aggrandisement. Winning their way
+into popularity, they overturned the national congress that had been
+established in June, and in December set up a new junta, with Jose
+Miguel Carrera at its head. A dismal period of misrule ensued, which
+encouraged the Spanish generals, Pareja and Sanchez, to attempt the
+reconquest of Chili in 1813. Pareja and Sanchez were successfully
+resisted, and a better man, General Bernardo O'Higgins, the republican
+son of an Irishman who had been Viceroy of Peru, was put at the
+head of affairs. He succeeded to the command of the Chilian army in
+November, 1813, when a fresh attack from the Spaniards was expected.
+At first his good soldiership was successful. The enemy, having come
+almost to the gates of Santiago, was forced to retire in May, 1814;
+and the Chilian cause might have continued to prosper under O'Higgins,
+had not the Carreras contrived, in hopes of reinstating themselves in
+power, to divide the republican interests, and so, while encouraging
+renewed invasion by the Spaniards from Lima, make their resistance
+more difficult. Wisely deeming it right to set aside every other
+consideration than the necessity of saving Chili from the danger
+pressing upon it from without, O'Higgins effected a junction with the
+Carreras, hoping thus to bring the whole force of the republic against
+the royalist army, larger than its predecessors, which was marching
+towards Santiago and Valparaiso. Had his magnanimous proposals been
+properly acted upon, the issue might have been very different. But
+the Carreras, even in the most urgent hour of danger, could not forget
+their private ambitions. Holding aloof with their part of the army,
+they allowed O'Higgins and his force of nine hundred to be defeated
+by four thousand royalists under General Osorio, in the preliminary
+fight which took place at the end of September. They were guilty of
+like treachery during the great battle of the 1st of October. On that
+day the royalists entered Rancagua, the town in which O'Higgins and
+his little band had taken shelter. They were fiercely resisted, and
+the fighting lasted through thirty-six hours. So brave was the conduct
+of the patriots that the Spanish general was, after some hours'
+contest, on the point of retreating. He saw that he would have no
+chance of success, had the Carreras brought up their troops, as
+was expected by both sides of the combatants. But the Carreras,
+short-sighted in their selfishness, and nothing loth that O'Higgins
+should be defeated, still held aloof. Thereupon the Spaniards took
+heart, and made one more desperate effort. With hatchets and swords
+they forced their way, inch by inch and hour by hour, into the centre
+of the town. There, in an open square, O'Higgins, with two hundred
+men&mdash;all the remnant of his little army&mdash;made a last resistance. When
+only a few dozen of his soldiers were left alive, and when he himself
+was seriously wounded, he determined, not to surrender, but to end the
+battle. The residue of the patriots dashed through the town, cutting
+a road through the astonished crowd of their opponents, and effected
+a retreat in which those opponents, though more than twenty times as
+numerous, durst not pursue them.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+That memorable battle of Rancagua caused throughout the American
+continent, and, across the Atlantic, through Europe, a thrill of
+sympathy for the Chilian war of independence. But its immediate
+effects were most disastrous. The Carreras, too selfish to fight
+before, were now too cowardly. They and their followers fled.
+O'Higgins had barely soldiers enough left to serve as a weak escort
+to the fourteen hundred old men, women, and children who crossed the
+Andes with him on foot, to pass two years and a half in voluntary
+exile at Mendoza.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+During those two years and a half the Spaniards were masters in
+Santiago, and Chili was once more a Spanish province, in which the
+inhabitants were punished terribly in confiscations, imprisonments,
+and executions for their recent defection. Deliverance, however,
+was at hand. General San Martin, through whom chiefly La Plata had
+achieved its freedom, gave assistance to O'Higgins and the Chilian
+patriots. The main body of the Spanish army, numbering about five
+thousand, had been stationed on the heights of Chacabuco, whence
+Santiago, Valparaiso, and the other leading towns of Chili were
+overawed. On the 12th of February, 1817, San Martin and O'Higgins,
+with a force nearly as large, surprised this garrison, and, with
+excellent strategy and very little loss of life, to the patriots at
+any rate, it was entirely subdued. Santiago was entered in triumph on
+the 14th of February, and a few weeks served for the entire dispersion
+of the royalist forces. The supreme directorship of the renovated
+republic was offered to San Martin. On his declining the honour, it
+was assigned, to the satisfaction of all parties, to O'Higgins.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The new dictator and the wisest of his counsellors, however, were not
+satisfied with the temporary advantage that they had achieved. They
+knew that armies would continue to come down from Peru, the defeat
+of which, even if that could be relied upon, would waste all the
+resources of the republic. They knew, too, that the Spanish war-ships
+which supplied Peru with troops and ammunition from home, passing the
+Chilian coast on their way, would seriously hinder the commerce on
+which the young state had to depend for its development, even if
+they did not destroy that commerce at its starting-point by seizing
+Valparaiso and the other ports. Therefore they resolved to seek
+for efficient help from Europe. With that end Don Jose Alvarez,
+a high-minded patriot, who had done much good service to Chili in
+previous years, was immediately sent to Europe, commissioned to borrow
+money, to build or buy warships, and in all the ways in his power to
+enlist the sympathies of the English people in the republican cause.
+In the last of these projects, at any rate, he succeeded beyond all
+reasonable expectation.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Beaching London in April, 1817, Alvarez was welcomed by many friends
+of South American freedom&mdash;Sir Francis Burdett, Sir James Mackintosh,
+Mr. Henry Brougham, and Mr. Edward Ellice among the number. Lord
+Cochrane was just then out of London, fighting his amusing battle with
+the sheriffs and bailiffs of Hampshire; but as soon as that business
+was over he took foremost place among the friends of Don Alvarez and
+the Chilian cause which he represented. With a message to him, indeed,
+Alvarez was specially commissioned. He was invited by the Chilian
+Government to undertake the organization and command of an improved
+naval force, and so, by exercise of the prowess which he had displayed
+in the Mediterranean and elsewhere, to render invaluable service to
+the young republic.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+He promptly accepted the invitation, being induced thereto by many
+sufficient reasons. Sick at heart, as we have seen, under the cruel
+treatment to which for so many years he had been subjected by his
+enemies in power, he saw here an opportunity of, at the same
+time, escaping from his persecutors, returning to active work in
+a profession very dear to him, and giving efficient aid to a noble
+enterprise.
+</p>
+
+</div><!--end chapter-->
+
+<div class="chapter">
+
+<h2><a name="chap07"></a>CHAPTER VII.</h2>
+
+<p class="letter">
+LORD COCHRANE'S VOYAGE TO CHILI.&mdash;HIS RECEPTION AT VALPARAISO AND
+SANTIAGO.&mdash;THE DISORGANIZATION OF THE CHILIAN FLEET.&mdash;FIRST SIGNS
+OF DISAFFECTION.&mdash;THE NAVAL FORCES OF THE CHILIANS AND THE
+SPANIARDS.&mdash;LORD COCHRANE'S FIRST EXPEDITION TO PERU.&mdash;HIS ATTACK ON
+CALLAO.&mdash;"DRAKE THE DRAGON" AND "COCHRANE THE DEVIL."&mdash;LORD COCHRANE'S
+SUCCESSES IN OVERAWING THE SPANIARDS, IN TREASURE-TAKING, AND
+IN ENCOURAGEMENT OF THE PERUVIANS TO JOIN IN THE WAR OF
+INDEPENDENCE.&mdash;HIS PLAN FOE ANOTHER ATTACK ON CALLAO.&mdash;HIS
+DIFFICULTIES IN EQUIPPING THE EXPEDITION.&mdash;THE FAILURE OF
+THE ATTEMPT.&mdash;HIS PLAN FOR STORMING VALDIVIA.&mdash;ITS SUCCESSFUL
+ACCOMPLISHMENT.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+[1818-1820.]
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Having accepted, in May, 1817, the offer conveyed to him by the
+Chilian Government through Don Jose Alvarez, Lord Cochrane's departure
+from England was delayed for more than a year. This was chiefly on
+account of the war-steamer, the <i>Rising Star</i>, which it was arranged
+to build and equip in London under his superintendence. But the work
+proceeded so slowly, in consequence of the difficulty experienced by
+Alvarez in raising the requisite funds, that, at last, Lord Cochrane,
+being urgently needed in South America, where the Spaniards were
+steadily gaining ground, was requested to leave the superintendence
+of the <i>Rising Star</i> in other hands, and to cross the Atlantic without
+her.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Accompanied by Lady Cochrane and his two children, he went first from
+Rye to Boulogne, and there, on the 15th of August, 1818, embarked in
+the <i>Rose</i>, a merchantman which had formerly been a warsloop. The long
+voyage was uninteresting until Cape Horn was reached. There, and in
+passing along the rugged coast-line of Tierra del Fuego, Lord Cochrane
+was struck by its wild scenery. He watched the lazy penguins that
+crowded on the rocks, among evergreens that showed brightly amid the
+imposing mass of snow, and caught with hooks the lazier sea-pigeons
+that skimmed the heavy waves and hovered round the bulwarks and got
+entangled among the rigging of the <i>Rose</i>. He shot several of the
+huge albatrosses that floated fearlessly over the deck, but was not
+successful in his efforts to catch the fish that were seen coming to
+the surface of the troubled sea. The sea was made so boisterous by
+rain and snow, and such a stiff wind blew from the west, that for two
+or three days the <i>Rose</i> could not double the Cape. She was forced to
+tack towards the south until a favourable gale set in, which carried
+her safely to Valparaiso.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Valparaiso was reached on the 28th of November, after ten weeks passed
+on shipboard. There and at Santiago, the seat of government, to which
+he proceeded as soon as the congratulations of his new friends
+would allow him, Lord Cochrane was heartily welcomed. So profuse and
+prolonged were the entertainments in his favour&mdash;splendid dinners,
+at which zealous patriots tendered their hearty compliments, being
+followed by yet more splendid balls, at which handsome women showed
+their gratitude in smiles, and eagerly sought the honour of being led
+by him through the dances which were their chief delight&mdash;that he had
+to remind his guests that he had come to Chili not to feast but to
+fight.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+There was prompt need of fighting. The Spaniards had a strong land
+force pressing up from the south and threatening to invest Santiago.
+Their formidable fleet swept the seas, and was being organized for an
+attack on Valparaiso. Admiral Blanco Encalada had just returned from
+a cruise in which he had succeeded in capturing, in Talcuanho Bay, a
+fine Spanish fifty-gun frigate, the Maria Isabel; but his fleet
+was ill-ordered and poorly equipped, quite unable, without thorough
+re-organization, to withstand the superior force of the enemy. An
+instance of the bad state of affairs was induced by Lord Cochrane's
+arrival, and seemed likely to cause serious trouble to him and worse
+misfortune to his Chilian employers. One of the republican vessels was
+the <i>Hecate</i>, a sloop of eighteen guns which had been sold out of the
+British navy and bought as a speculation by Captains Guise and Spry.
+Having first offered her in vain to the Buenos Ayrean Government,
+they had brought her on to Chili, and there contrived to sell her with
+advantage and to be themselves taken into the Chilian service. They
+and another volunteer, Captain Worcester, a North American, liking
+the ascendancy over Admiral Bianco which their experience had won
+for them, formed a cabal with the object of securing Admiral Blanco's
+continuance in the chief command, or its equal division between him
+and Lord Cochrane. Nothing but the Chilian admiral's disinterested
+patriotism prevented a serious rupture. He steadily withstood all
+temptations to his vanity, and avowed his determination to accept no
+greater honour&mdash;if there could be a greater&mdash;than that of serving as
+second in command under the brave Englishman who had come to fight
+for the independence of Chili. Thus, though some troubles afterwards
+sprang from the disaffections of Guise, Spry, and Worcester, the
+mischief schemed by them was prevented at starting.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+A few days after his arrival Lord Cochrane received his commission as
+"Vice-Admiral of Chili, Admiral, and Commander-in-Chief of the
+Naval Forces of the Republic." His flag was hoisted, on the 22nd
+of December, on board the <i>Maria Isabel</i>, now rechristened the
+<i>O'Higgins</i>, and fitted out as the principal ship in the small Chilian
+fleet. The other vessels of the fleet were the <i>San Martin</i>, formerly
+an Indiaman in the English service, of fifty-six guns; the <i>Lautaro</i>,
+also an old Indiaman, of forty-four guns; the <i>Galvarino</i>, as the
+<i>Hecate</i> of Captains Cruise and Spry was now styled, of eighteen guns;
+the <i>Chacabuco</i>, of twenty guns; the <i>Aracauno</i>, of sixteen guns; and
+a sloop of fourteen guns named the <i>Puyrredon</i>.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The Spanish fleet, which these seven ships had to withstand, comprised
+fourteen vessels and twenty-seven gunboats. Of the former three were
+frigates, the <i>Esmeralda</i>, of forty-four guns, the <i>Venganza</i>, of
+forty-two guns, and the <i>Sebastiana</i>, of twenty-eight guns; four were
+brigs, the <i>Maypeu</i>, of eighteen guns, the <i>Pezuela</i>, of twenty-two
+guns, the <i>Potrilla</i>, of eighteen guns, and another, whose name is not
+recorded, also of eighteen guns. There was a schooner, name unknown,
+which carried one large gun and twenty culverins. The rest were armed
+merchantmen, the <i>Resolution</i>, of thirty-six guns; the <i>Cleopatra</i>, of
+twenty-eight guns; the <i>La Focha</i>, of twenty guns; the <i>Guarmey</i>, of
+eighteen guns; the Fernando, of twenty-six guns, and the San Antonio,
+of eighteen guns. Only ten out of the fourteen, however, were ready
+for sea; and before the whole naval force could be got ready for
+service, it had been partly broken up by Lord Cochrane.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+There was delay, also, in getting the Chilian fleet under sail. After
+waiting at Valparaiso as long as he deemed prudent, Lord Cochrane left
+the three smaller vessels to complete their equipment under Admiral
+Blanco's direction, and passed out of port on the 16th of January,
+with the O'Higgins, the San Martin, the Lautaro, and the Chacabuco. He
+had hardly started before a mutiny broke out on board the last-named
+vessel, which compelled him to halt at Coquimbo long enough to try
+and punish the mutineers. Resuming the voyage, he proceeded along the
+Chilian and Peruvian coast as far northward as Callao Bay, where he
+cruised about for some days, awaiting an opportunity of attacking the
+Spanish shipping there collected in considerable force.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+While thus waiting he employed his leisure in observations, great and
+small, of the sort and in the way characteristic of him all through
+life. One of his rough notes runs thus:&mdash;"Cormorants resort in
+enormous nights, coming in the morning from the northward to Callao
+Bay, and proceeding along shore to the southward, diving in regular
+succession one after another on the fish which, driven at the same
+time from below by shoals of porpoises, seem to have no chance but to
+be devoured under water or scooped up in the large bags pendent from
+the enormous bills of the cormorants." "Prodigious seals," we read in
+another note, "inhabit the rocks, whose grave faces and grey beards
+look more like the human countenance than the faces of most other
+animals. They are very unwieldy in their movements when on shore, but
+most expert in the water. There is a small kind of duck in the bay,
+which, from the clearness of the water, can be seen flying with its
+wings under water in chase of small fry, which it speedily overtakes
+from its prodigious speed."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+From note-making of that sort, Lord Cochrane turned to more serious
+business. The batteries of Callao and of San Lorenzo, a little island
+in the bay which helped to form the port, mounted one hundred and
+sixty guns, and more than twice as many were at the command of vessels
+there lying-to. Direct attack of a force so very much superior to
+that of the Chilian fleet seemed out of the question. Therefore
+Lord Cochrane bethought him of a subterfuge. Learning that two North
+American war-ships were expected at Callao, he determined to personate
+them with the <i>O'Higgins</i> and <i>Lautaro</i>, and so enter the port under
+alien colours. It was then carnival-time, and on the 21st of February,
+deeming that the Spaniards were more likely to be off their guard, he
+proposed "to make a feint of sending a boat ashore with despatches,
+and in the mean time suddenly to dash at the frigates and cut them
+out." Unfortunately a dense fog set in, which lasted till the 28th,
+and made it impossible for him to effect his purpose before the
+carnival was over. Let the sequel be told in his own words.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"On the 28th, hearing heavy firing and imagining that one of the ships
+was engaged with the enemy, I stood with the flag-ship into the
+bay. The other ships, imagining the same thing, also steered in the
+direction of the firing, when, the fog clearing for a moment, we
+discovered each other, as well as a strange sail near us. This proved
+to be a Spanish gunboat, with a lieutenant and twenty men, who, on
+being made prisoners, informed us that the firing was a salute
+in honour of the Viceroy, who had that morning been on a visit of
+inspection to the batteries and shipping, and was then on board the
+brig-of-war <i>Pezuela</i>, which we saw crowding sail in the direction
+of the batteries. The fog, again coming on, suggested to me the
+possibility of a direct attack. Accordingly, still maintaining our
+disguise under American colours, the <i>O'Higgins</i> and <i>Lautaro</i> stood
+towards the batteries, narrowly escaping going ashore in the fog. The
+Viceroy, having no doubt witnessed the capture of the gunboat, had,
+however, provided for our reception, the garrison being at their guns,
+and the crews of the ships-of-war at their quarters. Notwithstanding
+the great odds, I determined to persist in an attack, as our
+withdrawing, without firing a shot, would produce an effect upon the
+minds of the Spaniards the reverse of that intended. I had sufficient
+experience in war to know that moral effect, even if the result of a
+degree of temerity, will not unfrequently supply the place of superior
+force.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"The wind falling light, I did not venture on laying the flag-ship and
+the <i>Lautaro</i> alongside the Spanish frigates, as I at first intended,
+but anchored with springs on our cables, abreast of the shipping,
+which was arranged in a half-moon of two lines, the rear-rank being
+judiciously disposed so as to cover the intervals of the ships in the
+front line. A dead calm succeeded, and we were for two hours exposed
+to a heavy fire from the batteries, in addition to that from the
+two frigates, the brigs <i>Pezuela</i> and <i>Maypeu</i>, and seven or eight
+gunboats. Nevertheless the northern angle of one of the principal
+forts was silenced by our fire. As soon as a breeze sprang up, we
+weighed anchor, standing to and fro in front of the batteries,
+and returning their fire, until Captain Guise, who commanded the
+<i>Lautaro</i>, being severely wounded, that ship sheered off and never
+again came within range. As, from want of wind, or doubt of the
+result, neither the <i>San Martin</i> nor the <i>Chacabuco</i> had ever got
+within fire, the flag-ship was thus left alone, and I was reluctantly
+compelled to relinquish the attack. I withdrew to the island of San
+Lorenzo, about three miles distant from the forts; the Spaniards,
+though nearly quadruple our numbers, exclusive of their gunboats, not
+venturing to follow us.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"The action having been commenced in a fog, the Spaniards imagined
+that all the Chilian vessels were engaged. They were not a little
+surprised, as it again cleared, to find that their own frigate, the
+quondam <i>Maria Isabella</i>, was almost their only opponent. So much were
+they dispirited by this discovery that, as soon as possible after the
+close of the contest, their ships-of-war were dismantled, the topmasts
+and spars being formed into a double boom across the anchorage, so as
+to prevent approach. The Spaniards were also previously unaware of my
+being in command of the Chilian squadron. On becoming acquainted with
+this fact, they bestowed upon me the not very complimentary title of
+'El Diablo,' by which I was afterwards known amongst them."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Two hundred and forty years before, almost to a day, Sir Francis
+Drake&mdash;whom, of all English seamen, Lord Cochrane most resembled in
+chivalrous daring and in chivalrous hatred of oppression&mdash;had secretly
+led his little <i>Golden Hind</i> into the harbour of Callao, and there
+despoiled a Spanish fleet of seventeen vessels; for which and for his
+other brave achievements he won the nickname of El Dracone. Drake the
+Dragon and Cochrane the Devil were kinsmen in noble hatred, and noble
+punishment, of Spanish wrong-doing.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Retiring to San Lorenzo, after the fight in Callao Bay on the 28th
+of February, Lord Cochrane occupied the island, and from it blockaded
+Callao for five weeks. On the island he found thirty-seven Chilian
+soldiers, whom the Spaniards had made prisoners eight years before.
+"The unhappy men," he said, "had ever since been forced to work in
+chains under the supervision of a military guard&mdash;now prisoners in
+turn; their sleeping-place during the whole of this period being a
+filthy shed, in which they were every night chained by one leg to an
+iron bar." Yet worse, as he was informed by the poor fellows whom he
+freed from their misery, was the condition of some Chilian officers
+and seamen imprisoned in Lima, and so cruelly chained that the fetters
+had worn bare their ankles to the bone. He accordingly, under a flag
+of truce, sent to the Spanish Viceroy, Don Joaquim de la Pezuela,
+offering to exchange for these Chilian prisoners a larger number of
+Spaniards captured by himself and others. This proposal was bluntly
+refused by the Viceroy, who took occasion, in his letter, to avow
+his surprise that a British nobleman should come to fight for a
+rebel community "unacknowledged by all the powers of the globe."
+Lord Cochrane replied that "a British nobleman was a free man, and
+therefore had a right to assist any country which was endeavouring to
+re-establish the rights of aggrieved humanity." "I have," he added,
+"adopted the cause of Chili with the same freedom of judgment that I
+previously exercised when refusing the offer of an admiral's rank in
+Spain, made to me not long ago by the Spanish ambassador in London."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Except in blockading Callao and repairing his ships little was done by
+Lord Cochrane during his stay at San Lorenzo. On the 1st of March he
+went into the harbour again and opened a destructive fire upon
+the Spanish gunboats, but as these soon sought shelter under the
+batteries, which the <i>O'Higgins</i> and the <i>Lautaro</i> were not strong
+enough to oppose, the demonstration did not last long. Unsuccessful
+also was an attempt made upon the batteries, with the aid of an
+explosion-vessel, on the 22nd of March. The explosion-vessel, when
+just within musket-range, was struck by a round shot, and foundered,
+thus spoiling the intended enterprise. But other plans fared better.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+At the beginning of April, Lord Cochrane left San Lorenzo and
+proceeded to Huacho, a few leagues north of Callao. Its inhabitants
+were for the most part in sympathy with the republican cause, and the
+Spanish garrison fled at almost the first gunshot, leaving a large
+quantity of government property and specie in the hands of the
+assailants. Much other treasure, which proved very serviceable to
+the impoverished Chilian exchequer, was captured by the little fleet
+during a two months' cruise about the coast of Peru, both north and
+south of Callao. Everywhere, too, the Spanish cause was weakened,
+and the natives were encouraged to share in the great work of South
+American rebellion against a tyranny of three centuries' duration. "It
+was my object," said Lord Cochrane, "to make friends of the Peruvian
+people, by adopting towards them a conciliatory course, and by strict
+care that none but Spanish property should be taken. Confidence was
+thus inspired, and the universal dissatisfaction with Spanish rule
+speedily became changed into an earnest desire to be freed from it."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Having cruised about the Peruvian coast during April and May, Lord
+Cochrane returned to Valparaiso on the 16th of June. "The objects of
+the first expedition," he said, "had been fully accomplished, namely,
+to reconnoitre, with a view to future operations, when the squadron
+should be rendered efficient; but more especially to ascertain the
+inclinations of the Peruvians&mdash;a point of the first importance to
+Chili, as being obliged to be constantly on the alert for her own
+newly-acquired liberties so long as the Spaniards were in undisturbed
+possession of Peru. To the accomplishment of these objects had been
+superadded the restriction of the Spanish naval force to the
+shelter of the forts, the defeat of their military forces wherever
+encountered, and the capture of no inconsiderable amount of treasure."
+That was work enough to be done by four small ships, ill-manned and
+ill-provisioned, during a five months' absence from Valparaiso; and
+the Chilians were not ungrateful.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Their gratitude, however, was not strong enough to make them zealous
+co-operators in his schemes for their benefit. Lord Cochrane was eager
+to start upon another expedition, in which he hoped for yet greater
+success. But for this were needed preparations which the poverty and
+mismanagement of the Chilian Government made almost impossible. He
+asked for a thousand troops with which to facilitate a second attack
+on Callao. This force, certainly not a large one, was promised, but,
+when he was about to embark, only ninety soldiers were ready, and even
+then a private subscription had to be raised for giving them decent
+clothing instead of the rags in which they appeared. For the assault
+on Callao, also, an ample supply of rockets was required. An engineer
+named Goldsack had gone from England to construct them, and, that
+there might be no stinting in the work, Lord Cochrane offered to
+surrender all his share of prize-money. The offer was refused; but, to
+save money, their manufacture was assigned to some Spanish prisoners,
+who showed their patriotism in making them so badly that, when tried,
+they were found utterly worthless. There were other instances of false
+economy, whereby Lord Cochrane's intended services to his Chilian
+employers were seriously hindered. The vessels were refitted, however,
+and a new one, an American-built corvette, named the <i>Independencia</i>,
+of twenty-eight guns, was added to the number.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+After nearly three months' stay at Valparaiso, he again set sail on
+the 12th of September, 1819. Admiral Blanco was his second in command,
+and his squadron consisted of the <i>O'Higgins</i>, the <i>San Martin</i>, the
+<i>Lautaro</i>, the <i>Independencia</i>, the <i>Galvarino</i>, the <i>Araucano</i>, and
+the <i>Puyrredon</i>, mounting two hundred and twenty guns in all. There
+were also two old vessels, to be used as fireships.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The fleet entered Callao Roads on the 29th of September. On this
+occasion there was no subterfuge. On the 30th Lord Cochrane despatched
+a boat to Callao with a flag of truce, and a challenge to the Viceroy
+to send out his ships&mdash;nearly twice as strong as those of Chili in
+guns and men&mdash;for a fair fight in the open sea. The challenge was
+bluntly rejected, and an attack on the batteries and the ships in
+harbour was then planned. On the 1st of October, the smaller vessels
+reconnoitred the bay, and there was some fighting, in which the
+<i>Araucano</i> was damaged. Throughout the night of the 2nd, a formidable
+attack was attempted, in which the main reliance was placed in the
+Goldsack rockets; but, in consequence of the treacherous handling
+of the Spanish soldiers who had filled them, they proved worse than
+useless, doing nearly as much injury to the men who fired them as
+to the enemy. Only one gunboat was sunk by the shells from a raft
+commanded by Major Miller, who also did some damage to the forts and
+shipping. On the night of the 4th, Lord Cochrane amused himself, while
+a fireship was being prepared, by causing a burning tar-barrel to be
+drifted with the tide towards the enemy's shipping. It was, in the
+darkness, supposed to be a much more formidable antagonist, and
+volleys of Spanish shot were spent upon it. On the following evening
+a fireship was despatched; but this also was a failure. A sudden calm
+prevented her progress. She was riddled through and through by the
+enemy's guns, and, rapidly gaining water in consequence, had to be
+fired so much too soon that she exploded before getting near enough to
+work any serious mischief among the Spanish shipping.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+By these misfortunes Lord Cochrane was altogether disheartened. The
+rockets, on which he had chiefly relied, had proved worthless, and,
+one fireship having been wasted, he did not care to risk the loss of
+the other. He found too that the Spaniards, profiting by the warning
+which he had previously given, had so strengthened their booms that it
+was quite impossible, with the small force at his command, to get at
+them or to reach the port. His store of provisions, also, was nearly
+exhausted, and the fresh supply promised from Chili had not arrived.
+He therefore reluctantly, for the time, abandoned his project for
+taking Callao.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+He continued to watch the port for a few weeks, however, hoping for
+some chance opportunity of injuring it; and, in the interval, sent
+three hundred and fifty soldiers and marines, under Lieutenant-Colonel
+Charles and Major Miller, in the <i>Lautaro</i>, the <i>Galvarino</i>, and the
+remaining fireship, commanded by Captain Guise, to attack Pisco and
+procure from it and the neighbourhood the requisite provisions. This
+was satisfactorily done; but the sickness of many of his men caused
+his further detention at Santa, whither he had gone from Callao. On
+the 21st of November the sick were sent to Valparaiso, in the charge
+of the <i>San Martin</i>, the <i>Independencia</i>, and the <i>Araucano</i>. With the
+remaining ships, the <i>O'Higgins</i>, the <i>Lautaro</i>, the <i>Galvarino</i>, and
+the <i>Puyrredon</i>, Lord Cochrane proceeded to the mouth of the River
+Guayaquil. There, on the 28th of the month, he captured two large
+Spanish vessels, one of twenty and the other of sixteen guns, laden
+with timber, and took possession of the village of Puna. At Guayaquil
+there was another delay of a fortnight, owing to a mutiny attempted
+by Captains Guise and Spry, whose treacherous disposition has already
+been mentioned.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Not till the middle of December was he able to escape from the
+troubles brought upon him by others, and to return to work worthy of
+his great name and character. Then, however, sending one of his ships,
+with the prizes, to Valparaiso, and leaving two others to watch
+the Peruvian coast, he started, with only his flag-ship, upon an
+enterprise as brilliant in conception and execution as any in his
+whole eventful history. "The Chilian people," he said, "expected
+impossibilities; and I. had for some time been revolving in my mind
+a plan to achieve one which should gratify them, and allay my own
+wounded feelings. I had now only one ship, so that there were no
+other inclinations to consult; and I felt quite sure of Major Miller's
+concurrence where there was any fighting to be done. My design was,
+with the flag-ship alone, to capture by a <i>coup de main</i> the
+numerous forts and garrison of Valdivia, a fortress previously deemed
+impregnable, and thus to counteract the disappointment which would
+ensue in Chili from our want of success at Callao. The enterprise
+was a desperate one; nevertheless, I was not about to do anything
+desperate, having resolved that, unless I was fully satisfied as to
+its practicability, I would not attempt it. Rashness, though often
+imputed to me, forms no part of my composition. There is a rashness
+without calculation of consequences; but with that calculation
+well-founded, it is no longer rashness. And thus, now that I was
+unfettered by people who did not second my operations as they ought
+to have done, I made up my mind to take Valdivia, if the attempt came
+within the scope of my calculations."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Valdivia was the stronghold and centre of Spanish attack upon Chili
+from the south, just as were Lima and Callao on the north. To reach it
+Lord Cochrane had to sail northwards along the coast of Peru and Chili
+to some distance below Valparaiso. This he did without loss of time,
+to work out an excellent strategy which will be best understood from
+his own report of it.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"The first step," he said, "clearly was to reconnoitre Valdivia. The
+flag-ship arrived on the 18th of January, 1820, under Spanish colours,
+and made a signal for a pilot, who&mdash;as the Spaniards mistook the
+<i>O'Higgins</i> for a ship of their own&mdash;promptly came off, together with
+a complimentary retinue of an officer and four soldiers, all of whom
+were made prisoners as soon as they came on board. The pilot was
+ordered to take us into the channels leading to the forts, whilst the
+officer and his men, knowing there was little chance of their finding
+their way on shore again, thought it most conducive to their interests
+to supply all the information demanded, the result being increased
+confidence on my part as to the possibility of a successful attack.
+Amongst other information obtained was the expected arrival of the
+Spanish brig <i>Potrillo</i>, with money on board for the payment of the
+garrison.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"As we were busily employing ourselves in inspecting the channels, the
+officer commanding the garrison began to suspect that our object might
+not altogether be pacific, a suspicion which was confirmed by the
+detention of his officer. Suddenly a heavy fire was opened upon
+us from the various forts, to which we did not reply, but, our
+reconnoissance being now complete, withdrew beyond its reach. Two days
+were occupied in reconnoitring. On the third day the <i>Potrillo</i> hove
+in sight, and she, being also deceived by our Spanish colours, was
+captured without a shot, twenty thousand dollars and some important
+despatches being found on board."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+That first business having been satisfactorily achieved, Lord Cochrane
+proceeded to Concepcion, there to ask and obtain from its Chilian
+governor, General Freire, a force of two hundred and fifty soldiers,
+under Major Beauchef, a French volunteer. In Talcahuano Bay, moreover,
+he found a Chilian schooner, the <i>Montezuma</i>, and a Brazilian brig,
+the <i>Intrepido</i>. He attached the former to his service, and accepted
+the volunteered aid of the latter. With this augmented but still
+insignificant force, very defective in some important respects, he
+returned to Valdivia. "The flag-ship," he said, "had only two naval
+officers on board, one of these being under arrest for disobedience
+of orders, whilst the other was incapable of performing the duty of
+lieutenant; so that I had to act as admiral, captain and lieutenant,
+taking my turn in the watch&mdash;or rather being constantly on the
+watch&mdash;as the only available officer was so incompetent."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"We sailed from Talcahuano on the 25th of January," the narrative
+proceeds, "when I communicated my intentions to the military officers,
+who displayed great eagerness in the cause&mdash;alone questioning their
+success from motives of prudence. On my explaining to them that, if
+unexpected projects are energetically put in execution, they almost
+invariably succeed in spite of odds, they willingly entered into my
+plans.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"On the night of the 29th, we were off the island of Quiriquina, in
+a dead calm. From excessive fatigue in the execution of subordinate
+duties, I had lain down to rest, leaving the ship in charge of
+the lieutenant, who took advantage of my absence to retire also,
+surrendering the watch to the care of a midshipman, who fell asleep.
+Knowing our dangerous position, I had left strict orders that I was
+to be called the moment a breeze sprang up; but these orders were
+neglected. A sudden wind took the ship unawares, and the midshipman,
+in attempting to bring her round, ran her upon the sharp edge of a
+rock, where she lay beating, suspended, as it were, upon her keel;
+and, had the swell increased, she must inevitably have gone to pieces.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"We were forty miles from the mainland, the brig and schooner being
+both out of sight. The first impulse, both of officers and crew, was
+to abandon the ship, but, as we had six hundred men on board, whilst
+not more than a hundred and fifty could have entered the boats, this
+would have been but a scramble for life. Pointing out to the men that
+those who escaped could only reach the coast of Arauco, where they
+would meet nothing but torture and inevitable death at the hands of
+the Indians, I with some difficulty got them to adopt the alternative
+of attempting to save the ship. The first sounding gave five feet
+of water in the hold, and the pumps were entirely out of order. Our
+carpenter, who was only one by name, was incompetent to repair them;
+but, having myself some skill in carpentry, I took off my coat, and
+by midnight, got them into working order, the water in the meanwhile
+gaining on us, though the whole crew were engaged in baling it out
+with buckets.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"To our great delight, the leak did not increase, upon which I got
+out the stream anchor and commenced heaving off the ship; the officers
+clamoured first to ascertain the extent of the leak; but this I
+expressly forbade, as calculated to damp the energy of the men,
+whilst, as we now gained on the leak, there was no doubt the ship
+would swim as far as Valdivia, which was the chief point to be
+regarded, the capture of the fortress being my object, after which the
+ship might be repaired at leisure. As there was no lack of physical
+force on board, she was at length floated; but the powder magazine
+having been under water, the ammunition of every kind, except a little
+upon deck and in the cartouche-boxes of the troops, was rendered
+unserviceable; though about this I cared little, as it involved the
+necessity of using the bayonet in our anticipated attack; and to
+facing this weapon the Spaniards had, in every case, evinced a rooted
+aversion."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The <i>O'Higgins</i>, thus bravely saved from wreck, was soon joined by the
+<i>Intrepido</i> and the <i>Montezuma</i>, and these vessels being now most fit
+for action, as many men as possible were transferred to them, and the
+<i>O'Higgins</i> was ordered to stand out to sea, only to be made use of in
+case of need. The <i>Montezuma</i> now became the flag-ship, and with her
+and her consort Lord Cochrane sailed into Valdivia Harbour on the 2nd
+of February.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"The fortifications of Valdivia," he said, "are placed on both sides
+of a channel three quarters of a mile in width, and command the
+entrance, anchorage, and river leading to the town, crossing their
+fire in all directions so effectually that, with proper caution on the
+part of the garrison, no ship could enter without suffering severely,
+while she would be equally exposed at anchor. The principal forts on
+the western shore are placed in the following order:&mdash;El Ingles, San
+Carlos, Amargos, Chorocomayo, Alto, and Corral Castle. Those on the
+eastern side are Niebla, directly opposite Amargos, and Piojo; whilst
+on the island of Manzanera is a strong fort mounted with guns of large
+calibre, commanding the whole range of the entrance channel. These
+forts and a few others, fifteen in all, would render the place in the
+hands of a skilful garrison almost impregnable, the shores on
+which they stand being inaccessible by reason of the surf, with the
+exception of a small landing-place at Fort Ingles.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"It was to this landing-place that we first directed our attention,
+anchoring the brig and schooner off the guns of Fort Ingles on the
+afternoon of February the 3rd, amidst a swell which rendered immediate
+disembarkation impracticable. The troops were carefully kept below;
+and, to avert the suspicion of the Spaniards, we had trumped up a
+story of our having just arrived from Cadiz and being in want of a
+pilot. They told us to send a boat for one. To this we replied that
+our boats had been washed away in the passage round Cape Horn.
+Not being quite satisfied, they began to assemble troops at the
+landing-place, firing alarm-guns, and rapidly bringing up the
+garrisons of the western forts to Fort Ingles, but not molesting us.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Unfortunately for the credit of the story about the loss of the
+boats, which were at the time carefully concealed under the lee of the
+vessels, one drifted astern, so that our object became apparent, and
+the guns of Fort Ingles, under which we lay, forthwith opened upon
+us, the first shots passing through the sides of the <i>Intrepido</i> and
+killing two men, so that it became necessary to land in spite of the
+swell. We had only two launches and a gig. I directed the operation in
+the gig, whilst Major Miller, with forty-four marines, pushed off in
+the first launch, under the fire of the party at the landing-place,
+on to which they soon leaped, driving the Spaniards before them at
+the point of the bayonet. The second launch then pushed off from the
+<i>Intrepido</i>, while the other was returning; and in this way, in less
+than an hour, three hundred men had made good their footing on shore.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"The most difficult task, the capture of the forts, was to come. The
+only way in which the first, Fort Ingles, could be approached, was
+by a precipitous path, along which the men could only pass in single
+file, the fort itself being inaccessible except by a ladder, which the
+enemy, after being routed by Major Miller, had drawn up.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"As soon as it was dark, a picked party, under the guidance of one
+of the Spanish prisoners, silently advanced to the attack. This party
+having taken up its position, the main body moved forward, cheering
+and firing in the air, to intimate to the Spaniards that their
+chief reliance was on the bayonet. The enemy, meanwhile, kept up
+an incessant fire of artillery and musketry in the direction of the
+shouts, but without effect, as no aim could be taken in the dark.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Whilst the patriots were thus noisily advancing, a gallant young
+officer, Ensign Vidal, got under the inland flank of the fort, and,
+with a few men, contrived to tear up some pallisades, by which a
+bridge was made across the ditch. In that way he and his small party
+entered and formed noiselessly under cover of some branches of trees,
+while the garrison, numbering about eight hundred soldiers, were
+directing their whole attention in an opposite direction.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"A volley from Vidal's party convinced the Spaniards that they had
+been taken in flank. Without waiting to ascertain the number of those
+who had outflanked them, they instantly took to flight, filling with a
+like panic a column of three hundred men drawn up behind the fort.
+The Chilians, who were now well up, bayoneted them by dozens as they
+attempted to gain the forts; and when the forts were opened to receive
+them the patriots entered at the same time, and thus drove them from
+fort to fort into the Castle of Corral, together with two hundred more
+who had abandoned some guns advantageously placed on a height at Fort
+Chorocomayo. The Corral was stormed with equal rapidity, a number
+of the enemy escaping in boats to Valdivia, others plunging into the
+forest. Upwards of a hundred fell into our hands, and on the following
+morning the like number were found to have been bayoneted. Our loss
+was seven men killed and nineteen wounded.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"On the 5th, the <i>Intrepido</i> and <i>Montezuma</i>, which had been left near
+Fort Ingles, entered the harbour, being fired at in their passage by
+Fort Niebla, on the eastern shore. On their coming to an anchor at the
+Corral, two hundred men were again embarked to attack Forts Niebla,
+Carbonero, and Piojo. The <i>O'Higgins</i> also appeared in sight off the
+mouth of the harbour. The Spaniards thereupon summarily abandoned the
+forts on the eastern side; no doubt judging that, as the western forts
+had been captured without the aid of the frigate, they had, now that
+she had arrived, no chance of successfully defending them.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"On the 6th, the troops were again embarked to pursue the flying
+garrison up the river, when we received a flag of truce, informing us
+that the enemy had abandoned the town, after plundering the private
+houses and magazines, and with the governor, Colonel Montoya, had
+fled in the direction of Chiloe. The booty which fell into our
+hands, exclusive of the value of the forts and public buildings, was
+considerable, Valdivia being the chief military depôt in the southern
+side of the continent. Amongst the military stores were upwards of 50
+tons of gunpowder, 10,000 cannon-shot, 170,000 musket-cartridges, a
+large quantity of small arms, 128 guns, of which 53 were brass and the
+remainder iron, the ship <i>Dolores</i> &mdash;afterwards sold at Valparaiso for
+twenty thousand dollars&mdash;with public stores sold for the like value,
+and plate, of which General Sanchez had previously stripped the
+churches of Concepcion, valued at sixteen thousand dollars."
+Those prizes compensated over and over again for the loss of the
+<i>Intrepido</i>, which grounded in the channel, and the injuries done to
+the <i>O'Higgins</i> on her way to Valdivia.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+But the value of Lord Cochrane's capture of this stronghold was not to
+be counted in money. By its daring conception and easy completion
+the Spaniards, besides losing their great southern starting-point for
+attacks on Chili and the other states that were fighting for their
+freedom, lost heart, to a great extent, in their whole South American
+warfare. They saw that their insurgent colonists had now found a
+champion too bold, too cautious, too honest, and too prosperous for
+them any longer to hope that they could succeed in their efforts to
+win back the dependencies which were shaking off the thraldom of three
+centuries.
+</p>
+
+</div><!--end chapter-->
+
+<div class="chapter">
+
+<h2><a name="chap08"></a>CHAPTER VIII.</h2>
+
+<p class="letter">
+LORD COCHRANE'S RETURN TO VALPARAISO.&mdash;HIS ILL-TREATMENT BY
+THE CHILIAN SENATE.&mdash;THE THIRD EXPEDITION TO PERU.&mdash;GENERAL SAN
+MARTIN.&mdash;THE CAPTURE OF THE "ESMERALDA," AND ITS ISSUE.&mdash;LORD
+COCHRANE'S SUBSEQUENT WORK.&mdash;SAN MARTIN'S TREACHERY.&mdash;HIS
+ASSUMPTION OF THE PROTECTORATE OF PERU.&mdash;HIS BASE PROPOSALS TO LORD
+COCHRANE.&mdash;LORD COCHRANE'S CONDEMNATION OF THEM.&mdash;THE TROUBLES OF THE
+CHILIAN SQUADRON.&mdash;LORD COCHRANE'S SEIZURE OF TREASURE AT ANCON,
+AND EMPLOYMENT OF IT IN PAYING HIS OFFICERS AND MEN.&mdash;HIS STAY AT
+GUAYAQUIL.&mdash;THE ADVANTAGES OF FREE TRADE.&mdash;LORD COCHRANE'S
+CRUISE ALONG THE MEXICAN COAST IN SEARCH OF THE REMAINING SPANISH
+FRIGATES.&mdash;THEIR ANNEXATION BY PERU.&mdash;LORD COCHRANE'S LAST VISIT TO
+CALLAO.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+[1820-1822.]
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Lord Cochrane returned to Valparaiso on the 27th of February, 1820.
+By General O'Higgins, the Supreme Director, and by the populace he was
+enthusiastically received. But Zenteno, the Minister of Marine, and
+other members of the Government, jealous of the fresh renown which he
+had won by his conquest of Valdivia, showed their jealousy in various
+offensive ways.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+In anticipation of his failure they had prepared an elaborate charge
+of insubordination, in that he had not come back direct from
+Callao. Now that he had triumphed, they sought at first to have him
+reprimanded for attempting so hazardous an exploit, and afterwards
+to rob him of his due on the ground that his achievement was
+insignificant and valueless. When they were compelled by the voice of
+the people to declare publicly that "the capture of Valdivia was the
+happy result of an admirably-arranged plan and of the most daring
+execution," they refused to award either to him or to his comrades any
+other recompense than was contained in the verbal compliment; and,
+on his refusing to give up his prizes until the seamen had been
+paid their arrears of wages, he was threatened with prosecution for
+detention of the national property.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The threat was impotent, as the people of Chili would not for a moment
+have permitted such an indignity to their champion. But so irritating
+were this and other attempted persecutions to Lord Cochrane that, on
+the 14th of May, he tendered to the Supreme Director his resignation
+of service under the Chilian Government. That proposal was, of course,
+rejected; but with the rejection came a promise of better treatment.
+The seamen were paid in July, and the Valdivian prize-money was
+nominally awarded. Lord Cochrane's share amounted to 67,000 dollars,
+and to this was added a grant of land at Rio Clara. But the money was
+never paid, and the estate was forcibly seized a few years afterwards.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Other annoyances, which need not here be detailed, were offered to
+Lord Cochrane, and thus six months were wasted by Zenteno and his
+associates in the Chilian senate. "The senate," said Lord Cochrane,
+"was an anomaly in state government. It consisted of five members,
+whose functions were to remain only during the first struggles of the
+country for independence; but this body had now assumed a permanent
+right to dictatorial control, whilst there was no appeal from their
+arbitrary conduct, except to themselves. They arrogated the title
+of 'Most Excellent,' whilst the Supreme Director was simply 'His
+Excellency;' his position, though nominally head of the executive,
+being really that of mouthpiece to the senate, which, assuming all
+power, deprived the Executive Government of its legitimate influence,
+so that no armament could be equipped, no public work undertaken,
+no troops raised, and no taxes levied, except by the consent of this
+irresponsible body. For such a clique the plain, simple good sense
+of the Supreme Director was no match. He was led to believe that a
+crooked policy was a necessary evil of government, and, as such a
+policy was adverse to his own nature, he was the more easily induced
+to surrender its administration to others who were free from his
+conscientious principles." Those sentences explain the treatment to
+which, now and afterwards, Lord Cochrane was subjected.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+He was allowed, however, to do further excellent service to the nation
+which had already begun to reward him with nothing but ingratitude. As
+soon as the Chilian Government could turn from its spiteful exercise
+to its proper duty of consolidating the independence of the insurgents
+from Spanish dominion, it was resolved to despatch as strong a force
+as could be raised for another and more formidable expedition to
+Peru, whereby at the same time the Peruvians should be freed from the
+tyranny by which they were still oppressed, and the Chilians should be
+rid of the constant danger that they incurred from the presence of a
+Spanish army in Lima, Callao, and other garrisons, ready to bear down
+upon them again and again, as it had often done before. In 1819 Lord
+Cochrane had vainly asked for a suitable land force with which to aid
+his attack upon Callao. It was now resolved to organize a Liberating
+Army, after the fashion of that with which Bolivar had nobly scoured
+the northern districts of South America, and to place it under the
+direction of General San Martin, in co-operation with whom Lord
+Cochrane was to pursue his work as chief admiral of the fleet.
+San Martin had fought worthily in La Plata, and he had earned the
+gratitude of the Chilians by winning back their freedom in conjunction
+with O'Higgins in 1817. Vanity and ambition, however, had since
+unhinged him, and he now proved himself a champion of liberty very
+inferior, both in prowess and in honesty, to Bolivar.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+His army, numbering four thousand two hundred men, was collected by
+the 21st of August, and on that day it was embarked at Valparaiso in
+the whole Chilian squadron. Lord Cochrane proposed to go at once to
+Chilca, the nearest point both to Lima and to Callao. San Martin,
+however, decided upon Pisco as a safer landing-place, and there the
+troops were deposited on the 8th of September. For fifty days they
+were detained there, and the fleet was forced to share their idleness,
+capturing only a few passing merchantmen. On the 28th of October they
+were re-embarked, and Lord Cochrane again urged a vigorous attack on
+the capital and its port. Again he was thwarted by San Martin, who
+requested to be landed at Ancon, considerably to the north of Callao,
+and as unsuitable a halting-place as was the southerly town of Pisco.
+Lord Cochrane had to comply; but he bethought him of a plan for
+achieving a great work, in spite of San Martin. Sending the main body
+of his fleet to Ancon with the troops, no the 20th, he retained
+the <i>O'Higgins</i>, the <i>Independencia</i>, and the <i>Lautaro</i>, with the
+professed object of merely blockading Callao at a safe distance.
+"The fact was," he said, "that, annoyed, in common with the whole
+expedition, at this irresolution on the part of General San Martin, I
+determined that the means of Chili, furnished with great difficulty,
+should not be wholly wasted, without some attempt at accomplishing the
+object of the expedition. I accordingly formed a plan of attack with
+the three ships which I had kept back, though, being apprehensive
+that my design would be opposed by General San Martin, I had not
+even mentioned to him my intentions. This design was, to cut out the
+<i>Esmeralda</i> frigate from under the fortifications, and also to get
+possession of another ship, on board of which we had learned that a
+million of dollars was embarked."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The plan was certainly a bold one. The <i>Esmeralda</i>, of forty-four
+guns, was the finest Spanish ship in the Pacific Ocean. Now especially
+well armed and manned, in readiness for any work that had to be done,
+she was lying in Callao Harbour, protected by three hundred pieces
+of artillery on shore and by a strong boom with chain moorings,
+by twenty-seven gunboats and several armed block-ships. These
+considerations, however, only induced Lord Cochrane to proceed
+cautiously upon his enterprise. Three days were spent in preparations,
+the purpose of which was known only to himself and to his chief
+officers. On the afternoon of the 5th of November he issued this
+proclamation:&mdash;"Marines and seamen,&mdash;This night we shall give the
+enemy a mortal blow. To-morrow you will present yourself proudly
+before Callao, and all your comrades will envy your good fortune.
+One hour of courage and resolution is all that is required for you
+to triumph. Remember that you have conquered in Valdivia, and have no
+fear of those who have hitherto fled from you. The value of all the
+vessels captured in Callao will be yours, and the same reward will be
+distributed amongst you as has been offered by the Spaniards in Lima
+to those who should capture any of the Chilian squadron. The moment of
+glory is approaching. I hope that the Chilians will fight as they have
+been accustomed to do, and that the English will act as they have ever
+done at home and abroad."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+A request was made for volunteers, and the whole body of seamen and
+marines on board the three ships offered to follow Lord Cochrane
+wherever he might lead. This was more than he wanted. "A hundred
+and sixty seamen and eighty marines," said Lord Cochrane, whose own
+narrative of the sequel will best describe it, "were placed, after
+dark, in fourteen boats alongside the flag-ship, each man, armed with
+cutlass and pistol, being, for distinction's sake, dressed in white,
+with a blue band on the left arm. The Spaniards, I expected, would
+be off their guard, and consider themselves safe from attack for that
+night, since, by way of ruse, the other ships had been sent out of the
+bay under the charge of Captain Foster, as though in pursuit of some
+vessels in the offing.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"At ten o'clock all was in readiness, the boats being formed in two
+divisions, the first commanded by Flag-Captain Crosbie and the second
+by Captain Gruise,&mdash;my boat leading. The strictest silence and the
+exclusive use of cutlasses were enjoined; so that, as the oars were
+muffled and the night was dark, the enemy had not the least suspicion
+of the impending attack.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"It was just upon midnight when we neared the small opening left in
+the boom, our plan being well-nigh frustrated by the vigilance of a
+guard-boat upon which my launch had unluckily stumbled. The challenge
+was given, upon which, in an undertone, I threatened the occupants of
+the boat with instant death if they made the least alarm. No reply
+was made to the threat, and in a few minutes our gallant fellows
+were alongside the frigate in line, boarding at several points
+simultaneously. The Spaniards were completely taken by surprise,
+the whole, with the exception of the sentries, being asleep at their
+quarters; and great was the havoc made amongst them by the Chilian
+cutlasses whilst they were recovering themselves. Retreating to the
+forecastle, they there made a gallant stand, and it was not until the
+third charge that the position was carried. The fight was for a short
+time renewed on the quarterdeck, where the Spanish marines fell to
+a man, the rest of the enemy leaping overboard and into the hold to
+escape slaughter.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"On boarding the ship by the main-chains, I was knocked back by the
+sentry's musket, and falling on the tholl-pin of the boat, it entered
+my back near the spine, inflicting a severe injury, which caused me
+many years of subsequent suffering. Immediately regaining my footing,
+I reascended the side, and, when on deck, was shot through the thigh.
+But, binding a handkerchief tightly round the wound, I managed, though
+with great difficulty, to direct the contest to its close.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"The whole affair, from beginning to end, occupied only a quarter of
+an hour, our loss being eleven killed and thirty wounded, whilst that
+of the Spaniards was a hundred and sixty, many of whom fell under
+the cutlasses of the Chilians before they could stand to their arms.
+Greater bravery I never saw displayed than by our gallant fellows.
+Before boarding, the duties of all had been appointed, and a party
+was told off to take possession of the tops. We had not been on deck
+a minute, when I hailed the foretop, and was instantly answered by our
+own men, an equally prompt answer being returned from the frigate's
+main-top. No British man-of-war's crew could have excelled this minute
+attention to orders.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"The uproar speedily alarmed the garrison, who, hastening to their
+guns, opened fire on their own frigate, thus paying us the compliment
+of having taken it; though, even in this case, their own men must
+still have been on board, so that firing on them was a wanton
+proceeding. Several Spaniards were killed or wounded by the shot of
+the fortress. Amongst the wounded was Captain Coig, the commander of
+the <i>Esmeralda</i>, who, after he was made prisoner, received a severe
+contusion by a shot from his own party.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"The fire from the fortress was, however, neutralized by a successful
+expedient. There were two foreign ships of war present during the
+contest, the United States frigate <i>Macedonian</i> and the British
+frigate <i>Hyperion</i> ; and these, as had been previously agreed upon with
+the Spanish authorities in case of a night attack, hoisted peculiar
+lights as signals, to prevent being fired upon. This contingency being
+provided for by us, as soon as the fortress commenced its fire on the
+<i>Esmeralda</i>, we also ran up similar lights, so that the garrison did
+not know which vessel to fire at. The <i>Hyperion</i> and <i>Macedonian</i> were several times struck, while the <i>Esmeralda</i> was comparatively
+untouched. Upon this the neutral vessels cut their cables and moved
+away. Contrary to my orders, Captain Gruise then cut the <i>Esmeralda's</i> cables also, so that there was nothing to be done but to loose her
+topsails and follow. The fortress thereupon ceased its fire.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"I had distinctly ordered that the cables of the <i>Esmeralda</i> were not
+to be cut, but that after taking her, the force was to capture the
+<i>Maypeu</i>, a brig of war previously taken from Chili, and then to
+attack and cut adrift every ship near, there being plenty of time
+before us. I had no doubt that, when the <i>Esmeralda</i> was taken, the
+Spaniards would desert the other ships as fast as their boats would
+permit them, so that the whole might have been either captured or
+burnt. To this end all my previous plans had been arranged; but, on
+my being placed <i>hors de combat</i> by my wounds, Captain Gruise, on whom
+the command of the prize devolved, chose to interpose his own judgment
+and content himself with the <i>Esmeralda</i> alone; the reason assigned
+being that the English had broken into her spirit-room and were
+getting drunk, whilst the Chilians were disorganized by plundering.
+It was a great mistake. If we could capture the <i>Esmeralda</i> with her
+picked and well-appointed crew, there would have been little or no
+difficulty in cutting the other ships adrift in succession. It would
+only have been the rout of Valdivia over again, chasing the enemy,
+without loss, from ship to ship instead of from fort to fort."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Lord Cochrane's exploit, however, though less complete than he had
+intended, was as successful in its issue as it was brilliant in its
+achievement. "This loss of the <i>Esmeralda</i>," wrote Captain Basil Hall,
+then commanding a British war-ship in South American waters, "was a
+death-blow to the Spanish naval force in that quarter of the world;
+for, although there were still two Spanish frigates and some smaller
+vessels in the Pacific, they never afterwards ventured to show
+themselves, but left Lord Cochrane undisputed master of the coast."
+The speedy liberation of Peru was its direct consequence, although
+that good work was seriously impaired by the continued and increasing
+misconduct of General San Martin, inducing troubles, of which Lord
+Cochrane received his full share.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+In the first burst of his enthusiasm at the intelligence of Lord
+Cochrane's action, San Martin was generous for once. "The importance
+of the service you have rendered to the country, my lord," he wrote on
+the 10th of November, "by the capture of the frigate <i>Esmeralda</i>, and
+the brilliant manner in which you conducted the gallant officers and
+seamen under your orders to accomplish that noble enterprise, have
+augmented the gratitude due to your former services by the Government,
+as well as that of all interested in the public welfare and in your
+fame. All those who participated in the risks and glory of the deed
+also deserve well of their countrymen; and I have the satisfaction to
+be the medium of transmitting the sentiments of admiration which such
+transcendent success has excited in the chiefs of the army under my
+command." "It is impossible for me to eulogize in proper language,"
+he also wrote to the Chilian administration, "the daring enterprise
+of the 5th of November, by which Lord Cochrane has decided the
+superiority of our naval forces, augmented the splendour and power of
+Chili, and secured the success of this campaign."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+A few days later, however, San Martin wrote in very different terms.
+"Before the General-in-Chief left the Vice-Admiral of the squadron,"
+he said, in a bulletin to the army, "they agreed on the execution of
+a memorable project, sufficient to astonish intrepidity itself, and to
+make the history of the liberating expedition of Peru eternal." "This
+glory," he added, "was reserved for the Liberating Army, whose efforts
+have snatched the victims of tyranny from its hands." Thus impudently
+did he arrogate to himself a share, at any rate, in the initiation of
+a project which Lord Cochrane, knowing that he would oppose it, had
+purposely kept secret from him, and assign the whole merit of its
+completion to the army which his vacillation and incompetence were
+holding in unwelcome inactivity.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Lord Cochrane was too much accustomed to personal injustice, however,
+to be very greatly troubled by that fresh indignity. It was a far
+heavier trouble to him that his first triumph was not allowed to be
+supplemented by prompt completion of the work on which, and not on
+any individual aggrandisement, his heart was set&mdash;the establishment of
+Peruvian as well as Chilian freedom.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+San Martin, having done nothing hitherto but allow his army to waste
+its strength and squander its resources, first at Pisco and afterwards
+at Ancon, now fixed upon Huacha as another loitering-place. Thither
+Lord Cochrane had to convey it, before he was permitted to resume the
+blockade of Callao. This blockade lasted, though not all the while
+under his personal direction, for eight months.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Several attempts were now made," said Lord Cochrane, with reference
+to the first few weeks of the blockade, "to entice the remaining
+Spanish naval force from their shelter under the batteries by placing
+the <i>Esmeralda</i> apparently within reach, and the flagship herself in
+situations of some danger. One day I carried her through an intricate
+strait called the Boqueron, in which nothing beyond a fifty-ton
+schooner was ever seen. The Spaniards, expecting every moment to see
+the ship strike, manned their gunboats, ready to attack as soon as she
+was aground; of which there was little danger, for we had found, and
+buoyed off with small bits of wood invisible to the enemy, a channel
+through which a vessel could pass without much difficulty. At another
+time, the Esmeralda being in a more than usually tempting position,
+the Spanish gunboats ventured out in the hope of recapturing her, and
+for an hour maintained a smart fire; but on seeing the <i>O'Higgins</i> manoeuvring to cut them off, they precipitately retreated."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+In ways like those the Spaniards were locked in, and harassed, in
+Callao Bay. Good result came in the steady weakening of the Spanish
+cause. On the 3rd of December, six hundred and fifty soldiers deserted
+to the Chilian army. On the 8th they were followed by forty officers;
+and after that hardly a day passed without some important defections
+to the patriot force.'
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Unfortunately, however, there was weakness also among the patriots.
+San Martin, idle himself, determined to profit by the advantages,
+direct and indirect, which Lord Cochrane's prowess had secured and
+was securing. It began to be no secret that, as soon as Peru was
+freed from the Spanish yoke, he proposed to subject it to a military
+despotism of his own. This being resented by Lord Cochrane, who on
+other grounds could have little sympathy or respect for his associate,
+coolness arose between the leaders. Lord Cochrane, anxious to do
+some more important work, if only a few troops might be allowed to
+co-operate with his sailors, was forced to share some of San Martin's
+inactivity. In March, 1821, he offered, if two thousand soldiers were
+assigned to him, to capture Lima; and when this offer was rejected, he
+declared himself willing to undertake the work with half the number of
+men. With difficulty he at last obtained a force of six hundred; and
+by them and the fleet nearly all the subsequent fighting in Peru
+was done. Lord Cochrane did not venture upon a direct assault on the
+capital with so small an army; but he used it vigorously from point to
+point on the coast, between Callao and Arica, and thus compelled the
+capitulation of Lima on the 6th of July.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Again, as heretofore, he was thanked in the first moment of triumph,
+to be slighted at leisure. Lord Cochrane, on entering the city, was
+welcomed as the great deliverer of Peru: the medals distributed on
+the 28th of July&mdash;the day on which Peru's independence was
+proclaimed&mdash;testified that the honour was due to General San Martin
+and his Liberating Army. That, however, was only part of a policy long
+before devised. "It is now became evident to me," said Lord Cochrane,
+"that the army had been kept inert for the purpose of preserving it
+entire to further the ambitious views of the General, and that, with
+the whole force now at Lima, the inhabitants were completely at the
+mercy of their pretended liberator, but in reality their conqueror."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+With that policy, however much he reprobated it, Lord Cochrane wisely
+judged that it was not for him to quarrel. "As the existence of this
+self-constituted authority," he said, "was no less at variance with
+the institutions of the Chilian Republic than with its solemn
+promises to the Peruvians, I hoisted my flag on board the <i>O'Higgins</i>,
+determined to adhere solely to the interests of Chili; but not
+interfering in any way with General San Martin's proceedings till they
+interfered with me in my capacity as Commander-in-Chief of the Chilian
+navy." He was not, therefore, in Lima on the 3rd of August, when San
+Martin issued a proclamation declaring himself Protector of Peru, and
+appointing three of his creatures as his Ministers of State. Of the
+way in which he became acquainted of this violent and lawless measure,
+a precise description has been given by an eye-witness, Mr. W.B.
+Stevenson.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"On the following morning, the 4th of August," he says, "Lord
+Cochrane, uninformed of the change which had taken place in the
+title of San Martin, visited the palace, and began to beg the
+General-in-Chief to propose some means for the payment of the seamen
+who had served their time and fulfilled their contract. To this San
+Martin answered that 'he would never pay the Chilian squadron unless
+it was sold to Peru, and then the payment should be considered part of
+the purchase-money.' Lord Cochrane replied that 'by such a transaction
+the squadron of Chili would be transferred to Peru by merely paying
+what was due to the officers and crews for services done to that
+State.' San Martin knit his brows and, turning to his ministers,
+Garcia and Monteagudo, ordered them to retire; to which his lordship
+objected, stating that, 'as he was not master of the Spanish language,
+he wished them to remain as interpreters, being fearful that some
+expression, not rightly understood, might be considered offensive.'
+San Martin now turned round to the Admiral and said, 'Are you aware,
+my lord, that I am Protector of Peru?' 'No,' said his lordship. 'I
+ordered my secretaries to inform you of it,' returned San Martin.
+'That is now unnecessary, for you have personally informed me,' said
+his lordship: 'I hope that the friendship which has existed between
+General San Martin and myself will continue to exist between the
+Protector of Peru and myself.' San Martin then, rubbing his hands,
+said, 'I have only to say that I am Protector of Peru.' The manner
+in which this last sentence was expressed roused the Admiral, who,
+advancing, said, 'Then it becomes me, as senior officer of Chili,
+and consequently the representative of the nation, to request the
+fulfilment of all the promises made to Chili and the squadron; but
+first, and principally, the squadron.' San Martin returned, 'Chili!
+Chili! I will never pay a single real to Chili! As to the squadron,
+you may take it where you please, and go where you choose. A couple
+of schooners are quite enough for me.' On hearing this Garcia left the
+room, and Monteagudo walked to the balcony. San Martin paced the room
+for a short time, and, turning to his lordship, said, 'Forget, my
+lord, what is past.' The Admiral replied, 'I will when I can,' and
+immediately left the palace.[A] "One thing has been omitted in
+the preceding narrative," said Lord Cochrane. "General San Martin,
+following me to the staircase, had the temerity to propose to me
+to follow his example&mdash;namely, to break faith with the Chilian
+Government, to which we had both sworn, to abandon the squadron to his
+interests, and to accept the higher grade of First Admiral of Peru.
+I need scarcely say that a proposition so dishonourable was declined;
+when, in a tone of irritation, he declared that 'he would neither give
+the seamen their arrears of pay nor the gratuity he had promised.'"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+[Footnote A: W.B. Stevenson, "Twenty Years' Residence in South
+America." 1825.]
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Lord Cochrane lost no time in returning to his flagship in Callao
+Roads. Thence, however, on the 7th of August, he wrote a letter to San
+Martin, couched in terms as temperate and persuasive as he could bring
+himself to use. "My dear General," he there said, "I address you
+for the last time under your late designation, being aware that the
+liberty I may take as a friend might not be deemed decorous to you
+under the title of Protector, for I shall not, with a gentleman of
+your understanding, take into account, as a motive for abstaining to
+speak truth, any chance of your resentment. Nay, were I certain that
+such would be the effect of this letter, I would nevertheless perform
+such an act of friendship, in repayment of the support you gave me
+at a time when the basest plots were laid for my dismissal from the
+Chilian service. Permit me to give you the experience of eleven years,
+during which I sat in the first senate in the world, and to say what I
+anticipate on the one hand, and what I fear on the other&mdash;nay, what
+I foresee. You have it in your power to be the Napoleon of South
+America; but you have also the power to choose your course, and if the
+first steps are false, the eminence on which you stand will, as though
+from the brink of a precipice, make your fall the more heavy and the
+more certain. The real strength of government is public opinion. What
+would the world say, were the Protector of Peru, as his first act, to
+cancel the bonds of San Martin, even though gratitude may be a private
+and not a public virtue? What would they say, were the Protector to
+refuse to pay the expense of that expedition which placed him in his
+present elevated situation? What would they say, were it promulgated
+to the world that he intended not even to remunerate those employed
+in the navy which contributed to his success?" Much more to the same
+effect Lord Cochrane wrote, urging honesty upon San Martin as the only
+path by which he could win for himself a permanent success, and making
+a special claim upon his honesty in the interests of the seamen and
+naval officers, to whom neither pay nor prize-money had been given
+since their departure from Chili nearly a year before.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+It was all in vain. San Martin wrote, on the 9th of August, a
+letter making professions of virtue and acknowledging much personal
+indebtedness to Lord Cochrane and the fleet, but evading the whole
+question at issue. "I am disposed," he said, "to recompense valour
+displayed in the cause of the country. But you know, my lord, that the
+wages of the crews do not come under these circumstances, and that I,
+never having engaged to pay the amount, am not obliged to do so. That
+debt is due from Chili, whose Government engaged the seamen."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Lord Cochrane knew that Chili would decline to pay for work that, if
+intended to be done in its interests, had been perverted from that
+intention; and his crews, also knowing it, became reasonably mutinous.
+After much further correspondence&mdash;in which San Martin suggested as
+his only remedy that Lord Cochrane should accept the dishonourable
+proposal made to him, and, becoming himself First Admiral of Peru,
+should induce the fleet to join in the same rebellion against Chili to
+which the army had been brought by its general, and in which Captains
+Guise and Spry, always evil-minded, had already joined&mdash;Lord Cochrane
+adopted a bold but altogether justifiable manoeuvre. A large quantity
+of treasure, seized from the Spaniards, having been deposited by San
+Martin at Ancon, he sailed thither, in the middle of September, and
+quietly took possession of it. So much as lawful owners could be
+found for was given up to them. With the residue, amounting to 285,000
+dollars, Lord Cochrane paid off the year's arrears to every officer
+and man in his employ, taking nothing for himself, but reserving the
+small surplus for the pressing exigencies and re-equipment of the
+squadron.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+It is unnecessary to detail the angry correspondence that arose out
+of that rough act of justice. Before the money was distributed,
+treacherous offers to restore it and enter into rebellious league with
+San Martin were made to Lord Cochrane; and with these were alternated
+mock-virtuous complaints and bombastic threats. Both bribes and
+threats were treated by him with equal contempt.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"After a lapse of nearly forty years' anxious consideration," he wrote
+in 1858, "I cannot reproach myself with having done any wrong in
+the seizure of the money of the Protectorial Government. General San
+Martin and myself had been in our respective departments deputed to
+liberate Peru from Spain, and to give to the Peruvians the same free
+institutions which Chili herself enjoyed. The first part of our object
+had been fully effected by the achievements and vigilance of the
+squadron; the second part was frustrated by General San Martin
+arrogating to himself despotic power, which set at naught the wishes
+and voice of the people. As 'my fortune in common with his own' was
+only to be secured by acquiescence in the wrong he had done to Chili
+by casting off his allegiance to her, and by upholding him in the
+still greater wrong he was inflicting on Peru, I did not choose to
+sacrifice my self-esteem and professional character by lending myself
+as an instrument to purposes so unworthy. I did all in my power
+to warn General San Martin of the consequences of ambition so
+ill-directed, but the warning was neglected, if not despised. Chili
+trusted to him to defray the expenses of the squadron, when its
+objects, as laid down by the Supreme Director, should be accomplished;
+but, in place of fulfilling the obligation, he permitted the squadron
+to starve, its crews to go in rags, and the ships to be in perpetual
+danger for want of the proper equipment which Chili could not afford
+to give them when they sailed from Valparaiso. The pretence for this
+neglect was want of means, though, at the same time, money to a
+vast amount was sent away from the capital to Ancon. Seeing that no
+intention existed on the part of the Protector's Government to do
+justice to the Chilian squadron, whilst every effort was made to
+excite discontent among the officers and men with the purpose of
+procuring their transfer to Peru, I seized the public money, satisfied
+the men, and saved the navy to the Chilian Republic, which afterwards
+warmly thanked me for what I had done. Despite the obloquy cast upon
+me by the Protector's Government, there was nothing wrong in the
+course I pursued, if only for the reason that, if the Chilian squadron
+was to be preserved, it was impossible for me to have done otherwise.
+Years of reflection have only produced the conviction that, were I
+again placed in similar circumstances, I should adopt precisely the
+same course."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+In spite of his treachery to the Chilian Government, General San
+Martin professed to retain his functions as Commander-in-Chief of the
+Chilian liberating expedition to Peru; and, accordingly, when he found
+it useless to make further efforts, by bribes or threats, to seduce
+Lord Cochrane from his allegiance, he ordered him to return at once to
+Valparaiso. This order Lord Cochrane refused to obey, seeing that the
+work entrusted to him&mdash;the entire destruction of the Spanish squadron
+in the Pacific&mdash;had not yet been completed.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+He determined to complete that work, first going to Guayaquil to
+repair and refit his ships, which San Martin would not allow him to do
+in any Peruvian port. He was thus employed during six weeks following
+the 18th of October, 1821.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+On his departure, a complimentary address from the townsmen afforded
+him an opportunity of offering some good advice on a matter in which
+his long and intelligent political experience showed him that they
+were especially at fault. The inhabitants of Guayaquil, like many
+other young communities, sought to increase their revenues and
+strengthen their independence by violent restrictions upon foreign
+commerce and arbitrary support of native monopolists. Lord Cochrane
+eloquently propounded to them the doctrine of free trade. "Let your
+public press," he said, "declare the consequences of monopoly, and
+affix your names to the defence of your enlightened system. Let it
+show, if your province contains eighty thousand inhabitants, and if
+eighty of these are privileged merchants according to the old system,
+that nine hundred and ninety-nine persons out of a thousand must
+suffer because their cotton, coffee, tobacco, timber, and other
+productions, must come into the hands of the monopolist, as the only
+purchaser of what they have to sell, and the only seller of what they
+must necessarily buy; the effect being that he will buy at the lowest
+possible rate and sell at the dearest, so that not only are the nine
+hundred and ninety-nine injured, but the lands will remain waste, the
+manufactories without workmen, and the people will be lazy and poor
+for want of a stimulus, it being a law of nature that no man will
+labour solely for the gain of another. Tell the monopolist that the
+true method of acquiring general riches, political power, and even his
+own private advantage, is to sell his country's produce as high, and
+foreign goods as low, as possible, and that public competition can
+alone accomplish this. Let foreign merchants, who bring capital,
+and those who practise any art or handicraft, be permitted to settle
+freely. Thus a competition will be formed, from which all must reap
+advantage. Then will land and fixed property increase in value. The
+magazines, instead of being the receptacles of filth and crime, will
+be full of the richest foreign and domestic productions; and all will
+be energy and activity, because the reward will be in proportion to
+the labour. Your river will be filled with ships, and the monopolist
+degraded and shamed. You will bless the day in which Omnipotence
+permitted to be rent asunder the veil of obscurity, under which the
+despotism of Spain, the abominable tyranny of the Inquisition, and the
+want of liberty of the press, so long hid the truth from your sight.
+Let your customs' duties be moderate, in order to promote the greatest
+possible consumption of foreign and domestic goods; then smuggling
+will cease and the returns to the treasury increase. Let every man
+do as he pleases as regards his own property, views, and interests;
+because each individual will watch over his own with more zeal than
+senates, ministers, or kings. By your enlarged views set an example
+to the New World; and thus, as Guayaquil is, from its situation,
+the central republic, it will become the centre of the agriculture,
+commerce, and riches of the Pacific."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Lord Cochrane left Guayaquil on the 3rd of December, and cruised
+northwards in search of the <i>Prueba</i> and the <i>Venganza</i>, the only two
+remaining Spanish frigates, which had made their escape from Callao
+and gone in the direction of Mexico. He sailed along the Colombian
+and Mexican coasts as far as Acapulco, where he called on the 29th
+of January, 1822, without finding the objects of his search. He there
+learned, on the 2nd of February, from an in-coming merchantman, that
+the frigates had eluded him and were now somewhere to the southwards.
+Upon that he at once retraced his course, and, in spite of a storm
+which nearly wrecked his two best ships, one of them being the
+captured <i>Esmeralda</i>, now christened the <i>Valdivia</i>, was at Guayaquil
+again on the 13th of March. There, as he expected, from information
+received on the passage, he found the <i>Venganza.</i> Both the frigates
+had been compelled, by want of provisions, to run the risk of halting
+at Guayaquil, whither also an envoy from San Martin had arrived,
+instructed to tempt the Guayaquilians into friendship with Peru and
+jealousy of Chili. On the appearance of the Spanish frigates, he had
+persuaded their captains, as the only means of averting the certain
+ruin that Lord Cochrane was planning for them, quietly to surrender to
+the Peruvian Government. In this way Chili was cheated of its prizes,
+although Lord Cochrane's main object, the entire overthrow of the
+Spanish war shipping in the Pacific, was accomplished without further
+use of powder and shot. The <i>Prueba</i> had been sent to Callao, and the
+<i>Venganza</i> was now being refitted at Guayaquil.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Lord Cochrane had now done all that it was possible for him to do in
+fulfilment of the naval mission on which he had quitted Chili a year
+and a half before. Proceeding southward, he anchored in Callao Roads
+from the 25th of April till the 10th of May. San Martin's Government,
+fearing punishment for their misdeeds, prepared to defend Callao. Lord
+Cochrane, however, wrote to say that he had no intention of making
+war upon the Peruvians; that all he asked was adequate payment for
+the services rendered to them by his officers and seamen. In the
+same letter he denounced the new treachery that had been shown with
+reference to the <i>Venganza</i> and the <i>Prueba</i>.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The answer to that letter was a visit from San Martin's chief
+minister, who begged Lord Cochrane to recall it, and impudently
+repeated the old offers of service under the Peruvian Government,
+adding that San Martin had written a private letter to the same
+effect. "Tell the Protector from me," said Lord Cochrane, "that if,
+after the conduct he has pursued, he had sent me a private letter, it
+would certainly have been returned unanswered. You may also tell him
+that it is not my wish to injure him, that I neither fear him nor hate
+him, but that I disapprove of his conduct."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Lord Cochrane's brief stay off Callao sufficed to convince him that,
+though the people of Peru were being for the time subjected to a
+tyranny almost equal to that practised by Spain, no one was likely to
+be long in fear of San Martin, as his treacheries and his vices were
+already bringing upon him well-deserved disgrace and punishment. To
+that purport Lord Cochrane wrote to O'Higgins on the 2nd of May. "As
+the attached and sincere friend of your excellency," he said, "I hope
+you will take into your serious consideration the propriety of at once
+fixing the Chilian Government upon a base not to be shaken by the
+fall of the present tyranny in Peru, of which there are not only
+indications, but the result is inevitable&mdash;unless, indeed, the
+mischievous counsels of vain and mercenary men can suffice to prop up
+a fabric of the most barbarous political architecture, serving as a
+screen from whence to dart their weapons against the heart of liberty.
+Thank God, my hands are free from the stain of labouring in any such
+work; and having finished all you gave me to do, I may now rest till
+you shall command my further endeavours for the honour and security of
+my adopted land."
+</p>
+
+</div><!--end chapter-->
+
+<div class="chapter">
+
+<h2><a name="chap09"></a>CHAPTER IX.</h2>
+
+<p class="letter">
+LORD COCHRANE'S RETURN TO VALPARAISO.&mdash;HIS FURTHER ILL-TREATMENT BY
+THE CHILIAN GOVERNMENT.&mdash;HIS RESIGNATION OF CHILIAN EMPLOYMENT, AND
+ACCEPTANCE OF EMPLOYMENT UNDER THE EMPEROR OF BRAZIL.&mdash;HIS SUBSEQUENT
+CORRESPONDENCE WITH THE GOVERNMENT OF CHILI.&mdash;THE RESULTS OF HIS
+CHILIAN SERVICE.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+[1822-1823.]
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Lord Cochrane returned to Valparaiso on the 3rd of June, 1822, having
+been absent more than twenty months. An enthusiastic welcome awaited
+him. Medals were struck in his honour, and in various ephemeral ways
+the public gratitude was expressed.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+It was, however, only ephemeral. There was no substantial recognition
+of his great services. His men were left unpaid, and he himself was
+subjected to further indignities of the sort already described. It is
+not necessary here to give any detailed account of them, or to enter
+into a particular rehearsal of his efforts during the next six months
+to continue his beneficial services to Chili. He had done the great
+service for which he had been invited to South America. In the course
+of about three years he had scoured the Pacific of the Spanish ships,
+which had offered an obstacle too serious for the patriots to overcome
+by any force or wisdom of their own. He had made it possible for
+them to assert their independence of a foreign yoke, and, if their
+patriotism had been genuine enough, to work out internal reforms, by
+which the sometime colonies of Spain in South America might have been
+able to vie in greatness with the sometime colonies of England in the
+northern continent. The benefits which he conferred especially upon
+Chili were shared by all the liberated communities along the whole
+Pacific coastline up to Mexico. But all were alike ungrateful, except
+in fitful words and in sentiments that prompted to no action.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Shortly after his return to Chili, Lord Cochrane went to live upon the
+estates that had been conferred upon him. Soon, however, he was forced
+to go back to Valparaiso, there to look after the interests of the
+officers and crews who had served him and Chili during the previous
+fighting time. His earnest arguments on their behalf were not heeded.
+The poor fellows were left to starve and be perished by the cold of
+a South American winter, against which the pitiful rags in which they
+were clothed afforded no protection. And before long fresh incidents
+arose which made it impossible for him to persevere in fighting their
+battle.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+General San Martin, having run his course of petty tyranny in Peru,
+was soon forced to resign his protectorate and seek safety in Chili.
+He reached Valparaiso on the 12th of October, and then Lord Cochrane,
+who had long before seen good reasons for suspecting it, was convinced
+that Zenteno and many other influential men in Chili were in league
+with him. He claimed that San Martin should be tried by court-martial
+for his treasons, known to all the world. Instead of that San Martin
+was loaded with honours, and fresh indignities were heaped upon
+his chief accuser. This monstrous action of the ministers led to a
+revolution, which, if Lord Cochrane had stayed to the end, might have
+proved much to his advantage. But the revolution, headed by General
+Freire, an honest man, had for its object the overthrow of O'Higgins,
+also an honest man, though too weak to withstand the influences
+brought to bear upon him by the bad men by whom he was surrounded.
+Lord Cochrane refused Freire's offers to join in opposition to
+O'Higgins, always, as far as his small powers permitted, his good
+friend. He preferred to abandon Chili, or rather to allow it to
+abandon one who had done for it so much and had received so little in
+return. "The difficulties," he said, in a dignified letter addressed
+to General O'Higgins, still nominally the Supreme Director, in which
+he virtually resigned his appointment as Vice-Admiral of the Republic,
+"the difficulties which I have experienced in accomplishing the naval
+enterprises successfully achieved during the period of my command as
+Admiral of Chili have not been mastered without responsibility such as
+I would scarcely again undertake, not because I would hesitate to make
+any personal sacrifice in a cause of so much interest, but because
+even these favourable results have led to the total alienation of
+the sympathies of meritorious officers&mdash;whose co-operation was
+indispensable&mdash;in consequence of the conduct of the Government.
+That which has made most impression on their minds has been, not the
+privations they have suffered, nor the withholding of their pay
+and other dues, but the absence of any public acknowledgment by the
+Government of the honours and distinctions promised for their fidelity
+and constancy to Chili; especially at a time when no temptation was
+withheld that could induce them to abandon the cause of Chili for the
+service of the Protector of Peru. Ever since that time, though there
+was no want of means or knowledge of facts on the part of the Chilian
+Government, it has submitted itself to the influence of the agents
+of an individual whose power, having ceased in Peru, has been again
+resumed in Chili. The effect of this on me is so keen that I cannot
+trust myself in words to express my personal feelings. Whatever I
+have recommended or asked for the good of the naval service has been
+scouted or denied, though acquiescence would have placed Chili in
+the first rank of maritime states in this quarter of the globe. My
+requisitions and suggestions were founded on the practice of the first
+naval service in the world&mdash;that of England. They have, however, met
+with no consideration, as though their object had been directed to
+my own personal benefit. Until now I have never eaten the bread of
+idleness. I cannot reconcile to my mind a state of inactivity which
+might even now impose upon the Chilian Republic an annual pension for
+past services; especially as an Admiral of Peru is actually in command
+of a portion of the Chilian squadron, whilst other vessels are sent to
+sea without the orders under which they act being communicated to
+me, and are despatched through the instrumentality of the governor of
+Valparaiso [Zenteno]. I mention these circumstances incidentally as
+having confirmed me in the resolution to withdraw myself from Chili
+for a time, asking nothing for myself during my absence; whilst, as
+regards the sums owing to me, I forbear to press for their payment
+till the Government shall be more freed from its difficulties. I have
+complied with all that my public duty demanded, and, if I have
+not been able to accomplish more, the deficiency has arisen from
+circumstances beyond my control. At any rate, having the world still
+before me, I hope to prove that it is not owing to me. I have received
+proposals from Mexico, from Brazil, and from a European state, but
+have not as yet accepted any of these offers. Nevertheless, the habits
+of my life do not permit me to refuse my services to those labouring
+under oppression, as Chili was before the annihilation of the Spanish
+naval force in the Pacific. In this I am prepared to justify whatever
+course I may pursue. In thus taking leave of Chili, I do so with
+sentiments of deep regret that I have not been suffered to be more
+useful to the cause of liberty, and that I am compelled to separate
+myself from individuals with whom I hoped to live for a long period,
+without violating such sentiments of honour as, were they broken,
+would render me odious to myself and despicable in their eyes."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+That letter sufficiently explains the reasons which induced Lord
+Cochrane to resign his Chilian command. He had, as he said, received
+invitations to enter the service of Brazil, of Mexico, and of Greece.
+The Mexican offer he declined at once, as acceptance of it would
+involve little of the active work in fighting which, if for a good
+cause, was always attractive to him. Assistance of the Greeks who, a
+year and a half before, had begun to throw off their long servitude to
+Turkey, and who were now fighting desperately for their freedom,
+was an enterprise on which he would gladly have embarked, but
+the invitation from Brazil was more pressing, and he therefore
+conditionally accepted it. "The war in the Pacific," he said, on the
+29th of November, in answer to two letters written on behalf of the
+newly-elected Emperor of Brazil, "having been happily terminated by
+the total destruction of the Spanish naval force, I am, of course,
+free for the crusade of liberty in any other quarter of the globe. I
+confess, however, that I have not hitherto directed my attention
+to the Brazils; considering that the struggle for the liberties of
+Greece, the most oppressed of modern states, afforded the fairest
+opportunity for enterprise and exertion. I have to-day tendered my
+ultimate resignation to the Government of Chili, and am not at this
+moment aware that any material delay will be necessary previous to my
+setting off, by way of Cape Horn, for Rio de Janeiro; it being, in the
+meantime, understood that I hold myself free to decline, as well as
+entitled to accept, the offer which has, through you, been made to me
+by his Imperial Majesty. I only mention this from a desire to preserve
+a consistency of character, should the Government (which I by no means
+anticipate) differ so widely in its nature from those which I have
+been in the habit of supporting as to render the proposed situation
+repugnant to my principles, and so justly expose me to suspicion, and
+render me unworthy the confidence of his Majesty and the nation."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+In accordance with the terms of that letter, Lord Cochrane wrote as we
+have seen to the Supreme Director of Chili, not completely resigning
+his employment, but proposing to absent himself for an indefinite
+period. His proposal was at once accepted by the Chilian Government,
+to whom his honesty and his popularity with the people made him
+particularly obnoxious. He thereupon made prompt arrangements for his
+departure. He quitted Valparaiso on the 18th of January, 1823, in a
+vessel chartered for his own use and that of several European officers
+and seamen, who, like him, were tired of Chilian ingratitude, and who
+begged to be employed under him wherever he might serve.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Of the subsequent occurrences in the Western States, for which he had
+done so much, and tried to do so much more than was permitted, it is
+enough to say that Peru, sadly abused by San Martin, and almost won
+back to Spain, was rescued by the valour and wisdom of Bolivar, and
+that Chili, destined to much future trouble through the bad action
+of its false patriots, was temporarily benefited by the successful
+revolution which placed General Freire in the Supreme Directorship.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Lord Cochrane had not been absent three months before a new Minister
+of Marine wrote to inform him of Freire's accession and to solicit his
+return. From this, however, he excused himself, on the grounds that
+he had now entered into engagements with Brazil which he was bound
+to fulfil, and that his past treatment by the Chilian Government
+discouraged him from renewal of relations which had been so full of
+annoyance to him. "On my quitting Chili," he said in his reply, "there
+was no looking to the past without regret, nor to the future without
+despair, for I had learned by experience what were the views and
+motives which guided the counsels of the State. Believe me that
+nothing but a thorough conviction that it was impracticable to
+render the good people of Chili any further service under existing
+circumstances, or to live in tranquillity under such a system, could
+have induced me to remove myself from a country which I had vainly
+hoped would have afforded me that tranquil asylum which, after
+the anxieties I had suffered, I felt needful to my repose. My
+inclinations, too, were decidedly in favour of a residence in Chili,
+from a feeling of the congeniality which subsisted between my own
+habits and the manners and customs of the people, those few only
+excepted who were corrupted by contiguity with the court, or debased
+in their minds and practices by that species of Spanish colonial
+education which inculcates duplicity as the chief qualification of
+statesmen in all their dealings, both with individuals and the
+public. I now speak more particularly of the persons lately in power,
+excepting, however, the Supreme Director, whom I believe to have been
+the dupe of their deceit. Point out to me one engagement that has been
+honourably fulfilled, one military enterprise of which the professed
+object has not been perverted, or one solemn pledge that has not been
+forfeited. Look at my representations on the necessities of the navy,
+and see how they were relieved. Look at my memorial, proposing to
+establish a nursery for seamen by encouraging the coasting trade, and
+compare its principles with the code of Rodriguez, which annihilated
+both. You will see in this, as in all other cases, that whatever I
+recommended, in regard to the promotion of the good of the marine, was
+set at nought, or opposed by measures directly the reverse. Look to
+the orders which I received, and see whether I had more liberty of
+action than a schoolboy in the execution of his task. Sir, that which
+I suffered from anxiety of mind whilst in the Chilian service, I will
+never again endure for any consideration. To organize new crews, to
+navigate ships destitute of sails, cordage, provisions, and stores,
+to secure them in port without anchors and cables, except so far as I
+could supply these essentials by accidental means, were difficulties
+sufficiently harassing; but to live amongst officers and men
+discontented and mutinous on account of arrears of pay and other
+numerous privations, to be compelled to incur the responsibility
+of seizing by force from Peru funds for their payment, in order to
+prevent worse consequences to Chili, and then to be exposed to the
+reproach of one party for such seizure, and the suspicions of
+another that the sums were not duly applied, are all circumstances so
+disagreeable and so disgusting that, until I have certain proof that
+the present ministers are disposed to act in another manner, I cannot
+possibly consent to renew my services where, under such circumstances,
+they would be wholly unavailing to the true interests of the people."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Writing thus to the Minister of Marine, Lord Cochrane wrote also at
+the same time to General Freire, who, as has been said, asked him to
+join his revolutionary movement. "It would give me great pleasure, my
+respected friend, to learn that the change which has been effected in
+the government of Chili proves alike conducive to your happiness and
+to the interests of the State. For my own part, like yourself, I have
+suffered so long and so much that I could not bear the neglect and
+double-dealing of those in power any longer, but adopted other means
+of freeing myself from an unpleasant situation. Not being under
+those imperious obligations which, as a native Chilian, rendered it
+incumbent on you to rescue your country from the mischiefs with which
+it was assailed, I could not accept your offer. My heart was with you
+in the measures you adopted for their removal; and my hand was only
+restrained by a conviction that my interference, as a foreigner, in
+the internal affairs of the State would not only have been improper
+in itself, but would have tended to shake that confidence in my
+undeviating rectitude which it was my ambition that the people of
+Chili should ever justly entertain. Permit me to add my opinion that,
+whoever may possess the supreme authority in Chili, until after the
+present generation, educated as it has been under the Spanish colonial
+yoke, shall have passed away, will have to contend with so much error
+and so many prejudices as to be disappointed in his utmost endeavours
+to pursue steadily the course best calculated to promote the freedom
+and happiness of the people. I admire the middle and lower classes
+of Chili, but I have ever found the senate, the ministers, and the
+convention actuated by the narrowest policy, which led them to adopt
+the worst measures. It is my earnest wish that you may find better men
+to co-operate with you. If so, you may be fortunate and may succeed in
+what you have most at heart, the promotion of your country's good."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+For the real welfare of Chili Lord Cochrane was always eager; but in
+the treatment which he himself experienced he had strong proof, both
+during his four years' active service under the republic and in all
+after times, of the difficulties in the way of its advancement.
+Not only was he subjected to the contumely and neglect of which he
+complained in the letters just quoted from: he was also directly
+mulcted to a very large extent in the scanty recompense for his
+services to which he was legally entitled, and indirectly injured to
+a yet larger extent. "I was compelled to quit Chili," he wrote at
+a later date, "without any of the emoluments due to my position as
+Commander-in-Chief of the Navy, or any share of the sums belonging
+to myself and the officers and seamen; which sums, on the faith of
+repayment, had, at my solicitation, been appropriated to the repairs
+and maintenance of the squadron generally, but more especially at
+Guayaquil and Acapulco, when in pursuit of the <i>Prueba</i> and the
+<i>Venganza</i>. Neither was any compensation made for the value of stores
+captured and collected by the squadron, whereby its efficiency was
+chiefly maintained during the whole period of the Peruvian blockade.
+The Supreme Director of Chili, recognizing the justice of payment
+being made by the Peruvians for at least the value of the <i>Esmeralda</i>,
+the capture of which inflicted the death-blow on Spanish power, sent
+me a bill on the Peruvian Government for 120,000 dollars, which
+was dishonoured, and has never since been paid by any succeeding
+Government. Even the 40,000 dollars stipulated by the authorities
+at Guayaquil as the penalty for giving up the <i>Venganza</i> was never
+liquidated. No compensation for the severe wounds received during the
+capture of the <i>Esmeralda</i> was either offered or received.
+Shortly after my departure for Brazil, the Government forcibly and
+indefensibly resumed the estate at Rio Clara, which had been awarded
+to me and my family in perpetuity, as a remuneration for the capture
+of Valdivia, and my bailiff, who had been left upon it for its
+management and direction, was summarily ejected. Unhappily, this
+ingratitude for services rendered was the least misfortune which my
+devotedness to Chili brought upon me. On my return to England in
+1825, after the termination of my services in Brazil, I found myself
+involved in litigation on account of the seizure of neutral vessels
+by authority of the then unacknowledged Government of Chili. These
+litigations cost me, directly, upwards of 14,000£, and, indirectly,
+more than double that amount. Thus, in place of receiving anything for
+my efforts in the cause of Chilian and Peruvian independence, I was a
+loser of upwards of 25,000£, this being more than double the
+whole amount I had received as pay whilst in command of the Chilian
+squadron."
+</p>
+
+</div><!--end chapter-->
+
+<div class="chapter">
+
+<h2><a name="chap10"></a>CHAPTER X.</h2>
+
+<p>
+THE ANTECEDENTS OF BRAZILIAN INDEPENDENCE.&mdash;PEDRO I.'s ACCESSION.&mdash;THE
+INTERNAL AND EXTERNAL TROUBLES OF THE NEW EMPIRE.&mdash;LORD COCHRANE'S
+INVITATION TO BRAZIL.&mdash;HIS ARRIVAL AT RIO DE JANEIRO, AND ACCEPTANCE
+OF BRAZILIAN SERVICE.&mdash;HIS FIRST MISFORTUNES.&mdash;THE BAD CONDITION OF
+HIS SQUADRON, AND THE CONSEQUENT FAILURE OF HIS FIRST ATTACK ON THE
+PORTUGUESE OFF BAHIA.&mdash;HIS PLANS FOR IMPROVING THE FLEET, AND THEIR
+SUCCESS.&mdash;HIS NIGHT VISIT TO BAHIA, AND THE CONSEQUENT FLIGHT OF THE
+ENEMY.&mdash;LORD COCHRANE'S PURSUIT OF THEM.&mdash;HIS VISIT TO MARANHAM,
+AND ANNEXATION OF THAT PROVINCE AND OF PARÀ.&mdash;HIS RETURN TO RIO DE
+JANEIRO.&mdash;THE HONOURS CONFERRED UPON HIM.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+[1823.]
+</p>
+
+<p>
+In 1808, King John VI. of Portugal, driven by Buonaparte from his
+European dominions, took refuge in his great colonial possession of
+Brazil, and the result of his emigration was considerable enlargement
+of the liberties of the Brazilians. Thereby the immense Portuguese
+colony in South America was prevented from following in the
+revolutionary steps of the numerous Spanish provinces adjoining it.
+In Brazil, however, during the ensuing years party faction produced
+nearly as much turmoil as attended the struggle for independence in
+Chili and the other Spanish, colonies. Those Brazilians who were
+still intimately connected with the inhabitants of the mother country
+rallied under Portuguese leaders, and did their utmost to maintain
+the Portuguese supremacy over the colony. Quite as many, on the other
+hand, were eager to take advantage of the new state of things as a
+means of consolidating the freedom of Brazil. Plots and counterplots,
+broils and insurrections, lasted, almost without intermission, until
+1821, when King John returned to Portugal, leaving his son, Don Pedro,
+as lieutenant and regent, to cope with yet greater difficulties. The
+Cortes of Portugal, able to get back their king, desired also to bring
+back Brazil to all its former servitude. So great was the opposition
+thus provoked that the native or true Brazilian party induced Don
+Pedro to throw off allegiance to his father. In October, 1822, the
+independence of the colony was publicly declared, and on the 1st of
+December Don Pedro assumed the title of Emperor of Brazil.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Only the southern part of Brazil, however, acknowledged his authority.
+The northern provinces, including Bahia, Maranham, and Para, were
+ruled by the Portuguese faction and held by Portuguese troops. A
+formidable fleet, moreover, swept the seas, and the independent
+provinces were threatened with speedy subjection to the sway of
+Portugal.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+That was the state of affairs in the young empire of Brazil during the
+months in which Lord Cochrane, having destroyed the Spanish fleet
+in the Pacific, was being subjected to the worst ingratitude of his
+Chilian employers. Don Pedro and his advisers, hearing of this, lost
+no time in inviting him to enter the service of the Brazilian nation.
+Equal rank and position to those held by him under Chili were offered
+to him. "Abandonnez vous, milord," wrote the official who conveyed the
+Emperor's message, on the 4th of November, 1822, "à la reconnaisance
+Brésilienne, à la munificence du Prince, à la probité sans tache de
+l'actuel Gouvernement; on vous fera justice; on ne rabaissera
+d'un seul point la haute considération, rang, grade, caractère, et
+avantages qui vous sont dûs." In yet stronger terms a second letter
+was written soon afterwards. "Venez, milord; l'honneur vous invite;
+la gloire vous appelle. Venez donner à nos armes navales cet ordre
+merveilleux et discipline incomparable de puissante Albion."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Lord Cochrane, as we have seen, accepted this invitation; not,
+however, without some misgivings, which, in the end, were fully
+justified. Having quitted Valparaiso on the 18th of January, 1823, he
+arrived at Rio de Janeiro on the 13th of March. He had not been there
+a week before he discovered that, while all classes were anxious to
+secure his aid, the Emperor Pedro I. stood almost alone in the desire
+to treat him honourably and in a way worthy of his character and
+reputation. Vague promises were made to him; but, when a statement
+of his position was asked for in writing, very different terms were
+employed. He was only to have the rank of a subordinate admiral, with
+pay of less amount than the Chilian pension that he had resigned. His
+employment was to be temporary and informal, subjecting him to the
+chance of dismissal at any moment. When, however, resenting these
+trickeries, he announced his intention of proceeding at once to
+Europe, and accepting the Greek service offered to him, a different
+tone was adopted. Under the Emperor's signature he was appointed, on
+the 21st of March, First Admiral of the National and Imperial Navy,
+with emoluments equal to those he had received from Chili.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+He did not then know, though he was soon to learn it by hard
+experience, how strong, even at the imperial court, was the influence
+of the Portuguese party, and by what meanness and trickery it sought
+to maintain and augment that influence. "Where the Portuguese party
+was really to blame," he afterwards said, "was in this,&mdash;that, seeing
+disorder everywhere more or less prevalent, they strained every nerve
+to increase it, hoping to paralyze further attempts at independence by
+exposing whole provinces to the evils of anarchy and confusion. Their
+loyalty also partook more of self-interest than of attachment to the
+supremacy of Portugal; for the commercial classes, which formed the
+real strength of the Portuguese faction, hoped, by preserving the
+authority of the mother country in her distant provinces, to obtain as
+their reward the revival of old trade monopolies which, twelve years
+before, had been thrown open, enabling the English traders&mdash;whom
+they cordially hated&mdash;to supersede them in their own markets. Being
+a citizen of the rival nation, their aversion to me personally was
+undisguised&mdash;the more so, perhaps, that they believed me capable
+of achieving at Bahia, whither the squadron was destined, that
+irreparable injury to their own cause which the imperial troops had
+been unable to effect. Had I, at the time, been aware of the influence
+and latent power of the Portuguese party in the empire, nothing would
+have induced me to accept the command of the Brazilian navy; for to
+contend with faction is more dangerous than to engage an enemy, and a
+contest of intrigue is foreign to my nature and inclination."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Having entered the Brazilian service, however, Lord Cochrane applied
+himself to his work with characteristic energy and success. He hoisted
+his flag on board the <i>Pedro Primiero</i> on the 21st of March, and
+put to sea on the 3rd of April. His squadron consisted of the <i>Pedro
+Primiero</i>, a fine and well-appointed ship, rated rather too highly for
+seventy-four guns, commanded by Captain Crosbie; of the <i>Piranga</i>, a
+fine frigate, entrusted to Captain Jowett; of the <i>Maria de Gloria</i>,
+a showy but comparatively worthless clipper, mounting thirty-two
+small guns, under Captain Beaurepaire; of the <i>Liberal</i>, under Captain
+Garcaõ. He was accompanied by two old vessels, the <i>Guarani</i> and
+the <i>Real</i>, to be used as fireships. Two other ships of war, the
+<i>Nitherohy</i>, assigned to Captain Taylor, and the <i>Carolina</i>, were left
+behind to complete their equipment, and the first of these joined
+the squadron on its way to Bahia, which, being the nearest of the
+disaffected provinces, was the first to be subdued.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The coast of Bahia was reached on the 1st of May, and Lord Cochrane
+was arranging to blockade its capital and port, on the 4th, when the
+Portuguese fleet came out of the harbour. It comprised the <i>Don Joaõ</i>,
+of seventy-four guns; the <i>Constitucaõ</i>, of fifty; the <i>Perola</i>, of
+forty-four; the <i>Princeza Real</i>, of twenty-eight; the <i>Regeneracaõ</i>,
+the <i>Dez de Fevereiro</i>, the <i>San Gaulter</i>, the <i>Principe de Brazil</i>,
+and the <i>Restauracaõ</i>, of twenty-six each; the <i>Calypso</i> and the
+<i>Activa</i>, of twenty-two; the <i>Audaz</i>, of twenty; and the <i>Canceicaõ</i>,
+of eight; being one line-of-battle ship, five frigates, five
+corvettes, a brig, and a schooner. Lord Cochrane did not venture with
+his small and as yet untried force to attack the whole squadron, but
+he proceeded to cut off the four rearmost ships. This he did with the
+<i>Pedro Primiero</i>, but, to his disgust, the other vessels, heedless
+of his orders, failed to follow him. "Had the rest of the Brazilian
+squadron," he said, "come down in obedience to signals, the ships cut
+off might have been taken or dismantled, as with the flag-ship I
+could have kept the others at bay, and no doubt have crippled all in
+a position to render them assistance. To my astonishment, the signals
+were disregarded, and no efforts were made to second my operations."
+The <i>Pedro Primiero</i>, after fighting alone for some time, and during
+that time even doing but little mischief, by reason of the clumsy way
+in which her guns were handled, had to be withdrawn.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+At that failure Lord Cochrane was reasonably chagrined. Worse than the
+fact that the Portuguese had escaped uninjured for this once, was the
+knowledge that he could not hope thoroughly to punish them without
+first effecting great reform in the materials at his disposal. On the
+5th of May he wrote to the Government to complain of the miserable
+condition of the ships and crews provided for him by the Brazilian
+Government. "From the defective sailing and manning of the squadron,"
+he said, "it seems to me that the <i>Pedro Primiero</i> is the only one
+that can assail an enemy's ship-of-war, or act in the face of a
+superior force so as not to compromise the interests of the empire and
+the character of the officers commanding. Even this ship, in common
+with the rest, is so ill-equipped as to be much less efficient than
+she otherwise would be. Our cartridges are all unfit for service,
+and I have been obliged to cut up every flag and ensign that could
+be spared to render them serviceable, so as to prevent the men's arms
+being blown off whilst working the guns. The guns are without locks.
+The bed of the mortar which I received on board this ship was crushed
+on the first fire, being entirely rotten. The fuses for the shells are
+formed of such wretched composition that it will not take fire with
+the discharge of the mortar. Even the powder is so bad that six pounds
+will not throw out shells more than a thousand yards. The marines
+understand neither gun exercise, the use of small arms, nor the sword,
+and yet have so high an opinion of themselves that they will not
+assist to wash the decks, or even to clean out their own berths, but
+sit and look on whilst these operations are being performed by seamen.
+I warned the Minister of Marine that every native of Portugal put on
+board the squadron, with the exception of officers of known character,
+would prove prejudicial to the expedition, and yesterday we had clear
+proof of the fact. The Portuguese stationed in the magazine actually
+withheld the powder whilst this ship was in the midst of the enemy,
+and I have since learnt that they did so from feelings of attachment
+to their own countrymen. I enclose two letters, one from the officer
+commanding the <i>Real</i>, whose crew were on the point of carrying that
+vessel into the enemy's squadron for the purpose of delivering her
+up. I have also reason to believe that the conduct of the <i>Liberal</i> yesterday in not bearing down upon the enemy, and not complying with
+the signal which I had made to break the line, was owing to her being
+manned by Portuguese. The <i>Maria de Gloria</i> also has a great number
+of Portuguese, which is the more to be regretted as otherwise her
+superior sailing, with the zeal and activity of her captain, would
+render her an effective vessel. To disclose to you the truth, it
+appears to me that one half of the squadron is necessary to watch over
+the other half. Assuredly this is a system which ought to be put an
+end to without delay."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Other indignant complaints of that sort, which need not here be
+repeated, were reasonably made by Lord Cochrane. The bad equipment
+of his squadron, both in men and in material, had hindered him, at
+starting, from achieving a brilliant success over the enemy, and
+though his subsequent achievements were of unsurpassed brilliance,
+he was to the end seriously hindered by the wilful and accidental
+mismanagement of his employers.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Lord Cochrane lost no time, however, in correcting by his own prudent
+action the evil effects of this mismanagement. Not choosing to run the
+risk of a second failure, and believing that two good ships would be
+more serviceable than any number of bad ones, he took his squadron to
+the Moro San Paulo, where he transferred all the best men and the most
+serviceable fittings to the flag-ship and the <i>Maria de Gloria</i>. There
+he left the other vessels to be improved as far as possible, directing
+that instruction should be given in seamanship to all the incompetent
+men who showed any promise of being made efficient, and that several
+small prizes which he had taken on his way from Rio de Janeiro should
+be turned into fireships for future use. With the two refitted ships
+he then went back to Bahia, to watch its whole coast and blockade the
+port.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The wisdom of this course was at once apparent. Several minor captures
+were made; the supplies of Bahia were cut off, and the enemy's
+squadron was locked in the harbour for three weeks. Lord Cochrane went
+to the Moro San Paulo on the 26th, leaving the <i>Maria de Gloria</i> to
+overlook the port, and then the Portuguese fleet ventured out for a
+few days. It dared not show fight, however, and was driven back by the
+flag-ship, which returned on the 2nd of June. "On the 11th of June,"
+said Lord Cochrane, "information was received that the enemy was
+seriously thinking of evacuating the port before the fireships were
+completed. I therefore ordered the <i>Maria de Gloria</i> to water and
+re-victual for three months, so as to be in readiness for anything
+which might occur, as, in case the rumour proved correct, our
+operations might take a different turn to those previous intended.
+The <i>Piranga</i> was also directed to have everything in readiness for
+weighing immediately on the flag-ship appearing off the Moro and
+making signals to that effect. The whole squadron was at the same time
+ordered to re-victual, and to place its surplus articles in a large
+shed constructed of trees and branches felled in the neighbourhood of
+the Moro. Whilst the other ships were thus engaged, I determined to
+increase the panic of the enemy with the flag-ship alone. The position
+of their fleet was about nine miles up the bay, under shelter of
+fortifications, so that an attack by day would have been more perilous
+than prudent. Nevertheless, it appeared practicable to pay them a
+hostile visit on the first dark night, when, if we were unable
+to effect any serious mischief, it would at least be possible
+to ascertain their exact position, and to judge what could be
+accomplished when the fireships were brought to bear upon them.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Accordingly," the narrative proceeds, "having during the day
+carefully taken bearings at the mouth of the river, on the night
+of the 12th of June, I decided on making the attempt, which might
+possibly result in the destruction of part of the enemy's fleet, in
+consequence of the confused manner in which the ships were
+anchored. As soon as it became dark we proceeded up the river; but,
+unfortunately, when we were within hail of the outermost ship, the
+wind failed, and, the tide soon after turning, our plan of attack was
+rendered abortive. Determined, however, to complete the reconnoisance,
+we threaded our way amongst the outermost vessels. In spite of the
+darkness, the presence of a strange ship under sail was discovered,
+and some beat to quarters, hailing to know what ship it was. The
+reply, 'An English vessel,' satisfied them, however, and so our
+investigation was not molested. The chief object thus accomplished, we
+succeeded in dropping out with the ebb-tide, now rapidly running,
+and were enabled to steady our course stern-foremost with the stream
+anchor adrag, whereby we reached our former position."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+That exploit was more daring than Lord Cochrane's modest description
+would imply; and, though the bold hope that it might be possible for
+a single invading ship to conquer the whole Portuguese squadron in its
+moorings was not realized, the effect was all that could be desired.
+The Portuguese Admiral and his chief officers were at a ball in
+Bahia while Lord Cochrane was quietly sailing round and amongst their
+squadron, and the report of this achievement was brought to them in
+the midst of their festivities. "What!" exclaimed the Admiral,
+"Lord Cochrane's line-of-battle ship in the very midst of our fleet!
+Impossible! No large ship can have come up in the dark." When it was
+known that the thing had really been done, and that the construction
+of fireships at the Moro San Paulo was being rapidly proceeded with,
+the Portuguese authorities, both naval and military, considered that
+it would be no longer safe to remain in Bahia Harbour. They were
+seriously inconvenienced, moreover, by the success with which Lord
+Cochrane had blockaded the port and all its approaches. "The means
+of subsistence fail us, and we cannot secure the entrance of any
+provisions," said the Commander-in-Chief, in the proclamation
+intimating that the so-called defenders of the province were
+thinking of abandoning their post. This they did after a fortnight's
+consideration. On the 2nd of July the whole squadron of thirteen
+war-vessels and about seventy merchantmen and transports, filled with a
+large body of troops, evacuated the port.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+That was a movement with which Lord Cochrane was well pleased. He had
+been in doubt as to the prudence of leading his small fleet into a
+desperate action in the harbour, by which the inexperience of his
+crews might ruin everything, and which might have to be followed
+by fighting on land. But now that the Portuguese, both soldiers and
+sailors, were in the open sea, he could give them chase without much
+risk, as, in the event of their turning round upon him with more
+valour than he gave them credit for, the worst that could happen would
+be his forced abandonment of the pursuit. The valour was not shown.
+No sooner were the Portuguese out of port, with their sails set for
+Maranham, where they hoped to join other ships and troops, and so
+augment their strength, than Lord Cochrane proceeded to follow them
+and dog their progress.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+His scheme was a bold one, but as successful as it was bold.
+Attended first by the <i>Maria de Gloria</i> alone, and afterwards by the
+<i>Carolina</i>, the <i>Nitherohy</i>, and a small merchant brig, the <i>Colonel
+Allen</i>, in which he had placed a few guns, he pursued and harassed
+the cumbrous crowd of Portuguese warships, troop-ships, and trading
+vessels, about eighty in all, through fourteen days. The chase,
+indeed, was practically conducted by his flag-ship, the <i>Pedro
+Primiero</i>, alone. The other vessels were ordered to look out for any
+of the enemy's fleet that lagged behind or were borne away from the
+main body of the fugitives, either to the right hand or to the left.
+Of these there were plenty, and none were allowed to escape. The
+pursuers had easy work in prize-taking. "I have the honour to inform
+you," wrote Lord Cochrane in a concise despatch to the Brazilian
+Minister of Marine, on the 7th of July, "that half the enemy's army,
+their colours, cannon, ammunition, stores, and baggage have been
+taken. We are still in pursuit, and shall endeavour to intercept the
+remainder of the troops, and shall then look after the ships of war,
+which would have been my first object but that, in pursuing
+this course, the military would have escaped to occasion further
+hostilities against the Brazilian empire."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Most of his prizes and prisoners Lord Cochrane sent into Pernambuco,
+the port then nearest to him, and he despatched two officers to hold
+Bahia for Brazil. With his flag-ship he continued his pursuit of the
+enemy, losing them once during a fog, and, when, he found them,
+being prevented from doing all the mischief which he hoped, as a calm
+enabled them to keep close together and present a front too formidable
+for attack by a single assailant. The Portuguese, however, continued
+their flight as soon as the wind permitted. Lord Cochrane did not
+trouble them much during the day, but each night he swept down on
+them, like a hawk upon its prey, and harassed them with wonderful
+effect. They were chased past Fernando Island, past the Equator, and
+more than half way to Cape Verde. Then, on the 16th of July, Lord
+Cochrane, after a parting broadside, left them to make their way in
+peace to Lisbon, there to tell how, by one daring vessel, thirteen
+ships of war had been ignominiously driven home, accompanied by only
+thirteen out of the seventy vessels that had placed themselves under
+their protection.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Lord Cochrane would have continued the pursuit still farther, had not
+some of the troop-ships contrived to escape; and as he was anxious
+that these should not get into shelter at Maranham, or, if there,
+should not have time to recover their spirits, he deemed it best to
+hasten thither. He reached Maranham before them, and thus found it
+possible to carry through an excellent expedient which he had devised
+on the way.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Maranham, the wealthiest province of the old Brazilian colony, was
+best guarded by the Portuguese, and now served as the centre and
+stronghold of resistance to the authority of the new Emperor. Lord
+Cochrane's plan had for its object nothing less than the annexation of
+the whole province singlehanded and without a blow. With this intent,
+he entered the River Maranham, which served as a harbour to the port
+of the same name, on the 26th of July, with Portuguese colours flying
+from the mast of the <i>Pedro Primiero</i>. The authorities, deceived
+thereby, promptly sent a messenger with despatches and congratulations
+on the safe arrival of what was supposed to be a valuable
+reinforcement from Portugal. The messenger was soon undeceived, but
+Lord Cochrane at once made him the agent of a much more elaborate
+and altogether justifiable deception Announcing to him that the swift
+sailing of the <i>Pedro Primiero</i> had brought her first to Maranham, but
+that she was being followed by a formidable squadron, intended for the
+invasion of the province, he sent him back with letters to the same
+effect, addressed to the Portuguese commandant and to the local Junta
+of Maranham. "The naval and military forces under my command," he
+wrote to the former, "leave me no room to doubt the success of
+the enterprise in which I am about to engage, in order to free the
+province of Maranham from foreign domination, and to allow the people
+free choice of government. Of the flight of the Portuguese naval and
+military forces from Bahia you are aware. I have now to inform you of
+the capture of two-thirds of the transports and troops, with all their
+stores and ammunition. I am anxious not to let loose the imperial
+troops of Bahia upon Maranham, exasperated as they are at the injuries
+and cruelties exercised towards themselves and their countrymen, as
+well as by the plunder of the people and churches of Bahia. It is
+for you to decide whether the inhabitants of these countries shall be
+further exasperated by resistance, which appears to me unavailing, and
+alike prejudicial to the best interests of Portugal and Brazil," "The
+forces of his Imperial Majesty," he said to the Junta, "having freed
+the city and province of Bahia from the enemies of independence, I now
+hasten&mdash;in conformity with the will of his Majesty that the beautiful
+province of Maranham should be free also&mdash;to offer to the oppressed
+inhabitants whatever aid and protection they need against a foreign
+yoke; desiring to accomplish their liberation and to hail them
+as brethren and friends. Should there, however, be any who, from
+self-interested motives, oppose themselves to the deliverance of their
+country, let such be assured that the naval and military forces which
+have driven the Portuguese from the south are again ready to draw the
+sword in the like just cause, and the result cannot be long doubtful."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Those mingled promises and threats took prompt effect. On the
+following day, the 27th of July, after a conditional offer of
+capitulation had been rejected, the members of the Junta, the Bishop
+of Maranham, and other leading persons, went on board the <i>Pedro
+Primiero</i> to tender their submission to the Emperor of Brazil. The
+city and forts were surrendered without reserve, and in less than
+twenty-four hours from Lord Cochrane's first appearance in the river
+the flag of Portugal was replaced by that of Brazil. A great province
+had been added to the dominions of Pedro I. without bloodshed, and
+with no more expenditure of ammunition than was needed for the volleys
+discharged in honour of the triumph.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The liberation of Maranham was publicly celebrated on the 28th of
+July, and on the following day the Portuguese troops embarked for
+Europe, special concessions being made to them by Lord Cochrane, who
+deemed it well that they should be out of the way before the device
+by which he had outwitted them was made known. No resentment was to
+be expected from the civilians, as even those most hearty in their
+adherence to the Portuguese faction in Brazil would not dare to offer
+direct opposition to the sentiments of the majority. But Lord Cochrane
+wisely set himself to conciliate all. "To the inhabitants of the
+city," he said, "I was careful to accord complete liberty, claiming
+in return that perfect order should be preserved and property of all
+kinds respected. The delight of the people was unbounded at being
+freed from a terrible system of exaction and imprisonment which, when
+I entered the river, was being carried on with unrelenting rigour by
+the Portuguese authorities towards all suspected of a leaning to
+the Imperial Government. Instead of retaliating, as would have been
+gratifying to those so recently labouring under oppression, I directed
+oaths to the constitution to be administered, not to Brazilians only,
+but also to all Portuguese who chose to remain and conform to the new
+order of things; a privilege of which many influential persons of that
+nation availed themselves."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+With the capture of Maranham alone, however, Lord Cochrane was not
+satisfied. Without a day's delay, he despatched a Portuguese brig
+which he had seized in the river and christened by its name, under
+Captain Grenfell, to follow at Parà, the only important province of
+Brazil still under the Portuguese yoke, the same course which he
+had just adopted with such wonderful success. He himself found it
+necessary to remain at Maranham for more than two months, where he had
+to curb with a strong hand the passions of the liberated inhabitants,
+eager to use their liberty in lawless ways and to retaliate upon the
+Portuguese still resident among them for all the hardships which they
+had hitherto endured.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+On the 20th of September, having heard that Captain Grenfell had
+entirely succeeded in his designs on Parà, he started for Rio de
+Janeiro, and there he arrived on the 9th of November. "I immediately
+forwarded to the Minister of Marine," he said, "a recapitulation of
+all transactions since my departure seven months before; namely,&mdash;the
+evacuation of Bahia by the Portuguese in consequence of our nocturnal
+visit, connected with the dread of my reputed skill in the use of
+fireships, arising from the affair of Basque Roads; the pursuit of
+their fleet beyond the Equator, and the dispersion of its convoy; the
+capture and disabling of the transports filled with troops intended
+to maintain Portuguese domination on Maranham and Parà; the device
+adopted to obtain the surrender, to the <i>Pedro Primiero</i> alone, of
+the enemy's naval and military forces at Maranham; the capitulation of
+Parà, with the ships of war, to my summons sent by Captain Grenfell;
+the deliverance of the Brazilian patriots whom the Portuguese had
+imprisoned; the declaration of independence by the intermediate
+provinces thus liberated, and their union with the empire; the
+appointment of provisional governments; the embarkation and departure
+of every Portuguese soldier from Brazil; and the enthusiasm with which
+all my measures&mdash;though unauthorised and therefore extra-official&mdash;had
+been, received by the people of the northern provinces, who, thus
+relieved from the dread of further oppression, had everywhere
+acknowledged and proclaimed his Majesty as constitutional Emperor."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Lord Cochrane's services had, indeed, been, many of them,
+"unauthorised and therefore extra-official." He had been sent out
+merely to recover Bahia; but, besides doing that, he had gained for
+Brazil other territories more than half as large as Europe. For this,
+however, nothing but gratitude could be shown, and the gratitude was,
+for the time at any rate, unalloyed. On the very day of the <i>Pedro
+Primiero's</i> return, the Emperor went on board to offer his thanks in
+person. Further, thanks were voted by the legislature, and tendered by
+all classes of the people.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Taking into consideration the great services which your excellency
+has just rendered to the nation," wrote the Emperor on the 25th of
+November, "and desiring to give your excellency a public testimonial
+of gratitude for those high and extraordinary services on behalf
+of the generous Brazilian people, who will ever preserve a lively
+remembrance of such illustrious acts, I deem it right to confer upon
+your excellency the title of Marquis of Maranham." The decoration
+of the Imperial Order of the Cruizeiro was also bestowed upon Lord
+Cochrane, and on the 19th of December he was made a Privy Councillor
+of Brazil, the highest honour which it was in the Emperor's power to
+grant. On the same day he also received from the Emperor a charter
+confirming his rank and emoluments as First Admiral of Brazil, "seeing
+how advantageous it would be for the interests of this empire to avail
+itself of the skill of so valuable an officer," and in recognition of
+"the valour, intelligence, and activity by which he had distinguished
+himself in the different services with which he had been entrusted."
+</p>
+
+</div><!--end chapter-->
+
+<div class="chapter">
+
+<h2><a name="chap11"></a>CHAPTER XI.</h2>
+
+<p class="letter">
+THE NATURE OF THE REWARDS BESTOWED ON LORD COCHRANE FOR HIS FIRST
+SERVICES TO BRAZIL.&mdash;PEDRO I. AND THE PORTUGUESE FACTION.&mdash;LORD
+COCHRANE'S ADVICE TO THE EMPEROR.&mdash;THE FRESH TROUBLES BROUGHT UPON HIM
+BY IT.&mdash;THE UNJUST TREATMENT ADOPTED TOWARDS HIM AND THE FLEET.&mdash;THE
+WITHHOLDING OF PRIZE-MONEY AND PAY.&mdash;PERSONAL INDIGNITIES TO LORD
+COCHRANE.&mdash;AN AMUSING EPISODE.&mdash;LORD COCHRANE'S THREAT OF RESIGNATION,
+AND ITS EFFECT.&mdash;SIR JAMES MACKINTOSH'S ALLUSION TO LORD COCHRANE IN
+THE HOUSE OF COMMONS.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+[1823-1824.]
+</p>
+
+<p>
+All the rewards bestowed upon Lord Cochrane for his wonderful
+successes in the northern part of Brazil, except the confirmation of
+his patent as First Admiral, be it noted, were unsubstantial. He had
+for ever crushed the power of Portugal in South America; he had added
+vast provinces to the imperial dominion, and had thus augmented the
+imperial revenues by considerably more than a million dollars a-year,
+besides the great and immediate profits of his prize-taking. And all
+this had been done with a small fleet, poorly equipped and unpaid.
+The ships entrusted to him had been rendered efficient by his own
+ingenuity, unaided by the Government, and with scant addition to his
+resources from the numerous captures made by him. In excess of his
+instructions, and with nothing but cheap compliments and cheaper
+promises to encourage him, he had acquired Maranham and Parà, and all
+the provinces dependent upon them, as well as Bahia. Relying on the
+honour of his employers, he had pledged his own honour, that on their
+returning to Rio de Janeiro, his crews, who were clamouring for
+some part, at any rate, of the wages due to them, should be fully
+recompensed, and he had the reasonable expectation, that, out of
+the abundant wealth that he had gained for Brazil, he himself should
+receive his lawful share of the prize-money gained by his exertions.
+Instead of that he and his subordinates, both officers and men, were
+subjected to an unparalleled course of meanness, trickery, and fraud.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+This partly resulted from an unfortunate change in the Government that
+had occurred during his absence. When he left Rio de Janeiro, Pedro
+I.'s chief secretary of state had been Don José Bonifacio de Andrada
+y Silva, a wise and patriotic Brazilian. The Emperor and his minister
+had all along been seriously crippled in fulfilment of their good
+purposes by subordinates of the Portuguese faction, who persistently
+twisted their instructions, when they did not act in direct
+opposition to those instructions, so as to promote their own and their
+countrymen's selfish and unpatriotic objects; but there had been hope
+that the zeal of Pedro and José de Andrada would overcome these evil
+devices, and secure the healthy consolidation of the empire. When Lord
+Cochrane returned, however, he found that the honest minister had
+been deposed, that his party had been ousted, and that the Emperor was
+surrounded by bad counsellors, who, unable to pervert his judgment,
+were strong enough to restrain its action, and who were robbing him,
+one by one, of all his constitutional functions, and doing their
+best to bring Brazil into a state of anarchy, with a view to the
+re-establishment of Portuguese authority in its old or in some new but
+no less obnoxious form. The Emperor, desiring to do well, had hardly
+improved his position, a few days before the <i>Pedro Primiero's</i> arrival, by violently dissolving the Legislative Assembly, banishing
+some of its members, and threatening to place Rio de Janeiro itself
+under military law.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+That was the state of affairs when Lord Cochrane entered the port.
+Only five days afterwards, on the 14th of November, 1823, he wrote a
+bold letter to the Emperor. "My sense of the impropriety of intruding
+myself on the attention of your Imperial Majesty on any subject
+unconnected with the official position with which your Majesty has
+been pleased to honour me," he said, "could only have been overcome by
+an irresistible desire, under existing circumstances, to contribute to
+the service of your Majesty, and the empire. The conduct of the late
+Legislative Assembly, which sought to derogate from the dignity and
+prerogatives of your Majesty, even presuming to require you to divest
+yourself of your crown in their presence&mdash;which deprived you of your
+Council of State and denied you a voice in the enactment of laws and
+the formation of the constitution&mdash;and which dared to object to your
+exercising the only remaining function of royalty, that of rewarding
+services and conferring honours&mdash;could no longer be tolerated; and
+the justice and wisdom of your Imperial Majesty in dissolving such
+an assembly will be duly appreciated by discerning men, and by those
+whose love of good order and their country supersedes their ambition
+or personal interests. There are, however, individuals who will
+wickedly take advantage of the late proceedings to kindle the flames
+of discord, and throw the empire into anarchy and confusion, unless
+timely prevented by the wisdom and energy of your Imperial Majesty.
+The declaration that you will give to your people a practical
+constitution, more free even than that which the late Assembly
+professed an intention to establish, cannot&mdash;considering the spirit
+which now pervades South America&mdash;have the effect of averting
+impending evils, unless your Imperial Majesty shall be pleased to
+dissipate all doubts by at once declaring&mdash;before the news of the
+recent events can be dispersed throughout the provinces, and before
+the discontented members of the late congress can return to their
+constituents&mdash;what is the precise nature of that constitution which
+your Imperial Majesty intends to bestow. As no monarch is more happy
+or more truly powerful than the limited monarch of England, surrounded
+by a free people, enriched by that industry which the security of
+property by means of just laws never fails to create, permit me humbly
+and respectfully to suggest, that if your Majesty were to decree that
+the English constitution, in its most perfect practical form&mdash;which,
+with slight alteration, and chiefly in name, is also the constitution
+of the United States of North America&mdash;shall be the model for the
+government of Brazil under your Imperial Majesty, with power to the
+Constituent Assembly to alter particular parts as local circumstances
+may render advisable, it would excite the sympathy of powerful states
+abroad, and the firm allegiance of the Brazilian people to your
+Majesty's throne. Were your Majesty, by a few brief lines in the
+'Gazette,' to announce your intention so to do, and were you to banish
+all distrust from the public mind by removing from your person for a
+time, and finding employment on honourable missions abroad for, those
+Portuguese individuals of whom the Brazilians are jealous, the purity
+of your Majesty's motives would be secured from the possibility of
+misrepresentation, the factions which disturb the country would be
+silenced or converted, and the feelings of the world, especially those
+of England and North America, would be interested in promoting the
+glory, happiness, and prosperity of your Imperial Majesty."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+That advice, in the main adopted by the Emperor, led to a
+reconstruction of the Brazilian Constitution in its present shape, and
+so added another to the many great benefits which Brazil owes to Lord
+Cochrane. But the whole, and especially the last part of it, being
+directly at variance with the plans and interests of the Portuguese
+faction, it won for him much hatred and many personal troubles.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"That I, a foreigner, having nothing to do with national politics," he
+said, "should have counselled his Majesty to banish those who opposed
+him, was not to be borne, and the resentment caused by my recent
+services was increased to bitter enmity for meddling in affairs which,
+it was considered, did not concern me; though I could have had no
+other object than the good of the empire by the establishment of
+a constitution which should give it stability in the estimation of
+European states."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Consequently, in return for the great services he had conferred to
+Brazil, he received, as had been the case in Chili, little but insult
+and injury, the course of insult and injury being hardly stayed
+even during the period in which he was needed to engage in further
+services. The Emperor honestly tried to be generous; but he could not
+rid himself of the Portuguese faction, generally dominant in Brazil,
+and his worthy intentions were thwarted in every possible way. With
+difficulty could he secure for Lord Cochrane the confirmation of his
+patent as First Admiral, which has been already referred to. No great
+resistance was made to his conferment of the empty title of Marquis of
+Maranham, but he was not allowed to make the grant of land which was
+intended to go with the title and enable it to be borne with dignity.
+Prevented from being generous, he was even hindered from exercising
+the barest justice.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The injustice was shown not only to Lord Cochrane, but also to all
+the officers and crews who, serving under him, had enabled Brazil
+to maintain its resistance to the tyranny of Portugal, though not to
+shake off the tyranny of the faction which still had the interests of
+Portugal at heart. It is not necessary to describe in detail the long
+course of ill-usage to which he and his subordinates were exposed.
+Part of that ill-usage will be best and most briefly indicated by
+citing a portion of an eloquent memorial which Lord Cochrane addressed
+to the Imperial Government on the 30th of January, 1825.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The memorial began by enumerating the achievements of the fleet at
+Bahia, Maranham, Parà, and elsewhere. "The imperial squadron," it
+proceeds, "made sail for Rio de Janeiro, in the full expectation of
+reaping a reward for their labours; not only because they had been
+mainly instrumental in rescuing from the hands of the Portuguese,
+and adding to the imperial dominion, one half of the empire; but also
+because their hopes seemed to be firmly grounded, independently of
+such services, on the capture of upwards of one hundred transports and
+merchant vessels, exclusive of ships of war, all of which, they had a
+just right to expect, would, under the existing laws, be adjudged to
+the captors. The whole of them were seized under Portuguese colours,
+with Portuguese registers, manned by Portuguese seamen, having on
+board Portuguese troops and ammunition or Portuguese produce and
+manufacture. On arriving at Rio de Janeiro, there was no feeling but
+one of satisfaction among the officers and seamen, and the Brazilian
+marine might from that moment, without the expense of one milrei to
+the nation, have been rapidly raised to a state of efficiency and
+discipline which had not yet been attained in any marine in South
+America, and which the navies of Portugal and Spain do not possess.
+It could not, however, be long concealed from the knowledge of the
+squadron that political or other reasons had prevented any proceedings
+being had in the adjudication of their prizes; and the extraordinary
+declaration that was made by the Tribunal of Prizes,&mdash;'that they were
+not aware that hostilities existed between Brazil and Portugal'&mdash;led
+to an inquiry of whom that tribunal was composed. All surprise at
+so extraordinary a declaration then ceased; but other sentiments
+injurious to the imperial service, arose,&mdash;those of indignation and
+disgust that the power of withholding their rights should be placed
+in the hands of persons who were natives of that very nation against
+which they were employed in war. His Imperial Majesty, however, having
+signified to this tribunal his pleasure that they should delay no
+longer in proceeding to the adjudication of the captured vessels,
+the result was that, in almost every instance, at the commencement of
+their proceedings, the vessels were condemned, not as lawful prizes to
+the captors, but as droits to the Crown. His Majesty was then pleased
+to desire that the said droits should be granted to the squadron, and
+about one-fifth part of the value of the prizes taken was eventually
+paid under the denomination of a 'grant of the droits of the Crown.'
+But when this decree of his Imperial Majesty was promulgated,
+the tribunal altered their course of proceeding, and, instead of
+condemning to the Crown, did, in almost every remaining instance,
+pronounce the acquittal of the vessels captured, and adjudged them
+to be given up to pretended Brazilian owners, notwithstanding that
+Brazilian property embarked in enemy's vessels was, by the law,
+declared to be forfeited; and that, too, with such indecent
+precipitancy that, in cases where the hull only had been claimed, the
+cargo also was decreed to be given up to the claimants of the hull,
+without any part of it having, at any time, been even pretended to be
+their property. Other ships and cargoes were given up without any form
+of trial, and without any intimation whatever to the captors and their
+agents; and, in most cases, costs and quadruple damages were unjustly
+decreed against the captors, to the amount of 300,000 milreis. That
+the prizes of which the captors were thus fraudulently deprived,
+chiefly under the unlawful and false pretence of their belonging to
+Brazilians, were really the property of Portuguese and well known so
+to be by the said tribunal, has since been fully demonstrated, by
+the arrival in Lisbon of the whole of the vessels liberated by their
+decisions. Thus the charge of a system of wilful injustice, brought
+by the squadron against the Portuguese Tribunal of Prizes at Rio de
+Janeiro, is established beyond the possibility of contradiction."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+It was only an aggravation of that injustice that, when Lord Cochrane
+claimed the prompt and equitable adjudication of the prizes, an
+attempt was made to silence him on the 24th of November by a message
+from the Minister of Marine, to the effect that the Emperor would do
+everything in his power for him personally. "His Majesty," answered
+Lord Cochrane, "has already conferred honours upon me quite equal to
+my merits, and the greatest personal favour he can bestow is to urge
+on the speedy adjudication of the prizes, so that the officers and
+seamen may reap the reward decreed by the Emperor's own authority."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+A hardship to the fleet even greater than the withholding of its
+prize-money was the withholding of the arrears of pay, which had been
+accumulating ever since the departure from Rio de Janeiro in April. On
+the 27th of November, three months' wages were offered to men to whom
+more than twice the amount was due. This they indignantly refused, and
+all Lord Cochrane's tact was needed to restrain them from open mutiny.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+In spite of the Emperor's friendship towards Lord Cochrane, or rather
+in consequence of it, he was in all sorts of ways insulted by the
+ministry, the head of which was now Severiano da Costa. A new ship,
+the <i>Atulanta</i>, was on the 27th of December, without reference to him,
+ordered for service at Monte Video. He was on the same day publicly
+described as "Commander of the Naval Forces in the Port of Rio de
+Janeiro," being thus placed on a level with other officers in the
+service of which, by the Emperor's patent, he was First Admiral, and
+no notice was taken of his protest against that insult. On the 24th
+of February he was gazetted as "Commander-in-Chief of all the Naval
+Forces of the Empire during the present war," by which his functions,
+though not now limited in extent, were limited in time. At length,
+reasonably indignant at these and other violations of the contract
+made with him, he offered to resign his command altogether. "If
+I thought that the course pursued towards me was dictated by his
+Imperial Majesty," he wrote to the Minister of Marine on the 20th of
+March, "it would be impossible for me to remain an hour longer in
+his service, and I should feel it my duty, at the earliest possible
+moment, to lay my commission at his feet. If I have not done so
+before, from the treatment which, in common with the navy. I have
+experienced, it has been solely from an anxious desire to promote his
+Majesty's real interests. Indeed, to struggle against prejudices, and
+at the same time against those in power whose prepossessions are at
+variance with the interests of his Majesty and the tranquillity and
+independence of Brazil, is a task to which I am by no means equal.
+I am, therefore, perfectly willing to resign the situation I
+hold, rather than contend against difficulties which appear to me
+insurmountable."[A]
+</p>
+
+<p>
+[Footnote A: See Appendix (III).]
+</p>
+
+<p>
+That letter was answered with complimentary phrases, and Lord Cochrane
+was induced to continue in the employment from which he could not be
+spared; but there was no diminution of the ill-treatment to which
+he was subjected. One special indignity was attended by some amusing
+incidents. On the 3rd of June, while he was residing on shore, it was
+proposed to search his flag-ship, on the pretext that he had there
+concealed large sums of money which were the property of the nation.
+"Late in the evening," he said, "I received a visit from Madame
+Bonpland, the talented wife of the distinguished French naturalist.
+This lady, who had singular opportunities for becoming acquainted with
+state secrets, came expressly to inform me that my house was at that
+moment surrounded by a guard of soldiers. She further informed me
+that, under the pretence of a review to be held at the opposite side
+of the harbour early in the following morning, preparations had
+been made by the ministers to board the flag-ship, which was to be
+thoroughly overhauled whilst I was detained on shore, and all the
+money found taken possession of. Thanking my friend for her timely
+warning, I clambered over my garden fence, as the only practicable way
+to the stables, selected a horse, and, notwithstanding the lateness
+of the hour, proceeded to San Christoval, the country palace of the
+Emperor, where, on my arrival, I demanded to see his Majesty. The
+request being refused by the gentleman in waiting, in such a way as to
+confirm the statement of Madame Bonpland, I dared him at his peril to
+refuse me admission, adding that the matter on which I had come was
+fraught with grave consequences to his Majesty and the empire. 'But,'
+said he, 'his Majesty has retired to bed long ago.' 'No matter,' I
+replied; 'in bed or not in bed, I demand to see him, in virtue of my
+privilege of access to him at all times, and, if you refuse to concede
+permission, look to the consequences.' His Majesty was not, however,
+asleep, and, the royal chamber being close at hand, he recognized my
+voice in the altercation with the attendant. Hastily coming out of his
+apartments, he asked what could have brought me there at that time of
+night. My reply was that, understanding that the troops ordered for
+review were destined to proceed to the flag-ship in search of supposed
+treasure, I had come to request his Majesty immediately to appoint
+confidential persons to accompany me on board, when the keys of every
+chest in the ship should be placed in their hands and every place
+thrown open to inspection, but that, if any of his anti-Brazilian
+administration ventured to board the ship in perpetration of the
+contemplated insult, they would certainly be regarded as pirates and
+treated as such; adding at the same time, 'Depend upon it, they are
+not more my enemies than the enemies of your Majesty and the empire,
+and an intrusion so unwarrantable the officers and crew are bound
+to resist.' 'Well,' replied his Majesty, 'you seem to be apprised of
+everything; but the plot is not mine, being, as far as I am concerned,
+convinced that no money would be found more than we already know of
+from yourself.' I then entreated his Majesty to take such steps for
+my justification as would be satisfactory to the public. 'There is no
+necessity for any,' he replied. 'But how to dispense with the review
+is the puzzle. I will be ill in the morning; so go home and think
+no more of the matter. I give you my word, your flag shall not be
+outraged.' The Emperor kept his word, and in the night was taken
+suddenly ill. As his Majesty was really beloved by his Brazilian
+subjects, all the native respectability of Rio was early next day on
+its way to the palace to inquire after the royal health, and ordering
+my carriage, I also proceeded to the palace, lest my absence might
+seem singular. On my entering the room,&mdash;where the Emperor was in
+the act of explaining the nature of his disease to the anxious
+inquirers,&mdash;his Majesty burst into a fit of uncontrollable laughter,
+in which I as heartily joined, the bystanders evidently, from the
+gravity of their countenances, considering that we had both taken
+leave of our senses. The ministers looked astounded, but said nothing.
+His Majesty kept his secret, and I was silent."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+That anecdote fairly illustrates the treatment adopted towards Lord
+Cochrane, and the straits to which the Emperor was reduced in his
+efforts to protect him from his enemies in power. The ill-treatment
+both of himself and of the whole fleet continuing, he addressed an
+indignant protest to his Majesty in July. "The time has at length
+arrived," he there said, "when it is impossible to doubt that the
+influence which the Portuguese faction has so long exerted, with the
+view of depriving the officers and seamen of their stipulated rights,
+has succeeded in its object, and has even prevailed against the
+expressed wishes and intentions of your Majesty. The determined
+perseverance in a course so opposed to justice must come to an end.
+The general discontent which prevails in the squadron has rendered
+the situation in which I am placed one of the most embarrassing
+description; for, though a few may be aware that my own cause of
+complaint is equal to theirs, many cannot perceive the consistency
+of my patient continuance in the service with disapprobation of the
+measures pursued. Even the honours which your Majesty has been pleased
+to bestow upon me are deemed by most of the officers, and by the whole
+of the men, who know not the assiduity with which I have persevered in
+earnest but unavailing remonstrance, as a bribe by which I have been
+induced to abandon their interests. Much, therefore, as I prize those
+honours, as the gracious gift of your Imperial Majesty, yet, holding
+in still dearer estimation my character as an officer and a man, I
+cannot hesitate in choosing which to sacrifice when the retention of
+both is evidently incompatible. I can, therefore, no longer delay to
+demonstrate to the squadron and the world that I am no partner in the
+deceptions and oppressions which are practised on the naval service;
+and, as the first and most painful step in the performance of this
+imperious duty, I crave permission, with all humility and respect,
+to return those honours, and lay them at the feet of your Imperial
+Majesty. I should, however, fall short of my duty to those who were
+induced to enter the service by my example or invitation, were I to
+do nothing more than convince them that I had been deceived. It is
+incumbent on me to make every effort to obtain for them the fulfilment
+of engagements for which I made myself responsible. As far as I am
+personally concerned, I could be content to quit the service of your
+Imperial Majesty, either with or without the expectation of obtaining
+compensation at a future period. After effectually fighting the
+battles of freedom and independence on both sides of South America,
+and clearing the two seas of every vessel of war, I could submit to
+return to my native country unrewarded; but I cannot submit to adopt
+any course which shall not redeem my pledge to my brother officers and
+seamen."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+That and other arguments contained in the same letter, aided by
+inducements of a different sort, to be presently referred to, had
+partial effect. A small portion of the prize-money and wages due to
+the squadron was issued, and Lord Cochrane remained for another year
+in the service of Brazil. His weary waiting-time at Rio de Janeiro,
+however, extending over nearly nine months, was almost at an end. On
+the 2nd of August he left it, never to return.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+While the ingratitude shown to him in Brazil was at its worst it is
+interesting to notice that a few, at any rate, of his own countrymen
+were remembering his past troubles and his present worth. On the 21st
+of June, Sir James Mackintosh, in one of the many speeches in the
+British House of Commons in which he nobly advocated the recognition
+of the independence of the South American states, both as a political
+duty and as a necessary measure in the interests of commerce, made a
+graceful allusion to Lord Cochrane. "I know," he said, "that I am here
+touching on a topic of great delicacy; but I must say that commerce
+has been gallantly protected by that extraordinary man who was once a
+British officer, who once filled a distinguished post in the
+British navy at the brightest period of its annals. I mention this
+circumstance with struggling and mingled emotions&mdash;emotions of pride
+that the individual I speak of is a Briton, emotions of regret that
+he is no longer a British officer. Can any one imagine a more gallant
+action than the cutting out of the <i>Esmeralda</i> from Callao? Never
+was there a greater display of judgment, calmness, and enterprising
+British valour than was shown on that memorable occasion. No man ever
+felt a more ardent, a more inextinguishable love of country, a more
+anxious desire to promote its interests and extend its prosperity,
+than the gallant individual to whom I allude. I speak for myself. No
+person is responsible for the opinions which I now utter. But ask,
+what native of this country can help wishing that such a man were
+again amongst us? I hope I shall be excused for saying thus much; but
+I cannot avoid fervently wishing that such advice may be given to
+the Crown by his Majesty's constitutional advisers as will induce his
+Majesty graciously to restore Lord Cochrane to the country which he
+so warmly loves, and to that noble service to the glory of which, I am
+convinced, he willingly would sacrifice every earthly consideration."
+</p>
+
+</div><!--end chapter-->
+
+<div class="chapter">
+
+<h2><a name="chap12"></a>CHAPTER XII.</h2>
+
+<p>
+THE INSURRECTION IN PERNAMBUCO.&mdash;LORD COCHRANE's EXPEDITION TO
+SUPPRESS IT.&mdash;THE SUCCESS OF HIS WORK.&mdash;HIS STAY AT MARANHAM.&mdash;THE
+DISORGANISED STATE OF AFFAIRS IN THAT PROVINCE.&mdash;LORD COCHRANE's
+EFFORTS TO RESTORE ORDER AND GOOD GOVERNMENT.&mdash;THEIR RESULT IN FURTHER
+TROUBLE TO HIMSELF.&mdash;HIS CRUISE IN THE "PIRANGA," AND RETURN TO
+ENGLAND.&mdash;THE FRESH INDIGNITIES THERE OFFERED TO HIM.&mdash;HIS RETIREMENT
+FROM BRAZILIAN SERVICE.&mdash;HIS LETTER TO THE EMPEROR PEDRO I.&mdash;THE END
+OF HIS SOUTH AMERICAN EMPLOYMENTS.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+[1824-1825.]
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The political turmoils which Lord Cochrane found to be prevalent
+in Rio de Janeiro, on his return from Maranham, were, as he had
+anticipated, very disastrous to the whole Brazilian empire. The
+unpatriotic action of men in power at head-quarters encouraged yet
+more unpatriotic action in the outlying and newly-acquired provinces.
+Portuguese sympathizers in Pernambuco, in Maranham, and in the
+neighbouring districts, following the policy of the Portuguese faction
+at the centre of government, and acting even more unworthily,
+induced serious trouble; and the trouble was aggravated by the fierce
+opposition which was in many cases offered to them. Before the end of
+1823 information arrived that an insurrection, having for its object
+the establishment in the northern provinces of a government distinct
+from both Brazil and Portugal, had broken out in Pernambuco, and
+nearly every week brought fresh intelligence of the spread of this
+insurrection and of the troubles induced by it. The Emperor Pedro I.
+was eager to send thither the squadron under Lord Cochrane, and so to
+win back the allegiance of the inhabitants; and for this Lord Cochrane
+was no less eager. To the Portuguese partizans, however, whose great
+effort was to weaken the resources of the empire, the news of the
+insurrection was welcome; and perhaps their strongest inducement to
+the long course of injustice detailed in the last chapter was the
+knowledge that by so doing they were most successfully preventing the
+despatch of an armament strong enough to restore order in the northern
+provinces. Herein they prospered. For more than six months the Emperor
+was prevented from suppressing the insurrection, which all through
+that time was extending and becoming more and more formidable. Not
+till July was anything done to satisfy the claims of the seamen for
+payment of their prize-money and the arrears of wages due to them,
+without which they refused to return to their work and render possible
+the equipment and despatch of the squadron; and even then only 200,000
+milreis&mdash;less than a tenth of the prize-money that was owing&mdash;were
+granted as an instalment of the payment to be made to them.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+With that money, however, Lord Cochrane, using his great personal
+influence with the officers and crews, induced them to rejoin the
+fleet. The funds were placed in his hands on the 12th of July, 1824,
+and equitably disbursed by him during the following three weeks. On
+the 2nd of August he set sail in the <i>Pedro Primiero</i> from Rio de
+Janeiro, attended by the <i>Maranham</i> and three transports containing
+twelve hundred soldiers.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Having landed General Lima and the troops at Alagoas on the 16th,
+he arrived off Pernambuco on the 18th. There he found that a strong
+republican Government had been set up under the presidentship of
+Manoel de Carvalho Pais d'Andrade, whose authority, secret or open,
+extended far into the interior and along the adjoining coasts.
+"Knowing that it would take some time for the troops to come up," he
+said, "I determined to try the effect of a threat of bombardment, and
+issued a proclamation remonstrating with the inhabitants on the folly
+of permitting themselves to be deceived by men who lacked the ability
+to execute their schemes; pointing out, moreover, that persistence in
+revolt would involve both the town and its rulers in one common ruin,
+for, if forced to the necessity of bombardment, I would reduce the
+port and city to insignificance. On the other hand, I assured them
+that, if they retraced their steps and rallied round the imperial
+throne, thus aiding to protect it from foreign influence, it would be
+more gratifying to me to act the part of a mediator, and to restore
+Pernambuco to peace, prosperity, and happiness, than to carry out the
+work of destruction which would be my only remaining alternative. In
+another proclamation I called the attention of the inhabitants to the
+distracted state of the Spanish republics on the other side of the
+continent, asking whether it would be wise to risk the benefits of
+orderly government for social and political confusion, and entreating
+them not to compel me to proceed to extremities, as it would become my
+duty to destroy their shipping and block up their port, unless, within
+eight days, the integrity of the empire were acknowledged."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+While waiting to see the result of those proclamations Lord Cochrane
+received a message from Carvalho, offering him immediate payment of
+400,000 milreis if he would abandon the imperial cause and go over to
+the republicans. "Frankness is the distinguishing character of free
+men," wrote Carvalho, "but your excellency has not found it in your
+connection with the Imperial Government. Your not having been rewarded
+for the first expedition affords a justifiable inference that you will
+get nothing for the second." That audacious proposal, it need hardly
+be said, was indignantly resented by Lord Cochrane. "If I shall have
+an opportunity of becoming personally known to your excellency," he
+wrote, "I can afford you proof that the opinion you have formed of me
+has had its origin in the misrepresentations of those in power, whose
+purposes I was incapable of serving."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The threats and promises of Lord Cochrane's proclamation did not lead
+to the peaceable surrender of Pernambuco, and at the end of the eight
+days' waiting-time he proceeded to bombard the town. In that, however,
+he was hindered by bad weather, which made it impossible for him to
+enter the shallow water without great risk of shipwreck. He was in
+urgent need, also, of anchors and other fittings. Therefore, after
+a brief show of attack, which frightened the inhabitants, but had no
+other effect, he left the smaller vessels to maintain the blockade,
+and went on the 4th of September in the flag-ship to Bahia, there to
+procure the necessary articles. On his return he found that General
+Lima had marched against Pernambuco on the 11th, and, with the
+assistance of the blockading vessels, made an easy capture of it.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+There was plenty of other work, however, to be done. All the
+northern provinces were disaffected, if not in actual revolt, and, in
+compliance with the Emperor's directions, Lord Cochrane proceeded to
+visit their ports and reduce them to order. Some other ships having
+arrived from Rio de Janeiro, he selected the <i>Piranga</i> and two smaller
+vessels for service with the flag-ship, leaving the others at the
+disposal of General Lima, and sailed from Pernambuco on the 10th of
+October.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+He reached Cearà on the 18th, and then, by his mere presence,
+compelled the insurgents, who had seized the city, to retire, and
+enabled the well-disposed inhabitants to organize a vigorous scheme of
+self-protection.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+A harder task awaited him at Maranham, at which he arrived on the
+9th of November. There the utmost confusion prevailed. The Portuguese
+faction had the supremacy, and there were special causes of animosity
+and misconduct among the members of the opposite party of native
+Brazilians.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"In Maranham," said Lord Cochrane, "as in the other northern provinces
+of the empire, there had been no amelioration whatever in the
+condition of the people, and, without such amelioration, it was absurd
+to place reliance on the hyperbolical professions of devotion to
+the Emperor which were now abundantly avowed by those who, before my
+arrival, had been foremost in promoting and cherishing disturbance.
+The condition of the province, and indeed of all the provinces, was
+in no way better than they had been under the dominion of Portugal,
+though they presented one of the finest fields imaginable for
+improvement. All the old colonial imports and duties remained without
+alteration; the manifold hindrances to commerce and agriculture still
+existed; and arbitrary power was everywhere exercised uncontrolled: so
+that, in place of being benefited by emancipation from the Portuguese
+yoke, the condition of the great mass of the population was literally
+worse than before. To amend this state of things it was necessary
+to begin with the officers of Government, of whose corruption and
+arbitrary conduct complaints, signed by whole communities, were daily
+arriving from every part of the province. To such an extent, indeed,
+wad this misrule carried that neither the lives nor the property of
+the inhabitants were safe."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+This state of things Lord Cochrane set himself zealously to remedy;
+and, during his six months' stay at Maranham, he did all that, with
+the bad materials at his disposal and in the harassing circumstances
+of his position, it was possible for him to do. Unable to break down
+the cabals and intrigues, the mutual jealousies and the unworthy
+ambitions that had prevailed previous to his arrival, he held them all
+in check while he was present and secured the observance of law and
+the freedom of all classes of the community.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Thereby, however, he brought upon himself much fresh hatred. The
+governor of the province, being devoted to the Portuguese party and a
+chief cause of the existing troubles, had to be suspended and sent to
+Rio de Janeiro; and though the suspension occurred after orders had
+been despatched by the Emperor for his recall, it afforded an excuse
+to the governor and his friends in office for denunciation of Lord
+Cochrane's conduct, alleged to be greatly in excess of his powers and
+in contempt of the constituted authority. In fact, the same bad policy
+that had embarrassed him before, while he was in Rio de Janeiro,
+continued to embarrass him yet more during his service in Maranham.
+That that service was very helpful to the best interests of Brazil
+no one attempted to deny. The French and English consuls, speaking
+on behalf of all their countrymen resident in the northern provinces,
+overstepped the line of strict neutrality, and entreated him to
+persevere in the measures by which he was making it possible for
+commerce to prosper and the rules of civilized life to be observed.
+The Emperor sent to thank him for his work. "His Majesty," wrote the
+secretary on the 2nd of December, "approves of the First Admiral's
+determination to establish order and obedience in the northern
+provinces, a duty which he has so wisely and judiciously undertaken,
+and in which he must continue until the provinces submit themselves
+to the authorities lately appointed, and enjoy the benefits of the
+paternal government of his Imperial Majesty."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The Emperor, however, was at this time almost powerless. The leaders
+of the Portuguese faction reigned, and by them Lord Cochrane continued
+to be treated with every possible indignity and insult. Not daring
+openly to dismiss him or even to accept the resignation which he
+frequently offered, they determined to wear out his patience, and, if
+possible, to drive him to some act on which they could fasten as
+an excuse for degrading him. They partly succeeded, though the only
+wonder is that Lord Cochrane should have been, for so long a time, as
+patient as he proved. His temper is well shown in the numerous
+letters which he addressed to Pedro I. and the Government during these
+harassing months. "The condescension," he wrote, "with which your
+Imperial Majesty has been pleased to permit me to approach your royal
+person, on matters regarding the public service, and even on those
+more particularly relating to myself, emboldens me to adopt the only
+means in my power, at this distance, of craving that your Majesty will
+be graciously pleased to judge of my conduct in the imperial service
+by the result of my endeavours to promote your Majesty's interests,
+and not by the false reports spread by those who, for reasons best
+known to themselves, desire to alienate your Majesty's mind from me,
+and thus to bring about my removal from your Majesty's service. I
+trust that your Imperial Majesty will please to believe me to be
+sensible that the honours which you have so graciously bestowed upon
+me it is my duty not to tarnish, and that your Majesty will further
+believe that, highly as I prize those honours, I hold the maintenance
+of my reputation in my native country in equal estimation. I
+respectfully crave permission to add that, perceiving it is impossible
+to continue in the service of your Imperial Majesty without at
+all times subjecting my professional character, under the present
+management of the Marine Department, to great risks, I trust your
+Majesty will be graciously pleased to grant me leave to retire
+from your imperial service, in which it appears to me I have now
+accomplished all that can be expected from me, the authority of your
+Imperial Majesty being established throughout the whole extent of
+Brazil."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+That request was not granted, or in any way answered; and the
+statement that the whole of Brazil was finally subjected to the
+Emperor's authority proved to be not quite correct. Fresh turmoils
+arose in Parà, and Lord Cochrane had to send thither a small force,
+by which order was restored. He himself found ample employment in
+restraining the factions that could not be suppressed at Maranham.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+That was the state of things in the early months of 1825, until
+unlooked-for circumstances arose, by which Lord Cochrane's Brazilian
+employment was brought to a termination in a way that he had not
+anticipated. "The anxiety occasioned by the constant harassing which
+I had undergone, unalleviated by any acknowledgment on the part of the
+Imperial Government of the services which had a second time saved the
+empire from intestine war, anarchy, and revolution," he said, "began
+to make serious inroads on my health; whilst that of the officers and
+men, in consequence of the great heat and pestilential exhalations of
+the climate, and of the double duty which they had to perform afloat
+and ashore, was even less satisfactory. As I saw no advantage in
+longer contending with factious intrigues at Maranham, unsupported and
+neglected as I was by the Administration at Rio de Janeiro, I resolved
+upon a short run into a more bracing northerly atmosphere, which would
+answer the double purpose of restoring our health and of giving us a
+clear offing for our subsequent voyage to the capital.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Accordingly," the narrative proceeds, "I shifted my flag into the
+<i>Piranga</i>, despatched the <i>Pedro Primiero</i> to Rio, and, leaving
+Captain Manson, of the <i>Cacique</i>, in charge of the naval department
+at Maranham, put to sea on the 18th of May. On the 21st we crossed
+the Equator, and, meeting with a succession of easterly winds, were
+carried to the northward of the Azores, passing St. Michael's on the
+11th of June. It had been my intention to sail into the latitude of
+the Azores, and then to return to Rio de Janeiro. But, strong gales
+coming on, we made the unpleasant discovery that the frigate's
+main-topmast was sprung, and, when putting her about, the main and
+main-topsail yards were discovered to be unserviceable. For the
+condition of the ship's spars I had depended on others, not deeming
+it necessary to take upon myself such investigation. It was, however,
+possible that we might have patched these up, had not the running
+rigging been as rotten as the masts, and we had no spare cordage on
+board. A still worse disaster was that the salt provisions shipped at
+Maranham were reported bad, mercantile ingenuity having resorted to
+the device of placing good meat at the top and bottom of the barrels,
+whilst the middle, being composed of unsound articles, had tainted
+the whole, thereby rendering it not only unpalatable but positively
+dangerous to health. The good provisions on board being little more
+than sufficient for a week's subsistence, a direct return to Rio de
+Janeiro was out of the question."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+It was therefore absolutely necessary to seek some nearer harbour; but
+Lord Cochrane was considerably embarrassed in his choice of a
+port. Portugal was an enemy's country, and Spain, by reason of his
+achievements in Chili and Peru, was no less hostile to him. France had
+not yet recognised the independence of Brazil, and therefore a stay on
+any part of its coast might lead to difficulties. England afforded the
+only safe halting-place, though there Lord Cochrane was uncertain as
+to the way in which, in consequence of the Foreign Enlistment Act,
+he might be received. To England, however, he resolved to go; and,
+sighting its coast on the 25th of June, he anchored at Spithead on
+the following day. Salutes were exchanged with a British ship lying
+in harbour, and in the afternoon he landed at Portsmouth, to be
+enthusiastically welcomed by nearly all classes of his countrymen,
+whose admiration for his personal character and his excellence as a
+naval officer was heightened by the renown of his exploits in South
+America during an absence of six years and a half.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+His subsequent relations with Brazil can be briefly told. His
+unavoidable return to England afforded just the excuse which his
+enemies in Brazil had been seeking for ousting him from his command.
+They and the Chevalier Manoel Rodriguez Gameiro Pessoa, the Brazilian
+Envoy in London, who altogether sympathised with them, chose to regard
+this occurrence as an act of desertion. Lord Cochrane lost no time in
+reporting his arrival and requesting to be provided with the necessary
+means for refitting the <i>Piranga</i> and preparing for a speedy return to
+Rio de Janeiro. To expedite matters, he even advanced 2000£ out of
+his own property&mdash;which was never repaid to him&mdash;for this purpose. His
+repeated applications for instructions were either unheeded or only
+answered with insult. He was ordered to return to Brazil at once,
+towards which no assistance was given to him; and at the same time
+his officers and crew were ordered to repudiate his authority and to
+return without him.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Lord Cochrane had no room to doubt that by going back to Brazil he
+should only expose himself to yet worse treatment than that from which
+he had been suffering during nearly two years; but at the same time
+he was resolved to do nothing at variance with his duty to the Emperor
+from whom he had received his commission, and nothing invalidating his
+claims to the recompense which was clearly due to him. At length he
+was relieved from some of his perplexities, after they had lasted more
+than three months. On the 3rd of November, 1825, peace was declared
+between Brazil and Portugal; and thereby his relations with his
+employers were materially altered. The work which he had pledged
+himself to do was completed, and he was justified in resigning his
+command, or at any rate in declining to resume it until the causes of
+his recent troubles were removed.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+This he did in a letter addressed to the Emperor Pedro I., from
+London, on the 10th of November. "The gracious condescension which I
+experienced from your Imperial Majesty, from the first moment of my
+arrival in the Brazils, the honorary distinctions which I received
+from your Majesty, and the attention with which you were pleased to
+listen to all my personal representations relating to the promotion
+of the naval power of your empire," he wrote, "have impressed upon
+my mind a high sense of the honour which your Majesty conferred, and
+forbid my entertaining any other sentiments than those of attachment
+to your Majesty and devotion to your true interests. But, whilst I
+express these my unfeigned sentiments towards your Imperial Majesty,
+it is with infinite pain and regret that I recall to my recollection
+the conduct that has been pursued towards the naval service, and to
+myself personally, since the members of the Brazilian administration
+of José Bonifacio de Andrade were superseded by persons devoted to
+the views and interests of Portugal,&mdash;views and interests which are
+directly opposed to the adoption of that line of conduct which can
+alone promote and secure the true interests and glory of your Imperial
+Majesty, founded on the tranquillity and happiness of the Brazilian
+people. Without imputing to such ministers as Severiano, Gomez, and
+Barboza disaffection to the person of your Imperial Majesty, it is
+sufficient to know that they are men bigoted to the unenlightened
+opinions of their ancestors of four centuries ago, that they are men
+who, from their limited intercourse with the world, from the paucity
+of the literature of their native language, and from their want of
+all rational instruction in the service of government and political
+economy, have no conception of governing Brazil by any other than the
+same wretched and crooked policy to which the nation had been so long
+subjected in its condition as a colony. Nothing further need be said,
+while we acquit them of treason, to convict them of unfitness to be
+the counsellors of your Imperial Majesty.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"None but such ministers as these could have endeavoured to impress
+upon the mind of your Imperial Majesty that the refugee Portuguese
+from the provinces and many thousands from Europe, collected in Rio
+de Janeiro, were the only true friends and supporters of the imperial
+crown of Brazil. None but such ministers would have endeavoured to
+impress your Imperial Majesty with a belief that the Brazilian people
+were inimical to your person and the imperial crown, merely because
+they were hostile to the system pursued by those ministers. None but
+such ministers would have placed in important offices of trust the
+natives of a nation with which your Imperial Majesty was at war. None
+but such ministers would have endeavoured to induce your Imperial
+Majesty to believe that officers who had abandoned their King and
+native country for their own private interests could be depended on as
+faithful servants to a hostile Government and a foreign land. None but
+such ministers could have induced your Imperial Majesty to place
+in the command of your fortresses, regiments, and ships of war such
+individuals as these. None but such ministers would have attempted to
+excite in the breast of your Imperial Majesty suspicions with respect
+to the fidelity of myself and of those other officers who, by the most
+zealous exertions, had proved our devotion to the best interests
+of your Imperial Majesty and your Brazilian people. None but such
+ministers would have endeavoured by insults and acts of the grossest
+injustice, to drive us from the service of your Imperial Majesty and
+to place Portuguese officers in our stead. And, above all, none but
+such ministers could have suggested to your Imperial Majesty that
+extraordinary proceeding which was projected to take place on the
+night of the 3rd of June, 1824, a proceeding which, had it not been
+averted by a timely discovery and prompt interposition on my part,
+would have tarnished for ever the glory of your Imperial Majesty, and
+which, if it had failed to prove fatal to myself and officers, must
+inevitably have driven us from your imperial service. When placed
+in competition with this plot of these ministers and the false
+insinuations by which they induced your Imperial Majesty to listen to
+their insidious counsel, all their previous intrigues, and those of
+the whole Portuguese faction, to ruin the naval power of Brazil, sink
+into insignificance. But for the advancement of Portuguese interests
+there was nothing too treacherous or malignant for such ministers and
+such men as these to insinuate to your Imperial Majesty, especially
+when they had discovered that it was not possible by their unjust
+conduct to provoke me to abandon the service of Brazil so long as my
+exertions could be useful to secure its independence, which I believed
+to be alike the object of your Imperial Majesty and the interest of
+the Brazilian people.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"If the counsels of such persons should prove fatal to the interests
+of your Imperial Majesty, no one will regret the event more sincerely
+than myself. My only consolation will be the knowledge that your
+Imperial Majesty cannot but be conscious that I, individually, have
+discharged my duty, both in a military and in a private capacity,
+towards your Majesty, whose true interest, I may venture to add, I
+have held in greater regard than my own; for, had I connived at the
+views of the Portuguese faction, even without dereliction of my duty
+as an officer, I might have shared amply in the honours and emoluments
+which such influence has enabled these persons to obtain, instead of
+being deprived, by their means, of even the ordinary rewards of my
+labours in the cause of independence which your Imperial Majesty had
+engaged me to maintain,&mdash;which cause I neither have abandoned nor will
+abandon, if ever it should be in my power successfully to renew my
+exertions for the true interests of your Imperial Majesty and those of
+the Brazilian people.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Meanwhile my office as Commander-in-Chief of your Imperial Majesty's
+Naval Forces having terminated by the conclusion of peace and by the
+decree promulgated on the 28th of February, 1824, I have notified to
+your Imperial Majesty's Envoy, the Chevalier de Gameiro, that I have
+directed my flag to be struck this day. Praying that the war now
+terminated abroad may be accompanied by tranquillity at home, I
+respectfully take leave of your Imperial Majesty."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+All Lord Cochrane's subsequent correspondence with Brazil had for its
+object the recovery of the payments due to him and to his officers and
+crews for the great services done by them to the empire. Lord Cochrane
+had saved that empire from being brought back to the position of
+a Portuguese colony, and had enabled it to enter on a career of
+independence. In return for it he was subjected to more than two years
+of galling insult, was deprived of his proper share of the prizes
+taken by him and his squadron, was refused the estate in Maranham
+which the Emperor, more grateful than his ministers, had bestowed upon
+him, and was mulcted of a portion of his pay and of all the pension
+to which he was entitled by imperial decree and the ordinances of the
+Government. His services to Brazil, like his services to Chili, adding
+much to his renown as a disinterested champion of liberty and an
+unrivalled seaman and warrior, brought upon him personally little but
+trouble and misfortune. Only near the end of his life, when a worthy
+Emperor and honest ministers succeeded to power, was any recompence
+accorded to him.
+</p>
+
+</div><!--end chapter-->
+
+<div class="chapter">
+
+<h2><a name="chap13"></a>CHAPTER XIII.</h2>
+
+<p class="letter">
+THE GREEK REVOLUTION AND ITS ANTECEDENTS.&mdash;THE MODERN GREEKS.&mdash;THE
+FRIENDLY SOCIETY.&mdash;SULTAN MAHMUD AND ALI PASHA'S REBELLION.&mdash;THE
+BEGINNING OF THE GREEK INSURRECTION.&mdash;COUNT JOHN CAPODISTRIAS.&mdash;PRINCE
+ALEXANDER HYPSILANTES.&mdash;THE REVOLUTION IN THE MOREA.&mdash;THEODORE
+KOLKOTRONES.&mdash;THE REVOLUTION IN THE ISLANDS.&mdash;THE GREEK NAVY AND ITS
+CHARACTER.&mdash;THE EXCESSES OF THE GREEKS.&mdash;THEIR BAD GOVERNMENT.&mdash;PRINCE
+ALEXANDER MAVROCORDATOS.&mdash;THE PROGRESS OF THE REVOLUTION.&mdash;THE
+SPOLIATION OF THE CHIOS.&mdash;ENGLISH PHILHELLENES; THOMAS GORDON, FRANK
+ABNEY HASTINGS, LORD BYRON.&mdash;THE FIRST GREEK LOAN, AND THE BAD USES
+TO WHICH IT WAS PUT.&mdash;REVERSES OF THE GREEKS.&mdash;IBRAHIM AND HIS
+SUCCESSES.&mdash;MAVROCORDATOS'S LETTER TO LORD COCHRANE.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+[1820-1825.]
+</p>
+
+<p>
+While Lord Cochrane was rendering efficient service to the cause of
+freedom in South America, another war of independence was being waged
+in Europe; and he had hardly been at home a week before solicitations
+pressed upon him from all quarters that he should lend his great name
+and great abilities to this war also. As he consented to do so, and
+almost from the moment of his arrival was intimately connected with
+the Greek Revolution, the previous stages of this memorable episode,
+the incidents that occurred during his absence in Chili and Brazil,
+need to be here reviewed and recapitulated.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The Greek Revolution began openly in 1821. But there had been long
+previous forebodings of it. The dwellers in the land once peopled by
+the noble race which planned and perfected the arts and graces, the
+true refinements and the solid virtues that are the basis of our
+modern civilization, had been for four centuries and more the slaves
+of the Turks. They were hardly Greeks, if by that name is implied
+descent from the inhabitants of classic Greece. With the old stock had
+been blended, from generation to generation, so many foreign elements
+that nearly all trace of the original blood had disappeared, and the
+modern Greeks had nothing but their residence and their language to
+justify them in maintaining the old title. But their slavery was only
+too real. Oppressed by the Ottomans on account of their race and their
+religion, the oppression was none the less in that it induced many of
+them to cast off the last shreds of freedom and deck themselves in the
+coarser, but, to slavish minds, the pleasanter bondage of trickery and
+meanness. During the eighteenth century, many Greeks rose to eminence
+in the Turkish service, and proved harder task-masters to their
+brethren than the Turks themselves generally were. The hope of further
+aggrandisement, however, led them to scheme the overthrow of their
+Ottoman employers, and their projects were greatly aided by the truer,
+albeit short-sighted, patriotism that animated the greater number of
+their kinsmen. They groaned under Turkish thraldom, and yearned to
+be freed from it, in the temper so well described and so worthily
+denounced by Lord Byron in 1811:&mdash;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+  "And many dream withal the hour is nigh
+  That gives them back their fathers' heritage:
+  For foreign arms and aid they loudly sigh,
+  Nor solely dare encounter hostile rage.
+  Hereditary bondsmen! know ye not
+  Who would be free themselves must strike the blow?
+  By their right arm the conquest must be wrought.
+  Will Gaul or Muscovite redress ye?&mdash;No!
+  True, they may lay your proud despoilers low,
+  But not for you will Freedom's altars flame."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The Greeks, all but a few genuine patriots, thought otherwise. They
+sought deliverance at the hands of Gauls and Muscovites; and, as the
+Muscovites had good reason for desiring the overthrow of Turkey, they
+listened to their prayers, and other ties than that of community in
+religion bound the persecuted Greeks to Russia. The Philiké Hetaira,
+or Friendly Society, chief representative of a very general movement,
+was founded at Odessa in 1814. It was a secret society, which speedily
+had ramifications among the Greek Christians in every part of Turkey,
+encouraging them to prepare for insurrection as soon as the Czar
+Alexander I. deemed it expedient to aid them by open invasion of
+Turkey, or as soon as they themselves could take the initiative,
+trusting to Russia to complete the work of revolution. The Friendly
+Society increased its influence and multiplied its visionary schemes
+during many years previous to 1821.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Its strength was augmented by the political condition of Turkey at the
+time. The Sultan Mahmud&mdash;a true type of the Ottoman sovereign at
+his worst&mdash;had attempted to perfect his power by a long train of
+cruelties, of which murder was the lightest. Defeating his own purpose
+thereby, he aroused the opposition of Mahometan as well as Christian
+subjects, and induced the rebellious schemes of Ali Pasha of Joannina,
+the boldest of his vassals. In Albania Ali ruled with a cruelty that
+was hardly inferior to Mahmud's. Byron tells how his
+</p>
+
+<p>
+  "dread command
+  Is lawless law; for with a bloody hand
+  He sways a nation turbulent and told."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The cruelty could be tolerated; but not opposition to Mahmud's
+will. Long and growing jealousy existed between the Sultan and his
+tributary. At length, in 1820, there was an open rupture. Ali was
+denounced as a traitor, and ordered to surrender his pashalik. Instead
+of so doing, he organized his army for prompt rebellion, trusting for
+success partly to the support of the Greeks. Most of the Greeks held
+aloof; but the Suliots, a race of Christian marauders, the fiercest of
+the fierce community of Albanians, sided with him, and for more than a
+year rendered him valuable aid by reason of their hereditary skill in
+lawless warfare. Not till January, 1822, was Ali forced to surrender,
+and then only, perhaps, through the defection of the Suliots.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The Suliots, dissatisfied with Ali's recompense for their services,
+had gone over to the Greeks, who, not caring to serve under Ali in his
+rebellion, had welcomed that rebellion as a Heaven-sent opportunity
+for realising their long-cherished hopes. The Turkish garrisons in
+Greece being half unmanned in order that the strongest possible force
+might be used in subduing Ali, and Turkish government in the peninsula
+being at a standstill, the Greeks found themselves in an excellent
+position for asserting their freedom. Had they been less degraded than
+they were by their long centuries of slavery, or had there been some
+better organization than that which the purposes and the methods of
+the Friendly Society afforded for developing the latent patriotism
+which was honest and wide-spread, they might have achieved a triumph
+worthy of the classic name they bore and the heroic ancestry that they
+claimed.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Unfortunately, the Friendly Society, already degenerated from the
+unworthy aim with which it started, now an elaborate machinery of
+personal ambition, private greed, and local spite, the willing tool of
+Russia, was master of the situation. The mastery, however, was by no
+means thorough. The society had dispossessed all other organizations,
+but had no organization of its own adequate to the working out of
+a successful rebellion. Its machinery was tolerably perfect, but
+efficient motive-power was wanting. Its exchequer was empty; its
+counsels were divided; above all, it had alienated the sympathies of
+the worthiest patriots of Greece. Finding itself suddenly in the
+way of triumph, it was incapable of rightly progressing in that way.
+Obstacles of its own raising, and obstacles raised by others, stood
+in the path, and only a very wise man had the chance of successfully
+removing them.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The wise man did not exist, or was not to be obtained. Perhaps the
+wisest, though, as later history proved, not very wise, was Count John
+Capodistrias, a native of Corfu. Born in 1777, he had gone to Italy to
+study and practise medicine. There also he studied, afterwards to put
+in practice, the effete Machiavellianism then in vogue. In 1803 he
+entered political life as secretary to the lately-founded republic
+of the Ionian Islands. Napoleon's annexation of the Ionian Islands in
+1807 drove him into the service of Russia, and, as Russian agent, he
+advocated, at the Vienna Conference of 1815, the reconstruction of the
+Ionian republic. The partial concession of Great Britain towards that
+project, by which the Ionian Islands were established as a sort of
+commonwealth, dependent upon England, enabled him to live and work
+in Corfu, awaiting the realization of his own patriotic schemes, and
+watching the patriotic movement in Greece. Italian in his education,
+and Russian in his sympathies, he was still an honest Greek, worthier
+and abler than most other influential Greeks. "He had many virtues and
+great abilities," says a competent critic. "His conduct was firm and
+disinterested, his manners simple and dignified. His personal feelings
+were warm, and, as a consequence of this virtue, they were sometimes
+so strong as to warp his judgment. He wanted the equanimity and
+impartiality of mind, and the elevation of soul necessary to make
+a great man."[A] In spite of his defects, he might have done good
+service to the Greek Revolution, had he accepted the offer of its
+leadership, shrewdly tendered to him by the Friendly Society. But this
+he declined, having no liking for the society, and no trust in its
+methods and designs.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+[Footnote A: Finlay, "History of the Greek Revolution" (1861), vol.
+ii., p. 196. Mr. Finlay served as a volunteer in Greece under Captain
+Abney Hastings. His work is certainly the best on the subject, though
+we shall have in later pages to differ widely from its strictures on
+Lord Cochrane's motives and action. But our complaints will be less
+against his history than against the two other leading ones&mdash;General
+Gordon's "History of the Greek Revolution" (1832), and M. Trikoupes's
+"[Greek: Historia tês Hellênikês Epanastaseôs]" (1853-6), which is not
+very much more than a paraphrase of Gordon's work.]
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The Friendly Society then sought and found a leader, far inferior
+to Count Capodistrias, in Prince Alexander Hypsilantes, the son of a
+Hospodar of Wallachia who had been deposed in 1806. Hypsilantes had
+been educated in Russia, and had there risen to some rank, high enough
+at any rate to quicken his ambition and vanity, both as a soldier and
+as a courtier. He was not without virtues; but he was utterly unfit
+for the duties imposed upon him as leader of the Greek Revolution.
+Not a Greek himself, his purpose in accepting the office seems to have
+been to make Greece an appendage of the despotic monarchy, which, by
+means of the political crisis, he hoped to establish in Wallachia,
+under Russian protection. With that view, in March 1821, he led the
+first crude army of Greek and other Christian rebels into Moldavia.
+There and in Wallachia he stirred up a brief revolt, attended by
+military blunders and lawless atrocities which soon brought vengeance
+upon himself and made a false beginning of the revolutionary work.
+Moldavia and Wallachia were quickly restored to Turkish rule, and
+Hypsilantes had in June to fly for safety into Austria. But the bad
+example that he set, and the evil influence that he and his promoters
+and followers of the Friendly Society exerted, initiated a false
+policy and encouraged a pernicious course of action, by which the
+cause of the Greeks was injured for years.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The real Greek revolution began in the Morea. There the Friendly
+Society did good work in showing the people that the hour for action
+had come; but its direction of that action was for the most part
+mischievous. The worst Greeks were the leaders, and, under their
+guidance, the play of evil passions&mdash;inevitable in all efforts of the
+oppressed to overturn their oppressors&mdash;was developed to a grievous
+extent. Turkish blood was first shed on the 25th of March, 1821, and
+within a week the whole of the Morea was in a ferment of rebellion. By
+the 22nd of April, which was Easter Sunday, it is reckoned that from
+ten to fifteen thousand Mahometans had been slaughtered in cold blood,
+and about three thousand Turkish homes destroyed.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The promoters of all that wanton atrocity were the directors of the
+Friendly Society, among whom the Archimandrate Gregorios Dikaios,
+nicknamed Pappa Phlesas, and Petros Mavromichales, or Petro-Bey, were
+the most conspicuous. Its principal agents were the klepht or brigand
+chieftains, best represented by Theodore Kolokotrones.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Born about 1770, of a family devoted to the use of arms in predatory
+ways, Kolokotrones had led a lawless life until 1806, when the Greek
+peasantry called in the assistance of their Turkish rulers in hunting
+down their persecutors of their own race, and when, several of his
+family being slain, he himself had to seek refuge in Zante. There he
+maintained himself, partly by piracy, partly by cattle-dealing.
+In 1810 the English annexation of the Ionian Islands led to his
+employment, first as captain and afterwards as major, in the Greek
+contingent of the British army. He had amassed much wealth, and was
+in the prime of life when, in January, 1821, he returned to his early
+home, to revive his old brigand life under the name of legitimate
+warfare. His thorough knowledge of the country, its passes and its
+strongholds, and his familiarity with the modes of fighting proper to
+them, his handsome person and agreeable deportment, his shrewd wit and
+persuasive oratory, made him one of the most influential agents of
+the Revolution at its commencement, and his influence grew during the
+ensuing years.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The flame of rebellion, having spread through the Morea during the
+early weeks of April, extended rapidly over the adjoining districts of
+the mainland. By the end of June the insurgents were masters of
+nearly all the country now possessed by modern Greece. Their cause
+was heartily espoused by the Suliots of Albania and other
+fellow-Christians in the various Turkish provinces, and their kinsmen
+of the outlying islands were eager to join in the work of national
+regeneration, and to contribute largely to the completion of that work
+by their naval prowess.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+It was naval prowess, as our later pages will abundantly show, of
+a very barbarous and undeveloped sort. Besides the two principal
+seaports on the mainland, Tricheri on Mount Pelion and Galaxidhi on
+the Gulf of Corinth, there were famous colonies of Greek seamen in the
+islands of Psara and Kasos, and similar colonies of Albanians in Hydra
+and Spetzas. These and the other islands had long practised irregular
+commerce, and protected that commerce by irregular fighting with the
+Turks. At the first sound of revolution they threw in their lot with
+the insurgents of the mainland, and thus a nondescript navy of some
+four hundred brigs and schooners, of from sixty to four hundred tons'
+burthen, and manned by about twelve thousand sailors, adepts alike
+in trade and piracy, but very unskilled in orderly warfare, and very
+feebly inspired by anything like disinterested patriotism, was ready
+to use and abuse its powers during the ensuing seven years' fight for
+Greek independence.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+During the summer of 1821, while the continental Greeks were rushing
+to arms, murdering the Turkish residents among them by thousands, and
+thus bringing down upon themselves, or upon those of their own race
+who, as peasants and burghers, took no important share in actual
+fighting, the murderous vengeance of the Turkish troops sent to
+attempt the suppression of the revolt, these sailors were pursuing an
+easier and more profitable game. The Turkish ports were not warlike,
+and the Turkish trading ships were not prepared for fighting. In May,
+a formidable crowd of vessels left the islands on a cruise, from which
+they soon returned with an immense store of booty. Early in June, the
+best Turkish fleet that could be brought together, consisting of two
+line-of-battle ships, three frigates, and three sloops, went out to
+harass, if not to destroy, the swarm of smaller enemies. Jakomaki
+Tombazes, with thirty-seven of these smaller enemies, set off to meet
+them, and falling in with one of the ships, gave her chase, till, in
+the roads of Eripos, she was attacked on the 8th of June, and, with
+the help of a fireship, destroyed with a loss of nearly four hundred
+men. That victory caused the flight of the other Turkish vessels, and
+was the beginning of much cruel work at sea and with ships, which,
+not often daring to meet in open fight, wrought terrible mischief to
+unprotected ports and islands.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The mischief wrought upon the land was yet more terrible. A seething
+tide of Greek and Moslem blood heaved to and fro, as, during the
+second half of 1821, each party in turn gained temporary ascendency in
+one district after another. Greeks murdered Turks, and Turks murdered
+Greeks, with equal ferocity; or perhaps the ferocity of the Greeks,
+stirred by bad leaders to revenge themselves for all their previous
+sufferings, even surpassed that of the Turks. Of their cruelty a
+glaring instance occurred in their capture of Navarino. The Turkish
+inhabitants having held out as long as a mouthful of food was left
+in the town, were forced to capitulate on the 19th of August. It was
+promised that, upon their surrendering, the Greek vessels were to
+convey them, their wearing apparel, and their household furniture,
+either to Egypt or to Tunis. No sooner were the gates opened than
+a wholesale plunder and slaughter ensued. A Greek ecclesiastic has
+described the scene. "Women wounded with musket-balls and sabre-cuts
+rushed to the sea, seeking to escape, and were deliberately shot.
+Mothers robbed of their clothes, with infants in their arms, plunged
+into the water to conceal themselves from shame, and they were then
+made a mark for inhuman riflemen. Greeks seized infants from their
+mothers' breasts and dashed them against the rocks. Children, three
+and four years old, were hurled, living, into the sea, and left to
+drown. When the massacre was ended, the dead bodies washed ashore, or
+piled on the beach, threatened to cause a pestilence."[A] At the sack
+of Tripolitza, on the 8th of October, about eight thousand Moslems
+were murdered, the last two thousand, chiefly women and children,
+being taken into a neighbouring ravine, there to be slaughtered at
+leisure. Two years afterwards a ghastly heap of bones attested the
+inhuman deed.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+[Footnote A: Finlay, vol. i.; p. 263, citing Phrantzes.]
+</p>
+
+<p>
+In ways like these the first stage of the Greek Revolution was
+achieved. Before the close of 1821, it appeared to the Greeks
+themselves, to their Moslem enemies, and to their many friends in
+England, France, and other countries, that the triumph was complete.
+Unfortunately, the same bad motives and the same bad methods that had
+so grievously polluted the torrent of patriotism continued to poison
+and disturb the stream which might otherwise have been henceforth
+clear, steady, and health-giving. Greece was free, but, unless another
+and a much harder revolution could be effected in the temper and
+conduct of its own people, unfit to put its freedom to good use or
+even to maintain it. "The rapid success of the Greeks during the first
+few weeks of the revolution," says their ablest historian, "threw the
+management of much civil and financial business into the hands of the
+proësti and demogeronts in office. The primates, who already exercised
+great official authority, instantly appropriated that which had been
+hitherto exercised by murdered voivodes and beys. Every primate strove
+to make himself a little independent potentate, and every captain of
+a district assumed the powers of a commander-in-chief. The Revolution,
+before six months had passed, seemed to have peopled Greece with a
+host of little Ali Pashas. When the primate and the captain acted in
+concert, they collected the public revenues; administered the Turkish
+property, which was declared national; enrolled, paid, and provisioned
+as many troops as circumstances required, or as they thought fit;
+named officers; formed a local guard for the primate of the best
+soldiers in the place, who were thus often withdrawn from the public
+service; and organised a local police and a local treasury. This I
+system of local self-government, constituted in a very self-willed
+manner, and relieved from almost all responsibility, was soon
+established as a natural result of the Revolution over all Greece.
+The Sultan's authority having ceased, every primate assumed the
+prerogatives of the Sultan. For a few weeks this state of things was
+unavoidable, and, to an able and honest chief or government, it would
+have facilitated the establishment of a strong central authority; but
+by the vices of Greek society it was perpetuated into an organised
+anarchy. No improvement was made in financial arrangements, or in the
+system of taxation; no measures were adopted for rendering property
+more secure; no attempt was made to create an equitable administration
+of justice; no courts of law were established; and no financial
+accounts were published. Governments were formed, constitutions were
+drawn up, national assemblies met, orators debated, and laws were
+passed according to the political fashion patronised by the liberals
+of the day. But no effort was made to prevent the Government
+being virtually absolute, unless it was by rendering it absolutely
+powerless. The constitutions were framed to remain a dead letter. The
+national assemblies were nothing but conferences of parties, and the
+laws passed were intended to fascinate Western Europe, not to operate
+with effect in Greece."[A]
+</p>
+
+<p>
+[Footnote A: Finlay, vol. i., pp. 280, 281.]
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The supreme government of Greece had been assumed in June by Prince
+Demetrius Hypsilantes, a worthier man than his brother Alexander, but
+by no means equal to the task he took in hand. At first the brigand
+chiefs and local potentates, not willing to surrender any of the power
+they had acquired, were disposed to render to him nominal submission,
+believing that his name and his Russian influence would be serviceable
+to the cause of Greece. But Hypsilantes showed himself utterly
+incompetent, and it was soon apparent that his sympathies were wholly
+alien to those both of the Greek people and of their military and
+civil leaders. Therefore another master had to be chosen. Kolokotrones
+might have succeeded to the dignity, and he certainly had vigour
+enough of disposition, and enough honesty and dishonesty combined, to
+make the position one of power as well as of dignity. For that very
+reason, however, his comrades and rivals were unwilling to place him
+in it. They desired a president skilful enough to hold the reins of
+government with a very loose hand, yet so as to keep them from getting
+hopelessly entangled&mdash;one who should be a smart secretary and adviser,
+without assuming the functions of a director.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Such a man they found in Prince Alexander Mavrocordatos, then about
+thirty-two years old. He was a kinsman of a Hospodar of Wallachia,
+by whom he had in his youth been employed in political matters. After
+that he had resided in France, where he acquired much fresh knowledge,
+and where his popularity helped to quicken sympathy on behalf of
+the Greek Revolution at its first outburst. He had lately come
+to Missolonghi with a ship-load of ammunition and other material,
+procured and brought at his own expense, and soon attained
+considerable influence. Always courteous in his manners, only
+ungenerous in his actions where the interests of others came into
+collision with his own, less strong-willed and less ambitious than
+most of his associates, those associates were hardly jealous of his
+popularity at home, and wholly pleased with his popularity among
+foreigners. It was a clear gain to their cause to have Shelley writing
+his "Hellas," and dedicating the poem to Mavrocordatos, as "a token of
+admiration, sympathy, and friendship."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Mavrocordatos was named President of Greece in the Constitution of
+Epidaurus, chiefly his own workmanship, which was proclaimed on the
+13th of January&mdash;New Year's Day, according to the reckoning of the
+Greek Church&mdash;1822. It is not necessary here to detail his own acts or
+those of his real or professing subordinates. All we have to do is to
+furnish a general account, and a few characteristic illustrations, of
+the course of events during the Greek Revolution, in explanation of
+the state of parties and of politics at the time of Lord Cochrane's
+advent among them. These events were marked by continuance of the same
+selfish policy, divided interests, class prejudice, and individual
+jealousy that have been already referred to. The mass of the Greek
+people were, as they had been from the first, zealous in their desire
+for freedom, and, having won it, they were not unwilling to use it
+honestly. For their faults their leaders are chiefly to be blamed; and
+in apology for those leaders, it must be remembered that they were an
+assemblage of soldiers who had been schooled in oriental brigandage,
+of priests whose education had been in a corrupt form of Christianity
+made more corrupt by persecution, of merchants who had found it hard
+to trade without trickery, and of seamen who had been taught to
+regard piracy as an honourable vocation. Perhaps we have less cause to
+condemn them for the errors and vices that they exhibited during their
+fight for freedom, than to wonder that those errors and vices were not
+more reprehensible in themselves and disastrous in their issues.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+For about six years the fight was maintained without foreign aid, save
+that given by private volunteers and generous champions in Western
+Europe, against a state numerically nearly twenty times as strong as
+the little community of revolutionists. In it, along with much wanton
+cruelty, was displayed much excellent heroism. But the heroism was
+reckless and undisciplined, and therefore often worse than useless.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Memorable instances both of recklessness and of want of discipline
+appeared in the attempts made to wrest Chios from the Turks in 1822.
+The Greek inhabitants of this island, on whom the Turkish yoke pressed
+lightly, had refused to join in the insurgent movement of their
+brethren on the mainland and in the neighbouring islands. But it was
+considered that a little coercion would induce them to share in
+the Revolution and convert their prosperous island into a Greek
+possession. Therefore, in March, a small force of two thousand five
+hundred men crossed the archipelago, took possession of Koutari,
+the principal town, and proceeded to invest the Turkish citadel.
+The Chiots, though perhaps not very willingly, took part in the
+enterprise; but the invading party was quite unequal to the work it
+had undertaken. In April a formidable Turkish squadron arrived, and
+by it Chios was easily recovered, to become the scene of vindictive
+atrocities, which brought all the terrified inhabitants who were
+not slaughtered, or who could not escape, into abject submission.
+Thereupon, on the 10th of May, a Greek fleet of fifty-six vessels was
+despatched by Mavrocordatos to attempt a more thorough capture of the
+island. Its commander was Andreas Miaoulis, a Hydriot merchant, who
+proved himself the best sea-captain among the Greeks. Had Miaoulis
+been able, as he wished, to start sooner and meet the Turkish squadron
+on its way to Chios, a brilliant victory might have resulted, instead
+of one of the saddest catastrophes in the whole Greek war. Being
+deterred therefrom by the vacillation of Mavrocordatos and the
+insubordination of his captains and their crews, he was only able to
+reach the island when it was again in the hands of the enemy, and when
+all was ready for withstanding him. There was useless fighting on the
+31st of May and the two following days. On the 18th of June, Miaoulis
+made another attack; but he was only able to destroy the Turkish
+flag-ship, and nearly all on board, by means of a fire-vessel. His
+fleet was unmanageable, and he had to abandon the enterprise and to
+leave the unfortunate Chiots to endure further punishment for offences
+that were not their own. This punishment was so terrible that, in six
+months, the population of Chios was reduced from one hundred thousand
+to thirty thousand. Twenty thousand managed to escape. Fifty thousand
+were either put to death or sold as slaves in Asia Minor.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+That failure of the Greeks at Chios, quickly followed by their
+defeat on land at Petta, greatly disheartened the revolutionists.
+Mavrocordatos virtually resigned his presidentship, and there was
+anarchy in Greece till 1828. Athens, captured from the Turks in June,
+1822, became the centre of jealous rivalry and visionary scheming,
+mismanagement, and government that was worse than no government at
+all. Odysseus, the vilest of the vile men whom the Revolution brought
+to the surface, was its master for some time; and, when he played
+traitor to the Turks, he was succeeded by others hardly better than
+himself.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+In spite of some heavy disasters, however, the Greeks were so far
+successful during 1822 that in 1823 they were able to hold their
+newly-acquired territory and to wrest some more fortresses from their
+enemies. The real heroism that they had displayed, moreover&mdash;the foul
+cruelties of which they were guilty and the selfish courses which they
+pursued being hardly reported to their friends, and, when reported,
+hardly believed&mdash;awakened keen sympathy on their behalf. Shelley and
+Byron, and many others of less note, had sung their virtues and their
+sufferings in noble verse and enlarged upon them in eloquent prose,
+and in England and France, in Switzerland, Germany, and the United
+States, a strong party of Philhellenes was organized to collect money
+and send recruits for their assistance.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The two Philhellenes of greatest note who served in Greece during the
+earlier years of the Revolution were Thomas Gordon and Frank Abney
+Hastings. Gordon, who attained the rank of general in the army of
+independence, had the advantage of a long previous and thorough
+acquaintance with the character of both Turks and Greeks and with the
+languages that they spoke. He watched all the revolutionary movements
+from the beginning, and took part in many of them. In the "History
+of the Greek Revolution," which he published in 1832, he gave such
+a vivid and, in the main, so accurate an account of them that his
+narrative has formed the basis of the more ambitious work of the
+native historian, Mr. Trikoupes. Of the vices and errors of the
+people on whose behalf he fought and wrote he spoke boldly. "Whatever
+national or individual wrong the Greeks may have endured," he said
+in one place, "it is impossible to justify the ferocity of their
+vengeance or to deny that a comparison instituted between them and the
+Ottoman generals, Mehemet Aboulaboud, Omer Vrioni, and the Kehaya Bey
+of Kurshid, would give to the latter the palm of humanity. Humanity,
+however, is a word quite out of place when applied either to them or
+to their opponents." In another page, further denouncing the Greek
+leaders, he wrote: "Panourias was the worst of these local despots,
+whom some writers have elevated into heroes. He was, in fact, an
+ignoble robber, hardened in evil. He enriched himself with the spoils
+of the Mahometans; yet he and his retinue of brigands compelled the
+people to maintain them at free quarters, in idleness and luxury,
+exacting not only bread, meat, wine, and forage, but also sugar and
+coffee. Hence springs the reflection that the Greeks had cause to
+repent their early predilection for the klephts, who were almost all,
+beginning with Kolokotrones, infamous for the sordid perversity of
+their dispositions."[A] Gordon's disinterested and brave efforts to
+bring about a better state of things and to help on the cause of
+real patriotism in Greece were highly praiseworthy; but, as another
+historian has truly said, "he did not possess the activity and
+decision of character necessary to obtain commanding influence in
+council, or to initiate daring measures in the field."[B]
+</p>
+
+<p>
+[Footnote A: Gordon, vol. i., pp. 313, 400.]
+</p>
+
+<p>
+[Footnote B: Finlay, vol. ii., p. 129.]
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Frank Abney Hastings was an abler man. Born in 1794, he was started in
+the naval profession when only eleven years old. Six months after the
+commencement of his midshipman's life he was present, on board the
+<i>Neptune</i>, at the battle of Trafalgar, and during the ensuing fourteen
+years he served in nearly every quarter of the globe. His independent
+spirit, however&mdash;something akin to Lord Cochrane's&mdash;brought him into
+disfavour, and, in 1819, for challenging a superior officer who had
+insulted him, he was dismissed from the British navy. Disheartened and
+disgusted, he resided in France for about three years. At length he
+resolved to go and fight for the Greeks, partly out of sympathy for
+their cause, partly as a relief from the misery of forced idleness,
+partly with the view of developing a plan which he had been devising
+for extending the use of steamships in naval warfare,&mdash;to which last
+excellent improvement he greatly contributed. He arrived at Hydra in
+April, 1822, just in time to take part in the fighting off Chios.
+One of his ingenious suggestions, made to Andreas Miaoulis, and its
+reception, have been described by himself. "I proposed to direct a
+fireship and three other vessels upon the frigate, and, when near the
+enemy, to set fire to certain combustibles which should throw out
+a great flame. The enemy would naturally conclude they were all
+fireships. The vessels were then to attach themselves to the frigate,
+fire broadsides, double-shotted, throwing on board the enemy at the
+same time combustible balls which gave a great smoke without flame.
+This would doubtless induce him to believe he was on fire, and give
+a most favourable opportunity for boarding him. However, the admiral
+returned my plan, saying only [Greek: kalo], without asking a single
+question, or wishing me to explain its details; and I observed a kind
+of insolent contempt in his manner. This interview with the admiral
+disgusted me. They place you in a position in which it is impossible
+to render any service, and then they boast of their own superiority,
+and of the uselessness of the Franks, as they call us, in Turkish
+warfare." Miaoulis, however, soon gained wisdom and made good use of
+Captain Hastings, who spent more than 7000£&mdash;all his patrimony&mdash;in
+serving the Greeks. He was almost the only officer in their employ
+who, during the earlier years of the Revolution, succeeded in
+establishing any sort of discipline or good management.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Lord Byron, the most illustrious of all the early Philhellenes, used
+to say, shortly before his death, that with Napier at the head of the
+army and Hastings in command of a fleet the triumph of Greece might
+be insured. Byron was then at Missolonghi, whither he had gone in
+January, 1824, to die in April. Long before, while stirring up the
+sympathy of all lovers of liberty for the cause of regeneration in
+Greece, he had shown that regeneration could be by no means a short or
+easy work, and now he had to report that the real work was hardly
+yet begun&mdash;nay, that it seemed almost further off than ever. "Of the
+Greeks," he wrote, "I can't say much good hitherto, and I do not like
+to speak ill of them, though they do of one another."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+It was chiefly at Byron's instigation that the first Greek loan was
+contracted, in London, early in 1824. Its proceeds, 300,000£, were
+spent partly in unprofitable outlay upon ships, ammunition, and the
+like, of which the people were in no position to make good use, but
+mostly in civil war and in pandering to the greed and vanity of the
+members of the Government and their subordinate officials. "Phanariots
+and doctors in medicine," says an eye-witness, "who, in the month
+of April, 1824, were clad in ragged coats, and who lived on scanty
+rations, threw off that patriotic chrysalis before summer was past,
+and emerged in all the splendour of brigand life, fluttering about in
+rich Albanian habiliments, refulgent with brilliant and unused arms,
+and followed by diminutive pipe-bearers and tall henchmen."[A]
+</p>
+
+<p>
+[Footnote A: Finky, vol. ii. p. 39.]
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Even the scanty allowance made by the Greek Government out of its
+newly-acquired wealth for fighting purposes was for the most part
+squandered almost as frivolously. One general who drew pay and rations
+for seven hundred soldiers went to fight and die at Sphakteria at
+the head of seventeen armed peasants.[A] And that is only a glaring
+instance of peculations that were all but universal.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+[Footnote A: Trikoupes, vol. iii., p. 206.]
+</p>
+
+<p>
+That being the degradation to which the leaders of the Greek
+Revolution had sunk, it is not strange that its gains in previous
+years should have begun in 1824 to be followed by heavy losses. The
+Greek people&mdash;the peasants and burghers&mdash;were still patriots, though
+ill-trained and misdirected. They could defend their own homesteads
+with unsurpassed heroism, and hold their own mountains and valleys
+with fierce persistency. But they were unfit for distant fighting,
+even when their chiefs consented to employ them in it. Sultan Mahmud,
+therefore, who had been profiting by the hard experience of former
+years, and whose strength had been steadily growing while the power
+of the insurgents had been rapidly weakening, entered on a new and
+successful policy. He left the Greeks to waste their energies in their
+own possessions, and resolved to recapture, one after another, the
+outposts and ill-protected islands. For this he took especial care
+in augmenting his navy, and, besides developing his own resources,
+induced his powerful and turbulent vassal, Mohammed Ali, the Pasha of
+Egypt, to equip a formidable fleet and entrust it to his son Ibrahim,
+on whom was conferred the title of Vizier of the Morea.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Even without that aid Mahmud was able to do much in furtherance of his
+purpose. The island of Kasos was easily recovered, and full vengeance
+was wreaked on its Greek inhabitants on the 20th of June. Soon
+afterwards Psara was seized and punished yet more hardly.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+On the 19th of July Ibrahim left Alexandria with a naval force which
+swept the southern seas of Greek pirates or privateers. On the 1st
+of September he effected a junction with the Turkish fleet at Budrun.
+Their united strength comprised forty-six ships, frigates, and
+corvettes, and about three hundred transports, large and small. The
+Greek fleet, between seventy and eighty sail, would have been strong
+enough to withstand it under any sort of good management; but good
+management was wanting, and the crews were quite beyond the control of
+their masters. The result was that in a series of small battles during
+the autumn of 1824 the Mahometans were generally successful, and their
+enemies found themselves at the close of the year terribly discomfited
+The little organization previously existing was destroyed, and the
+revolutionists felt that they had no prospect of advantageously
+carrying on their strife at sea without assistance and guidance that
+could not be looked for among themselves.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Their troubles were increased in the following year. In February and
+March, 1825, Ibrahim landed a formidable army in the Morea, and began
+a course of operations in which the land forces and the fleet
+combined to dispossess the Greeks of their chief strongholds. The
+strongly-fortified island of Sphakteria, the portal of Navarino and
+Pylos, was taken on the 8th of May. Pylos capitulated on the 11th,
+and Navarino on the 21st of the same month. Other citadels, one after
+another, were surrendered; and Ibrahim and his army spent the summer
+in scouring the Morea and punishing its inhabitants, with the utmost
+severity, for the lawless brigandage and the devoted patriotism of
+which they had been guilty during the past four years.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The result was altogether disheartening to the Greeks. They saw that
+their condition was indeed desperate. George Konduriottes, a Hydriot
+merchant, an Albanian who could not speak Greek, and who was alike
+unable to govern himself or others, had, in June, 1824, been named
+president of the republic, and since then the rival interests of the
+primates, the priests, and the military leaders had been steadily
+causing the decay of all that was left of patriotism and increase of
+the selfishness that had so long been rampant.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+There was one consequence of this degradation, however, which promised
+to be very beneficial. Seeing that their cause was being rapidly
+weakened, and that their hard-fought battle for liberty was in danger
+of speedy and ignominious reversal by their own divisions, by the
+stealthy encroachments of the Ottomans in the north, and by the more
+energetic advances of the Egyptians in the south, the Greeks resolved
+to abandon some of their jealousies and greeds, to look for a saviour
+from without, and, on his coming, to try and submit themselves
+honestly and heartily to his leadership. The issue of that resolution
+was the following letter, written by Mavrocordatos, then Secretary to
+the National Assembly:&mdash;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Milord,&mdash;Tandis que vos rares talens étaient consacrés à procurer le
+bonheur d'un pays séparé par un espace immense de la Grèce, celle-ci
+ne voyait pas sans admiration, sans intérêt, sans une espèce de
+jalousie secrète même, les succès brillants qui ont toujours couronné
+vos nobles efforts, et rendu à l'indépendance un des plus beaux, des
+plus riches pays du monde. Votre retour en Angleterre a excité la plus
+vive joie dans le coeur du citoyen Grèc et de ses représentans par
+l'espoir flattereur qu'ils commencent à concevoir que, celui qui s'est
+si noblement dédié à procurer le bonheur d'une nation, ne refusera
+pas d'en faire autant pour celui d'une autre, qui ne lui offre pas
+une carrière moins brillante et moins digne de lui et par son nom
+historique, et par ses malheurs passés et par ses efforts actuels pour
+reconquérir sa liberté et son indépendance. Les mers qui rappellent
+les victoires des Thémistocles et des Timon, ne seront pas un théâtre
+indifférent pour celui qui sait apprécier les grands hommes, et un des
+premiers amiraux de notre siècle ne verra qu' avec plaisir qu'il est
+appellé à renouveler les beaux jours de Salamine et de Mycale à la
+tête des Miaoulis, des Sachtouris et des Kanaris.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"C'est avec la plus grande satisfaction, milord, que je me vois chargé
+de faire, au nom du Gouvernement, à votre seigneurie, la proposition
+du commandement général des forces navales de la Grèce. Si votre
+seigneurie est disposée à l'accepter, Messieurs les Deputés
+du Gouvernement Grèc à Londres ont toute l'autorisation et les
+instructions nécessaires pour combiner avec elle sur les moyens à
+mettre à sa disposition, afin d'utiliser le plutôt possible
+votre noble décision et accélérer l'heureux moment que la Grèce
+reconnaissante et enthousiasmée vous verra combattre pour la cause de
+sa liberté.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Je profite de cette occasion pour prier votre seigneurie de vouloir
+bien agréer l'assurance de mon respect et de la plus haute estime avec
+laquelle j'ai l'honneur d'être, milord, de votre seigneurie le très
+humble et très obéissant serviteur,
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"A. Mavrocordatos,
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Naples de Romanie,
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Secre-genl d'Etat.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"
+<i>le 20 Août</i>, &mdash;&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;- 1825 1er 7bre
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"A Sa Seigneurie le très Honorable Lord Cochrane, à Londres."
+</p>
+
+</div><!--end chapter-->
+
+<div class="chapter">
+
+<h2><a name="chap14"></a>CHAPTER XIV.</h2>
+
+<p>
+LORD COCHRANE's DISMISSAL FROM BRAZILIAN SERVICE, AND HIS ACCEPTANCE
+OF EMPLOYMENT AS CHIEF ADMIRAL OF THE GREEKS.&mdash;THE GREEK COMMITTEE AND
+THE GREEK DEPUTIES IN LONDON&mdash;THE TERMS OF LORD COCHRANE's AGREEMENT,
+AND THE CONSEQUENT PREPARATIONS.&mdash;HIS VISIT TO SCOTLAND&mdash;SIR WALTER
+SCOTT'S VERSES ON LADY COCHRANE.&mdash;LORD COCHRANE'S FORCED RETIREMENT TO
+BOULOGNE, AND THENCE TO BRUSSELS.&mdash;THE DELAYS IN FITTING OUT THE
+GREEK ARMAMENT.&mdash;CAPTAIN HASTINGS, MR. HOBHOUSE, AND SIR FRANCES
+BURDETT.&mdash;CAPTAIN HASTINGS'S MEMOIR ON THE GREEK LEADERS AND
+THEIR CHARACTERS.&mdash;THE FIRST CONSEQUENCE OF LORD COCHRANE's NEW
+ENTERPRISE.&mdash;THE DUKE OF WELLINGTON'S INDIRECT MESSAGE TO LORD
+COCHRANE.&mdash;THE GREEK DEPUTIES' PROPOSAL TO LORD COCHRANE AND HIS
+ANSWER.&mdash;THE FINAL ARRANGEMENTS FOR HIS DEPARTURE.&mdash;THE MESSIAH OF THE
+GREEKS.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+[1825-1826.]
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The letter from Mavrocordatos quoted in the last chapter was only part
+of a series of negotiations that had been long pending. Lord Cochrane,
+as we have seen, had arrived at Portsmouth on the 26th of June, 1825,
+in command of a Brazilian war-ship and still holding office as First
+Admiral of the Empire of Brazil. His intention in visiting England
+had been only to effect the necessary repairs in his ship before going
+back to Rio de Janeiro. He had no sooner arrived, however, than it was
+clear to him, from the vague and insolent language of the Brazilian
+envoy in London, that it was designed by that official, if not by the
+authorities in Rio de Janeiro, to oust him from his command. During
+four months he remained in uncertainty, determined not willingly to
+retire from his Brazilian service, but gradually convinced by the
+increasing insolence of the envoy's treatment of him that it would
+be inexpedient for him hastily to return to Brazil, where, before
+his departure, he had experienced the grossest ingratitude for his
+brilliant achievements and neglect and abuse of all sorts. At length,
+in November, upon learning that his captain and crew had been formally
+instructed to "cast off all subordination" to him, he deemed that he
+had no alternative but to consider himself dismissed from Brazilian
+employment and free to enter upon a new engagement.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+That engagement had been urged upon him even while he was in South
+America by his friends in England, who were also devoted friends to
+the cause of Greek independence, and the proposal had been renewed
+very soon after his arrival at Portsmouth. It was so freely talked of
+among all classes of the English public and so openly discussed in the
+newspapers before the middle of August that by it Lord Cochrane's last
+relations with the Brazilian envoy were seriously complicated. "Lord
+Cochrane is looking very well, after eight years of harassing and
+ungrateful service," wrote Sir Francis Burdett on the 20th of August,
+"and, I trust, will be the liberator of Greece. What a glorious
+title!"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+It is needless to say that Sir Francis Burdett, always the noble
+and disinterested champion of the oppressed, and the far-seeing and
+fearless advocate of liberty both at home and abroad, was a leading
+member of the Greek Committee in London. This committee was a
+counterpart&mdash;though composed of more illustrious members than any of
+the others&mdash;of Philhellenic associations that had been organized in
+nearly every capital of Europe and in the chief towns of the United
+States. Everywhere a keen sympathy was aroused on behalf of the
+down-trodden Greeks; and the sympathy only showed itself more
+zealously when it appeared that the Greeks were still burdened with
+the moral degradation of their long centuries of slavery, and needed
+the guidance and support of men more fortunately trained than they
+had been in ways of freedom. Such a man, and foremost among such men,
+always generous, wise, and earnest, was Sir Francis Burdett, Lord
+Cochrane's oldest and best political friend, his readiest adviser
+and stoutest defender all through the weary time of his subjection to
+unmerited disgrace and heartless contumely. Another leading member
+of the Greek Committee was Mr. John Cam Hobhouse, afterwards Lord
+Broughton, Lord Byron's friend and fellow-traveller, now Sir Francis
+Burdett's colleague in the representation of Westminster as successor
+to Lord Cochrane. Another of high note was Mr. Edward Ellice, eminent
+alike as a merchant and as a statesman. Another, no less eminent, was
+Joseph Hume. Another was Mr. (afterwards Sir) John Bowring, secretary
+to the Greek Committee. By them and many others the progress of the
+Greek Revolution was carefully watched and its best interests were
+strenuously advocated, and by all the return of Lord Cochrane to
+England and the prospect of his enlistment in the Philhellenic
+enterprise afforded hearty satisfaction. To them the real liberty of
+Greece was a cherished object; and one and all united in welcoming the
+great promoter of Chilian and Brazilian independence as the liberator
+of Greece.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Other honest friends of Greece were less sanguine, and more disposed
+to urge caution upon Lord Cochrane. "My very dear friend," wrote one
+of them, Dr. William Porter, from Bristol on the 25th of August, "I
+will not suffer you to be longer in England without welcoming you; for
+your health, happiness, and fame are all dear to me. I have followed
+you in your Transatlantic career with deep feelings of anxiety for
+your life, but none for your glory: I know you too well to entertain
+a fear for that. I had hoped that you would repose on your laurels and
+enjoy the evening of life in peace, but am told that you are about to
+launch a thunderbolt against the Grand Seignior on behalf of Greece.
+I wish to see Greece free; but could also wish you to rest from your
+labours. For a sexagenarian to command a fleet in ordinary war is an
+easy task, and even threescore and ten might do it; but fifty years
+are too many to conduct a naval war for a people whose pretensions to
+nautical skill you will find on a thousand occasions to give rise to
+jealousies against you. You will also find that on some important day
+they will withhold their co-operation, in order to rob you of your
+glory. The cause of Greece is, nevertheless, a glorious cause. Our
+remembrance of what their ancestors did at Salamis, at Marathon, at
+Thermopylae, gives an additional interest to all that concerns them.
+But, to say the truth of them, they are a race of tigers, and their
+ancestors were the same. I shall be glad to see them fall upon their
+aigretted keeper and his pashas; but, confound them! I would not
+answer for their destroying the man that would break their fetters and
+set them loose in all the power of recognised freedom."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+There was much truth in those opinions, and Lord Cochrane was not
+blind to it. That he, though now in his fiftieth year, was too old
+for any difficult seamanship or daring warfare that came in his way
+he certainly was not inclined to admit; but he was not quite as
+enthusiastic as Sir Francis Burdett and many of his other friends
+regarding the immediate purposes and the ultimate issue of the Greek
+Revolution. He was now as hearty a lover of liberty, and as willing
+to employ all his great experience and his excellent ability in its
+service, as he had been eight years before when he went to aid the
+cause of South American independence. But both in Chili and in Brazil
+he had suffered much himself, and, what was yet more galling to one
+of his generous disposition, had seen how grievously his disinterested
+efforts for the benefit of others had been stultified, by the
+selfishness and imprudence, the meanness and treachery of those whom
+he had done his utmost to direct in a sure and rapid way of freedom.
+He feared, and had good reason for fearing, like disappointments in
+any relations into which he might enter with Greece. Therefore, though
+he readily consented to work for the Hellenic revolutionists, as he
+had worked for the Chilians and Brazilians, he did so with
+something of a forlorn hope, with a fear&mdash;which in the end was fully
+justified&mdash;that thereby his own troubles might only be augmented, and
+that his philanthropic plans might in great measure be frustrated.
+Coming newly to England, where the real state of affairs in Greece,
+the selfishness of the leaders, the want of discipline among
+the masses, and the consequent weakness and embarrassment to the
+revolutionary cause, were not thoroughly understood, and where this
+understanding was especially difficult for him without previous
+acquaintance even with all the details that were known and apprehended
+by his friends, he yet saw enough to lead him to the belief that
+the work they wished him to do in Greece would be harder and more
+thankless than they supposed.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+This must be remembered as an answer to the first of the
+misstatements&mdash;misstatements that will have to be controverted
+at every stage of the ensuing narrative&mdash;which were carefully
+disseminated, and have been persistently recorded by political
+opponents and jealous rivals of Lord Cochrane. It has been alleged
+that he was induced by mercenary motives, and by them alone, to enter
+the service of the Greeks. His sole inducements were a desire to do
+his best on all occasions towards the punishment of oppressors and
+the relief of the oppressed, and a desire, hardly less strong, to seek
+relief in the naval enterprise that was always very dear to him
+from the oppression under which he himself suffered so heavily.
+The ingratitude that he had lately experienced in Chili and Brazil,
+however, bringing upon him much present embarrassment in lawsuits and
+other troubles, led him to use what was only common prudence in his
+negotiations with the Greek Committee and with the Greek deputies,
+John Orlando and Andreas Luriottis, who were in London at the time,
+and on whom devolved the formal arrangements for employing him and
+providing him with suitable equipments for his work.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+These were done with help of a second Greek loan, contracted in London
+in 1825, for 2,000,000£ Out of this sum it was agreed that Lord
+Cochrane was to receive 37,000£ at starting, and a further sum of
+20,000£ on the completion of his services; and that he was to be
+provided with a suitable squadron, for which purpose 150,000£ were
+to be expended in the construction of six steamships in England, and a
+like sum on the building and fitting out of two sixty-gun frigates in
+the United States. With the disappointments that he had experienced
+in Chili and Brazil fresh in his mind, he refused to enter on this new
+engagement without a formidable little fleet, manned by English and
+American seamen, and under his exclusive direction; and he further
+stipulated that the entire Greek fleet should be at his sole
+command, and that he should have full power to carry out his views
+independently of the Greek Government.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+These arrangements were completed on the 16th of August, except that
+Lord Cochrane, not having yet been actually dismissed by the Brazilian
+envoy, refused formally to pledge himself to his new employers. In
+conjunction with Sir Francis Burdett, Mr. Hobhouse, Mr. Ellice, and
+the Ricardos, as contractors, however, he made all the preliminary
+arrangements, and before the end of August he went for a two months'
+visit to his native county and other parts of Scotland, from which he
+had been absent more than twenty years.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+One incident in that visit was noteworthy. On the 3rd of October, Lord
+and Lady Cochrane, being in Edinburgh, went to the theatre, where
+an eager crowd assembled to do them honour. Into the after-piece an
+allusion to South America was specially introduced. Upon that
+the whole audience rose and, turning to the seats occupied by the
+visitors, showed their admiration by plaudits so long and so vehement
+that Lady Cochrane, overpowered by her feelings, burst into tears.
+Thereupon Sir Walter Scott, who was in the theatre, wrote the
+following verses:&mdash;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+  "I knew thee, lady, by that glorious eye,
+  By that pure brow and those dark locks of thine,
+  I knew thee for a soldier's bride, and high
+  My full heart bounded: for the golden mine
+  Of heavenly thought kindled at sight of thee,
+  Radiant with all the stars of memory.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+  "I knew thee, and, albeit, myself unknown,
+  I called on Heaven to bless thee for thy love,
+  The strength, the constancy thou long hast shown,
+  Each selfish aim, each womanish fear above:
+  And, lady, Heaven is with thee; thou art blest,
+  Blest in whatever thy immortal soul loves best.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+  "Thy name, ask Brazil, for she knows it well;
+  It is a name a hero gave to thee;
+  In every letter lurks there not a spell,&mdash;
+  The mighty spell of immortality?
+  Ye sail together down time's glittering stream;
+  Around your heads two glittering haloes gleam.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+  "Even now, as through the air the plaudits rung,
+  I marked the smiles that in her features came;
+  She caught the word that fell from every tongue,
+  And her eye brightened at her Cochrane's name;
+  And brighter yet became her bright eyes' blaze;
+  It was his country, and she felt the praise,&mdash;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+  "Ay, even as a woman, and his bride, should feel,
+  With all the warmth of an o'erflowing soul:
+  Unshaken she had seen the ensanguined steel,
+  Unshaken she had heard war's thunders roll,
+  But now her noble heart could find relief
+  In tears alone, though not the tears of grief.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+  "May the gods guard thee, lady, whereso'er
+  Thou wanderest in thy love and loveliness!
+  For thee may every scene and sky be fair,
+  Each hour instinct with more than happiness!
+  May all thou valuest be good and great,
+  And be thy wishes thy own future fate!"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Those aspirations were very far from realised. Even during his brief
+holiday in Scotland, Lord Cochrane was troubled by the news that Mr.
+Galloway, the engineer to whom had been entrusted the chief work in
+constructing steam-boilers for the Greek vessels, was proceeding very
+slowly with his task. "My conviction is," wrote Mr. Ellice, "that
+Galloway, in undertaking so much, has promised what he can never
+perform, and that it will be Christmas, if not later, before the
+whole work is completed. No engines are to be got either in Glasgow or
+Liverpool. You know I am not sanguine, and the sooner you are here to
+judge for yourself the better. There has been no hesitation about the
+means from the beginning, but money will not produce steam-engines and
+vessels in these times."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+In consequence of that letter, Lord Cochrane hurried up to London at
+once, intending personally to superintend and hasten on the work. He
+arrived on the 3rd of November; but only to find that fresh troubles
+were in store for him. He had already been exposed to vexatious
+litigation, arising out of groundless and malicious prosecutions with
+reference to his Brazilian enterprise. He was now informed that a more
+serious prosecution was being initiated. The Foreign Enlistment Act,
+passed shortly after his acceptance of service under the Chilian
+Republic, and at the special instigation of the Spanish Government,
+had made his work in South America an indictable offence; but it was
+supposed that no action would be taken against him now that he had
+returned to England. As soon as it was publicly known, however, that
+he was about to embark in a new enterprise, on behalf of Greece, steps
+were taken to restrain him by means of an indictment on the score of
+his former employment. "There is a most unchristian league against
+us," he wrote to his secretary, "and fearful odds too. To be
+prosecuted at home, and not permitted to go abroad, is the devil. How
+can I be prosecuted for fighting in Brazil for the heir-apparent
+to the throne, who, whilst his father was held in restraint by the
+rebellious Cortes, contended for the legitimate rights of the royal
+House of Braganza, then the ally of England, who had, during the
+contest, by the presence of her consuls and other official agents,
+sanctioned the acts of the Prince Regent of Brazil?"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+It soon became clear, however, that the Government had found some
+justification of its conduct, and that active measures were being
+adopted for Lord Cochrane's punishment. He was warned by Mr. Brougham
+that, if he stayed many days longer in England, he would be arrested
+and so prevented not only from facilitating the construction of the
+Greek vessels, but even from going to Greece at all. Therefore, at the
+earnest advice of his friends, he left London for Calais on the 9th
+of November, soon to proceed to Boulogne, where he was joined by his
+family, and where he waited for six weeks, vainly hoping that in
+his absence the contractors and their overseers would see that the
+ship-building was promptly and properly executed.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+While at Boulogne, foreseeing the troubles that would ensue from
+these new difficulties, he was half inclined to abandon his Greek
+engagement, and in that temper he wrote to Sir Francis Burdett for
+advice. "I have taken four-and-twenty hours," wrote his good friend
+in answer, on the 18th of November, "to consider your last letter, and
+have not one moment varied in my first opinion as to the propriety
+of your persevering in your glorious career. According to Brougham's
+opinion, you cannot be put in a worse situation,&mdash;that is, more in
+peril of Government here,&mdash;by continuing foreign service in the Greek
+cause than you already stand in by having served the Emperor of the
+Brazils. In my opinion you will be in a great deal less; for, the
+greater your renown, the less power will your enemies have, whatever
+may be their inclination, to meddle with you. Perhaps they only at
+present desist to look out for a better opportunity, 'reculer pour
+mieux sauter,' like the tiger. I don't mean to accuse them of this
+baseness; but, should it be the case, the less you do the more power
+they will have to injure you, if so inclined. Were they to prosecute
+you for having served the Brazilian Emperor, it would call forth no
+public sympathy, or but slight, in your favour. The case would be
+thought very hard, to be sure; but that would be all. Not so, should
+you triumph in the Greek cause. Transcendent glory would not only
+crown but protect you. No minister would dare to wag a finger&mdash;no, nor
+even Crown lawyer a tongue&mdash;against you; and, if they did, the feeling
+of the whole English public would surround you with an impenetrable
+shield. Fines would be paid; imprisonment protested and petitioned
+against; in short, I am convinced the nation would be in a flame, and
+you in far less danger of any attempt to your injury than at present.
+This, my dear Lord Cochrane, is my firm conviction."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Encouraged by that letter and other like expressions of opinion from
+his English friends, Lord Cochrane determined to persevere in his
+Greek enterprise, and to reside at Boulogne until the fleet that was
+being prepared for him was ready for service. He had to wait, however,
+very much longer than had been anticipated, and he was unable to wait
+all the time in Boulogne. There also prosecution threatened him. About
+the middle of December he heard that proceedings were about to be
+instituted against him for his detention, while in the Pacific, of a
+French brig named <i>La Gazelle</i>, the real inducement thereto being in
+the fact, as it was reported, that the French Government had espoused
+the cause of the Pasha of Egypt, and so was averse to such a plan
+for destroying the Egyptian fleet under Ibrahim as Lord Cochrane
+was concocting. Therefore, he deemed it expedient to quit French
+territory, and accordingly he left Boulogne on the 23rd of December,
+and took up his residence at Brussels, with his family, on the 28th of
+the same month.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Through four weary months and more he was waiting at Brussels,
+harassed by the prosecutions arising out of the lawsuits that have
+been already alluded to, in reference to which he said in one letter,
+"I think I must make up my mind, though it is a hard task, to quit
+England for ever;" harassed even more by the knowledge that the
+building and fitting out of the vessels for his Greek expedition were
+being delayed on frivolous pretexts and for selfish ends, which his
+presence in London, if that had been possible, might, to a great
+extent, have averted. "The welfare of Greece at this moment rests much
+on your lordship," wrote Orlando, the chief deputy in London, "and
+I dare hope that you will hasten her triumph:" yet Orlando and his
+fellows were idling in London, profiting by delays that increased
+their opportunities of peculation, and doing nothing to quicken the
+construction of the fleet. Galloway, the engineer, wrote again and
+again to promise that his work should be done in three weeks,&mdash;it was
+always "three weeks hence;" yet he was well informed that Galloway
+was wilfully negligent, though he did not know till afterwards that
+Galloway, having private connections with the Pasha of Egypt, never
+intended to do the work which he was employed to do. Lord Cochrane had
+good friends at home in Sir Francis Burdett, Mr. Hobhouse, and others;
+but they were not competent to take personal supervision of the
+details. He had an experienced deputy in Captain Abney Hastings, who
+had come from Greece some time before, and who was now to return
+as Lord Cochrane's second in command; but Captain Hastings,
+single-handed, could not exert much influence upon the rogues with
+whom he had to deal. "The <i>Perseverance</i>," he wrote of the largest of
+the ships, which was to be ready first, on the 10th of December, "may
+perhaps be ready to sail in six weeks&mdash;Mr. Galloway has said three
+weeks for the last month; but to his professions I do not, and have
+not for a length of time, paid the slightest attention. I believe he
+does all he can do; all I object against him is that he promises
+more than he can perform, and promises with the determination of not
+performing it. The <i>Perseverance</i> is a fine vessel. Her power of two
+forty-horses will, however, be feeble. I suspect you are not quite
+aware of the delay which will take place." Lord Cochrane soon became
+quite aware of the delay, but was unable to prevent it, and the
+next few months were passed by him in tedious anxiety and ceaseless
+chagrin.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+There was one desperate mode of lessening the delay&mdash;for Lord Cochrane
+to go out in the <i>Perseverance</i> as soon as it was ready to start,
+leaving the other vessels to follow as soon as they were ready.
+Captain Abney Hastings went to Brussels on purpose to urge him to that
+course, and Mr. Hobhouse also recommended it. "There are two points,"
+he wrote on the 23rd of December, "to which your attention will
+probably be chiefly directed by Captain Hastings. These are, the
+expediency of your going with the <i>Perseverance</i>, instead of waiting
+for the other boats, and the propriety of immediately disposing of the
+two frigates in America"&mdash;about which frequent reports had arrived,
+showing that their preparation was in even worse hands than was that
+of the London vessels&mdash;"to the highest bidder. As to the first, I
+am confident that, although it would have been desirable to have got
+together the whole force in the first instance, yet, as the salvation
+of Greece is a question of time only, and as it will be probably so
+late either as May or June next before the two larger boats can leave
+the river, it would be in every way inexpedient for you to wait until
+you could have the whole armament under your orders. Be assured, your
+presence in Greece would do more than the activity of any man living,
+and, as far as anything can be done in pushing forward the business at
+home, neither time nor pains shall be spared. I wish indeed you could
+have the whole of the boats at once; but Galloway has determined
+otherwise, and we must do the next best thing. Captain Hastings will
+tell you how much may be done even by one steam-vessel, commanded by
+you, and directing the operations of the fire-vessels. On such a
+topic I should not have the presumption to enlarge to you. As to the
+American frigates, it is Mr. Ellice's decided opinion, as well as my
+own, that you should have the money instead of the frigates. First and
+last, the frigates <i>never will be finished</i>. The rogues at New York
+demand 60,000£ above the 157,000£ which they have already received,
+and protest they will not complete their work without the additional
+sum. Now 70,000£ in your hands will be better than the <i>hopes</i> &mdash;and
+they will be nothing but <i>hopes</i> &mdash;of having the frigates. If you agree
+in this view, perhaps you will be so good as to state it in writing,
+which may remove Mr. Ricardo's objections."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Lord Cochrane was tempted to follow Captain Hastings's and Mr.
+Hobhouse's advice; but he first, as was his wont, sought Sir Francis
+Burdett's opinion; and Sir Francis dissuaded him, for the time, at any
+rate. "I would by no means have you proceed with the first vessel, nor
+at all without adequate means," he wrote on the 15th of January, 1826;
+"for besides thinking of the Greeks, for whom I am, I own, greatly
+interested, I must think, and certainly not with less interest, of
+you, and, I may add, in some degree of myself too; for I am placed
+under much responsibility, and I don't mean to be a party to making
+shipwreck of you and your great naval reputation; nor will I ever
+consent to your going upon a forlorn and desperate attempt&mdash;that is,
+without the means necessary for the fair chance of success&mdash;in other
+words, adequate means. Although you have worked miracles, we can never
+be justified in expecting them, and still less in requiring them."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Following that sound advice, Lord Cochrane resolved to wait until, at
+any rate, a good part of his fleet was ready. He wrote to that effect,
+and in as good spirits as he could muster, to Mr. Hobhouse, who in
+the answer which he despatched on the 5th of February acknowledged the
+wisdom of the decision. "I am very glad to perceive," he said in that
+answer, "that you have good heart and hope for the great cause.
+I assure you we have been doing all we can to induce the parties
+concerned to second your wishes in every respect; and I now learn from
+Mr. Hastings, who is our sheet anchor, that matters go on pretty well.
+I hope you write every now and then to Galloway, in whose hands is the
+fate of Greece&mdash;the worse our luck, for he is the great cause of our
+sad delay."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"You see our House is opened," said Mr. Hobhouse in the same letter.
+"Not a word of Greece in the Speech, and I spoke to Hume and Wilson,
+and begged them not to touch upon the subject. It is much better to
+keep all quiet, in order to prevent angry words from the ministers,
+who, if nothing is said, will, I think, shut their eyes at what we are
+doing. There is a very prevalent notion here that the (Holy) Alliance
+have resolved to recommend something to Turkey in favour of the
+Greeks. Whether this is true or not signifies nothing. The Turks will
+promise anything, and do just what suits them. They have always lost
+in war, for more than a hundred years, and have uniformly gained by
+diplomacy. They will never abandon the hope of reconquering Greece
+until driven out of Europe themselves, which they ought to be. By
+the way, the Greeks really appear to have been doing a little better
+lately; but I still fear these disciplined Arabians. I have written
+a very strong letter to Prince Mavrocordatos, telling them to hold
+out:&mdash;no surrender on any terms. I have not mentioned your name; but I
+have stated vaguely that they may expect the promised assistance early
+in the spring. It would indeed be a fine thing if you could commence
+operations during the Rhamadan; but I fear that is impossible. Any
+time, however, will do against the stupid, besotted Turks. Were they
+not led by Frenchmen, even the Greeks would beat them."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Of the leisure forced upon him, Lord Cochrane made good use in
+studying for himself the character of "the stupid, besotted Turks,"
+and the nature of the war that was being waged against them by the
+Greeks; and he asked Mr. Hobhouse to procure for him all the books
+published on the subject or in any way related to it, of which he was
+not already master. "With respect to books," wrote Mr. Hobhouse, in
+reply to this request, "there are very few that are not what you have
+found those you have read to be, namely, romances; but I will take
+care to send out with you such as are the best, together with the
+most useful map that can be got." More than fifty volumes were thus
+collected for Lord Cochrane's use.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+From Captain Abney Hastings, moreover, he obtained precise information
+about Greek waters, forts, and armaments, as well as "a list of the
+names of the principal persons in Greece, with their characters." This
+list, as showing the opinions of an intelligent Englishman, based
+on personal knowledge, as to the parties and persons with whom Lord
+Cochrane was soon to deal, is worth quoting entire, especially as it
+was the chief basis of Lord Cochrane's own judgment during this time
+of study and preparation.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+I. Archontes, or men influential by their riches.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Lazaros Konduriottes.&mdash;A Hydriot merchant, the elder of the two
+brothers, who are the most wealthy men in that island, and even in all
+Greece. This one, by intrigue, by distributing his money adroitly
+in Hydra, and keeping in pay the most dissolute and unruly of the
+sailors, and protecting them in the commission of their crimes,
+has acquired almost unlimited power at Hydra. He asserts democracy,
+appealing on all occasions to the people, who are his creatures. The
+other primates hate him, of course. Lazaros has the reputation of
+being clever. He never quits Hydra for an instant, for fear of finding
+himself supplanted on his return.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+George Konduriottes.&mdash;Brother of the former, and, like him a Hydriot
+merchant; an ignorant weak man; said to be vindictive; espouses the
+party of his brother at Hydra, by which means he has obtained the
+Presidency [of Greece]. He made the land captains his enemies, and had
+not good men enough to form an army of his own, viz., regular troops.
+His penetration went no further than bribing one captain to destroy
+another; which had for effect merely the changing the names of
+chieftains without diminishing the power. I understand he has lately
+retired to Hydra, and takes no active part in affairs.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+EMANUEL TOMBAZES.&mdash;A Hydriot merchant and captain. There are two
+brothers, at the head of the party opposed to Konduriottes. This
+man was the first who ventured on the voyage from the Black Sea to
+Marseilles in a latteen-rigged vessel. This traffic afterwards gave
+birth to the colossal fortunes in Hydra. These men are the most
+enlightened in Hydra. This one is dignified, energetic, and a good
+sailor. However, he lost in Candia much of the reputation he had
+previously acquired; but with all the errors he committed there, the
+loss of that island is not attributable to him. 'Twould have been
+lost, under similar circumstances, had Cæsar commanded there.
+Konduriottes and his adherents hate him, of course, and did all they
+could to paralyze his operations in Crete. All considered, this man is
+more capable of introducing order and regularity into the ships than
+any other Greek.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+JAKOMAKI TOMBAZES.&mdash;A Hydriot merchant and captain, brother of the
+former. He commanded the fleet the first year of the Revolution, and
+to him is due the introduction of fire-vessels, by which he destroyed
+the first Turkish line-of-battle ship at Mytelene. He is perhaps the
+best-informed Hydriot; but he wants decision, and demands the advice
+of everybody at the moment he should be acting. This man takes little
+part in politics and follows his mercantile pursuits. His hobby-horse
+is ship-building, in which art he is such a proficient as to be
+quite the Seppings of Hydra. As to the rest, he is a very worthy,
+warm-hearted man, but excessively phlegmatic.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+MIAOULIS.&mdash;A Hydriot merchant and captain, who obtained command of the
+Hydriot fleet after Jakomaki resigned. He is a very dignified,
+worthy old man, possesses personal courage and decision, and is less
+intriguing than any Greek that I know.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+SAKTOURES.&mdash;A Hydriot captain. He has risen from a sailor, and is
+considered by the Archontes rather in the light of a <i>parvenu</i>. He is
+courageous and enterprising, but a bit of a pirate.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+BONDOMES, SAMADHOFF, GHIKA, ORLANDO.&mdash;Hydriot merchants without
+anything but their money to recommend them.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+PEPINOS.&mdash;A Hydriot sailor of the clan of Tombazes, who has
+distinguished himself frequently in fireships.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+KANARIS.&mdash;A Psarian sailor; the most distinguished of the commanders
+of fire-vessels.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+BOTAZES.&mdash;A Spetziot merchant; the most influential person in his
+island. But the Hydriot merchants possess so much property in Spetziot
+vessels that, in some measure, they rule that island.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+PETRO-BEY [or PETROS MAVROMICHALES].&mdash;The principal Archonte of Maina;
+was governor of that province under the Turks. A fat, stupid, worthy
+man; is sincere in the cause, in which he has lost two if not three
+sons.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+DELIYANNES.&mdash;A Moreot Archonte, and one of the most intriguing and
+ambitious; was formerly sworn enemy to Kolokotrones and the captains,
+but, having betrothed his daughter to Kolokotrones's son, they have
+become allies. This man, if not the richest Archonte in the Morea, is
+the one who affected the most pomp in the time of the Turks, and
+he cannot now easily brook his diminished influence. He is reported
+clever and unprincipled.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+NOTABAS.&mdash;A Moreot Archonte, considered the most ancient of the noble
+families in the Morea; is a well-meaning old blockhead; has a son, a
+good-looking youth, who commanded the Government forces against the
+captains in 1824; is said to be an egregious coward.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+LONDOS.&mdash;A Moreot Archonte; was much flattered by the Government, but
+afterwards leagued against them. He is a drunkard, and a man of no
+consideration but for his wealth.[A]
+</p>
+
+<p>
+[Footnote A: Lord Byron used to describe an evening passed in the
+company of Londos at Vostitza, when both were young men. After supper
+Londos, who had the face and figure of a chimpanzee, sprang upon
+a table, and commenced singing through his nose Rhiga's "Hymn to
+Liberty." A new cadi, passing near the house, inquired the cause of
+the discordant hubbub. A native Mussulman replied, "It is only the
+young primate Londos, who is drunk, and is singing hymns to the new
+franaghia of the Greeks, whom they call 'Eleftheria.'"&mdash;Finlay, vol.
+ii., p. 35.]
+</p>
+
+<p>
+ZAIMES.&mdash;A Moreot Archonte; said to possess considerable talent, and
+he exercises a very considerable influence. His brother was formerly a
+deputy in England.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+SISSINES.&mdash;A Moreot Archonte; was formerly a doctor at Patras; has
+risen into wealth and consequence since the Revolution; has great
+talent, and is a great rogue.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+SOTIRES XARALAMBI.&mdash;A Moreot Archonte of influence. I do not know his
+character.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+SPELIOTOPOLOS.&mdash;A Moreot Archonte, whose name would never have
+been heard by a foreigner, if he had not been made a member of the
+executive body; a stupid old man, possessing little influence of any
+kind.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+KOLETTES.&mdash;A Romeliot; was formerly doctor to Ali Pasha; possesses
+some talent; has held various situations in the ministry; is detested,
+yet I know not why. I never could ascertain any act of his that
+merited the dislike he has inspired a large party with. I fancy 'tis
+alone attributable to jealousy&mdash;the peculiar feature of the Greek
+character. It must nevertheless be acknowledged that he has sometimes
+made himself ridiculous by assuming the sword, for which profession
+he is totally incapacitated by want of courage. He is, however, poor,
+although in employment since the commencement of the Revolution.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+THIKOUPES.&mdash;An Archonte of Missolonghi; of some importance from the
+English education he has received from Lord Guildford; a worthy man,
+possessed of instruction, but, I think, not genius. He has married
+Mavrocordatos's sister.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+II. Phanaeiots.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+[DEMETRIUS] HYPSILANTES.&mdash;Is of a Phanariot family; was a Russian
+officer; although young, is bald and feeble. His appearance and voice
+are much against him. He does not so much want talent as ferocity. He
+possesses personal courage and probity, and may be said to be the only
+honest man that has figured upon the stage of the Revolution. He does
+not favour, but has never openly opposed, the party of the captains.
+He felt he had not the power to do it with success, and therefore
+showed his good sense in refraining. The Archontes, fearing the
+influence he might acquire would destroy theirs, have uniformly
+opposed him, secretly and openly; and they hate one another so
+cordially now that it is impossible they should ever unite.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+MAVROCORDATOS.&mdash;Of a Phanariot family; came forward under the auspices
+of Hypsilantes, and then tried to supplant him; and to do this he made
+himself the tool of the Hydriots, who, as soon as they had obtained
+all power in their hands, endeavoured to kick down the stepping-stool
+by which they had mounted. Perceiving this, he entered into
+negotiations with the captains, and frightened the Hydriots into an
+acknowledgment of some power for himself. He possesses quickness and
+intrigue; but I doubt if he has solid talent, and it is reported that
+he is particularly careful not to court danger.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+III. Captains or Land-Chieftains.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+KOLOKOTRONES.&mdash;A captain of the Morea, and the most powerful one in
+all Greece. He owes this partly to the numerous ramifications of his
+family, partly to his reputation as a hereditary robber, and also
+to the wealth he has amassed in his vocation. He is a fine,
+decided-looking man, and knows perfectly all the localities of the
+country for carrying on mountain warfare, and he knows also, better
+than any other, how to manage the Greek mountaineers. He is, however,
+entirely ignorant of any other species of warfare, and is not
+sufficiently civilized to look forward for any other advantage to
+himself or his country than that of possessing the mountains and
+keeping the Turks at bay. He proposed destroying all the fortresses
+except Nauplia. 'Twas an error of Mavrocordatos to have made this man
+an open enemy to himself and to organization. Had he been allowed to
+have profited by order, he would have espoused it. At present he may
+be considered irreconcilably opposed to order and the Hydriot party.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+NIKETAS.&mdash;There are two of this name; but the only one that merits
+notice is the Moreot captain, a relation of Kolokrotones. He is
+as ignorant and dirty as the rest of his brethren, but bears the
+reputation of being disinterested and courageous. He is always poor.
+All the chieftains are good bottle-men; but this one excels them so
+much that 'tis confidently asserted he drinks three bottles of rum per
+day.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+STAIKOS.&mdash;A Moreot captain who took part early with the Hydriot party
+from jealousy of Kolokotrones. When that party gained the ascendency,
+not finding himself sufficiently rewarded, he joined the captains.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+MOMGINOS.&mdash;A Mainot chieftain, a rival of Petro-Bey; is
+undistinguished, except by his colossal stature and ferocious
+countenance.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+GOURA.&mdash;A Romeliot captain; was a soldier of Odysseus, and employed
+by him in various assassinations, and thus he rose to preferment and
+supplanted his protector, and at length assassinated him. This man
+possesses courage and extreme ferocity, but is remarkably ignorant.
+In the hands of a similar master, he would have been a perfect Tristan
+l'Hermite. To supplant Odysseus, he was obliged to range himself with
+the Hydriot party.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+CONSTANTINE BOTZARES.&mdash;A Suliot captain; nephew to the celebrated
+Makrys, who, from all accounts, was a phenomenon among the captains.
+This man bears a good character.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+KARAÏSKAKES, RANGO, KALTZAS, ZAVELLA, &amp;c. &amp;c.&mdash;Romeliot captains; all
+more or less opposed to order, according as they see it suits their
+immediate interest.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+That estimate of the Greek heroes&mdash;in the main wonderfully
+accurate&mdash;was certainly not encouraging to Lord Cochrane. He
+determined, however, to go on with the work he had entered upon, and
+in doing his duty to the Greeks, to try to bring into healthy play the
+real patriotism that was being perverted by such unworthy leaders.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Great benefit was conferred upon the Greeks by his entering into their
+service from its very beginning, in spite of the obstacles which were
+thrown in his way at starting, and which materially damaged all his
+subsequent work on their behalf. No sooner was it known that he was
+coming to aid them with his unsurpassed bravery and his unrivalled
+genius than they took heart and held out against the Turkish and
+Egyptian foes to whom they had just before been inclined to yield.
+And his enlistment in their cause had another effect, of which they
+themselves were ignorant. The mere announcement that he intended to
+fight and win for them, as he had fought and won for Chili, for Peru,
+and for Brazil, while it caused both England and France to do their
+utmost in hindering him from achieving an end which was more thorough
+than they desired, forced both England and France to shake off the
+listlessness with which they had regarded the contest during nearly
+five years, and initiate the temporizing action by which Greece was
+prevented from becoming as great and independent a state as it might
+have been, yet by which a smaller independence was secured for it.
+Hardly had Lord Cochrane consented to serve as admiral of the Greeks
+than the Duke of Wellington was despatched, in the beginning of 1826,
+on a mission to Russia, which issued in the protocol of April, 1826,
+and the treaty of July, 1827&mdash;both having for their avowed object the
+pacification of Greece&mdash;and in the battle of Navarino, by which that
+pacification was secured.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The Duke of Wellington passed through Brussels, on his way to
+St. Petersburg, in March, 1826. Halting there, he informed the
+hotel-keeper that he could see no one <i>except Lord Cochrane</i>, which
+was as distinct an intimation that he desired an interview as,
+in accordance with the rules of etiquette, he could make. The
+hotel-keeper, however, was too dull to take the hint. He did not
+acquaint Lord Cochrane of the indirect message intended for him
+until the Duke of Wellington had proceeded on his journey. Thus was
+prevented a meeting between one of England's greatest soldiers and one
+of her greatest sailors, which could not but have been very memorable
+in itself, and which might have been far more memorable in its
+political consequences.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The meeting was hindered, and, without listening either to the
+personal courtesies or to the diplomatic arguments of the Duke of
+Wellington, Lord Cochrane continued his preparations for active
+service in Greek waters. The details of these preparations and their
+practical execution, as has been shown, he was forced to leave in
+other and less competent hands, and their actual supervision was still
+impossible to him. Gradually the irritating and wasteful obstacles for
+which Mr. Galloway was chiefly responsible induced him to resolve upon
+following the advice tendered in December by Mr. Hobhouse and Captain
+Hastings&mdash;that is, to go to Greece with a small portion only of
+the naval armament for which he had stipulated, and which his most
+cautious friends deemed necessary to his enterprise. To this he was
+driven, not only by a desire to do something worthy of his great name,
+and something really helpful to the cause which he had espoused,
+but also by the knowledge that the tedious delays that arose were
+squandering all the money with which he had counted upon rendering his
+work efficient when he could get to Greece.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Of this he received frequent and clear intimation from all his
+friends in London, though from none so emphatically as from the Greek
+deputies, Orlando and Luriottis, who, being themselves grievously to
+blame for their peculations and their bad management, threw all the
+blame upon Mr. Galloway and the other defaulters. Finding that the
+proceeds of the second Greek loan were being rapidly exhausted by
+their own and others' wrong-doing, they were even audacious enough to
+propose to Lord Cochrane that, not abandoning his Greek engagement,
+but rather continuing it under conditions involving much greater risk
+and anxiety than had been anticipated, he should return the 37,000£
+which had been handed over to Sir Francis Burdett on his account, and
+take as sole security for his ultimate recompense the two frigates
+half built in America, acknowledged to be of so little value that no
+purchaser could be found for them. "Our only desire." they said,
+"is to rescue the millions of souls that are praying with a thousand
+supplications that they may not fall victims to the despair which is
+only averted by the hope of your lordship's arrival."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+To that preposterous request Lord Cochrane made a very temperate
+answer. "I have perused your letter of the 18th," he wrote on the 28th
+of February, "with the utmost attention, and have since considered its
+contents with the most anxious desire to promote the objects you have
+in view in all ways in my power. But I have not been able to convince
+myself that, under existing circumstances, there is any means by which
+Greece can be so readily saved as by steady perseverance in equipping
+the steam-vessels, which are so admirably calculated to cut off the
+enemies' communication with Alexandria and Constantinople, and for
+towing fire-vessels and explosion-vessels by night into ports and
+places where the hostile squadrons anchor on the shores of Greece.
+With steam-vessels constructed for such purposes, and a few gunboats
+carrying heavy cannon, I have no doubt but that the Morea might in a
+few weeks be cleared of the enemy's naval force. I wish I could give
+you, without writing a volume, a clear view of the numerous reasons,
+derived from thirty-five years' experience, which induce me to prefer
+a force that can move in all directions in the obscurity of night
+through narrow channels, in shoal water, and with silence and
+celerity, over a naval armament of the usual kind, though of far
+superior force. You would then perceive with what efficacy the counsel
+of Demosthenes to your countrymen might be carried into effect by
+desultory attacks on the enemy; and, in fact, you would perceive that
+steam-vessels, whenever they shall be brought into war for hostile
+purposes, will prove the most formidable means that ever has been
+employed in naval warfare. Indeed, it is my opinion that twenty-four
+vessels moved by steam (such as the largest constructed for
+your service) could commence at St. Petersburg, and finish at
+Constantinople, the destruction of every ship of war in the European
+ports. I therefore hold that you ought to strain every nerve to get
+the steam-vessels equipped. For on these, next to the valour of
+the Greeks themselves, depends the fate of Greece, and not on large
+unwieldy ships, immovable in calms, and ill-calculated for nocturnal
+operations on the shores of the Morea and adjacent islands. Having
+thus repeated to you my opinions, I have only to add that, if
+you judge you can follow a better course, I release you from the
+engagement you entered into with me, and I am ready to return you the
+37,000£ on your receiving as part thereof 72,500 Greek scrip, at
+the price I gave for it on the day following my engagement (under the
+faith of the stipulations then entered into), as a further stimulus
+to my exertion, by casting my property, as well as my life, into the
+scale with Greece. This release I am ready to make at once; but I
+cannot consent to accept as security, for the fruits of seven years'
+toil, vessels manned by Americans, whose pay and provisions I see no
+adequate or regular means of providing. But should the 150,000£
+placed at the disposal of the Committee not prove sufficient for the
+objects <i>I have required</i>, I will advance the 37,000£ for the pay
+and provisions necessary for the steamboats on the security of the
+boats themselves. Thus you have the option of releasing me from
+the service, or of continuing my engagement, although I shall lose
+severely by my temporary acceptance of your offer."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+In that letter Lord Cochrane conceded more than ought to have been
+expected of him. In a supplementary letter written on the same day
+he added: "I again assure you that I am ready to do whatever is
+reasonable for the interest of Greece; but it cannot be expected that
+for such interest I ought to sacrifice totally those of my family
+and myself, as would be the case were I to give up both the means I
+possess to obtain justice in South America and my indemnification, on
+so slender a security as that offered to me. Believe me, I should have
+tendered the 37,000£, without reference to the Greek scrip I
+had purchased, had it not been evident to me that, under such
+circumstances, the security of your public funds would be dependent
+on chances which I cannot foresee, and over which I should have no
+control."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Thus temperately rebuked, the Greek deputies did not urge their
+proposal any further. They only wrote to promise all possible
+expedition in completing the steam-vessels. Lord Cochrane, however,
+voluntarily acceded to one of their wishes. Hearing that the largest
+of the steamers, the <i>Perseverance</i>, was nearly ready for sea, and
+that Mr. Galloway had again solemnly pledged himself to complete the
+others in a short time, he determined not to wait for the whole force,
+but to start at once for the Mediterranean. It had been all along
+decided that the <i>Perseverance</i> should be placed under Captain
+Hastings's command; and it was now arranged that he should take her to
+Greece as soon as she was ready, and that Lord Cochrane should follow
+in a schooner, the <i>Unicorn</i>, of 158 tons. It was not intended, of
+course, that with that boat alone he should go all the way to Greece;
+but it was considered&mdash;perhaps not very wisely&mdash;that if he were
+actually on his way to Greece, the completion of the other five
+steamships would be proceeded with more rapidly; and he agreed that,
+as soon as he was joined in the Mediterranean by the first two of
+these, the <i>Enterprise</i> and the <i>Irresistible</i>, he would hasten on
+to the Archipelago, and there make the best of the small force at his
+disposal. Not only was it supposed that Mr. Galloway and the other
+agents would thus be induced to more vigorous action: it was also
+deemed that the effect of this step upon the Hellenic nation would
+be very beneficial. "As soon as the Greek Government know that your
+lordship is on your way to Greece," wrote the London deputies on the
+13th of April, "their courage will be animated, and their confidence
+renewed. We may with truth assert that your lordship is regarded by
+all classes of our countrymen as a Messiah, who is to come to their
+deliverance; and, from the enthusiasm which will prevail amongst the
+people, we may venture to predict that your lordship's valour and
+success at sea will give energy and victory to their arms on land."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+With the new arrangements necessitated by this change of plans the
+last two or three weeks of April and the first of May were occupied.
+Lord Cochrane put to sea on the 8th of May. "As a Greek citizen," one
+of the deputies in London, Andreas Luriottis, had written on the
+17th of April, "I cannot refrain from expressing my sincere gratitude
+towards your lordship for the resolution which you have taken to
+depart almost immediately for Greece. This generous determination, at
+a moment when my country is really in want of every assistance, cannot
+be regarded with indifference by my countrymen, who already look upon
+your lordship as a Messiah. Your talents and intrepidity cannot allow
+us for a moment to doubt of success. My countrymen will afford you
+every assistance, and confer on you all the powers necessary for your
+undertaking; although your lordship must be aware that Greece, after
+five years' struggle, cannot be expected to present a very favourable
+aspect to a stranger. Your lordship will, however, find men full of
+devotion and courage&mdash;men who have founded, their best hopes on you,
+and from whom, under such a leader, everything may be expected. Your
+lordship's previous exploits encourage me to hope that Greece will not
+be less successful than the Brazils, since the materials she offers
+for cultivation are superior. With patience and perseverance in the
+outset, all difficulties will soon vanish, and the course will be
+direct and unimpeded. The resources of Greece are not to be despised,
+and, if successful, she will find ample means to reward those who will
+have devoted themselves to her service and to the cause of liberty."
+</p>
+
+</div><!--end chapter-->
+
+<div class="chapter">
+
+<h2><a name="chap15"></a>CHAPTER XV.</h2>
+
+<p class="letter">
+LORD COCHRANE'S DEPARTURE FOR GREECE.&mdash;HIS VISIT TO LONDON AND
+VOYAGE TO THE MEDITERRANEAN.&mdash;HIS STAY AT MESSINA, AND AFTERWARDS
+AT MARSEILLES.&mdash;THE DELAYS IN COMPLETING THE STEAMSHIPS, AND THE
+CONSEQUENT INJURY TO THE GREEK CAUSE, AND SERIOUS EMBARRASSMENT
+TO LORD COCHRANE.&mdash;HIS CORRESPONDENCE WITH MESSRS. J. AND S.
+RICARDO.&mdash;HIS LETTER TO THE GREEK GOVERNMENT.&mdash;CHEVALIER EYNARD, AND
+THE CONTINENTAL PHILHELLENES.&mdash;LORD COCHRANE'S FINAL DEPARTURE, AND
+ARRIVAL IN GREECE.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+[1826-1827.]
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Lord Cochrane, having passed from Brussels to Flushing, sailed thence
+in the <i>Unicorn</i> on the 8th of May, 1826. Before proceeding to the
+Mediterranean, he determined, in spite of the personal risk he would
+thus be subjected to through the Foreign Enlistment Act, to see for
+himself in what state were the preparations for his enterprise in
+Greece. He accordingly landed at Weymouth, and hurrying up to London,
+spent the greater part of Sunday, the 16th of May, in Mr. Galloway's
+building yard at Greenwich.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+He found that the <i>Perseverance</i> was apparently completed, though
+waiting for some finishing touches to be put to her boilers. "The two
+other vessels," he said, "were filled with pieces of the high-pressure
+engines, all unfixed, and scattered about in the engine-room and on
+deck. The boilers were in the small boats, and occupied nearly one
+half of their length, Mr. Galloway having, through inattention or
+otherwise, caused them to be made of the same dimensions as the
+boilers for the great vessels, which, by the by, had been improperly
+increased from sixteen feet, the length determined on, to twenty-three
+feet." The inspection was unsatisfactory; but Mr. Galloway pledged
+himself on his honour that the <i>Perseverance</i> should start in a day or
+two, that the <i>Enterprise</i> and the <i>Irresistible</i> should be completed
+and sent to sea within a fortnight, and that the other three vessels
+should be out of hand in less than a month.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Trusting to that promise, or at any rate hoping that it might be
+fulfilled, and after a parting interview with Sir Francis Burdett, Mr.
+Ellice, and other friends, Lord Cochrane left London on Monday, and
+joined the <i>Unicorn</i>, at Dartford, on the 20th of May. It had
+been arranged that he should wait in British waters for the first
+instalment of his little fleet, at any rate. With that object he
+called at Falmouth, and, receiving no satisfactory information there,
+went to make a longer halt in Bantry Bay. At length, hearing that the
+<i>Perseverance</i> had actually started, with Captain Hastings for its
+commander, and that the other two large vessels were on the point of
+leaving the Thames, he left the coast of Ireland on the 12th of June.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+He vainly hoped that the vessels would promptly join him in the
+Mediterranean, and that within four or five weeks' time he should
+be at work in Greek waters. The journey, however, was to last nine
+months. The mismanagement and the wilful delays of Mr. Galloway and
+the other contractors and agents continued as before. The urgent
+need of Greece was unsatisfied; the funds collected for promoting her
+deliverance were wantonly perverted; and the looked-for deliverer was
+doomed to nearly a year of further inactivity&mdash;hateful to him at all
+times, but now a special source of annoyance, as it involved not
+only idleness to himself, but also serious injury to the cause he had
+espoused.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+He passed Oporto on the 18th, Lisbon on the 20th, and Gibraltar on the
+26th of June. He was off Algiers on the 3rd of July, and on the 12th
+he anchored in the harbour of Messina. There, and in the adjoining
+waters, he waited nearly three months, in daily expectation of
+the arrival of his vessels, Messina having been the appointed
+meeting-place. No vessels came, but instead only dismal and
+procrastinating letters. "We deeply lament," wrote Messrs. J. and S.
+Ricardo, the contractors for the Greek loan, in one of them, dated the
+9th of September, "that, after all the exertions which have been used,
+we have not yet been able to despatch the two large steam-vessels.
+Everything has been ready for some time; but Mr. Galloway's failure
+in the engines will now occasion a much longer detention. We leave to
+your brother, who writes by the same opportunity, to explain fully to
+your lordship how all this has arisen, and what measures it has been
+considered expedient to adopt. In the whole of this unfortunate affair
+we have endeavoured to follow your wishes; and our conduct towards Mr.
+Galloway, who has much to answer for, has been chiefly directed by
+his representations." "Galloway is the evil genius that pursues us
+everywhere," wrote the same correspondents on the 25th of September;
+"his presumption is only equalled by his incompetency. Whatever he has
+to do with is miserably deficient. We do not think his misconduct has
+been intentional; but it has proved most fatal to the interests of
+Greece, and of those engaged in her behalf. On your lordship it has
+pressed peculiarly hard; and most sincerely do we lament that an
+undertaking, which promised so fairly in the commencement should
+hitherto have proved unavailing, and that your power of assisting
+this unhappy country should have been rendered nugatory by the want of
+means to put it in effect."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Those letters, and others written before and after, did not reach Lord
+Cochrane till the end of October. In the meanwhile, finding that the
+expected vessels did not arrive at Messina, and that in that place it
+was impossible even for him to receive accurate information as to the
+progress of affairs in London, he called at Malta about the middle
+of September, and thence proceeded to Marseilles, as a convenient
+halting-place, in which he had better chance of hearing how matters
+were proceeding, and from which he could easily go to meet the vessels
+when, if ever, they were ready to join him. He reached Marseilles
+on the 12th of October, and on the same day he forwarded a letter
+to Messrs. Ricardo. "I wrote to you a few days ago," he said, "from
+Malta, and, as the packet sailed with a fair wind, you will receive
+that letter very shortly. You will thereby perceive the distressing
+suspense in which I have been held, and the inconvenience to which
+I have been exposed, by remaining on board this small vessel for a
+period of five months, during all the heat of a Mediterranean summer,
+without exercise or recreation. This situation has been rendered
+the more unpleasant, as I have had no means to inform myself, except
+through the public papers, relative to the concern in which we are now
+engaged. My patience, however, is now worn out, and I have come here
+to learn whether I am to expect the steam-vessels or not,&mdash;whether
+the scandalous blunders of Mr. Galloway are to be remedied by
+those concerned, or if an ill-timed parsimony is to doom Greece to
+inevitable destruction; for such will be the consequence, if Ibrahim's
+resources are not cut up before the period at which it is usual for
+him to commence operations. You know my opinions so well, that it is
+unnecessary to repeat them to you. I shall, however, add, that
+the intelligence and plans I have obtained since my arrival in the
+Mediterranean confirm these opinions, and enable me to predict, with
+as much certainty as I ever could do on any enterprise, that if the
+vessels and the means to pay six months' expenses are forwarded, there
+shall not be a Turkish or Egyptian ship in the Archipelago at the
+termination of the winter. It may have been expected that I should
+immediately proceed to Greece in this vessel. I might have done so at
+an earlier period of my life, before I had proved by experience that
+advice is thrown away upon persons in the situation and circumstances
+in which the Greek rulers and their people are unfortunately placed.
+Having made up my mind on this subject, I must entreat you to let me
+know by the earliest possible means what I am to expect in regard to
+the steamships. I see by the 'Globe' of the 2nd of last month that the
+holders of Greek stock were to have a meeting. I conclude they came
+to some resolution, and this resolution I want to know. I wish I could
+give them my eyes to see with&mdash;they would then pursue a course which
+would secure their interests. This, however, is impossible; therefore
+they must, like the Greeks, be left to follow their own notions.
+I have, however, no objections to your stating to these gentlemen,
+either publicly or privately, that I pledge my reputation to free
+Greece if they will, by the smallest additional sacrifice that may be
+required, put the stipulated force at my disposal."[A]
+</p>
+
+<p>
+[Footnote A: This letter, like some others of this nature, is partly
+written in cypher, the key to which is lost. Its concluding sentences,
+therefore, are not given.]
+</p>
+
+<p>
+At Marseilles, Lord Cochrane received information, disheartening
+enough, though more encouraging than was justified by the real state
+of affairs, with reference to his intended fleet. On the 14th of
+October he wrote to explain his position, as he himself understood it,
+to the Greek Government. "By the most fortunate accident," he said, "I
+have met Mr. Hobhouse here, who, from his correspondence with Messrs.
+Ricardo and others in London, enables me to state to you that the two
+large steamboats will be completed on the 28th day of this month, and
+that they will proceed on the following day for the <i>rendezvous</i> which
+I had assigned to them previous to my departure. You may, therefore,
+count on their being in Greece about the 14th of next month. The
+American frigate is said to be completed and on her way, and I feel a
+confident hope that I shall be able here to add a very efficient ship
+of war to the before-mentioned vessels.[A] It is probable," he added,
+"that many idle reports will be circulated here and through the public
+prints, because, under existing circumstances, I find it necessary to
+appear now as a person travelling about for private amusement. I can
+assure you, however, that the hundred and sixty days which I have
+already spent in this small vessel, without ever having my foot on
+shore till the day before yesterday, has been a sacrifice which I
+should not have made for any other cause than that in which I
+am engaged; but I considered it essential to conceal the real
+insignificance of my situation and allow rumours to circulate of
+squadrons collecting in various parts, judging that the effect would
+be to embarrass the operations of the enemy."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+[Footnote A: It should here be explained that the building and fitting
+out of the two frigates contracted for in New York, at a cost of
+150,000£, having been assigned to persons whose mismanagement was
+as scandalous as that which perplexed the Greek cause in London, one
+of them had been sold, and with the proceeds and some other funds the
+other had been completed and fitted out, more than 200,000£ having
+been spent upon her. She reached Greece at the end of 1826, there to
+be known as the <i>Hellas</i>.]
+</p>
+
+<p>
+That concealment had to be maintained, and the wearisome delays
+continued, for three months more. All the promises of Mr. Galloway and
+all the efforts, real or pretended, of the Greek deputies in London,
+were vain. The completion of the steam-vessels was retarded on all
+sorts of pretexts, and when each little portion of the work was said
+to be done, it was found to be so badly executed that it had to be
+cancelled and the whole thing done afresh. In this way all the residue
+of the loan of 1825 was exhausted, and all for worse than nothing.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Lord Cochrane would never have been able to proceed to Greece at all,
+had the Greek deputies, Orlando and Luriottis, who had contracted for
+his employment, been his only supporters. Fortunately, however, he had
+other and worthier coadjutors. The Greek Committee in Paris did
+much on his behalf, and yet more was done by the Philhellenes of
+Switzerland, with Chevalier Eynard at their head, of whom one zealous
+member, Dr. L.A. Gosse, of Geneva, "well-informed, very zealous, full
+of genuine enthusiasm for the cause of humanity, and an excellent
+physician," as M. Eynard described him, was about to go in person
+to Greece, as administrator of the funds collected by the Swiss
+Committee. Lord Cochrane's disconsolate arrival at Marseilles, and the
+miserable failure of the plans for his enterprise, had not been known
+to M. Eynard and his friends a week, before they set themselves to
+remedy the mischief as far as lay in their power. As a first and
+chief movement they proposed to buy a French corvette, then lying
+in Marseilles Harbour, and fit her out as a stout auxiliary to Lord
+Cochrane's little force expected from London and New York. Lord
+Cochrane, being consulted on the scheme, eagerly acceded to it in a
+letter written on the 25th of October. "As I have yet no certainty,"
+he said, "that the person employed to fit the machinery of the
+steam-vessels will now perform his task better than he has heretofore
+done, I recommend purchasing the corvette, provided that she can be
+purchased for the sum of 200,000 francs, and, if funds are wanting, I
+personally am willing to advance enough to provision the corvette,
+and am ready to proceed in that or any fit vessel. But I am quite
+resolved, without a moral certainty of something following me, not
+to ruin and disgrace the cause by presenting myself in Greece in a
+schooner of two carronades of the smallest calibre."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The corvette was bought and equipped; but in this several weeks
+were employed. In the interval, for a week or two after the 8th of
+December, Lord Cochrane went to Geneva, there to be the guest of
+Chevalier Eynard, to be introduced to Dr. Gosse, and to become
+personally acquainted with many other Philhellenes.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Neither Lord Cochrane nor his friends could quite abandon hope of the
+ultimate completion of the London steam-vessels. They felt, too,
+that with nothing but the new vessel, the American frigate, and the
+<i>Perseverance</i>, Lord Cochrane would have very poor provision for his
+undertaking. "I have this moment received a letter from his lordship,"
+wrote M. Eynard to Mr. Hobhouse on the 12th of January, 1827, "wherein
+he appears rather disappointed with respect to the scantiness of the
+forces and the means placed at his disposal. He informs me that he has
+no officers, few sailors; and that, in case the steamers should
+not arrive, he will not feel qualified to encounter the Turkish and
+Egyptian naval forces, as well as the Algerines, who of all are the
+best manned. 'I therefore shall not be able to undertake anything
+of moment,' continues his lordship. 'Thus to stake my character and
+existence would be a mere Quixotic act. I will put to sea, however,
+but still with a heavy heart; yet not until I have with me all
+requisites, and my stores and ammunition be embarked likewise.'
+Discouragement appears throughout his lordship's letter."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The discouragement is not to be wondered at. It is hardly necessary,
+however, to give further illustration of it, or of the troubles
+incident to this long waiting-time. Enough has been said to show Lord
+Cochrane's position in relation to this deplorable state of affairs,
+and to exonerate him from all blame in the matter. That he should have
+been blamed at all is only part of the wanton injustice that attended
+him nearly all through his life. He had consented, in the autumn
+of 1825, to enter the service of the Greeks, on the distinct
+understanding that six English-built steamships should be placed at
+his disposal, and to facilitate the arrangements he did and bore
+far more than could have been expected of him. For the delays and
+disasters that befel those arrangements he was in no way responsible:
+he was only thereby a very great sufferer. But his sufferings would
+have been greater, and he would have been really at fault, had he
+consented to go to Greece without any sort of provision, as a few
+rash friends and many eager enemies desired him to do, and afterwards
+blamed him for not doing.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+As it was, he greatly increased his difficulties by at last proceeding
+to Greece with the miserable equipment provided for him. In his little
+schooner, the <i>Unicorn</i>, he left Marseilles on the 14th of February,
+1827, and proceeded to St. Tropezy, where the French corvette, the
+<i>Sauveur</i>, was being fitted out under the direction of Captain Thomas,
+a brave and energetic officer. Thence he set sail, with the two
+vessels, on the 23rd of February. He reached Poros, and entered
+upon his service in Greek waters, on the 19th of March. "He had been
+wandering about the Mediterranean in a fine English yacht, purchased
+for him out of the proceeds of the loan, in order to accelerate his
+arrival in Greece, ever since the month of June, 1826," says the
+ablest historian of the Greek Revolution.[A] The preceding paragraphs
+will show how much truth is contained in that sarcastic sentence.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+[Footnote A: Finlay, vol. ii., p. 137.]
+</p>
+
+</div><!--end chapter-->
+
+<div class="chapter">
+
+<h2><a name="chap16"></a>CHAPTER XVI.</h2>
+
+<p class="letter">
+THE PROGRESS OF AFFAIRS IN GREECE.&mdash;THE SIEGE OF MISSOLONGHI.&mdash;ITS
+FALL.&mdash;THE BAD GOVERNMENT AND MISMANAGEMENT OF THE GREEKS.&mdash;GENERAL
+PONSONBY'S ACCOUNT OF THEM.&mdash;THE EFFECT OF LORD COCHRANE'S PROMISED
+ASSISTANCE.&mdash;THE FEARS OF THE TURKS, AS SHOWN IN THEIR CORRESPONDENCE
+WITH MR. CANNING.&mdash;THE ARRIVAL OF CAPTAIN HASTINGS IN GREECE, WITH THE
+"KARTERIA."&mdash;HIS OPINION OF GREEK CAPTAINS AND SAILORS.&mdash;THE FRIGATE
+"HELLAS."&mdash;LETTERS TO LORD COCHRANE FROM ADMIRAL MIAOULIS AND THE
+GOVERNING COMMISSION OF GREECE.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+[1826-1827.]
+</p>
+
+<p>
+During the one-and-twenty weary months that elapsed between Lord
+Cochrane's acceptance of service in the Greek War of Independence and
+his actual participation in the work, the Revolution passed through a
+new and disastrous stage. In the summer of 1825, when the invitation
+was sent to him, the disorganisation of the Greeks and the superior
+strength of the Turks, and yet more of their Egyptian and Arabian
+allies under Ibrahim Pasha, were threatening to undo all that had been
+achieved in the previous years. One bold stand had begun to be made,
+in which, throughout nearly a whole year, the Greeks fought with
+unsurpassed heroism, and then the whole struggle for liberty fell into
+the lawless and disordered condition which already had prevailed in
+many districts, and which was then to become universal and to offer
+obstacles too great even for Lord Cochrane's genius to overcome in
+his efforts to revive genuine patriotism and to render thoroughly
+successful the cause that he had espoused.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The last great stand was at Missolonghi. Built on the edge of a marshy
+plain, bounded on the north by the high hills of Zygos and protected
+on the south by shallow lagoons at the mouth of the Gulf of Lepanto,
+and chiefly tenanted by hardy fishermen, this town had been the first
+in Western Greece to take part in the Revolution. Here in June, 1821,
+nearly all the Moslem residents had been slaughtered, the wealthiest
+and most serviceable only being spared to become the slaves of their
+Christian masters. In the last two months of 1822 the Ottomans
+had made a desperate attempt to win back the stronghold; but its
+inhabitants, led by Mavrocordatos, who had lately come to join in the
+work of regeneration, had resolutely beaten off the invaders and taken
+revenge upon the few Turks still resident among them. "The wife of one
+of the Turkish inhabitants of Missolonghi," said an English visitor
+in 1824, "imploring my pity, begged me to allow her to remain under
+my roof, in order to shelter her from the brutality and cruelty of the
+Greeks. They had murdered all her relations. A little girl, nine years
+old, remained to be the only companion of her misery."[A] Missolonghi
+continued to be one of the chief strongholds of independence in
+continental Greece; and, the revolutionists being forced into it by
+the Turks, who scoured the districts north and east of it in 1824 and
+1825, it became in the latter year the main object of attack and the
+scene of most desperate resistance. Here were concentrated the chief
+energies of the Greek warriors and of their Moslem antagonists, and
+here was exhibited the last and most heroic effort of the patriots,
+unaided by foreign champions of note, in their long and hard-fought
+battle for freedom.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+[Footnote A: Millingen, "Memoirs on the Affairs of Greece," p. 99.]
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Reshid Pasha, the ablest of the Turkish generals, having advanced into
+the neighbourhood of Missolonghi towards the end of April, began to
+besiege it in good earnest, at the head of an army of some seven
+or eight thousand picked followers, on the 7th of May. While he was
+forming his entrenchments and erecting his batteries, the townsmen,
+augmented by a number of fierce Suliots and others, were strengthening
+their defences. They increased their ramparts, and organised a
+garrison of four thousand soldiers and armed peasants, with a thousand
+citizens and boatmen as auxiliaries. At first the tide of fortune was
+with them. The Turks had to defend themselves as best they could from
+numerous sorties, well-planned and well-executed, in May and June; and
+fresh courage came to the Greeks with the intelligence that Admiral
+Miaoulis was on his way to the port, with as powerful a fleet as he
+could muster. While he was being expected, however, on the 10th of
+July, the Turkish Capitan Pasha of Greece arrived with fifty-five
+vessels. Miaoulis, with forty Greek sail, made his appearance on the
+2nd of August. Thus the naval and military forces of both sides were
+brought into formidable opposition.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+At first the Greeks triumphed on the sea. In the night of the 3rd of
+August, Miaoulis, finding that Missolonghi was being greatly troubled
+by the blockade established by the Turks, cleverly placed himself to
+windward of the enemy's line, and at daybreak on the 4th he dispersed
+the squadron nearest the shore. At noon the whole Turkish force came
+against him. He met them bravely, but being able to do no more
+than hold his own by the ordinary method of warfare, he sent three
+fireships against them in the afternoon. The Turks did not wait to be
+injured by them. They fled at once, going all the way to Alexandria
+in search of safety. Miaoulis then lost no time in seconding his first
+exploit by another. A detachment of the army of Eastern Greece, under
+the brave generals Karaïskakes and Zavellas, having been sent to
+harass Reshid Pasha's operations, the admiral assisted them in a
+successful piece of strategy. The Turks were, on the 6th of August,
+attacked simultaneously by the ships and by the outlying battalion
+of Greeks, while fifteen hundred of the garrison rushed out upon the
+invaders. Four Turkish batteries were seized, and a great number of
+their defenders were killed and captured; the remainder, after tough
+fighting during three hours and a half, being driven so far back that
+much of the besieging work had to be done over again.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Miaoulis then went in search of the Ottoman fleet, leaving the
+townsmen, who were enabled, by the raising of the blockade, to receive
+fresh supplies of food, ammunition, and men, to continue their
+defence with a good heart. Reshid Pasha vigorously restored his siege
+operations, but, attempting to force his way into the town on the 21st
+of September, was again seriously repulsed. The Turks were allowed,
+and even tempted, to advance to a point which had been skilfully
+undermined by the besieged. The mine was then fired, and a great
+number of Moslems were blown into the air, while their comrades,
+fleeing in disorder, were further injured by a storm of shot from the
+ramparts. A similar device was resorted to, with like success, on the
+13th of October. Reshid had to retire to a safe distance and
+there build winter quarters for his diminished and starving army.
+Karaïskakes and Zavellas entered Missolonghi without hindrance, there
+to concert measures which, had they been promptly adopted, might have
+utterly destroyed the besieging force.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+They delayed their plans too long. The Capitan Pasha having in August
+fled in a cowardly way to Alexandria, there effected a junction with
+the Egyptians, and returned to the neighbourhood of Missolonghi in
+the middle of November with a huge fleet of a hundred and thirty-five
+vessels, well supplied with troops and provisions. These he landed at
+Patras on the 18th, just in time to be free from any annoyance that
+might have been occasioned by Miaoulis, who returned to Missolonghi
+on the 28th with a fleet of only thirty-three sail. He had vainly
+attacked a part of the Moslem force on its way, and now, after landing
+some stores at Missolonghi, made several vain attempts to overcome a
+force four times as strong as his own. He soon retired, intending to
+return as promptly as he could collect a large fleet and bring with
+him further supplies of the provisions of which the Missolonghites
+were beginning to be in need.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The need was greater even than he imagined. Not only had the Capitan
+Pasha brought temporary assistance, in men and food, to the besieging
+force. Yet greater assistance soon came in the shape of an Egyptian
+army, led by Ibrahim Pasha himself. An overwhelming power was
+thus organized during the last weeks of 1825, and the defenders of
+Missolonghi were left to succumb to it, almost unaided. Their previous
+successes had induced the Greeks of other districts to believe that
+they could continue their defence alone, and almost the only relief
+obtained by them was from the Zantiots, who had all along been zealous
+in the despatch of money and provisions, and from Miaoulis and the
+small fleet and equipment that he was able to collect from the islands
+of the Archipelago. Miaoulis returned in January, 1826, and did much
+injury to the Turkish and Egyptian vessels. But he could offer no
+hindrance to the action of the Turks and Egyptians upon land. The
+rainy months of December and January, in which no important attack
+could be entered upon, were spent by Ibrahim and his companions in
+preparation for future work. The invaders were now well provided
+with every requisite. The besieged were in want of nearly everything.
+"Invested for ten months," says the contemporary historian,
+"frequently on the verge of starvation, thinned by fatigue, watching,
+and wounds, they had already buried fifteen hundred soldiers. The
+town was in ruins, and they lived amongst the mire and water of their
+ditches, exposed to the inclemency of a rigorous season, without shoes
+and in tattered clothing. As far as their vision stretched over the
+waves they beheld only Turkish flags. The plain was studded with
+Mussulman tents and standards; and the gradual appearance of new
+batteries more skilfully disposed, the field days of the Arabs, and
+the noise of saws and hammers, gave fearful warning. Yet these gallant
+Acarnanians, Etolians, and Epirots never flinched for an instant."[A]
+</p>
+
+<p>
+[Footnote A: Gordon, vol. ii., p. 253.]
+</p>
+
+<p>
+On the 13th of January, Ibrahim Pasha sent to say that he was willing
+to treat with them for an honourable surrender if they would convey
+their terms by deputies who could speak Albanian, Turkish, and French.
+"We are illiterate, and do not understand so many languages," was
+their blunt reply; "pashas we do not recognize; but we know how to
+handle the sword and gun."[A]
+</p>
+
+<p>
+[Footnote A: Ibid.]
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Sword and gun were handled with desperate prowess during February and
+March and the early part of April. In April, offers of capitulation
+were renewed by Ibrahim, and more disinterested attempts to avert
+the worst calamity were made by Sir Frederick Adam, the Lord High
+Commissioner of the Ionian Islands. Both proposals were stoutly
+rejected. The Missolonghiotes declared that they would defend their
+town to the last, and trust only in God and in their own strong arms.
+But on the 1st of April the last scanty distribution of public rations
+was exhausted. For three weeks the inhabitants subsisted upon nothing
+but cats, rats, hides, seaweed, and whatever other refuse and vermin
+they could collect. At length, on the 22nd of April, finding it
+impossible to hold out for a day longer, they resolved to evacuate the
+town in a body, and, cutting their way through the enemy, to try to
+join Karaïskakes and his small force, who, hiding among the mountain
+fastnesses, were vainly seeking for some way of assisting them, and to
+whom they now despatched a message, asking them to advance and help to
+clear a passage for their flight.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+After sunset four bridges of planks were secretly laid over the outer
+ditch of Missolonghi, and the inhabitants were ordered to prepare to
+leave in two hours. Many&mdash;about two thousand&mdash;lost heart at last; some
+betaking themselves to the powder stores, there, when all hope was
+over, to end their lives by easier death than the enemy might allow
+them; others, crouching in corners of their homesteads, deeming it
+better to be murdered there than in the open country. The rest obeyed
+the orders of the generals. All the women dressed themselves as men,
+with swords or daggers at their waists. Every child who could hold a
+weapon had one placed in his hand. There was bitter leave-taking, and
+desperate words of encouragement passed from one to another, as the
+patriots were marshalled in the order of their departure;&mdash;three
+thousand fighting men to open a passage and four thousand women and
+children to follow;&mdash;the whole being divided into three separate
+parties. At length all was ready, and the first party silently passed
+out of the town and advanced to the bridges. To their amazement,
+they no sooner appeared than they were met by volley after volley of
+Turkish fire. A traitor had revealed their plan, and every measure had
+been taken for their destruction. Some rushed on in despite; others
+hurried back, to fall into confusion, which it was hard indeed to
+overcome. They felt, however, that this deadly chance was their only
+chance of life, and they pressed on through the fire, and the swords
+of their foes, and by the sheer heroism of despair forced a passage
+to the mountains. Karaiskakes's aid&mdash;apparently through no fault of
+his&mdash;was only obtained when the worst dangers had been surmounted or
+succumbed to. Of the nine thousand persons who were in Missolonghi on
+the day of the evacuation, four thousand were killed in the town or on
+the way out of it. Only thirteen hundred men and two hundred women and
+children lived to reach Salona after more than a week of wandering and
+hiding among the mountains.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The long siege of Missolonghi illustrates all the best and some of
+the worst features of the Greek Revolution. In it there was patriotism
+worthy, in its bursts of splendour, of the nation that claimed descent
+from the heroes of Plataea and Thermopylae. But the patriotism was
+often fitful in its working, and oftener wholly wanting. The Greeks
+could not shake off the pernicious influences that sprang, almost
+necessarily, from their long centuries of thraldom. Heroism was
+closely linked with treachery and meanness. The worthiest and most
+disinterested energy was intimately associated with ignorance as to
+the right methods of action, and with wilful action in wrong ways. The
+elements of weakness that had been apparent from the first were more
+and more developed as the painful struggle reached its termination.
+It seems as if, in spite of Reshid Pasha and Ibrahim and their
+fierce armies, it would have been easy for Missolonghi and its
+brave defenders to have been saved. But rival ambitions and
+paltry jealousies divided the leaders of the Revolution. They were
+quarrelling while the power that each one coveted for himself was,
+step by step, being wrested from them all; and when they tried to do
+well their want of discipline often rendered their efforts of small
+avail. No adequate attempt was made to relieve Missolonghi by land,
+and the brave conduct of Miaoulis on the sea was almost neutralized
+by the disorganization of his crews and the selfish policy of the
+islanders who sent him out.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"With respect to the Greek army," wrote General Ponsonby to the Duke
+of Wellington, from Corfu, on the 15th of June, "it is, generally
+speaking, a mob; and a chief can only calculate upon keeping it
+together as long as he has provisions to give it or the prospect of
+plunder without danger. There is nothing to oppose the Egyptian
+army but a mob kept together by the small sums sent by the different
+committees in foreign countries. The Greeks have a great horror of
+the bayonet, which, however, they have never seen near, except at
+Missolonghi. The Suliots, who chiefly formed the garrison of that
+place, are fine men, and certainly fought with great courage. Much
+has been said of naval actions, but there is no truth in any of the
+accounts. The Greeks are better sailors than the Turks, but no action
+has been fought since the beginning of the war, if it is understood by
+action that there is risk and loss on both sides. The Greeks, however,
+have done wonders with their fleet. They have destroyed many large
+ships, and, in the month of February last, with twenty-three brigs,
+they out-manoeuvred the Turkish fleet of sixty sail, and threw
+provisions into Missolonghi. This, though done by seamanship, and not
+fighting, was called a great battle and a great victory. I was
+within two miles of the fleets, and the cannonade for six hours was
+tremendous; but when I spoke to Miaoulis the following morning he told
+me he had not lost a man in his fleet."[A]
+</p>
+
+<p>
+[Footnote A: "Despatches of the Duke of Wellington," vol. iii., p.
+338.]
+</p>
+
+<p>
+During the summer and winter following the fall of Missolonghi a
+series of small disasters, the aggregate of which was by no means
+small, befel the Greeks. It was the opinion of all parties, and
+admitted even by jealous rivals, that the tottering cause of
+independence was only sustained by the constant and eager expectation
+of the arrival of the powerful fleet which was supposed to be on its
+way to the Archipelago, under the able leadership of Lord Cochrane,
+the world-famous champion of Chilian and Brazilian freedom.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+His approach was hardly more a cause of hope to the Greeks than a
+subject of fear to the Turks. No sooner was it publicly known that he
+had espoused the cause of the insurgents than angry complaints were
+made by the Turkish Government to the British ministry, and Mr.
+Canning, then Foreign Secretary, had more than once to avow that the
+authorities in England knew nothing of his movements, and had done all
+that the law rendered possible to restrain him. He had also to promise
+that everything legal should be done to keep him in check on his
+arrival in Greek waters. "We have heard," he wrote in August to his
+cousin, Mr. Stratford Canning, afterwards Lord Stratford de Redcliffe,
+the ambassador at Constantinople, "that Lord Cochrane is gone to
+the Mediterranean; whether it be really so, we know not." He then
+proceeded to define the bearing of English and international law
+in the existing circumstances. "Lord Cochrane may enter the Greek
+service, and continue therein. He may even, as a Greek commander,
+institute (as he did in Brazil) blockades which British officers will
+respect, and exercise the belligerent rights of search on British
+merchant-ships, without exposing himself to any other penalty than
+that which the law will inflict upon him if ever hereafter he shall
+again bring himself within its reach, and be duly convicted of the
+offence for the punishment of which that law was enacted. If, indeed,
+he should do any of such things without a commission he would become a
+pirate, and liable to the summary justice to which, without reference
+to the municipal laws of his country, he would, as an enemy of the
+human race, be liable; and liable just as much from the officers of
+any other country as of his own."[A]
+</p>
+
+<p>
+[Footnote A: "Despatches of the Duke of Wellington," vol. iii., pp.
+357, 358.]
+</p>
+
+<p>
+While that correspondence was going on, Lord Cochrane, as we have
+seen, was battling with a long series of delays, as irksome to himself
+as they were unfortunate to the Greeks. It was not till the 14th of
+September, about eight months after the time fixed for the arrival of
+his whole fleet, that the first instalment of it, the <i>Perseverance</i>,
+which he had sent on as soon as it was completed, with Captain Abney
+Hastings as its commander, entered the harbour of Nauplia. On the 26th
+of October, Captain Hastings wrote a letter, giving curious evidence
+of the estimate formed by him of the Greek character. It was left
+at Nauplia and addressed to "the commander of the first American
+or English vessel that arrives in Greece to join the Greeks." "An
+apprenticeship in Greece tolerably long," he wrote, "has taught me the
+risks to which anybody newly arrived, and possessed of some place and
+power, is exposed. They know me, and they also know that I know them;
+yet they have not ceased, and never will cease, intriguing to get this
+vessel out of my hands and into their own, which would be
+tantamount to ruining her. Knowing all this, I take the liberty
+of leaving this letter, to be delivered to the first officer
+that arrives in Greece in the command of a vessel, to caution
+him not to receive on board his vessel any Greek captain. They
+will endeavour, under various pretences, to introduce themselves on
+board, and when once they have got a footing, they will gradually
+encroach until they feel themselves strong enough to turn out the
+original commander. The presence of such men can only be attended with
+inconvenience, for, if you are obliged to take a certain number of
+Greek sailors, these captains will render subordination among them
+impossible by their own irregularity and bad example. If you want
+seamen, take some from Hydra, Spetzas, Kranidi, or Poros. The Psarians
+may be trusted in very small numbers. Take a few men from one, a few
+from another island, and thus you will be best enabled to establish
+some kind of discipline. Take a good number of marines. Choose them
+from the peasantry and foreign Greeks, and you may make something of
+them. You must see, sir, that, in this my advice to the first officer
+arriving in command of a vessel, I can have no interest any further
+than inasmuch as I wish well to the Greek cause, and therefore do not
+wish to see a force that can be of great service rendered ineffective
+by falling into the hands of people totally incapable and unwilling to
+adopt a single right measure. In Greece there cannot be any military
+operations except such as are carried on by foreigners in their
+service."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+That letter was written after Captain Hastings had endured a month's
+annoyance from the trouble brought upon him by the Hydriot officers
+and seamen who tried to oust him from the command of his fine vessel,
+whose name was now changed from the <i>Perseverance</i> to the <i>Karteria</i>.
+Unfortunately, his letter, left at Nauplia, did not reach the captain
+of the next reinforcement, the American frigate, which arrived at
+Egina on the 8th of December. "She was one of the finest ships in the
+world," we are told, "carrying sixty-four guns&mdash;long 32-pounders on
+the main, and 42-pound carronades on the upper deck&mdash;and was filled
+with flour, ammunition, medicines, and marine stores for eighteen
+months' consumption. The Greeks contemplated her with delight, but,
+upon the departure of the American officers and seamen who navigated
+her out, they discovered that she would be more embarrassing than
+useful to them. To manage vessels of such a size was beyond their
+capacity, and the mutual jealousy of the islanders suggested to the
+Government the absurd notion of putting the frigate into commission,
+Hydra, Spetzas, and the Psarian community being desired to send quotas
+of men. This plan was now found to be impracticable. Repeated fights
+occurred on board. The ship was twice in danger of being wrecked at
+Egina, and at Poros she actually drifted ashore, luckily on soft mud.
+She was finally given up to Miaoulis, with a Hydriot crew of his own
+selection."[A]
+</p>
+
+<p>
+[Footnote A: Gordon, vol. ii., p. 326.]
+</p>
+
+<p>
+This frigate, christened the <i>Hellas</i>, came too late to be of much
+service to Admiral Miaoulis, before the arrival of Lord Cochrane. In
+the previous summer and autumn, however, he had been harassing and
+keeping at bay the Turkish and Egyptian fleets&mdash;work in which Hastings
+was in time to assist him.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Andreas Miaoulis, one of the least obtrusive, was almost the worthiest
+of all the Greek patriots. During five years he had never ceased to do
+the best that it was possible for him to do with the bad materials
+at his disposal. When the Greek Revolution was at its height, he
+had contributed largely to its success; and in the ensuing years
+of disaster upon land, he had maintained its dignity on the sea by
+offering bold resistance to the great naval power of the combined
+Turkish and Egyptian fleets. No better proof of his patriotism could
+be given than in the zeal with which he surrendered to Lord Cochrane
+the leadership of the fleet which had devolved upon him for so long
+and been so ably conducted by him. "I received four days ago," he
+wrote from Poros on the 23rd of February, 1827, "your amiable
+letter of the 19th of last month, and my great satisfaction at the
+announcement of your approaching arrival in Greece is joined with a
+special pleasure at the honour you do me in associating me with your
+important operations. I shall be happy, my admiral, if, in serving
+you, I can do my duty. I await you with impatience."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Just a month before that, on the 23rd of January, a like letter
+of congratulation was addressed to Lord Cochrane from Egina by the
+Governing Commission of Greece. "The intelligence of your speedy
+coming to Greece," they said, "has awakened the liveliest joy and
+satisfaction, and has already begun to rekindle in the hearts of
+the Greeks that enthusiasm which is the most powerful weapon and the
+surest support of a nation that has devoted itself to the recovery of
+its most sacred rights. The Government of Greece is waiting with
+the utmost impatience for the most zealous defender of the nation's
+liberty. It hopes to see you in its midst as soon as possible after
+your arrival at Hydra, and then to make you acquainted with the actual
+state of Greece, and to furnish you with all the means in its power
+for the achievement of the grand results proposed by your lordship."
+The letter was signed by Andreas Zaimes, as President of
+the Commission, and by seven of its members, among whom were
+Mavromichales, or Petro-Bey, who, with Zaimes and two others,
+represented the Morea, Spiridion Trikoupes, the deputy for Roumelia,
+Zamados from Hydra, Monarchides from Psara, and Demetrakopoulos from
+the islands of the Egean Sea.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+By the same body was issued, on the 21st of February, a preliminary
+commission, intended to protect him in case of any opposition being
+raised to his progress by the authorities of other nations. "The
+Governing Commission of Greece," it was written, "makes known that
+Admiral Lord Cochrane is recognised as being in the service of Greece,
+and accordingly has the permission of the Government to hoist the
+Greek flag on all the vessels that are under his command. He has
+power, also, to fight the enemies of Greece to the utmost of his
+power. Therefore the officers of neutral powers, being informed of
+this, are implored, not only to offer no opposition to his movements,
+but also, if necessary, to supply him with any assistance he may
+require, seeing that it is our custom to do the same to all friendly
+nations." Armed with this document, and provided with the necessary
+means by the Philhellenes of England, France, and Switzerland, Lord
+Cochrane proceeded from Marseilles to Greece.
+</p>
+
+</div><!--end chapter-->
+
+<div class="chapter">
+
+<h2><a name="chap17"></a>APPENDIX.</h2>
+
+<h3>I.</h3>
+
+<p>
+(Page 22.)
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The following "Resumé of the Services of the late Earl of Dundonald,
+none of which have been Requited or Officially Recognized," was
+written by his son, one of the authors of the present work, and
+printed for private circulation in 1861.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+1. The destruction of three heavily-armed French corvettes, near the
+mouth of the Garonne, the crew of Lord Cochrane's frigate, <i>Pallas</i>,
+being at the time, with the exception of forty men, engaged in cutting
+out the <i>Tapageuse</i>, lying under the protection of two batteries
+thirty miles up the river, in which operation they were also
+successful, four ships of war being thus captured or destroyed in a
+single day. For these services Lord Cochrane obtained nothing but
+his share of the <i>Tapageuse</i>, sold by auction for a trifling sum,
+the Government refusing to purchase her as a ship of war, though of
+admirable build and construction. Contrary to the usual rule, no ship
+ever taken by Lord Cochrane, throughout his whole career, was ever
+allowed to be bought into the navy. For the corvettes, which Lord
+Cochrane destroyed with so small a crew, he never received reward or
+thanks, the alleged reason being, that, having become wrecks, they
+were not in existence, and therefore could not have value attached
+to them. This decision of the Admiralty was contrary to custom, as
+admitted to the present day. In the late Russian war a gunboat of the
+enemy having been driven on shore and wrecked, compensation is said to
+have been awarded to the officers and crew of the British vessel
+which drove her on shore. The importance of wrecking a gunboat, in
+comparison with the destruction of three fast-sailing ships, which
+were picking up our merchantmen, in all directions, needs no comment.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+2. Lord Cochrane's services on the coast of Catalonia, of which Lord
+Collingwood, then commander-in-chief in the Mediterranean, testified
+of his lordship to the Admiralty that by his energy and foresight
+he had, with a single frigate, stopped a French army from occupying
+Eastern Spain. The services by which this was effected were as
+follows:&mdash;Preventing the reinforcement of the French garrison in
+Barcelona, by harassing the newly-arrived troops in their march along
+the coast, and organising and assisting the Spanish militia to oppose
+their progress, Lord Cochrane himself capturing one of their forts on
+shore, and taking the garrison prisoners.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+On the approach of a powerful French <i>corps d'armée</i> towards
+Barcelona, Lord Cochrane blew up the roads along the coast, and taught
+the Spanish peasantry how to do so inland. By blowing up the cliff
+roads, near Mongat, Lord Cochrane interposed an insurmountable
+obstacle between the army and its artillery, capturing and throwing
+into the sea a considerable number of field-pieces, so that the
+operations of the French were rendered nugatory. For these services,
+Lord Cochrane, notwithstanding the strong representations of Lord
+Collingwood to the Board of Admiralty, neither received thanks nor
+reward of any kind; notwithstanding that whilst so engaged, and that
+voluntarily, in successfully accomplishing the work of an army, he
+patriotically gave up all chances of prize money, though easily to be
+obtained by cruising after the enemy's vessels. In place of this, he
+neither searched for nor captured a single prize, whilst engaged
+in harassing the French army on shore, devoting his whole energies
+towards the enterprise which he considered most conducive to the
+interests of his country.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+3. Having effected his object, Lord Cochrane sailed for the Gulf
+of Lyons, with the intention of cutting off the enemy's shore
+communications. This he accomplished by destroying their signal
+stations, telegraphs, and shore batteries along nearly the whole
+coast, navigating his frigate with perfect safety throughout this
+proverbially perilous part of the Mediterranean. In order further
+to paralyse the enemy's movements, Lord Cochrane made a practice
+of burning paper near the demolished stations, so as to deceive the
+French into the belief that he had burned their signal books; he
+rightly judging that from this circumstance they might not deem it
+necessary to alter their code of signals. The ruse succeeded, and,
+transmitting the signal books to Lord Collingwood, then watching the
+enemy's preparations in Toulon, the commander-in-chief was thus
+fully apprised, by the enemy's signals, not only of all their naval
+movements, but also of the position and movements of all British
+ships of war on the French coast. Lord Cochrane's single frigate
+thus performed the work of many vessels of observation, and Lord
+Collingwood testified of him to the Admiralty that "his resources
+seemed to have no end." Notwithstanding this testimony from his
+commander-in-chief, Lord Cochrane neither received reward nor thanks
+for the service rendered.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+4. On his return to the Spanish coast, Lord Cochrane found the French
+besieging Rosas, the Spaniards maintaining possession of the citadel,
+whilst Fort Trinidad had just been evacuated by the British officer
+who had been co-operating with the Spaniards in the larger fortress.
+Lord Cochrane, believing that if Fort Trinidad were held till
+reinforcements arrived, the French must be compelled to raise the
+siege of Rosas, persuaded the Spanish Governor not to surrender, as he
+was about to do, on its evacuation by the British officer aforesaid,
+and threw himself into the fort with a detachment from the seamen
+and marines of the <i>Impérieuse</i>, with which frigate he maintained
+uninterrupted communication, in spite of the enemy, who, on
+ascertaining it to be Lord Cochrane who was keeping them at bay,
+redoubled their efforts to capture the fort, the gallant defence of
+which is amongst the most remarkable events of naval warfare. Lord
+Cochrane held Fort Trinidad till, the Spaniards surrendering the
+citadel, he would not allow his men to run further risk in their
+behalf, and withdrew the seamen and marines in safety. For this
+remarkable exploit Lord Cochrane, though himself severely wounded,
+neither received reward nor thanks, except from Lord Collingwood,
+who again, without effect, warmly applauded his gallantry to the
+Admiralty.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+5. Immediately on his arrival at Plymouth, on leave of absence in
+consequence of ill health from his extraordinary exertions, Lord
+Cochrane was immediately summoned by the Admiralty to Whitehall,
+and asked for a plan whereby the French fleet in Basque Roads, then
+threatening our West India possessions, might be destroyed at one
+blow; this extraordinary request from a junior captain, after the most
+experienced officers in the navy had pronounced its impracticability,
+forcibly proving the very high opinion entertained by the Admiralty
+of Lord Cochrane's skill and resources. He gave in a plan, and was
+ordered to execute it, which order he reluctantly obeyed, having done
+all in his power to decline an invidious command, for fear of arousing
+the jealousy of officers to whom he was junior in the service. What
+followed is matter of history, and needs not to be recapitulated.
+Yet for the destruction of that powerful armament he neither received
+reward nor thanks from the Admiralty, though rewarded by his sovereign
+with the highest order of the Bath, a distinction which marked his
+Majesty's sense of the important service rendered.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Nine years afterwards head money was awarded to the whole fleet,
+of which only the vessels directed by Lord Cochrane and a few sent
+afterwards, when too late for effective measures, took part in the
+action. The alleged reason of this award was that the <i>Calcutta</i>, one
+of the ships driven ashore by Lord Cochrane, did not surrender to him,
+but to ships sent to his assistance. This was not true, though after
+protracted deliberation so ruled by the Admiralty Court, and officers
+now living and present in the action have recently come forward to
+testify to the ship being in Lord Cochrane's possession before the
+arrival of the ships which subsequently came to his assistance. A
+small sum was therefore only awarded to him as a junior captain, in
+common with those who had been spectators only, and this he declined
+to receive. Such was his recompense for a service to the high merit of
+which Napoleon himself afterwards testified in the warmest manner; and
+it may be mentioned as a further testimony that a French Court Martial
+shot Captain Lafont, the commander of the <i>Calcutta</i>, because he
+surrendered to a vessel of inferior power, viz., Lord Cochrane's
+frigate, the <i>Impérieuse</i> of forty-four guns, the <i>Calcutta</i> carrying
+sixty guns.[A]
+</p>
+
+<p>
+[Footnote A: Captain Lafont was shot on board the <i>Ocean</i>, on
+September 9, 1809, <i>for surrendering the Calcutta to a ship of
+inferior force</i>, thus proving that she surrendered to Lord Cochrane
+alone, though Sir William Scott ruled in opposition to the facts
+adopted by the French Court Martial, which condemned Captain Lafont
+to death for the act. The surrender to Lord Cochrane alone is further
+proved by the additional fact, that the captains of the <i>Ville de
+Varsovie</i> and <i>Aquilon</i>, which <i>did</i> surrender to the other ships in
+conjunction with Lord Cochrane's frigate, were not even accused, much
+less punished for so doing.]
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The exploits of Lord Cochrane in the <i>Speedy</i> and <i>Pallas</i> are too
+well known in naval history to require recapitulation, and of these
+it may be said that the numerous prizes captured by these vessels
+constituted their own reward. It may here be mentioned in confirmation
+of what has previously been said, that the <i>Gamo</i>, a magnificent
+xebeque frigate of thirty-two guns, was not allowed to be bought into
+the navy, but was sold for a small sum to one of the piratical Barbary
+States, notwithstanding that Lord Cochrane had said that if he
+were allowed to have her in place of the <i>Speedy</i>, then in a very
+dilapidated condition, he would sweep the Mediterranean of the enemy's
+cruisers and privateers. His capacity so to do may be judged from what
+he effected with the <i>Speedy</i>, mounting only fourteen 4-pounders.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+With regard to the services previously enumerated, the case is
+different, notwithstanding their national importance in comparison
+with his minor acts, which may be classed as brilliant exploits only.
+But that no reward should have been conferred for doing effectively
+the work of an army, and that without the cost of a shilling to the
+nation beyond the ordinary expenditure of a small frigate, necessary
+to be disbursed whether she performed any effective service or not,
+is a neglect which, unless repaired in the persons of his successors,
+will for ever remain a blot on the British Government. Still more so
+will the worse neglect of not having in any way rewarded him for the
+destruction of the French fleet in Basque Roads, for though only four
+ships were destroyed at the moment, the whole fleet of the enemy was
+so damaged by having been driven on shore from terror of the explosive
+vessel, fired with Lord Cochrane's own hand, that it eventually became
+a wreck; and thus our West India commerce, then the most important
+branch of national export and import, was in a month after Lord
+Cochrane's arrival from the Mediterranean relieved from the panic
+which paralysed it, and restored to its wonted security;&mdash;a service
+which can only be estimated by the gloom and panic which had
+previously pervaded the whole country.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Were reference made to the pension list, and note taken of the
+pensions granted to other officers and their successors for services
+which in point of national importance do not admit of comparison with
+those of Lord Cochrane, the present generation would be surprised at
+the national ingratitude manifested towards one, who, in his great
+exploits, had so patriotically sacrificed every consideration
+of private interest to his country's service. His cruise in the
+<i>Impérieuse</i>, which has no parallel in naval history, procured for
+Lord Cochrane nothing whatever but shattered health from the
+incessant anxiety and exertion he had undergone in the profitless but
+high-minded course he adopted to thwart the French in their attempts
+to establish a permanent footing in Eastern Spain. His exploits in
+Basque Roads procured him nothing but absolute ruin; for, from his
+refusal as a Member of Parliament to acquiesce in a vote of thanks to
+Lord Gambier, even though the same thanks were promised to himself,
+may be dated that active political persecution which commenced by
+depriving him of further naval employment and did not cease till it
+had accomplished his utter ruin, even to striking his name out of the
+<i>Navy List</i>.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The animosity of this political partisanship towards one who had
+effected so much for his country is an anomaly even in political
+history. That amended representation of the people in Parliament, for
+which he strove up to 1818, had only fourteen years afterwards become
+the law of the land, and the boast of some who had persecuted Lord
+Cochrane for no offence beyond having been amongst the first to give
+expression to the popular will subsequently adopted by themselves.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The efforts of Lord Cochrane in favour of reforming the abuses of the
+Navy and of Greenwich Hospital, which at that time brought upon him
+the wrath of the Administration, are at this moment seriously engaging
+the attention of parliament, as being of paramount national necessity.
+The doctrine then openly laid down, that no naval officer in
+parliament had a right to interfere with naval administration, has
+long been abrogated, and many of the brightest ornaments of the navy
+are now amongst the foremost to denounce naval abuses in the House of
+Commons. It is, in fact, to them that the country now looks for
+that vigilance which shall preserve the navy in a proper state of
+efficiency. Yet for these very things was Lord Cochrane persecuted,
+though modern Governments, which have been liberal enough to acquiesce
+in popular reforms, of which he was the early advocate, have not been
+liberal enough to make him amends for the wrongs he suffered as one of
+the indefatigable originators of their now-cherished measures. Still
+less have they deemed it inconsistent with the honour of this great
+country to refrain from rewarding him in the ordinary manner for his
+most important services, rendered when others shrank from them, as was
+the case at Basque Roads, where his plans, declined by his seniors in
+the service, were successfully executed by himself under the greatest
+possible discouragement and disadvantage.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+But the injustice manifested towards the late Earl of Dundonald did
+not end here. Driven from the service of his own country, and without
+fortune, he was compelled by his necessities to embark in the service
+of foreign states. With his own hand, directed by his own genius,
+which had to supply the place of adequate naval force, he liberated
+Chili, Peru, and Brazil from thraldom, consolidating the rebellious
+provinces of the latter empire on so permanent a basis, that its
+internal peace has never again been disturbed. Yet not one of these
+states has to this day satisfied the stipulated and indisputable
+arrangements by which he was induced to espouse their cause; the
+reason of their breach of contract being distinctly traceable to the
+course pursued towards Lord Dundonald in England. Seeing that the
+British Government paid no attention to the yet more important claims
+he had upon its gratitude, the South American States believed that
+they might with impunity disregard their own stipulations, and the
+dictates of national honour; the chief of one of them having had the
+audacity to tell Lord Cochrane that he would find no sympathy in the
+British Government.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Three of the most distinguished officers in the British service, Sir
+Thomas Hastings, Sir John Burgoyne, and Colonel Colquhoun, have felt
+it their duty, when officially reporting on the efficacy of Lord
+Dundonald's war plans, to give him the highest credit for having kept
+his secret "
+<i>under peculiarly trying circumstances</i>," and from
+pure love of his native country. The "trying circumstances" were
+these,&mdash;that he had been driven from the service of that country by
+the machinations of a political faction, which, in the conscientious
+performance of his parliamentary duties, he had offended. Even this
+injury, which blasted his whole life and prospects, did not detract
+one <i>iota</i> from the love of country, which to the day of his death
+was with him a passion; his acute mind well knowing how to draw the
+distinction between his country and those who were sacrificing its
+best interests to their love of power, if not to less worthy purposes.
+Never was praise more honourably given, than in the Ordnance Report
+of the above-named distinguished officers, and never was it more nobly
+deserved.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Another "peculiarly trying circumstance" alluded to by those officers,
+was that, when compelled by actual pecuniary necessity, in consequence
+of the deprivation of his rank and pay, and the demands of increasing
+family, to accept service under a foreign state as his only means of
+subsistence, he lay before the castles of Callao, into which had been
+removed for security the whole wealth of the rich capital of Peru,
+including bullion and plate, estimated at upwards of a million
+sterling, he preserved his war secret, though strongly urged to put
+it in execution. Had he listened to the temptation, in six hours
+the whole of that wealth must have been in his possession. For not
+listening to it, he incurred the enmity of his employers, who urged
+that they were entitled to all his professional skill and knowledge,
+as a part of his bargain with them; and his non-compliance with their
+wishes is doubtless amongst the chief reasons why they have not, to
+this day, satisfied their own offered stipulations for his services.
+Yet, at the very moment when he was displaying this self-sacrificing
+patriotism, lest his country might suffer from his secret being
+divulged, the Government of Great Britain had, at the suggestion of
+the Spanish Government, passed a "Foreign Enlistment Act," with the
+express intention of enveloping him in its meshes.[A]
+</p>
+
+<p>
+[Footnote A: On Lord Cochrane's return from Brazil, having occasion
+to go before the Attorney-General, on the subject of a patent, that
+learned functionary rudely asked him, "
+<i>Whether he was not afraid to
+appear in his presence?</i> " Lord Cochrane's reply was, "
+<i>No, nor in
+the presence of any man living</i>." Evidence exists that the
+Attorney-General asked the Ministry if he should prosecute Lord
+Cochrane under the Foreign Enlistment Act, the reply being in the
+negative.]
+</p>
+
+<h3>II.</h3>
+
+<p>
+(Page 23.)
+</p>
+
+<p>
+As a striking instance of Lord Cochrane's method of exposing naval
+abuses, part of a speech delivered by him in the House of Commons, on
+the 11th of May, 1809, is here copied from his "Autobiography," vol.
+ii. pp. 142-144.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+An admiral, worn out in the service, is superannuated at
+410£. a year, a captain at 210£., a clerk of the ticket office
+retires on 700£. a year! The widow of Admiral Sir Andrew
+Mitchell has one third of the allowance given to the widow of
+a Commissioner of the Navy.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+I will give the House another instance. Four daughters of the
+gallant Captain Courtenay have 12£. 10s. each, the daughter of
+Admiral Sir Andrew Mitchell has 25£., two daughters of Admiral
+Epworth have 25l. each, the daughter of Admiral Keppel 24£.,
+the daughter of Captain Mann, who was killed in action, 25£.,
+four children of Admiral Moriarty 25£. each. That is&mdash;thirteen
+daughters of admirals and captains, several of whose fathers
+fell in the service of their country, receive from the
+gratitude of the nation a sum less than Dame Mary Saxton, the
+widow of a commissioner.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The pension list is not formed on any comparative rank or
+merit, length of service, or other rational principle, but
+appears to me to be dependent on parliamentary influence
+alone. Lieutenant Ellison, who lost his arm, is allowed 91£.
+5s., Captain Johnstone, who lost his arm, has only 45£.
+12s. 6d., Lieutenant Arden, who lost his arm, has 9£.
+5s., Lieutenant Campbell, who lost his leg, 40£., and poor
+Lieutenant Chambers, who lost both his legs, has only 80£.,
+whilst Sir A.S. Hamond retires on 1500£. per annum. The brave
+Sir Samuel Hood, who lost his arm, has only 500£., whilst the
+late Secretary of the Admiralty retires, in full health, on a
+pension of 1500£. per annum.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+To speak less in detail, 32 flag officers, 22 captains, 50
+lieutenants, 180 masters, 36 surgeons, 23 pursers, 91 boatswains, 97
+gunners, 202 carpenters, and 41 cooks, in all 774 persons, cost the
+country 4028l. less than the nett proceeds of the sinecures of Lords
+Arden (20,358£), Camden (20,536£), and Buckingham (20,693£).
+</p>
+
+<p>
+All the superannuated admirals, captains, and lieutenants put
+together, have but 1012l. more than Earl Camden's sinecure alone! All
+that is paid to the wounded officers of the whole British navy, and
+to the wives and children of those dead or killed in action, do
+not amount by 214l. to as much as Lord Arden's sinecure alone, viz.
+20,358£. What is paid to the mutilated officers themselves is but half
+as much.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Is this justice? Is this the treatment which the officers of the
+navy deserve at the hands of those who call themselves his Majesty's
+Government? Does the country know of this injustice? Will this too be
+defended? If I express myself with warmth I trust in the indulgence
+of the House. I cannot suppress my feelings. Should 31 commissioners,
+commissioners' wives, and clerks have 3899l. more amongst them than
+all the wounded officers of the navy of England?
+</p>
+
+<p>
+I find upon examination that the Wellesleys receive from the public
+34,729£, a sum equal to 426 pairs of lieutenants' legs, calculated at
+the rate of allowance of Lieutenant Chambers's legs. Calculating
+for the pension of Captain Johnstone's arm, viz. 45l., Lord Arden's
+sinecure is equal to the value of 1022 captains' arms. The Marquis
+of Buckingham's sinecure alone will maintain the whole ordinary
+establishment of the victualling department at Chatham, Dover,
+Gibraltar, Sheerness, Downs, Heligoland, Cork, Malta, Mediterranean,
+Cape of Good Hope, Rio de Janeiro, and leave 5460£ in the Treasury.
+Two of these comfortable sinecures would victual the officers and men
+serving in all the ships in ordinary in Great Britain, viz. 117 sail
+of the line, 105 frigates, 27 sloops, and 50 hulks. Three of them
+would maintain the dockyard establishments at Portsmouth and Plymouth.
+The addition of a few more would amount to as much as the whole
+ordinary establishments of the royal dockyards at Chatham, Woolwich,
+Deptford, and Sheerness; whilst the sinecures and offices executed
+wholly by deputy would more than maintain the ordinary establishment
+of all the royal dockyards in the kingdom.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Even Mr. Ponsonby, who lately made so pathetic an appeal to the good
+sense of the people of England against those whom he was pleased to
+term demagogues, actually receives, for having been thirteen months in
+office, a sum equal to nine admirals who have spent their lives in
+the service of their country; three times as much as all the pensions
+given to all the daughters and children of all the admirals,
+captains, lieutenants, and other officers who have died in indigent
+circumstances, or who have been killed in the service.
+</p>
+
+<h3>III.</h3>
+
+<p>
+(Page 258.)
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The following letter, too long to be quoted in the body of the work,
+but too important to be omitted, was addressed by Lord Cochrane to
+the Brazilian Secretary of State. It gives memorable evidence of
+the treatment to which he was subjected by the Portuguese faction in
+Brazil.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Rio de Janeiro, May 3rd, 1824.
+</p>
+
+<p class="letter">
+MOST EXCELLENT SIR,
+</p>
+
+<p>
+I have received the honour of your excellency's reply to my letter
+of the 30th of March, and as I am thereby taught that the subjects on
+which I wrote are not now considered so intimately connected with your
+excellency's department as they were by your immediate predecessor,
+nor even so far relevant as to justify a direct communication to your
+excellency, I should feel it my duty to avoid troubling you farther
+on those subjects, were it not that you at the same time have freely
+expressed such opinions with respect to my conduct and motives as
+justice to myself requires me to controvert and refute.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+With regard to your excellency's assurance that it has ever been
+the intention of his Imperial Majesty and Council to act favourably
+towards me, I can in return assure your excellency that I have never
+doubted the just and benign intention of his Imperial Majesty himself,
+neither have I doubted that a part of his Privy Council has thought
+well of my services; and if I have imagined that a majority has been
+prejudiced against me, I have formed that conclusion merely from the
+effects which I have seen and experienced, and not from any undue
+prepossession against particular individuals, whether Brazilian or
+Portuguese. But when your excellency adds that those transactions
+between the late minister and myself, which, owing to their having
+been conducted verbally, have been ill-understood, have invariably
+been decided in a manner favourable to me, I confess myself at a loss
+to understand your excellency's meaning, not having any recollection
+of such favourable decisions, and therefore not feeling myself
+competent either to admit or deny unless in the first place your
+excellency shall be pleased to descend to particulars. I do indeed
+recollect that the late ministers, professing to have the authority of
+his Imperial Majesty, and which, from the personal countenance I
+have experienced from that august personage, I am sure they did not
+clandestinely assume, proffered to me the command of the imperial
+squadron, with every privilege, emolument, and advantage which
+I possessed in the command of the navy of Chili; and this, your
+excellency is desired to observe, was not a verbal transaction, but
+a written one, and therefore not liable to any of those
+misunderstandings to which verbal transactions, as your excellency
+observes, are naturally subject. Now, in Chili my commission was that
+of commander-in-chief of the squadron, without limitation as to time
+or any other restriction. My command, of course, was only to cease by
+my own voluntary resignation, or by sentence of court-martial, or by
+death, or other uncontrollable event. And accordingly the appointment
+which I accepted in the service of his Imperial Majesty, and in virtue
+of which I sailed in command of the expedition to Bahia, was that of
+commander-in-chief of the whole squadron, without limitation as to
+time or otherwise; and this, too, your excellency will be pleased
+to observe, was not a verbal transaction, but a solemn engagement
+in writing, bearing date the 26th day of March, 1823, and now in my
+possession. I had also the assurance in writing of the Minister of
+Marine, that the formalities of engrossment and registration of
+such appointment were only deferred from want of time, and should be
+executed immediately after my return.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+And now I most respectfully put it home to your excellency whether
+these engagements have or have not been fully confirmed and complied
+with under the present administration. I ask your excellency whether
+the patent which I received, bearing date the 25th November, 1823,
+did not contain a clause of limitation by which I might at any time be
+dismissed from the service under any pretence or without any pretence
+whatever&mdash;without even the form of a hearing in my own defence. Then
+again I ask your excellency whether my office as commander-in-chief of
+the squadron was not reduced for a period of three months&mdash;as appears
+by every official communication of the Minister of Marine to me during
+that period&mdash;to the command only of the vessels of war anchored
+in this port?[A] and further on this subject I ask your excellency
+whether after my repeated remonstrances against this injurious
+limitation of my stipulated authority, it was not pretended by the
+decree published in the Gazette of the 28th February, that I was then
+for the first time, as a mark of special favour, elevated to the rank
+of commander-in-chief of the squadron, and that too during the period
+only of the existing war: although nothing less than the chief command
+had been offered to me at the first, without any restriction as to
+time, and although it was only in that capacity I had consented to
+enter into the service, and under a written appointment as such I had
+then been in the service nearly twelve months. And then I ask your
+excellency whether the limitation introduced into the patent of the
+25th of November last, in violation of the original agreement, and
+confirmed and defined by the decree published on the 28th of February
+following; to which may be added the communication which I received
+from your excellency, excluding me from taking the oath, and becoming
+a party to the constitution, the 149th article of which provides for
+the protection of officers until lawfully deprived by sentence of
+court-martial; I say that I respectfully ask your excellency whether
+these proceedings were not well adapted for the purpose of casting me
+off with the utmost facility at the earliest moment that convenience
+might dictate; either with or without the admission of those claims
+for the future to which past services are usually considered entitled,
+as might best suit the inclination of those with whom my dismissal
+might originate. And is it not most probable that their inclination
+would run counter to those claims, especially when it is considered
+that my letter of the 6th of March to the Minister of Marine, in which
+I made the inquiry whether my right to half-pay would be recognized
+on the termination of the war, has never been answered, although my
+application for a reply has been repeated?[B] If then the explicit
+engagements in writing between the late minister of his Imperial
+Majesty and myself have, as I have shown, been set aside by the
+present ministry and council, and other arrangements far less
+favourable to me, and destructive of the lawful security of my present
+and future rights, have without my consent been substituted in their
+stead, where, I entreat your excellency, am I to look for those
+favourable constructions of "ill-understood verbal transactions,"
+which your excellency requires me to accept as a proof that the
+intentions of the present ministry and council, in respect to me, have
+ever been of the most favourable and obliging nature?
+</p>
+
+<p>
+[Footnote A: This was resorted to, in order to prevent Lord Cochrane
+from stationing the cruisers to annoy the enemy, to deprive him of
+any interest in future captures, and prevent his opposition to the
+unlawful restoration of enemy's property.]
+</p>
+
+<p>
+[Footnote B: An answer was at last given, a few days before Lord
+Cochrane's assistance was called for to put down the revolution
+at Pernambuco; and <i>half</i> of the originally-granted <i>half-pay</i> was
+decreed when he should return, after the termination of hostilities,
+to his native country.]
+</p>
+
+<p>
+I would beg permission, too, to inquire how it happened that
+portarias[A] from the Minister of Marine, charging me unjustly from
+time to time with neglecting to obey the command of his Imperial
+Majesty, were constantly made public, while my answers in refutation
+were always suppressed. And why, when I remonstrated against this
+injustice, was I answered that the same course should be persisted
+in, and that I had no alternative but to acquiesce, or to descend to
+a newspaper controversy by publishing my exculpations myself? Is it
+possible not to perceive that the <i>ex parte</i> publication of
+these accusatory portarias was intended to lower me in the public
+estimation, and to prepare the way for the exercise of that power of
+summary dismissal which was so unfairly acquired by the means above
+described?
+</p>
+
+<p>
+[Footnote A: Official communications.]
+</p>
+
+<p>
+On the subject of the prizes your excellency is pleased to state: "Les
+difficultés survenues dans le jugement des prizes ont eu des motifs si
+connus et positifs qu'il est assez doloureux de les voir attribuir à
+la mauvaise volonté du Conseil de S.M.I." To this I reply that I know
+of no just cause for the delay which has arisen in the decision of the
+prizes, and consequently I have a right to impute blame for that delay
+to those who have the power to cause it or remove it. If the majority
+of the voices in council had been for a prompt condemnation to the
+captors of the prizes taken from the Portuguese nation, is
+it possible that individuals of that nation would be suffered
+to continue to be the judges of those prizes after an experience
+of many months has demonstrated either their determination
+to do nothing, or nothing favourable to the captors? The
+repugnance of Portuguese judges to condemn property captured from
+their fellow-countrymen, as a reward to those who have engaged in
+hostilities against Portugal, is natural enough, and is the only
+well-known and positive cause of the delay with which I am acquainted;
+but it is not such a cause for delay as ought to have been permitted
+to operate by the ministers and council of his Imperial Majesty, who
+are bound in honour and duty to act with fidelity towards those who
+have been engaged as auxiliaries in the attainment and maintenance of
+the independence of the empire. I did, however, inform your excellency
+that I had heard it stated that another difficulty had arisen in the
+apprehension that this Government might be under the necessity of
+eventually restoring the prizes to the original Portuguese owners as
+a condition of peace. But this, your excellency assures me, proves
+nothing but that I am a listener to "rapporteurs," whom I ought
+to drive from my presence. Unfortunately, however, for this bold
+explanation of your excellency, the individual whom I heard make the
+observation was no other than his excellency the present Minister of
+Marine, Francisco Villala Barboza. If your excellency considers that
+gentleman in the light of a "rapporteur," or talebearer, it is not for
+me to object; but the imputation of being a listener to or encourager
+of talebearers, so rashly advanced by your excellency against me,
+is without foundation in truth. It may be necessary for ministers
+of state to have their eavesdroppers and informers, but mine is a
+straightforward course, which needs no such precautions. And if there
+be any who volunteer information or advice, I can appreciate the value
+of it, and the motives of those who offer it. Those who know me much
+better than your excellency does, will admit that I am in the habit of
+thinking for myself, and not apt to act on the suggestions of others,
+especially if officiously tendered.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+As to the successive appointment and removal of incompetent auditors
+of marine, for which your excellency gives credit to the council,
+I can only say that the benefit of such repeated changes is by no
+means apparent. And to revert again to the difficulty of decision, for
+which your excellency intimates there is sufficient cause, I beg leave
+to ask your excellency what just reason can exist for not condemning
+these prizes to the captors. Can it be denied that the orders
+under which I sailed for the blockade of Bahia authorized me to act
+hostilely against the ships and property of the crown and subjects of
+Portugal? Can it be denied that war was regularly declared between
+the two nations? Was it not even promulgated under the sanction of his
+Imperial Majesty in a document giving to privateers certain privileges
+which it is admitted were possessed by the ships of war in the making
+and sale of captures? And yet did not the Prize Tribunal (consisting
+chiefly, as I before observed, of Portuguese), on the return of the
+squadron, eight months afterwards, pretend to be ignorant whether his
+Imperial Majesty was at war or at peace with the kingdom of Portugal?
+And did they not under that pretence avoid proceeding to adjudication?
+Was not this pretence a false one, or is it one of those well-founded
+causes of difficulty to which your excellency alludes? Can it be
+denied that the squadron sailed and acted in the full expectation,
+grounded on the assurance and engagements of the Government, that all
+captures made under the flag of the enemy, whether ships of war or
+merchant vessels, were to be prize to the captors? and yet when
+the prize judges were at length under the necessity of commencing
+proceedings, did they not endeavour to set aside the claims of the
+captors by the monstrous pretence that they had no interest in their
+captures when made within the distance of two leagues from the shore?
+Will your excellency contend that this was a good and sufficient
+reason? Was it founded in common sense, or on any rational precedent,
+or indeed any precedent whatever? Was it either honest to the squadron
+or faithful to the country? Was it not calculated to prevent the
+squadron from ever again assailing an invading enemy, or again
+expelling him from the shores of the empire? Then, in the next place,
+did not these most extraordinary judges pretend that at least all
+vessels taken in ports and harbours should be condemned as droits to
+the crown, and not as prize to the captors? Was not this another most
+pernicious attempt to deprive the imperial squadron not only of its
+reward for the past but of any adequate motive for the risk of
+future enterprise? And in effect, were not these successive pretences
+calculated to operate as invitations to invasions? Did they not tend
+to encourage the enemy to resume his occupation of the port of Bahia,
+and generally to renew his aggressions against the independence of
+the empire on her shores and in her ports without the probability
+of resistance by the squadrons of his Imperial Majesty? And have not
+these same judges actually condemned almost every prize as a droit
+to the crown, thereby doing as much as in them lay to defraud the
+squadron and to damp its zeal and destroy its energies? Nay, have
+not the auditors of marine actually issued decrees pronouncing the
+captures made at Maranhão to have been illegal, alleging that they
+were seized under the Brazilian flag, although in truth the flag
+of the enemy was flying at the time both in the forts and ships;
+declaring me a violator of the law of nations and law of the land;
+accusing me of having been guilty of an insult to the Emperor and
+the empire, and decreeing costs and damages against me under these
+infamous pretences? Can your excellency perceive either justice or
+decency in these decrees? Do they in any degree breathe the spirit of
+gratitude for the union of so important a province to the empire, or
+are they at all in accordance with the distinguished approbation which
+his Imperial Majesty himself has evinced of my services at Maranhão?
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Can it be unknown to your excellency that the late ministers, acting
+doubtless under the sanction of his Imperial Majesty, and assuredly
+under the guidance of common sense, held out that the value of ships
+of war taken from the enemy was to be the reward of the enterprise of
+the captors? And yet are we not now told that a law exists decreeing
+all captured men-of-war to the crown, and so rendering the engagements
+of the late ministers illegal and nugatory? Can anything be more
+contrary to justice, to good faith, to common sense, or to sound
+policy? Was it ever expected by any government employing foreign
+seamen in a war in which they can have no personal rights at stake,
+that those seamen will incur the risk of attacking a superior, or even
+an equal, force, without prospect of other reward than their ordinary
+pay? Is it not notorious that even in England it is found essential,
+or at least highly advantageous, to reward the officers and seamen,
+though fighting their own battles, not only with the full value of
+captured vessels of war, but even with additional premiums; and was
+it ever doubted that such liberal policy has mainly contributed to the
+surpassing magnitude of the naval power of that little island, and her
+consequent greatness as a nation?
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Can your excellency deny that the delay, the neglect, and the conduct
+generally of the prize judges, have been the cause of an immense
+diminution in the value of the captures? Have not the consequences
+been a wanton and shameful waste of property by decay and plunder?
+Can your excellency really believe in the existence of a good and
+sufficient motive for consigning such property to destruction, rather
+than at once awarding it to the captors in recompense for their
+services to the empire? Is it not true that all control over the sales
+and cargoes of the vessels, most of which are without invoices, have
+been taken from the captors and their agents and placed in the hands
+of individuals over whom they have no authority or influence, and from
+whom they can have no security of receiving a just account? And can
+it be doubted that the gracious intentions of his Imperial Majesty, as
+announced by himself, of rewarding the captors with the value of
+the prizes, are in the utmost danger of being defeated by such
+proceedings?
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Since the 12th day of February, when his Imperial Majesty was
+graciously pleased to signify his pleasure in his own handwriting that
+the prizes, though condemned to the crown, should be paid for to
+the captors, and that valuators should be appointed to estimate the
+amount, is it not true that nothing whatever, up to the date of my
+former letter to your excellency, had been done by his ministers
+and council in furtherance of such his gracious intentions? On the
+contrary, is it not notorious that, since the announcement of the
+imperial intention, numerous vessels and cargoes have been arbitrarily
+disposed of by authority of the auditors of marine, by being delivered
+to pretended owners and others without legal adjudication, and even
+without the decency of acquainting the captors or their agents that
+the property had been so transferred? And has not the whole cost
+of litigation, watching and guarding the vessels and cargoes, been
+entirely at the expense of the captors, notwithstanding the disposal
+of the property and the receipt of the proceeds by the agents of
+Government and others?
+</p>
+
+<p>
+So little hope of justice has been presented by the proceedings of the
+Prize Tribunal, that it has appeared quite useless to label the stores
+found in the naval and military arsenals of Maranhão, or the 66,000
+dollars in the chests of the Treasury and Custom House, with double
+that sum in bills, all of which was left for the use of the province,
+or permitted to be disbursed to satisfy the clamorous troops of Ceara
+and Pianhy. Has any remuneration been offered to the navy for these
+sacrifices, of which ministers were duly informed by my official
+despatches? or has any recompense been awarded for the Portuguese brig
+and schooner of war, both completely stored and equipped, which were
+surrendered at Maranhão, and which have ever since been employed in
+the naval service? To a proportion of all this I should have been
+entitled in Chili, as well as in the English service; and why, I ask,
+must I here be contented to be deprived of every hope of these the
+fruits of my labours? In addition to the prize vessels delivered to
+claimants without trial, have not the ministers appropriated others
+<i>to the uses of the state without valuation or recompense</i>?[A]
+</p>
+
+<p>
+[Footnote A: This conduct was afterwards more flagrantly exemplified
+on the arrival of the new and noble prize frigate <i>Imperatrice</i>, the
+equipment whereof had cost the captors 12,000 milreas, which sum has
+never been returned.]
+</p>
+
+<p>
+In short, is it not true that though more than a year has elapsed
+since the sailing of the imperial squadron under my command, and
+nearly half a year since its return, after succeeding in expelling the
+naval and military forces of the enemy from Bahia, and liberating the
+northern provinces, and uniting them to the empire; I say is it not
+true that not one shilling of prize money has yet been distributed
+to the squadron, and that no prospect is even now apparent of any
+distribution being speedily made? Is it not true that the only
+substantial reward of the officers and seamen of the squadron for the
+important services they have rendered has hitherto been nothing
+more than their mere pittance of ordinary pay; and even that in
+many instances vexatiously delayed and miserably curtailed? And with
+respect to myself individually, is it not notorious that I necessarily
+consume my whole pay in my current expenses; that my official rank
+cannot be upheld with less, and that it is wholly inadequate to the
+due support of the dignity of those high honours which his Imperial
+Majesty has been graciously pleased to confer?
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Under all these circumstances, it is in vain that I endeavour to
+make that discovery which your excellency assures me requires only
+a moment's reflection: "Au reste" (your excellency says), "que V'e.
+Ex'ce. réfléchisse un moment, celle trouverá que le Gouvernement de
+S.M.I. simplement et uniquement pour faire plaisir à V'e. Ex'ce. á
+s'est attiré une enormé responsabilité dans les engagemens pris
+avec V'e. Ex'ce." It is not one moment only nor one hour that I have
+reflected on these words, but without making the promised discovery,
+or any probable guess at your excellency's meaning. I would therefore
+entreat your excellency to tell me what it is that the Government
+has engaged to do. All that I know is they have engaged to pay me a
+certain sum per annum as commander-in-chief of the squadron; and this
+engagement, I admit, they have so far fulfilled. But the amount is
+little more than is received by the commander-in-chief of an English
+squadron; and is it not found in that service, and in every regular
+or established naval service, that for one officer qualified for any
+considerable command there are probably ten that are not qualified;
+though all have necessarily been reared and paid at the national
+expense? Whereas, in this case, so far from your having been at the
+expense of money in order to procure a few that are effective, you
+obtained at once, without any previous cost whatever, the services
+of myself and the officers that accompanied me, all of whom were
+experienced and efficient. Now, the united amount of the salaries you
+are engaged to pay to myself and the officers whom I brought with
+me does not exceed 25,000 dollars a year. To speak of this as an
+"enormous responsibility" as an empire, requires more than a "moment's
+reflection" to be clearly understood. The Government did, however,
+engage to pay to myself and my brother officers and seamen the value
+of our captures from the enemy, pursuant to the practice of all
+maritime belligerents, but this engagement has not hitherto been
+fulfilled. If, however, your excellency admits the responsibility of
+the Government to fulfil this engagement also, I am still equally at
+a loss to conceive in what sense that responsibility can be considered
+enormous, inasmuch as these prizes were not the property of the state,
+nor of individuals belonging to this nation, but were the property of
+Portugal, with whom this nation was and is engaged in lawful war.
+The payment, therefore, of the value of these prizes to the captors,
+supposing even the full value to be paid, does not in effect take
+one penny out of the national treasury, or out of the pocket of any
+Brazilian. If it be false&mdash;and your excellency appears to scout the
+idea&mdash;that any danger exists of having to pay twice for these prizes;
+if there really is no danger of being compelled to purchase peace
+with a defeated enemy by restoring them their forfeited property&mdash;it
+follows that the responsibility of the Government in fulfilling its
+engagement with the captors is so far from being enormous, that it is
+literally nothing. How the fulfilment of a lawful engagement by the
+simple act of paying over to the squadron the value of its prizes
+taken in time of war from the foreign enemies of the state (such
+payment occasioning no expense, and no loss to the state itself) can
+be attended with an enormous responsibility, I am utterly unable to
+comprehend. So far as the engagements of the Government with me,
+or with the captors in general of the Portuguese prizes, are of
+a pecuniary nature, they appear to me to lay no great weight of
+responsibility on the herculean shoulders of this vast empire. And it
+is only in a pecuniary sense that I can conceive it to be possible for
+your excellency to have thought of complaining of the responsibility
+attending the fulfilment of the engagements of the Government with me.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+It is no less difficult to comprehend how this supposed enormous
+responsibility has been incurred, "simplement et uniquement pour faire
+plaisir" to me; and it is still more difficult to comprehend how it
+happens that your excellency, "after all that you have heard and seen"
+(après ce que j'ai entendu et vu), should be at a loss to know in what
+manner I am to be contented (je ne saurais pas dequelle maniére on
+puisse vous contenter). If, indeed, your excellency imagines that I
+ought to be contented with honorary distinctions alone, however highly
+I may prize them as the free gift of his Imperial Majesty; if
+your excellency is of opinion that I ought with "remercimens et
+satisfaction" to put up with those honours in lieu of those stipulated
+substantial rewards, which even those very honours render more
+necessary; if your excellency thinks that I ought, like the dog in the
+fable, to resign the substance for a grasp at the shadow; if this is
+all that your excellency knows on the subject of giving me content, it
+is then very true that your excellency does not know in what manner it
+is to be done. But if, "after all that your excellency has heard and
+seen," you would be pleased to render yourself conversant with those
+written engagements under which I was induced to enter into the
+service, all that your excellency and the rest of the ministers and
+council of his Imperial Majesty would then have to do in order
+to content me to the full, would be to desist from evading the
+performance of those engagements, and to cause them at once to
+be fully and honourably fulfilled. And I do believe that my
+"Correspondance Officielle une fais rendue publique, en faira foi;"
+for I am not conscious that I have ever called on the Government to
+incur one farthing of expense on my account beyond the fulfilment of
+their written engagements, which were the same as those which I had
+with Chili, which were formed precisely on the practice of England.
+There was, indeed, a verbal and conditional engagement with the late
+ministers that certain losses which I might incur in consequence of
+leaving the service of Chili should be made good;[A] and the question
+as to the obligation of fulfilling that engagement I submitted (in
+my letter of the 6th of March to the Minister of Marine) to the
+consideration of their successors. It will be fortunate for me if this
+should prove to be one of those "ill-understood verbal transactions"
+which your excellency assures me the present ministers and council
+always decide in my favour. I shall not in that case be backward to
+receive the benefit of the decision with "thanks and satisfaction;"
+but I am willing to resign it rather than it should add an
+overwhelming weight to that "enormous responsibility" which your
+excellency complains has already been incurred with a view to
+my contentment. I repeat that I have never asked for more than I
+possessed in Chili, or than any officer of the same rank is entitled
+to in England; though British officers have heretofore received in the
+service of Portugal double the amount of their English pay; and though
+the burning climate of Brazil is injurious to health, while those
+of Chili and Portugal are salubrious. Your excellency, therefore, is
+perfectly welcome to publish the whole of my official correspondence,
+because instead of proving, as your excellency asserts, the great
+difficulty of contenting me, it would go far to prove the much greater
+difficulty of inducing those with whom I have to do to take any one
+step for that purpose.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+[Footnote A: As the Brazilian Government had obtained possession of a
+new corvette, named the <i>Maria de Gloria</i>, which cost the Government
+of Chili 90,000 dollars, without reimbursing to that State one single
+farthing; and by the said act had deprived Lord Cochrane of the
+benefit he would have derived, as commander-in-chief, from the
+services of that ship in the Pacific, the non-fulfilment of this
+engagement seems the more unjust.]
+</p>
+
+<p>
+I confess, however, that in order to content me effectually it is
+necessary to fulfil not only all written engagements with myself
+individually, but generally with all the officers and seamen with
+whom, while I hold the command, I consider myself identified; and the
+more particularly because, in my own firm reliance on the good faith
+of the Government, I did in some sort become responsible for that good
+faith to my brother officers and seamen. But with whom, I put it to
+your excellency, has good faith been kept? Is it not notorious that
+previous to the departure of the expedition to Bahia, declarations
+were made to the seamen in writing by the late Minister of Marine,
+through my medium, and in printed proclamations, that their dues
+should be paid with all possible regularity, and all their arrears
+discharged immediately on their return? And is not your excellency
+aware that specific contracts were entered into by the accredited
+agent of his Imperial Majesty in England, with a number of officers
+and seamen, who, in consequence, were induced to quit their native
+country and enter into the employ of his Imperial Majesty? Can it be
+denied that these declarations and contracts, written and printed,
+were known to, and are actually in the possession of the ministers, or
+in the hands of the officers of the pay department, and yet is it not
+true that they were neglected to be fulfilled for a period of upwards
+of three months after the return of the <i>Pedro Primiero</i> ; and was
+not the tardy fulfilment which at length took place procured by my
+incessant representations and remonstrances?
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Permit me also to ask whether the good effects of prompt payment
+were not illustrated on the arrival of the frigates <i>Nitherohy</i> and
+<i>Caroline</i>, which happened just at the period I had succeeded in
+procuring payment to be made. Was it not in consequence of immediate
+payment that the greater part of the English crew of the <i>Nitherohy</i> remained quietly on board, and are now actually engaged on an
+important service to his Imperial Majesty? And, on the other hand, is
+it not equally true that the English seamen of the <i>Pedro Primiero</i> were so disheartened and disgusted with the long delay which in their
+case had occurred, and the manifest bad faith which had been evinced,
+that by far the greater part of them actually abandoned the ship?
+And generally, is it not true that the violations of promise, the
+obstructions of justice, and the arbitrary acts of severity, have
+produced dissatisfaction and irritation in the minds of the officers
+and seamen, and done infinite prejudice to the service of his Imperial
+Majesty and to the interests and prospects of the empire?
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Can it be denied that the treatment to which the officers are exposed
+is in the highest degree cruel and unjust? Have they not in many
+instances been confined in a fortress or prison-ship without being
+told who is their accuser or what is the accusation? And are they not
+kept for many months at a time in that cruel state of suspense
+and restraint without the means or opportunity of justification or
+defence? Have not some of them while incarcerated in the fortress of
+the Island of Cobras been deprived of their pay for a great length of
+time, and even denied the provisions necessary for their subsistence?
+And if, after all, they are brought to trial, are not their judges
+composed of the natives of a nation with whom they are at war? Is it
+possible that English, or other foreign officers in the service,
+can be satisfied with such a system? Can your excellency entertain a
+doubt, that open accusation, prompt trial, unsuspected justice, and
+speedy punishment, if merited, are essential to the good government of
+a naval service? Nay, is it possible that your excellency should not
+know that the system of government in the naval service of Portugal is
+the most wretched in the world, and consequently the last that ought
+to have been adopted for the naval service of Brazil?
+</p>
+
+<p>
+And here I would respectfully ask your excellency whether you know of
+any one thing recommended by me for the benefit of the naval service
+being complied with? Have the laws been revised to adapt them to the
+better government of the service? Has a corps of marine artillery
+been formed and taught their duty? Have young gentlemen intended for
+officers been sent on board to learn their profession? Have young men
+been enlisted and sent on board to be bred up as seamen? Or has
+any encouragement been given to the employment of Brazilians in the
+commerce of the coast?[A]
+</p>
+
+<p>
+[Footnote A: It was the policy of Portugal to navigate the
+coasting-trade of Brazil by slaves; and that of Spain to allow none
+but Indians to exercise the trade of fishermen on the shores of their
+South American colonies.]
+</p>
+
+<p>
+With regard to those difficulties, delays, and other impediments of
+which I have complained as existing in the arsenal and other offices,
+and which your excellency supposes me to have represented as being
+caused, or at least tolerated, by the minister, and which you are
+pleased to characterise as "tout a fait imaginaires, et n'ayant
+d'outré source que l'ambition sordide de quelque intrigant," I shall
+not now enter into them again at any length, as much that I have
+already written tends to refute your excellency's notions on the
+subject. That such abuses do really exist I have proved beyond the
+power of contradiction; and that they are at least tolerated by
+those&mdash;whoever they may be&mdash;who possess without exercising the means
+of preventing, does not require the ingenuity of an "intrigant" to
+discover, as the fact is self-evident. I cannot, therefore, admit that
+either my complaints or suspicions are "tout a fait imaginaires,"
+or that they are "des petitesses," as your excellency is pleased
+contemptuously to term them; but whatever they are, they originate in
+my own observation, without any assistance from the spectacles of
+an "intrigant," with which I am so gratuitously accommodated by your
+excellency.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+In still further proof, however, of the real existence of the evils
+in question, I may just observe that since the return of the <i>Pedro
+Primiero</i>, that ship has been kept in constant disorder by the delay
+in commencing and the idle and negligent mode of executing even the
+trifling alterations in the channels, which were necessary to enable
+the rigging to be set up, and which, after the lapse of upwards of
+five months, is now scarcely finished, though it might have been
+accomplished in forty-eight hours. Even the time of caulking was
+spun out to a period nearly as long as was occupied last year in the
+accomplishment of that thorough repair which the ship then underwent;
+and the painting is far from being completed after sixteen or eighteen
+days' labour, though a British ship of war is usually painted in a
+day. Even my own cabin is in such a state that when I am on board
+I have no place to sit down in. All these things may appear to your
+excellency as "des petitesses," or even "tout a fait imaginaires,"
+but to me they appear matters of a serious nature, injurious and
+disgraceful to the service.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+I may not, perhaps, succeed in convincing your excellency, but I have
+the satisfaction of being inwardly conscious that, independent of my
+natural desire to obtain justice for myself and for all the officers
+and men of the squadron, no small part of my anxiety for the
+fulfilment of the engagements of the Government proceeds from a desire
+to see the navy of his Imperial Majesty rendered efficient; which it
+can never be unless the same good faith is observed with the officers
+and men as is kept between the Government and navy of England, and
+unless indeed many other important considerations are attended to,
+which appear to have hitherto escaped the regard of the Imperial
+Government. Why, for instance, is there that indifference in regard
+to the clothing of the men? What but discontent, debasement, and
+enervation, can be the effects of that ragged and almost naked
+condition in which they have so long been suffered to remain,
+notwithstanding the numerous applications that have been made for the
+necessary clothing? I would also inquire the reason that officers and
+men, strangers to each other, and destitute of attachment and mutual
+confidence, are hastily shipped together in vessels of war going on
+active service, when better arrangements might easily be made. What
+can be expected from the vessels of war just gone out, in case they
+should meet with any serious opposition, but disgrace to those by whom
+they were so imperfectly and improperly equipped?
+</p>
+
+<p>
+If this communication were not already too long, or if, after the
+letter I have received from your excellency, it were possible for me
+to continue my representations in the hope of redress, I could add to
+the list of those causes of complaint which I have already pointed out
+many particulars which none but those who are blindly attached to that
+wretched system which has been so injurious to the marine and kingdom
+of Portugal could consider either trifling or imaginary. But as my
+present object has been chiefly to repel those imputations in which
+your excellency has so freely indulged, and believing that I have
+fully succeeded in that object, and have shown clearly that your
+excellency has unjustly and untruly accused me of encouraging
+talebearers, making unfounded complaints, and of being of a nature so
+avaricious as never to be satisfied&mdash;which latter, by-the-by, is
+an extraordinary accusation to prefer against me&mdash;a man whom your
+excellency must know has not hitherto been benefited, after being
+more than a year in the service, to the amount of one shilling for the
+important services he has rendered, but who, on the contrary, as
+he can show by his accounts, has necessarily expended more in his
+official situation than he has received in the service; so that the
+"remercimens" and the "satisfaction," which your excellency accuses
+him of being deficient in, can scarcely yet be due, unless it is
+proper to be satisfied and grateful too for less than nothing&mdash;having,
+I say, fully repelled and refuted these unjust accusations, I shall
+avoid troubling your excellency with any further detail. But I repeat
+that your excellency has my free consent to cause the whole of my
+official correspondence to be published; for in all that I have
+advanced with respect to the violations of contracts, and on the
+subject of the unsatisfied claims of the squadron, and relative to
+the ill-usage of officers under arrest, and to the misconduct of the
+judges of prizes, and of those who have the management of the civil
+department of the marine,[A] and in all matters whatever in question
+between the Government of Brazil and myself, I am confident I may
+safely rely on the decision of the public. And if, at the same time,
+your excellency can give a satisfactory explanation of the motives of
+that line of conduct on the part of the ministers and council, which,
+without such explanation, would have the appearance of originating in
+bad faith, the publication would be doubly beneficial by placing the
+conduct and character of all parties in a proper point of view.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+[Footnote A: Also Portuguese.]
+</p>
+
+<p>
+    I have the honour to be, Most excellent sir, Your respectful
+    and most obedient Servant, COCHRANE AND MARANHAM.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+    His Excellency, João Sereriano Maciele da Costa, Secretary of
+    State for the Home Department, &amp;c., &amp;c., &amp;c.
+</p>
+
+<p class="center">
+END OF VOL. I.
+</p>
+
+<p class="center">
+LONDON: PRINTED BY WILLIAM CLOWES AND SONS, STAMFORD STREET AND CHARING CROSS.
+</p>
+
+</div><!--end chapter-->
+
+<div>*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 13351 ***</div>
+</body>
+
+</html>
+
+
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+Project Gutenberg (https://www.gutenberg.org) public repository for
+eBook #13351 (https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/13351)
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+The Project Gutenberg eBook of The Life of Thomas, Lord Cochrane, Tenth Earl of Dundonald, G.C.B., Admiral of the Red, Rear-Admiral of the Fleet, Etc., Etc., by Thomas Cochrane, Earl of Dundonald
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and
+most other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions
+whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms
+of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at
+www.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the United States, you
+will have to check the laws of the country where you are located before
+using this eBook.
+
+Title: The Life of Thomas, Lord Cochrane, Tenth Earl of Dundonald, G.C.B., Admiral of the Red, Rear-Admiral of the Fleet, Etc., Etc.
+
+Author: Thomas Cochrane, Earl of Dundonald
+
+Release Date: September 2, 2004 [eBook #13351]
+[Most recently updated: January 15, 2021]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: UTF-8
+
+Produced by: Ted Garvin, Daniel Watkins and PG Distributed Proofreaders
+
+*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE LIFE OF THOMAS, LORD COCHRANE ***
+
+
+
+
+THE LIFE OF
+THOMAS, LORD COCHRANE, TENTH EARL OF DUNDONALD, G.C.B.,
+
+ADMIRAL OF THE RED, REAR-ADMIRAL OF THE FLEET, ETC., ETC.,
+
+
+COMPLETING "THE AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF A SEAMAN."
+
+by THOMAS, ELEVENTH EARL OF DUNDONALD,
+AND H.R. FOX BOURNE,
+AUTHOR OF "ENGLISH SEAMEN UNDER THE TUDORS," ETC. ETC.
+
+IN TWO VOLUMES. VOL. I.
+
+Published 1869.
+
+
+TO MISS ANGELA BURDETT COUTTS,
+WHOSE HONOURED FATHER
+WAS THE FIRMEST AND MOST CONSTANT FRIEND AND SUPPORTER
+OF MY FATHER,
+DURING A CAREER DEVOTED TO THE WELFARE OF HIS COUNTRY
+AND THE HONOUR OF HIS PROFESSION,
+AND WHOM IT IS MY HAPPINESS AND PRIVILEGE TO CALL MY FRIEND,
+THIS WORK IS DEDICATED,
+WITH ALL RESPECT AND REGARD,
+BY
+HER ATTACHED AND FAITHFUL SERVANT,
+
+DUNDONALD.
+
+
+
+
+PREFACE.
+
+
+In these Volumes is recounted the public life of my late father from
+the period to which the narrative was brought down by himself in his
+unfinished "Autobiography of a Seaman." The completion of that work
+was prevented by his death, which occurred almost immediately after
+the publication of the Second Volume, eight years and a half ago.
+I had hoped to supplement it sooner; but in this hope I have been
+thwarted.
+
+My father's papers were, at the time of his death, in the hands of
+a gentleman who had assisted him in the preparation of his
+"Autobiography," and to this gentleman was entrusted the completion
+of the work. Illness and other occupations, however, interfered, and,
+after a lapse of about two years, he died, leaving the papers, of
+which no use had been made by him, to fall into the possession of
+others. Only after long delay and considerable trouble and expense was
+I able to recover them and realize my long-cherished purpose.
+
+Further delay in the publication of this book has arisen from my
+having been compelled, as my father's executor, to make three long and
+laborious journeys to Brazil, which have engrossed much time.
+
+At length, however, I find myself able to pay the debt which I
+owe both to my father's memory and to the public, by whom the
+"Autobiography of a Seaman" was read with so much interest. At the
+beginning of last year I placed all the necessary documents in the
+hands of my friend, Mr. H.R. Fox Bourne, asking him to handle them
+with the same zeal of research and impartiality of judgment which he
+has shown in his already published works. I have also furnished
+him with my own reminiscences of so much of my father's life as was
+personally known to me; and he has availed himself of all the help
+that could be obtained from other sources of information, both private
+and public. He has written the book to the best of his ability, and I
+have done my utmost to help him in making it as complete and accurate
+as possible. We hope that the late Earl of Dundonald's life and
+character have been all the better delineated in that the work has
+grown out of the personal knowledge of his son and the unbiassed
+judgment of a stranger.
+
+A long time having elapsed since the publication of the "Autobiography
+of a Seaman," it has been thought well to give a brief recapitulation
+of its story in an opening chapter.
+
+The four following chapters recount my father's history during the
+five years following the cruel Stock Exchange trial, the subject last
+treated of in the "Autobiography." It is not strange that the
+harsh treatment to which he was subjected should have led him into
+opposition, in which there was some violence, which he afterwards
+condemned, against the Government of the day. But, if there were
+circumstances to be regretted in this portion of his career, it shows
+almost more plainly than any other with what strength of philanthropy
+he sought to aid the poor and the oppressed.
+
+His occupations as Chief Admiral, first of Chili and afterwards
+of Brazil, were described by himself in two volumes, entitled, "A
+Narrative of Services in Chili, Peru, and Brazil." Therefore, the
+seven chapters of the present work which describe these episodes
+have been made as concise as possible. Only the most memorable
+circumstances have been dwelt upon, and the details introduced have
+been drawn to some extent from documents not included in the volumes
+referred to.
+
+There was no reason for abridgment in treating of my father's
+connection with Greece. In the service of that country he was less
+able to achieve beneficial results than in Chili and Brazil; but
+as, on that ground, he has been frequently traduced by critics and
+historians, it seemed especially important to show how his successes
+were greater than these critics and historians have represented, and
+how his failures sprang from the faults of others and from misfortunes
+by which he was the chief sufferer. The documents left by him,
+moreover, afford abundant material for illustrating an eventful period
+in modern history. The chapters referring to Greece and Greek affairs,
+accordingly, enter with especial fullness into the circumstances
+of Lord Dundonald's life at this time, and his connection with
+contemporary politics.
+
+Eight other chapters recount all that was of most public interest in
+the thirty years of my father's life after his return from Greece.
+Except during a brief period of active service in his profession,
+when he had command of the British squadron in North American and West
+Indian waters, those thirty years were chiefly spent in efforts—by
+scientific research, by mechanical experiment, and by persevering
+argument—to increase the naval power of his country, and in efforts
+no less zealous to secure for himself that full reversal of the
+wrongful sentence passed upon him in a former generation, which
+could only be attained by public restitution of the official rank and
+national honours of which he had been deprived.
+
+This restitution was begun by his Majesty King William IV., and
+completed by our present most gracious Queen and the Prince Consort.
+By the kindnesses which he received from these illustrious persons,
+my father's later years were cheered; and I can never cease to be
+profoundly grateful to my Sovereign, and her revered husband, for the
+personal interest with which they listened to my prayer immediately
+after his death. Through their gracious influence, the same banner of
+the Bath that had been taken from him nearly fifty years before, was
+restored to its place in Westminster Abbey, and allowed to float
+over his remains at their time of burial. Thus the last stain upon my
+father's memory was wiped out.
+
+DUNDONALD. London, May 24th, 1869.
+
+
+CONTENTS OF THE FIRST VOLUME.
+
+CHAPTER I.
+
+[1775-1814.]
+
+Introduction.—Lord Cochrane's Ancestry.—His First Occupations in
+the Navy.—His Cruise in the _Speedy_ and Capture of the _Gamo_.—His
+Exploits in the _Pallas_.—The beginning of his Parliamentary
+Life.—His two Elections as Member for Honiton.—His Election for
+Westminster.—Further Seamanship.—The Basque Roads Affair.—The
+Court-Martial on Lord Gambier, and its injurious effects on Lord
+Cochrane's Naval Career.—His Parliamentary Occupations.—His Visit to
+Malta and its Issues.—The Antecedents and Consequences of the Stock
+Exchange Trial - 1
+
+CHAPTER II.
+
+[1814.]
+
+The Issue of the Stock Exchange Trial.—Lord Cochrane's Committal to
+the King's Bench Prison.—The Debate upon his Case in the House of
+Commons, and his Speech on that Occasion.—His Expulsion from the
+House, and Re-election as Member for Westminster.—The Withdrawal of
+his Sentence to the Pillory.—The Removal of his Insignia as a Knight
+of the Bath - 35
+
+CHAPTER III.
+
+[1814-1815.]
+
+Lord Cochrane's Bearing in the King's Bench Prison.—His Street
+Lamps.—His Escape, and the Motives for it.—His Capture in the House
+of Commons, and subsequent Treatment.—His Confinement in the Strong
+Room of the King's Bench Prison.—His Release - 48
+
+CHAPTER IV.
+
+[1815-1816.]
+
+Lord Cochrane's Return to the House of Commons.—His Share in the
+Refusal of the Duke of Cumberland's Marriage Pension.—His Charges
+against Lord Ellenborough, and their Rejection by the House.—His
+Popularity.—The Part taken by him in Public Meetings for the Relief
+of the People.—The London Tavern Meeting.—His further Prosecution,
+Trial at Guildford, and subsequent Imprisonment.—The Payment of his
+Fines by a Penny Subscription.—The Congratulations of his Westminster
+Constituents - 74
+
+CHAPTER V.
+
+[1817-1818.]
+
+The State of Politics in England in 1817 and 1818, and Lord Cochrane's
+Share in them.—His Work as a Radical in and out of Parliament.—His
+futile Efforts to obtain the Prize Money due for his Services at
+Basque Roads.—The Holly Hill Siege.—The Preparations for his
+Enterprise in South America.—His last Speech in Parliament - 109
+
+CHAPTER VI.
+
+[1810-1817.]
+
+The Antecedents of Lord Cochrane's Employments in South
+America.—The War of Independence in the Spanish
+Colonies.—Mexico.—Venezuela.—Colombia.—Chili.—The first
+Chilian Insurrection.—The Carreras and O'Higgins.—The Battle of
+Rancagua.—O'Higgins's Successes.—The Establishment of the Chilian
+Republic.—Lord Cochrane invited to enter the Chilian Service - 137
+
+CHAPTER VII.
+
+[1818-1820.]
+
+Lord Cochrane's Voyage to Chili.—His Reception at Valparaiso and
+Santiago.—The Disorganization of the Chilian Fleet.—First Signs
+of Disaffection.—The Naval Forces of the Chilians and the
+Spaniards.—Lord Cochrane's first Expedition to Peru.—His Attack on
+Callao.—"Drake the Dragon" and "Cochrane the Devil."—Lord Cochrane's
+Successes in Overawing the Spaniards, in Treasure-taking, and
+in Encouragement of the Peruvians to join in the War of
+Independence.—His Plan for another Attack on Callao.—His
+Difficulties in Equipping the Expedition.—The Failure of
+the Attempt.—His Plan for Storming Valdivia.—Its Successful
+Accomplishment - 148
+
+CHAPTER VIII.
+
+[1820-1822.]
+
+Lord Cochrane's Return to Valparaiso.—His Relations with the Chilian
+Senate.—The third Expedition to Peru.—General San Martin.—The
+Capture of the _Esmeralda_, and its Issue.—Lord Cochrane's subsequent
+Work.—San Martin's Treachery.—His Assumption of the Protectorate
+of Peru.—His Base Proposals to Lord Cochrane.—Lord Cochrane's
+Condemnation of them.—The Troubles of the Chilian Squadron.—Lord
+Cochrane's Seizure of Treasure at Ancon, and Employment of it in
+Paying his Officers and Men.—His Stay at Guayaquil.—The Advantages
+of Free Trade.—Lord Cochrane's Cruise along the Mexican Coast
+in Search of the remaining Spanish Frigates.—Their Annexation by
+Peru.—Lord Cochrane's last Visit to Callao - 177
+
+CHAPTER IX.
+
+[1822-1823.]
+
+Lord Cochrane's Return to Valparaiso,—The Conduct of the Chilian
+Government towards him.—His Resignation of Chilian Employment, and
+Acceptance of Employment under the Emperor of Brazil.—His subsequent
+Correspondence with the Government of Chili.—The Results of his
+Chilian Service. - 208
+
+CHAPTER X.
+
+[1823.]
+
+The Antecedents of Brazilian Independence.—Pedro I.'s Accession.—The
+Internal and External Troubles of the New Empire.—Lord Cochrane's
+Invitation to Brazil.—His Arrival at Rio de Janeiro, and Acceptance
+of Brazilian Service.—His first Occupations.—The bad condition of
+the Squadron, and the consequent Failure of his first Attack on the
+Portuguese off Bahia.—His Plans for Improving the Fleet, and their
+Success.—His Night Visit to Bahia, and the consequent Flight of the
+Enemy.—Lord Cochrane's Pursuit of them.—His Visit to Maranham,
+and Annexation of that Province and of Para.—His Return to Rio de
+Janeiro.—The Honours conferred upon him. - 223
+
+CHAPTER XI.
+
+[1823-1824.]
+
+The Nature of the Rewards bestowed on Lord Cochrane for his first
+Services to Brazil.—Pedro I. and the Portuguese Faction.—Lord
+Cochrane's Advice to the Emperor.—The Troubles brought upon him by
+it.—The Conduct of the Government towards him and the Fleet.—The
+withholding of Prize-money and Pay.—Personal Indignities to Lord
+Cochrane.—An Amusing Episode.—Lord Cochrane's Threat of Resignation,
+and its Effect.—Sir James Mackintosh's Allusion to him in the House
+of Commons - 246
+
+CHAPTER XII.
+
+[1824-1825.]
+
+The Insurrection in Pernambuco.—Lord Cochrane's Expedition to
+suppress it.—The Success of his Work.—His Stay at Maranham.—The
+Disorganized State of Affairs in that Province.—Lord Cochrane's
+efforts to restore Order and good Government.—Their result in further
+Trouble to himself.—His Cruise in the _Piranga_, and Return to
+England.—His Treatment there.—His Retirement from Brazilian
+Service.—His Letter to the Emperor Pedro I.—The End of his South
+American Employments - 266
+
+CHAPTER XIII.
+
+[1820-1825.]
+
+The Greek Revolution and its Antecedents.—The Modern Greeks.—The
+Friendly Society.—Sultan Mahmud and Ali Pasha's Rebellion.—The
+Beginning of the Greek Insurrection.—Count John Capodistrias.—Prince
+Alexander Hypsilantes.—The Revolution in the Morca.—Theodore
+Kolokotrones.—The Revolution in the Islands.—The Greek Navy and its
+Character.—The Excesses of the Greeks.—Their bad Government.—Prince
+Alexander Mavrocordatos.—The Progress of the Revolution.—The
+Spoliation of Chios.—English Philhellenes; Thomas Gordon, Frank Abney
+Hastings, Lord Byron.—The first Greek Loan, and the bad uses to
+which it was put.—Reverses of the Greeks.—Ibrahim and his
+Successes.—Mavrocordatos's Letter to Lord Cochrane - 286
+
+CHAPTER XIV.
+
+[1825-1826.]
+
+Lord Cochrane's Dismissal from Brazilian Service, and his Acceptance
+of Employment as Chief Admiral of the Greeks.—The Greek Committee and
+the Greek Deputies in London.—The Terms of Lord Cochrane's Agreement,
+and the consequent Preparations.—His Visit to Scotland.—Sir Walter
+Scott's Verses on Lady Cochrane.—Lord Cochrane's forced Retirement to
+Boulogne, and thence to Brussels.—The Delays in fitting out the
+Greek Armament.—Captain Hastings, Mr. Hobhouse, and Sir Francis
+Burdett.—Captain Hastings's Memoir on the Greek Leaders and
+their Characters.—The first Consequences of Lord Cochrane's new
+Enterprise.—The Duke of Wellington's Message to Lord Cochrane.—The
+Greek Deputies' Proposal to Lord Cochrane and his Answer.—The Final
+Arrangements for his Departure.—The Messiah of the Greeks. - 318
+
+CHAPTER XV.
+
+[1826-1827.]
+
+Lord Cochrane's Departure for Greece.—His Visit to London and
+Voyage to the Mediterranean.—His Stay at Messina, and afterwards
+at Marseilles.—The Delays in Completing the Steamships, and the
+consequent Injury to the Greek Cause, and serious Embarrassment
+to Lord Cochrane.—His Correspondence with Messrs. J. and S.
+Ricardo.—His Letter to the Greek Government.—Chevalíer Eynard, and
+the Continental Philhellenes.—Lord Cochrane's Final Departure and
+Arrival in Greece. - 355
+
+CHAPTER XVI.
+
+[1826-1827.]
+
+The Progress of Affairs in Greece.—The Siege of Missolonghi.—Its
+Fall.—The Bad Government and Mismanagement of the Greeks.—General
+Ponsonby's Account of them.—The Effect of Lord Cochrane's Promised
+Assistance.—The Fears of the Turks, as shown in their Correspondence
+with Mr. Canning.—The Arrival of Captain Hastings in Greece, with the
+_Karteria_.—His Opinion of Greek Captains and Sailors.—The Frigate
+_Hellas_,—Letters to Lord Cochrane from Admiral Miaoulis and the
+Governing Commission of Greece. - 368
+
+APPENDIX.
+
+I. (Page 22.)—"Resumé of the Services of the late Earl of Dundonald,
+none of which have been Requited or Officially Recognised," by Thomas,
+Eleventh Earl of Dundonald. - 389
+
+II. (Page 23.)—Part of a Speech delivered by Lord Cochrane in the
+House of Commons, on the 11th of May, 1809, on Naval Abuses. - 397
+
+III. (Page 258.)—A Letter written by Lord Cochrane to the Secretary
+of State of Brazil on the 3rd of May, 1824. - 400
+
+
+
+
+THE LIFE
+OF
+THOMAS, TENTH EARL OF DUNDONALD.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I.
+
+
+INTRODUCTION.—LORD COCHRANE'S ANCESTRY.—HIS FIRST OCCUPATIONS IN
+THE NAVY.—HIS CRUISE IN THE "SPEEDY" AND CAPTURE OF THE "GAMO."—HIS
+EXPLOITS IN THE "PALLAS."—THE BEGINNING OF HIS PARLIAMENTARY
+LIFE.—HIS TWO ELECTIONS AS MEMBER FOR HONITON.—HIS ELECTION FOR
+WESTMINSTER.—FURTHER SEAMANSHIP.—THE BASQUE ROADS AFFAIR.—THE
+COURT-MARTIAL ON LORD GAMBIER, AND ITS INJURIOUS EFFECTS ON LORD
+COCHRANE'S NAVAL CAREER.—HIS PARLIAMENTARY OCCUPATIONS.—HIS VISIT TO
+MALTA AND ITS ISSUES.—THE ANTECEDENTS AND CONSEQUENCES OF THE STOCK
+EXCHANGE TRIAL.
+
+
+[1775-1814.]
+
+Thomas, Loud Cochrane, tenth Earl of Dundonald, was born at Annsfield,
+in Lanark, on the 14th of December, 1775, and died in London on the
+31st of October, 1860. Shortly before his death he wrote two volumes,
+styled "The Autobiography of a Seaman," which set forth his history
+down to 1814, the fortieth year of his age. To those volumes the
+present work, recounting his career during the ensuing six-and-forty
+years, is intended to serve as a sequel. Before entering upon the
+later narrative, however, it will be necessary briefly to recapitulate
+the incidents that have been already detailed.
+
+The Earl of Dundonald was descended from a long line of knights and
+barons, chiefly resident in Renfrew and Ayr, many of whom were men
+of mark in Scottish history during the thirteenth and following
+centuries. Robert Cochran was the especial favourite and foremost
+counsellor of James III., who made him Earl of Mar; but the favours
+heaped upon him, and perhaps a certain arrogance in the use of those
+favours, led to so much opposition from his peers and rivals that he
+was assassinated by them in 1480.[A]
+
+[Footnote A: Pinkerton, the historian, gives some curious details,
+illustrating not only Robert Cochran's character, but also the
+condition of government and society in Scotland four centuries ago.
+"The Scottish army," he says, "amounting to about fifty thousand, had
+crowded to the royal banner at Burrough Muir, near Edinburgh, whence
+they marched to Soutray and to Lauder, at which place they encamped
+between the church and the village. Cochran, Earl of Mar, conducted
+the artillery. On the morning after their arrival at Lauder, the peers
+assembled in a secret council, in the church, and deliberated upon
+their designs of revenge…. Cochran, ignorant of their designs, left
+the royal presence to proceed to the council. The earl was attended by
+three hundred men, armed with light battle-axes, and distinguished
+by his livery of white with black fillets. He was clothed in a riding
+cloak of black velvet, and wore a large chain of gold around his
+neck; his horn of the chase, or of battle, was adorned with gold
+and precious stones, and his helmet, overlaid with the same valuable
+metal, was borne before him. Approaching the door of the church,
+he commanded an attendant to knock with authority; and Sir Robert
+Douglas, of Lochleven, who guarded the passage, inquiring the name,
+was answered, 'Tis I, the Earl of Mar.' Cochran and some of his
+friends were admitted. Angus advanced to him, and pulling the gold
+chain from his neck, said, 'A rope will become thee better,' while
+Douglas of Lochleven seized his hunting-horn, declaring that he had
+been too long a hunter of mischief. Rather astonished than alarmed,
+Cochran said, 'My lords, is it jest or earnest?' To which it was
+replied, 'It is good earnest, and so thou shalt find it; for thou
+and thy accomplices have too long abused our prince's favour. But no
+longer expect such advantage, for thou and thy followers shall now
+reap the deserved reward.' Having secured Mar, the lords despatched
+some men-at-arms to the king's pavilion, conducted by two or three
+moderate leaders, who amused James, while their followers seized the
+favourites. Sir William Roger and others were instantly hanged over
+the bridge at Lauder. Cochran was now brought out, his hands bound
+with a rope, and thus conducted to the bridge, and hanged above his
+fellows."] Later scions of the family prospered, and in 1641, Sir
+William Cochrane was raised to the peerage, as Lord Cochrane of
+Cowden, by Charles I. For his adherence to the royal cause this
+nobleman was fined 5000£ by the Long Parliament in 1654; and, in
+recompense for his loyalty, he was made first Earl of Dundonald by
+Charles II. in 1669. His successors were faithful to the Stuarts, and
+thereby they suffered heavily. Archibald, the ninth Earl, inheriting a
+patrimony much reduced by the loyalty and zeal of his ancestors, spent
+it all in the scientific pursuits to which he devoted himself, and
+in which he was the friendly rival of Watt, Priestley, Cavendish, and
+other leading chemists and mechanicians of two or three generations
+ago. His eldest son, heir to little more than a famous name and a
+chivalrous and enterprising disposition, had to fight his own way in
+the world.
+
+Lord Cochrane—as the subject of these memoirs was styled in courtesy
+until his accession to the peerage in 1831—was intended by his father
+for the army, in which he received a captain's commission. But his
+own predilections were in favour of a seaman's life, and accordingly,
+after brief schooling, he joined the _Hind_, as a midshipman, in June,
+1793, when he was nearly eighteen years of age.
+
+During the next seven years he learnt his craft in various ships
+and seas, being helped in many ways by his uncle, the Hon. Alexander
+Cochrane, but profiting most by his own ready wit and hearty love
+of his profession. Having been promoted to the rank of lieutenant in
+1794, he was made commander of the _Speedy_ early in 1800. This little
+sloop, not larger than a coasting brig, but crowded with eighty-four
+men and six officers, seemed to be intended only for playing at war.
+Her whole armament consisted of fourteen 4-pounders. When her new
+commander tried to add to these a couple of 12-pounders, the deck
+proved too small and the timbers too weak for them, and they had to be
+returned. So Lilliputian was his cabin, that, to shave himself, Lord
+Cochrane was obliged to thrust his head out of the skylight and make a
+dressing-table of the quarter-deck.
+
+Yet the _Speedy_, ably commanded, was quite large enough to be of
+good service. Cruising in her along the Spanish coast, Lord Cochrane
+succeeded in capturing many gunboats and merchantmen, and the enemy
+soon learnt to regard her with especial dread. On one memorable
+occasion, the 6th of May, 1801, he fell in with the _Gamo_, a Spanish
+frigate furnished with six times as many men as were in the _Speedy_ and with seven times her weight of shot. Lord Cochrane, boldly
+advancing, locked his little craft in the enemy's rigging. It was, in
+miniature, a contest as unequal as that by which Sir Francis Drake and
+his fellows overcame the Great Armada of Spain in 1588, and with like
+result. The heavy shot of the _Gamo_ riddled the _Speedy's_ sails,
+but, passing overhead, did no mischief to her hulk or her men. During
+an hour there was desperate fighting with small arms, and twice
+the Spaniards tried in vain to board their sturdy little foe. Lord
+Cochrane then determined to meet them on their own deck, and the
+daring project was facilitated by one of the smart expedients in which
+he was never wanting. Before going into action, "knowing," as he said,
+"that the final struggle would be a desperate one, and calculating
+on the superstitious wonder which forms an element in the Spanish
+character," he had ordered his crew to blacken their faces; and, "what
+with this and the excitement of combat, more ferocious-looking objects
+could scarcely be imagined." With these men following him he promptly
+gained the frigate's deck, and then their strong arms and hideous
+faces soon frightened the Spaniards into submission.
+
+The senior officer of the _Gamo_ asked for a certificate of his
+bravery, and received one testifying that he had conducted himself
+"like a true Spaniard." To Spain, of course, this was no sarcasm,
+and on the strength of the document its holder soon obtained further
+promotion.
+
+That achievement, which cost only three men's lives, led to
+consequences greater than could have been expected. Lord Cochrane,
+after three months' waiting, received the rank of post captain. But
+his desire that the services of Lieutenant Parker, his second in
+command, should also be recompensed led to a correspondence with Earl
+St. Vincent which turned him from a jealous superior into a bitter
+enemy. In reply to Lord Cochrane's recommendation, Earl St. Vincent
+alleged that "it was unusual to promote two officers for such a
+service,—besides which the small number of men killed on board the
+_Speedy_ did not warrant the application." Lord Cochrane answered,
+with incautious honesty, that "his lordship's reasons for not
+promoting Lieutenant Parker, because there were only three men killed
+on board the _Speedy_, were in opposition to his lordship's own
+promotion to an earldom, as well as that of his flag-captain to
+knighthood, and his other officers to increased rank and honours; for
+that, in the battle from which his lordship derived his title there
+was only one man killed on board his own flagship." That was language
+too plain to be forgiven.
+
+In July, 1801, the _Speedy_ was captured by three French
+line-of-battle ships, whose senior in command, Captain Pallière,
+declined to accept the sword of an officer "who had," as he said,
+"for so many hours struggled against impossibility," and asked Lord
+Cochrane, though a prisoner, still to wear it. He, however, was
+refused employment as commander of another ship. Thereupon, with
+characteristic energy, he devoted his forced leisure from professional
+pursuits to a year of student life at Edinburgh, where, in 1802, Lord
+Palmerston was his class-fellow under Professor Dugald Stewart.
+
+This occupation, however, was disturbed by the renewal of war with
+France in 1803. Lord Cochrane, though with difficulty, then obtained
+permission to return to active service, the _Arab_, one of the
+craziest little ships in the navy, being assigned to him. On his
+representing that she was too rotten for use off the French coast, he
+was ordered to employ her in cruising in the North Sea and protecting
+the fisheries north-east of the Orkneys, "where," as he said, "no
+vessel fished, and consequently there were no fisheries to protect."
+This ignominious work lasted for a year. It was brought to a close
+in December, 1804, soon after the appointment of Lord Melville, in
+succession to Earl St. Vincent, as First Lord of the Admiralty.
+
+By him Lord Cochrane was transferred from the _Arab_ to the _Pallas_,
+a new and smart frigate of thirty-two guns, and allowed to use her in
+a famous cruise of prize-taking among the Azores and off the coast
+of Portugal. This was followed in 1806 by farther work in the same
+frigate, the closing portion of which was especially memorable. Being
+off the Basque Roads at the end of April he fixed his attention upon a
+frigate, the _Minerve_, and three brigs, forming an important part of
+the French squadron in the Mediterranean. After three weeks' waiting,
+on the 14th of May, he saw the frigate and the brigs approaching him,
+and promptly prepared to attack them. He was not deterred by knowing
+that the _Minerve_ alone, carrying forty guns, was far stronger than
+the _Pallas_, which had also to withstand the force of the three
+brigs, each with sixteen guns, and to be prepared for the fire of the
+batteries on the Isle d'Aix. "This morning, when close to Isle d'Aix,
+reconnoitring the French squadron," he wrote concisely to his admiral,
+"it gave me great joy to find our late opponent, the black frigate,
+and her companions, the three brigs, getting under sail. We formed
+high expectations that the long wished-for opportunity was at last
+arrived. The _Pallas_ remained under topsails by the wind to await
+them. At half-past eleven a smart point-blank firing commenced on both
+sides, which was severely felt by the enemy. The main topsail-yard
+of one of the brigs was cut through, and the frigate lost her
+after-sails. The batteries on I'lsle d'Aix opened on the _Pallas_, and
+a cannonade continued, interrupted on our part only by the necessity
+we were under to make various tacks to avoid the shoals, till one
+o'clock, when our endeavour to gain the wind of the enemy and get
+between him and the batteries proved successful. An effectual distance
+was now chosen. A few broadsides were poured in. The enemy's fire
+slackened. I ordered ours to cease, and directed Mr. Sutherland, the
+master, to run the frigate on board, with intention effectually to
+prevent her retreat. The enemy's side thrust our guns back into the
+ports. The whole were then discharged. The effect and crash were
+dreadful. Their decks were deserted. Three pistol-shots were the
+unequal return. With confidence I say that the frigate would have
+been lost to France, had not the unequal collision torn away our
+fore-topmast, jib-boom, fore and maintop-sails, spritsail-yards,
+bumpkin, cathead, chainplates, fore-rigging, foresail, and bower
+anchor, with which last I intended to hook on; but all proved
+insufficient. She would yet have been lost to France, had not the
+French admiral, seeing his frigate's foreyard gone, her rigging
+ruined, and the danger she was in, sent two others to her assistance.
+The _Pallas_ being a wreck, we came out with what sail could be set,
+and his Majesty's sloop the _Kingfisher_ afterwards took us in tow."
+The exploit was none the less valiant in that it was partly a failure.
+
+The waiting-times before and after that cruise were occupied by Lord
+Cochrane with brief commencement of parliamentary life. Long before
+this time Lord Cochrane had resolved on entering the House of Commons,
+in order to expose the naval abuses which were then rife, and which he
+had never been deterred, by consideration of his own interests, from
+boldly denouncing. He stood for Honiton in 1805, and was defeated
+through his refusal to vie with his opponent in the art of bribery. He
+contrived, however, to profit by corruption while he punished it.
+As soon as the election was over, he gave ten guineas to each of the
+constituents who had freely voted for him. The consequence of this was
+his triumphant return at the new election, which took place in July,
+1806. When his supporters asked for like payment to that made in the
+previous instance, it was bluntly refused. "The former gift," said
+Lord Cochrane, "was for your disinterested conduct in not taking the
+bribe of five pounds from the agents of my opponent. For me now to pay
+you would be a violation of my principles."
+
+A short cruise in the Basque Roads prevented Lord Cochrane from
+occupying in the House of Commons the seat thus won, and in April,
+1807, very soon after his return, Parliament was again dissolved. He
+then resolved to stand for Westminster, with Sir Francis Burdett for
+his associate. Both were returned, and Lord Cochrane held his seat for
+eleven years. In 1807, however, he had only time to bring forward two
+motions respecting sinecures and naval abuses, which issued in violent
+but unproductive discussion, when he received orders to join the fleet
+in the Mediterranean as captain of the _Imperiéuse_. Naval employment
+was grudgingly accorded to him; but it was thought wiser to give him
+work abroad than to suffer under his free speech at home.
+
+This employment was marked by many brilliant deeds, which procured
+for him, on his surrendering his command of the _Imperiéuse_ after
+eighteen months' duration, the reproach of having spent more sails,
+stores, gunpowder, and shot than had been used by any other captain in
+the service.
+
+The most brilliant deed of all, one of the most brilliant deeds in
+the whole naval history of England, was his well-known exploit in the
+Basque Roads on the 11th, 12th, and 13th of April, 1809. Much against
+his will, he was persuaded by Lord Mulgrave, at that time First
+Lord of the Admiralty, to bear the responsibility of attacking and
+attempting to destroy the French squadron by means of fireships
+and explosion-vessels. The project was opposed by Lord Gambier, the
+Admiral of the Fleet, as being at once "hazardous, if not desperate,"
+and "a horrible and anti-Christian mode of warfare;" and consequently
+he gave no hearty co-operation. On Lord Cochrane devolved the whole
+duty of preparing for and executing the project. His own words will
+best tell the story.
+
+"On the 11th of April," he said, "it blew hard, with a high sea. As
+all preparations were complete, I did not consider the state of
+the weather a justifiable impediment to the attack; so that, after
+nightfall, the officers who volunteered to command the fireships were
+assembled on board the _Caledonia_, and supplied with instructions
+according to the plan previously laid down by myself. The _Impérieuse_ had proceeded to the edge of the Boyart Shoal, close to which she
+anchored with an explosion-vessel made fast to her stern, it being my
+intention, after firing the one of which I was about to take charge,
+to return to her for the other, to be employed as circumstances might
+require. At a short distance from the _Impérieuse_ were anchored
+the frigates _Aigle_, _Unicorn_, and _Pallas_, for the purpose of
+receiving the crews of the fireships on their return, as well as to
+support the boats of the fleet assembled alongside the _Cæsar_, to
+assist the fireships. The boats of the fleet were not, however, for
+some reason or other made use of at all.
+
+"Having myself embarked on board the largest explosion-vessel,
+accompanied by Lieut. Bissel and a volunteer crew of four men only,
+we led the way to the attack. The night was dark, and, as the wind was
+fair, though blowing hard, we soon neared the estimated position
+of the advanced French ships, for it was too dark to discern them.
+Judging our distance, therefore, as well as we could, with regard to
+the time the fuse was calculated to burn, the crew of four men entered
+the gig, under the direction of Lieut. Bissel, whilst I kindled the
+portfires, and then, descending into the boat, urged the men to pull
+for their lives, which they did with a will, though, as wind and sea
+were strong against us, without making the expected progress.
+
+"To our consternation, the fuses, which had been constructed to burn
+fifteen minutes, lasted little more than half that time, when the
+vessel blew up, filling the air with shells, grenades, and rockets;
+whilst the downward and lateral force of the explosion raised
+a solitary mountain of water, from the breaking of which in all
+directions our little boat narrowly escaped being swamped. The
+explosion-vessel did her work well, the effect constituting one of the
+grandest artificial spectacles imaginable. For a moment, the sky was
+red with the lurid glare arising from the simultaneous ignition of
+fifteen hundred barrels of powder. On this gigantic flash subsiding,
+the air seemed alive with shells, grenades, rockets, and masses of
+timber, the wreck of the shattered vessel. The sea was convulsed as
+by an earthquake, rising, as has been said, in a huge wave, on whose
+crest our boat was lifted like a cork, and as suddenly dropped into
+a vast trough, out of which as it closed upon us with the rush of a
+whirlpool, none expected to emerge. In a few minutes nothing but
+a heavy rolling sea had to be encountered, all having again become
+silence and darkness."
+
+In spite of its bursting too soon, the explosion-vessel did excellent
+work. The strong boom, composed of large spars bound by heavy chains,
+and firmly anchored at various points in its length of more than a
+mile, which was supposed to constitute an impassable barrier between
+the English ships that were outside and the French ships locked behind
+it, was broken in several parts. The enemy's ships were thoroughly
+disorganised by the sudden and appalling occurrence of the explosion.
+In their alarm and confusion, many of them fired into one another,
+and all might have been easily destroyed had the first success of the
+explosion-vessel been properly followed up. Unfortunately, however, on
+returning to the _Impérieuse_, Lord Cochrane found that there had been
+gross mismanagement of the fireships, which, according to his plans,
+were to have been despatched against various sections of the French
+fleet while it was too confused to protect itself. One of them, fired
+at the wrong time and sent in a wrong direction, nearly destroyed
+the _Impérieuse_ and caused the wasting of a second explosion-vessel,
+which was meant to be held in reserve. The others, if not as
+mischievous in their effects, were almost as useless. "Of all the
+fire-ships, upwards of twenty in number," said Lord Cochrane, "only
+four reached the enemy's position, and not one did any damage. The
+_Impérieuse_ lay three miles from the enemy, so that the one which was
+near setting fire to her became useless at the outset; whilst several
+others were kindled a mile and a half to the windward of this, or four
+miles and a half from the enemy. Of the remainder, many were at once
+rendered harmless from being brought to on the wrong tack. Six passed
+a mile to windward of the French fleet, and one grounded on Oleron."
+
+Though the full success of Lord Cochrane's scheme was thus prevented,
+however, the work done by it was considerable. "As the fireships began
+to light up the roads," he said, "we could observe the enemy's fleet
+in great confusion. Without doubt, taking every fireship for an
+explosion-vessel, and being deceived as to their distance, not only
+did the French make no effort to divert them from their course, but
+some of their ships cut their cables and were seen drifting away
+broadside on to the wind and tide, whilst others made sail, as the
+only alternative to escape from what they evidently considered certain
+destruction. At daylight on the morning of the 12th, not a spar of the
+boom was anywhere visible, and, with the exception of the _Foudroyant_ and _Cassard_, the whole of the enemy's vessels were helplessly
+aground. The flag-ship, _L'Océan_, a three-decker, drawing the most
+water, lay outermost on the north-west edge of the Palles Shoal,
+nearest the deep water, where she was most exposed to attack; whilst
+all, by the fall of the tide, were lying on their bilge, with
+their bottoms completely exposed to shot, and therefore beyond the
+possibility of resistance."
+
+The French fleet had not been destroyed; yet it was so paralysed by
+the shock that its utter defeat seemed easy to Lord Cochrane. To the
+mast of the _Impérieuse_, between six o'clock in the morning of the
+12th and one in the afternoon, he hoisted signal after signal, urging
+Lord Gambier, who was with the main body of the fleet about fourteen
+miles off, to make an attack. Failing in all these, and growing
+desperate in his zeal, especially as every hour of delay was enabling
+the French to recover themselves and rendering success less sure, he
+suffered his single frigate to drift towards the enemy. "I did not
+venture to make sail," wrote Lord Cochrane, in his very modest account
+of this daring exploit, "lest the movement might be seen from the
+flag-ship, and a signal of recall should defeat my purpose of making
+an attack with the _Impérieuse_ ; my object being to compel the
+Commander-in-Chief to send vessels to our assistance. We drifted by
+the wind and tide slowly past the fortifications on Isle d'Aix; but,
+though they fired at us with every gun that could be brought to bear,
+the distance was too great to inflict damage. Proceeding thus till
+1.30 p.m., we then suddenly made sail after the nearest of the enemy's
+vessels escaping. In order to divert our attention from the vessels
+we were pursuing, these having thrown their guns overboard, the
+_Calcutta_, a store-ship carrying fifty-six guns, which was still
+aground, broadside on, began firing at us. Before proceeding further,
+it became therefore necessary to attack her, and at 1.50 we shortened
+sail and returned the fire. At 2.0 the _Impérieuse_ came to an anchor
+in five fathoms, and, veering to half a cable, kept fast the spring,
+firing upon the _Calcutta_ with our broadside, and at the same time
+upon the _Aquillon_ and _Ville de Varsovie_, two line-of-battle ships,
+each of seventy-four guns, with our forecastle and bow guns, both
+these ships being aground stern on, in an opposite direction. After
+some time we had the satisfaction of observing several ships sent
+to our assistance, namely, the _Emerald_, the _Unicorn_, the
+_Indefatigable_, the _Valiant_, the _Revenge_, the _Pallas_, and the
+_Aigle_. On seeing this, the captain and the crew of the _Calcutta_ abandoned their vessel, of which the boats of the _Impérieuse_ took
+possession before the vessels sent to our assistance came down." Soon
+after the arrival of the new ships, the two other vessels were also
+forced to surrender.
+
+Most of the ships sent to his assistance returned to Lord Grambier on
+the 13th. Lord Cochrane, seeing that it would be easy for him to do
+much further mischief, made ready for the work on the morrow. But from
+this he was prevented by the inexcusable conduct of Lord Gambier, who,
+having discountenanced the attempt with the fireships, now not
+only refused to take part in the victory which his comrade had made
+possible, but also hindered its achievement by him.
+
+Lord Cochrane had already overstepped the strict duty of a
+subordinate, though acting only as became an English sailor. The
+fireships with which he had been ordered to ruin the enemy's fleet had
+partly failed through the error of others. "It was then," he said, "a
+question with me whether I should disappoint the expectations of my
+country, be set down as a charlatan by the Admiralty, whose hopes had
+been raised by my plan, and have my future prospects destroyed, or
+force on an action which some had induced an easy Commander-in-Chief
+to believe impracticable." He did force on some fighting, which
+was altogether disastrous to the enemy, and rich in tokens of his
+unflinching heroism; but it was in violation of repeated orders,
+dubiously worded, from Lord Grambier, and, when at last an order was
+issued in terms too distinct to allow of any further evasion, he had
+no alternative but to abandon the enterprise. He was at once sent
+back to England, to be rewarded with much popular favour, and with a
+knighthood of the Order of the Bath, conferred by George III., but to
+become the victim of an official persecution, which, embittering his
+whole life, lasted almost to its close.
+
+It must be admitted that this persecution was in great measure
+provoked by Lord Cochrane's own fearless conduct. He was reasonably
+aggrieved at the effort made by the Admiralty authorities to attribute
+to Lord Gambier, who had taken no part at all in the achievements in
+Basque Roads, all the merit of their success. To use his own caustic
+but accurate words, "The only victory gained by Lord Gambier in Basque
+Roads was that of bringing his ships to anchor there, whilst the
+enemy's ships were quietly heaving off from the banks on which they
+had been driven nine miles distant from the fleet." When for this
+proceeding it was determined to honour Lord Gambier with the thanks
+of Parliament, Lord Cochrane, as member for Westminster, announced his
+intention of opposing the motion. As a bribe to silence he was offered
+an important command by Lord Mulgrave, and it was proposed that his
+name should be included in the vote of thanks. The bribe being
+refused and the opposition persisted in, Lord Gambier demanded a
+court-martial, in which, as he alleged, to controvert the insinuations
+thrown out against him by Lord Cochrane.
+
+The history of this court-martial, its antecedents and its
+consequences, furnishes an episode almost unique in the annals
+of official injustice. As a preparation for it, Lord Gambier, in
+obedience to orders from the Admiralty, supplemented his first account
+of the victory by another of entirely different tenour. In the first,
+written on the spot, he had avowed that he could not speak highly
+enough of Lord Cochrane's vigour and gallantry in approaching the
+enemy,—conduct, he said, "which could not be exceeded by any feat of
+valour hitherto achieved by the British Navy." In the record, written
+four weeks later and in London, he altogether ignored Lord Cochrane's
+services, and transferred the entire merit to himself.
+
+The whole conduct of the court-martial was in keeping with that
+prelude. No effort was spared in stifling all the evidence on Lord
+Cochrane's side, and in adducing false testimony against him. Logbooks
+and witnesses alike were tampered with. In support of his scheme for
+annihilating the whole French fleet, Lord Cochrane produced in court
+a chart showing the relative position of the various points in Aix
+Roads, and of the overhanging fort which was to protect the French
+ships. This chart, left lying upon the table, was tacitly accepted by
+the authorities of the Admiralty as a trustworthy document, and
+duly preserved among the official records. But at the time the court
+refused to receive it in evidence, and adopted instead two falsified
+charts, in which, by the introduction of imaginary shoals and the
+narrowing of the channel to Aix Roads from two miles to one, the
+success of the scheme appeared impossible. Although this gross
+deception was more than suspected, both then and afterwards, by Lord
+Cochrane, his repeated applications to the Admiralty for permission to
+inspect the documents were steadily refused. It was not till more than
+fifty years after the period of the court-martial that he was able to
+prove the scandalous fraud.[A]
+
+[Footnote A: Readers of "The Autobiography of a Seaman" need not be
+reminded of the copious and convincing evidence of the way in which he
+was treated by this court-martial that was adduced by Lord Dundonald
+in that work.]
+
+The result of the court-martial was, of course, such as from the first
+had been intended. Lord Grambier was acquitted, and unlimited blame
+was, by inference, thrown upon Lord Cochrane. The coveted vote
+of thanks was promptly obtained from the House of Commons; Lord
+Cochrane's proposal that the minutes of the court-martial be first
+investigated being, through ministerial influence, summarily rejected.
+
+These proceedings determined the course which men in power were to
+adopt, and fixed Lord Cochrane's future. It was a future to be made up
+of cruel disregard and of revengeful persecution.[A]
+
+[Footnote A: See Appendix (I.).]
+
+Soon after the close of the trial, the brave seaman applied to the
+Admiralty for permission to rejoin his old frigate, the _Impérieuse_,
+and accompanied his application with a bold plan for attacking the
+French fleet in the Scheldt. He received an insulting answer to the
+effect that, if he would be ready to quit the country in a week, and
+then to occupy a position subordinate to that which he had formerly
+held, his services would be accepted. On his replying that his
+great desire to be employed in his profession made him willing to
+do anything, and that all he wished for was a little longer time for
+preparation, no further communication was vouchsafed to him. He was
+quietly superseded in the command of the _Impérieuse_, and received no
+other ship.
+
+Out of this ill-treatment, however, resulted some benefit to the
+nation. Lord Cochrane employed much of his forced leisure, during the
+next few years, in exposing abuses that were then over-abundant, and
+in strenuously advocating reform. In Parliament, voting always with
+his friend Sir Francis Burdett and the Radical party, he limited
+his exertions to naval matters, and such as were within his own
+experience. Herein there was plenty to occupy him, and much that it is
+now amusing to look back upon.[A]
+
+[Footnote A: See Appendix (II.).]
+
+One scandalous grievance led to a memorable episode in his life. The
+many prizes taken by him in the Mediterranean, which, according to
+rule, had been sent to the Maltese Admiralty Court for condemnation,
+had been encumbered with such preposterous charges that, instead of
+realizing anything by his captures, he was made out to be largely
+in debt to the Court. The principal agent of this Court was a Mr.
+Jackson, who illegally held office as at the same time marshal and
+proctor. "The consequence was," said Lord Cochrane, "that every
+prize placed in his hands as proctor had to pass through his hands
+as marshal; whilst as proctor it was further in his power to consult
+himself as marshal as often as he pleased, and to any extent he
+pleased. The amount of self-consultation may be imagined." As proctor
+he charged for visiting himself, and as marshal he charged for
+receiving visits from himself. As marshal he was paid for instructing
+himself, and as proctor he was paid for listening to his own
+instructions. Ten shillings and twopence three farthings was the
+customary charge for an oath to the effect that he had served a
+monition on himself. Of the sheets composing the bill for services of
+these sorts presented to him, Lord Cochrane formed a roll which, when
+unfolded and exhibited in Parliament, stretched from the Speaker's
+table to the bar of the House.
+
+Not content, however, with laughing at the official robberies
+committed upon him, he determined, early in 1811, to proceed to Malta
+and personally investigate the matter. Reaching Valetta long before he
+was expected, he immediately presented himself at the court-house,
+and asked for a copy of the table of fees authorized by the Crown,
+and which, according to directions, ought to have been placed
+conspicuously in the public room. The existence of such a document
+being denied, he proceeded to hunt for it himself, and, after long and
+careful search, found it concealed in an out-of-the-way corner of
+the building. Having taken possession of it, he was carrying off the
+prize, which he intended to exhibit in the House of Commons, in token
+of the extent to which he and others had been defrauded, when he
+was arrested for contempt of court. He protested that the arrest was
+illegal, seeing that, as the court had not been sitting, no insult
+could have been offered to it. The plea was not accepted, and he
+was sent to gaol. No ground for punishment, however, could be found
+against him; and, after refusing to help the authorities out of their
+embarrassment by going at large on bail, and insisting on a proper
+exculpation or nothing at all, he let himself out of window by means
+of a rope. A gig was waiting for him, by which he was enabled to
+overtake the packet-boat that had quitted Malta shortly before,
+to return to London, and to present the document seized by him to
+Parliament a month before the official report of his escapade reached
+home.[A]
+
+[Footnote A: This letter from the Duke of Kent to Lord Cochrane will
+help to show that, even after the time of his Admiralty persecution,
+he was not without friends and admirers in high quarters:—"Kensington
+Palace, 7th July, 1812. My dear Lord,—I trust the acquaintance I
+have the satisfaction to possess with your lordship, and the long
+and intimate friendship subsisting between myself and your brother,
+Lieut.-Colonel Basil Cochrane, will warrant my intruding upon you for
+the purpose of seconding the wishes expressed by a young naval protégé
+of mine, and I cannot help adding my earnest request that when your
+distinguished zeal and talents in your profession are again called
+into action by Government, you will kindly oblige me by taking
+Lieutenant Edgar under your wing and protection; he is a fine young
+man, and I think would not disgrace the wardroom of your lordship's
+ship. I remain, with my sincere regard, my dear lord, yours
+faithfully, EDWARD.
+
+"
+_The Right Honourable Lord Cochrane_."]
+
+An imprisonment of very different character occurred after an interval
+of nearly three years. This was in consequence of the famous Stock
+Exchange trial, the episode last treated of by the Earl of Dundonald
+in his Autobiography, and not quite recounted to the end before death
+stayed his hand.
+
+From 1809 to 1813, Lord Cochrane was allowed to take no active part in
+the work of his profession. But at the close of the latter year, his
+uncle, Sir Alexander Cochrane, having been selected for the command
+of the fleet on the North American station, appointed him his
+flag-captain—an appointment resting only with the Commander-in-Chief,
+and one with which the Government could not interfere. It was always
+Lord Cochrane's belief that the implacable enmity of his foes in the
+Admiralty Office—determined to prevent by irregular means, since no
+regular course was open to them, his return to naval work—helped
+to bring about the cruel persecution by which his whole life was
+embittered. But it must be admitted that the dishonesty of one of his
+own kinsmen—about which a chivalrous sense of honour caused him to be
+reticent during nearly fifty years—conduced to this result.
+
+The chief agent of the fraud practised upon him was a foreigner, named
+De Berenger. This man, clever and unscrupulous, had been associated
+with Mr. Cochrane Johnstone, an uncle of Lord Cochrane's, in certain
+stock-jobbing transactions. In that or in some other way he became
+known to Lord Cochrane and to his other uncle, Sir Alexander Cochrane;
+and, being a smart chemist and pyrotechnist, it was proposed that he
+should accompany Lord Cochrane to North America, and assist him in the
+trial of his recently-discovered method of attacking forts and fleets
+in a secret and irresistible manner. With that object—of course
+clandestine—Sir Alexander Cochrane sought the permission of the
+Admiralty to employ De Berenger as a teacher of sharp-shooting, in
+which he was a well-known adept. This was not granted, and near the
+end of 1813, Sir Alexander set sail for Halifax, leaving Lord Cochrane
+to follow in the _Tonnant_, in charge of a convoy, and in getting
+the _Tonnant_ ready for sea his lordship was busy during January and
+February, 1814. In the former month De Berenger sought him out and
+earnestly requested that, his official appointment being refused, he
+might be taken on board in a private capacity and allowed to rely
+upon the success of his work for recompense. Lord Cochrane declined
+to employ him without some sort of sanction from the Admiralty, and
+De Berenger left him with the avowed intention of doing his utmost to
+procure this sanction.
+
+He was otherwise occupied. Being in urgent need of money, with which
+to evade the grasp of his numerous creditors, he returned to his
+stock-jobbing pursuits—if indeed he had not been engaging in them
+all along; using his proposal for employment under Lord Cochrane as a
+blind or as a secondary resource. Instead of furthering his efforts to
+obtain this employment, he contrived a plan for causing a sudden rise
+in the funds, and thereby securing a large profit to himself and his
+accomplices. On the 20th of February he presented himself at the Ship
+Hotel at Dover, disguised as a foreigner and calling himself Colonel
+De Bourg, professing that he brought intelligence from France to
+the effect that Buonaparte had been killed by the Cossacks, that the
+allied armies were in full march towards Paris, and that a speedy
+cessation of the war was certain. Thence he hurried up to London and
+was traced to have gone, on the following morning, to Lord Cochrane's
+house. The ostensible object of that visit was to renew his
+application for employment on board the _Tonnant_. The real object
+was, by means of a trick, to get possession of a hat and cloak, with
+which to disguise himself afresh, and thus try to elude the pursuit
+of agents of the Stock Exchange, who would soon seek to punish him for
+his fraud. The disguise was given to him in all innocence, and might
+have been successful, had not Lord Cochrane, on finding how grossly
+he had been deceived, volunteered to assist in punishing the culprit.
+Leaving the _Tonnant_, in which he was about to start from Chatham, he
+returned to London, and gave full information as to his share in the
+transaction, with the view of furthering the cause of justice and
+clearing himself from all blame.
+
+That was prevented by as wanton a prosecution and as malicious a
+perverting of the forms of justice and the principles of equity as the
+annals of English law, not often abused even in a much less degree,
+can show. The straightforward evidence furnished by him was made
+the handle to an elaborate machinery of falsehood and perjury for
+effecting his own ruin. The solicitor who had managed the cause of the
+Admiralty at the court-martial on Lord Gambier, and therein proved his
+skill, was entrusted with the ugly work. By him an elaborate case for
+prosecution was trumped up, and Lord Cochrane, hindered from sailing
+to North America in the _Tonnant_, and hindered from obtaining any
+other employment in his country's service during four-and-thirty
+years, was, on the 8th of June, placed in the prisoner's dock at the
+Court of King's Bench on a charge of conspiring with his uncle, Mr.
+Cochrane Johnstone, with De Berenger, and with some other persons,
+to defraud the Stock Exchange. Lord Ellenborough, who presided at the
+trial, delivered a charge which was even more virulent and more marked
+by political spite than was his wont, and the too compliant jury
+brought in a verdict of "guilty." Lord Cochrane vainly sought for a
+new trial, and vainly adduced abundant proof of his innocence. The
+chance of justice that is every Englishman's right was denied to him.
+He was sentenced to an hour's detention in the pillory at the entrance
+of the Royal Exchange, to a year's imprisonment in the King's Bench
+Prison, and to a fine of a thousand pounds.
+
+The first part of the sentence was not insisted upon, as Sir Francis
+Burdett, Lord Cochrane's noble-hearted colleague as member for
+Westminster, avowed his intention of standing also in the pillory, if
+his friend was subjected to that indignity, and of thus encouraging
+the storm of popular indignation, that, without any such
+encouragement, would probably have led to consequences which
+the Government, already hated by all Englishmen who loved their
+birthright, dared not brook. But the unworthy vengeance of his
+persecutors was amply satisfied in other ways. He had already suffered
+more than most men. "Neglect," he said, "I was accustomed to. But when
+an alleged offence was laid to my charge, in which, on the honour of
+a man now on the brink of the grave, I had not the slightest
+participation, and from which I never benefited, nor thought to
+benefit one farthing, and when this allegation was, by political
+rancour and legal chicanery, consummated in an unmerited conviction
+and an outrageous sentence, my heart for the first time sank within
+me, as conscious of a blow, the effect of which it has required all my
+energies to sustain."
+
+It is needless now to say anything in proof of Lord Cochrane's
+innocence of the charge brought against him. The world has long since
+reversed the verdict passed at Lord Ellenborough's dictation. That
+an officer and a gentleman of Lord Cochrane's reputation should have
+demeaned himself by becoming a party to the fraud of which he was
+accused, is, to say the least, improbable. That, if he had been guilty
+of that fraud, he should not have availed himself of the only benefit
+that could be derived from it by investing in the stocks when they
+were low and selling out during the brief time of their artificial
+value, is far more improbable. That, when the fraud was perpetrated,
+and its chief instrument was undiscovered, he should have left the
+_Tonnant_ in order to expose him, instead of taking him away from
+England, and so almost ensuring the preservation of the secret, is
+utterly impossible.
+
+His only faults were too great faith in his own innocence and a too
+chivalrous desire to protect, or rather to abstain from injuring, his
+unworthy kinsman. "I must be here distinctly understood," it was said
+by Lord Brougham, in his "Historic Sketches of British Statesmen," "to
+deny the accuracy of the opinion which Lord Ellenborough appears to
+have formed in this case, and deeply to lament the verdict of
+'guilty' which the jury returned after three hours' consultation
+and hesitation. If Lord Cochrane was at all aware of his uncle Mr.
+Cochrane Johnstone's proceedings, it was the whole extent of his
+privity to the fact. Having been one of the counsel engaged in the
+cause, I can speak with some confidence respecting it, and I take upon
+me to assert that Lord Cochrane's conviction was mainly owing to the
+extreme repugnance which he felt to giving up his uncle, or taking
+those precautions for his own safety which would have operated against
+that near relation. Even when he, the real criminal, had confessed his
+guilt by taking to flight, and the other defendants were brought up
+for judgment, we, the counsel, could not persuade Lord Cochrane to
+shake himself loose from the contamination by abandoning him."
+
+Part of a letter addressed to the Earl of Dundonald in 1859, on the
+anniversary of his eighty-fourth birthday, and shortly after the
+publication of the first volume of his "Autobiography of a Seaman," by
+the daughter of the man whose wrong-doing had conduced so terribly
+to his misfortunes, may here be fitly quoted:—"You are still active,
+still in health," says the writer, "and you have just given to the
+world a striking proof of the vigour of your mind and intellect. Many
+years I cannot wish for you; but may you live to finish your book,
+and, if it please God, may you and I have a peaceful death-bed. We
+have both suffered much mental anguish, though in various degrees; for
+yours was indeed the hardest lot that an honourable man can be called
+on to bear. Oh, my dear cousin, let me say once more, whilst we are
+still here, how, ever since that miserable time, I have felt that you
+suffered for my poor father's fault—how agonizing that conviction
+was—how thankful I am that _tardy justice_ was done you. May God
+return you fourfold for your generous though misplaced confidence in
+him, and for all your subsequent forbearance!"
+
+Another extract from a letter, from one out of a multitude of tributes
+to the Earl of Dundonald's honourable bearing, which were tendered
+after his death, shall close this introductory chapter. "Five years
+after the trial of Lord Cochrane," wrote Sir Fitzroy Kelly, now Lord
+Chief Baron, on the 17th of December, 1860, "I began to study for the
+bar, and very soon became acquainted with and interested in his case,
+and I have thought of it much and long during more than forty years;
+and I am profoundly convinced that, had he been defended singly and
+separately from the others accused, or had he at the last moment,
+before judgment was pronounced, applied, with competent legal advice
+and assistance, for a new trial, he would have been unhesitatingly and
+honourably acquitted. We cannot blot out this dark page from our legal
+and judicial history."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II.
+
+
+THE ISSUE OF THE STOCK EXCHANGE TRIAL.—LORD COCHRANE'S COMMITTAL TO
+THE KING'S BENCH PRISON.—THE DEBATE UPON HIS CASE IN THE HOUSE OF
+COMMONS, AND HIS SPEECH ON THAT OCCASION.—HIS EXPULSION FROM THE
+HOUSE, AND RE-ELECTION AS MEMBER FOR WESTMINSTER.—THE WITHDRAWAL OF
+HIS SENTENCE TO THE PILLORY.—THE REMOVAL OF HIS INSIGNIA AS A KNIGHT
+OF THE BATH.
+
+
+[1814.]
+
+The famous and infamous Stock Exchange trial occupied the 8th and 9th
+of June, 1814; but the sentence was deferred until the 21st of the
+same month, in consequence of Lord Cochrane's demand for a new trial.
+That demand was not complied with, in spite of the production
+of overwhelming evidence to justify it; and the victim of Lord
+Ellenborough and the tyrannical Government of the day was at once
+conveyed to the King's Bench Prison. No time was lost in heaping upon
+him all the indignities which, in accordance with precedent and in
+excess of all precedent, might supplement his degradation.
+
+The first was a notice of motion which would result in his expulsion
+from the House of Commons. Lord Cochrane promptly availed himself of
+the opening thus afforded for a public avowal of his innocence. To
+the Hon. Charles Abbot, then Speaker of the House, he wrote from his
+prison on the 23rd of June. "Sir," runs the letter, "I respectfully
+entreat you to communicate to the Honourable House of Commons my
+earnest desire and prayer that no question arising out of the late
+convictions in the Court of King's Bench may be agitated without
+affording me timely notice and full opportunity of attending in my
+place for the justification of my character. From the House of Commons
+I hope to obtain that justice of which too implicit reliance on the
+consciousness of my innocence, and circumstances over which I had no
+control, have hitherto deprived me. The painful situation in which I
+am placed is known to the House, and I trust that I shall be enabled
+to demonstrate that a more injured man has never sought redress
+from those to whose justice I now appeal for the preservation of my
+character and existence."
+
+In compliance with that request, and with parliamentary rules, Lord
+Cochrane was conveyed from the King's Bench Prison to the House of
+Commons, and allowed to read a carefully-prepared statement of his
+case, on the 5th of July, the day fixed for investigation of the
+subject. From this statement it is not necessary to cite the clear
+and conclusive recapitulation of the evidence adduced at the trial, or
+refused admission therein because it was too convincing, in proof of
+Lord Cochrane's innocence; but room must be found for some passages
+illustrating the independent temper of the speaker and the perversions
+of justice to which he fell a victim.
+
+"I am not here, sir," he said, "to bespeak compassion or to pave the
+way to pardon. Both ideas are alike repugnant to my feelings. That the
+public in general have felt indignation at the sentence that has been
+passed upon me does honour to their hearts, and tends still to make
+my country dear to me, in spite of what I have suffered from the
+malignity of persons in power. But, sir, I am not here to complain of
+the hardship of my case or about the cruelty of judges, who, for
+an act which was never till now ever known or thought to be a legal
+offence, have laid upon me a sentence more heavy than they have
+ever yet laid upon persons clearly convicted of the most horrid
+of crimes—crimes of which nature herself cries aloud against the
+commission. If, therefore, it was my object to complain of the cruelty
+of my judges, I should bid the public look into the calendar, and see
+if they could find a punishment like that inflicted on me; inflicted
+by these same judges on any one of these unnatural wretches. It is
+not, however, my business to complain of the cruelty of this sentence.
+I am here to assert, for the third time, my innocence in the most
+unqualified and solemn manner; I am here to expose the unfairness of
+the proceedings against me previous to the trial, at the trial,
+and subsequent to it; I am here to expose the long train of artful
+villainies which have been practised against me hitherto with so much
+success.
+
+"I am persuaded, sir, that the House will easily perceive, and every
+honourable man, I am sure, participate in my feelings, that the
+fine, the imprisonment, the pillory—even that pillory to which I am
+condemned—are nothing, that they weigh not as a feather, when put
+in the balance against my desire to show that I have been unjustly
+condemned. Therefore, sir, I trust that the House will give a fair and
+impartial hearing to what I have to say respecting the conduct of
+my enemies, to expose which conduct is a duty which I owe to my
+constituents, and to my country, not less than to myself.
+
+"In the first place, sir, I here, in the presence of this House, and
+with the eyes of the country fixed upon me, most solemnly declare that
+I am wholly innocent of the crime which has been laid to my
+charge, and for which I have been condemned to the most infamous of
+punishments. Having repeated this assertion of my innocence, I next
+proceed to complain of the means that have been made use of to effect
+my destruction. And first, sir, was it ever before known in this or in
+any other country, that the prosecutor should form a sort of court of
+his own erection, call witnesses before it of his own choosing, and,
+under offers of great rewards, take minutes of the evidence of such
+witnesses, and publish those minutes to the world under the forms and
+appearances of a judicial proceeding? Was it ever before known, that
+steps like these were taken previous to an indictment,—previous to
+the bringing of an intended victim into a court of justice? Was there
+ever before known so regular, so systematic a scheme for exciting
+suspicion against a man, and for implanting an immovable prejudice
+against him in the minds of a whole nation, previous to the preferring
+a Bill of Indictment, in order that the grand jury, be it composed
+of whomsoever it might, should be predisposed to find the bill? I ask
+you, sir, and I ask the House, whether it was ever before known, that
+means like these were resorted to, previous to a man's being legally
+accused? But, sir, what must the world think, when they see some of
+those to whom the welfare and the honour of the nation are committed
+covertly co-operating with a Committee of the Stock Exchange, and
+becoming their associates in so nefarious a scheme? Nevertheless, sir,
+this fact is now notorious to the whole world. I must confess I was
+not prepared to believe the thing possible."
+
+Thereupon followed a detailed examination of the charges brought
+against Lord Cochrane, and of the way in which those charges were
+handled, special complaint being made concerning the malicious bearing
+of Lord Ellenborough. "It must be in the recollection of the House,"
+said Lord Cochrane, "as it is in that of the public, that he urged,
+that he compelled, the counsel to enter upon my defence _after
+midnight_, at the end of fifteen hours from the commencement of the
+trial, when that counsel declared himself quite exhausted, and when
+the jury, who were to decide, were in a state of such weariness as to
+render attention to what was said totally impossible. The speeches
+of the counsel being ended, the judge, at _half-past three in the
+morning_, adjourned the court till ten; thus separating the evidence
+from the argument, and reserving his own strength, and the strength
+of my adversaries' advocates, for the close; giving to both the great
+advantage of time to consider the reply, and to insert and arrange
+arguments to meet those which had been urged in my defence."
+
+All his treatment by Lord Ellenborough, as Lord Cochrane urged, was of
+that sort, or worse. "Of all tyrannies, sir," he said, "the worst
+is that which exercises its vengeance under the guise of judicial
+proceedings, and especially if a jury make part of the means by which
+its base purposes are effected. The man who is flung into prison, or
+sent to the scaffold, at the nod of an avowed despotism, has at least
+the consolation to know that his sufferings bring down upon that
+despotism the execration of mankind; but he who is entrapped
+and entangled in the meshes of a crafty and corrupt system of
+jurisprudence; who is pursued imperceptibly by a law with leaden
+feet and iron jaws; who is not put upon his trial till the ear of the
+public has been poisoned, and its heart steeled against him,—falls,
+at last, without being cheered with a hope of seeing his tyrants
+execrated even by the warmest of his friends. In their principle, the
+ancient and settled laws of England are excellent; but of late years,
+so many injurious and fatal alterations in the law have taken place,
+that any man who ventures to meddle with public affairs, and to oppose
+persons in power, is sure and certain, sooner or later, to suffer in
+some way or other.
+
+"Sir, the punishment which the malice of my enemies has procured to be
+inflicted on me is not, in my mind, worth a moment's reflection. The
+judge supposed, apparently, that the sentence of the pillory would
+disgrace and mortify me. I can assure him, and I now solemnly assure
+this House, my constituents, and my country, that I would rather stand
+in my own name, in the pillory, every day of my life, under such a
+sentence, than I would sit upon the bench in the name and with the
+real character of Lord Ellenborough for one single hour.
+
+"Something has been said, sir, in this House, as I have heard, about
+an application for a mitigation of my sentence, in a certain quarter,
+where, it is observed, that mercy never failed to flow; but I can
+assure the House that an application for pardon, extorted from me, is
+one of the things which even a partial judge and a packed jury have
+not the power to accomplish. No, sir; I will seek for, and I look for,
+pardon _nowhere_, for _I have committed no crime_. I have sought for,
+I still seek for, and I confidently expect JUSTICE; not, however, at
+the hands of those by whose machinations I have been brought to
+what they regard as my ruin, but at the hands of my enlightened and
+virtuous constituents, to whose exertions the nation owes that there
+is still a voice to cry out against that haughty and inexorable
+tyranny which commands silence to all but parasites and hypocrites."
+
+Thus ended Lord Cochrane's written argument. It was followed by, a few
+words spoken on the spur of the moment: "Having so long occupied
+its time, I will not trouble the House longer than to implore it to
+investigate the circumstances of my case. I think I have stated enough
+to induce it to call for the minutes of the trial. All I wish is an
+inquiry. Many important facts yet remain to be considered, and I
+trust that the House will not come to a decision with its eyes shut.
+I entreat, I implore investigation. It is true that a sentence of a
+court of law has been pronounced against me; but that punishment is
+nothing, and will to me seem nothing, in comparison with what it is in
+the power of the House to inflict. I have already suffered much;
+but if after a deliberate and a fair investigation the House shall
+determine that I am guilty, then let me be deserted and abandoned by
+the world. I shall submit without repining to any the most dreadful
+penalty that the House can assign. I solemnly declare before Almighty
+God that I am ignorant of the whole transaction. Into the hearts of
+men we cannot penetrate; we cannot dive into their inmost thoughts;
+but my heart I lay open, and my most secret thoughts I disclose to
+the House. I entreat the strictest scrutiny and a patient hearing. I
+implore it at your hands, as an act of justice, and once more I call
+upon my Maker, upon Almighty God, to bear witness that I am innocent.
+He knows my heart, He knows all its secrets, and He knows that I am
+innocent."
+
+An animated debate followed upon that eloquent address. Viscount
+Castlereagh complained that Lord Cochrane, instead of defending
+himself, had only libelled Lord Ellenborough and the noblest
+institutions of the land. Other speakers expressed similar opinions;
+but others testified to the consistent character of Lord Cochrane,
+rendering it impossible that he should be guilty of the offence
+with which he was charged; and others again confessed that, having
+previously had doubts in the matter, those doubts had been removed by
+the high-minded tone and the powerful arguments of his defence. But in
+the end the House adopted the view set forth by Lord Castlereagh; that
+its duty was simply to accept the verdict of the Court of the King's
+Bench, and, according to precedent, to expel the member declared
+guilty by that court, without daring to revive the question of his
+guilt or innocence; and that it would be better for an innocent man
+thus to suffer, than for the House to assail "the bulwarks of English
+liberty," by turning itself into a Star Chamber, or an Inquisition,
+and attempting to interfere with "the regular administration of
+justice." The proposal that Lord Cochrane's case should be referred to
+a Select Committee was rejected without a division. The motion that he
+should be expelled from the House was carried by a hundred and forty
+members, against forty-four dissentients.
+
+That new act of injustice, however, though it added much to Lord
+Cochrane's suffering, brought him no fresh disgrace. It only led
+to his triumphant re-election as member for Westminster, under
+circumstances that were reasonably consoling to him. His seat having
+been taken from him on the 5th of July, a great meeting of the
+electors, attended by five thousand people, was held on the 11th.
+It was there unanimously resolved that Lord Cochrane was perfectly
+innocent of the Stock Exchange fraud, that he was a fit and proper
+person to represent the City of Westminster in Parliament, and that
+his re-election should be secured without any expense to him. Richard
+Brinsley Sheridan, his stout opponent at the previous election, who
+was now urged to oppose him again, honourably refused to do so; and
+therefore the election passed without a contest. But contest would
+only have added to its glory; unless, indeed, the people, over-zealous
+in their expression of sympathy for their representative, had been
+provoked thereby to violent exhibition of their temper. Even without
+such provocation the turmoil of the re-election day, the 16th of July,
+was great; angry crowds assembled in the streets, and menacing words
+against the Government and its myrmidons were loudly uttered. The
+wisdom of Sir Francis Burdett and other leaders of the popular party,
+however, prevented anything worse than angry speech.
+
+"Amongst all the occurrences of my life," said Lord Cochrane,
+writing from the King's Bench Prison to thank the electors for their
+confidence in him, "I can call to memory no one which has produced so
+great a degree of exultation in my breast as this, that, after all the
+machinations of corruption have been able to effect against me, the
+citizens of Westminster have, with unanimous voice, pronounced me
+worthy of continuing to be one of their representatives in Parliament.
+With regard to the case, the agitation of which has been the cause
+of this most gratifying result, I am in no apprehension as to the
+opinions and feelings of the world, and especially of the people
+of England, who, though they may be occasionally misled, are never
+deliberately cruel or unjust. Only let it be said of me: 'The Stock
+Exchange has accused; Lord Ellenborough has charged for guilty; the
+special jury have found that guilt; the Court have sentenced to the
+pillory; the House of Commons have expelled; and the Citizens of
+Westminster have re-elected,'—only let this be the record placed
+against my name, and I shall be proud to stand in the calendar of
+criminals all the days of my life."
+
+The worst part of the sentence passed upon Lord Cochrane, as has been
+already said, was not carried out. The 10th of August had been fixed
+as the day on which he was to stand in the pillory for an hour in
+front of the Royal Exchange. But the danger of a disturbance among the
+people, and of fierce opposition in the House of Commons hindered the
+perpetration of this indignity. Some sentences of a letter addressed
+to Lord Ebrington, deprecating his motion in Parliament for a
+remission of this part of the sentence, are too characteristic,
+however, to be left unquoted. "I did not expect," said Lord Cochrane,
+"to be treated by your lordship as an object of mercy, on the grounds
+of past services, or severity of sentence. I cannot allow myself to be
+indebted to that tenderness of disposition which has led your lordship
+to form an erroneous estimate of the amount of punishment due to the
+crimes of which I have been accused; nor can I for a moment consent
+that any past services of mine should be prostituted to the purpose of
+protecting me from any part of the vengeance of the laws against which
+I, if at all, have grossly offended. If I am guilty, I richly merit
+the whole of the sentence that has been passed upon me. If innocent,
+one penalty cannot be inflicted with more justice than another."
+
+If the degradation of the pillory was remitted, another degradation
+quite as painful to Lord Cochrane was substituted for it. His name
+having, on the 25th of June, been struck off the list of naval
+officers in the Admiralty, the Knights Companions of the Bath promptly
+held a chapter to consider the propriety of expelling him from their
+ranks. That was soon done, and no time was lost in making the insult
+as thorough as possible. At one o'clock in the morning of the 11th
+of August, the Bath King at Arms repaired to King Henry the Seventh's
+Chapel in Westminster Abbey, and there, under a warrant signed by Lord
+Sidmouth, the Secretary of State, removed the banner of Lord Cochrane,
+which was suspended between those of Lord Beresford and Sir Brent
+Spencer. His arms were next unscrewed, and his helmet, sword, and
+other insignia were taken down from the stall. The banner was then
+kicked out of the chapel and down the steps by the official, eager to
+omit no possible indignity. It was an indignity unparalleled since the
+establishment of the order in 1725.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III.
+
+
+LORD COCHRANE'S BEARING IN THE KING'S BENCH PRISON—HIS STREET
+LAMPS.—HIS ESCAPE, AND THE MOTIVES FOR IT.—HIS CAPTURE IN THE HOUSE
+OF COMMONS, AND SUBSEQUENT TREATMENT.—HIS CONFINEMENT IN THE STRONG
+ROOM OF THE KING'S BENCH PRISON.—HIS RELEASE.
+
+
+[1814-1815.]
+
+During the first period of his imprisonment Lord Cochrane was not
+treated with more than usual severity. Two rooms in the King's Bench
+State House were provided for him, in which, of course, all the
+expenses of his maintenance devolved upon himself. He was led
+to understand that, if he chose to ask for it, he might have the
+privilege of "the rules," which would have allowed him, on certain
+conditions, a range of about half-a-mile round the prison. But he
+did not choose to ask. Rather, he said, than seek any favour from
+the Government, he would lie in a dungeon all through the term of his
+unjust imprisonment. Throughout that period he resolutely avowed his
+perfect innocence, to friends and foes alike; and the consciousness
+of his innocence helped him to bear up under a degradation that, to
+a nature as sensitive and chivalrous as his, was doubly bitter. Good
+friends, like Sir Francis Burdett, came to cheer him in his solitude,
+and over-zealous, yet honest, friends, like William Cobbett, came to
+take counsel with him as to ways of keeping alive and quickening the
+popular indignation which, without any stimulants from headstrong
+demagogues, was strong enough on his behalf.
+
+The tedium of his captivity was further relieved by his devotion to
+those scientific and mechanical pursuits which, all through life,
+yielded employment very solacing to himself, and very profitable to
+the world. While in the King's Bench Prison he was especially occupied
+in completing a plan for lighting the public streets by means of a
+lamp invented by him, in which the main principle was the introduction
+of a steady current of fresh air into the globes, whereby all the oil
+was fairly burnt, and a brilliant light was always maintained. In this
+way lamps much cheaper than those previously in use were found to have
+a far greater illuminating power. Early in October, 1814, the lamps
+in St. Ann's parish, Westminster, numbering eight hundred in all, were
+taken down and replaced by four hundred constructed on Lord Cochrane's
+plan; and even political opponents spoke in acknowledgment of the
+excellent result of the change. Had it not been for the introduction
+of gas, the superiority of these new lamps must soon have compelled
+their adoption all over London. It is curious that the discovery of
+the illuminating power of gas—undoubtedly due to his father—should
+have superseded one of Lord Cochrane's most promising inventions as
+soon as it had been brought to recognized perfection.
+
+In such pursuits nine months of the unjust imprisonment were passed.
+"Lord Cochrane has hitherto borne all his hardships with great
+fortitude," wrote one of his most intimate friends on the 10th of
+November, "and, if there are any more in store for him, I hope he will
+continue to be cheerful and courageous." "His lordship always hopes
+for the best, and is never afraid of the worst," said the same
+authority on the 9th of December, "and therefore he is in good
+spirits."
+
+This fearless disposition led, in March, 1815, to a bold step, which
+some of Lord Cochrane's best friends deprecated. Knowing that he
+was unjustly imprisoned, he conceived that, since his re-election
+as member for Westminster, the imprisonment was illegal as well as
+unjust, in that it was contrary to the privilege of Parliament. The
+law provides that "no Member of Parliament can be imprisoned either
+for non-payment of a fine to the King, or for any other cause than
+treason, felony, or refusing to give security for the peace." It
+may be questioned whether, in the presence of this law, his first
+imprisonment, even under the sentence of the Court of King's Bench,
+was legal. But having been imprisoned, and having been expelled from
+the House of Commons, it is clear that his subsequent re-election
+could not interfere with the fulfilment, of the sentence passed
+against him, especially as he had not been able to make good his title
+to membership by taking the prescribed oaths and claiming a seat in
+the House. He, however—acting as it would seem under the advice of
+William Cobbett and other unsafe counsellors—thought otherwise,
+and considered that he was only vindicating a high constitutional
+principle, against the exercise of despotic power by the Government,
+in making his escape from the King's Bench Prison. "I did not quit
+these walls," he said in a letter addressed to the electors
+of Westminster, on the 12th of April, "to escape from personal
+oppression, but, at the hazard of my life, to assert that right to
+liberty which, as a member of the community, I have never forfeited,
+and that right, which I received from you, to attack in its very den
+the corruption which threatens to annihilate the liberties of us all.
+I did not quit them to fly from the justice of my country, but to
+expose the wickedness, fraud, and hypocrisy of those who elude that
+justice by committing their enormities under the colour of its name.
+I did not quit them from the childish motive of impatience under
+suffering. I stayed long enough to evince that I could endure
+restraint as a pain, but not as a penalty. I stayed long enough to be
+certain that my persecutors were conscious of their injustice, and to
+feel that my submission to their unmerited inflictions was losing the
+dignity of resignation, and sinking into the ignominious endurance of
+an insult."
+
+The escape was effected on the 6th of March, and by the same means
+which had proved successful in Lord Cochrane's retreat from the
+gaol at Malta, just four years before. His rooms in the King's Bench
+Prison, being on the upper storey of the building known as the
+State House, were nearly as high as the wall which formed the prison
+boundary, and the windows were only a few feet distant from it.
+The possibility of escape by this way, however, had never been
+contemplated, and therefore the windows were unprotected by bars.
+Accordingly Lord Cochrane, having been supplied, from time to time, by
+the same servant who had aided him at Malta, with a quantity of small
+strong rope, managed, soon after midnight, and while the watchman
+going his rounds was in a distant part of the prison, to get out of
+window and climb on to the roof of the building. Thence he threw a
+running noose over the iron spikes placed on the wall, and, exercising
+the agility that he had acquired during his seaman's occupations,
+easily gained the summit—to be somewhat discomfited by having to sit
+upon the iron spikes while he fastened his rope to one of them and
+prepared, with its help, to slip down to the pavement on the outer
+side of the wall. The rope was not strong enough, however, to bear his
+weight; it snapped when he was some twenty-five feet from the ground,
+and caused him to fall with his back upon the stone pavement. There he
+lay, in an almost unconscious state, for a considerable time. But no
+passer-by observed him; and before daylight he was able to crawl to
+the house of an old nurse of his eldest son's, who gladly afforded him
+concealment.
+
+Long concealment was not intended by him. "If it had not been," he
+said, "for the commotion excited by that obnoxious, injurious, and
+arbitrary measure, the Corn Bill, which began to evince itself on
+the day of my departure from prison, I should have lost no time in
+proceeding to the House of Commons; but, conjecturing that the spirit
+of disturbance might derive some encouragement from my unexpected
+appearance at that time, and having no inclination to promote tumult,
+I resolved to defer my appearance at the House, and, if possible,
+to conceal my departure from the prison, until the order of the
+metropolis should be restored."
+
+To the same effect was a letter addressed by Lord Cochrane to the
+Speaker of the House of Commons on the 9th of March. "I respectfully
+request," he said therein, "that you will state to the honourable
+the House of Commons, that I should immediately and personally
+have communicated to them my departure from the custody of Lord
+Ellenborough, by whom I have been long most unjustly detained; but I
+judged it better to endeavour to conceal my absence, and to defer my
+appearance in the House until the public agitation excited by the Corn
+Bill should subside. And I have further to request that you will also
+communicate to the House that it is my intention, on an early day, to
+present myself for the purpose of taking my seat and moving an inquiry
+into the conduct of Lord Ellenborough."
+
+On the day of that letter's delivery, the 10th of March—also famous
+as the day on which Buonaparte's escape from Elba was published in
+England—Lord Cochrane's gaolers discovered that he was no longer
+in his prison. Immediately a hue and cry was raised. This notice was
+issued: "Escaped from the King's Bench Prison, on Monday the 6th day
+of March, instant, Lord Cochrane. He is about five feet eleven inches
+in height,[A] thin and narrow-chested, with sandy hair and full eyes,
+red whiskers and eyebrows. Whoever will apprehend and secure Lord
+Cochrane in any of His Majesty's gaols in the kingdom shall have a
+reward of three hundred guineas from William Jones, Marshal of the
+King's Bench."
+
+[Footnote A: He was really about six feet two inches in height, and
+broad in proportion.]
+
+Great search was made in consequence of that notice, and Lord
+Cochrane's disappearance was an eleven days' wonder. Every newspaper
+had each day a new statement as to his whereabouts. Some declared that
+he had gone mad, and, as a madman's freak, was hiding himself in some
+corner of the prison; others that he was lodging at an apothecary's
+shop in London. According to one report, he had been seen at Hastings,
+according to another, at Farnham, and according to another, in Jersey;
+while others declared that he had been discovered in France and
+elsewhere on the Continent.
+
+None of the thousands whom political spite or the hope of reward set
+in search of him thought of looking for him in his real resting-place.
+"As soon as I had written to the Speaker," he said, "I went into
+Hampshire, where I remained eleven days, and till within one day of my
+appearance in the House of Commons. During that period I was occupied
+in regulating my affairs in that county, and in riding about the
+county, as was well known to the people of the neighbourhood, none of
+whom were base enough to be seduced by a bribe to deliver an injured
+man into the hands of his oppressors."
+
+At his own house, known as Holly Hill, in the south of Hampshire, Lord
+Cochrane remained quietly, though with no attempt to hide himself,
+until the 20th of March. He then, in fulfilment of his original
+purpose, returned to London, and on the following day entered the
+House of Commons at about two o'clock in the afternoon. Very great
+was the astonishment among the officials in attendance caused by his
+appearance, "dressed," according to one of the newspaper reports, "in
+his usual costume, grey pantaloons, frogged great-coat, &c.;" and by
+some of them the intelligence of his arrival was promptly communicated
+to the Marshal of the King's Bench. In the meanwhile, considering
+himself safe within the precincts of the House at any rate, he
+proceeded to occupy his customary seat. To that it was objected that,
+until he had taken the oaths and complied with the prescribed forms
+consequent on his re-election, he had no right within the building.
+He answered that he was willing to do this, and, to see that all was
+according to rule, went at once to the clerks' office. There it was
+pretended that the writ of his re-election had not yet been received,
+and that it must first be procured from the Crown Office, in Chancery
+Lane. Awaiting the return of the messenger, ostensibly despatched for
+this purpose, he again entered the House, and there he was found, at a
+few minutes before four, by Mr. Jones, the marshal, who, on receiving
+the information sent to him, had hurried up, with a Bow Street runner
+and some tipstaves. The runner, walking up to Lord Cochrane and
+touching him on the shoulder, bluntly claimed him as his prisoner.
+Lord Cochrane asked by what authority he dared to arrest a Member of
+Parliament in the House of Commons. "My lord," answered the man, "my
+authority is the public proclamation of the Marshal of the King's
+Bench Prison, offering a reward for your apprehension." Lord Cochrane
+declared that he neither acknowledged, nor would yield to, any
+such authority, that he was there to resume his seat as one of the
+representatives of the City of Westminster, and that any who dared to
+touch him would do so at their peril. Two tipstaves thereupon rudely
+seized him by the arms. He again cautioned them that the Marshal of
+the King's Bench had no authority within those walls, and that their
+conduct was altogether illegal. The answer was that he had better
+go quietly; his reply that he would not go at all. Other officers,
+however, came up. After a short struggle, he was overpowered, and, on
+his refusing to walk, he was carried out of the House on the shoulders
+of the tipstaves and constables.
+
+There was a halt, however, in this disgraceful march. The Bow Street
+runner expressed a fear that Lord Cochrane had firearms concealed
+under his clothes, and he was accordingly taken into one of the
+committee-rooms to be searched. Nothing more dangerous was found about
+him than a packet of snuff. "If I had thought of that before," said
+Lord Cochrane, not quite wisely, "you should have had it in your
+eyes!" On this incident was founded a foolish story, to be told next
+day, amid a score of exaggerations and falsehoods, in the Government
+newspapers. "Being asked why he had provided himself with such a
+quantity of snuff," we there read, "he said he had bought a canister
+for the purpose of throwing it in the eyes of those who might attempt
+to secure him, unless the opposing force should be too strong for
+resistance, observing that he had found the use of a similar weapon
+when he was in the Bay of Rosas, as he had thrown a mixture of lime,
+sand, &c., upon the Frenchmen who attempted to board his ship, and
+found it effectual." Another zealous organ of the Government added
+that he had also provided himself with a bottle of vitriol, to be used
+in the same way.
+
+Had a penknife been found in his pocket, perhaps the Marshal of the
+King's Bench, the Bow Street runner, the tipstaves, and the constables
+would all have fled, deeming that the possession of so deadly an
+instrument made the retention of their captive too dangerous a thing
+to be attempted. The snuff having been seized, however, he was again
+lodged on the officers' shoulders and so conveyed into the courtyard.
+He then said that, being now beyond the privilege of the House, he was
+willing to proceed quietly. A coach was called, and he was taken back
+to the King's Bench Prison.
+
+The indignity thus offered to him was small indeed in comparison with
+the indignity offered to the Parliament of England. In former times
+the slightest encroachment by the Crown, by the Government, or by
+any humbler part of the executive, was fiercely resented; and to this
+resentment some of the greatest and most memorable crises in the long
+fight for English liberty are due. But rarely had there been a
+more flagrant, never a more wanton, infringement of the hardly-won
+privileges of the House of Commons. Had Lord Cochrane been detected
+and seized violently in some out-of-the-way hiding-place, the
+over-zealous servants of the Crown would have had some excuse for
+their conduct. But in appearing publicly in the House, he showed to
+all the world that he was no runaway from justice, that he was willing
+to submit to its honest administration by honest hands, that all he
+sought was a fair hearing and a fair judgment upon his case, and that,
+believing it impossible to obtain that through the elaborate machinery
+of oppression which then went by the name of administration
+of justice, he now only asserted his right, the right of every
+Englishman, and especially the right of a Member of Parliament, to
+appeal from the agents of the law to the makers of the law, to call
+upon the legislators of his country to see whether he had not been
+wrongfully used by the men who, though practically too much their
+masters, were in theory only their servants.
+
+"I did not go to the House of Commons," he said, "to complain about
+losses or sufferings, about fine or imprisonment; or of property, to
+the amount of ten times the fine, of which I had been cheated by this
+malicious prosecution. I did not go to the House to complain of
+the mockery of having been heard in my defence, and answered by a
+reference to the decision from which that defence was an appeal. I did
+not go there to complain of those who expelled me from my profession.
+I did not go to the House to complain _generally_ of the advisers of
+the Crown. But I went there to complain of the conduct of him who has
+indeed the right of recommending to mercy, but whose privilege, as
+a Privy Councillor, of advising the confirmation of his own
+condemnations, and of interposing between the victims of
+legal vengeance and the justice of the throne, is spurious and
+unconstitutional. When it is considered that my intention of going to
+the House of Commons was announced on the day on which my absence from
+the prison was discovered; I say, when it is considered that, as soon
+as it was known that I had left the prison, it was also known that I
+had left it for the express purpose of going to the House of Commons
+to move for an inquiry into the conduct of Lord Ellenborough; when it
+is considered that every engine was set to work to tempt or intimidate
+me from that purpose, to frighten me out of the country or allure me
+back to the custody of the marshal, that assurances were given that
+the doors should be kept open for my admission at any hour of the
+night, and that I should be received with secresy, courtesy, and
+indemnity; and when it is considered that I was afterwards seized in
+the House of Commons, in defiance of the privileges of the House—can
+there be a doubt that the object of that apprehension was less the
+accomplishment of the sentence of the court than the prevention of
+the exposure which I was prepared to make of the injustice of that
+sentence? That recourse should have been had to violence to stifle the
+accusations which I was prepared to bring forward, that terror of the
+truth should have so superseded a wonted reverence for parliamentary
+privileges as to have admitted the intrusion of tipstaves and
+thief-takers into the House of Commons, to seize the person of an
+individual elected to serve as a member of that House, and avowedly
+attendant for that purpose, is extraordinary, though not unnatural."
+
+It must be admitted that the question of breach of privilege was
+somewhat more complicated than Lord Cochrane considered. His opponents
+did not think with him that he was still a member of the House of
+Commons. That membership had been taken from him, formally, though
+wrongfully, by his expulsion on the 5th of July, and he had
+himself recognized the expulsion by accepting re-election from the
+constituents of Westminster on the 16th of the same month. According
+to precedent, however, that re-election could not be perfected until
+the customary oaths had been taken; and, through a trick contrived
+in the clerks' office, he was hindered from taking them before the
+arrival of the marshal and his consequent arrest. Yet there can be no
+doubt that, in the special circumstances of the case, this arrest was
+especially indecorous, and, in the method of effecting it, altogether
+illegal. If he had no right in the House of Commons, he was a common
+trespasser, and ought to have been at once removed by the servants of
+the House, who alone could have power to touch him within the walls.
+To allow him a seat therein, without molestation, until the arrival
+of the servants of the King's Bench Prison, and then to allow those
+servants to enter the House and act upon an authority that could there
+be no authority, was wholly unwarrantable, a gross insult to Lord
+Cochrane, and, to the customs of the House of Commons, an insult yet
+more gross. But to the hardship and the insult alike the House of
+Commons, servile in its devotion to the Government of the day, was
+blind.
+
+A miserable farce ensued. While the House was sitting, a few hours
+after Lord Cochrane's capture, a letter from the Marshal of the King's
+Bench was read by the Speaker, in which his bold act was formally
+reported and apologized for. "I humbly hope," he there said, "that I
+have not committed any breach of privilege by the steps I have taken;
+and that, if I have done wrong, it will be attributed to error in
+judgment, and not to any intention of doing anything that might give
+offence."
+
+The short debate that followed the reading of that letter is very
+noteworthy. Lord Castlereagh spoke first, and dictated the view to
+be taken by all loyal members of the House. "From the nature of the
+arrest and the circumstances attending it, I do not think, sir," he
+said, "that the House is called upon to interfere. I am not aware, as
+the House was not actually sitting, with the mace on the table and the
+Speaker in the chair, when the arrest took place, that any breach of
+privilege has been committed. It must be quite obvious to every man
+that the marshal has not acted wilfully in violation of the privileges
+of the House. No blame can attach to him, since he has submitted
+himself to the judgment of the House of Commons after having done
+that which he considered his duty as a civil officer. Having had Lord
+Cochrane in his custody, from which he escaped, the marshal was bound
+not to pass over any justifiable means of putting him under arrest
+whenever a fair opportunity occurred."
+
+Most of the members thought, with Lord Castlereagh, that this was
+a "fair opportunity." Only one, Mr. Tierney—and he very
+feebly—ventured to express an opposite opinion. "I consider this,"
+he said, "to be the case of a member regularly elected to serve in
+Parliament, and coming down to take his seat. Now, sir, the House is
+regularly adjourned until ten o'clock in the morning; and I recollect
+occasions when the Speaker did take the chair at that hour. Suppose,
+then, a member, about to take his seat, came down here at an early
+hour, with the proper documents in his hand, and desired to be
+instructed in the mode of proceeding, and, while waiting, an officer
+entered, arrested him, and took his person away, would not this be a
+case to call for the interference of the House?" Mr. Tierney admitted
+that he approved of Lord Cochrane's arrest, but feared it might become
+a precedent and be put to the "improper purpose" of sanctioning the
+arrest of members more deserving of consideration.
+
+To please him, and to satisfy the formalities, therefore, the question
+was referred to a committee of privileges. This committee reported, on
+the 23rd of March, "that, under the particular circumstances, it did
+not appear that the privileges of Parliament had been violated, so as
+to call for the interposition of the House;" and the House of Commons
+being satisfied with that opinion, no further attention was paid to
+the subject.
+
+In the meanwhile Lord Cochrane was being punished, with inexcusable
+severity, for his contempt of the authority of Lord Ellenborough and
+Mr. Jones. A member of the House, during the discussion of the 21st of
+March, had said that he had just come from the King's Bench Prison.
+"I found Lord Cochrane," he had averred, "confined there in a strong
+room, fourteen feet square, without windows, fireplace, table, or
+bed. I do not think it can be necessary for the purpose of security
+to confine him in this manner. According to my own feelings, it is a
+place unfit for the noble lord, or for any other person whatsoever."
+
+In this Strong Room, however, Lord Cochrane was detained for more
+than three weeks. It was partly underground, devoid of ventilation or
+necessary warmth, and, according to the testimony of Dr. Buchan, one
+of the physicians who visited him in it, "rendered extremely damp and
+unpleasant by the exudations coming through the wall."
+
+On being taken to this den immediately after his capture, Lord
+Cochrane was informed by Mr. Jones that he would be detained in it for
+a short time only, until the apartments over the lobby of the prison
+were prepared for his reception. That was done in a few days; but no
+intimation of a change was made until the 1st of April, when a message
+to that effect was sent to the prisoner. On the following day he
+received a letter from Mr. Jones informing him that, if he would
+anticipate the payment of the fine of 1000£ levied against him, and
+would also pledge himself, and give security for the keeping of the
+promise, to make no further effort to escape, he might be allowed to
+occupy the more comfortable quarters. "It is no new thing," said Lord
+Cochrane, "for a prisoner to escape or to be retaken; but to require
+of any prisoner a bond and securities not to repeat such escape was,
+I think, a proposition without precedent, and such as the marshal knew
+could not be complied with by me without humiliation, and therefore
+could not be proposed by him without insult. Besides, he had my
+assurance that if I were again to quit his custody (which I gave him
+no reason to believe I should attempt, and which, as I observed and
+believe, it was as easy for me to effect from that room as from any
+other part of the prison), I should proceed no further than to the
+House of Commons, and that where he found me before he might find me
+again; I having had no other object in view than that of expressing,
+by some peculiar act, the keen sense which I entertained of _peculiar_ injustice, and of endeavouring to bring such additional proofs of that
+injustice before the House as were not in my possession when I was
+heard in my defence." Mr. Jones, however, resolved to keep his captive
+in the Strong Room, unless he would promise to resign himself to
+captivity in a less obnoxious part of the prison.
+
+Even for that negative favour the marshal took great credit to himself
+in a document which he issued at the time. "If a humane and kind
+concern for this unfortunate nobleman," he there averred, "had not
+softened the solicitude which I naturally felt for my own security, I
+could have committed him, on my own warrant for the escape, to the new
+gaol in Horsemonger Lane, for the space of a month; and that power
+is still within my jurisdiction. Had I thought proper to exercise it,
+Lord Cochrane would then have been confined in a solitary cell with a
+stone floor, with windows impenetrably barred and without glass; nor
+would it have proved half the size of the Strong Room in the King's
+Bench, which has a boarded floor and glazed lights." That statement
+reasonably stirred the anger of Lord Cochrane. "Though the solitary
+cell in Horsemonger Lane," he answered, "may be half the size of the
+Strong Room, it could not, I apprehend, have been more gloomy, damp,
+filthy, or injurious to health than the last-mentioned dungeon. And
+since Mr. Jones could only have confined me in the former place for
+a month, and did confine me in the latter for twenty-six days, I can
+scarcely see that degree of difference which should entitle him to
+those 'grateful sentiments for his mode of acting on the occasion'
+which, he submits to the public, it is my duty to entertain. The
+'glazed lights' mentioned by Mr. Jones were not put up till I had been
+thirty hours in the place, and I have always understood that I was
+indebted for them to the good offices of Mr. Bennet and Mr. Lambton,
+who happened [as part of a Parliamentary Committee] to be prosecuting
+their inquiry into the state of the prison at the time of my return.
+For these and all other mercies of the said marshal, my gratitude is
+due to their friendship and sense of duty, and to his dread of their
+discoveries and proceedings."
+
+It is clear that nothing but fear of the consequences induced Mr.
+Jones to remove Lord Cochrane from the Strong Room, after twenty-six
+days of confinement therein. On the 12th of April the prisoner issued
+an address to the electors of Westminster, detailing some of the
+hardships to which he was being subjected; and its publication
+immediately roused so much popular interest that the authorities of
+King's Bench Prison deemed it necessary to make at any rate a show of
+amelioration in his treatment. On the 13th, his physician, Dr. Buchan,
+was allowed to visit him, and his report was such that another medical
+man of eminence, Mr. Saumarez, was sent to examine into the state of
+the prisoner's health. Part of Dr. Buchan's certificate has already
+been quoted. The rest was as follows: "This is to certify that I have
+this day visited Lord Cochrane, who is affected with severe pain of
+the breast. His pulse is low, his hands cold, and he has many symptoms
+of a person about to have typhus or putrid fever. These symptoms are,
+in my opinion, produced by the stagnant air of the Strong Room in
+which he is now confined." "I hereby certify," wrote Mr. Saumarez,
+"that I have visited Lord Cochrane, and am of opinion, from the state
+of his health at this time, that it is essentially necessary that he
+should be removed from the room which he now inhabits to one which
+is better ventilated, and in which there is a fireplace. His lordship
+complains of pain in the chest, with difficulty of respiration,
+accompanied with great coldness of the hands; and, from the general
+state of his health, there is great reason to fear that a low typhus
+may come on."
+
+The only result of those medical opinions was a renewal of the
+offer to remove Lord Cochrane to the rooms prepared for him, on the
+conditions previously specified by Mr. Jones. Lord Cochrane answered
+that he would rather die than submit to such an insulting arrangement.
+He published the doctors' certificates, however, on the 15th of April,
+and their effect upon the public was so great that the authorities
+were forced on the following day to take him out of his dungeon. Mr.
+Jones's account of this step is worth quoting. "I again tried," he
+reported, "to induce Lord Cochrane's friends and relations to give me
+any kind of undertaking against another escape. On their refusal, I
+determined myself to become his friend, and, at my own risk, to remove
+him to the rooms which have been already mentioned, and where, I am
+confident, he can have no cause of complaint. These rooms not being
+altogether safe against such a person as Lord Cochrane, should he
+determine to risk another escape, I must look to the laws of my
+country as a safeguard, in the hope that the terrors of them will
+discourage him from attempting a repetition of his offence, and
+prevent him from incurring the penalties of another indictment."
+
+Lord Cochrane never really intended to attempt a second escape. Had it
+been otherwise, the illness induced by his confinement in the Strong
+Room would have restrained him. Being placed in healthier apartments
+on the 16th of April, he quietly remained there for the remainder of
+his term of imprisonment. On the 20th of June he was informed that,
+the term being now at an end, he was at liberty to depart on payment
+of the fine of 1000£ levied against him. This he at first refused
+to do, and accordingly he was detained in prison for a fortnight more;
+but at length the entreaties of his friends prevailed. On the 3rd of
+July he tendered to the Marshal of the King's Bench a 1000£ note,
+with this memorable endorsement: "My health having suffered by long
+and close confinement, and my oppressors being resolved to deprive
+me of property or life, I submit to robbery to protect myself from
+murder, in the hope that I shall live to bring the delinquents to
+justice." Upon that the prison doors were opened for him, and he was
+able once more to fight for the justice so cruelly withheld from
+him, and to make his innocence entirely clear to all whose selfish
+interests did not force them to be blind to the truth.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV.
+
+
+LORD COCHRANE'S RETURN TO THE HOUSE OF COMMONS.—HIS SHARE IN THE
+REFUSAL OF THE DUKE OF CUMBERLAND'S MARRIAGE PENSION.—HIS CHARGES
+AGAINST LORD ELLENBOROUGH, AND THEIR REJECTION BY THE HOUSE.—HIS
+POPULARITY.—THE PART TAKEN BY HIM IN PUBLIC MEETINGS FOR THE RELIEF
+OF THE PEOPLE.—THE LONDON TAVERN MEETING.—HIS FURTHER PROSECUTION,
+TRIAL AT GUILDFORD, AND SUBSEQUENT IMPRISONMENT.—THE PAYMENT OF HIS
+FINES BY A PENNY SUBSCRIPTION.—THE CONGRATULATIONS OF HIS WESTMINSTER
+CONSTITUENTS.
+
+
+[1815-1816.]
+
+Released from imprisonment on Monday, the 3rd of July, Lord Cochrane
+resumed his seat in the House of Commons on the evening of the
+same day, just in time to secure the defeat of a measure which was
+especially obnoxious to his Radical friends. The Duke of Cumberland
+having lately married a daughter of the Duke of Mecklenburg-Strelitz,
+it was proposed to augment his income of about 20,000£ a year by
+a further pension of 6000£ A bill to that effect was brought in by
+Lord Castlereagh, and, after much sullen opposition from independent
+members, allowed a first reading by a majority of seventeen. On the
+second division the majority was reduced to twelve. The bill was
+brought on for the third reading on the 3rd of July, and would have
+been passed through the House of Commons by the Speaker's casting vote
+but for Lord Cochrane's sudden appearance. His vote secured a majority
+against it, and thereby it was finally overthrown. Great, on the
+morrow, were the rejoicings of his supporters. "What a triumph," it
+was said in a friendly newspaper, "is this to innocence! After being
+sentenced to the scandalous and disgraceful punishment of the pillory,
+after being confined in a loathsome dungeon, fined 1000£ in money
+to the king, disgracefully removed from that service in which he had
+attained such high honours and rendered to his country such essential
+service, his escutcheon kicked out of Westminster Abbey, his order
+of knighthood taken from him; in short, after having every possible
+indignity which the most malignant imagination could invent heaped
+upon him in every way, his single vote, on the very first day of his
+returning to his parliamentary duties, has been the means of obtaining
+a signal victory over those under whose persecution he had been so
+long suffering."
+
+The one victory upon which Lord Cochrane set his heart, however—the
+reversal of the unjust sentence passed upon him, and the consequent
+restoration of the honours and offices that were now doubly dear to
+him—he was not able to obtain. On the 6th of July, just before the
+prorogation of Parliament, he gave notice that, early in the next
+session, he should move for the appointment of a committee to inquire
+into the conduct of Lord Ellenborough and others towards him during
+the Stock Exchange trial. In arranging for this new effort at
+self-justification, he was partly occupied during the ensuing autumn
+and winter, and the question was brought prominently before the House
+of Commons in the spring of 1816; only to issue, however, in further
+injustice and disappointment.
+
+His purpose from the first was, of course, virtually the impeachment
+of Lord Ellenborough; and that object was yet more apparent from the
+altered shape which the question assumed when introduced in the new
+session. During the recess, Lord Cochrane, with the help of advisers,
+some of whom were more zealous than wise, William Cobbett being the
+chief, had prepared an elaborate series of "charges of partiality,
+misrepresentation, injustice, and oppression against the Lord Chief
+Justice;" and these were formally introduced to the House of Commons
+on the 5th of March. "When I recollect," said Lord Cochrane on that
+occasion, "the imputations cast upon my character, and circulated
+industriously previous to any legal proceedings, the conduct pursued
+at my trial, the verdict obtained, the ineffectual endeavours; to
+procure a revision of my case in the Court of King's Bench, and the
+infamous sentence there pronounced, together with my expulsion from
+this House without being suffered to expose its injustice—when I call
+to mind my dismissal from a service in which I have spent the fairest
+portion of my life, at least without reproach, and my illegal and
+unmerited deprivation of the order of the Bath—it is impossible
+to speak without emotion. I have but one course now left to pursue,
+namely, to show that the charge of the Lord Chief Justice, on which he
+directed the jury to decide, was not only unsupported by, but was
+in direct contradiction to, the evidence on which it professed to
+be founded. This is the best course to pursue both in justice to the
+learned judge and to myself. Either I am unfit to sit in this House,
+or the judge has no right to his place on the bench. I have courted
+investigation in every shape; and I trust that the learned lord will
+not shrink from it or suffer his friends on the opposite side to evade
+the consideration of these charges by 'the previous question.'"
+
+Lord Cochrane thereupon tendered to the House thirteen charges against
+Lord Ellenborough, in which every point of importance in the Stock
+Exchange trial was minutely detailed and discussed; and these charges
+being read, therein occupying nearly three hours, were ordered to be
+printed. A fourteenth charge, bearing upon Lord Ellenborough's conduct
+subsequent to the trial, was introduced on the 29th of March; but
+this, as it included aspersions upon the character of another judge,
+Sir Simon Le Blanc, was objected to and withdrawn. There was further
+discussion on the subject on the 1st and the 29th of April; but not
+much was done until the 30th of April.
+
+On that evening, Lord Cochrane formally moved that his charges against
+Lord Ellenborough should be referred to a Committee of the whole
+House, and that evidence in support of them should be heard at the
+bar. A lengthy discussion then ensued, the most notable speeches
+being made by the Solicitor-General, Sir Francis Burdett, and the
+Attorney-General.
+
+The Solicitor-General of course opposed the motion. "As the House, on
+the one hand," he said, "should jealously watch over the conduct of
+judges, so, on the other, it should protect them when deserving of
+protection, not only as a debt of justice due to the judges, but as
+a debt due to justice herself, in order that the public confidence in
+the purity of the administration of our laws may not be disappointed,
+and that the course of that administration may continue the admiration
+of the world; for, unless the judges are protected in the exercise of
+their functions, the public opinion of the excellence of our laws will
+be inevitably weakened,—and to weaken public opinion is to weaken
+justice herself."
+
+That sort of argument, too frivolous and faulty, it might be supposed,
+to influence any one, had weight with the House of Commons to which it
+was addressed; and the Solicitor-General adduced much more of it.
+To him the spotless character of Lord Ellenborough appeared to be an
+ample defence against Lord Cochrane's charges. "Never," he said, with
+a truthfulness that posterity can appreciate, "never was there an
+individual at the bar or on the bench less liable to the imputation
+of corrupt motives; never was there one more remarkable for
+independence—I will say, sturdy independence—of character, than the
+noble and learned lord. For twelve years he has presided on the bench
+with unsullied honour, displaying a perfect knowledge of the
+law; evincing as much legal knowledge as was ever amassed by any
+individual; and now, in the latter part of his life, when he has
+arrived at the highest dignity to which a man can arrive, by a
+promotion well-earned at the bar, and doubly well-earned at the bench,
+we are told that he has sacrificed all his honours by acting from
+corrupt motives!"
+
+Sir Francis Burdett replied effectively to the speeches of the
+Solicitor-General and others who sided with him, and nobly defended
+his friend. He showed that the proposal to refuse investigation of
+this case because it might weaken the cause of justice, by making the
+conduct of the administrators of justice contemptible, was worse than
+frivolous. "Such language," he averred, "would operate against the
+investigation of any charges whatever against any judge; would indeed
+form a barrier against the exercise of the best privilege of this
+House—the privilege of inquiring into the conduct of courts of
+justice. It would serve equally well to shelter even those judges
+who have been dragged from the bench for their misconduct." He then
+reviewed the incidents of the Stock Exchange trial, and urged that
+Lord Cochrane had good reason for bringing forward his charges. "The
+question for the House to consider is, 'Do these charges, if admitted,
+contain criminal matter for the consideration of the House?' I
+conceive that they do. No doubt the judges who condemned Russell and
+Sidney were, at the time, spoken of as men of high character, who
+could not be supposed to suffer any base motives to influence their
+conduct. Such arguments as those ought to be banished from this House.
+It is our duty to look, with constitutional suspicion on jealousy, on
+the proceedings of the judges; and, when a grave charge is solemnly
+brought forward, justice to the country, as well as to the judge,
+demands an inquiry into it."
+
+That, however, was refused. After a long speech from the
+Attorney-General, and an eloquent reply by Lord Cochrane, the House
+divided on the motion. Eighty-nine members voted against it. Its only
+supporters were Sir Francis Burdett and Lord Cochrane himself. Not
+only did the House refuse to listen to the allegations against Lord
+Ellenborough; in the excess of its devotion to such law and such order
+as the Government of the day appointed, it even resolved that all the
+entries in its record of proceedings which referred to this subject
+should be expunged from the journals. Lord Cochrane made no
+resistance to this further insult thrown upon him. "It gives me great
+satisfaction," he said, in the brief and dignified speech with which
+he closed the discussion, "to think that the vote which has been come
+to has been come to without any of my charges having been disproved.
+Whatever may be done with them now, they will find their way to
+posterity, and posterity will form a different judgment concerning
+them than that which has been adopted by this House. So long as I have
+a seat in this House, however, I will continue to bring them forward,
+year by year and time after time, until I am allowed the opportunity
+of establishing the truth of my allegations."
+
+Other occupations prevented the full realization of that purpose. But
+to the end of his life Lord Cochrane used every occasion of asserting
+his innocence and courting a full investigation of all the incidents
+on which his assertion was based. Posterity, as he truly prophesied,
+has learnt to endorse his judgment; and therefore, in the ensuing
+pages, it will not be necessary to adduce from his letters and actions
+more than occasional illustrations of the temper which animated him
+throughout with reference to this heaviest of all his heavy troubles.
+
+By these troubles, however, even in the time of their greatest
+pressure, he was not overcome; and in the midst of them he found time
+and heart for active labour in the good work of various sorts that was
+always dear to him. He used the advantages of his liberty in striving
+to perfect the invention of improved street lamps and lighting
+material that had occupied him while in prison, and to procure their
+general adoption. His place in Parliament, moreover, all through the
+session of 1816, was employed not only in seeking justice for himself,
+but also in furthering every project advanced for benefiting the
+community and checking the pernicious action of the Government. A
+zealous, honest Whig before, he was now as zealous and as honest
+as ever in all his political conduct. And his devotion to the best
+interests of the people was yet more apparent in his unflagging
+labours, out of Parliament, for the public good. His great abilities,
+rendered all the more prominent by the cruel persecution to which he
+had been and still was subjected, made him a leading champion of the
+people during the turmoil to which misgovernment at home, and the
+distracted state of foreign politics, gave a special stimulus in 1816.
+
+A long list might be made of the great meetings which he attended,
+and took part in, both among his own constituents of Westminster
+and elsewhere, for the consideration of popular grievances and their
+remedies. One such meeting, attended by Henry Brougham and Sir Francis
+Burdett among others, was held in Palace Yard, Westminster, on the
+1st of March, for the purpose of petitioning Parliament against the
+renewal of the property-tax and the maintenance of a standing army in
+time of peace. Lord Cochrane, the hero of the day, on account of "the
+spirit of opposition which he had shown to the infringement of the
+constitution and the grievances of the people," won for himself new
+favour by the boldness with which he denounced the policy of the
+Government, which, boasting that it was ruining the French nation, was
+at the same time bringing misery also upon Englishmen by the excessive
+taxation and the reckless extravagance to which it resorted.
+
+A smaller, but much more momentous meeting assembled at the City
+of London Tavern on the 29th of July, under the auspices of the
+Association for the Relief of the Manufacturing and Labouring Poor.
+Instigated in a spirit of praiseworthy charity by many of the most
+influential persons of the day, it was used by Lord Cochrane for the
+enforcement of the views as to public right and public duty, and the
+mutual relations of the rich and the poor, which were forced upon him
+by his recent troubles, and the relations in which he was at this time
+placed with some over-zealous champions of popular reform, and some
+unreasonable exponents of popular grievances. That his conduct on this
+occasion was extravagant and even factious, he afterwards heartily
+regretted. Yet as a memorable illustration of the power and
+earnestness with which he fought for what seemed to him to be right,
+as well with word as with sword, its details, as reported at the time,
+may be here set forth at length.
+
+About half-past one o'clock the Duke of York entered and took
+the chair, supported on his right by the Duke of Kent, and on
+his left by the Duke of Cambridge. He was accompanied on
+his entrance by the Archbishop of Canterbury, the Bishop of
+London, the Duke of Rutland, Lord Manvers, the Chancellor
+of the Exchequer, Mr. Wilberforce, and other distinguished
+individuals.
+
+His Royal Highness the Duke of York immediately
+proceeded to open the business of the day, by observing that the
+present meeting had been called to consider and, as far as possible,
+to alleviate the present distress and sufferings of the labouring
+classes of the community. These distresses were, he feared, too well
+known to all who heard him to require any description; and all he
+had to add to the bare statement of them was the expression of his
+confidence that the liberality which had been so signally manifested
+in the course of foreign distress would not be found wanting when the
+direction of it was to be towards the comfort and relief of our own
+countrymen at home.
+
+THE DUKE OF KENT, after alluding to the exertions of the Committee of
+1812, observed that the immediate object was to raise a fund, in
+the subsequent accumulation and management of which many ulterior
+arrangements might be projected, and from which charity might soon
+emanate in a thousand directions. He doubted not that every county and
+every town would be quick to imitate the example of the metropolis.
+The association of 1812 had at least the merit of producing this
+effect, and had spread through the whole land that spirit of active
+benevolence which he was feebly invoking on this occasion. He trusted
+that it was necessary for him to say but little more to insure the
+adoption of the resolution which he should have the honour to propose.
+He confessed he felt gratified when he saw so great a concourse of
+his countrymen assembled together for such a purpose, and additional
+gratification at seeing by whom they were supported. He was sure,
+then, that he should not plead in vain to the national liberality; but
+that the remedy would be promptly afforded to an evil which he trusted
+would be found but temporary. If they should be so happy as but to
+succeed in discovering new sources of employment to supply the place
+of those channels which had been suddenly shut up, he should
+indeed despond if we did not soon restore the country to that
+same flourishing condition which had long made her the envy of
+the world. The royal Duke then moved the first resolution,
+as follows:—"That the transition from a state of extensive
+warfare to a system of peace has occasioned a stagnation of
+employment and a revulsion of trade, deeply affecting the
+situation of many parts of the community, and producing many
+instances of great local distress."
+
+The resolution was seconded by Mr. Harman.
+
+Lord Cochrane offered himself to the attention of the meeting,
+but was for some time unable to proceed, his voice being lost
+in the huzzas and hisses which his presence called forth.
+Silence being at length in some measure obtained, his lordship
+said he would not have addressed the meeting but that, having
+received a circular letter from the committee, and feeling
+the importance of the subject, he would have thought it a
+dereliction of his duty if he refrained from attending. He
+rose thus early because the observations he had to submit
+would not be suitable if made when the other resolutions were
+put. The first resolution was, in his opinion, founded on
+a gross fallacy; and this was his reason for saying so. The
+existing distresses could not be truly ascribed to any sudden
+transition from war to peace. Could it be pretended that it
+was peace which had occasioned the fall in the value of all
+agricultural produce? Or could any man venture to assert that
+the difficulties and sufferings of the manufacturing classes
+had any other cause than a prodigious and enormous burthen of
+taxation? He was much gratified at seeing the royal Dukes so
+active in promoting a generous and laudable undertaking, and
+he hoped he should not be understood as treating them with
+disrespect when he repeated that the resolution was founded
+on an entire fallacy. But, not to content himself with a mere
+assertion of his own belief,
+he had brought official documents to prove the correctness
+of his statements; and if he should be wrong, he saw the
+Chancellor of the Exchequer near him, who would have the
+opportunity of correcting his misrepresentation. This brief
+statement, he believed, would be quite sufficient to show that
+the financial situation of the country was such as to render
+any attempts of that meeting for the purpose of extending
+general relief utterly ineffectual. The whole revenue of the
+kingdom was 62,267,450£, deducting the property-tax, and
+the revenue was thus expended. The interest of the national
+debt, including the interest of unfunded exchequer bills, was
+upwards of 40,300,000£, leaving to support the expenses of
+Government only about 22,000,000£ It was this enormous sum
+which now hung round our necks—it was this, which unnecessary
+extravagance had caused to increase from year to year to its
+present terrible amount, which was the cause of all the
+evils of the country at this moment. This taxation, and
+extravagance, for which the country was now suffering, was
+supported and sanctioned by those who had derived and still
+derived large emoluments from them. These were truths that
+the people ought to know; for they were the source of their
+burthens, and the origin of all the mischief. It was this
+profuse expenditure of the public money, to say no worse of
+it, that occasioned the present calamities. It was the lavish
+expenditure to meet a compliant list of placemen that brought
+the country to its present state. The deficiency in the
+revenue occasioned by the enormous interest of the national
+debt, which ministers would have to supply, would, according
+to the present disbursements and receipts, amount to
+11,578,000£ unless that expenditure were reduced, every
+such attempt as they were at present making would, he was
+convinced, prove abortive: it was a mere topical application
+while a mortal distemper was raging within. He had taken
+no notice in his estimate of the charges for sinecures or
+the bounties on exports and imports: and yet the returns upon
+which he went, exclusive of these charges, showed a deficit
+for the ensuing year of 3,500,000£ Were those who heard him
+prepared to make this good? It was, he believed, undeniable
+that nothing could equalize our revenue with our expenditure,
+but the putting down entirely the army and navy, or the
+extinction of one half of the national debt; but when he
+looked to the actual receipt of the last quarter and found
+a falling off of 2,400,000£, which, with a corresponding
+decrease in the three succeeding quarters, must create a new
+deficit of 10,000,000£, and, added to the 3,500,000£
+to which he had alluded, would form a sum equal to the whole
+amount of the boasted sinking-fund, he felt that it was worse
+than trifling to suppose we could go on upon the present
+system. Were they prepared to make up this enormous
+deficiency? [A voice from the crowd cried "Yes."] He was happy
+to hear it: he supposed it was some fund-holder who answered,
+and if any class could do so, it was the fund-holders. They
+alone had the ability, they alone now derived any returns
+from their property; but even if they should be both able and
+willing, still it would only remain a positive deficit made
+good, and no new facility would be derived for alleviating
+the existing burthens. The burthens and distresses must
+still remain what they were before. He spoke not now upon
+conjecture, or loose calculation, he had brought his authority
+with him. These were the records from which he derived his
+statements—the official returns of the Treasury; and
+if false, the Chancellor of the Exchequer was present to
+contradict them. He was glad, he confessed, to see him, for
+those who heard him were, no doubt, aware that it was not
+always in the House of Commons that a minister could discover
+the genuine sentiments of the people. If, therefore, no other
+person should move an amendment, he should feel it his duty
+to propose an omission of that part of the resolution which
+ascribed the distressed state of the country to the transition
+from a state of war to a state of peace, and to state the
+cause to be an enormous debt, and a lavish expenditure. He had
+come there with the expectation of seeing the Duke of Rutland
+in the chair; and with some hopes, as he took the lead upon
+this occasion, that it was his intention to surrender that
+sinecure of 9,000£ a-year which he was now in the habit
+of putting in his pocket. He still trusted that all who were
+present and were also holders of sinecures had it in their
+intention to sacrifice them to their liberality and their
+justice; and that they did not come there to aid the
+distresses of their country by paying half-a-crown per cent,
+out of the hundreds which they took from it. If they did not,
+all he could say was, that to him their pretended charity was
+little better than a fraud. Without, however, taking up more
+of their time, he should move his amendment, with this one
+additional observation, that it would be a disgrace to an
+enlightened meeting, and particularly to a meeting which might
+be considered as comprising an aggregate mass of the property
+and intellect of the country, to place a fallacy upon the
+record of their proceedings, and to build all their following
+resolutions upon an assertion which had no foundation in
+truth. He concluded by moving the following amendment to the
+first resolution:—"That the enormous load of the national
+debt, together with the large military establishment and the
+profuse expenditure of public money, was the real cause of the
+present public distress."
+
+Mr. Wilberforce said he was himself too much of an Englishman,
+and had been too long engaged in political discussions to feel
+any surprise that those who felt warmly on such a subject as
+the present should be anxious to give
+expression to their sentiments: but he could not help thinking
+that, upon cool reflection, the noble lord would be of opinion
+that his own object would be better attained if he confined
+himself, on this occasion, to the distinct question under
+consideration. The noble lord said the country was in a
+crisis, and would they apply a mere topical remedy? but he
+might ask the noble lord if he would refuse to assuage the
+pain of a temporary distemper because he had it not in his
+power at once to cure it radically? To him the existing
+distress appeared to be a distemper which rather called for
+immediate alleviation, than for the speculative discussion of
+its cause. He thought the most charitable and manly course to
+be pursued—and that which must be most congenial to what
+he knew to be the noble lord's own charitable and manly
+disposition—was not to call upon the meeting to give any
+opinion upon a political question not under consideration,
+so as to divert them from pursuing it with diligence and
+confidence, but to postpone to a better opportunity a
+discussion of this nature, and to unite cordially in the
+general cause of finding employment and encouragement for our
+suffering fellow-citizens. If the noble lord would reflect
+upon the best mode of relieving the distresses of the people,
+he would find his amendment not likely to have that tendency.
+Let him reserve all discussion on the question it involved
+until he could do it without interrupting the stream of
+charity, and until he could enter upon it under fair and
+proper circumstances. He (Mr. Wilberforce), in a proper place,
+would not shrink from meeting the noble lord on that inquiry;
+he was twice as old in public life as the noble lord could
+pretend to be, and fully as independent; yet he would not have
+easily supposed any man, however young in politics, could have
+started such topics there. For his part, he should be sorry to
+take advantage of any credit which might be
+to supposed to belong to him upon such an occasion as this to
+cast reproaches upon those who were concurring with him in a
+benevolent design. The meeting must on the present occasion
+feel how much indebted it stood to the royal personages for
+their attendance. They had come to listen to a discussion
+which had for its avowed and direct object the relief of the
+people, and they were in the room suddenly called upon to lay
+aside the practical part of their inquiry and to enter upon
+a distinct pursuit. Was such a course fair towards those
+illustrious individuals? Was it that which was likely
+to induce them to listen to proposals for their personal
+co-operation on occasions of benevolence, if they had no
+security against the occupation of their time for discussions
+of a different character? In conclusion, he entreated the
+noble lord, of whose real disposition to relieve the people
+of England he had no doubt, and whose motives he could justly
+appreciate, to withdraw his amendment.
+
+Lord Cochrane thanked the honourable gentleman for his
+personal civilities towards him, and said that he would feel
+no hesitation in withdrawing his amendment if the honourable
+gentleman would state to the meeting, on his own personal
+veracity and honour, that he believed that the original
+resolution contained the true cause of the public distress,
+and the amendment the false one. If the honourable gentleman
+would say that—if any respectable man present would say
+it—he would be satisfied.
+
+Mr. Cotes said he was entirely unconnected with the noble
+lord, and had never even had the honour of speaking, to him.
+He agreed, however, with him in thinking that this was a
+moment when the eyes of the public ought to be open to their
+real situation. The amendment harmonized entirely with all
+the opinions which he had been able to form upon subject. Mr.
+Wilberforce, to whose humane and benevolent
+Mr. character he was happy to pay his acknowledgments, had
+attempted to get rid of the noble lord's amendment by a sort
+of side-wind; but to his judgment there was no incompatibility
+between the object of the meeting and the amendment. There was
+nothing irrelevant in it; it naturally grew out of the course
+adopted by the chair, and in which a cause of the prevailing
+distress was distinctly specified. The question was, then,
+ought their resolutions to go forth to the public with a
+falsehood upon the face of them? Ought they not to state the
+true cause, since His Royal Highness by mistake had assigned
+a fallacious one? Mr. Wilberforce, with his usual ability, but
+in a manner that still marked its duplicity—he meant the
+word in no offensive sense—had asked, would he enter into
+a political discussion when we were called upon to extend
+relief? He begged to state this was not the true question: it
+was whether they would found all the future proceedings
+upon error and misstatement, or upon incontrovertible facts.
+Another question was, would they be satisfied to patch up the
+wounds of the country for a short period or seek to remedy
+the disease in its spring and in its sources before it became
+still more alarming and incurable? The Duke of Kent said he
+had offered the resolution as it had been put into his hand;
+and if he had conceived there had been any mention of a course
+upon which difference of opinion could exist, he hoped they
+knew him sufficiently to believe that he should have been
+incapable of requiring their assent to it. He now, therefore,
+proposed an omission of all that part of the resolution
+which had any reference whatever to the cause of the present
+distress. He knew the noble lord well enough—and he had known
+him in early life—to be assured that he would agree with him,
+at least in a declaration as to the fact. Their common object,
+he believed, was to afford relief and to admit its necessity
+without assigning
+either one cause or another. For his own part, it had not been
+his intention to attend a political discussion. He would never
+enter the arena of politics with the noble lord; but he begged
+leave to say, he considered himself as competent to plead
+the cause of humanity, to advocate the interests of the
+weather-beaten sufferer, as the noble lord could be. There
+were, however, other times and other places for men to engage
+in discussion of party politics, and he therefore implored the
+noble lord not to distract the attention of the meeting by the
+introduction of these; and to keep solely in view that they
+had met as the friends of benevolence, not as the advocates of
+a party. His Royal Highness then proposed to alter the motion
+as follows:—
+
+"Resolved that there do at this moment exist a stagnation
+of employment and a revulsion of trade, deeply affecting the
+situation of many parts of the community, and producing many
+instances of great local distress."
+
+Lord Cochrane, in reply, stated that he had no wish to excite
+a difference of opinion on such an occasion, and that, after
+the alteration in the resolution, nothing gave him more
+pleasure than the opportunity of withdrawing his amendment;
+but, in justification of what he had done, it became necessary
+for him to say that he never would have thought of his
+amendment if it had not been for the assertion as to the cause
+of existing distress—he had no doubt in his mind as to the
+nature of that cause, and he held it but just and honourable
+that if a cause must be assigned, it should be the true one.
+After returning thanks to Mr. Wilberforce and the Duke of Kent
+for their expressions of personal civility, the noble lord
+consented to withdraw his motion so far as he was personally
+concerned in it.
+
+Considerable opposition, however, from various parts of the
+hall was manifested to this mode of withdrawing the
+amendment, and a great deal of disturbance took place. At last
+the resolution, as altered by the Duke of Kent, was put and
+carried.
+
+The Duke of Cambridge, in his speech, which followed, returned
+his warm thanks to the noble lord for the handsome manner in
+which he had withdrawn his amendment. He moved the following
+resolution, which was unanimously agreed to:—
+
+"From the experienced generosity of the British nation it may
+be confidently expected that those who are able to afford the
+means of relief to their fellow-subjects will contribute their
+utmost endeavours to remedy or alleviate the sufferings of
+those who are particularly distressed."
+
+The Archbishop of Canterbury moved the following resolution,
+which was seconded and carried unanimously: "That although it
+is obviously impossible for any association of individuals to
+attempt a general relief of difficulties affecting so large a
+proportion of the public, yet that it has been proved by
+the experience of this association that most important and
+extensive benefits may be derived from the co-operation and
+correspondence of a society in the metropolis encouraging the
+efforts of those benevolent individuals who may be disposed to
+associate themselves in the different districts for the relief
+of their several neighbourhoods."
+
+The Duke of Rutland afterwards addressed the meeting,
+and moved that a subscription be immediately opened, and
+contributions generally solicited for carrying into effect the
+objects of this association; which was seconded, and agreed
+to.
+
+The Earl of Manvers, after stating that he had opposed the
+amendment of the noble lord (Lord Cochrane) solely from his
+anxiety to preserve the unanimity of the meeting, as it was
+only by becoming unanimous they could gain their
+object, moved: "That subscribers of 100£ and upwards be
+added to the committee of the Association for the Relief of
+the Manufacturing and Labouring Poor; that the committee have
+full power to dispose of the funds to be collected, and to
+name sub-committees for correspondence."
+
+    The motion was seconded by Sir T. Bell, and unanimously
+    carried.
+
+    The Bishop of London proposed a vote of thanks to the Duke of
+    York, which Mr. C. Barclay was about to second, but—
+
+Lord Cochrane again stepped forward and gained the attention
+of the meeting. He repeated the explanation of the motives
+for withdrawing his proposed amendment, adding, that he had no
+wish again to press that amendment upon the consideration
+of the meeting. But he could not forbear from observing what
+would have been the fate of such a proposition, if brought
+forward in another place, which he need not name. For there,
+instead of being requested to withdraw the proposition, it
+would have been met by a direct negative or by 'the previous
+question,' in support of which, no doubt, a majority of that
+assembly, miscalled the representatives of the people, would
+have voted. Yet the manner in which this, a meeting of the
+people, would have decided, was pretty obvious; and hence it
+might be inferred how far the people concurred in sentiment
+and feeling with the House of Commons. That the proposed, or
+any charitable subscription, must be inadequate to relieve the
+actual distress of the country was a proposition which could
+not be disputed, but yet he did not intend to oppose that
+subscription; on the contrary, he should give it every
+possible support in his power; and it was, he felt, a
+consolation to them that there were still some persons in this
+country who could afford something to relieve the poor; but
+he was afraid that neither the landowner nor the mercantile
+interest had the means of
+doing so; for the former could obtain no rent, and the latter
+no trade—the only persons, in fact, who were able to assist
+the poor under present circumstances were the placemen, the
+sinecurists, and the fund-holders, who must give up at least
+half of their ill-gotten gains in order to effect the object.
+With this impression fixed upon his mind, he felt it his duty
+to propose an additional resolution, that the ministers of
+the crown, that the Government of the country, who wielded
+the power of Parliament, were alone competent to remove and
+to alleviate the national distress. This, indeed, was evident
+from the statement of our financial situation which he
+had already made. He had called upon the Chancellor of the
+Exchequer, who was present, to contradict that statement if
+he could; but the right honourable gentleman had felt it
+expedient not to utter one word, as the meeting had witnessed.
+Yet from that statement it must be obvious, as he had already
+observed, that the military and naval situation of the country
+must be abandoned, or at least half the national debt must be
+extinguished, for the resources of the empire could not endure
+such burthens. The noble lord concluded with expressing his
+intention when the present resolutions were got over, to move
+another, stating the real cause of the present distress,
+and that the Chancellor of the Exchequer and his majesty's
+ministers were alone capable of affording serious relief to
+the present distress.
+
+    Mr. Barclay seconded the motion of the Right Reverend the
+    Bishop of London, to which Lord Cochrane assured the meeting
+    he entertained no objection.
+
+    Great confusion prevailed in the meeting, some crying out
+    for Lord Cochrane's motion, while others were equally loud in
+    testifying their anxiety for the vote of thanks.
+
+The Duke of Kent then put the motion.
+
+Lord Cochrane said that his sole object was to have an
+opportunity of moving his resolution after the present was
+disposed of.
+
+A person from a distant part of the room exclaimed: "That resolution
+shall not be put, for it is a libel on the Parliament." Several other
+remarks were made, but they were generally unintelligible from the
+violent uproar and confusion that prevailed. Loud cries of "Put Lord
+Cochrane's motion first" were mixed with the cry of "Chair, chair."
+
+The Duke of Kent said that he had attended this meeting with a view
+to assist in promoting an object of charity, and he had no doubt that
+such was the intention of the noble lord (Cochrane). Of this he
+was sure from the noble lord's own declaration, as well as from his
+knowledge of the noble lord's feelings. The noble lord had, indeed,
+himself stated that he had no wish to introduce any political, or to
+press any, measure likely to interfere with the object of the
+meeting. Therefore, he called upon the noble lord, in consistency, in
+politeness and urbanity, not to urge any political principle; and the
+noble lord must be aware that his proposition had a strong political
+tendency. The proposition was indeed such, that the noble lord must be
+aware that it was calculated to injure the subscription, for those who
+were not of the noble lord's opinion in politics were but too likely
+to leave the room if that proposition were pressed to a vote, and thus
+a material object of charity would suffer through a desire to urge a
+declaration of a mere political opinion.
+
+Lord Cochrane disclaimed any wish to provoke political discussion.
+He expressed his desire merely to declare a truth which no man
+could venture to dispute in any popular assembly, in order that
+the Chancellor of the Exchequer, and others present, might have an
+opportunity of reporting to Government the decided sentiment
+and real feeling of the people.
+
+The Archbishop of Canterbury begged leave to call back the
+attention of the meeting to the motion before it, and which,
+he had no doubt, would be unanimously adopted. This motion,
+the most reverend prelate added, was not intended in any
+degree to interfere with the motion of the noble lord.
+
+Amid loud cries of "Put Lord Cochrane's motion first, for if
+the motion of thanks be disposed of, the Duke of York will
+leave the chair, and the noble lord's motion will not be put
+at all," the Duke of Kent declared that there could be
+no intention to get rid of the noble lord's motion by any
+side-wind.
+
+The motion of thanks was then passed while Lord Cochrane was
+engaged in writing his motion, and the Duke of York, having
+bowed to the meeting, immediately withdrew, amidst loud
+hissings, and cries of "Shame! shame! a trick! a trick!"
+
+The Duke of Kent, whose head was turned towards Lord Cochrane,
+was much surprised and disappointed at discovering the absence
+of the chairman.
+
+The general cry was then raised: "The Duke of Kent to the
+chair."
+
+His Royal Highness addressed the meeting. Having, he said,
+pledged himself on proposing the last resolution that there
+was no intention of getting rid of Lord Cochrane's motion by
+any side-wind, he felt himself in a very awkward predicament.
+"But," he added, "I hope that, as liberal Englishmen, you
+will consider my situation and who I am; and that after my
+illustrious relatives have retired from the meeting, you
+will not insist upon my taking the chair for the purpose of
+pressing the declaration of a political opinion;
+but that you will commend my motives, and do justice to
+those feelings which determine the propriety of my immediate
+departure." His Royal Highness accordingly withdrew.
+
+The majority of the meeting still remained, calling for the
+nomination of another chairman, and pressing the adoption of
+Lord Cochrane's motion; but the noble lord also withdrew, and
+the meeting separated.
+
+That meeting was memorable. If Lord Cochrane's bearing at it was
+factious, it must be remembered how greatly he had suffered and how
+earnestly he desired to save the people at large from the sufferings
+entailed upon them by the Government which he and they had learnt to
+regard with a common dislike. By exposing what appeared to him and
+many others to be the hypocrisy of seeming philanthropists, and
+showing what he deemed the only real cause and the only real remedy
+of the national distress, he only acted as a brave and honest man, and
+his work was appreciated by the masses in whose interest it was done.
+A thrill of satisfaction ran through the land. During the ensuing
+weeks and months congratulations were heaped upon him from all
+quarters, and from nearly every class of society. If he had lessened
+the resources of the Association for the Belief of the Manufacturing
+and Labouring Poor, he was thanked even for this, since it was
+believed to be a good thing for shallow charity to be stayed, in order
+that the cause of real justice might be promoted.
+
+The thanks were all the heartier because of the fresh persecution to
+which Lord Cochrane was subjected on account of his patriotism. This
+persecution was in the shape of legal proceedings instituted against
+him by the Marshal of the King's Bench Prison for his escape therefrom
+on the 10th of March, 1815. The action had been formally commenced
+almost immediately after the alleged offence, but on technical
+grounds, and perhaps from the consciousness that he was already
+punished enough, it was delayed for more than a year. As the
+previous punishment, however, had not been enough to silence him, the
+Government determined to revive the old charge as a further act of
+vengeance. At the special instigation of Lord Ellenborough, as it
+was averred, the prosecution had been renewed in May, 1816, almost
+immediately after the rejection by the House of Commons of Lord
+Cochrane's charges against the vindictive and unprincipled judge; but
+the time was too far gone for trial to take place during the summer
+term. It was again renewed, and at length successfully, directly after
+Lord Cochrane's fresh exhibition of his hostility to the Government at
+the London Tavern meeting.
+
+The trial was at Guildford, on the 17th of August. Its history and
+issue may best be told in the words of an autobiographical fragment,
+written by Lord Dundonald shortly before his death. "I was accompanied
+to Guildford," he said, "by Sir Francis Burdett and several other
+leading inhabitants of Westminster, whose names are forgotten by me. I
+took neither counsel nor witnesses, having determined to rest my case
+on the point of law that 'no Member of Parliament can be imprisoned,
+either for non-payment of a fine to the king, or for any other cause
+than treason or felony, or refusing to give security to keep the
+peace,' my inference being that as I was illegally imprisoned, I had
+committed no illegality in escaping. I read to the jury a general
+statement, on which they unequivocally expressed their conviction that
+the trial had better not have been instituted, for that the punishment
+already sustained was more than adequate to the offence alleged to
+have been committed. The judge, however, interfered, and told the
+jury that, as I had admitted the escape in my statement, they had no
+alternative but to bring in a verdict of guilty, which was reluctantly
+done, and judgment was deferred.
+
+"After the trial I returned to my house in Hampshire, and not hearing
+anything more of the affair, naturally concluded that, in the face of
+the opinion expressed by the jury, the Government would be ashamed to
+prosecute the matter further. Not liking, however, to trust to their
+mercy, whilst their malevolence might be exercised at an inconvenient
+season, or made to depend upon my political conduct, I directed my
+attorney to inquire whether it was intended to put in execution the
+sentence at Guildford. The reply was that no steps had been taken,
+and the impression was, that Government would be against further
+proceedings, lest they should tend to increase my popularity.
+Considering that this might be a feint to put me off my guard, I went
+to London for the purpose of attending a large political meeting, in
+the conduct of which I participated. Shortly afterwards I received
+a summons to appear at Westminster Hall and receive judgment on the
+verdict; the judgment being that I was condemned to pay a fine of
+100£ to the Crown.
+
+"On my refusal to pay the fine, on the 21st of November, I was again
+taken into custody, I alleging that the sentence would amount to
+perpetual imprisonment, for that I would never pay a fine imposed for
+escaping from an illegal detention.
+
+"On my being taken back to prison, however, a meeting of the electors
+of Westminster was held, at which it was determined that the amount
+of the fine should be paid by a penny subscription, no person being
+allowed to subscribe more. This plan was adopted in order that the
+public throughout the kingdom might have an opportunity of manifesting
+their disapprobation of the oppressive way in which I was being
+treated. Though I knew nothing of the intentions of the committee at
+the time, it was expected that the subscription would amount to a
+much larger sum than the fine, and resolved that the surplus should be
+devoted to the re-imbursement of the former fine of 1000£ and of the
+expenses to which I had been put at the trial. Receiving-houses were
+accordingly opened in the metropolis and in various other large towns,
+and the amount of the fine of 100£ was speedily collected in London
+alone.
+
+"Meanwhile meetings were constantly being held to petition Parliament
+for reform, and at these my name and sufferings formed a prominent
+topic, so that the Government would have been glad to be rid of
+me. After one of these meetings in Spafields, for the purpose of
+requesting Sir Francis Burdett and myself to present a petition to
+Parliament, a serious riot took place in the city of London, in which
+a gentleman was shot by the military. The Government, in alarm lest
+the people should proceed to the King's Bench and liberate me, did me
+the honour to send a company of infantry to guard me, the officers of
+the prison being ordered to admit no strangers whatever. The troops
+were further ordered to continue their attendance till I was released
+from custody.
+
+"The subscription having been completed in pence, sent from all parts
+of the kingdom, my secretary, Mr. Jackson, applied to the Master of
+the Crown Office to receive the amount of the fine in coppers. This
+was refused, as not being a legal tender. The Master, however, in
+token of the suffering to which I had so unworthily been subjected,
+said that, as payment of the fine in such a manner marked the sense of
+the people on my case, he would not oppose himself to the expression
+of public sentiment, but would take 10£ of the sum in coppers. This
+was accordingly paid, and the remainder in notes and silver, which
+were given by various tradesmen in exchange for the coppers of the
+people, whose money was thus literally appropriated to the payment of
+the fine.
+
+"Finding, on my liberation, whole chests filled with penny pieces, I
+wrote to the committee, stating that sufficient had been collected.
+The reply was that the subscription should go on till the amount of
+the fine of 1000£ was paid in addition. The whole of the amount of
+the fine was thus realized, with something beyond—I do not recollect
+how much—towards my law expenses, which had necessarily been
+excessive. Taking, however, the 1100£ paid in pence, this
+alone showed that two million six hundred and forty thousand
+persons—composing a very large portion of the adult population of
+the kingdom—sympathised with me. Not one of my persecutors could have
+elicited such an expression of public sympathy."
+
+The fine being thus paid, Lord Cochrane was released from the King's
+Bench Prison on the 7th of December, after a confinement of sixteen
+days, which was attended by all the wanton severity shown to him
+during his previous incarceration. Having been apprehended on a
+Thursday, he was, on his arrival at the King's Bench, placed in an
+unhealthy room protected by an iron grating. In the evening, having
+complained of such unusual treatment, he was informed that it was
+under the express directions of the Marshal. Next day, being seriously
+unwell, a physician was sent to him, who reported that he was
+suffering from palpitation of the heart and other symptoms of
+dangerous excitement, which made it necessary that he should be
+removed to better quarters. Accordingly, worse quarters were found for
+him, in a damp, dark, and very imperfectly-ventilated room, entirely
+devoid of furniture, in the middle of the building. Stedfastly
+refusing to go there, he was allowed to remain for that night in
+the room, first assigned to him. On Saturday morning, just as he
+was sitting down to breakfast, he was ordered to proceed to his new
+dungeon. Again refusing, his untasted breakfast was forcibly taken
+from him until he consented to eat it in the appointed place. Thither
+he accordingly went, and there he was detained for the fortnight that
+passed before his liberation.
+
+On the 17th of December an enthusiastic meeting of the citizens of
+Westminster was held to congratulate Lord Cochrane upon his release.
+"We, your lordship's constituents," it was stated in an address
+adopted by that meeting, "beg leave, on the present occasion, to
+declare that, after having had long and ample means for inquiry and
+reflection, we remain in the full and entire conviction of the perfect
+innocence of your lordship of every part of the offence laid to your
+charge at the outset of that series of persecutions by which, during
+the last three years of your life, you have been incessantly harassed.
+But, indeed, those persons must have very little knowledge of public
+affairs, and particularly of your distinguished naval and political
+career, who do not clearly perceive that all those persecutions have
+arisen from your public virtues, and who are not well convinced that,
+if you had not served the people by your exposure of the abuses in the
+prize courts, by your endeavours to restore to the right owners
+the immense sums unjustly alienated under the names of Droits of
+Admiralty, by your honest explanation of the causes which prevented
+the naval renown of your country being complete at Basque Roads, and
+by having caused to be produced in Parliament, and published to the
+nation, that memorable account of sinecures, pensions, and grants
+which so usefully enlightened the public, you never would have
+been prosecuted for a pretended fraud on the funds. Your lordship's
+constituents, being thus fully sensible that you have suffered and are
+still suffering solely for their and their country's sake, would deem
+themselves amongst the most ungrateful of mankind were they to neglect
+this occasion to tender you the most solemn assurances of their
+unabated attachment and their most resolute support, and, whilst they
+are endeavouring to discharge their duty towards your lordship, they
+entertain the consoling reflection that the day is not distant when
+you will mainly assist in carrying forward that measure of radical
+parliamentary reform which alone can be a safeguard against all sorts
+of oppressions, and especially oppressions under which your lordship
+has so long and so severely suffered."
+
+To that honourable address an honourable reply was penned by Lord
+Cochrane on the 24th of December, and presented to the electors of
+Westminster at another meeting assembled for the purpose on the 1st of
+January ensuing.
+
+The direct persecution which began with the Stock Exchange trial and
+its antecedents was now at an end, after three years of gross and
+untiring vindictiveness. Indirect persecution was to continue for more
+than thirty years.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V.
+
+
+THE STATE OF POLITICS IN ENGLAND IN 1817 AND 1818, AND LORD COCHRANE's
+SHARE IN THEM.—HIS WORK AS A RADICAL IN AND OUT OF PARLIAMENT.—HIS
+FUTILE ATTEMPTS TO OBTAIN THE PRIZE MONEY DUE FOR HIS SERVICES
+AT BASQUE ROADS.—THE HOLLY HILL BATTLE.—THE PREPARATIONS FOR HIS
+ENTERPRISE IN SOUTH AMERICA.—HIS LAST SPEECH IN PARLIAMENT.
+
+[1817-1818.]
+
+The years 1817 and 1818 were years of great political turmoil. The
+English people, weary of the European wars, which in two-and-twenty
+years had raised the national debt from 230,000,000£ to
+860,000,000£, thus causing a taxation which amounted, in the average,
+to 25£ a year upon every family of five persons, were in no mood to
+be made happy even by the restitution of peace. Partly by necessity,
+partly by the bad management of the Government and its officials, the
+war-burdens were continued, and to the starving multitudes they were
+more burdensome than ever. Angry complaints were uttered openly, and
+repeated again and again with steadily-increasing vehemence, in all
+parts of the country. That the ministers and agents of the Crown were
+grievously at fault was patent to all; and it is not strange that, in
+the excitement and the misery that prevailed, they should be blamed
+even more than was their due. But the men in power did not choose to
+be blamed at all; they denied that any fault attached to them, and
+fiercely reprobated every complaint as sedition, every opponent as a
+lawless and unpatriotic demagogue. Hence the Government and the people
+came to be at deadly feud. Most right was with the people, and their
+bold assertion of that right, albeit sometimes in wrong ways, has
+secured memorable benefits in later times; but power was still with
+the Government, and it was used even more roughly than in former
+years.
+
+That Lord Cochrane, having suffered so much from the vindictive
+persecution of the Tories, should have thrown in his lot with its
+most extreme opponents, is not to be wondered at. During 1817 he was
+intimately associated with the popular party in all its efforts for
+the redress of grievances and in all the assertions of its real and
+fancied rights. In and out of Parliament he was alike active and
+outspoken. The history of his public conduct at this time forms
+no small section of the history of the Radical movement during the
+period. It resulted naturally from the circumstances in which he had
+lately been placed. Energetic in thought and action, a ready writer
+and an able speaker, his recent sufferings helped to place him in the
+foremost rank of patriots, as they were called by friends—demagogues,
+as they were called by enemies. With the exception of Sir Francis
+Burdett, than whom he even went further, the people had, outside their
+own ranks, no sturdier champion.
+
+If there had been any doubt before as to his line of action, there
+could be no doubt after the re-assembling of Parliament in January,
+1817. During the recess, monster meetings had been held in all parts
+of the country to consider the popular troubles and to insist upon
+popular reforms. Lord Cochrane agreed to present to the House of
+Commons many of the petitions that resulted from these meetings, and
+this he did on the 29th of January, the very day of the re-opening of
+Parliament.
+
+In anticipation of this measure, there was a great assembling of
+reform delegates from all parts of England, and of others favourable
+to their purpose, in front of Lord Cochrane's residence at No. 7,
+Palace Yard, Westminster. Shortly before two o'clock Lord Cochrane
+showed himself at the window, and announced that he was now on his
+way to the House, there to watch over the rights and liberties of the
+people, and that he would shortly return and let them know what was
+passing. This he did at four o'clock, part of the interval being
+occupied with a fervid address from Henry Hunt. On his reappearance,
+Lord Cochrane stated that the speech with which the Prince Regent had
+opened Parliament had not disappointed his expectations, for it was
+wholly disappointing to the people. The Regent had complained of the
+disaffection pervading the country, and had announced his intention of
+using all the power given him by the Constitution for its suppression.
+Lord Cochrane expressed his confident hope that the people, having
+the right on their side, would so demean themselves as to give their
+enemies no ground of charge against them; for those enemies desired
+nothing so much as riot and disorder.
+
+Thereupon an immense bundle of petitions was handed him, and he
+himself was placed in a chair, and so conveyed on men's shoulders to
+the door of Westminster Hall, where the crowd dispersed in an orderly
+way.
+
+In the House, before the motion for an address in answer to the Prince
+Regent's speech, Lord Cochrane rose to present a petition, signed by
+more than twenty thousand inhabitants of Bristol, setting forth the
+present distress of the country, the increase of paupers and beggars,
+the grievous lack of employment for industrious persons, and
+the misery that resulted from this state of things. In these
+circumstances, the petitioners urged, it was in vain to pretend to
+relieve the sufferers by giving them soup, while, for the support of
+sinecure placemen, pensioners without number, and an insatiable
+civil list, half their earnings were taken from them by the enormous
+taxation under which the country groaned. After considerable
+opposition, the petition was allowed to lie on the table.
+
+Lord Cochrane then presented a smaller but much more outspoken
+petition from the inhabitants of Quirk, in Yorkshire. "The
+petitioners," it was there urged, "have a full and immovable
+conviction—a conviction which they believe to be universal throughout
+the kingdom—that the House does not, in any constitutional or
+rational sense, represent the nation; that, when the people have
+ceased to be represented, the Constitution is subverted; that taxation
+without representation is a state of slavery; that the scourge
+of taxation without representation has now reached a severity too
+harassing and vexatious, too intolerable and degrading, to be longer
+endured without resistance by all possible means warranted by the
+Constitution; that such a condition of affairs has now been reached
+that contending factions are alike guilty of their country's wrongs,
+alike forgetful of her rights, mocking the public patience with
+repeated, protracted, and disgusting debates on questions of
+refinement in the complicated and abstruse science of taxation, as if
+in such refinement, and not in a reformed representation, as if in a
+consolidated corruption, and not in a renovated Constitution,
+relief were to be found; that thus there are left no human means of
+redressing the people's wrongs or composing their distracted minds,
+or of preventing the subversion of liberty and the establishment of
+despotism, unless by calling the collected wisdom and virtue of the
+community into counsel by the election of a free Parliament; and
+therefore, considering that, through the usurpation of borough
+factions and other causes, the people have been put even out of a
+condition to consent to taxes; and considering also that, until their
+sacred right of election shall be restored, no free Parliament can
+have existence, it is necessary that the House shall, without delay,
+pass a law for putting the aggrieved and much-aroused people in
+possession of their undoubted right to representation co-extensive
+with taxation, to an equal distribution of such representation
+throughout the community, and to Parliaments of a continuance
+according to the Constitution, namely, not exceeding one year."
+
+A long discussion ensued as to whether this petition should be
+accepted by the House or rejected as an insulting libel. Several
+members of the House denounced it. Other members, while objecting to
+its terms, urged its acceptance. Among them the most notable was
+Mr. Brougham. The petition, he said, was rudely worded, and its
+recommendations were such as no wise lover of the English Constitution
+could wholly subscribe to; but it pointed to real grievances and
+recommended improvements which were necessary to the well-being of the
+State, and therefore it ought to be admitted. Mr. Canning was one of
+those who insisted upon its rejection, and this was ultimately done by
+a majority of 87, 48 being in favour of the petition, and 135 against
+it.
+
+Four other petitions presented by Lord Cochrane, being to the same
+effect, were also rejected; and two, more moderate in their language,
+were accepted. Lord Cochrane thus succeeded, at any rate, in forcing
+the House during several hours to take into consideration the troubled
+state of the country, and the pressing need, as it seemed to great
+masses of the people, of thorough parliamentary reform.
+
+"You will see by the 'Debates,'" he wrote next day to a friend, "that
+I presented a number of petitions last night, and had a hard battle to
+fight. Today I am quite indisposed, by reason of the corruption of the
+Honourable House. It is impossible to support a bad cause by honest
+means. God knows where all these base projects will end." That his own
+cause was a good one, and that the means used by him were honest, he
+had no doubt. In the same letter he referred to the opposition offered
+to him, even by some of his own relatives, on account of his conduct.
+"Mr. Cochrane has thought proper to disavow, through the public
+papers, any connection with my politics. The consciousness that I am
+acting as I ought makes that light which I should otherwise feel as a
+heavy clog in following that course which I think honour and justice
+require."
+
+Therefore he persevered in his Herculean task. Having presented and
+spoken upon others in the interval, he presented another monster
+petition to the House on the 5th of February. It was signed, he said,
+by twenty-four thousand inhabitants of London and the neighbourhood.
+It complained of the unbearable weight of taxation and the distresses
+of the country, and of the squandering of the money extracted from the
+pockets of an oppressed and impoverished people to support sinecure
+placemen and pensioners. "It appears to me," he said, "surprising that
+there should be any set of men so cruel and unjust as to wallow in
+wealth at the public expense while poor wretches are starving at every
+corner of the streets." He represented that the petition was drawn
+up in temperate, respectful language,—more temperate, indeed, than
+he should have employed had he dictated its phrases. He urged that the
+people had good cause for complaint as to the way in which Parliament
+neglected their interests, and good ground for asserting that the
+system of parliamentary representation then afforded them was no real
+representation at all. Members entered the House only in pursuit of
+their own selfish ends, and the Government encouraged this state of
+things by fostering a system of wholesale bribery and corruption,
+degrading in itself and fraught with terrible mischief to the
+community. What wonder, then, that the people should pray, as they did
+in this petition, for a thorough reform, and should point to annual
+Parliaments and universal suffrage as the only efficient remedies?
+
+It is needless to recapitulate all the arguments offered again
+and again by Lord Cochrane, with ever fresh-force and cogency, in
+presenting massive petitions to the House, and in introducing into
+the occasional debates on reform with which the House amused itself
+a vigour and practicalness in which few other members cared to
+sympathize. Nor need we enumerate all the meetings, in London and the
+provinces, in which he took prominent part. It is enough to say that
+in Parliament he always spoke with exceeding boldness, and that upon
+the people, notwithstanding the contrary assertions of his detractors,
+he always enjoined, if not conciliation and forbearance, at any rate
+such action as was within the strict letter of the law, and most
+likely, in the end, to obtain the realization of their wishes. On all
+occasions he defended them from the charges of sedition and conspiracy
+brought against them by their opponents, and proved, to all who were
+open to proof, that their objects were patriotic, and were being
+sought in patriotic ways.
+
+Of this, however, the Government did not choose to be convinced.
+Taking advantage of some intemperate speeches of demagogues, making
+much of some violent handbills circulated by police-officers under
+secret instructions, mightily exaggerating a few lawless acts,—as
+when a drunken old sailor summoned the keepers of the Tower of London
+to surrender,—they procured, on the 26th of February, the suspension
+of the Habeas Corpus Act. Therefrom resulted, at any rate, some good.
+The Whigs, who had hitherto mainly supported the Tory Government, were
+now turned against it, and with them the wiser Radicals, like Lord
+Cochrane, sought to effect a coalition. "You will perceive by the
+papers," he said in a letter dated February the 28th, "that I have
+resolved to steer another political course, seeing that the only means
+of averting military despotism from the country is to unite the people
+and the Whigs, so far as they can be induced to co-operate, which they
+must do if they wish to preserve the remainder of the Constitution.
+The 'Times' of yesterday contains the fullest account of the late
+debates on the suspension of the Habeas Corpus Act, and by that report
+you will perceive that the Whigs really made a good stand."
+
+In that temper, Lord Cochrane spoke at a Westminster meeting, held
+on the 11th of March, "to take into consideration the propriety
+of agreeing to an address to His Royal Highness the Prince Regent,
+beseeching that he will, in his well-known solicitude for the freedom
+and happiness of His Majesty's subjects, remove from his royal
+councils those ministers who appear resolved to adopt no effectual
+measures of economy and retrenchment, but, on the contrary, to
+persevere in measures calculated to drive a suffering people to
+despair."
+
+There was some flattery or some mockery, or something of both, in
+that announcement; and both, with much earnest enunciation of popular
+grievances, were in Lord Cochrane's speech on the subject. He said
+that the Regent had as much cause as the people to complain of his
+present ministers, seeing how shamelessly they sought to hide from him
+the real state of the country. It was to be expected, from the early
+habits and character of the Regent, that he would anxiously pursue
+the interests of the nation, if, instead of being in the hands of an
+odious oligarchy, he could act for himself. This, at any rate, Lord
+Cochrane maintained should be urged upon him, for if something were
+not quickly done for the relief of the nation, trade and commerce
+would soon be utterly ruined, and the whole community would share the
+misery that had so long oppressed the lower orders. He again dwelt
+forcibly on the causes of this misery, and again denounced the conduct
+of the ministers and placemen who, while squandering the hardly-earned
+pounds of the people, claimed respect for their exemplary charity
+in doling out a few farthings for "the relief of the poor." In the
+previous year, he showed, Lord Castlereagh, "the bell-wether of the
+House of Commons," and thirteen other persons, had drawn from the
+revenues of the country 309,861£, and out of that amount had given
+back, in "sinecure soup," only 1505£
+
+On a hundred other occasions, both outside of the House of Commons and
+within its walls, Lord Cochrane continued fearlessly to set forth
+the troubles of the people and the wrong-doing of its governors. In
+Parliament petitions without number were presented, and, amid all
+sorts of contumely, defended by him; and he took a no less active part
+in various important discussions, of which it will suffice, by way of
+illustration, to name the debates of the 3rd, 14th, and 28th of March,
+on the famous Seditious Meetings Bill, and that of the 13th of March
+on the depressed condition of English trade and its causes—a subject
+which was recurred to by Mr. Brougham in his memorable motion of the
+11th of July on the state of the nation.
+
+Six weeks before that, on the 20th of May, Lord Cochrane spoke on
+another famous motion—that made by his friend Sir Francis Burdett
+in favour of parliamentary reform. Once more, he complained that the
+existing House of Commons in no way represented the people, and was
+entirely regardless of its interests. Nothing better, he alleged,
+could be hoped for, without a radical change in the system of
+representation. "But," he continued, "reform we must have, whether we
+will or no. The state of the country is such that things cannot much
+longer be conducted as they now are. There is a general call for
+reform. If the call is not obeyed, thank God the evil will produce
+its own remedy, the mass of corruption will destroy itself, for the
+maggots it engenders will eat it up. The members of this House are the
+maggots of the Constitution. They are the locusts that devour it and
+cause all the evils that are complained of. There is nothing wicked
+which does not emanate from this House. In it originate all knavery,
+perjury, and fraud. You well know all this. You also know that the
+means by which the great majority of the House is returned is one
+great cause of the corruption of the whole people. It has been said,
+'Let the people reform themselves;' but if sums of money are offered
+for seats within these walls, there will always be found men ready to
+receive them. It is impossible to imagine that the profuse expenditure
+of the late war would have taken place, had it not been for a corrupt
+majority devoted to their selfish interests. At least it would have
+had a shorter duration, from being carried on in a more effective
+manner, had it not been conducive to the views of many to prevent its
+speedy termination. Much has been said about the glorious result of
+the war; but has not lavish expenditure loaded us with taxation which
+is impoverishing the people and annihilating commerce? Are not vessels
+seen everywhere with brooms at their mastheads? Are not sailors
+starving? Is not agriculture languishing? Are not our manufactures in
+the most distressed state?"
+
+Lord Cochrane asserted that the real revolutionists of England were
+the ministers and their followers. "I am persuaded that no man without
+doors wishes the subversion of the Constitution; but within it,
+bribery and corruption stand for the Constitution. Mr. Pitt himself
+confessed that no honest man could hold the situation of minister for
+any length of time. There can be no honest minister until measures
+have been taken to purge and purify the House. If this be not done,
+it is in vain to hope for a renewal of successful enterprise in this
+country: the sun of the country is set for ever. It may indeed exist
+as a petty military German despotism, with horsemen parading up and
+down, with large whiskers, with sabres ringing by their horses' sides,
+with fantastically-shaped caps of fantastical colours on their
+heads; but this country cannot thus be made a great military power.
+A previous speaker has instanced juries as one of the benefits of the
+Constitution; but I will affirm, with respect to the manner in which
+juries are chosen under the present system, that justice is much
+better administered, in a more summary manner, with less expense, and
+no chicanery, by the Dey of Algiers. If this country were erected at
+once into a downright, honest, open despotism, the people would be
+gainers. If a judge or despot then proved a rogue, he would at
+once appear in his true character; but now villany can be artfully
+concealed under the verdict of a packed jury. I am satisfied that the
+present system of corruption is more detrimental to the country than a
+despotism."
+
+No other speaker spoke so boldly as Lord Cochrane; but his eloquent
+words were substantially endorsed by many; by Sir Samuel Romilly and
+Mr. Brougham in especial; and on a division, though 265 voted
+against Sir Francis Burdett's motion, it was supported by a
+minority—unusually large for the time—of 77.
+
+Slowly but surely the better principles of government for which
+Lord Cochrane fought so persistently were gaining ground, destined
+ultimately to produce the changes in national temper which made plain
+the duty and expediency of adopting the changes in political systems
+in which the years 1832 and 1867 are epochs. In after years, Lord
+Cochrane himself clearly saw that he had been rash in his advocacy
+of the sweeping reforms which the excited people deemed necessary for
+their welfare in the years of trouble and misgovernment consequent on
+the tedious war-time ending with the battle of Waterloo. But he never
+had cause to regret the honest zeal and the generous sympathy with
+which he strove, though in violent ways, to lessen the weight of the
+popular distresses.
+
+Distresses were not wanting to himself during this period. The weight
+of his former troubles still hung heavily upon him. He could not
+forget the terrible disgrace—none the less terrible because it was
+unmerited—that had befallen him. And in pecuniary ways he was a
+grievous sufferer by them. In losing his naval employment he lost
+the income on which he had counted. His resources were thus seriously
+crippled; and the scientific pursuits, in which he still persevered,
+failed to bring to him the profit that he anticipated.
+
+In one characteristic way—only one among many—the Government
+persecution still clung to him. In the distribution of prize-money
+for the achievement at Basque Roads all the officers and crews of
+Lord Grambier's fleet had been considered entitled to share. To this
+arrangement Lord Cochrane objected. He urged that as the whole triumph
+was due to the _Impérieuse_ and the few ships actually engaged with
+her, the reward ought to be limited to them. "I am preparing to
+proceed in the Court of Admiralty on the question of head-money for
+Basque Roads," he wrote on the 5th of November, 1816; "my affidavit
+has reluctantly been admitted, though strenuously opposed, on the
+ground that I was not to be believed on my oath!"
+
+Lord Cochrane's council in this case was Dr. Lushington, afterwards
+the eminent judge of the Admiralty Court. Dr. Lushington showed
+plainly that the greater part of the fleet, having taken no share in
+the action, had no right to head-money, and that therefore all ought
+to be divided among those who actually shared with Lord Cochrane
+the danger and the success of the enterprise. But Sir William Scott
+(afterwards Lord Stowell), the judge at that time, was not disposed
+to sanction this view. Therefore he thwarted it by delays. The case
+having been postponed from November, 1816, was brought up again in the
+first term of 1817. "The judge has again delayed his decision," wrote
+Lord Cochrane on the 28th of February, the day of the announcement,
+"and I believe has done so until next session. He gave a curious
+reason for this, namely, that I took part at the Westminster meeting
+against the suspension of the Habeas Corpus Act!"
+
+At the next session it was again postponed, all the time available
+for its consideration being taken up with a frivolous discussion as to
+Lord Cochrane's right to give evidence. "They have gone the length,"
+wrote his secretary, Mr. Jackson, on the 3rd of May, "of denying Lord
+Cochrane's credibility in a court of justice. They had no other way
+of answering his affidavit, which would have gained his cause in the
+Court of Admiralty, as it proved that the French ships in Basque Roads
+were destroyed by his own exertions in fighting without orders from
+the Admiral. The denial-of Lord Cochrane's competency to give evidence
+has excited a great deal of interest, and the Court of Admiralty was
+quite crowded on Tuesday, when the question came on to be discussed.
+I thought that our counsel had much the best of the argument, and I
+believe the judge, Sir William Scott, thought so too, as he put off
+his sentence to a future day." On the future day the judge admitted as
+much. "We have gained a bit of a victory in the Admiralty Court," said
+the same writer in a letter dated the 9th of June, "the judge having
+been compelled to pronounce in favour of his lordship's right to
+be believed on his oath." The time taken by him to arrive at this
+decision, however, was so long that the case had to be adjourned to
+November term, and thereby Lord Cochrane's enemies so far attained
+their object, that it was impossible for him, in November term, to
+renew the suit.
+
+In the interval he had gone to France, preparatory to a much longer
+and more momentous journey to South America, in anticipation of which
+he was winding up his affairs and realizing his property during and
+after the summer of 1817.
+
+In this settlement of accounts there was at any rate one amusing
+incident. It will be remembered that, on the occasion of his being
+elected Member of Parliament for Honiton in 1806, Lord Cochrane had
+refused to follow the almost universal fashion of bribery, but, after
+the election was over, had thoughtlessly yielded to the proposal
+of his agent that he should entertain his constituents at a public
+supper.[A] This entertainment, either through spite or through wanton
+extravagance, was turned by those to whom the management of it was
+assigned into a great occasion of feasting for all the inhabitants of
+the town; and for defrayment of the expenses thus incurred a claim
+for more than 1200£ was afterwards made upon Lord Cochrane. Through
+eleven years he bluntly refused to pay the preposterous demand; but
+his creditors had the law upon their side, and in the spring of 1817
+an order was granted for putting an execution into his house at Holly
+Hill.
+
+[Footnote A: 'The Autobiography of a Seaman,' vol. i. pp. 203, 204.]
+
+Lord Cochrane, however, having resisted the demand thus far,
+determined to resist to the end. For more than six weeks he prevented
+the agents of the law from entering the house. "I still hold out,"
+he said in a letter to his secretary, "though the castle has several
+times been threatened in great force. The trumpeter is now blowing for
+a parley, but no one appears on the ramparts. Explosion-bags are set
+in the lower embrasures, and all the garrison is under arms." In
+the explosion-bags there was nothing more dangerous than powdered
+charcoal; but, supposing they contained gunpowder or some other
+combustible, the sheriff of Hampshire and twenty-five officers were
+held at bay by them, until at length one official, more daring than
+the rest, jumped in at an open window, to find Lord Cochrane sitting
+at breakfast and to be complimented by him upon the wonderful bravery
+which he had shown in coming up to a building defended by charcoal
+dust.
+
+That battle with the sheriff and bailiffs of Hampshire occupied nearly
+the whole of April and May, 1817. In the latter month, if not before,
+Lord Cochrane began to think seriously of proceeding to join in
+battles of a more serious sort in South America, under inducements and
+with issues that will presently be detailed. "His lordship has made up
+his mind to go to South America," wrote his secretary on the 31st of
+May. "Numbers of gentlemen of great respectability are desirous of
+accompanying him, and even Sir Francis Burdett has declared that he
+feels a great temptation to do so; but Lord Cochrane discourages all.
+They think he is going to immolate the Spaniards by his secret plans;
+but he is not going to do anything of the kind, having promised the
+Prince Regent not to divulge or use them otherwise than in the service
+of his country."
+
+With this expedition in view, and purposing to start upon it nearly a
+year sooner than he found himself able to do, Lord Cochrane sold Holly
+Hill and his other property in Hampshire, in July. In August he went
+for a few months to France, partly for the benefit of Lady Cochrane's
+health, partly, as it would seem, in the hope of introducing into
+that country the lamps which he had lately invented, and from which he
+hoped to derive considerable profit.
+
+To this matter, and to his efforts to obtain some share, at any rate,
+of his rights from the English Government, the letters written by
+him from France chiefly refer. But there are in them some notes and
+illustrations of more general interest. "I am quite astonished at the
+state of Boulogne," he wrote thence on the 14th of August. "Neither
+the town nor the heights are fortified; so great was Napoleon's
+confidence in the terror of his name and the knowledge he possessed
+of the stupidity and ignorance of our Government." In a letter from
+Paris, dated the 23rd of August, we read: "Everything is looking much
+more settled than when I was formerly here, and I do really think that
+the Government, from the conciliatory measures wisely adopted, will
+stand their ground against the adherents of Buonaparte. We are to have
+a great rejoicing to-morrow. All Paris will be dancing, fiddling, and
+singing. They are a light-hearted people. I wish I could join in their
+fun. I was hopeful that I should; but the cursed recollection of the
+injustice that has been done to me is never out of my mind; so that
+all my pleasures are blasted, from whatever source they might be
+expected to arise."
+
+That last sentence fairly indicates the state of Lord Cochrane's mind
+during these painful years. Weighed down by troubles heavy enough to
+break the heart of an ordinary man, he fought nobly for the thorough
+justification of his character and for the protection of others from
+such persecution as had befallen him. In both objects, altogether
+praise-worthy in themselves, he may have sometimes been intemperate;
+but ample excuse for far greater intemperance would be found in the
+troubles that oppressed him. "The cursed recollection of the injustice
+that has been done to me is never out of my mind; all my pleasures are
+blasted!"
+
+In the same temper, after a lapse of nine months, about which it is
+only necessary to say that, like their forerunners, they were
+employed in private cares, and, especially after the reassembling of
+Parliament, in zealous action for the public good, he made his last
+speech in the House of Commons on the 2nd of June, 1818. The occasion
+was a debate upon a second motion by Sir Francis Burdett in favour of
+parliamentary reform, more cogent and effective than that of the
+20th of May, 1817, to Lord Cochrane's share in which we have already
+referred. The former speech was wholly of public interest. This has a
+personal significance, very painful and very memorable. It brings to a
+pathetic close the saddest epoch in Lord Cochrane's life—so very full
+of sadness.
+
+"I rise, sir," he said, "to second the motion of my honourable friend.
+In what I have to say, I do not presume to think that I can add to
+the able arguments that have just been uttered; but it is my duty
+distinctly to declare my opinions on the subject. When I recollect all
+the proceedings of this House, I confess that I do not entertain much
+hope of a favourable result to the present motion. To me it seems
+chiefly serviceable as an exhibition of sound principles, and as
+showing the people for what they ought to petition. I shall perhaps be
+told that it is unparliamentary to say there are any representatives
+of the people in this House who have sold themselves to the purposes
+and views of any set of men in power; but the history of the
+degenerate senate of that once free people, the Romans, will serve
+to show how far corruption may make inroads upon public virtue or
+patriotism. The tyranny inflicted on the Roman people, and on mankind
+in general, under the form of acts passed by the Roman senate, will
+ever prove a useful memento to nations which have any freedom to lose.
+It is not for me to prophesy when our case will be like theirs; but
+this I will say, that those who are the slaves of a despotic
+monarch are far less reprehensible for their actions than those who
+voluntarily sell themselves when they have the means of remaining
+free.
+
+"And here," he continued, in sentences broken by his emotions, "as it
+is probably the last time I shall ever have the honour of addressing
+the House on any subject, I am anxious to tell its members what I
+think of their conduct. It is now nearly eleven years since I have
+had the honour of a seat in this House, and since then there have
+been very few measures in which I could agree with the opinions of the
+majority. To say that these measures were contrary to justice would
+not be parliamentary. I will not even go into the inquiry whether
+they tend to the national good or not; but I will merely appeal to the
+feelings of the landholders present, I will appeal to the knowledge
+of those members who are engaged in commerce, and ask them whether the
+acts of the legislative body have not been of a description, during
+the late war, that would, if not for the timely intervention of the
+use of machinery, have sent this nation to total ruin? The country is
+burthened to a degree which, but for this intervention, it would have
+been impossible for the people to bear. The cause of these measures
+having such an effect upon the country has been examined and gone
+into by my honourable colleague (Sir Francis Burdett); they are to
+be traced to that patronage and influence which, a number of powerful
+individuals possess over the nomination of a great proportion of the
+members of this House; a power which, devolving on a few, becomes
+thereby the more liable to be affected by the influence of the Crown;
+and which has in fact been rendered almost entirely subservient to
+that influence. To reform the abuses which arise out of this system
+is the object of my honourable friend's motion. I will not, cannot,
+anticipate the success of the motion; but I will say, as has been
+said before by the great Chatham, the father of Mr. Pitt, that, if the
+House does not reform itself from within, it will be reformed with
+a vengeance from without. The people will take up the subject, and
+a reform will take place which will make many members regret their
+apathy in now refusing that reform which might be rendered efficient
+and permanent. But, unfortunately, in the present formation of the
+House, it appears to me that from within no reform can be expected,
+and for the truth of this I appeal to the experience of the few
+members, less than a hundred, who are now present, nearly six hundred
+being absent; I appeal to their experience to say whether they have
+ever known of any one instance in which a petition of the people for
+reform has been taken into consideration, or any redress afforded in
+consequence of such a petition? This I regret, because I foresee the
+consequence which must necessarily result from it. I do trust and
+hope that before it is too late some measures shall be adopted for
+redressing the grievances of the people; for certain I am that
+unless some measures are taken to stop the feelings which the people
+entertain towards this House and to restore their confidence in it,
+you will one day have ample cause to repent the line of conduct you
+have pursued. The gentlemen who now sit on the benches opposite
+with such triumphant feelings will one day repent their conduct. The
+commotions to which that conduct will inevitably give rise will shake,
+not only this House, but the whole framework of Government and society
+to its foundations. I have been actuated by the wish to prevent this,
+and I have had no other intention.
+
+"I shall not trespass longer on your time," he continued, in a few
+broken sentences, uttered painfully and with agitation that aroused
+much sympathy in the House. "The situation I have held for
+eleven years in this House I owe to the favour of the electors of
+Westminster. The feelings of my heart are gratified by the manner
+in which they have acted towards me. They have rescued me from a
+desperate and wicked conspiracy which has nearly involved me in total
+ruin. I forgive those who have so done; and I hope when they depart to
+their graves they will be equally able to forgive themselves. All
+this is foreign to the subject before the House, but I trust you will
+forgive me. I shall not trespass on your time longer now—perhaps
+never again on any subject. I hope his Majesty's ministers will take
+into their serious consideration what I now say. I do not utter it
+with any feelings of hostility—such feelings have now left me—but
+I trust they will take my warning, and save the country by abandoning
+the present system before it is too late."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI.
+
+
+THE ANTECEDENTS OF LORD COCHRANE'S EMPLOYMENTS IN AMERICA.—THE WAR
+OF INDEPENDENCE IN THE SPANISH COLONIES.—MEXICO.—VENEZUELA.
+—COLOMBIA.—CHILI.—THE FIRST CHILIAN INSURRECTION.—THE CARRERAS
+AND O'HIGGINS.—THE BATTLE OF BANCAGUA.—O'HIGGINS'S SUCCESSES.—THE
+ESTABLISHMENT OF THE CHILIAN REPUBLIC.—LORD COCHRANE INVITED TO ENTER
+THE CHILIAN SERVICE.
+
+
+(1810—1817.)
+
+To an understanding of Lord Cochrane's share in the South American
+wars of independence a brief recapitulation of their antecedents, and
+of the state of affairs at the time of his first connection with them,
+is necessary.
+
+The Spanish possessions in both North and South America, which had
+reached nearly their full dimensions before the close of the sixteenth
+century, had been retained, with little opposition from without,
+and with still less from within, down to the close of the eighteenth
+century. These possessions, including Mexico and Central America, New
+Granada, Venezuela, Peru, La Plata, and Chili, covered an area larger
+than that of Europe, more than twice as large as that of the present
+United States. Through half a dozen generations they had been governed
+with all the short-sighted tyranny for which the Spanish Government is
+famous; the resources of the countries had been crippled in order that
+each day's greed might be satisfied; and the inhabitants, who, for the
+most part, were the mixed offspring of Spanish and native parents,
+had been kept in abject dependence and in ignorant ferocity. There
+was plenty of internal hatred and strife; but no serious thought of
+winning their liberty and working out their own regeneration seems to
+have existed among the people of the several provinces, until it was
+suggested by the triumphant success of the United States in throwing
+off the stronger but much less oppressive thraldom of Great Britain.
+That success having been achieved, however, it was soon emulated by
+the colonial subjects of Spain.
+
+The first leader of agitation was Francisco Miranda, a Venezuelan
+Creole. He visited England in 1790, and received some encouragement in
+his revolutionary projects from Pitt. He went to France in 1792, and
+there, while waiting some years for fit occasion of prosecuting the
+work on which his heart was set, he helped to fight the battle of the
+revolution against the Bourbons and the worn-out feudalism of which
+they were representatives. During his absence, in 1794, conspiracies
+against Spain arose in Mexico and New Granada, and, these continuing,
+he went in 1794, armed by secret promises of assistance from Pitt, to
+help in fomenting them. They prospered for several years; and in 1806
+Miranda obtained substantial aid from Sir Alexander Cochrane, Lord
+Cochrane's uncle, then the admiral in command of the West India
+station. But in 1806 Pitt died. The Whigs came into power, and with
+their coming occurred a change in the English policy. In 1807, General
+Crawfurd was ordered to throw obstacles in the way of Miranda, then
+heading a formidable insurrection. The result was a temporary check
+to the work of revolution. In 1810 Miranda renewed his enterprise
+in Venezuela, still with poor success; and in the same year a fresh
+revolt was stirred up in Mexico by Miguel Hidalgo, of Costilla, a
+priest of Dolores. Hidalgo's insurrection was foolish in design and
+bloodthirsty in execution. It was continued, in better spirit, but
+with poor success, by Morelos and Rayon, who, sustaining a serious
+defeat in 1815, left the strife to degenerate into a coarse bandit
+struggle, very disastrous to Spain, but hardly beneficial to the cause
+of Mexican independence.
+
+In the meanwhile a more prosperous and worthier contest was being
+waged in South America. Besides the efforts of Miranda in Venezuela,
+which were renewed between 1810 and 1812, when he was taken prisoner
+and sent to Spain, there to die in a dungeon, a separate standard of
+revolt was raised in Quito by Narinno and his friends in 1809. After
+fighting desperately, in guerilla fashion, for five years, Narinno
+was captured and forced to share Miranda's lot. A greater man, the
+greatest hero of South American independence, Simon Bolivar, succeeded
+them.
+
+Bolivar, a native of Caraccas, had passed many years in Europe, when
+in 1810, at the age of twenty-seven, he went to serve under Miranda
+in Venezuela. Miranda's defeat in 1812 compelled him to retire to New
+Granada, but there he did good service. He improved the fighting ways
+and extended the fighting area, and in December, 1814, was appointed
+captain-general of Venezuela and New Granada, soon, however, to be
+driven back and forced to take shelter in Jamaica by the superior
+strength of Morillo, the Spanish general, who arrived with a
+formidable army in 1815. In 1816 Bolivar again showed himself in the
+field at the head of his famous liberating army, which, crossing
+over from Trinidad, and gaining reinforcements at every step, planted
+freedom, such as it was, all along the northern parts of South
+America, in which the new republic of Colombia was founded under his
+presidency, in the neighbouring district of New Granada, and down to
+the La Plata province, where he established the republic of Bolivia,
+so named in his honour. With these patriotic labours he was busied
+upon land, while Lord Cochrane was securing the independence of the
+Spanish colonies by his brave warfare on the sea.
+
+As the cause of liberty progressed in South America, it became
+apparent that it had poor chance of permanence, while the
+revolutionists were unable to cope with the Spaniards in naval
+strife or to wrest from Spain her strongholds on the coast. This was
+especially the case with the maritime provinces of Chili and Peru.
+Peru, held firmly by the army garrisoned in Lima, to which Callao
+served as an almost impregnable port, had been unable to share in the
+contest waged on the other side of the Andes; and Chili, though
+strong enough to declare its independence, was too weak to maintain it
+without foreign aid.
+
+The Chilian struggle began in 1810, when the Spanish captain-general,
+Carrasco, was deposed, and a native government set up under Count de
+la Conquista. By this government the sovereignty of Spain was still
+recognised, although various reforms were adopted which Spain could
+not be expected to endorse. Accordingly, in April, 1811, an attempt
+was made by the Spanish soldiers to overturn the new order of
+things. The result was that, after brief fighting, the revolutionists
+triumphed, and the yoke of Spain was thrown off.
+
+But the independence of Chili, thus easily begun, was not easily
+continued. Three brothers, Jose Miguel, Juan Jose, and Luis Carreras,
+and their sister, styled the Anne Boleyn of Chili, determined to
+pervert the public weal to their own aggrandisement. Winning their way
+into popularity, they overturned the national congress that had been
+established in June, and in December set up a new junta, with Jose
+Miguel Carrera at its head. A dismal period of misrule ensued, which
+encouraged the Spanish generals, Pareja and Sanchez, to attempt the
+reconquest of Chili in 1813. Pareja and Sanchez were successfully
+resisted, and a better man, General Bernardo O'Higgins, the republican
+son of an Irishman who had been Viceroy of Peru, was put at the
+head of affairs. He succeeded to the command of the Chilian army in
+November, 1813, when a fresh attack from the Spaniards was expected.
+At first his good soldiership was successful. The enemy, having come
+almost to the gates of Santiago, was forced to retire in May, 1814;
+and the Chilian cause might have continued to prosper under O'Higgins,
+had not the Carreras contrived, in hopes of reinstating themselves in
+power, to divide the republican interests, and so, while encouraging
+renewed invasion by the Spaniards from Lima, make their resistance
+more difficult. Wisely deeming it right to set aside every other
+consideration than the necessity of saving Chili from the danger
+pressing upon it from without, O'Higgins effected a junction with the
+Carreras, hoping thus to bring the whole force of the republic against
+the royalist army, larger than its predecessors, which was marching
+towards Santiago and Valparaiso. Had his magnanimous proposals been
+properly acted upon, the issue might have been very different. But
+the Carreras, even in the most urgent hour of danger, could not forget
+their private ambitions. Holding aloof with their part of the army,
+they allowed O'Higgins and his force of nine hundred to be defeated
+by four thousand royalists under General Osorio, in the preliminary
+fight which took place at the end of September. They were guilty of
+like treachery during the great battle of the 1st of October. On that
+day the royalists entered Rancagua, the town in which O'Higgins and
+his little band had taken shelter. They were fiercely resisted, and
+the fighting lasted through thirty-six hours. So brave was the conduct
+of the patriots that the Spanish general was, after some hours'
+contest, on the point of retreating. He saw that he would have no
+chance of success, had the Carreras brought up their troops, as
+was expected by both sides of the combatants. But the Carreras,
+short-sighted in their selfishness, and nothing loth that O'Higgins
+should be defeated, still held aloof. Thereupon the Spaniards took
+heart, and made one more desperate effort. With hatchets and swords
+they forced their way, inch by inch and hour by hour, into the centre
+of the town. There, in an open square, O'Higgins, with two hundred
+men—all the remnant of his little army—made a last resistance. When
+only a few dozen of his soldiers were left alive, and when he himself
+was seriously wounded, he determined, not to surrender, but to end the
+battle. The residue of the patriots dashed through the town, cutting
+a road through the astonished crowd of their opponents, and effected
+a retreat in which those opponents, though more than twenty times as
+numerous, durst not pursue them.
+
+That memorable battle of Rancagua caused throughout the American
+continent, and, across the Atlantic, through Europe, a thrill of
+sympathy for the Chilian war of independence. But its immediate
+effects were most disastrous. The Carreras, too selfish to fight
+before, were now too cowardly. They and their followers fled.
+O'Higgins had barely soldiers enough left to serve as a weak escort
+to the fourteen hundred old men, women, and children who crossed the
+Andes with him on foot, to pass two years and a half in voluntary
+exile at Mendoza.
+
+During those two years and a half the Spaniards were masters in
+Santiago, and Chili was once more a Spanish province, in which the
+inhabitants were punished terribly in confiscations, imprisonments,
+and executions for their recent defection. Deliverance, however,
+was at hand. General San Martin, through whom chiefly La Plata had
+achieved its freedom, gave assistance to O'Higgins and the Chilian
+patriots. The main body of the Spanish army, numbering about five
+thousand, had been stationed on the heights of Chacabuco, whence
+Santiago, Valparaiso, and the other leading towns of Chili were
+overawed. On the 12th of February, 1817, San Martin and O'Higgins,
+with a force nearly as large, surprised this garrison, and, with
+excellent strategy and very little loss of life, to the patriots at
+any rate, it was entirely subdued. Santiago was entered in triumph on
+the 14th of February, and a few weeks served for the entire dispersion
+of the royalist forces. The supreme directorship of the renovated
+republic was offered to San Martin. On his declining the honour, it
+was assigned, to the satisfaction of all parties, to O'Higgins.
+
+The new dictator and the wisest of his counsellors, however, were not
+satisfied with the temporary advantage that they had achieved. They
+knew that armies would continue to come down from Peru, the defeat
+of which, even if that could be relied upon, would waste all the
+resources of the republic. They knew, too, that the Spanish war-ships
+which supplied Peru with troops and ammunition from home, passing the
+Chilian coast on their way, would seriously hinder the commerce on
+which the young state had to depend for its development, even if
+they did not destroy that commerce at its starting-point by seizing
+Valparaiso and the other ports. Therefore they resolved to seek
+for efficient help from Europe. With that end Don Jose Alvarez,
+a high-minded patriot, who had done much good service to Chili in
+previous years, was immediately sent to Europe, commissioned to borrow
+money, to build or buy warships, and in all the ways in his power to
+enlist the sympathies of the English people in the republican cause.
+In the last of these projects, at any rate, he succeeded beyond all
+reasonable expectation.
+
+Beaching London in April, 1817, Alvarez was welcomed by many friends
+of South American freedom—Sir Francis Burdett, Sir James Mackintosh,
+Mr. Henry Brougham, and Mr. Edward Ellice among the number. Lord
+Cochrane was just then out of London, fighting his amusing battle with
+the sheriffs and bailiffs of Hampshire; but as soon as that business
+was over he took foremost place among the friends of Don Alvarez and
+the Chilian cause which he represented. With a message to him, indeed,
+Alvarez was specially commissioned. He was invited by the Chilian
+Government to undertake the organization and command of an improved
+naval force, and so, by exercise of the prowess which he had displayed
+in the Mediterranean and elsewhere, to render invaluable service to
+the young republic.
+
+He promptly accepted the invitation, being induced thereto by many
+sufficient reasons. Sick at heart, as we have seen, under the cruel
+treatment to which for so many years he had been subjected by his
+enemies in power, he saw here an opportunity of, at the same
+time, escaping from his persecutors, returning to active work in
+a profession very dear to him, and giving efficient aid to a noble
+enterprise.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII.
+
+
+LORD COCHRANE'S VOYAGE TO CHILI.—HIS RECEPTION AT VALPARAISO AND
+SANTIAGO.—THE DISORGANIZATION OF THE CHILIAN FLEET.—FIRST SIGNS
+OF DISAFFECTION.—THE NAVAL FORCES OF THE CHILIANS AND THE
+SPANIARDS.—LORD COCHRANE'S FIRST EXPEDITION TO PERU.—HIS ATTACK ON
+CALLAO.—"DRAKE THE DRAGON" AND "COCHRANE THE DEVIL."—LORD COCHRANE'S
+SUCCESSES IN OVERAWING THE SPANIARDS, IN TREASURE-TAKING, AND
+IN ENCOURAGEMENT OF THE PERUVIANS TO JOIN IN THE WAR OF
+INDEPENDENCE.—HIS PLAN FOE ANOTHER ATTACK ON CALLAO.—HIS
+DIFFICULTIES IN EQUIPPING THE EXPEDITION.—THE FAILURE OF
+THE ATTEMPT.—HIS PLAN FOR STORMING VALDIVIA.—ITS SUCCESSFUL
+ACCOMPLISHMENT.
+
+
+[1818-1820.]
+
+Having accepted, in May, 1817, the offer conveyed to him by the
+Chilian Government through Don Jose Alvarez, Lord Cochrane's departure
+from England was delayed for more than a year. This was chiefly on
+account of the war-steamer, the _Rising Star_, which it was arranged
+to build and equip in London under his superintendence. But the work
+proceeded so slowly, in consequence of the difficulty experienced by
+Alvarez in raising the requisite funds, that, at last, Lord Cochrane,
+being urgently needed in South America, where the Spaniards were
+steadily gaining ground, was requested to leave the superintendence
+of the _Rising Star_ in other hands, and to cross the Atlantic without
+her.
+
+Accompanied by Lady Cochrane and his two children, he went first from
+Rye to Boulogne, and there, on the 15th of August, 1818, embarked in
+the _Rose_, a merchantman which had formerly been a warsloop. The long
+voyage was uninteresting until Cape Horn was reached. There, and in
+passing along the rugged coast-line of Tierra del Fuego, Lord Cochrane
+was struck by its wild scenery. He watched the lazy penguins that
+crowded on the rocks, among evergreens that showed brightly amid the
+imposing mass of snow, and caught with hooks the lazier sea-pigeons
+that skimmed the heavy waves and hovered round the bulwarks and got
+entangled among the rigging of the _Rose_. He shot several of the
+huge albatrosses that floated fearlessly over the deck, but was not
+successful in his efforts to catch the fish that were seen coming to
+the surface of the troubled sea. The sea was made so boisterous by
+rain and snow, and such a stiff wind blew from the west, that for two
+or three days the _Rose_ could not double the Cape. She was forced to
+tack towards the south until a favourable gale set in, which carried
+her safely to Valparaiso.
+
+Valparaiso was reached on the 28th of November, after ten weeks passed
+on shipboard. There and at Santiago, the seat of government, to which
+he proceeded as soon as the congratulations of his new friends
+would allow him, Lord Cochrane was heartily welcomed. So profuse and
+prolonged were the entertainments in his favour—splendid dinners,
+at which zealous patriots tendered their hearty compliments, being
+followed by yet more splendid balls, at which handsome women showed
+their gratitude in smiles, and eagerly sought the honour of being led
+by him through the dances which were their chief delight—that he had
+to remind his guests that he had come to Chili not to feast but to
+fight.
+
+There was prompt need of fighting. The Spaniards had a strong land
+force pressing up from the south and threatening to invest Santiago.
+Their formidable fleet swept the seas, and was being organized for an
+attack on Valparaiso. Admiral Blanco Encalada had just returned from
+a cruise in which he had succeeded in capturing, in Talcuanho Bay, a
+fine Spanish fifty-gun frigate, the Maria Isabel; but his fleet
+was ill-ordered and poorly equipped, quite unable, without thorough
+re-organization, to withstand the superior force of the enemy. An
+instance of the bad state of affairs was induced by Lord Cochrane's
+arrival, and seemed likely to cause serious trouble to him and worse
+misfortune to his Chilian employers. One of the republican vessels was
+the _Hecate_, a sloop of eighteen guns which had been sold out of the
+British navy and bought as a speculation by Captains Guise and Spry.
+Having first offered her in vain to the Buenos Ayrean Government,
+they had brought her on to Chili, and there contrived to sell her with
+advantage and to be themselves taken into the Chilian service. They
+and another volunteer, Captain Worcester, a North American, liking
+the ascendancy over Admiral Bianco which their experience had won
+for them, formed a cabal with the object of securing Admiral Blanco's
+continuance in the chief command, or its equal division between him
+and Lord Cochrane. Nothing but the Chilian admiral's disinterested
+patriotism prevented a serious rupture. He steadily withstood all
+temptations to his vanity, and avowed his determination to accept no
+greater honour—if there could be a greater—than that of serving as
+second in command under the brave Englishman who had come to fight
+for the independence of Chili. Thus, though some troubles afterwards
+sprang from the disaffections of Guise, Spry, and Worcester, the
+mischief schemed by them was prevented at starting.
+
+A few days after his arrival Lord Cochrane received his commission as
+"Vice-Admiral of Chili, Admiral, and Commander-in-Chief of the
+Naval Forces of the Republic." His flag was hoisted, on the 22nd
+of December, on board the _Maria Isabel_, now rechristened the
+_O'Higgins_, and fitted out as the principal ship in the small Chilian
+fleet. The other vessels of the fleet were the _San Martin_, formerly
+an Indiaman in the English service, of fifty-six guns; the _Lautaro_,
+also an old Indiaman, of forty-four guns; the _Galvarino_, as the
+_Hecate_ of Captains Cruise and Spry was now styled, of eighteen guns;
+the _Chacabuco_, of twenty guns; the _Aracauno_, of sixteen guns; and
+a sloop of fourteen guns named the _Puyrredon_.
+
+The Spanish fleet, which these seven ships had to withstand, comprised
+fourteen vessels and twenty-seven gunboats. Of the former three were
+frigates, the _Esmeralda_, of forty-four guns, the _Venganza_, of
+forty-two guns, and the _Sebastiana_, of twenty-eight guns; four were
+brigs, the _Maypeu_, of eighteen guns, the _Pezuela_, of twenty-two
+guns, the _Potrilla_, of eighteen guns, and another, whose name is not
+recorded, also of eighteen guns. There was a schooner, name unknown,
+which carried one large gun and twenty culverins. The rest were armed
+merchantmen, the _Resolution_, of thirty-six guns; the _Cleopatra_, of
+twenty-eight guns; the _La Focha_, of twenty guns; the _Guarmey_, of
+eighteen guns; the Fernando, of twenty-six guns, and the San Antonio,
+of eighteen guns. Only ten out of the fourteen, however, were ready
+for sea; and before the whole naval force could be got ready for
+service, it had been partly broken up by Lord Cochrane.
+
+There was delay, also, in getting the Chilian fleet under sail. After
+waiting at Valparaiso as long as he deemed prudent, Lord Cochrane left
+the three smaller vessels to complete their equipment under Admiral
+Blanco's direction, and passed out of port on the 16th of January,
+with the O'Higgins, the San Martin, the Lautaro, and the Chacabuco. He
+had hardly started before a mutiny broke out on board the last-named
+vessel, which compelled him to halt at Coquimbo long enough to try
+and punish the mutineers. Resuming the voyage, he proceeded along the
+Chilian and Peruvian coast as far northward as Callao Bay, where he
+cruised about for some days, awaiting an opportunity of attacking the
+Spanish shipping there collected in considerable force.
+
+While thus waiting he employed his leisure in observations, great and
+small, of the sort and in the way characteristic of him all through
+life. One of his rough notes runs thus:—"Cormorants resort in
+enormous nights, coming in the morning from the northward to Callao
+Bay, and proceeding along shore to the southward, diving in regular
+succession one after another on the fish which, driven at the same
+time from below by shoals of porpoises, seem to have no chance but to
+be devoured under water or scooped up in the large bags pendent from
+the enormous bills of the cormorants." "Prodigious seals," we read in
+another note, "inhabit the rocks, whose grave faces and grey beards
+look more like the human countenance than the faces of most other
+animals. They are very unwieldy in their movements when on shore, but
+most expert in the water. There is a small kind of duck in the bay,
+which, from the clearness of the water, can be seen flying with its
+wings under water in chase of small fry, which it speedily overtakes
+from its prodigious speed."
+
+From note-making of that sort, Lord Cochrane turned to more serious
+business. The batteries of Callao and of San Lorenzo, a little island
+in the bay which helped to form the port, mounted one hundred and
+sixty guns, and more than twice as many were at the command of vessels
+there lying-to. Direct attack of a force so very much superior to
+that of the Chilian fleet seemed out of the question. Therefore
+Lord Cochrane bethought him of a subterfuge. Learning that two North
+American war-ships were expected at Callao, he determined to personate
+them with the _O'Higgins_ and _Lautaro_, and so enter the port under
+alien colours. It was then carnival-time, and on the 21st of February,
+deeming that the Spaniards were more likely to be off their guard, he
+proposed "to make a feint of sending a boat ashore with despatches,
+and in the mean time suddenly to dash at the frigates and cut them
+out." Unfortunately a dense fog set in, which lasted till the 28th,
+and made it impossible for him to effect his purpose before the
+carnival was over. Let the sequel be told in his own words.
+
+"On the 28th, hearing heavy firing and imagining that one of the ships
+was engaged with the enemy, I stood with the flag-ship into the
+bay. The other ships, imagining the same thing, also steered in the
+direction of the firing, when, the fog clearing for a moment, we
+discovered each other, as well as a strange sail near us. This proved
+to be a Spanish gunboat, with a lieutenant and twenty men, who, on
+being made prisoners, informed us that the firing was a salute
+in honour of the Viceroy, who had that morning been on a visit of
+inspection to the batteries and shipping, and was then on board the
+brig-of-war _Pezuela_, which we saw crowding sail in the direction
+of the batteries. The fog, again coming on, suggested to me the
+possibility of a direct attack. Accordingly, still maintaining our
+disguise under American colours, the _O'Higgins_ and _Lautaro_ stood
+towards the batteries, narrowly escaping going ashore in the fog. The
+Viceroy, having no doubt witnessed the capture of the gunboat, had,
+however, provided for our reception, the garrison being at their guns,
+and the crews of the ships-of-war at their quarters. Notwithstanding
+the great odds, I determined to persist in an attack, as our
+withdrawing, without firing a shot, would produce an effect upon the
+minds of the Spaniards the reverse of that intended. I had sufficient
+experience in war to know that moral effect, even if the result of a
+degree of temerity, will not unfrequently supply the place of superior
+force.
+
+"The wind falling light, I did not venture on laying the flag-ship and
+the _Lautaro_ alongside the Spanish frigates, as I at first intended,
+but anchored with springs on our cables, abreast of the shipping,
+which was arranged in a half-moon of two lines, the rear-rank being
+judiciously disposed so as to cover the intervals of the ships in the
+front line. A dead calm succeeded, and we were for two hours exposed
+to a heavy fire from the batteries, in addition to that from the
+two frigates, the brigs _Pezuela_ and _Maypeu_, and seven or eight
+gunboats. Nevertheless the northern angle of one of the principal
+forts was silenced by our fire. As soon as a breeze sprang up, we
+weighed anchor, standing to and fro in front of the batteries,
+and returning their fire, until Captain Guise, who commanded the
+_Lautaro_, being severely wounded, that ship sheered off and never
+again came within range. As, from want of wind, or doubt of the
+result, neither the _San Martin_ nor the _Chacabuco_ had ever got
+within fire, the flag-ship was thus left alone, and I was reluctantly
+compelled to relinquish the attack. I withdrew to the island of San
+Lorenzo, about three miles distant from the forts; the Spaniards,
+though nearly quadruple our numbers, exclusive of their gunboats, not
+venturing to follow us.
+
+"The action having been commenced in a fog, the Spaniards imagined
+that all the Chilian vessels were engaged. They were not a little
+surprised, as it again cleared, to find that their own frigate, the
+quondam _Maria Isabella_, was almost their only opponent. So much were
+they dispirited by this discovery that, as soon as possible after the
+close of the contest, their ships-of-war were dismantled, the topmasts
+and spars being formed into a double boom across the anchorage, so as
+to prevent approach. The Spaniards were also previously unaware of my
+being in command of the Chilian squadron. On becoming acquainted with
+this fact, they bestowed upon me the not very complimentary title of
+'El Diablo,' by which I was afterwards known amongst them."
+
+Two hundred and forty years before, almost to a day, Sir Francis
+Drake—whom, of all English seamen, Lord Cochrane most resembled in
+chivalrous daring and in chivalrous hatred of oppression—had secretly
+led his little _Golden Hind_ into the harbour of Callao, and there
+despoiled a Spanish fleet of seventeen vessels; for which and for his
+other brave achievements he won the nickname of El Dracone. Drake the
+Dragon and Cochrane the Devil were kinsmen in noble hatred, and noble
+punishment, of Spanish wrong-doing.
+
+Retiring to San Lorenzo, after the fight in Callao Bay on the 28th
+of February, Lord Cochrane occupied the island, and from it blockaded
+Callao for five weeks. On the island he found thirty-seven Chilian
+soldiers, whom the Spaniards had made prisoners eight years before.
+"The unhappy men," he said, "had ever since been forced to work in
+chains under the supervision of a military guard—now prisoners in
+turn; their sleeping-place during the whole of this period being a
+filthy shed, in which they were every night chained by one leg to an
+iron bar." Yet worse, as he was informed by the poor fellows whom he
+freed from their misery, was the condition of some Chilian officers
+and seamen imprisoned in Lima, and so cruelly chained that the fetters
+had worn bare their ankles to the bone. He accordingly, under a flag
+of truce, sent to the Spanish Viceroy, Don Joaquim de la Pezuela,
+offering to exchange for these Chilian prisoners a larger number of
+Spaniards captured by himself and others. This proposal was bluntly
+refused by the Viceroy, who took occasion, in his letter, to avow
+his surprise that a British nobleman should come to fight for a
+rebel community "unacknowledged by all the powers of the globe."
+Lord Cochrane replied that "a British nobleman was a free man, and
+therefore had a right to assist any country which was endeavouring to
+re-establish the rights of aggrieved humanity." "I have," he added,
+"adopted the cause of Chili with the same freedom of judgment that I
+previously exercised when refusing the offer of an admiral's rank in
+Spain, made to me not long ago by the Spanish ambassador in London."
+
+Except in blockading Callao and repairing his ships little was done by
+Lord Cochrane during his stay at San Lorenzo. On the 1st of March he
+went into the harbour again and opened a destructive fire upon
+the Spanish gunboats, but as these soon sought shelter under the
+batteries, which the _O'Higgins_ and the _Lautaro_ were not strong
+enough to oppose, the demonstration did not last long. Unsuccessful
+also was an attempt made upon the batteries, with the aid of an
+explosion-vessel, on the 22nd of March. The explosion-vessel, when
+just within musket-range, was struck by a round shot, and foundered,
+thus spoiling the intended enterprise. But other plans fared better.
+
+At the beginning of April, Lord Cochrane left San Lorenzo and
+proceeded to Huacho, a few leagues north of Callao. Its inhabitants
+were for the most part in sympathy with the republican cause, and the
+Spanish garrison fled at almost the first gunshot, leaving a large
+quantity of government property and specie in the hands of the
+assailants. Much other treasure, which proved very serviceable to
+the impoverished Chilian exchequer, was captured by the little fleet
+during a two months' cruise about the coast of Peru, both north and
+south of Callao. Everywhere, too, the Spanish cause was weakened,
+and the natives were encouraged to share in the great work of South
+American rebellion against a tyranny of three centuries' duration. "It
+was my object," said Lord Cochrane, "to make friends of the Peruvian
+people, by adopting towards them a conciliatory course, and by strict
+care that none but Spanish property should be taken. Confidence was
+thus inspired, and the universal dissatisfaction with Spanish rule
+speedily became changed into an earnest desire to be freed from it."
+
+Having cruised about the Peruvian coast during April and May, Lord
+Cochrane returned to Valparaiso on the 16th of June. "The objects of
+the first expedition," he said, "had been fully accomplished, namely,
+to reconnoitre, with a view to future operations, when the squadron
+should be rendered efficient; but more especially to ascertain the
+inclinations of the Peruvians—a point of the first importance to
+Chili, as being obliged to be constantly on the alert for her own
+newly-acquired liberties so long as the Spaniards were in undisturbed
+possession of Peru. To the accomplishment of these objects had been
+superadded the restriction of the Spanish naval force to the
+shelter of the forts, the defeat of their military forces wherever
+encountered, and the capture of no inconsiderable amount of treasure."
+That was work enough to be done by four small ships, ill-manned and
+ill-provisioned, during a five months' absence from Valparaiso; and
+the Chilians were not ungrateful.
+
+Their gratitude, however, was not strong enough to make them zealous
+co-operators in his schemes for their benefit. Lord Cochrane was eager
+to start upon another expedition, in which he hoped for yet greater
+success. But for this were needed preparations which the poverty and
+mismanagement of the Chilian Government made almost impossible. He
+asked for a thousand troops with which to facilitate a second attack
+on Callao. This force, certainly not a large one, was promised, but,
+when he was about to embark, only ninety soldiers were ready, and even
+then a private subscription had to be raised for giving them decent
+clothing instead of the rags in which they appeared. For the assault
+on Callao, also, an ample supply of rockets was required. An engineer
+named Goldsack had gone from England to construct them, and, that
+there might be no stinting in the work, Lord Cochrane offered to
+surrender all his share of prize-money. The offer was refused; but, to
+save money, their manufacture was assigned to some Spanish prisoners,
+who showed their patriotism in making them so badly that, when tried,
+they were found utterly worthless. There were other instances of false
+economy, whereby Lord Cochrane's intended services to his Chilian
+employers were seriously hindered. The vessels were refitted, however,
+and a new one, an American-built corvette, named the _Independencia_,
+of twenty-eight guns, was added to the number.
+
+After nearly three months' stay at Valparaiso, he again set sail on
+the 12th of September, 1819. Admiral Blanco was his second in command,
+and his squadron consisted of the _O'Higgins_, the _San Martin_, the
+_Lautaro_, the _Independencia_, the _Galvarino_, the _Araucano_, and
+the _Puyrredon_, mounting two hundred and twenty guns in all. There
+were also two old vessels, to be used as fireships.
+
+The fleet entered Callao Roads on the 29th of September. On this
+occasion there was no subterfuge. On the 30th Lord Cochrane despatched
+a boat to Callao with a flag of truce, and a challenge to the Viceroy
+to send out his ships—nearly twice as strong as those of Chili in
+guns and men—for a fair fight in the open sea. The challenge was
+bluntly rejected, and an attack on the batteries and the ships in
+harbour was then planned. On the 1st of October, the smaller vessels
+reconnoitred the bay, and there was some fighting, in which the
+_Araucano_ was damaged. Throughout the night of the 2nd, a formidable
+attack was attempted, in which the main reliance was placed in the
+Goldsack rockets; but, in consequence of the treacherous handling
+of the Spanish soldiers who had filled them, they proved worse than
+useless, doing nearly as much injury to the men who fired them as
+to the enemy. Only one gunboat was sunk by the shells from a raft
+commanded by Major Miller, who also did some damage to the forts and
+shipping. On the night of the 4th, Lord Cochrane amused himself, while
+a fireship was being prepared, by causing a burning tar-barrel to be
+drifted with the tide towards the enemy's shipping. It was, in the
+darkness, supposed to be a much more formidable antagonist, and
+volleys of Spanish shot were spent upon it. On the following evening
+a fireship was despatched; but this also was a failure. A sudden calm
+prevented her progress. She was riddled through and through by the
+enemy's guns, and, rapidly gaining water in consequence, had to be
+fired so much too soon that she exploded before getting near enough to
+work any serious mischief among the Spanish shipping.
+
+By these misfortunes Lord Cochrane was altogether disheartened. The
+rockets, on which he had chiefly relied, had proved worthless, and,
+one fireship having been wasted, he did not care to risk the loss of
+the other. He found too that the Spaniards, profiting by the warning
+which he had previously given, had so strengthened their booms that it
+was quite impossible, with the small force at his command, to get at
+them or to reach the port. His store of provisions, also, was nearly
+exhausted, and the fresh supply promised from Chili had not arrived.
+He therefore reluctantly, for the time, abandoned his project for
+taking Callao.
+
+He continued to watch the port for a few weeks, however, hoping for
+some chance opportunity of injuring it; and, in the interval, sent
+three hundred and fifty soldiers and marines, under Lieutenant-Colonel
+Charles and Major Miller, in the _Lautaro_, the _Galvarino_, and the
+remaining fireship, commanded by Captain Guise, to attack Pisco and
+procure from it and the neighbourhood the requisite provisions. This
+was satisfactorily done; but the sickness of many of his men caused
+his further detention at Santa, whither he had gone from Callao. On
+the 21st of November the sick were sent to Valparaiso, in the charge
+of the _San Martin_, the _Independencia_, and the _Araucano_. With the
+remaining ships, the _O'Higgins_, the _Lautaro_, the _Galvarino_, and
+the _Puyrredon_, Lord Cochrane proceeded to the mouth of the River
+Guayaquil. There, on the 28th of the month, he captured two large
+Spanish vessels, one of twenty and the other of sixteen guns, laden
+with timber, and took possession of the village of Puna. At Guayaquil
+there was another delay of a fortnight, owing to a mutiny attempted
+by Captains Guise and Spry, whose treacherous disposition has already
+been mentioned.
+
+Not till the middle of December was he able to escape from the
+troubles brought upon him by others, and to return to work worthy of
+his great name and character. Then, however, sending one of his ships,
+with the prizes, to Valparaiso, and leaving two others to watch
+the Peruvian coast, he started, with only his flag-ship, upon an
+enterprise as brilliant in conception and execution as any in his
+whole eventful history. "The Chilian people," he said, "expected
+impossibilities; and I. had for some time been revolving in my mind
+a plan to achieve one which should gratify them, and allay my own
+wounded feelings. I had now only one ship, so that there were no
+other inclinations to consult; and I felt quite sure of Major Miller's
+concurrence where there was any fighting to be done. My design was,
+with the flag-ship alone, to capture by a _coup de main_ the
+numerous forts and garrison of Valdivia, a fortress previously deemed
+impregnable, and thus to counteract the disappointment which would
+ensue in Chili from our want of success at Callao. The enterprise
+was a desperate one; nevertheless, I was not about to do anything
+desperate, having resolved that, unless I was fully satisfied as to
+its practicability, I would not attempt it. Rashness, though often
+imputed to me, forms no part of my composition. There is a rashness
+without calculation of consequences; but with that calculation
+well-founded, it is no longer rashness. And thus, now that I was
+unfettered by people who did not second my operations as they ought
+to have done, I made up my mind to take Valdivia, if the attempt came
+within the scope of my calculations."
+
+Valdivia was the stronghold and centre of Spanish attack upon Chili
+from the south, just as were Lima and Callao on the north. To reach it
+Lord Cochrane had to sail northwards along the coast of Peru and Chili
+to some distance below Valparaiso. This he did without loss of time,
+to work out an excellent strategy which will be best understood from
+his own report of it.
+
+"The first step," he said, "clearly was to reconnoitre Valdivia. The
+flag-ship arrived on the 18th of January, 1820, under Spanish colours,
+and made a signal for a pilot, who—as the Spaniards mistook the
+_O'Higgins_ for a ship of their own—promptly came off, together with
+a complimentary retinue of an officer and four soldiers, all of whom
+were made prisoners as soon as they came on board. The pilot was
+ordered to take us into the channels leading to the forts, whilst the
+officer and his men, knowing there was little chance of their finding
+their way on shore again, thought it most conducive to their interests
+to supply all the information demanded, the result being increased
+confidence on my part as to the possibility of a successful attack.
+Amongst other information obtained was the expected arrival of the
+Spanish brig _Potrillo_, with money on board for the payment of the
+garrison.
+
+"As we were busily employing ourselves in inspecting the channels, the
+officer commanding the garrison began to suspect that our object might
+not altogether be pacific, a suspicion which was confirmed by the
+detention of his officer. Suddenly a heavy fire was opened upon
+us from the various forts, to which we did not reply, but, our
+reconnoissance being now complete, withdrew beyond its reach. Two days
+were occupied in reconnoitring. On the third day the _Potrillo_ hove
+in sight, and she, being also deceived by our Spanish colours, was
+captured without a shot, twenty thousand dollars and some important
+despatches being found on board."
+
+That first business having been satisfactorily achieved, Lord Cochrane
+proceeded to Concepcion, there to ask and obtain from its Chilian
+governor, General Freire, a force of two hundred and fifty soldiers,
+under Major Beauchef, a French volunteer. In Talcahuano Bay, moreover,
+he found a Chilian schooner, the _Montezuma_, and a Brazilian brig,
+the _Intrepido_. He attached the former to his service, and accepted
+the volunteered aid of the latter. With this augmented but still
+insignificant force, very defective in some important respects, he
+returned to Valdivia. "The flag-ship," he said, "had only two naval
+officers on board, one of these being under arrest for disobedience
+of orders, whilst the other was incapable of performing the duty of
+lieutenant; so that I had to act as admiral, captain and lieutenant,
+taking my turn in the watch—or rather being constantly on the
+watch—as the only available officer was so incompetent."
+
+"We sailed from Talcahuano on the 25th of January," the narrative
+proceeds, "when I communicated my intentions to the military officers,
+who displayed great eagerness in the cause—alone questioning their
+success from motives of prudence. On my explaining to them that, if
+unexpected projects are energetically put in execution, they almost
+invariably succeed in spite of odds, they willingly entered into my
+plans.
+
+"On the night of the 29th, we were off the island of Quiriquina, in
+a dead calm. From excessive fatigue in the execution of subordinate
+duties, I had lain down to rest, leaving the ship in charge of
+the lieutenant, who took advantage of my absence to retire also,
+surrendering the watch to the care of a midshipman, who fell asleep.
+Knowing our dangerous position, I had left strict orders that I was
+to be called the moment a breeze sprang up; but these orders were
+neglected. A sudden wind took the ship unawares, and the midshipman,
+in attempting to bring her round, ran her upon the sharp edge of a
+rock, where she lay beating, suspended, as it were, upon her keel;
+and, had the swell increased, she must inevitably have gone to pieces.
+
+"We were forty miles from the mainland, the brig and schooner being
+both out of sight. The first impulse, both of officers and crew, was
+to abandon the ship, but, as we had six hundred men on board, whilst
+not more than a hundred and fifty could have entered the boats, this
+would have been but a scramble for life. Pointing out to the men that
+those who escaped could only reach the coast of Arauco, where they
+would meet nothing but torture and inevitable death at the hands of
+the Indians, I with some difficulty got them to adopt the alternative
+of attempting to save the ship. The first sounding gave five feet
+of water in the hold, and the pumps were entirely out of order. Our
+carpenter, who was only one by name, was incompetent to repair them;
+but, having myself some skill in carpentry, I took off my coat, and
+by midnight, got them into working order, the water in the meanwhile
+gaining on us, though the whole crew were engaged in baling it out
+with buckets.
+
+"To our great delight, the leak did not increase, upon which I got
+out the stream anchor and commenced heaving off the ship; the officers
+clamoured first to ascertain the extent of the leak; but this I
+expressly forbade, as calculated to damp the energy of the men,
+whilst, as we now gained on the leak, there was no doubt the ship
+would swim as far as Valdivia, which was the chief point to be
+regarded, the capture of the fortress being my object, after which the
+ship might be repaired at leisure. As there was no lack of physical
+force on board, she was at length floated; but the powder magazine
+having been under water, the ammunition of every kind, except a little
+upon deck and in the cartouche-boxes of the troops, was rendered
+unserviceable; though about this I cared little, as it involved the
+necessity of using the bayonet in our anticipated attack; and to
+facing this weapon the Spaniards had, in every case, evinced a rooted
+aversion."
+
+The _O'Higgins_, thus bravely saved from wreck, was soon joined by the
+_Intrepido_ and the _Montezuma_, and these vessels being now most fit
+for action, as many men as possible were transferred to them, and the
+_O'Higgins_ was ordered to stand out to sea, only to be made use of in
+case of need. The _Montezuma_ now became the flag-ship, and with her
+and her consort Lord Cochrane sailed into Valdivia Harbour on the 2nd
+of February.
+
+"The fortifications of Valdivia," he said, "are placed on both sides
+of a channel three quarters of a mile in width, and command the
+entrance, anchorage, and river leading to the town, crossing their
+fire in all directions so effectually that, with proper caution on the
+part of the garrison, no ship could enter without suffering severely,
+while she would be equally exposed at anchor. The principal forts on
+the western shore are placed in the following order:—El Ingles, San
+Carlos, Amargos, Chorocomayo, Alto, and Corral Castle. Those on the
+eastern side are Niebla, directly opposite Amargos, and Piojo; whilst
+on the island of Manzanera is a strong fort mounted with guns of large
+calibre, commanding the whole range of the entrance channel. These
+forts and a few others, fifteen in all, would render the place in the
+hands of a skilful garrison almost impregnable, the shores on
+which they stand being inaccessible by reason of the surf, with the
+exception of a small landing-place at Fort Ingles.
+
+"It was to this landing-place that we first directed our attention,
+anchoring the brig and schooner off the guns of Fort Ingles on the
+afternoon of February the 3rd, amidst a swell which rendered immediate
+disembarkation impracticable. The troops were carefully kept below;
+and, to avert the suspicion of the Spaniards, we had trumped up a
+story of our having just arrived from Cadiz and being in want of a
+pilot. They told us to send a boat for one. To this we replied that
+our boats had been washed away in the passage round Cape Horn.
+Not being quite satisfied, they began to assemble troops at the
+landing-place, firing alarm-guns, and rapidly bringing up the
+garrisons of the western forts to Fort Ingles, but not molesting us.
+
+"Unfortunately for the credit of the story about the loss of the
+boats, which were at the time carefully concealed under the lee of the
+vessels, one drifted astern, so that our object became apparent, and
+the guns of Fort Ingles, under which we lay, forthwith opened upon
+us, the first shots passing through the sides of the _Intrepido_ and
+killing two men, so that it became necessary to land in spite of the
+swell. We had only two launches and a gig. I directed the operation in
+the gig, whilst Major Miller, with forty-four marines, pushed off in
+the first launch, under the fire of the party at the landing-place,
+on to which they soon leaped, driving the Spaniards before them at
+the point of the bayonet. The second launch then pushed off from the
+_Intrepido_, while the other was returning; and in this way, in less
+than an hour, three hundred men had made good their footing on shore.
+
+"The most difficult task, the capture of the forts, was to come. The
+only way in which the first, Fort Ingles, could be approached, was
+by a precipitous path, along which the men could only pass in single
+file, the fort itself being inaccessible except by a ladder, which the
+enemy, after being routed by Major Miller, had drawn up.
+
+"As soon as it was dark, a picked party, under the guidance of one
+of the Spanish prisoners, silently advanced to the attack. This party
+having taken up its position, the main body moved forward, cheering
+and firing in the air, to intimate to the Spaniards that their
+chief reliance was on the bayonet. The enemy, meanwhile, kept up
+an incessant fire of artillery and musketry in the direction of the
+shouts, but without effect, as no aim could be taken in the dark.
+
+"Whilst the patriots were thus noisily advancing, a gallant young
+officer, Ensign Vidal, got under the inland flank of the fort, and,
+with a few men, contrived to tear up some pallisades, by which a
+bridge was made across the ditch. In that way he and his small party
+entered and formed noiselessly under cover of some branches of trees,
+while the garrison, numbering about eight hundred soldiers, were
+directing their whole attention in an opposite direction.
+
+"A volley from Vidal's party convinced the Spaniards that they had
+been taken in flank. Without waiting to ascertain the number of those
+who had outflanked them, they instantly took to flight, filling with a
+like panic a column of three hundred men drawn up behind the fort.
+The Chilians, who were now well up, bayoneted them by dozens as they
+attempted to gain the forts; and when the forts were opened to receive
+them the patriots entered at the same time, and thus drove them from
+fort to fort into the Castle of Corral, together with two hundred more
+who had abandoned some guns advantageously placed on a height at Fort
+Chorocomayo. The Corral was stormed with equal rapidity, a number
+of the enemy escaping in boats to Valdivia, others plunging into the
+forest. Upwards of a hundred fell into our hands, and on the following
+morning the like number were found to have been bayoneted. Our loss
+was seven men killed and nineteen wounded.
+
+"On the 5th, the _Intrepido_ and _Montezuma_, which had been left near
+Fort Ingles, entered the harbour, being fired at in their passage by
+Fort Niebla, on the eastern shore. On their coming to an anchor at the
+Corral, two hundred men were again embarked to attack Forts Niebla,
+Carbonero, and Piojo. The _O'Higgins_ also appeared in sight off the
+mouth of the harbour. The Spaniards thereupon summarily abandoned the
+forts on the eastern side; no doubt judging that, as the western forts
+had been captured without the aid of the frigate, they had, now that
+she had arrived, no chance of successfully defending them.
+
+"On the 6th, the troops were again embarked to pursue the flying
+garrison up the river, when we received a flag of truce, informing us
+that the enemy had abandoned the town, after plundering the private
+houses and magazines, and with the governor, Colonel Montoya, had
+fled in the direction of Chiloe. The booty which fell into our
+hands, exclusive of the value of the forts and public buildings, was
+considerable, Valdivia being the chief military depôt in the southern
+side of the continent. Amongst the military stores were upwards of 50
+tons of gunpowder, 10,000 cannon-shot, 170,000 musket-cartridges, a
+large quantity of small arms, 128 guns, of which 53 were brass and the
+remainder iron, the ship _Dolores_ —afterwards sold at Valparaiso for
+twenty thousand dollars—with public stores sold for the like value,
+and plate, of which General Sanchez had previously stripped the
+churches of Concepcion, valued at sixteen thousand dollars."
+Those prizes compensated over and over again for the loss of the
+_Intrepido_, which grounded in the channel, and the injuries done to
+the _O'Higgins_ on her way to Valdivia.
+
+But the value of Lord Cochrane's capture of this stronghold was not to
+be counted in money. By its daring conception and easy completion
+the Spaniards, besides losing their great southern starting-point for
+attacks on Chili and the other states that were fighting for their
+freedom, lost heart, to a great extent, in their whole South American
+warfare. They saw that their insurgent colonists had now found a
+champion too bold, too cautious, too honest, and too prosperous for
+them any longer to hope that they could succeed in their efforts to
+win back the dependencies which were shaking off the thraldom of three
+centuries.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII.
+
+
+LORD COCHRANE'S RETURN TO VALPARAISO.—HIS ILL-TREATMENT BY
+THE CHILIAN SENATE.—THE THIRD EXPEDITION TO PERU.—GENERAL SAN
+MARTIN.—THE CAPTURE OF THE "ESMERALDA," AND ITS ISSUE.—LORD
+COCHRANE'S SUBSEQUENT WORK.—SAN MARTIN'S TREACHERY.—HIS
+ASSUMPTION OF THE PROTECTORATE OF PERU.—HIS BASE PROPOSALS TO LORD
+COCHRANE.—LORD COCHRANE'S CONDEMNATION OF THEM.—THE TROUBLES OF THE
+CHILIAN SQUADRON.—LORD COCHRANE'S SEIZURE OF TREASURE AT ANCON,
+AND EMPLOYMENT OF IT IN PAYING HIS OFFICERS AND MEN.—HIS STAY AT
+GUAYAQUIL.—THE ADVANTAGES OF FREE TRADE.—LORD COCHRANE'S
+CRUISE ALONG THE MEXICAN COAST IN SEARCH OF THE REMAINING SPANISH
+FRIGATES.—THEIR ANNEXATION BY PERU.—LORD COCHRANE'S LAST VISIT TO
+CALLAO.
+
+
+[1820-1822.]
+
+Lord Cochrane returned to Valparaiso on the 27th of February, 1820.
+By General O'Higgins, the Supreme Director, and by the populace he was
+enthusiastically received. But Zenteno, the Minister of Marine, and
+other members of the Government, jealous of the fresh renown which he
+had won by his conquest of Valdivia, showed their jealousy in various
+offensive ways.
+
+In anticipation of his failure they had prepared an elaborate charge
+of insubordination, in that he had not come back direct from
+Callao. Now that he had triumphed, they sought at first to have him
+reprimanded for attempting so hazardous an exploit, and afterwards
+to rob him of his due on the ground that his achievement was
+insignificant and valueless. When they were compelled by the voice of
+the people to declare publicly that "the capture of Valdivia was the
+happy result of an admirably-arranged plan and of the most daring
+execution," they refused to award either to him or to his comrades any
+other recompense than was contained in the verbal compliment; and,
+on his refusing to give up his prizes until the seamen had been
+paid their arrears of wages, he was threatened with prosecution for
+detention of the national property.
+
+The threat was impotent, as the people of Chili would not for a moment
+have permitted such an indignity to their champion. But so irritating
+were this and other attempted persecutions to Lord Cochrane that, on
+the 14th of May, he tendered to the Supreme Director his resignation
+of service under the Chilian Government. That proposal was, of course,
+rejected; but with the rejection came a promise of better treatment.
+The seamen were paid in July, and the Valdivian prize-money was
+nominally awarded. Lord Cochrane's share amounted to 67,000 dollars,
+and to this was added a grant of land at Rio Clara. But the money was
+never paid, and the estate was forcibly seized a few years afterwards.
+
+Other annoyances, which need not here be detailed, were offered to
+Lord Cochrane, and thus six months were wasted by Zenteno and his
+associates in the Chilian senate. "The senate," said Lord Cochrane,
+"was an anomaly in state government. It consisted of five members,
+whose functions were to remain only during the first struggles of the
+country for independence; but this body had now assumed a permanent
+right to dictatorial control, whilst there was no appeal from their
+arbitrary conduct, except to themselves. They arrogated the title
+of 'Most Excellent,' whilst the Supreme Director was simply 'His
+Excellency;' his position, though nominally head of the executive,
+being really that of mouthpiece to the senate, which, assuming all
+power, deprived the Executive Government of its legitimate influence,
+so that no armament could be equipped, no public work undertaken,
+no troops raised, and no taxes levied, except by the consent of this
+irresponsible body. For such a clique the plain, simple good sense
+of the Supreme Director was no match. He was led to believe that a
+crooked policy was a necessary evil of government, and, as such a
+policy was adverse to his own nature, he was the more easily induced
+to surrender its administration to others who were free from his
+conscientious principles." Those sentences explain the treatment to
+which, now and afterwards, Lord Cochrane was subjected.
+
+He was allowed, however, to do further excellent service to the nation
+which had already begun to reward him with nothing but ingratitude. As
+soon as the Chilian Government could turn from its spiteful exercise
+to its proper duty of consolidating the independence of the insurgents
+from Spanish dominion, it was resolved to despatch as strong a force
+as could be raised for another and more formidable expedition to
+Peru, whereby at the same time the Peruvians should be freed from the
+tyranny by which they were still oppressed, and the Chilians should be
+rid of the constant danger that they incurred from the presence of a
+Spanish army in Lima, Callao, and other garrisons, ready to bear down
+upon them again and again, as it had often done before. In 1819 Lord
+Cochrane had vainly asked for a suitable land force with which to aid
+his attack upon Callao. It was now resolved to organize a Liberating
+Army, after the fashion of that with which Bolivar had nobly scoured
+the northern districts of South America, and to place it under the
+direction of General San Martin, in co-operation with whom Lord
+Cochrane was to pursue his work as chief admiral of the fleet.
+San Martin had fought worthily in La Plata, and he had earned the
+gratitude of the Chilians by winning back their freedom in conjunction
+with O'Higgins in 1817. Vanity and ambition, however, had since
+unhinged him, and he now proved himself a champion of liberty very
+inferior, both in prowess and in honesty, to Bolivar.
+
+His army, numbering four thousand two hundred men, was collected by
+the 21st of August, and on that day it was embarked at Valparaiso in
+the whole Chilian squadron. Lord Cochrane proposed to go at once to
+Chilca, the nearest point both to Lima and to Callao. San Martin,
+however, decided upon Pisco as a safer landing-place, and there the
+troops were deposited on the 8th of September. For fifty days they
+were detained there, and the fleet was forced to share their idleness,
+capturing only a few passing merchantmen. On the 28th of October they
+were re-embarked, and Lord Cochrane again urged a vigorous attack on
+the capital and its port. Again he was thwarted by San Martin, who
+requested to be landed at Ancon, considerably to the north of Callao,
+and as unsuitable a halting-place as was the southerly town of Pisco.
+Lord Cochrane had to comply; but he bethought him of a plan for
+achieving a great work, in spite of San Martin. Sending the main body
+of his fleet to Ancon with the troops, no the 20th, he retained
+the _O'Higgins_, the _Independencia_, and the _Lautaro_, with the
+professed object of merely blockading Callao at a safe distance.
+"The fact was," he said, "that, annoyed, in common with the whole
+expedition, at this irresolution on the part of General San Martin, I
+determined that the means of Chili, furnished with great difficulty,
+should not be wholly wasted, without some attempt at accomplishing the
+object of the expedition. I accordingly formed a plan of attack with
+the three ships which I had kept back, though, being apprehensive
+that my design would be opposed by General San Martin, I had not
+even mentioned to him my intentions. This design was, to cut out the
+_Esmeralda_ frigate from under the fortifications, and also to get
+possession of another ship, on board of which we had learned that a
+million of dollars was embarked."
+
+The plan was certainly a bold one. The _Esmeralda_, of forty-four
+guns, was the finest Spanish ship in the Pacific Ocean. Now especially
+well armed and manned, in readiness for any work that had to be done,
+she was lying in Callao Harbour, protected by three hundred pieces
+of artillery on shore and by a strong boom with chain moorings,
+by twenty-seven gunboats and several armed block-ships. These
+considerations, however, only induced Lord Cochrane to proceed
+cautiously upon his enterprise. Three days were spent in preparations,
+the purpose of which was known only to himself and to his chief
+officers. On the afternoon of the 5th of November he issued this
+proclamation:—"Marines and seamen,—This night we shall give the
+enemy a mortal blow. To-morrow you will present yourself proudly
+before Callao, and all your comrades will envy your good fortune.
+One hour of courage and resolution is all that is required for you
+to triumph. Remember that you have conquered in Valdivia, and have no
+fear of those who have hitherto fled from you. The value of all the
+vessels captured in Callao will be yours, and the same reward will be
+distributed amongst you as has been offered by the Spaniards in Lima
+to those who should capture any of the Chilian squadron. The moment of
+glory is approaching. I hope that the Chilians will fight as they have
+been accustomed to do, and that the English will act as they have ever
+done at home and abroad."
+
+A request was made for volunteers, and the whole body of seamen and
+marines on board the three ships offered to follow Lord Cochrane
+wherever he might lead. This was more than he wanted. "A hundred
+and sixty seamen and eighty marines," said Lord Cochrane, whose own
+narrative of the sequel will best describe it, "were placed, after
+dark, in fourteen boats alongside the flag-ship, each man, armed with
+cutlass and pistol, being, for distinction's sake, dressed in white,
+with a blue band on the left arm. The Spaniards, I expected, would
+be off their guard, and consider themselves safe from attack for that
+night, since, by way of ruse, the other ships had been sent out of the
+bay under the charge of Captain Foster, as though in pursuit of some
+vessels in the offing.
+
+"At ten o'clock all was in readiness, the boats being formed in two
+divisions, the first commanded by Flag-Captain Crosbie and the second
+by Captain Gruise,—my boat leading. The strictest silence and the
+exclusive use of cutlasses were enjoined; so that, as the oars were
+muffled and the night was dark, the enemy had not the least suspicion
+of the impending attack.
+
+"It was just upon midnight when we neared the small opening left in
+the boom, our plan being well-nigh frustrated by the vigilance of a
+guard-boat upon which my launch had unluckily stumbled. The challenge
+was given, upon which, in an undertone, I threatened the occupants of
+the boat with instant death if they made the least alarm. No reply
+was made to the threat, and in a few minutes our gallant fellows
+were alongside the frigate in line, boarding at several points
+simultaneously. The Spaniards were completely taken by surprise,
+the whole, with the exception of the sentries, being asleep at their
+quarters; and great was the havoc made amongst them by the Chilian
+cutlasses whilst they were recovering themselves. Retreating to the
+forecastle, they there made a gallant stand, and it was not until the
+third charge that the position was carried. The fight was for a short
+time renewed on the quarterdeck, where the Spanish marines fell to
+a man, the rest of the enemy leaping overboard and into the hold to
+escape slaughter.
+
+"On boarding the ship by the main-chains, I was knocked back by the
+sentry's musket, and falling on the tholl-pin of the boat, it entered
+my back near the spine, inflicting a severe injury, which caused me
+many years of subsequent suffering. Immediately regaining my footing,
+I reascended the side, and, when on deck, was shot through the thigh.
+But, binding a handkerchief tightly round the wound, I managed, though
+with great difficulty, to direct the contest to its close.
+
+"The whole affair, from beginning to end, occupied only a quarter of
+an hour, our loss being eleven killed and thirty wounded, whilst that
+of the Spaniards was a hundred and sixty, many of whom fell under
+the cutlasses of the Chilians before they could stand to their arms.
+Greater bravery I never saw displayed than by our gallant fellows.
+Before boarding, the duties of all had been appointed, and a party
+was told off to take possession of the tops. We had not been on deck
+a minute, when I hailed the foretop, and was instantly answered by our
+own men, an equally prompt answer being returned from the frigate's
+main-top. No British man-of-war's crew could have excelled this minute
+attention to orders.
+
+"The uproar speedily alarmed the garrison, who, hastening to their
+guns, opened fire on their own frigate, thus paying us the compliment
+of having taken it; though, even in this case, their own men must
+still have been on board, so that firing on them was a wanton
+proceeding. Several Spaniards were killed or wounded by the shot of
+the fortress. Amongst the wounded was Captain Coig, the commander of
+the _Esmeralda_, who, after he was made prisoner, received a severe
+contusion by a shot from his own party.
+
+"The fire from the fortress was, however, neutralized by a successful
+expedient. There were two foreign ships of war present during the
+contest, the United States frigate _Macedonian_ and the British
+frigate _Hyperion_ ; and these, as had been previously agreed upon with
+the Spanish authorities in case of a night attack, hoisted peculiar
+lights as signals, to prevent being fired upon. This contingency being
+provided for by us, as soon as the fortress commenced its fire on the
+_Esmeralda_, we also ran up similar lights, so that the garrison did
+not know which vessel to fire at. The _Hyperion_ and _Macedonian_ were several times struck, while the _Esmeralda_ was comparatively
+untouched. Upon this the neutral vessels cut their cables and moved
+away. Contrary to my orders, Captain Gruise then cut the _Esmeralda's_ cables also, so that there was nothing to be done but to loose her
+topsails and follow. The fortress thereupon ceased its fire.
+
+"I had distinctly ordered that the cables of the _Esmeralda_ were not
+to be cut, but that after taking her, the force was to capture the
+_Maypeu_, a brig of war previously taken from Chili, and then to
+attack and cut adrift every ship near, there being plenty of time
+before us. I had no doubt that, when the _Esmeralda_ was taken, the
+Spaniards would desert the other ships as fast as their boats would
+permit them, so that the whole might have been either captured or
+burnt. To this end all my previous plans had been arranged; but, on
+my being placed _hors de combat_ by my wounds, Captain Gruise, on whom
+the command of the prize devolved, chose to interpose his own judgment
+and content himself with the _Esmeralda_ alone; the reason assigned
+being that the English had broken into her spirit-room and were
+getting drunk, whilst the Chilians were disorganized by plundering.
+It was a great mistake. If we could capture the _Esmeralda_ with her
+picked and well-appointed crew, there would have been little or no
+difficulty in cutting the other ships adrift in succession. It would
+only have been the rout of Valdivia over again, chasing the enemy,
+without loss, from ship to ship instead of from fort to fort."
+
+Lord Cochrane's exploit, however, though less complete than he had
+intended, was as successful in its issue as it was brilliant in its
+achievement. "This loss of the _Esmeralda_," wrote Captain Basil Hall,
+then commanding a British war-ship in South American waters, "was a
+death-blow to the Spanish naval force in that quarter of the world;
+for, although there were still two Spanish frigates and some smaller
+vessels in the Pacific, they never afterwards ventured to show
+themselves, but left Lord Cochrane undisputed master of the coast."
+The speedy liberation of Peru was its direct consequence, although
+that good work was seriously impaired by the continued and increasing
+misconduct of General San Martin, inducing troubles, of which Lord
+Cochrane received his full share.
+
+In the first burst of his enthusiasm at the intelligence of Lord
+Cochrane's action, San Martin was generous for once. "The importance
+of the service you have rendered to the country, my lord," he wrote on
+the 10th of November, "by the capture of the frigate _Esmeralda_, and
+the brilliant manner in which you conducted the gallant officers and
+seamen under your orders to accomplish that noble enterprise, have
+augmented the gratitude due to your former services by the Government,
+as well as that of all interested in the public welfare and in your
+fame. All those who participated in the risks and glory of the deed
+also deserve well of their countrymen; and I have the satisfaction to
+be the medium of transmitting the sentiments of admiration which such
+transcendent success has excited in the chiefs of the army under my
+command." "It is impossible for me to eulogize in proper language,"
+he also wrote to the Chilian administration, "the daring enterprise
+of the 5th of November, by which Lord Cochrane has decided the
+superiority of our naval forces, augmented the splendour and power of
+Chili, and secured the success of this campaign."
+
+A few days later, however, San Martin wrote in very different terms.
+"Before the General-in-Chief left the Vice-Admiral of the squadron,"
+he said, in a bulletin to the army, "they agreed on the execution of
+a memorable project, sufficient to astonish intrepidity itself, and to
+make the history of the liberating expedition of Peru eternal." "This
+glory," he added, "was reserved for the Liberating Army, whose efforts
+have snatched the victims of tyranny from its hands." Thus impudently
+did he arrogate to himself a share, at any rate, in the initiation of
+a project which Lord Cochrane, knowing that he would oppose it, had
+purposely kept secret from him, and assign the whole merit of its
+completion to the army which his vacillation and incompetence were
+holding in unwelcome inactivity.
+
+Lord Cochrane was too much accustomed to personal injustice, however,
+to be very greatly troubled by that fresh indignity. It was a far
+heavier trouble to him that his first triumph was not allowed to be
+supplemented by prompt completion of the work on which, and not on
+any individual aggrandisement, his heart was set—the establishment of
+Peruvian as well as Chilian freedom.
+
+San Martin, having done nothing hitherto but allow his army to waste
+its strength and squander its resources, first at Pisco and afterwards
+at Ancon, now fixed upon Huacha as another loitering-place. Thither
+Lord Cochrane had to convey it, before he was permitted to resume the
+blockade of Callao. This blockade lasted, though not all the while
+under his personal direction, for eight months.
+
+"Several attempts were now made," said Lord Cochrane, with reference
+to the first few weeks of the blockade, "to entice the remaining
+Spanish naval force from their shelter under the batteries by placing
+the _Esmeralda_ apparently within reach, and the flagship herself in
+situations of some danger. One day I carried her through an intricate
+strait called the Boqueron, in which nothing beyond a fifty-ton
+schooner was ever seen. The Spaniards, expecting every moment to see
+the ship strike, manned their gunboats, ready to attack as soon as she
+was aground; of which there was little danger, for we had found, and
+buoyed off with small bits of wood invisible to the enemy, a channel
+through which a vessel could pass without much difficulty. At another
+time, the Esmeralda being in a more than usually tempting position,
+the Spanish gunboats ventured out in the hope of recapturing her, and
+for an hour maintained a smart fire; but on seeing the _O'Higgins_ manoeuvring to cut them off, they precipitately retreated."
+
+In ways like those the Spaniards were locked in, and harassed, in
+Callao Bay. Good result came in the steady weakening of the Spanish
+cause. On the 3rd of December, six hundred and fifty soldiers deserted
+to the Chilian army. On the 8th they were followed by forty officers;
+and after that hardly a day passed without some important defections
+to the patriot force.'
+
+Unfortunately, however, there was weakness also among the patriots.
+San Martin, idle himself, determined to profit by the advantages,
+direct and indirect, which Lord Cochrane's prowess had secured and
+was securing. It began to be no secret that, as soon as Peru was
+freed from the Spanish yoke, he proposed to subject it to a military
+despotism of his own. This being resented by Lord Cochrane, who on
+other grounds could have little sympathy or respect for his associate,
+coolness arose between the leaders. Lord Cochrane, anxious to do
+some more important work, if only a few troops might be allowed to
+co-operate with his sailors, was forced to share some of San Martin's
+inactivity. In March, 1821, he offered, if two thousand soldiers were
+assigned to him, to capture Lima; and when this offer was rejected, he
+declared himself willing to undertake the work with half the number of
+men. With difficulty he at last obtained a force of six hundred; and
+by them and the fleet nearly all the subsequent fighting in Peru
+was done. Lord Cochrane did not venture upon a direct assault on the
+capital with so small an army; but he used it vigorously from point to
+point on the coast, between Callao and Arica, and thus compelled the
+capitulation of Lima on the 6th of July.
+
+Again, as heretofore, he was thanked in the first moment of triumph,
+to be slighted at leisure. Lord Cochrane, on entering the city, was
+welcomed as the great deliverer of Peru: the medals distributed on
+the 28th of July—the day on which Peru's independence was
+proclaimed—testified that the honour was due to General San Martin
+and his Liberating Army. That, however, was only part of a policy long
+before devised. "It is now became evident to me," said Lord Cochrane,
+"that the army had been kept inert for the purpose of preserving it
+entire to further the ambitious views of the General, and that, with
+the whole force now at Lima, the inhabitants were completely at the
+mercy of their pretended liberator, but in reality their conqueror."
+
+With that policy, however much he reprobated it, Lord Cochrane wisely
+judged that it was not for him to quarrel. "As the existence of this
+self-constituted authority," he said, "was no less at variance with
+the institutions of the Chilian Republic than with its solemn
+promises to the Peruvians, I hoisted my flag on board the _O'Higgins_,
+determined to adhere solely to the interests of Chili; but not
+interfering in any way with General San Martin's proceedings till they
+interfered with me in my capacity as Commander-in-Chief of the Chilian
+navy." He was not, therefore, in Lima on the 3rd of August, when San
+Martin issued a proclamation declaring himself Protector of Peru, and
+appointing three of his creatures as his Ministers of State. Of the
+way in which he became acquainted of this violent and lawless measure,
+a precise description has been given by an eye-witness, Mr. W.B.
+Stevenson.
+
+"On the following morning, the 4th of August," he says, "Lord
+Cochrane, uninformed of the change which had taken place in the
+title of San Martin, visited the palace, and began to beg the
+General-in-Chief to propose some means for the payment of the seamen
+who had served their time and fulfilled their contract. To this San
+Martin answered that 'he would never pay the Chilian squadron unless
+it was sold to Peru, and then the payment should be considered part of
+the purchase-money.' Lord Cochrane replied that 'by such a transaction
+the squadron of Chili would be transferred to Peru by merely paying
+what was due to the officers and crews for services done to that
+State.' San Martin knit his brows and, turning to his ministers,
+Garcia and Monteagudo, ordered them to retire; to which his lordship
+objected, stating that, 'as he was not master of the Spanish language,
+he wished them to remain as interpreters, being fearful that some
+expression, not rightly understood, might be considered offensive.'
+San Martin now turned round to the Admiral and said, 'Are you aware,
+my lord, that I am Protector of Peru?' 'No,' said his lordship. 'I
+ordered my secretaries to inform you of it,' returned San Martin.
+'That is now unnecessary, for you have personally informed me,' said
+his lordship: 'I hope that the friendship which has existed between
+General San Martin and myself will continue to exist between the
+Protector of Peru and myself.' San Martin then, rubbing his hands,
+said, 'I have only to say that I am Protector of Peru.' The manner
+in which this last sentence was expressed roused the Admiral, who,
+advancing, said, 'Then it becomes me, as senior officer of Chili,
+and consequently the representative of the nation, to request the
+fulfilment of all the promises made to Chili and the squadron; but
+first, and principally, the squadron.' San Martin returned, 'Chili!
+Chili! I will never pay a single real to Chili! As to the squadron,
+you may take it where you please, and go where you choose. A couple
+of schooners are quite enough for me.' On hearing this Garcia left the
+room, and Monteagudo walked to the balcony. San Martin paced the room
+for a short time, and, turning to his lordship, said, 'Forget, my
+lord, what is past.' The Admiral replied, 'I will when I can,' and
+immediately left the palace.[A] "One thing has been omitted in
+the preceding narrative," said Lord Cochrane. "General San Martin,
+following me to the staircase, had the temerity to propose to me
+to follow his example—namely, to break faith with the Chilian
+Government, to which we had both sworn, to abandon the squadron to his
+interests, and to accept the higher grade of First Admiral of Peru.
+I need scarcely say that a proposition so dishonourable was declined;
+when, in a tone of irritation, he declared that 'he would neither give
+the seamen their arrears of pay nor the gratuity he had promised.'"
+
+[Footnote A: W.B. Stevenson, "Twenty Years' Residence in South
+America." 1825.]
+
+Lord Cochrane lost no time in returning to his flagship in Callao
+Roads. Thence, however, on the 7th of August, he wrote a letter to San
+Martin, couched in terms as temperate and persuasive as he could bring
+himself to use. "My dear General," he there said, "I address you
+for the last time under your late designation, being aware that the
+liberty I may take as a friend might not be deemed decorous to you
+under the title of Protector, for I shall not, with a gentleman of
+your understanding, take into account, as a motive for abstaining to
+speak truth, any chance of your resentment. Nay, were I certain that
+such would be the effect of this letter, I would nevertheless perform
+such an act of friendship, in repayment of the support you gave me
+at a time when the basest plots were laid for my dismissal from the
+Chilian service. Permit me to give you the experience of eleven years,
+during which I sat in the first senate in the world, and to say what I
+anticipate on the one hand, and what I fear on the other—nay, what
+I foresee. You have it in your power to be the Napoleon of South
+America; but you have also the power to choose your course, and if the
+first steps are false, the eminence on which you stand will, as though
+from the brink of a precipice, make your fall the more heavy and the
+more certain. The real strength of government is public opinion. What
+would the world say, were the Protector of Peru, as his first act, to
+cancel the bonds of San Martin, even though gratitude may be a private
+and not a public virtue? What would they say, were the Protector to
+refuse to pay the expense of that expedition which placed him in his
+present elevated situation? What would they say, were it promulgated
+to the world that he intended not even to remunerate those employed
+in the navy which contributed to his success?" Much more to the same
+effect Lord Cochrane wrote, urging honesty upon San Martin as the only
+path by which he could win for himself a permanent success, and making
+a special claim upon his honesty in the interests of the seamen and
+naval officers, to whom neither pay nor prize-money had been given
+since their departure from Chili nearly a year before.
+
+It was all in vain. San Martin wrote, on the 9th of August, a
+letter making professions of virtue and acknowledging much personal
+indebtedness to Lord Cochrane and the fleet, but evading the whole
+question at issue. "I am disposed," he said, "to recompense valour
+displayed in the cause of the country. But you know, my lord, that the
+wages of the crews do not come under these circumstances, and that I,
+never having engaged to pay the amount, am not obliged to do so. That
+debt is due from Chili, whose Government engaged the seamen."
+
+Lord Cochrane knew that Chili would decline to pay for work that, if
+intended to be done in its interests, had been perverted from that
+intention; and his crews, also knowing it, became reasonably mutinous.
+After much further correspondence—in which San Martin suggested as
+his only remedy that Lord Cochrane should accept the dishonourable
+proposal made to him, and, becoming himself First Admiral of Peru,
+should induce the fleet to join in the same rebellion against Chili to
+which the army had been brought by its general, and in which Captains
+Guise and Spry, always evil-minded, had already joined—Lord Cochrane
+adopted a bold but altogether justifiable manoeuvre. A large quantity
+of treasure, seized from the Spaniards, having been deposited by San
+Martin at Ancon, he sailed thither, in the middle of September, and
+quietly took possession of it. So much as lawful owners could be
+found for was given up to them. With the residue, amounting to 285,000
+dollars, Lord Cochrane paid off the year's arrears to every officer
+and man in his employ, taking nothing for himself, but reserving the
+small surplus for the pressing exigencies and re-equipment of the
+squadron.
+
+It is unnecessary to detail the angry correspondence that arose out
+of that rough act of justice. Before the money was distributed,
+treacherous offers to restore it and enter into rebellious league with
+San Martin were made to Lord Cochrane; and with these were alternated
+mock-virtuous complaints and bombastic threats. Both bribes and
+threats were treated by him with equal contempt.
+
+"After a lapse of nearly forty years' anxious consideration," he wrote
+in 1858, "I cannot reproach myself with having done any wrong in
+the seizure of the money of the Protectorial Government. General San
+Martin and myself had been in our respective departments deputed to
+liberate Peru from Spain, and to give to the Peruvians the same free
+institutions which Chili herself enjoyed. The first part of our object
+had been fully effected by the achievements and vigilance of the
+squadron; the second part was frustrated by General San Martin
+arrogating to himself despotic power, which set at naught the wishes
+and voice of the people. As 'my fortune in common with his own' was
+only to be secured by acquiescence in the wrong he had done to Chili
+by casting off his allegiance to her, and by upholding him in the
+still greater wrong he was inflicting on Peru, I did not choose to
+sacrifice my self-esteem and professional character by lending myself
+as an instrument to purposes so unworthy. I did all in my power
+to warn General San Martin of the consequences of ambition so
+ill-directed, but the warning was neglected, if not despised. Chili
+trusted to him to defray the expenses of the squadron, when its
+objects, as laid down by the Supreme Director, should be accomplished;
+but, in place of fulfilling the obligation, he permitted the squadron
+to starve, its crews to go in rags, and the ships to be in perpetual
+danger for want of the proper equipment which Chili could not afford
+to give them when they sailed from Valparaiso. The pretence for this
+neglect was want of means, though, at the same time, money to a
+vast amount was sent away from the capital to Ancon. Seeing that no
+intention existed on the part of the Protector's Government to do
+justice to the Chilian squadron, whilst every effort was made to
+excite discontent among the officers and men with the purpose of
+procuring their transfer to Peru, I seized the public money, satisfied
+the men, and saved the navy to the Chilian Republic, which afterwards
+warmly thanked me for what I had done. Despite the obloquy cast upon
+me by the Protector's Government, there was nothing wrong in the
+course I pursued, if only for the reason that, if the Chilian squadron
+was to be preserved, it was impossible for me to have done otherwise.
+Years of reflection have only produced the conviction that, were I
+again placed in similar circumstances, I should adopt precisely the
+same course."
+
+In spite of his treachery to the Chilian Government, General San
+Martin professed to retain his functions as Commander-in-Chief of the
+Chilian liberating expedition to Peru; and, accordingly, when he found
+it useless to make further efforts, by bribes or threats, to seduce
+Lord Cochrane from his allegiance, he ordered him to return at once to
+Valparaiso. This order Lord Cochrane refused to obey, seeing that the
+work entrusted to him—the entire destruction of the Spanish squadron
+in the Pacific—had not yet been completed.
+
+He determined to complete that work, first going to Guayaquil to
+repair and refit his ships, which San Martin would not allow him to do
+in any Peruvian port. He was thus employed during six weeks following
+the 18th of October, 1821.
+
+On his departure, a complimentary address from the townsmen afforded
+him an opportunity of offering some good advice on a matter in which
+his long and intelligent political experience showed him that they
+were especially at fault. The inhabitants of Guayaquil, like many
+other young communities, sought to increase their revenues and
+strengthen their independence by violent restrictions upon foreign
+commerce and arbitrary support of native monopolists. Lord Cochrane
+eloquently propounded to them the doctrine of free trade. "Let your
+public press," he said, "declare the consequences of monopoly, and
+affix your names to the defence of your enlightened system. Let it
+show, if your province contains eighty thousand inhabitants, and if
+eighty of these are privileged merchants according to the old system,
+that nine hundred and ninety-nine persons out of a thousand must
+suffer because their cotton, coffee, tobacco, timber, and other
+productions, must come into the hands of the monopolist, as the only
+purchaser of what they have to sell, and the only seller of what they
+must necessarily buy; the effect being that he will buy at the lowest
+possible rate and sell at the dearest, so that not only are the nine
+hundred and ninety-nine injured, but the lands will remain waste, the
+manufactories without workmen, and the people will be lazy and poor
+for want of a stimulus, it being a law of nature that no man will
+labour solely for the gain of another. Tell the monopolist that the
+true method of acquiring general riches, political power, and even his
+own private advantage, is to sell his country's produce as high, and
+foreign goods as low, as possible, and that public competition can
+alone accomplish this. Let foreign merchants, who bring capital,
+and those who practise any art or handicraft, be permitted to settle
+freely. Thus a competition will be formed, from which all must reap
+advantage. Then will land and fixed property increase in value. The
+magazines, instead of being the receptacles of filth and crime, will
+be full of the richest foreign and domestic productions; and all will
+be energy and activity, because the reward will be in proportion to
+the labour. Your river will be filled with ships, and the monopolist
+degraded and shamed. You will bless the day in which Omnipotence
+permitted to be rent asunder the veil of obscurity, under which the
+despotism of Spain, the abominable tyranny of the Inquisition, and the
+want of liberty of the press, so long hid the truth from your sight.
+Let your customs' duties be moderate, in order to promote the greatest
+possible consumption of foreign and domestic goods; then smuggling
+will cease and the returns to the treasury increase. Let every man
+do as he pleases as regards his own property, views, and interests;
+because each individual will watch over his own with more zeal than
+senates, ministers, or kings. By your enlarged views set an example
+to the New World; and thus, as Guayaquil is, from its situation,
+the central republic, it will become the centre of the agriculture,
+commerce, and riches of the Pacific."
+
+Lord Cochrane left Guayaquil on the 3rd of December, and cruised
+northwards in search of the _Prueba_ and the _Venganza_, the only two
+remaining Spanish frigates, which had made their escape from Callao
+and gone in the direction of Mexico. He sailed along the Colombian
+and Mexican coasts as far as Acapulco, where he called on the 29th
+of January, 1822, without finding the objects of his search. He there
+learned, on the 2nd of February, from an in-coming merchantman, that
+the frigates had eluded him and were now somewhere to the southwards.
+Upon that he at once retraced his course, and, in spite of a storm
+which nearly wrecked his two best ships, one of them being the
+captured _Esmeralda_, now christened the _Valdivia_, was at Guayaquil
+again on the 13th of March. There, as he expected, from information
+received on the passage, he found the _Venganza._ Both the frigates
+had been compelled, by want of provisions, to run the risk of halting
+at Guayaquil, whither also an envoy from San Martin had arrived,
+instructed to tempt the Guayaquilians into friendship with Peru and
+jealousy of Chili. On the appearance of the Spanish frigates, he had
+persuaded their captains, as the only means of averting the certain
+ruin that Lord Cochrane was planning for them, quietly to surrender to
+the Peruvian Government. In this way Chili was cheated of its prizes,
+although Lord Cochrane's main object, the entire overthrow of the
+Spanish war shipping in the Pacific, was accomplished without further
+use of powder and shot. The _Prueba_ had been sent to Callao, and the
+_Venganza_ was now being refitted at Guayaquil.
+
+Lord Cochrane had now done all that it was possible for him to do in
+fulfilment of the naval mission on which he had quitted Chili a year
+and a half before. Proceeding southward, he anchored in Callao Roads
+from the 25th of April till the 10th of May. San Martin's Government,
+fearing punishment for their misdeeds, prepared to defend Callao. Lord
+Cochrane, however, wrote to say that he had no intention of making
+war upon the Peruvians; that all he asked was adequate payment for
+the services rendered to them by his officers and seamen. In the
+same letter he denounced the new treachery that had been shown with
+reference to the _Venganza_ and the _Prueba_.
+
+The answer to that letter was a visit from San Martin's chief
+minister, who begged Lord Cochrane to recall it, and impudently
+repeated the old offers of service under the Peruvian Government,
+adding that San Martin had written a private letter to the same
+effect. "Tell the Protector from me," said Lord Cochrane, "that if,
+after the conduct he has pursued, he had sent me a private letter, it
+would certainly have been returned unanswered. You may also tell him
+that it is not my wish to injure him, that I neither fear him nor hate
+him, but that I disapprove of his conduct."
+
+Lord Cochrane's brief stay off Callao sufficed to convince him that,
+though the people of Peru were being for the time subjected to a
+tyranny almost equal to that practised by Spain, no one was likely to
+be long in fear of San Martin, as his treacheries and his vices were
+already bringing upon him well-deserved disgrace and punishment. To
+that purport Lord Cochrane wrote to O'Higgins on the 2nd of May. "As
+the attached and sincere friend of your excellency," he said, "I hope
+you will take into your serious consideration the propriety of at once
+fixing the Chilian Government upon a base not to be shaken by the
+fall of the present tyranny in Peru, of which there are not only
+indications, but the result is inevitable—unless, indeed, the
+mischievous counsels of vain and mercenary men can suffice to prop up
+a fabric of the most barbarous political architecture, serving as a
+screen from whence to dart their weapons against the heart of liberty.
+Thank God, my hands are free from the stain of labouring in any such
+work; and having finished all you gave me to do, I may now rest till
+you shall command my further endeavours for the honour and security of
+my adopted land."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX.
+
+
+LORD COCHRANE'S RETURN TO VALPARAISO.—HIS FURTHER ILL-TREATMENT BY
+THE CHILIAN GOVERNMENT.—HIS RESIGNATION OF CHILIAN EMPLOYMENT, AND
+ACCEPTANCE OF EMPLOYMENT UNDER THE EMPEROR OF BRAZIL.—HIS SUBSEQUENT
+CORRESPONDENCE WITH THE GOVERNMENT OF CHILI.—THE RESULTS OF HIS
+CHILIAN SERVICE.
+
+
+[1822-1823.]
+
+Lord Cochrane returned to Valparaiso on the 3rd of June, 1822, having
+been absent more than twenty months. An enthusiastic welcome awaited
+him. Medals were struck in his honour, and in various ephemeral ways
+the public gratitude was expressed.
+
+It was, however, only ephemeral. There was no substantial recognition
+of his great services. His men were left unpaid, and he himself was
+subjected to further indignities of the sort already described. It is
+not necessary here to give any detailed account of them, or to enter
+into a particular rehearsal of his efforts during the next six months
+to continue his beneficial services to Chili. He had done the great
+service for which he had been invited to South America. In the course
+of about three years he had scoured the Pacific of the Spanish ships,
+which had offered an obstacle too serious for the patriots to overcome
+by any force or wisdom of their own. He had made it possible for
+them to assert their independence of a foreign yoke, and, if their
+patriotism had been genuine enough, to work out internal reforms, by
+which the sometime colonies of Spain in South America might have been
+able to vie in greatness with the sometime colonies of England in the
+northern continent. The benefits which he conferred especially upon
+Chili were shared by all the liberated communities along the whole
+Pacific coastline up to Mexico. But all were alike ungrateful, except
+in fitful words and in sentiments that prompted to no action.
+
+Shortly after his return to Chili, Lord Cochrane went to live upon the
+estates that had been conferred upon him. Soon, however, he was forced
+to go back to Valparaiso, there to look after the interests of the
+officers and crews who had served him and Chili during the previous
+fighting time. His earnest arguments on their behalf were not heeded.
+The poor fellows were left to starve and be perished by the cold of
+a South American winter, against which the pitiful rags in which they
+were clothed afforded no protection. And before long fresh incidents
+arose which made it impossible for him to persevere in fighting their
+battle.
+
+General San Martin, having run his course of petty tyranny in Peru,
+was soon forced to resign his protectorate and seek safety in Chili.
+He reached Valparaiso on the 12th of October, and then Lord Cochrane,
+who had long before seen good reasons for suspecting it, was convinced
+that Zenteno and many other influential men in Chili were in league
+with him. He claimed that San Martin should be tried by court-martial
+for his treasons, known to all the world. Instead of that San Martin
+was loaded with honours, and fresh indignities were heaped upon
+his chief accuser. This monstrous action of the ministers led to a
+revolution, which, if Lord Cochrane had stayed to the end, might have
+proved much to his advantage. But the revolution, headed by General
+Freire, an honest man, had for its object the overthrow of O'Higgins,
+also an honest man, though too weak to withstand the influences
+brought to bear upon him by the bad men by whom he was surrounded.
+Lord Cochrane refused Freire's offers to join in opposition to
+O'Higgins, always, as far as his small powers permitted, his good
+friend. He preferred to abandon Chili, or rather to allow it to
+abandon one who had done for it so much and had received so little in
+return. "The difficulties," he said, in a dignified letter addressed
+to General O'Higgins, still nominally the Supreme Director, in which
+he virtually resigned his appointment as Vice-Admiral of the Republic,
+"the difficulties which I have experienced in accomplishing the naval
+enterprises successfully achieved during the period of my command as
+Admiral of Chili have not been mastered without responsibility such as
+I would scarcely again undertake, not because I would hesitate to make
+any personal sacrifice in a cause of so much interest, but because
+even these favourable results have led to the total alienation of
+the sympathies of meritorious officers—whose co-operation was
+indispensable—in consequence of the conduct of the Government.
+That which has made most impression on their minds has been, not the
+privations they have suffered, nor the withholding of their pay
+and other dues, but the absence of any public acknowledgment by the
+Government of the honours and distinctions promised for their fidelity
+and constancy to Chili; especially at a time when no temptation was
+withheld that could induce them to abandon the cause of Chili for the
+service of the Protector of Peru. Ever since that time, though there
+was no want of means or knowledge of facts on the part of the Chilian
+Government, it has submitted itself to the influence of the agents
+of an individual whose power, having ceased in Peru, has been again
+resumed in Chili. The effect of this on me is so keen that I cannot
+trust myself in words to express my personal feelings. Whatever I
+have recommended or asked for the good of the naval service has been
+scouted or denied, though acquiescence would have placed Chili in
+the first rank of maritime states in this quarter of the globe. My
+requisitions and suggestions were founded on the practice of the first
+naval service in the world—that of England. They have, however, met
+with no consideration, as though their object had been directed to
+my own personal benefit. Until now I have never eaten the bread of
+idleness. I cannot reconcile to my mind a state of inactivity which
+might even now impose upon the Chilian Republic an annual pension for
+past services; especially as an Admiral of Peru is actually in command
+of a portion of the Chilian squadron, whilst other vessels are sent to
+sea without the orders under which they act being communicated to
+me, and are despatched through the instrumentality of the governor of
+Valparaiso [Zenteno]. I mention these circumstances incidentally as
+having confirmed me in the resolution to withdraw myself from Chili
+for a time, asking nothing for myself during my absence; whilst, as
+regards the sums owing to me, I forbear to press for their payment
+till the Government shall be more freed from its difficulties. I have
+complied with all that my public duty demanded, and, if I have
+not been able to accomplish more, the deficiency has arisen from
+circumstances beyond my control. At any rate, having the world still
+before me, I hope to prove that it is not owing to me. I have received
+proposals from Mexico, from Brazil, and from a European state, but
+have not as yet accepted any of these offers. Nevertheless, the habits
+of my life do not permit me to refuse my services to those labouring
+under oppression, as Chili was before the annihilation of the Spanish
+naval force in the Pacific. In this I am prepared to justify whatever
+course I may pursue. In thus taking leave of Chili, I do so with
+sentiments of deep regret that I have not been suffered to be more
+useful to the cause of liberty, and that I am compelled to separate
+myself from individuals with whom I hoped to live for a long period,
+without violating such sentiments of honour as, were they broken,
+would render me odious to myself and despicable in their eyes."
+
+That letter sufficiently explains the reasons which induced Lord
+Cochrane to resign his Chilian command. He had, as he said, received
+invitations to enter the service of Brazil, of Mexico, and of Greece.
+The Mexican offer he declined at once, as acceptance of it would
+involve little of the active work in fighting which, if for a good
+cause, was always attractive to him. Assistance of the Greeks who, a
+year and a half before, had begun to throw off their long servitude to
+Turkey, and who were now fighting desperately for their freedom,
+was an enterprise on which he would gladly have embarked, but
+the invitation from Brazil was more pressing, and he therefore
+conditionally accepted it. "The war in the Pacific," he said, on the
+29th of November, in answer to two letters written on behalf of the
+newly-elected Emperor of Brazil, "having been happily terminated by
+the total destruction of the Spanish naval force, I am, of course,
+free for the crusade of liberty in any other quarter of the globe. I
+confess, however, that I have not hitherto directed my attention
+to the Brazils; considering that the struggle for the liberties of
+Greece, the most oppressed of modern states, afforded the fairest
+opportunity for enterprise and exertion. I have to-day tendered my
+ultimate resignation to the Government of Chili, and am not at this
+moment aware that any material delay will be necessary previous to my
+setting off, by way of Cape Horn, for Rio de Janeiro; it being, in the
+meantime, understood that I hold myself free to decline, as well as
+entitled to accept, the offer which has, through you, been made to me
+by his Imperial Majesty. I only mention this from a desire to preserve
+a consistency of character, should the Government (which I by no means
+anticipate) differ so widely in its nature from those which I have
+been in the habit of supporting as to render the proposed situation
+repugnant to my principles, and so justly expose me to suspicion, and
+render me unworthy the confidence of his Majesty and the nation."
+
+In accordance with the terms of that letter, Lord Cochrane wrote as we
+have seen to the Supreme Director of Chili, not completely resigning
+his employment, but proposing to absent himself for an indefinite
+period. His proposal was at once accepted by the Chilian Government,
+to whom his honesty and his popularity with the people made him
+particularly obnoxious. He thereupon made prompt arrangements for his
+departure. He quitted Valparaiso on the 18th of January, 1823, in a
+vessel chartered for his own use and that of several European officers
+and seamen, who, like him, were tired of Chilian ingratitude, and who
+begged to be employed under him wherever he might serve.
+
+Of the subsequent occurrences in the Western States, for which he had
+done so much, and tried to do so much more than was permitted, it is
+enough to say that Peru, sadly abused by San Martin, and almost won
+back to Spain, was rescued by the valour and wisdom of Bolivar, and
+that Chili, destined to much future trouble through the bad action
+of its false patriots, was temporarily benefited by the successful
+revolution which placed General Freire in the Supreme Directorship.
+
+Lord Cochrane had not been absent three months before a new Minister
+of Marine wrote to inform him of Freire's accession and to solicit his
+return. From this, however, he excused himself, on the grounds that
+he had now entered into engagements with Brazil which he was bound
+to fulfil, and that his past treatment by the Chilian Government
+discouraged him from renewal of relations which had been so full of
+annoyance to him. "On my quitting Chili," he said in his reply, "there
+was no looking to the past without regret, nor to the future without
+despair, for I had learned by experience what were the views and
+motives which guided the counsels of the State. Believe me that
+nothing but a thorough conviction that it was impracticable to
+render the good people of Chili any further service under existing
+circumstances, or to live in tranquillity under such a system, could
+have induced me to remove myself from a country which I had vainly
+hoped would have afforded me that tranquil asylum which, after
+the anxieties I had suffered, I felt needful to my repose. My
+inclinations, too, were decidedly in favour of a residence in Chili,
+from a feeling of the congeniality which subsisted between my own
+habits and the manners and customs of the people, those few only
+excepted who were corrupted by contiguity with the court, or debased
+in their minds and practices by that species of Spanish colonial
+education which inculcates duplicity as the chief qualification of
+statesmen in all their dealings, both with individuals and the
+public. I now speak more particularly of the persons lately in power,
+excepting, however, the Supreme Director, whom I believe to have been
+the dupe of their deceit. Point out to me one engagement that has been
+honourably fulfilled, one military enterprise of which the professed
+object has not been perverted, or one solemn pledge that has not been
+forfeited. Look at my representations on the necessities of the navy,
+and see how they were relieved. Look at my memorial, proposing to
+establish a nursery for seamen by encouraging the coasting trade, and
+compare its principles with the code of Rodriguez, which annihilated
+both. You will see in this, as in all other cases, that whatever I
+recommended, in regard to the promotion of the good of the marine, was
+set at nought, or opposed by measures directly the reverse. Look to
+the orders which I received, and see whether I had more liberty of
+action than a schoolboy in the execution of his task. Sir, that which
+I suffered from anxiety of mind whilst in the Chilian service, I will
+never again endure for any consideration. To organize new crews, to
+navigate ships destitute of sails, cordage, provisions, and stores,
+to secure them in port without anchors and cables, except so far as I
+could supply these essentials by accidental means, were difficulties
+sufficiently harassing; but to live amongst officers and men
+discontented and mutinous on account of arrears of pay and other
+numerous privations, to be compelled to incur the responsibility
+of seizing by force from Peru funds for their payment, in order to
+prevent worse consequences to Chili, and then to be exposed to the
+reproach of one party for such seizure, and the suspicions of
+another that the sums were not duly applied, are all circumstances so
+disagreeable and so disgusting that, until I have certain proof that
+the present ministers are disposed to act in another manner, I cannot
+possibly consent to renew my services where, under such circumstances,
+they would be wholly unavailing to the true interests of the people."
+
+Writing thus to the Minister of Marine, Lord Cochrane wrote also at
+the same time to General Freire, who, as has been said, asked him to
+join his revolutionary movement. "It would give me great pleasure, my
+respected friend, to learn that the change which has been effected in
+the government of Chili proves alike conducive to your happiness and
+to the interests of the State. For my own part, like yourself, I have
+suffered so long and so much that I could not bear the neglect and
+double-dealing of those in power any longer, but adopted other means
+of freeing myself from an unpleasant situation. Not being under
+those imperious obligations which, as a native Chilian, rendered it
+incumbent on you to rescue your country from the mischiefs with which
+it was assailed, I could not accept your offer. My heart was with you
+in the measures you adopted for their removal; and my hand was only
+restrained by a conviction that my interference, as a foreigner, in
+the internal affairs of the State would not only have been improper
+in itself, but would have tended to shake that confidence in my
+undeviating rectitude which it was my ambition that the people of
+Chili should ever justly entertain. Permit me to add my opinion that,
+whoever may possess the supreme authority in Chili, until after the
+present generation, educated as it has been under the Spanish colonial
+yoke, shall have passed away, will have to contend with so much error
+and so many prejudices as to be disappointed in his utmost endeavours
+to pursue steadily the course best calculated to promote the freedom
+and happiness of the people. I admire the middle and lower classes
+of Chili, but I have ever found the senate, the ministers, and the
+convention actuated by the narrowest policy, which led them to adopt
+the worst measures. It is my earnest wish that you may find better men
+to co-operate with you. If so, you may be fortunate and may succeed in
+what you have most at heart, the promotion of your country's good."
+
+For the real welfare of Chili Lord Cochrane was always eager; but in
+the treatment which he himself experienced he had strong proof, both
+during his four years' active service under the republic and in all
+after times, of the difficulties in the way of its advancement.
+Not only was he subjected to the contumely and neglect of which he
+complained in the letters just quoted from: he was also directly
+mulcted to a very large extent in the scanty recompense for his
+services to which he was legally entitled, and indirectly injured to
+a yet larger extent. "I was compelled to quit Chili," he wrote at
+a later date, "without any of the emoluments due to my position as
+Commander-in-Chief of the Navy, or any share of the sums belonging
+to myself and the officers and seamen; which sums, on the faith of
+repayment, had, at my solicitation, been appropriated to the repairs
+and maintenance of the squadron generally, but more especially at
+Guayaquil and Acapulco, when in pursuit of the _Prueba_ and the
+_Venganza_. Neither was any compensation made for the value of stores
+captured and collected by the squadron, whereby its efficiency was
+chiefly maintained during the whole period of the Peruvian blockade.
+The Supreme Director of Chili, recognizing the justice of payment
+being made by the Peruvians for at least the value of the _Esmeralda_,
+the capture of which inflicted the death-blow on Spanish power, sent
+me a bill on the Peruvian Government for 120,000 dollars, which
+was dishonoured, and has never since been paid by any succeeding
+Government. Even the 40,000 dollars stipulated by the authorities
+at Guayaquil as the penalty for giving up the _Venganza_ was never
+liquidated. No compensation for the severe wounds received during the
+capture of the _Esmeralda_ was either offered or received.
+Shortly after my departure for Brazil, the Government forcibly and
+indefensibly resumed the estate at Rio Clara, which had been awarded
+to me and my family in perpetuity, as a remuneration for the capture
+of Valdivia, and my bailiff, who had been left upon it for its
+management and direction, was summarily ejected. Unhappily, this
+ingratitude for services rendered was the least misfortune which my
+devotedness to Chili brought upon me. On my return to England in
+1825, after the termination of my services in Brazil, I found myself
+involved in litigation on account of the seizure of neutral vessels
+by authority of the then unacknowledged Government of Chili. These
+litigations cost me, directly, upwards of 14,000£, and, indirectly,
+more than double that amount. Thus, in place of receiving anything for
+my efforts in the cause of Chilian and Peruvian independence, I was a
+loser of upwards of 25,000£, this being more than double the
+whole amount I had received as pay whilst in command of the Chilian
+squadron."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X.
+
+
+THE ANTECEDENTS OF BRAZILIAN INDEPENDENCE.—PEDRO I.'s ACCESSION.—THE
+INTERNAL AND EXTERNAL TROUBLES OF THE NEW EMPIRE.—LORD COCHRANE'S
+INVITATION TO BRAZIL.—HIS ARRIVAL AT RIO DE JANEIRO, AND ACCEPTANCE
+OF BRAZILIAN SERVICE.—HIS FIRST MISFORTUNES.—THE BAD CONDITION OF
+HIS SQUADRON, AND THE CONSEQUENT FAILURE OF HIS FIRST ATTACK ON THE
+PORTUGUESE OFF BAHIA.—HIS PLANS FOR IMPROVING THE FLEET, AND THEIR
+SUCCESS.—HIS NIGHT VISIT TO BAHIA, AND THE CONSEQUENT FLIGHT OF THE
+ENEMY.—LORD COCHRANE'S PURSUIT OF THEM.—HIS VISIT TO MARANHAM,
+AND ANNEXATION OF THAT PROVINCE AND OF PARÀ.—HIS RETURN TO RIO DE
+JANEIRO.—THE HONOURS CONFERRED UPON HIM.
+
+[1823.]
+
+In 1808, King John VI. of Portugal, driven by Buonaparte from his
+European dominions, took refuge in his great colonial possession of
+Brazil, and the result of his emigration was considerable enlargement
+of the liberties of the Brazilians. Thereby the immense Portuguese
+colony in South America was prevented from following in the
+revolutionary steps of the numerous Spanish provinces adjoining it.
+In Brazil, however, during the ensuing years party faction produced
+nearly as much turmoil as attended the struggle for independence in
+Chili and the other Spanish, colonies. Those Brazilians who were
+still intimately connected with the inhabitants of the mother country
+rallied under Portuguese leaders, and did their utmost to maintain
+the Portuguese supremacy over the colony. Quite as many, on the other
+hand, were eager to take advantage of the new state of things as a
+means of consolidating the freedom of Brazil. Plots and counterplots,
+broils and insurrections, lasted, almost without intermission, until
+1821, when King John returned to Portugal, leaving his son, Don Pedro,
+as lieutenant and regent, to cope with yet greater difficulties. The
+Cortes of Portugal, able to get back their king, desired also to bring
+back Brazil to all its former servitude. So great was the opposition
+thus provoked that the native or true Brazilian party induced Don
+Pedro to throw off allegiance to his father. In October, 1822, the
+independence of the colony was publicly declared, and on the 1st of
+December Don Pedro assumed the title of Emperor of Brazil.
+
+Only the southern part of Brazil, however, acknowledged his authority.
+The northern provinces, including Bahia, Maranham, and Para, were
+ruled by the Portuguese faction and held by Portuguese troops. A
+formidable fleet, moreover, swept the seas, and the independent
+provinces were threatened with speedy subjection to the sway of
+Portugal.
+
+That was the state of affairs in the young empire of Brazil during the
+months in which Lord Cochrane, having destroyed the Spanish fleet
+in the Pacific, was being subjected to the worst ingratitude of his
+Chilian employers. Don Pedro and his advisers, hearing of this, lost
+no time in inviting him to enter the service of the Brazilian nation.
+Equal rank and position to those held by him under Chili were offered
+to him. "Abandonnez vous, milord," wrote the official who conveyed the
+Emperor's message, on the 4th of November, 1822, "à la reconnaisance
+Brésilienne, à la munificence du Prince, à la probité sans tache de
+l'actuel Gouvernement; on vous fera justice; on ne rabaissera
+d'un seul point la haute considération, rang, grade, caractère, et
+avantages qui vous sont dûs." In yet stronger terms a second letter
+was written soon afterwards. "Venez, milord; l'honneur vous invite;
+la gloire vous appelle. Venez donner à nos armes navales cet ordre
+merveilleux et discipline incomparable de puissante Albion."
+
+Lord Cochrane, as we have seen, accepted this invitation; not,
+however, without some misgivings, which, in the end, were fully
+justified. Having quitted Valparaiso on the 18th of January, 1823, he
+arrived at Rio de Janeiro on the 13th of March. He had not been there
+a week before he discovered that, while all classes were anxious to
+secure his aid, the Emperor Pedro I. stood almost alone in the desire
+to treat him honourably and in a way worthy of his character and
+reputation. Vague promises were made to him; but, when a statement
+of his position was asked for in writing, very different terms were
+employed. He was only to have the rank of a subordinate admiral, with
+pay of less amount than the Chilian pension that he had resigned. His
+employment was to be temporary and informal, subjecting him to the
+chance of dismissal at any moment. When, however, resenting these
+trickeries, he announced his intention of proceeding at once to
+Europe, and accepting the Greek service offered to him, a different
+tone was adopted. Under the Emperor's signature he was appointed, on
+the 21st of March, First Admiral of the National and Imperial Navy,
+with emoluments equal to those he had received from Chili.
+
+He did not then know, though he was soon to learn it by hard
+experience, how strong, even at the imperial court, was the influence
+of the Portuguese party, and by what meanness and trickery it sought
+to maintain and augment that influence. "Where the Portuguese party
+was really to blame," he afterwards said, "was in this,—that, seeing
+disorder everywhere more or less prevalent, they strained every nerve
+to increase it, hoping to paralyze further attempts at independence by
+exposing whole provinces to the evils of anarchy and confusion. Their
+loyalty also partook more of self-interest than of attachment to the
+supremacy of Portugal; for the commercial classes, which formed the
+real strength of the Portuguese faction, hoped, by preserving the
+authority of the mother country in her distant provinces, to obtain as
+their reward the revival of old trade monopolies which, twelve years
+before, had been thrown open, enabling the English traders—whom
+they cordially hated—to supersede them in their own markets. Being
+a citizen of the rival nation, their aversion to me personally was
+undisguised—the more so, perhaps, that they believed me capable
+of achieving at Bahia, whither the squadron was destined, that
+irreparable injury to their own cause which the imperial troops had
+been unable to effect. Had I, at the time, been aware of the influence
+and latent power of the Portuguese party in the empire, nothing would
+have induced me to accept the command of the Brazilian navy; for to
+contend with faction is more dangerous than to engage an enemy, and a
+contest of intrigue is foreign to my nature and inclination."
+
+Having entered the Brazilian service, however, Lord Cochrane applied
+himself to his work with characteristic energy and success. He hoisted
+his flag on board the _Pedro Primiero_ on the 21st of March, and
+put to sea on the 3rd of April. His squadron consisted of the _Pedro
+Primiero_, a fine and well-appointed ship, rated rather too highly for
+seventy-four guns, commanded by Captain Crosbie; of the _Piranga_, a
+fine frigate, entrusted to Captain Jowett; of the _Maria de Gloria_,
+a showy but comparatively worthless clipper, mounting thirty-two
+small guns, under Captain Beaurepaire; of the _Liberal_, under Captain
+Garcaõ. He was accompanied by two old vessels, the _Guarani_ and
+the _Real_, to be used as fireships. Two other ships of war, the
+_Nitherohy_, assigned to Captain Taylor, and the _Carolina_, were left
+behind to complete their equipment, and the first of these joined
+the squadron on its way to Bahia, which, being the nearest of the
+disaffected provinces, was the first to be subdued.
+
+The coast of Bahia was reached on the 1st of May, and Lord Cochrane
+was arranging to blockade its capital and port, on the 4th, when the
+Portuguese fleet came out of the harbour. It comprised the _Don Joaõ_,
+of seventy-four guns; the _Constitucaõ_, of fifty; the _Perola_, of
+forty-four; the _Princeza Real_, of twenty-eight; the _Regeneracaõ_,
+the _Dez de Fevereiro_, the _San Gaulter_, the _Principe de Brazil_,
+and the _Restauracaõ_, of twenty-six each; the _Calypso_ and the
+_Activa_, of twenty-two; the _Audaz_, of twenty; and the _Canceicaõ_,
+of eight; being one line-of-battle ship, five frigates, five
+corvettes, a brig, and a schooner. Lord Cochrane did not venture with
+his small and as yet untried force to attack the whole squadron, but
+he proceeded to cut off the four rearmost ships. This he did with the
+_Pedro Primiero_, but, to his disgust, the other vessels, heedless
+of his orders, failed to follow him. "Had the rest of the Brazilian
+squadron," he said, "come down in obedience to signals, the ships cut
+off might have been taken or dismantled, as with the flag-ship I
+could have kept the others at bay, and no doubt have crippled all in
+a position to render them assistance. To my astonishment, the signals
+were disregarded, and no efforts were made to second my operations."
+The _Pedro Primiero_, after fighting alone for some time, and during
+that time even doing but little mischief, by reason of the clumsy way
+in which her guns were handled, had to be withdrawn.
+
+At that failure Lord Cochrane was reasonably chagrined. Worse than the
+fact that the Portuguese had escaped uninjured for this once, was the
+knowledge that he could not hope thoroughly to punish them without
+first effecting great reform in the materials at his disposal. On the
+5th of May he wrote to the Government to complain of the miserable
+condition of the ships and crews provided for him by the Brazilian
+Government. "From the defective sailing and manning of the squadron,"
+he said, "it seems to me that the _Pedro Primiero_ is the only one
+that can assail an enemy's ship-of-war, or act in the face of a
+superior force so as not to compromise the interests of the empire and
+the character of the officers commanding. Even this ship, in common
+with the rest, is so ill-equipped as to be much less efficient than
+she otherwise would be. Our cartridges are all unfit for service,
+and I have been obliged to cut up every flag and ensign that could
+be spared to render them serviceable, so as to prevent the men's arms
+being blown off whilst working the guns. The guns are without locks.
+The bed of the mortar which I received on board this ship was crushed
+on the first fire, being entirely rotten. The fuses for the shells are
+formed of such wretched composition that it will not take fire with
+the discharge of the mortar. Even the powder is so bad that six pounds
+will not throw out shells more than a thousand yards. The marines
+understand neither gun exercise, the use of small arms, nor the sword,
+and yet have so high an opinion of themselves that they will not
+assist to wash the decks, or even to clean out their own berths, but
+sit and look on whilst these operations are being performed by seamen.
+I warned the Minister of Marine that every native of Portugal put on
+board the squadron, with the exception of officers of known character,
+would prove prejudicial to the expedition, and yesterday we had clear
+proof of the fact. The Portuguese stationed in the magazine actually
+withheld the powder whilst this ship was in the midst of the enemy,
+and I have since learnt that they did so from feelings of attachment
+to their own countrymen. I enclose two letters, one from the officer
+commanding the _Real_, whose crew were on the point of carrying that
+vessel into the enemy's squadron for the purpose of delivering her
+up. I have also reason to believe that the conduct of the _Liberal_ yesterday in not bearing down upon the enemy, and not complying with
+the signal which I had made to break the line, was owing to her being
+manned by Portuguese. The _Maria de Gloria_ also has a great number
+of Portuguese, which is the more to be regretted as otherwise her
+superior sailing, with the zeal and activity of her captain, would
+render her an effective vessel. To disclose to you the truth, it
+appears to me that one half of the squadron is necessary to watch over
+the other half. Assuredly this is a system which ought to be put an
+end to without delay."
+
+Other indignant complaints of that sort, which need not here be
+repeated, were reasonably made by Lord Cochrane. The bad equipment
+of his squadron, both in men and in material, had hindered him, at
+starting, from achieving a brilliant success over the enemy, and
+though his subsequent achievements were of unsurpassed brilliance,
+he was to the end seriously hindered by the wilful and accidental
+mismanagement of his employers.
+
+Lord Cochrane lost no time, however, in correcting by his own prudent
+action the evil effects of this mismanagement. Not choosing to run the
+risk of a second failure, and believing that two good ships would be
+more serviceable than any number of bad ones, he took his squadron to
+the Moro San Paulo, where he transferred all the best men and the most
+serviceable fittings to the flag-ship and the _Maria de Gloria_. There
+he left the other vessels to be improved as far as possible, directing
+that instruction should be given in seamanship to all the incompetent
+men who showed any promise of being made efficient, and that several
+small prizes which he had taken on his way from Rio de Janeiro should
+be turned into fireships for future use. With the two refitted ships
+he then went back to Bahia, to watch its whole coast and blockade the
+port.
+
+The wisdom of this course was at once apparent. Several minor captures
+were made; the supplies of Bahia were cut off, and the enemy's
+squadron was locked in the harbour for three weeks. Lord Cochrane went
+to the Moro San Paulo on the 26th, leaving the _Maria de Gloria_ to
+overlook the port, and then the Portuguese fleet ventured out for a
+few days. It dared not show fight, however, and was driven back by the
+flag-ship, which returned on the 2nd of June. "On the 11th of June,"
+said Lord Cochrane, "information was received that the enemy was
+seriously thinking of evacuating the port before the fireships were
+completed. I therefore ordered the _Maria de Gloria_ to water and
+re-victual for three months, so as to be in readiness for anything
+which might occur, as, in case the rumour proved correct, our
+operations might take a different turn to those previous intended.
+The _Piranga_ was also directed to have everything in readiness for
+weighing immediately on the flag-ship appearing off the Moro and
+making signals to that effect. The whole squadron was at the same time
+ordered to re-victual, and to place its surplus articles in a large
+shed constructed of trees and branches felled in the neighbourhood of
+the Moro. Whilst the other ships were thus engaged, I determined to
+increase the panic of the enemy with the flag-ship alone. The position
+of their fleet was about nine miles up the bay, under shelter of
+fortifications, so that an attack by day would have been more perilous
+than prudent. Nevertheless, it appeared practicable to pay them a
+hostile visit on the first dark night, when, if we were unable
+to effect any serious mischief, it would at least be possible
+to ascertain their exact position, and to judge what could be
+accomplished when the fireships were brought to bear upon them.
+
+"Accordingly," the narrative proceeds, "having during the day
+carefully taken bearings at the mouth of the river, on the night
+of the 12th of June, I decided on making the attempt, which might
+possibly result in the destruction of part of the enemy's fleet, in
+consequence of the confused manner in which the ships were
+anchored. As soon as it became dark we proceeded up the river; but,
+unfortunately, when we were within hail of the outermost ship, the
+wind failed, and, the tide soon after turning, our plan of attack was
+rendered abortive. Determined, however, to complete the reconnoisance,
+we threaded our way amongst the outermost vessels. In spite of the
+darkness, the presence of a strange ship under sail was discovered,
+and some beat to quarters, hailing to know what ship it was. The
+reply, 'An English vessel,' satisfied them, however, and so our
+investigation was not molested. The chief object thus accomplished, we
+succeeded in dropping out with the ebb-tide, now rapidly running,
+and were enabled to steady our course stern-foremost with the stream
+anchor adrag, whereby we reached our former position."
+
+That exploit was more daring than Lord Cochrane's modest description
+would imply; and, though the bold hope that it might be possible for
+a single invading ship to conquer the whole Portuguese squadron in its
+moorings was not realized, the effect was all that could be desired.
+The Portuguese Admiral and his chief officers were at a ball in
+Bahia while Lord Cochrane was quietly sailing round and amongst their
+squadron, and the report of this achievement was brought to them in
+the midst of their festivities. "What!" exclaimed the Admiral,
+"Lord Cochrane's line-of-battle ship in the very midst of our fleet!
+Impossible! No large ship can have come up in the dark." When it was
+known that the thing had really been done, and that the construction
+of fireships at the Moro San Paulo was being rapidly proceeded with,
+the Portuguese authorities, both naval and military, considered that
+it would be no longer safe to remain in Bahia Harbour. They were
+seriously inconvenienced, moreover, by the success with which Lord
+Cochrane had blockaded the port and all its approaches. "The means
+of subsistence fail us, and we cannot secure the entrance of any
+provisions," said the Commander-in-Chief, in the proclamation
+intimating that the so-called defenders of the province were
+thinking of abandoning their post. This they did after a fortnight's
+consideration. On the 2nd of July the whole squadron of thirteen
+war-vessels and about seventy merchantmen and transports, filled with a
+large body of troops, evacuated the port.
+
+That was a movement with which Lord Cochrane was well pleased. He had
+been in doubt as to the prudence of leading his small fleet into a
+desperate action in the harbour, by which the inexperience of his
+crews might ruin everything, and which might have to be followed
+by fighting on land. But now that the Portuguese, both soldiers and
+sailors, were in the open sea, he could give them chase without much
+risk, as, in the event of their turning round upon him with more
+valour than he gave them credit for, the worst that could happen would
+be his forced abandonment of the pursuit. The valour was not shown.
+No sooner were the Portuguese out of port, with their sails set for
+Maranham, where they hoped to join other ships and troops, and so
+augment their strength, than Lord Cochrane proceeded to follow them
+and dog their progress.
+
+His scheme was a bold one, but as successful as it was bold.
+Attended first by the _Maria de Gloria_ alone, and afterwards by the
+_Carolina_, the _Nitherohy_, and a small merchant brig, the _Colonel
+Allen_, in which he had placed a few guns, he pursued and harassed
+the cumbrous crowd of Portuguese warships, troop-ships, and trading
+vessels, about eighty in all, through fourteen days. The chase,
+indeed, was practically conducted by his flag-ship, the _Pedro
+Primiero_, alone. The other vessels were ordered to look out for any
+of the enemy's fleet that lagged behind or were borne away from the
+main body of the fugitives, either to the right hand or to the left.
+Of these there were plenty, and none were allowed to escape. The
+pursuers had easy work in prize-taking. "I have the honour to inform
+you," wrote Lord Cochrane in a concise despatch to the Brazilian
+Minister of Marine, on the 7th of July, "that half the enemy's army,
+their colours, cannon, ammunition, stores, and baggage have been
+taken. We are still in pursuit, and shall endeavour to intercept the
+remainder of the troops, and shall then look after the ships of war,
+which would have been my first object but that, in pursuing
+this course, the military would have escaped to occasion further
+hostilities against the Brazilian empire."
+
+Most of his prizes and prisoners Lord Cochrane sent into Pernambuco,
+the port then nearest to him, and he despatched two officers to hold
+Bahia for Brazil. With his flag-ship he continued his pursuit of the
+enemy, losing them once during a fog, and, when, he found them,
+being prevented from doing all the mischief which he hoped, as a calm
+enabled them to keep close together and present a front too formidable
+for attack by a single assailant. The Portuguese, however, continued
+their flight as soon as the wind permitted. Lord Cochrane did not
+trouble them much during the day, but each night he swept down on
+them, like a hawk upon its prey, and harassed them with wonderful
+effect. They were chased past Fernando Island, past the Equator, and
+more than half way to Cape Verde. Then, on the 16th of July, Lord
+Cochrane, after a parting broadside, left them to make their way in
+peace to Lisbon, there to tell how, by one daring vessel, thirteen
+ships of war had been ignominiously driven home, accompanied by only
+thirteen out of the seventy vessels that had placed themselves under
+their protection.
+
+Lord Cochrane would have continued the pursuit still farther, had not
+some of the troop-ships contrived to escape; and as he was anxious
+that these should not get into shelter at Maranham, or, if there,
+should not have time to recover their spirits, he deemed it best to
+hasten thither. He reached Maranham before them, and thus found it
+possible to carry through an excellent expedient which he had devised
+on the way.
+
+Maranham, the wealthiest province of the old Brazilian colony, was
+best guarded by the Portuguese, and now served as the centre and
+stronghold of resistance to the authority of the new Emperor. Lord
+Cochrane's plan had for its object nothing less than the annexation of
+the whole province singlehanded and without a blow. With this intent,
+he entered the River Maranham, which served as a harbour to the port
+of the same name, on the 26th of July, with Portuguese colours flying
+from the mast of the _Pedro Primiero_. The authorities, deceived
+thereby, promptly sent a messenger with despatches and congratulations
+on the safe arrival of what was supposed to be a valuable
+reinforcement from Portugal. The messenger was soon undeceived, but
+Lord Cochrane at once made him the agent of a much more elaborate
+and altogether justifiable deception Announcing to him that the swift
+sailing of the _Pedro Primiero_ had brought her first to Maranham, but
+that she was being followed by a formidable squadron, intended for the
+invasion of the province, he sent him back with letters to the same
+effect, addressed to the Portuguese commandant and to the local Junta
+of Maranham. "The naval and military forces under my command," he
+wrote to the former, "leave me no room to doubt the success of
+the enterprise in which I am about to engage, in order to free the
+province of Maranham from foreign domination, and to allow the people
+free choice of government. Of the flight of the Portuguese naval and
+military forces from Bahia you are aware. I have now to inform you of
+the capture of two-thirds of the transports and troops, with all their
+stores and ammunition. I am anxious not to let loose the imperial
+troops of Bahia upon Maranham, exasperated as they are at the injuries
+and cruelties exercised towards themselves and their countrymen, as
+well as by the plunder of the people and churches of Bahia. It is
+for you to decide whether the inhabitants of these countries shall be
+further exasperated by resistance, which appears to me unavailing, and
+alike prejudicial to the best interests of Portugal and Brazil," "The
+forces of his Imperial Majesty," he said to the Junta, "having freed
+the city and province of Bahia from the enemies of independence, I now
+hasten—in conformity with the will of his Majesty that the beautiful
+province of Maranham should be free also—to offer to the oppressed
+inhabitants whatever aid and protection they need against a foreign
+yoke; desiring to accomplish their liberation and to hail them
+as brethren and friends. Should there, however, be any who, from
+self-interested motives, oppose themselves to the deliverance of their
+country, let such be assured that the naval and military forces which
+have driven the Portuguese from the south are again ready to draw the
+sword in the like just cause, and the result cannot be long doubtful."
+
+Those mingled promises and threats took prompt effect. On the
+following day, the 27th of July, after a conditional offer of
+capitulation had been rejected, the members of the Junta, the Bishop
+of Maranham, and other leading persons, went on board the _Pedro
+Primiero_ to tender their submission to the Emperor of Brazil. The
+city and forts were surrendered without reserve, and in less than
+twenty-four hours from Lord Cochrane's first appearance in the river
+the flag of Portugal was replaced by that of Brazil. A great province
+had been added to the dominions of Pedro I. without bloodshed, and
+with no more expenditure of ammunition than was needed for the volleys
+discharged in honour of the triumph.
+
+The liberation of Maranham was publicly celebrated on the 28th of
+July, and on the following day the Portuguese troops embarked for
+Europe, special concessions being made to them by Lord Cochrane, who
+deemed it well that they should be out of the way before the device
+by which he had outwitted them was made known. No resentment was to
+be expected from the civilians, as even those most hearty in their
+adherence to the Portuguese faction in Brazil would not dare to offer
+direct opposition to the sentiments of the majority. But Lord Cochrane
+wisely set himself to conciliate all. "To the inhabitants of the
+city," he said, "I was careful to accord complete liberty, claiming
+in return that perfect order should be preserved and property of all
+kinds respected. The delight of the people was unbounded at being
+freed from a terrible system of exaction and imprisonment which, when
+I entered the river, was being carried on with unrelenting rigour by
+the Portuguese authorities towards all suspected of a leaning to
+the Imperial Government. Instead of retaliating, as would have been
+gratifying to those so recently labouring under oppression, I directed
+oaths to the constitution to be administered, not to Brazilians only,
+but also to all Portuguese who chose to remain and conform to the new
+order of things; a privilege of which many influential persons of that
+nation availed themselves."
+
+With the capture of Maranham alone, however, Lord Cochrane was not
+satisfied. Without a day's delay, he despatched a Portuguese brig
+which he had seized in the river and christened by its name, under
+Captain Grenfell, to follow at Parà, the only important province of
+Brazil still under the Portuguese yoke, the same course which he
+had just adopted with such wonderful success. He himself found it
+necessary to remain at Maranham for more than two months, where he had
+to curb with a strong hand the passions of the liberated inhabitants,
+eager to use their liberty in lawless ways and to retaliate upon the
+Portuguese still resident among them for all the hardships which they
+had hitherto endured.
+
+On the 20th of September, having heard that Captain Grenfell had
+entirely succeeded in his designs on Parà, he started for Rio de
+Janeiro, and there he arrived on the 9th of November. "I immediately
+forwarded to the Minister of Marine," he said, "a recapitulation of
+all transactions since my departure seven months before; namely,—the
+evacuation of Bahia by the Portuguese in consequence of our nocturnal
+visit, connected with the dread of my reputed skill in the use of
+fireships, arising from the affair of Basque Roads; the pursuit of
+their fleet beyond the Equator, and the dispersion of its convoy; the
+capture and disabling of the transports filled with troops intended
+to maintain Portuguese domination on Maranham and Parà; the device
+adopted to obtain the surrender, to the _Pedro Primiero_ alone, of
+the enemy's naval and military forces at Maranham; the capitulation of
+Parà, with the ships of war, to my summons sent by Captain Grenfell;
+the deliverance of the Brazilian patriots whom the Portuguese had
+imprisoned; the declaration of independence by the intermediate
+provinces thus liberated, and their union with the empire; the
+appointment of provisional governments; the embarkation and departure
+of every Portuguese soldier from Brazil; and the enthusiasm with which
+all my measures—though unauthorised and therefore extra-official—had
+been, received by the people of the northern provinces, who, thus
+relieved from the dread of further oppression, had everywhere
+acknowledged and proclaimed his Majesty as constitutional Emperor."
+
+Lord Cochrane's services had, indeed, been, many of them,
+"unauthorised and therefore extra-official." He had been sent out
+merely to recover Bahia; but, besides doing that, he had gained for
+Brazil other territories more than half as large as Europe. For this,
+however, nothing but gratitude could be shown, and the gratitude was,
+for the time at any rate, unalloyed. On the very day of the _Pedro
+Primiero's_ return, the Emperor went on board to offer his thanks in
+person. Further, thanks were voted by the legislature, and tendered by
+all classes of the people.
+
+"Taking into consideration the great services which your excellency
+has just rendered to the nation," wrote the Emperor on the 25th of
+November, "and desiring to give your excellency a public testimonial
+of gratitude for those high and extraordinary services on behalf
+of the generous Brazilian people, who will ever preserve a lively
+remembrance of such illustrious acts, I deem it right to confer upon
+your excellency the title of Marquis of Maranham." The decoration
+of the Imperial Order of the Cruizeiro was also bestowed upon Lord
+Cochrane, and on the 19th of December he was made a Privy Councillor
+of Brazil, the highest honour which it was in the Emperor's power to
+grant. On the same day he also received from the Emperor a charter
+confirming his rank and emoluments as First Admiral of Brazil, "seeing
+how advantageous it would be for the interests of this empire to avail
+itself of the skill of so valuable an officer," and in recognition of
+"the valour, intelligence, and activity by which he had distinguished
+himself in the different services with which he had been entrusted."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI.
+
+
+THE NATURE OF THE REWARDS BESTOWED ON LORD COCHRANE FOR HIS FIRST
+SERVICES TO BRAZIL.—PEDRO I. AND THE PORTUGUESE FACTION.—LORD
+COCHRANE'S ADVICE TO THE EMPEROR.—THE FRESH TROUBLES BROUGHT UPON HIM
+BY IT.—THE UNJUST TREATMENT ADOPTED TOWARDS HIM AND THE FLEET.—THE
+WITHHOLDING OF PRIZE-MONEY AND PAY.—PERSONAL INDIGNITIES TO LORD
+COCHRANE.—AN AMUSING EPISODE.—LORD COCHRANE'S THREAT OF RESIGNATION,
+AND ITS EFFECT.—SIR JAMES MACKINTOSH'S ALLUSION TO LORD COCHRANE IN
+THE HOUSE OF COMMONS.
+
+
+[1823-1824.]
+
+All the rewards bestowed upon Lord Cochrane for his wonderful
+successes in the northern part of Brazil, except the confirmation of
+his patent as First Admiral, be it noted, were unsubstantial. He had
+for ever crushed the power of Portugal in South America; he had added
+vast provinces to the imperial dominion, and had thus augmented the
+imperial revenues by considerably more than a million dollars a-year,
+besides the great and immediate profits of his prize-taking. And all
+this had been done with a small fleet, poorly equipped and unpaid.
+The ships entrusted to him had been rendered efficient by his own
+ingenuity, unaided by the Government, and with scant addition to his
+resources from the numerous captures made by him. In excess of his
+instructions, and with nothing but cheap compliments and cheaper
+promises to encourage him, he had acquired Maranham and Parà, and all
+the provinces dependent upon them, as well as Bahia. Relying on the
+honour of his employers, he had pledged his own honour, that on their
+returning to Rio de Janeiro, his crews, who were clamouring for
+some part, at any rate, of the wages due to them, should be fully
+recompensed, and he had the reasonable expectation, that, out of
+the abundant wealth that he had gained for Brazil, he himself should
+receive his lawful share of the prize-money gained by his exertions.
+Instead of that he and his subordinates, both officers and men, were
+subjected to an unparalleled course of meanness, trickery, and fraud.
+
+This partly resulted from an unfortunate change in the Government that
+had occurred during his absence. When he left Rio de Janeiro, Pedro
+I.'s chief secretary of state had been Don José Bonifacio de Andrada
+y Silva, a wise and patriotic Brazilian. The Emperor and his minister
+had all along been seriously crippled in fulfilment of their good
+purposes by subordinates of the Portuguese faction, who persistently
+twisted their instructions, when they did not act in direct
+opposition to those instructions, so as to promote their own and their
+countrymen's selfish and unpatriotic objects; but there had been hope
+that the zeal of Pedro and José de Andrada would overcome these evil
+devices, and secure the healthy consolidation of the empire. When Lord
+Cochrane returned, however, he found that the honest minister had
+been deposed, that his party had been ousted, and that the Emperor was
+surrounded by bad counsellors, who, unable to pervert his judgment,
+were strong enough to restrain its action, and who were robbing him,
+one by one, of all his constitutional functions, and doing their
+best to bring Brazil into a state of anarchy, with a view to the
+re-establishment of Portuguese authority in its old or in some new but
+no less obnoxious form. The Emperor, desiring to do well, had hardly
+improved his position, a few days before the _Pedro Primiero's_ arrival, by violently dissolving the Legislative Assembly, banishing
+some of its members, and threatening to place Rio de Janeiro itself
+under military law.
+
+That was the state of affairs when Lord Cochrane entered the port.
+Only five days afterwards, on the 14th of November, 1823, he wrote a
+bold letter to the Emperor. "My sense of the impropriety of intruding
+myself on the attention of your Imperial Majesty on any subject
+unconnected with the official position with which your Majesty has
+been pleased to honour me," he said, "could only have been overcome by
+an irresistible desire, under existing circumstances, to contribute to
+the service of your Majesty, and the empire. The conduct of the late
+Legislative Assembly, which sought to derogate from the dignity and
+prerogatives of your Majesty, even presuming to require you to divest
+yourself of your crown in their presence—which deprived you of your
+Council of State and denied you a voice in the enactment of laws and
+the formation of the constitution—and which dared to object to your
+exercising the only remaining function of royalty, that of rewarding
+services and conferring honours—could no longer be tolerated; and
+the justice and wisdom of your Imperial Majesty in dissolving such
+an assembly will be duly appreciated by discerning men, and by those
+whose love of good order and their country supersedes their ambition
+or personal interests. There are, however, individuals who will
+wickedly take advantage of the late proceedings to kindle the flames
+of discord, and throw the empire into anarchy and confusion, unless
+timely prevented by the wisdom and energy of your Imperial Majesty.
+The declaration that you will give to your people a practical
+constitution, more free even than that which the late Assembly
+professed an intention to establish, cannot—considering the spirit
+which now pervades South America—have the effect of averting
+impending evils, unless your Imperial Majesty shall be pleased to
+dissipate all doubts by at once declaring—before the news of the
+recent events can be dispersed throughout the provinces, and before
+the discontented members of the late congress can return to their
+constituents—what is the precise nature of that constitution which
+your Imperial Majesty intends to bestow. As no monarch is more happy
+or more truly powerful than the limited monarch of England, surrounded
+by a free people, enriched by that industry which the security of
+property by means of just laws never fails to create, permit me humbly
+and respectfully to suggest, that if your Majesty were to decree that
+the English constitution, in its most perfect practical form—which,
+with slight alteration, and chiefly in name, is also the constitution
+of the United States of North America—shall be the model for the
+government of Brazil under your Imperial Majesty, with power to the
+Constituent Assembly to alter particular parts as local circumstances
+may render advisable, it would excite the sympathy of powerful states
+abroad, and the firm allegiance of the Brazilian people to your
+Majesty's throne. Were your Majesty, by a few brief lines in the
+'Gazette,' to announce your intention so to do, and were you to banish
+all distrust from the public mind by removing from your person for a
+time, and finding employment on honourable missions abroad for, those
+Portuguese individuals of whom the Brazilians are jealous, the purity
+of your Majesty's motives would be secured from the possibility of
+misrepresentation, the factions which disturb the country would be
+silenced or converted, and the feelings of the world, especially those
+of England and North America, would be interested in promoting the
+glory, happiness, and prosperity of your Imperial Majesty."
+
+That advice, in the main adopted by the Emperor, led to a
+reconstruction of the Brazilian Constitution in its present shape, and
+so added another to the many great benefits which Brazil owes to Lord
+Cochrane. But the whole, and especially the last part of it, being
+directly at variance with the plans and interests of the Portuguese
+faction, it won for him much hatred and many personal troubles.
+
+"That I, a foreigner, having nothing to do with national politics," he
+said, "should have counselled his Majesty to banish those who opposed
+him, was not to be borne, and the resentment caused by my recent
+services was increased to bitter enmity for meddling in affairs which,
+it was considered, did not concern me; though I could have had no
+other object than the good of the empire by the establishment of
+a constitution which should give it stability in the estimation of
+European states."
+
+Consequently, in return for the great services he had conferred to
+Brazil, he received, as had been the case in Chili, little but insult
+and injury, the course of insult and injury being hardly stayed
+even during the period in which he was needed to engage in further
+services. The Emperor honestly tried to be generous; but he could not
+rid himself of the Portuguese faction, generally dominant in Brazil,
+and his worthy intentions were thwarted in every possible way. With
+difficulty could he secure for Lord Cochrane the confirmation of his
+patent as First Admiral, which has been already referred to. No great
+resistance was made to his conferment of the empty title of Marquis of
+Maranham, but he was not allowed to make the grant of land which was
+intended to go with the title and enable it to be borne with dignity.
+Prevented from being generous, he was even hindered from exercising
+the barest justice.
+
+The injustice was shown not only to Lord Cochrane, but also to all
+the officers and crews who, serving under him, had enabled Brazil
+to maintain its resistance to the tyranny of Portugal, though not to
+shake off the tyranny of the faction which still had the interests of
+Portugal at heart. It is not necessary to describe in detail the long
+course of ill-usage to which he and his subordinates were exposed.
+Part of that ill-usage will be best and most briefly indicated by
+citing a portion of an eloquent memorial which Lord Cochrane addressed
+to the Imperial Government on the 30th of January, 1825.
+
+The memorial began by enumerating the achievements of the fleet at
+Bahia, Maranham, Parà, and elsewhere. "The imperial squadron," it
+proceeds, "made sail for Rio de Janeiro, in the full expectation of
+reaping a reward for their labours; not only because they had been
+mainly instrumental in rescuing from the hands of the Portuguese,
+and adding to the imperial dominion, one half of the empire; but also
+because their hopes seemed to be firmly grounded, independently of
+such services, on the capture of upwards of one hundred transports and
+merchant vessels, exclusive of ships of war, all of which, they had a
+just right to expect, would, under the existing laws, be adjudged to
+the captors. The whole of them were seized under Portuguese colours,
+with Portuguese registers, manned by Portuguese seamen, having on
+board Portuguese troops and ammunition or Portuguese produce and
+manufacture. On arriving at Rio de Janeiro, there was no feeling but
+one of satisfaction among the officers and seamen, and the Brazilian
+marine might from that moment, without the expense of one milrei to
+the nation, have been rapidly raised to a state of efficiency and
+discipline which had not yet been attained in any marine in South
+America, and which the navies of Portugal and Spain do not possess.
+It could not, however, be long concealed from the knowledge of the
+squadron that political or other reasons had prevented any proceedings
+being had in the adjudication of their prizes; and the extraordinary
+declaration that was made by the Tribunal of Prizes,—'that they were
+not aware that hostilities existed between Brazil and Portugal'—led
+to an inquiry of whom that tribunal was composed. All surprise at
+so extraordinary a declaration then ceased; but other sentiments
+injurious to the imperial service, arose,—those of indignation and
+disgust that the power of withholding their rights should be placed
+in the hands of persons who were natives of that very nation against
+which they were employed in war. His Imperial Majesty, however, having
+signified to this tribunal his pleasure that they should delay no
+longer in proceeding to the adjudication of the captured vessels,
+the result was that, in almost every instance, at the commencement of
+their proceedings, the vessels were condemned, not as lawful prizes to
+the captors, but as droits to the Crown. His Majesty was then pleased
+to desire that the said droits should be granted to the squadron, and
+about one-fifth part of the value of the prizes taken was eventually
+paid under the denomination of a 'grant of the droits of the Crown.'
+But when this decree of his Imperial Majesty was promulgated,
+the tribunal altered their course of proceeding, and, instead of
+condemning to the Crown, did, in almost every remaining instance,
+pronounce the acquittal of the vessels captured, and adjudged them
+to be given up to pretended Brazilian owners, notwithstanding that
+Brazilian property embarked in enemy's vessels was, by the law,
+declared to be forfeited; and that, too, with such indecent
+precipitancy that, in cases where the hull only had been claimed, the
+cargo also was decreed to be given up to the claimants of the hull,
+without any part of it having, at any time, been even pretended to be
+their property. Other ships and cargoes were given up without any form
+of trial, and without any intimation whatever to the captors and their
+agents; and, in most cases, costs and quadruple damages were unjustly
+decreed against the captors, to the amount of 300,000 milreis. That
+the prizes of which the captors were thus fraudulently deprived,
+chiefly under the unlawful and false pretence of their belonging to
+Brazilians, were really the property of Portuguese and well known so
+to be by the said tribunal, has since been fully demonstrated, by
+the arrival in Lisbon of the whole of the vessels liberated by their
+decisions. Thus the charge of a system of wilful injustice, brought
+by the squadron against the Portuguese Tribunal of Prizes at Rio de
+Janeiro, is established beyond the possibility of contradiction."
+
+It was only an aggravation of that injustice that, when Lord Cochrane
+claimed the prompt and equitable adjudication of the prizes, an
+attempt was made to silence him on the 24th of November by a message
+from the Minister of Marine, to the effect that the Emperor would do
+everything in his power for him personally. "His Majesty," answered
+Lord Cochrane, "has already conferred honours upon me quite equal to
+my merits, and the greatest personal favour he can bestow is to urge
+on the speedy adjudication of the prizes, so that the officers and
+seamen may reap the reward decreed by the Emperor's own authority."
+
+A hardship to the fleet even greater than the withholding of its
+prize-money was the withholding of the arrears of pay, which had been
+accumulating ever since the departure from Rio de Janeiro in April. On
+the 27th of November, three months' wages were offered to men to whom
+more than twice the amount was due. This they indignantly refused, and
+all Lord Cochrane's tact was needed to restrain them from open mutiny.
+
+In spite of the Emperor's friendship towards Lord Cochrane, or rather
+in consequence of it, he was in all sorts of ways insulted by the
+ministry, the head of which was now Severiano da Costa. A new ship,
+the _Atulanta_, was on the 27th of December, without reference to him,
+ordered for service at Monte Video. He was on the same day publicly
+described as "Commander of the Naval Forces in the Port of Rio de
+Janeiro," being thus placed on a level with other officers in the
+service of which, by the Emperor's patent, he was First Admiral, and
+no notice was taken of his protest against that insult. On the 24th
+of February he was gazetted as "Commander-in-Chief of all the Naval
+Forces of the Empire during the present war," by which his functions,
+though not now limited in extent, were limited in time. At length,
+reasonably indignant at these and other violations of the contract
+made with him, he offered to resign his command altogether. "If
+I thought that the course pursued towards me was dictated by his
+Imperial Majesty," he wrote to the Minister of Marine on the 20th of
+March, "it would be impossible for me to remain an hour longer in
+his service, and I should feel it my duty, at the earliest possible
+moment, to lay my commission at his feet. If I have not done so
+before, from the treatment which, in common with the navy. I have
+experienced, it has been solely from an anxious desire to promote his
+Majesty's real interests. Indeed, to struggle against prejudices, and
+at the same time against those in power whose prepossessions are at
+variance with the interests of his Majesty and the tranquillity and
+independence of Brazil, is a task to which I am by no means equal.
+I am, therefore, perfectly willing to resign the situation I
+hold, rather than contend against difficulties which appear to me
+insurmountable."[A]
+
+[Footnote A: See Appendix (III).]
+
+That letter was answered with complimentary phrases, and Lord Cochrane
+was induced to continue in the employment from which he could not be
+spared; but there was no diminution of the ill-treatment to which
+he was subjected. One special indignity was attended by some amusing
+incidents. On the 3rd of June, while he was residing on shore, it was
+proposed to search his flag-ship, on the pretext that he had there
+concealed large sums of money which were the property of the nation.
+"Late in the evening," he said, "I received a visit from Madame
+Bonpland, the talented wife of the distinguished French naturalist.
+This lady, who had singular opportunities for becoming acquainted with
+state secrets, came expressly to inform me that my house was at that
+moment surrounded by a guard of soldiers. She further informed me
+that, under the pretence of a review to be held at the opposite side
+of the harbour early in the following morning, preparations had
+been made by the ministers to board the flag-ship, which was to be
+thoroughly overhauled whilst I was detained on shore, and all the
+money found taken possession of. Thanking my friend for her timely
+warning, I clambered over my garden fence, as the only practicable way
+to the stables, selected a horse, and, notwithstanding the lateness
+of the hour, proceeded to San Christoval, the country palace of the
+Emperor, where, on my arrival, I demanded to see his Majesty. The
+request being refused by the gentleman in waiting, in such a way as to
+confirm the statement of Madame Bonpland, I dared him at his peril to
+refuse me admission, adding that the matter on which I had come was
+fraught with grave consequences to his Majesty and the empire. 'But,'
+said he, 'his Majesty has retired to bed long ago.' 'No matter,' I
+replied; 'in bed or not in bed, I demand to see him, in virtue of my
+privilege of access to him at all times, and, if you refuse to concede
+permission, look to the consequences.' His Majesty was not, however,
+asleep, and, the royal chamber being close at hand, he recognized my
+voice in the altercation with the attendant. Hastily coming out of his
+apartments, he asked what could have brought me there at that time of
+night. My reply was that, understanding that the troops ordered for
+review were destined to proceed to the flag-ship in search of supposed
+treasure, I had come to request his Majesty immediately to appoint
+confidential persons to accompany me on board, when the keys of every
+chest in the ship should be placed in their hands and every place
+thrown open to inspection, but that, if any of his anti-Brazilian
+administration ventured to board the ship in perpetration of the
+contemplated insult, they would certainly be regarded as pirates and
+treated as such; adding at the same time, 'Depend upon it, they are
+not more my enemies than the enemies of your Majesty and the empire,
+and an intrusion so unwarrantable the officers and crew are bound
+to resist.' 'Well,' replied his Majesty, 'you seem to be apprised of
+everything; but the plot is not mine, being, as far as I am concerned,
+convinced that no money would be found more than we already know of
+from yourself.' I then entreated his Majesty to take such steps for
+my justification as would be satisfactory to the public. 'There is no
+necessity for any,' he replied. 'But how to dispense with the review
+is the puzzle. I will be ill in the morning; so go home and think
+no more of the matter. I give you my word, your flag shall not be
+outraged.' The Emperor kept his word, and in the night was taken
+suddenly ill. As his Majesty was really beloved by his Brazilian
+subjects, all the native respectability of Rio was early next day on
+its way to the palace to inquire after the royal health, and ordering
+my carriage, I also proceeded to the palace, lest my absence might
+seem singular. On my entering the room,—where the Emperor was in
+the act of explaining the nature of his disease to the anxious
+inquirers,—his Majesty burst into a fit of uncontrollable laughter,
+in which I as heartily joined, the bystanders evidently, from the
+gravity of their countenances, considering that we had both taken
+leave of our senses. The ministers looked astounded, but said nothing.
+His Majesty kept his secret, and I was silent."
+
+That anecdote fairly illustrates the treatment adopted towards Lord
+Cochrane, and the straits to which the Emperor was reduced in his
+efforts to protect him from his enemies in power. The ill-treatment
+both of himself and of the whole fleet continuing, he addressed an
+indignant protest to his Majesty in July. "The time has at length
+arrived," he there said, "when it is impossible to doubt that the
+influence which the Portuguese faction has so long exerted, with the
+view of depriving the officers and seamen of their stipulated rights,
+has succeeded in its object, and has even prevailed against the
+expressed wishes and intentions of your Majesty. The determined
+perseverance in a course so opposed to justice must come to an end.
+The general discontent which prevails in the squadron has rendered
+the situation in which I am placed one of the most embarrassing
+description; for, though a few may be aware that my own cause of
+complaint is equal to theirs, many cannot perceive the consistency
+of my patient continuance in the service with disapprobation of the
+measures pursued. Even the honours which your Majesty has been pleased
+to bestow upon me are deemed by most of the officers, and by the whole
+of the men, who know not the assiduity with which I have persevered in
+earnest but unavailing remonstrance, as a bribe by which I have been
+induced to abandon their interests. Much, therefore, as I prize those
+honours, as the gracious gift of your Imperial Majesty, yet, holding
+in still dearer estimation my character as an officer and a man, I
+cannot hesitate in choosing which to sacrifice when the retention of
+both is evidently incompatible. I can, therefore, no longer delay to
+demonstrate to the squadron and the world that I am no partner in the
+deceptions and oppressions which are practised on the naval service;
+and, as the first and most painful step in the performance of this
+imperious duty, I crave permission, with all humility and respect,
+to return those honours, and lay them at the feet of your Imperial
+Majesty. I should, however, fall short of my duty to those who were
+induced to enter the service by my example or invitation, were I to
+do nothing more than convince them that I had been deceived. It is
+incumbent on me to make every effort to obtain for them the fulfilment
+of engagements for which I made myself responsible. As far as I am
+personally concerned, I could be content to quit the service of your
+Imperial Majesty, either with or without the expectation of obtaining
+compensation at a future period. After effectually fighting the
+battles of freedom and independence on both sides of South America,
+and clearing the two seas of every vessel of war, I could submit to
+return to my native country unrewarded; but I cannot submit to adopt
+any course which shall not redeem my pledge to my brother officers and
+seamen."
+
+That and other arguments contained in the same letter, aided by
+inducements of a different sort, to be presently referred to, had
+partial effect. A small portion of the prize-money and wages due to
+the squadron was issued, and Lord Cochrane remained for another year
+in the service of Brazil. His weary waiting-time at Rio de Janeiro,
+however, extending over nearly nine months, was almost at an end. On
+the 2nd of August he left it, never to return.
+
+While the ingratitude shown to him in Brazil was at its worst it is
+interesting to notice that a few, at any rate, of his own countrymen
+were remembering his past troubles and his present worth. On the 21st
+of June, Sir James Mackintosh, in one of the many speeches in the
+British House of Commons in which he nobly advocated the recognition
+of the independence of the South American states, both as a political
+duty and as a necessary measure in the interests of commerce, made a
+graceful allusion to Lord Cochrane. "I know," he said, "that I am here
+touching on a topic of great delicacy; but I must say that commerce
+has been gallantly protected by that extraordinary man who was once a
+British officer, who once filled a distinguished post in the
+British navy at the brightest period of its annals. I mention this
+circumstance with struggling and mingled emotions—emotions of pride
+that the individual I speak of is a Briton, emotions of regret that
+he is no longer a British officer. Can any one imagine a more gallant
+action than the cutting out of the _Esmeralda_ from Callao? Never
+was there a greater display of judgment, calmness, and enterprising
+British valour than was shown on that memorable occasion. No man ever
+felt a more ardent, a more inextinguishable love of country, a more
+anxious desire to promote its interests and extend its prosperity,
+than the gallant individual to whom I allude. I speak for myself. No
+person is responsible for the opinions which I now utter. But ask,
+what native of this country can help wishing that such a man were
+again amongst us? I hope I shall be excused for saying thus much; but
+I cannot avoid fervently wishing that such advice may be given to
+the Crown by his Majesty's constitutional advisers as will induce his
+Majesty graciously to restore Lord Cochrane to the country which he
+so warmly loves, and to that noble service to the glory of which, I am
+convinced, he willingly would sacrifice every earthly consideration."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII.
+
+
+THE INSURRECTION IN PERNAMBUCO.—LORD COCHRANE's EXPEDITION TO
+SUPPRESS IT.—THE SUCCESS OF HIS WORK.—HIS STAY AT MARANHAM.—THE
+DISORGANISED STATE OF AFFAIRS IN THAT PROVINCE.—LORD COCHRANE's
+EFFORTS TO RESTORE ORDER AND GOOD GOVERNMENT.—THEIR RESULT IN FURTHER
+TROUBLE TO HIMSELF.—HIS CRUISE IN THE "PIRANGA," AND RETURN TO
+ENGLAND.—THE FRESH INDIGNITIES THERE OFFERED TO HIM.—HIS RETIREMENT
+FROM BRAZILIAN SERVICE.—HIS LETTER TO THE EMPEROR PEDRO I.—THE END
+OF HIS SOUTH AMERICAN EMPLOYMENTS.
+
+[1824-1825.]
+
+The political turmoils which Lord Cochrane found to be prevalent
+in Rio de Janeiro, on his return from Maranham, were, as he had
+anticipated, very disastrous to the whole Brazilian empire. The
+unpatriotic action of men in power at head-quarters encouraged yet
+more unpatriotic action in the outlying and newly-acquired provinces.
+Portuguese sympathizers in Pernambuco, in Maranham, and in the
+neighbouring districts, following the policy of the Portuguese faction
+at the centre of government, and acting even more unworthily,
+induced serious trouble; and the trouble was aggravated by the fierce
+opposition which was in many cases offered to them. Before the end of
+1823 information arrived that an insurrection, having for its object
+the establishment in the northern provinces of a government distinct
+from both Brazil and Portugal, had broken out in Pernambuco, and
+nearly every week brought fresh intelligence of the spread of this
+insurrection and of the troubles induced by it. The Emperor Pedro I.
+was eager to send thither the squadron under Lord Cochrane, and so to
+win back the allegiance of the inhabitants; and for this Lord Cochrane
+was no less eager. To the Portuguese partizans, however, whose great
+effort was to weaken the resources of the empire, the news of the
+insurrection was welcome; and perhaps their strongest inducement to
+the long course of injustice detailed in the last chapter was the
+knowledge that by so doing they were most successfully preventing the
+despatch of an armament strong enough to restore order in the northern
+provinces. Herein they prospered. For more than six months the Emperor
+was prevented from suppressing the insurrection, which all through
+that time was extending and becoming more and more formidable. Not
+till July was anything done to satisfy the claims of the seamen for
+payment of their prize-money and the arrears of wages due to them,
+without which they refused to return to their work and render possible
+the equipment and despatch of the squadron; and even then only 200,000
+milreis—less than a tenth of the prize-money that was owing—were
+granted as an instalment of the payment to be made to them.
+
+With that money, however, Lord Cochrane, using his great personal
+influence with the officers and crews, induced them to rejoin the
+fleet. The funds were placed in his hands on the 12th of July, 1824,
+and equitably disbursed by him during the following three weeks. On
+the 2nd of August he set sail in the _Pedro Primiero_ from Rio de
+Janeiro, attended by the _Maranham_ and three transports containing
+twelve hundred soldiers.
+
+Having landed General Lima and the troops at Alagoas on the 16th,
+he arrived off Pernambuco on the 18th. There he found that a strong
+republican Government had been set up under the presidentship of
+Manoel de Carvalho Pais d'Andrade, whose authority, secret or open,
+extended far into the interior and along the adjoining coasts.
+"Knowing that it would take some time for the troops to come up," he
+said, "I determined to try the effect of a threat of bombardment, and
+issued a proclamation remonstrating with the inhabitants on the folly
+of permitting themselves to be deceived by men who lacked the ability
+to execute their schemes; pointing out, moreover, that persistence in
+revolt would involve both the town and its rulers in one common ruin,
+for, if forced to the necessity of bombardment, I would reduce the
+port and city to insignificance. On the other hand, I assured them
+that, if they retraced their steps and rallied round the imperial
+throne, thus aiding to protect it from foreign influence, it would be
+more gratifying to me to act the part of a mediator, and to restore
+Pernambuco to peace, prosperity, and happiness, than to carry out the
+work of destruction which would be my only remaining alternative. In
+another proclamation I called the attention of the inhabitants to the
+distracted state of the Spanish republics on the other side of the
+continent, asking whether it would be wise to risk the benefits of
+orderly government for social and political confusion, and entreating
+them not to compel me to proceed to extremities, as it would become my
+duty to destroy their shipping and block up their port, unless, within
+eight days, the integrity of the empire were acknowledged."
+
+While waiting to see the result of those proclamations Lord Cochrane
+received a message from Carvalho, offering him immediate payment of
+400,000 milreis if he would abandon the imperial cause and go over to
+the republicans. "Frankness is the distinguishing character of free
+men," wrote Carvalho, "but your excellency has not found it in your
+connection with the Imperial Government. Your not having been rewarded
+for the first expedition affords a justifiable inference that you will
+get nothing for the second." That audacious proposal, it need hardly
+be said, was indignantly resented by Lord Cochrane. "If I shall have
+an opportunity of becoming personally known to your excellency," he
+wrote, "I can afford you proof that the opinion you have formed of me
+has had its origin in the misrepresentations of those in power, whose
+purposes I was incapable of serving."
+
+The threats and promises of Lord Cochrane's proclamation did not lead
+to the peaceable surrender of Pernambuco, and at the end of the eight
+days' waiting-time he proceeded to bombard the town. In that, however,
+he was hindered by bad weather, which made it impossible for him to
+enter the shallow water without great risk of shipwreck. He was in
+urgent need, also, of anchors and other fittings. Therefore, after
+a brief show of attack, which frightened the inhabitants, but had no
+other effect, he left the smaller vessels to maintain the blockade,
+and went on the 4th of September in the flag-ship to Bahia, there to
+procure the necessary articles. On his return he found that General
+Lima had marched against Pernambuco on the 11th, and, with the
+assistance of the blockading vessels, made an easy capture of it.
+
+There was plenty of other work, however, to be done. All the
+northern provinces were disaffected, if not in actual revolt, and, in
+compliance with the Emperor's directions, Lord Cochrane proceeded to
+visit their ports and reduce them to order. Some other ships having
+arrived from Rio de Janeiro, he selected the _Piranga_ and two smaller
+vessels for service with the flag-ship, leaving the others at the
+disposal of General Lima, and sailed from Pernambuco on the 10th of
+October.
+
+He reached Cearà on the 18th, and then, by his mere presence,
+compelled the insurgents, who had seized the city, to retire, and
+enabled the well-disposed inhabitants to organize a vigorous scheme of
+self-protection.
+
+A harder task awaited him at Maranham, at which he arrived on the
+9th of November. There the utmost confusion prevailed. The Portuguese
+faction had the supremacy, and there were special causes of animosity
+and misconduct among the members of the opposite party of native
+Brazilians.
+
+"In Maranham," said Lord Cochrane, "as in the other northern provinces
+of the empire, there had been no amelioration whatever in the
+condition of the people, and, without such amelioration, it was absurd
+to place reliance on the hyperbolical professions of devotion to
+the Emperor which were now abundantly avowed by those who, before my
+arrival, had been foremost in promoting and cherishing disturbance.
+The condition of the province, and indeed of all the provinces, was
+in no way better than they had been under the dominion of Portugal,
+though they presented one of the finest fields imaginable for
+improvement. All the old colonial imports and duties remained without
+alteration; the manifold hindrances to commerce and agriculture still
+existed; and arbitrary power was everywhere exercised uncontrolled: so
+that, in place of being benefited by emancipation from the Portuguese
+yoke, the condition of the great mass of the population was literally
+worse than before. To amend this state of things it was necessary
+to begin with the officers of Government, of whose corruption and
+arbitrary conduct complaints, signed by whole communities, were daily
+arriving from every part of the province. To such an extent, indeed,
+wad this misrule carried that neither the lives nor the property of
+the inhabitants were safe."
+
+This state of things Lord Cochrane set himself zealously to remedy;
+and, during his six months' stay at Maranham, he did all that, with
+the bad materials at his disposal and in the harassing circumstances
+of his position, it was possible for him to do. Unable to break down
+the cabals and intrigues, the mutual jealousies and the unworthy
+ambitions that had prevailed previous to his arrival, he held them all
+in check while he was present and secured the observance of law and
+the freedom of all classes of the community.
+
+Thereby, however, he brought upon himself much fresh hatred. The
+governor of the province, being devoted to the Portuguese party and a
+chief cause of the existing troubles, had to be suspended and sent to
+Rio de Janeiro; and though the suspension occurred after orders had
+been despatched by the Emperor for his recall, it afforded an excuse
+to the governor and his friends in office for denunciation of Lord
+Cochrane's conduct, alleged to be greatly in excess of his powers and
+in contempt of the constituted authority. In fact, the same bad policy
+that had embarrassed him before, while he was in Rio de Janeiro,
+continued to embarrass him yet more during his service in Maranham.
+That that service was very helpful to the best interests of Brazil
+no one attempted to deny. The French and English consuls, speaking
+on behalf of all their countrymen resident in the northern provinces,
+overstepped the line of strict neutrality, and entreated him to
+persevere in the measures by which he was making it possible for
+commerce to prosper and the rules of civilized life to be observed.
+The Emperor sent to thank him for his work. "His Majesty," wrote the
+secretary on the 2nd of December, "approves of the First Admiral's
+determination to establish order and obedience in the northern
+provinces, a duty which he has so wisely and judiciously undertaken,
+and in which he must continue until the provinces submit themselves
+to the authorities lately appointed, and enjoy the benefits of the
+paternal government of his Imperial Majesty."
+
+The Emperor, however, was at this time almost powerless. The leaders
+of the Portuguese faction reigned, and by them Lord Cochrane continued
+to be treated with every possible indignity and insult. Not daring
+openly to dismiss him or even to accept the resignation which he
+frequently offered, they determined to wear out his patience, and, if
+possible, to drive him to some act on which they could fasten as
+an excuse for degrading him. They partly succeeded, though the only
+wonder is that Lord Cochrane should have been, for so long a time, as
+patient as he proved. His temper is well shown in the numerous
+letters which he addressed to Pedro I. and the Government during these
+harassing months. "The condescension," he wrote, "with which your
+Imperial Majesty has been pleased to permit me to approach your royal
+person, on matters regarding the public service, and even on those
+more particularly relating to myself, emboldens me to adopt the only
+means in my power, at this distance, of craving that your Majesty will
+be graciously pleased to judge of my conduct in the imperial service
+by the result of my endeavours to promote your Majesty's interests,
+and not by the false reports spread by those who, for reasons best
+known to themselves, desire to alienate your Majesty's mind from me,
+and thus to bring about my removal from your Majesty's service. I
+trust that your Imperial Majesty will please to believe me to be
+sensible that the honours which you have so graciously bestowed upon
+me it is my duty not to tarnish, and that your Majesty will further
+believe that, highly as I prize those honours, I hold the maintenance
+of my reputation in my native country in equal estimation. I
+respectfully crave permission to add that, perceiving it is impossible
+to continue in the service of your Imperial Majesty without at
+all times subjecting my professional character, under the present
+management of the Marine Department, to great risks, I trust your
+Majesty will be graciously pleased to grant me leave to retire
+from your imperial service, in which it appears to me I have now
+accomplished all that can be expected from me, the authority of your
+Imperial Majesty being established throughout the whole extent of
+Brazil."
+
+That request was not granted, or in any way answered; and the
+statement that the whole of Brazil was finally subjected to the
+Emperor's authority proved to be not quite correct. Fresh turmoils
+arose in Parà, and Lord Cochrane had to send thither a small force,
+by which order was restored. He himself found ample employment in
+restraining the factions that could not be suppressed at Maranham.
+
+That was the state of things in the early months of 1825, until
+unlooked-for circumstances arose, by which Lord Cochrane's Brazilian
+employment was brought to a termination in a way that he had not
+anticipated. "The anxiety occasioned by the constant harassing which
+I had undergone, unalleviated by any acknowledgment on the part of the
+Imperial Government of the services which had a second time saved the
+empire from intestine war, anarchy, and revolution," he said, "began
+to make serious inroads on my health; whilst that of the officers and
+men, in consequence of the great heat and pestilential exhalations of
+the climate, and of the double duty which they had to perform afloat
+and ashore, was even less satisfactory. As I saw no advantage in
+longer contending with factious intrigues at Maranham, unsupported and
+neglected as I was by the Administration at Rio de Janeiro, I resolved
+upon a short run into a more bracing northerly atmosphere, which would
+answer the double purpose of restoring our health and of giving us a
+clear offing for our subsequent voyage to the capital.
+
+"Accordingly," the narrative proceeds, "I shifted my flag into the
+_Piranga_, despatched the _Pedro Primiero_ to Rio, and, leaving
+Captain Manson, of the _Cacique_, in charge of the naval department
+at Maranham, put to sea on the 18th of May. On the 21st we crossed
+the Equator, and, meeting with a succession of easterly winds, were
+carried to the northward of the Azores, passing St. Michael's on the
+11th of June. It had been my intention to sail into the latitude of
+the Azores, and then to return to Rio de Janeiro. But, strong gales
+coming on, we made the unpleasant discovery that the frigate's
+main-topmast was sprung, and, when putting her about, the main and
+main-topsail yards were discovered to be unserviceable. For the
+condition of the ship's spars I had depended on others, not deeming
+it necessary to take upon myself such investigation. It was, however,
+possible that we might have patched these up, had not the running
+rigging been as rotten as the masts, and we had no spare cordage on
+board. A still worse disaster was that the salt provisions shipped at
+Maranham were reported bad, mercantile ingenuity having resorted to
+the device of placing good meat at the top and bottom of the barrels,
+whilst the middle, being composed of unsound articles, had tainted
+the whole, thereby rendering it not only unpalatable but positively
+dangerous to health. The good provisions on board being little more
+than sufficient for a week's subsistence, a direct return to Rio de
+Janeiro was out of the question."
+
+It was therefore absolutely necessary to seek some nearer harbour; but
+Lord Cochrane was considerably embarrassed in his choice of a
+port. Portugal was an enemy's country, and Spain, by reason of his
+achievements in Chili and Peru, was no less hostile to him. France had
+not yet recognised the independence of Brazil, and therefore a stay on
+any part of its coast might lead to difficulties. England afforded the
+only safe halting-place, though there Lord Cochrane was uncertain as
+to the way in which, in consequence of the Foreign Enlistment Act,
+he might be received. To England, however, he resolved to go; and,
+sighting its coast on the 25th of June, he anchored at Spithead on
+the following day. Salutes were exchanged with a British ship lying
+in harbour, and in the afternoon he landed at Portsmouth, to be
+enthusiastically welcomed by nearly all classes of his countrymen,
+whose admiration for his personal character and his excellence as a
+naval officer was heightened by the renown of his exploits in South
+America during an absence of six years and a half.
+
+His subsequent relations with Brazil can be briefly told. His
+unavoidable return to England afforded just the excuse which his
+enemies in Brazil had been seeking for ousting him from his command.
+They and the Chevalier Manoel Rodriguez Gameiro Pessoa, the Brazilian
+Envoy in London, who altogether sympathised with them, chose to regard
+this occurrence as an act of desertion. Lord Cochrane lost no time in
+reporting his arrival and requesting to be provided with the necessary
+means for refitting the _Piranga_ and preparing for a speedy return to
+Rio de Janeiro. To expedite matters, he even advanced 2000£ out of
+his own property—which was never repaid to him—for this purpose. His
+repeated applications for instructions were either unheeded or only
+answered with insult. He was ordered to return to Brazil at once,
+towards which no assistance was given to him; and at the same time
+his officers and crew were ordered to repudiate his authority and to
+return without him.
+
+Lord Cochrane had no room to doubt that by going back to Brazil he
+should only expose himself to yet worse treatment than that from which
+he had been suffering during nearly two years; but at the same time
+he was resolved to do nothing at variance with his duty to the Emperor
+from whom he had received his commission, and nothing invalidating his
+claims to the recompense which was clearly due to him. At length he
+was relieved from some of his perplexities, after they had lasted more
+than three months. On the 3rd of November, 1825, peace was declared
+between Brazil and Portugal; and thereby his relations with his
+employers were materially altered. The work which he had pledged
+himself to do was completed, and he was justified in resigning his
+command, or at any rate in declining to resume it until the causes of
+his recent troubles were removed.
+
+This he did in a letter addressed to the Emperor Pedro I., from
+London, on the 10th of November. "The gracious condescension which I
+experienced from your Imperial Majesty, from the first moment of my
+arrival in the Brazils, the honorary distinctions which I received
+from your Majesty, and the attention with which you were pleased to
+listen to all my personal representations relating to the promotion
+of the naval power of your empire," he wrote, "have impressed upon
+my mind a high sense of the honour which your Majesty conferred, and
+forbid my entertaining any other sentiments than those of attachment
+to your Majesty and devotion to your true interests. But, whilst I
+express these my unfeigned sentiments towards your Imperial Majesty,
+it is with infinite pain and regret that I recall to my recollection
+the conduct that has been pursued towards the naval service, and to
+myself personally, since the members of the Brazilian administration
+of José Bonifacio de Andrade were superseded by persons devoted to
+the views and interests of Portugal,—views and interests which are
+directly opposed to the adoption of that line of conduct which can
+alone promote and secure the true interests and glory of your Imperial
+Majesty, founded on the tranquillity and happiness of the Brazilian
+people. Without imputing to such ministers as Severiano, Gomez, and
+Barboza disaffection to the person of your Imperial Majesty, it is
+sufficient to know that they are men bigoted to the unenlightened
+opinions of their ancestors of four centuries ago, that they are men
+who, from their limited intercourse with the world, from the paucity
+of the literature of their native language, and from their want of
+all rational instruction in the service of government and political
+economy, have no conception of governing Brazil by any other than the
+same wretched and crooked policy to which the nation had been so long
+subjected in its condition as a colony. Nothing further need be said,
+while we acquit them of treason, to convict them of unfitness to be
+the counsellors of your Imperial Majesty.
+
+"None but such ministers as these could have endeavoured to impress
+upon the mind of your Imperial Majesty that the refugee Portuguese
+from the provinces and many thousands from Europe, collected in Rio
+de Janeiro, were the only true friends and supporters of the imperial
+crown of Brazil. None but such ministers would have endeavoured to
+impress your Imperial Majesty with a belief that the Brazilian people
+were inimical to your person and the imperial crown, merely because
+they were hostile to the system pursued by those ministers. None but
+such ministers would have placed in important offices of trust the
+natives of a nation with which your Imperial Majesty was at war. None
+but such ministers would have endeavoured to induce your Imperial
+Majesty to believe that officers who had abandoned their King and
+native country for their own private interests could be depended on as
+faithful servants to a hostile Government and a foreign land. None but
+such ministers could have induced your Imperial Majesty to place
+in the command of your fortresses, regiments, and ships of war such
+individuals as these. None but such ministers would have attempted to
+excite in the breast of your Imperial Majesty suspicions with respect
+to the fidelity of myself and of those other officers who, by the most
+zealous exertions, had proved our devotion to the best interests
+of your Imperial Majesty and your Brazilian people. None but such
+ministers would have endeavoured by insults and acts of the grossest
+injustice, to drive us from the service of your Imperial Majesty and
+to place Portuguese officers in our stead. And, above all, none but
+such ministers could have suggested to your Imperial Majesty that
+extraordinary proceeding which was projected to take place on the
+night of the 3rd of June, 1824, a proceeding which, had it not been
+averted by a timely discovery and prompt interposition on my part,
+would have tarnished for ever the glory of your Imperial Majesty, and
+which, if it had failed to prove fatal to myself and officers, must
+inevitably have driven us from your imperial service. When placed
+in competition with this plot of these ministers and the false
+insinuations by which they induced your Imperial Majesty to listen to
+their insidious counsel, all their previous intrigues, and those of
+the whole Portuguese faction, to ruin the naval power of Brazil, sink
+into insignificance. But for the advancement of Portuguese interests
+there was nothing too treacherous or malignant for such ministers and
+such men as these to insinuate to your Imperial Majesty, especially
+when they had discovered that it was not possible by their unjust
+conduct to provoke me to abandon the service of Brazil so long as my
+exertions could be useful to secure its independence, which I believed
+to be alike the object of your Imperial Majesty and the interest of
+the Brazilian people.
+
+"If the counsels of such persons should prove fatal to the interests
+of your Imperial Majesty, no one will regret the event more sincerely
+than myself. My only consolation will be the knowledge that your
+Imperial Majesty cannot but be conscious that I, individually, have
+discharged my duty, both in a military and in a private capacity,
+towards your Majesty, whose true interest, I may venture to add, I
+have held in greater regard than my own; for, had I connived at the
+views of the Portuguese faction, even without dereliction of my duty
+as an officer, I might have shared amply in the honours and emoluments
+which such influence has enabled these persons to obtain, instead of
+being deprived, by their means, of even the ordinary rewards of my
+labours in the cause of independence which your Imperial Majesty had
+engaged me to maintain,—which cause I neither have abandoned nor will
+abandon, if ever it should be in my power successfully to renew my
+exertions for the true interests of your Imperial Majesty and those of
+the Brazilian people.
+
+"Meanwhile my office as Commander-in-Chief of your Imperial Majesty's
+Naval Forces having terminated by the conclusion of peace and by the
+decree promulgated on the 28th of February, 1824, I have notified to
+your Imperial Majesty's Envoy, the Chevalier de Gameiro, that I have
+directed my flag to be struck this day. Praying that the war now
+terminated abroad may be accompanied by tranquillity at home, I
+respectfully take leave of your Imperial Majesty."
+
+All Lord Cochrane's subsequent correspondence with Brazil had for its
+object the recovery of the payments due to him and to his officers and
+crews for the great services done by them to the empire. Lord Cochrane
+had saved that empire from being brought back to the position of
+a Portuguese colony, and had enabled it to enter on a career of
+independence. In return for it he was subjected to more than two years
+of galling insult, was deprived of his proper share of the prizes
+taken by him and his squadron, was refused the estate in Maranham
+which the Emperor, more grateful than his ministers, had bestowed upon
+him, and was mulcted of a portion of his pay and of all the pension
+to which he was entitled by imperial decree and the ordinances of the
+Government. His services to Brazil, like his services to Chili, adding
+much to his renown as a disinterested champion of liberty and an
+unrivalled seaman and warrior, brought upon him personally little but
+trouble and misfortune. Only near the end of his life, when a worthy
+Emperor and honest ministers succeeded to power, was any recompence
+accorded to him.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII.
+
+
+THE GREEK REVOLUTION AND ITS ANTECEDENTS.—THE MODERN GREEKS.—THE
+FRIENDLY SOCIETY.—SULTAN MAHMUD AND ALI PASHA'S REBELLION.—THE
+BEGINNING OF THE GREEK INSURRECTION.—COUNT JOHN CAPODISTRIAS.—PRINCE
+ALEXANDER HYPSILANTES.—THE REVOLUTION IN THE MOREA.—THEODORE
+KOLKOTRONES.—THE REVOLUTION IN THE ISLANDS.—THE GREEK NAVY AND ITS
+CHARACTER.—THE EXCESSES OF THE GREEKS.—THEIR BAD GOVERNMENT.—PRINCE
+ALEXANDER MAVROCORDATOS.—THE PROGRESS OF THE REVOLUTION.—THE
+SPOLIATION OF THE CHIOS.—ENGLISH PHILHELLENES; THOMAS GORDON, FRANK
+ABNEY HASTINGS, LORD BYRON.—THE FIRST GREEK LOAN, AND THE BAD USES
+TO WHICH IT WAS PUT.—REVERSES OF THE GREEKS.—IBRAHIM AND HIS
+SUCCESSES.—MAVROCORDATOS'S LETTER TO LORD COCHRANE.
+
+
+[1820-1825.]
+
+While Lord Cochrane was rendering efficient service to the cause of
+freedom in South America, another war of independence was being waged
+in Europe; and he had hardly been at home a week before solicitations
+pressed upon him from all quarters that he should lend his great name
+and great abilities to this war also. As he consented to do so, and
+almost from the moment of his arrival was intimately connected with
+the Greek Revolution, the previous stages of this memorable episode,
+the incidents that occurred during his absence in Chili and Brazil,
+need to be here reviewed and recapitulated.
+
+The Greek Revolution began openly in 1821. But there had been long
+previous forebodings of it. The dwellers in the land once peopled by
+the noble race which planned and perfected the arts and graces, the
+true refinements and the solid virtues that are the basis of our
+modern civilization, had been for four centuries and more the slaves
+of the Turks. They were hardly Greeks, if by that name is implied
+descent from the inhabitants of classic Greece. With the old stock had
+been blended, from generation to generation, so many foreign elements
+that nearly all trace of the original blood had disappeared, and the
+modern Greeks had nothing but their residence and their language to
+justify them in maintaining the old title. But their slavery was only
+too real. Oppressed by the Ottomans on account of their race and their
+religion, the oppression was none the less in that it induced many of
+them to cast off the last shreds of freedom and deck themselves in the
+coarser, but, to slavish minds, the pleasanter bondage of trickery and
+meanness. During the eighteenth century, many Greeks rose to eminence
+in the Turkish service, and proved harder task-masters to their
+brethren than the Turks themselves generally were. The hope of further
+aggrandisement, however, led them to scheme the overthrow of their
+Ottoman employers, and their projects were greatly aided by the truer,
+albeit short-sighted, patriotism that animated the greater number of
+their kinsmen. They groaned under Turkish thraldom, and yearned to
+be freed from it, in the temper so well described and so worthily
+denounced by Lord Byron in 1811:—
+
+  "And many dream withal the hour is nigh
+  That gives them back their fathers' heritage:
+  For foreign arms and aid they loudly sigh,
+  Nor solely dare encounter hostile rage.
+  Hereditary bondsmen! know ye not
+  Who would be free themselves must strike the blow?
+  By their right arm the conquest must be wrought.
+  Will Gaul or Muscovite redress ye?—No!
+  True, they may lay your proud despoilers low,
+  But not for you will Freedom's altars flame."
+
+The Greeks, all but a few genuine patriots, thought otherwise. They
+sought deliverance at the hands of Gauls and Muscovites; and, as the
+Muscovites had good reason for desiring the overthrow of Turkey, they
+listened to their prayers, and other ties than that of community in
+religion bound the persecuted Greeks to Russia. The Philiké Hetaira,
+or Friendly Society, chief representative of a very general movement,
+was founded at Odessa in 1814. It was a secret society, which speedily
+had ramifications among the Greek Christians in every part of Turkey,
+encouraging them to prepare for insurrection as soon as the Czar
+Alexander I. deemed it expedient to aid them by open invasion of
+Turkey, or as soon as they themselves could take the initiative,
+trusting to Russia to complete the work of revolution. The Friendly
+Society increased its influence and multiplied its visionary schemes
+during many years previous to 1821.
+
+Its strength was augmented by the political condition of Turkey at the
+time. The Sultan Mahmud—a true type of the Ottoman sovereign at
+his worst—had attempted to perfect his power by a long train of
+cruelties, of which murder was the lightest. Defeating his own purpose
+thereby, he aroused the opposition of Mahometan as well as Christian
+subjects, and induced the rebellious schemes of Ali Pasha of Joannina,
+the boldest of his vassals. In Albania Ali ruled with a cruelty that
+was hardly inferior to Mahmud's. Byron tells how his
+
+  "dread command
+  Is lawless law; for with a bloody hand
+  He sways a nation turbulent and told."
+
+The cruelty could be tolerated; but not opposition to Mahmud's
+will. Long and growing jealousy existed between the Sultan and his
+tributary. At length, in 1820, there was an open rupture. Ali was
+denounced as a traitor, and ordered to surrender his pashalik. Instead
+of so doing, he organized his army for prompt rebellion, trusting for
+success partly to the support of the Greeks. Most of the Greeks held
+aloof; but the Suliots, a race of Christian marauders, the fiercest of
+the fierce community of Albanians, sided with him, and for more than a
+year rendered him valuable aid by reason of their hereditary skill in
+lawless warfare. Not till January, 1822, was Ali forced to surrender,
+and then only, perhaps, through the defection of the Suliots.
+
+The Suliots, dissatisfied with Ali's recompense for their services,
+had gone over to the Greeks, who, not caring to serve under Ali in his
+rebellion, had welcomed that rebellion as a Heaven-sent opportunity
+for realising their long-cherished hopes. The Turkish garrisons in
+Greece being half unmanned in order that the strongest possible force
+might be used in subduing Ali, and Turkish government in the peninsula
+being at a standstill, the Greeks found themselves in an excellent
+position for asserting their freedom. Had they been less degraded than
+they were by their long centuries of slavery, or had there been some
+better organization than that which the purposes and the methods of
+the Friendly Society afforded for developing the latent patriotism
+which was honest and wide-spread, they might have achieved a triumph
+worthy of the classic name they bore and the heroic ancestry that they
+claimed.
+
+Unfortunately, the Friendly Society, already degenerated from the
+unworthy aim with which it started, now an elaborate machinery of
+personal ambition, private greed, and local spite, the willing tool of
+Russia, was master of the situation. The mastery, however, was by no
+means thorough. The society had dispossessed all other organizations,
+but had no organization of its own adequate to the working out of
+a successful rebellion. Its machinery was tolerably perfect, but
+efficient motive-power was wanting. Its exchequer was empty; its
+counsels were divided; above all, it had alienated the sympathies of
+the worthiest patriots of Greece. Finding itself suddenly in the
+way of triumph, it was incapable of rightly progressing in that way.
+Obstacles of its own raising, and obstacles raised by others, stood
+in the path, and only a very wise man had the chance of successfully
+removing them.
+
+The wise man did not exist, or was not to be obtained. Perhaps the
+wisest, though, as later history proved, not very wise, was Count John
+Capodistrias, a native of Corfu. Born in 1777, he had gone to Italy to
+study and practise medicine. There also he studied, afterwards to put
+in practice, the effete Machiavellianism then in vogue. In 1803 he
+entered political life as secretary to the lately-founded republic
+of the Ionian Islands. Napoleon's annexation of the Ionian Islands in
+1807 drove him into the service of Russia, and, as Russian agent, he
+advocated, at the Vienna Conference of 1815, the reconstruction of the
+Ionian republic. The partial concession of Great Britain towards that
+project, by which the Ionian Islands were established as a sort of
+commonwealth, dependent upon England, enabled him to live and work
+in Corfu, awaiting the realization of his own patriotic schemes, and
+watching the patriotic movement in Greece. Italian in his education,
+and Russian in his sympathies, he was still an honest Greek, worthier
+and abler than most other influential Greeks. "He had many virtues and
+great abilities," says a competent critic. "His conduct was firm and
+disinterested, his manners simple and dignified. His personal feelings
+were warm, and, as a consequence of this virtue, they were sometimes
+so strong as to warp his judgment. He wanted the equanimity and
+impartiality of mind, and the elevation of soul necessary to make
+a great man."[A] In spite of his defects, he might have done good
+service to the Greek Revolution, had he accepted the offer of its
+leadership, shrewdly tendered to him by the Friendly Society. But this
+he declined, having no liking for the society, and no trust in its
+methods and designs.
+
+[Footnote A: Finlay, "History of the Greek Revolution" (1861), vol.
+ii., p. 196. Mr. Finlay served as a volunteer in Greece under Captain
+Abney Hastings. His work is certainly the best on the subject, though
+we shall have in later pages to differ widely from its strictures on
+Lord Cochrane's motives and action. But our complaints will be less
+against his history than against the two other leading ones—General
+Gordon's "History of the Greek Revolution" (1832), and M. Trikoupes's
+"[Greek: Historia tês Hellênikês Epanastaseôs]" (1853-6), which is not
+very much more than a paraphrase of Gordon's work.]
+
+The Friendly Society then sought and found a leader, far inferior
+to Count Capodistrias, in Prince Alexander Hypsilantes, the son of a
+Hospodar of Wallachia who had been deposed in 1806. Hypsilantes had
+been educated in Russia, and had there risen to some rank, high enough
+at any rate to quicken his ambition and vanity, both as a soldier and
+as a courtier. He was not without virtues; but he was utterly unfit
+for the duties imposed upon him as leader of the Greek Revolution.
+Not a Greek himself, his purpose in accepting the office seems to have
+been to make Greece an appendage of the despotic monarchy, which, by
+means of the political crisis, he hoped to establish in Wallachia,
+under Russian protection. With that view, in March 1821, he led the
+first crude army of Greek and other Christian rebels into Moldavia.
+There and in Wallachia he stirred up a brief revolt, attended by
+military blunders and lawless atrocities which soon brought vengeance
+upon himself and made a false beginning of the revolutionary work.
+Moldavia and Wallachia were quickly restored to Turkish rule, and
+Hypsilantes had in June to fly for safety into Austria. But the bad
+example that he set, and the evil influence that he and his promoters
+and followers of the Friendly Society exerted, initiated a false
+policy and encouraged a pernicious course of action, by which the
+cause of the Greeks was injured for years.
+
+The real Greek revolution began in the Morea. There the Friendly
+Society did good work in showing the people that the hour for action
+had come; but its direction of that action was for the most part
+mischievous. The worst Greeks were the leaders, and, under their
+guidance, the play of evil passions—inevitable in all efforts of the
+oppressed to overturn their oppressors—was developed to a grievous
+extent. Turkish blood was first shed on the 25th of March, 1821, and
+within a week the whole of the Morea was in a ferment of rebellion. By
+the 22nd of April, which was Easter Sunday, it is reckoned that from
+ten to fifteen thousand Mahometans had been slaughtered in cold blood,
+and about three thousand Turkish homes destroyed.
+
+The promoters of all that wanton atrocity were the directors of the
+Friendly Society, among whom the Archimandrate Gregorios Dikaios,
+nicknamed Pappa Phlesas, and Petros Mavromichales, or Petro-Bey, were
+the most conspicuous. Its principal agents were the klepht or brigand
+chieftains, best represented by Theodore Kolokotrones.
+
+Born about 1770, of a family devoted to the use of arms in predatory
+ways, Kolokotrones had led a lawless life until 1806, when the Greek
+peasantry called in the assistance of their Turkish rulers in hunting
+down their persecutors of their own race, and when, several of his
+family being slain, he himself had to seek refuge in Zante. There he
+maintained himself, partly by piracy, partly by cattle-dealing.
+In 1810 the English annexation of the Ionian Islands led to his
+employment, first as captain and afterwards as major, in the Greek
+contingent of the British army. He had amassed much wealth, and was
+in the prime of life when, in January, 1821, he returned to his early
+home, to revive his old brigand life under the name of legitimate
+warfare. His thorough knowledge of the country, its passes and its
+strongholds, and his familiarity with the modes of fighting proper to
+them, his handsome person and agreeable deportment, his shrewd wit and
+persuasive oratory, made him one of the most influential agents of
+the Revolution at its commencement, and his influence grew during the
+ensuing years.
+
+The flame of rebellion, having spread through the Morea during the
+early weeks of April, extended rapidly over the adjoining districts of
+the mainland. By the end of June the insurgents were masters of
+nearly all the country now possessed by modern Greece. Their cause
+was heartily espoused by the Suliots of Albania and other
+fellow-Christians in the various Turkish provinces, and their kinsmen
+of the outlying islands were eager to join in the work of national
+regeneration, and to contribute largely to the completion of that work
+by their naval prowess.
+
+It was naval prowess, as our later pages will abundantly show, of
+a very barbarous and undeveloped sort. Besides the two principal
+seaports on the mainland, Tricheri on Mount Pelion and Galaxidhi on
+the Gulf of Corinth, there were famous colonies of Greek seamen in the
+islands of Psara and Kasos, and similar colonies of Albanians in Hydra
+and Spetzas. These and the other islands had long practised irregular
+commerce, and protected that commerce by irregular fighting with the
+Turks. At the first sound of revolution they threw in their lot with
+the insurgents of the mainland, and thus a nondescript navy of some
+four hundred brigs and schooners, of from sixty to four hundred tons'
+burthen, and manned by about twelve thousand sailors, adepts alike
+in trade and piracy, but very unskilled in orderly warfare, and very
+feebly inspired by anything like disinterested patriotism, was ready
+to use and abuse its powers during the ensuing seven years' fight for
+Greek independence.
+
+During the summer of 1821, while the continental Greeks were rushing
+to arms, murdering the Turkish residents among them by thousands, and
+thus bringing down upon themselves, or upon those of their own race
+who, as peasants and burghers, took no important share in actual
+fighting, the murderous vengeance of the Turkish troops sent to
+attempt the suppression of the revolt, these sailors were pursuing an
+easier and more profitable game. The Turkish ports were not warlike,
+and the Turkish trading ships were not prepared for fighting. In May,
+a formidable crowd of vessels left the islands on a cruise, from which
+they soon returned with an immense store of booty. Early in June, the
+best Turkish fleet that could be brought together, consisting of two
+line-of-battle ships, three frigates, and three sloops, went out to
+harass, if not to destroy, the swarm of smaller enemies. Jakomaki
+Tombazes, with thirty-seven of these smaller enemies, set off to meet
+them, and falling in with one of the ships, gave her chase, till, in
+the roads of Eripos, she was attacked on the 8th of June, and, with
+the help of a fireship, destroyed with a loss of nearly four hundred
+men. That victory caused the flight of the other Turkish vessels, and
+was the beginning of much cruel work at sea and with ships, which,
+not often daring to meet in open fight, wrought terrible mischief to
+unprotected ports and islands.
+
+The mischief wrought upon the land was yet more terrible. A seething
+tide of Greek and Moslem blood heaved to and fro, as, during the
+second half of 1821, each party in turn gained temporary ascendency in
+one district after another. Greeks murdered Turks, and Turks murdered
+Greeks, with equal ferocity; or perhaps the ferocity of the Greeks,
+stirred by bad leaders to revenge themselves for all their previous
+sufferings, even surpassed that of the Turks. Of their cruelty a
+glaring instance occurred in their capture of Navarino. The Turkish
+inhabitants having held out as long as a mouthful of food was left
+in the town, were forced to capitulate on the 19th of August. It was
+promised that, upon their surrendering, the Greek vessels were to
+convey them, their wearing apparel, and their household furniture,
+either to Egypt or to Tunis. No sooner were the gates opened than
+a wholesale plunder and slaughter ensued. A Greek ecclesiastic has
+described the scene. "Women wounded with musket-balls and sabre-cuts
+rushed to the sea, seeking to escape, and were deliberately shot.
+Mothers robbed of their clothes, with infants in their arms, plunged
+into the water to conceal themselves from shame, and they were then
+made a mark for inhuman riflemen. Greeks seized infants from their
+mothers' breasts and dashed them against the rocks. Children, three
+and four years old, were hurled, living, into the sea, and left to
+drown. When the massacre was ended, the dead bodies washed ashore, or
+piled on the beach, threatened to cause a pestilence."[A] At the sack
+of Tripolitza, on the 8th of October, about eight thousand Moslems
+were murdered, the last two thousand, chiefly women and children,
+being taken into a neighbouring ravine, there to be slaughtered at
+leisure. Two years afterwards a ghastly heap of bones attested the
+inhuman deed.
+
+[Footnote A: Finlay, vol. i.; p. 263, citing Phrantzes.]
+
+In ways like these the first stage of the Greek Revolution was
+achieved. Before the close of 1821, it appeared to the Greeks
+themselves, to their Moslem enemies, and to their many friends in
+England, France, and other countries, that the triumph was complete.
+Unfortunately, the same bad motives and the same bad methods that had
+so grievously polluted the torrent of patriotism continued to poison
+and disturb the stream which might otherwise have been henceforth
+clear, steady, and health-giving. Greece was free, but, unless another
+and a much harder revolution could be effected in the temper and
+conduct of its own people, unfit to put its freedom to good use or
+even to maintain it. "The rapid success of the Greeks during the first
+few weeks of the revolution," says their ablest historian, "threw the
+management of much civil and financial business into the hands of the
+proësti and demogeronts in office. The primates, who already exercised
+great official authority, instantly appropriated that which had been
+hitherto exercised by murdered voivodes and beys. Every primate strove
+to make himself a little independent potentate, and every captain of
+a district assumed the powers of a commander-in-chief. The Revolution,
+before six months had passed, seemed to have peopled Greece with a
+host of little Ali Pashas. When the primate and the captain acted in
+concert, they collected the public revenues; administered the Turkish
+property, which was declared national; enrolled, paid, and provisioned
+as many troops as circumstances required, or as they thought fit;
+named officers; formed a local guard for the primate of the best
+soldiers in the place, who were thus often withdrawn from the public
+service; and organised a local police and a local treasury. This I
+system of local self-government, constituted in a very self-willed
+manner, and relieved from almost all responsibility, was soon
+established as a natural result of the Revolution over all Greece.
+The Sultan's authority having ceased, every primate assumed the
+prerogatives of the Sultan. For a few weeks this state of things was
+unavoidable, and, to an able and honest chief or government, it would
+have facilitated the establishment of a strong central authority; but
+by the vices of Greek society it was perpetuated into an organised
+anarchy. No improvement was made in financial arrangements, or in the
+system of taxation; no measures were adopted for rendering property
+more secure; no attempt was made to create an equitable administration
+of justice; no courts of law were established; and no financial
+accounts were published. Governments were formed, constitutions were
+drawn up, national assemblies met, orators debated, and laws were
+passed according to the political fashion patronised by the liberals
+of the day. But no effort was made to prevent the Government
+being virtually absolute, unless it was by rendering it absolutely
+powerless. The constitutions were framed to remain a dead letter. The
+national assemblies were nothing but conferences of parties, and the
+laws passed were intended to fascinate Western Europe, not to operate
+with effect in Greece."[A]
+
+[Footnote A: Finlay, vol. i., pp. 280, 281.]
+
+The supreme government of Greece had been assumed in June by Prince
+Demetrius Hypsilantes, a worthier man than his brother Alexander, but
+by no means equal to the task he took in hand. At first the brigand
+chiefs and local potentates, not willing to surrender any of the power
+they had acquired, were disposed to render to him nominal submission,
+believing that his name and his Russian influence would be serviceable
+to the cause of Greece. But Hypsilantes showed himself utterly
+incompetent, and it was soon apparent that his sympathies were wholly
+alien to those both of the Greek people and of their military and
+civil leaders. Therefore another master had to be chosen. Kolokotrones
+might have succeeded to the dignity, and he certainly had vigour
+enough of disposition, and enough honesty and dishonesty combined, to
+make the position one of power as well as of dignity. For that very
+reason, however, his comrades and rivals were unwilling to place him
+in it. They desired a president skilful enough to hold the reins of
+government with a very loose hand, yet so as to keep them from getting
+hopelessly entangled—one who should be a smart secretary and adviser,
+without assuming the functions of a director.
+
+Such a man they found in Prince Alexander Mavrocordatos, then about
+thirty-two years old. He was a kinsman of a Hospodar of Wallachia,
+by whom he had in his youth been employed in political matters. After
+that he had resided in France, where he acquired much fresh knowledge,
+and where his popularity helped to quicken sympathy on behalf of
+the Greek Revolution at its first outburst. He had lately come
+to Missolonghi with a ship-load of ammunition and other material,
+procured and brought at his own expense, and soon attained
+considerable influence. Always courteous in his manners, only
+ungenerous in his actions where the interests of others came into
+collision with his own, less strong-willed and less ambitious than
+most of his associates, those associates were hardly jealous of his
+popularity at home, and wholly pleased with his popularity among
+foreigners. It was a clear gain to their cause to have Shelley writing
+his "Hellas," and dedicating the poem to Mavrocordatos, as "a token of
+admiration, sympathy, and friendship."
+
+Mavrocordatos was named President of Greece in the Constitution of
+Epidaurus, chiefly his own workmanship, which was proclaimed on the
+13th of January—New Year's Day, according to the reckoning of the
+Greek Church—1822. It is not necessary here to detail his own acts or
+those of his real or professing subordinates. All we have to do is to
+furnish a general account, and a few characteristic illustrations, of
+the course of events during the Greek Revolution, in explanation of
+the state of parties and of politics at the time of Lord Cochrane's
+advent among them. These events were marked by continuance of the same
+selfish policy, divided interests, class prejudice, and individual
+jealousy that have been already referred to. The mass of the Greek
+people were, as they had been from the first, zealous in their desire
+for freedom, and, having won it, they were not unwilling to use it
+honestly. For their faults their leaders are chiefly to be blamed; and
+in apology for those leaders, it must be remembered that they were an
+assemblage of soldiers who had been schooled in oriental brigandage,
+of priests whose education had been in a corrupt form of Christianity
+made more corrupt by persecution, of merchants who had found it hard
+to trade without trickery, and of seamen who had been taught to
+regard piracy as an honourable vocation. Perhaps we have less cause to
+condemn them for the errors and vices that they exhibited during their
+fight for freedom, than to wonder that those errors and vices were not
+more reprehensible in themselves and disastrous in their issues.
+
+For about six years the fight was maintained without foreign aid, save
+that given by private volunteers and generous champions in Western
+Europe, against a state numerically nearly twenty times as strong as
+the little community of revolutionists. In it, along with much wanton
+cruelty, was displayed much excellent heroism. But the heroism was
+reckless and undisciplined, and therefore often worse than useless.
+
+Memorable instances both of recklessness and of want of discipline
+appeared in the attempts made to wrest Chios from the Turks in 1822.
+The Greek inhabitants of this island, on whom the Turkish yoke pressed
+lightly, had refused to join in the insurgent movement of their
+brethren on the mainland and in the neighbouring islands. But it was
+considered that a little coercion would induce them to share in
+the Revolution and convert their prosperous island into a Greek
+possession. Therefore, in March, a small force of two thousand five
+hundred men crossed the archipelago, took possession of Koutari,
+the principal town, and proceeded to invest the Turkish citadel.
+The Chiots, though perhaps not very willingly, took part in the
+enterprise; but the invading party was quite unequal to the work it
+had undertaken. In April a formidable Turkish squadron arrived, and
+by it Chios was easily recovered, to become the scene of vindictive
+atrocities, which brought all the terrified inhabitants who were
+not slaughtered, or who could not escape, into abject submission.
+Thereupon, on the 10th of May, a Greek fleet of fifty-six vessels was
+despatched by Mavrocordatos to attempt a more thorough capture of the
+island. Its commander was Andreas Miaoulis, a Hydriot merchant, who
+proved himself the best sea-captain among the Greeks. Had Miaoulis
+been able, as he wished, to start sooner and meet the Turkish squadron
+on its way to Chios, a brilliant victory might have resulted, instead
+of one of the saddest catastrophes in the whole Greek war. Being
+deterred therefrom by the vacillation of Mavrocordatos and the
+insubordination of his captains and their crews, he was only able to
+reach the island when it was again in the hands of the enemy, and when
+all was ready for withstanding him. There was useless fighting on the
+31st of May and the two following days. On the 18th of June, Miaoulis
+made another attack; but he was only able to destroy the Turkish
+flag-ship, and nearly all on board, by means of a fire-vessel. His
+fleet was unmanageable, and he had to abandon the enterprise and to
+leave the unfortunate Chiots to endure further punishment for offences
+that were not their own. This punishment was so terrible that, in six
+months, the population of Chios was reduced from one hundred thousand
+to thirty thousand. Twenty thousand managed to escape. Fifty thousand
+were either put to death or sold as slaves in Asia Minor.
+
+That failure of the Greeks at Chios, quickly followed by their
+defeat on land at Petta, greatly disheartened the revolutionists.
+Mavrocordatos virtually resigned his presidentship, and there was
+anarchy in Greece till 1828. Athens, captured from the Turks in June,
+1822, became the centre of jealous rivalry and visionary scheming,
+mismanagement, and government that was worse than no government at
+all. Odysseus, the vilest of the vile men whom the Revolution brought
+to the surface, was its master for some time; and, when he played
+traitor to the Turks, he was succeeded by others hardly better than
+himself.
+
+In spite of some heavy disasters, however, the Greeks were so far
+successful during 1822 that in 1823 they were able to hold their
+newly-acquired territory and to wrest some more fortresses from their
+enemies. The real heroism that they had displayed, moreover—the foul
+cruelties of which they were guilty and the selfish courses which they
+pursued being hardly reported to their friends, and, when reported,
+hardly believed—awakened keen sympathy on their behalf. Shelley and
+Byron, and many others of less note, had sung their virtues and their
+sufferings in noble verse and enlarged upon them in eloquent prose,
+and in England and France, in Switzerland, Germany, and the United
+States, a strong party of Philhellenes was organized to collect money
+and send recruits for their assistance.
+
+The two Philhellenes of greatest note who served in Greece during the
+earlier years of the Revolution were Thomas Gordon and Frank Abney
+Hastings. Gordon, who attained the rank of general in the army of
+independence, had the advantage of a long previous and thorough
+acquaintance with the character of both Turks and Greeks and with the
+languages that they spoke. He watched all the revolutionary movements
+from the beginning, and took part in many of them. In the "History
+of the Greek Revolution," which he published in 1832, he gave such
+a vivid and, in the main, so accurate an account of them that his
+narrative has formed the basis of the more ambitious work of the
+native historian, Mr. Trikoupes. Of the vices and errors of the
+people on whose behalf he fought and wrote he spoke boldly. "Whatever
+national or individual wrong the Greeks may have endured," he said
+in one place, "it is impossible to justify the ferocity of their
+vengeance or to deny that a comparison instituted between them and the
+Ottoman generals, Mehemet Aboulaboud, Omer Vrioni, and the Kehaya Bey
+of Kurshid, would give to the latter the palm of humanity. Humanity,
+however, is a word quite out of place when applied either to them or
+to their opponents." In another page, further denouncing the Greek
+leaders, he wrote: "Panourias was the worst of these local despots,
+whom some writers have elevated into heroes. He was, in fact, an
+ignoble robber, hardened in evil. He enriched himself with the spoils
+of the Mahometans; yet he and his retinue of brigands compelled the
+people to maintain them at free quarters, in idleness and luxury,
+exacting not only bread, meat, wine, and forage, but also sugar and
+coffee. Hence springs the reflection that the Greeks had cause to
+repent their early predilection for the klephts, who were almost all,
+beginning with Kolokotrones, infamous for the sordid perversity of
+their dispositions."[A] Gordon's disinterested and brave efforts to
+bring about a better state of things and to help on the cause of
+real patriotism in Greece were highly praiseworthy; but, as another
+historian has truly said, "he did not possess the activity and
+decision of character necessary to obtain commanding influence in
+council, or to initiate daring measures in the field."[B]
+
+[Footnote A: Gordon, vol. i., pp. 313, 400.]
+
+[Footnote B: Finlay, vol. ii., p. 129.]
+
+Frank Abney Hastings was an abler man. Born in 1794, he was started in
+the naval profession when only eleven years old. Six months after the
+commencement of his midshipman's life he was present, on board the
+_Neptune_, at the battle of Trafalgar, and during the ensuing fourteen
+years he served in nearly every quarter of the globe. His independent
+spirit, however—something akin to Lord Cochrane's—brought him into
+disfavour, and, in 1819, for challenging a superior officer who had
+insulted him, he was dismissed from the British navy. Disheartened and
+disgusted, he resided in France for about three years. At length he
+resolved to go and fight for the Greeks, partly out of sympathy for
+their cause, partly as a relief from the misery of forced idleness,
+partly with the view of developing a plan which he had been devising
+for extending the use of steamships in naval warfare,—to which last
+excellent improvement he greatly contributed. He arrived at Hydra in
+April, 1822, just in time to take part in the fighting off Chios.
+One of his ingenious suggestions, made to Andreas Miaoulis, and its
+reception, have been described by himself. "I proposed to direct a
+fireship and three other vessels upon the frigate, and, when near the
+enemy, to set fire to certain combustibles which should throw out
+a great flame. The enemy would naturally conclude they were all
+fireships. The vessels were then to attach themselves to the frigate,
+fire broadsides, double-shotted, throwing on board the enemy at the
+same time combustible balls which gave a great smoke without flame.
+This would doubtless induce him to believe he was on fire, and give
+a most favourable opportunity for boarding him. However, the admiral
+returned my plan, saying only [Greek: kalo], without asking a single
+question, or wishing me to explain its details; and I observed a kind
+of insolent contempt in his manner. This interview with the admiral
+disgusted me. They place you in a position in which it is impossible
+to render any service, and then they boast of their own superiority,
+and of the uselessness of the Franks, as they call us, in Turkish
+warfare." Miaoulis, however, soon gained wisdom and made good use of
+Captain Hastings, who spent more than 7000£—all his patrimony—in
+serving the Greeks. He was almost the only officer in their employ
+who, during the earlier years of the Revolution, succeeded in
+establishing any sort of discipline or good management.
+
+Lord Byron, the most illustrious of all the early Philhellenes, used
+to say, shortly before his death, that with Napier at the head of the
+army and Hastings in command of a fleet the triumph of Greece might
+be insured. Byron was then at Missolonghi, whither he had gone in
+January, 1824, to die in April. Long before, while stirring up the
+sympathy of all lovers of liberty for the cause of regeneration in
+Greece, he had shown that regeneration could be by no means a short or
+easy work, and now he had to report that the real work was hardly
+yet begun—nay, that it seemed almost further off than ever. "Of the
+Greeks," he wrote, "I can't say much good hitherto, and I do not like
+to speak ill of them, though they do of one another."
+
+It was chiefly at Byron's instigation that the first Greek loan was
+contracted, in London, early in 1824. Its proceeds, 300,000£, were
+spent partly in unprofitable outlay upon ships, ammunition, and the
+like, of which the people were in no position to make good use, but
+mostly in civil war and in pandering to the greed and vanity of the
+members of the Government and their subordinate officials. "Phanariots
+and doctors in medicine," says an eye-witness, "who, in the month
+of April, 1824, were clad in ragged coats, and who lived on scanty
+rations, threw off that patriotic chrysalis before summer was past,
+and emerged in all the splendour of brigand life, fluttering about in
+rich Albanian habiliments, refulgent with brilliant and unused arms,
+and followed by diminutive pipe-bearers and tall henchmen."[A]
+
+[Footnote A: Finky, vol. ii. p. 39.]
+
+Even the scanty allowance made by the Greek Government out of its
+newly-acquired wealth for fighting purposes was for the most part
+squandered almost as frivolously. One general who drew pay and rations
+for seven hundred soldiers went to fight and die at Sphakteria at
+the head of seventeen armed peasants.[A] And that is only a glaring
+instance of peculations that were all but universal.
+
+[Footnote A: Trikoupes, vol. iii., p. 206.]
+
+That being the degradation to which the leaders of the Greek
+Revolution had sunk, it is not strange that its gains in previous
+years should have begun in 1824 to be followed by heavy losses. The
+Greek people—the peasants and burghers—were still patriots, though
+ill-trained and misdirected. They could defend their own homesteads
+with unsurpassed heroism, and hold their own mountains and valleys
+with fierce persistency. But they were unfit for distant fighting,
+even when their chiefs consented to employ them in it. Sultan Mahmud,
+therefore, who had been profiting by the hard experience of former
+years, and whose strength had been steadily growing while the power
+of the insurgents had been rapidly weakening, entered on a new and
+successful policy. He left the Greeks to waste their energies in their
+own possessions, and resolved to recapture, one after another, the
+outposts and ill-protected islands. For this he took especial care
+in augmenting his navy, and, besides developing his own resources,
+induced his powerful and turbulent vassal, Mohammed Ali, the Pasha of
+Egypt, to equip a formidable fleet and entrust it to his son Ibrahim,
+on whom was conferred the title of Vizier of the Morea.
+
+Even without that aid Mahmud was able to do much in furtherance of his
+purpose. The island of Kasos was easily recovered, and full vengeance
+was wreaked on its Greek inhabitants on the 20th of June. Soon
+afterwards Psara was seized and punished yet more hardly.
+
+On the 19th of July Ibrahim left Alexandria with a naval force which
+swept the southern seas of Greek pirates or privateers. On the 1st
+of September he effected a junction with the Turkish fleet at Budrun.
+Their united strength comprised forty-six ships, frigates, and
+corvettes, and about three hundred transports, large and small. The
+Greek fleet, between seventy and eighty sail, would have been strong
+enough to withstand it under any sort of good management; but good
+management was wanting, and the crews were quite beyond the control of
+their masters. The result was that in a series of small battles during
+the autumn of 1824 the Mahometans were generally successful, and their
+enemies found themselves at the close of the year terribly discomfited
+The little organization previously existing was destroyed, and the
+revolutionists felt that they had no prospect of advantageously
+carrying on their strife at sea without assistance and guidance that
+could not be looked for among themselves.
+
+Their troubles were increased in the following year. In February and
+March, 1825, Ibrahim landed a formidable army in the Morea, and began
+a course of operations in which the land forces and the fleet
+combined to dispossess the Greeks of their chief strongholds. The
+strongly-fortified island of Sphakteria, the portal of Navarino and
+Pylos, was taken on the 8th of May. Pylos capitulated on the 11th,
+and Navarino on the 21st of the same month. Other citadels, one after
+another, were surrendered; and Ibrahim and his army spent the summer
+in scouring the Morea and punishing its inhabitants, with the utmost
+severity, for the lawless brigandage and the devoted patriotism of
+which they had been guilty during the past four years.
+
+The result was altogether disheartening to the Greeks. They saw that
+their condition was indeed desperate. George Konduriottes, a Hydriot
+merchant, an Albanian who could not speak Greek, and who was alike
+unable to govern himself or others, had, in June, 1824, been named
+president of the republic, and since then the rival interests of the
+primates, the priests, and the military leaders had been steadily
+causing the decay of all that was left of patriotism and increase of
+the selfishness that had so long been rampant.
+
+There was one consequence of this degradation, however, which promised
+to be very beneficial. Seeing that their cause was being rapidly
+weakened, and that their hard-fought battle for liberty was in danger
+of speedy and ignominious reversal by their own divisions, by the
+stealthy encroachments of the Ottomans in the north, and by the more
+energetic advances of the Egyptians in the south, the Greeks resolved
+to abandon some of their jealousies and greeds, to look for a saviour
+from without, and, on his coming, to try and submit themselves
+honestly and heartily to his leadership. The issue of that resolution
+was the following letter, written by Mavrocordatos, then Secretary to
+the National Assembly:—
+
+"Milord,—Tandis que vos rares talens étaient consacrés à procurer le
+bonheur d'un pays séparé par un espace immense de la Grèce, celle-ci
+ne voyait pas sans admiration, sans intérêt, sans une espèce de
+jalousie secrète même, les succès brillants qui ont toujours couronné
+vos nobles efforts, et rendu à l'indépendance un des plus beaux, des
+plus riches pays du monde. Votre retour en Angleterre a excité la plus
+vive joie dans le coeur du citoyen Grèc et de ses représentans par
+l'espoir flattereur qu'ils commencent à concevoir que, celui qui s'est
+si noblement dédié à procurer le bonheur d'une nation, ne refusera
+pas d'en faire autant pour celui d'une autre, qui ne lui offre pas
+une carrière moins brillante et moins digne de lui et par son nom
+historique, et par ses malheurs passés et par ses efforts actuels pour
+reconquérir sa liberté et son indépendance. Les mers qui rappellent
+les victoires des Thémistocles et des Timon, ne seront pas un théâtre
+indifférent pour celui qui sait apprécier les grands hommes, et un des
+premiers amiraux de notre siècle ne verra qu' avec plaisir qu'il est
+appellé à renouveler les beaux jours de Salamine et de Mycale à la
+tête des Miaoulis, des Sachtouris et des Kanaris.
+
+"C'est avec la plus grande satisfaction, milord, que je me vois chargé
+de faire, au nom du Gouvernement, à votre seigneurie, la proposition
+du commandement général des forces navales de la Grèce. Si votre
+seigneurie est disposée à l'accepter, Messieurs les Deputés
+du Gouvernement Grèc à Londres ont toute l'autorisation et les
+instructions nécessaires pour combiner avec elle sur les moyens à
+mettre à sa disposition, afin d'utiliser le plutôt possible
+votre noble décision et accélérer l'heureux moment que la Grèce
+reconnaissante et enthousiasmée vous verra combattre pour la cause de
+sa liberté.
+
+"Je profite de cette occasion pour prier votre seigneurie de vouloir
+bien agréer l'assurance de mon respect et de la plus haute estime avec
+laquelle j'ai l'honneur d'être, milord, de votre seigneurie le très
+humble et très obéissant serviteur,
+
+"A. Mavrocordatos,
+
+"Naples de Romanie,
+
+"Secre-genl d'Etat.
+
+"
+_le 20 Août_, —————- 1825 1er 7bre
+
+"A Sa Seigneurie le très Honorable Lord Cochrane, à Londres."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV.
+
+
+LORD COCHRANE's DISMISSAL FROM BRAZILIAN SERVICE, AND HIS ACCEPTANCE
+OF EMPLOYMENT AS CHIEF ADMIRAL OF THE GREEKS.—THE GREEK COMMITTEE AND
+THE GREEK DEPUTIES IN LONDON—THE TERMS OF LORD COCHRANE's AGREEMENT,
+AND THE CONSEQUENT PREPARATIONS.—HIS VISIT TO SCOTLAND—SIR WALTER
+SCOTT'S VERSES ON LADY COCHRANE.—LORD COCHRANE'S FORCED RETIREMENT TO
+BOULOGNE, AND THENCE TO BRUSSELS.—THE DELAYS IN FITTING OUT THE
+GREEK ARMAMENT.—CAPTAIN HASTINGS, MR. HOBHOUSE, AND SIR FRANCES
+BURDETT.—CAPTAIN HASTINGS'S MEMOIR ON THE GREEK LEADERS AND
+THEIR CHARACTERS.—THE FIRST CONSEQUENCE OF LORD COCHRANE's NEW
+ENTERPRISE.—THE DUKE OF WELLINGTON'S INDIRECT MESSAGE TO LORD
+COCHRANE.—THE GREEK DEPUTIES' PROPOSAL TO LORD COCHRANE AND HIS
+ANSWER.—THE FINAL ARRANGEMENTS FOR HIS DEPARTURE.—THE MESSIAH OF THE
+GREEKS.
+
+[1825-1826.]
+
+The letter from Mavrocordatos quoted in the last chapter was only part
+of a series of negotiations that had been long pending. Lord Cochrane,
+as we have seen, had arrived at Portsmouth on the 26th of June, 1825,
+in command of a Brazilian war-ship and still holding office as First
+Admiral of the Empire of Brazil. His intention in visiting England
+had been only to effect the necessary repairs in his ship before going
+back to Rio de Janeiro. He had no sooner arrived, however, than it was
+clear to him, from the vague and insolent language of the Brazilian
+envoy in London, that it was designed by that official, if not by the
+authorities in Rio de Janeiro, to oust him from his command. During
+four months he remained in uncertainty, determined not willingly to
+retire from his Brazilian service, but gradually convinced by the
+increasing insolence of the envoy's treatment of him that it would
+be inexpedient for him hastily to return to Brazil, where, before
+his departure, he had experienced the grossest ingratitude for his
+brilliant achievements and neglect and abuse of all sorts. At length,
+in November, upon learning that his captain and crew had been formally
+instructed to "cast off all subordination" to him, he deemed that he
+had no alternative but to consider himself dismissed from Brazilian
+employment and free to enter upon a new engagement.
+
+That engagement had been urged upon him even while he was in South
+America by his friends in England, who were also devoted friends to
+the cause of Greek independence, and the proposal had been renewed
+very soon after his arrival at Portsmouth. It was so freely talked of
+among all classes of the English public and so openly discussed in the
+newspapers before the middle of August that by it Lord Cochrane's last
+relations with the Brazilian envoy were seriously complicated. "Lord
+Cochrane is looking very well, after eight years of harassing and
+ungrateful service," wrote Sir Francis Burdett on the 20th of August,
+"and, I trust, will be the liberator of Greece. What a glorious
+title!"
+
+It is needless to say that Sir Francis Burdett, always the noble
+and disinterested champion of the oppressed, and the far-seeing and
+fearless advocate of liberty both at home and abroad, was a leading
+member of the Greek Committee in London. This committee was a
+counterpart—though composed of more illustrious members than any of
+the others—of Philhellenic associations that had been organized in
+nearly every capital of Europe and in the chief towns of the United
+States. Everywhere a keen sympathy was aroused on behalf of the
+down-trodden Greeks; and the sympathy only showed itself more
+zealously when it appeared that the Greeks were still burdened with
+the moral degradation of their long centuries of slavery, and needed
+the guidance and support of men more fortunately trained than they
+had been in ways of freedom. Such a man, and foremost among such men,
+always generous, wise, and earnest, was Sir Francis Burdett, Lord
+Cochrane's oldest and best political friend, his readiest adviser
+and stoutest defender all through the weary time of his subjection to
+unmerited disgrace and heartless contumely. Another leading member
+of the Greek Committee was Mr. John Cam Hobhouse, afterwards Lord
+Broughton, Lord Byron's friend and fellow-traveller, now Sir Francis
+Burdett's colleague in the representation of Westminster as successor
+to Lord Cochrane. Another of high note was Mr. Edward Ellice, eminent
+alike as a merchant and as a statesman. Another, no less eminent, was
+Joseph Hume. Another was Mr. (afterwards Sir) John Bowring, secretary
+to the Greek Committee. By them and many others the progress of the
+Greek Revolution was carefully watched and its best interests were
+strenuously advocated, and by all the return of Lord Cochrane to
+England and the prospect of his enlistment in the Philhellenic
+enterprise afforded hearty satisfaction. To them the real liberty of
+Greece was a cherished object; and one and all united in welcoming the
+great promoter of Chilian and Brazilian independence as the liberator
+of Greece.
+
+Other honest friends of Greece were less sanguine, and more disposed
+to urge caution upon Lord Cochrane. "My very dear friend," wrote one
+of them, Dr. William Porter, from Bristol on the 25th of August, "I
+will not suffer you to be longer in England without welcoming you; for
+your health, happiness, and fame are all dear to me. I have followed
+you in your Transatlantic career with deep feelings of anxiety for
+your life, but none for your glory: I know you too well to entertain
+a fear for that. I had hoped that you would repose on your laurels and
+enjoy the evening of life in peace, but am told that you are about to
+launch a thunderbolt against the Grand Seignior on behalf of Greece.
+I wish to see Greece free; but could also wish you to rest from your
+labours. For a sexagenarian to command a fleet in ordinary war is an
+easy task, and even threescore and ten might do it; but fifty years
+are too many to conduct a naval war for a people whose pretensions to
+nautical skill you will find on a thousand occasions to give rise to
+jealousies against you. You will also find that on some important day
+they will withhold their co-operation, in order to rob you of your
+glory. The cause of Greece is, nevertheless, a glorious cause. Our
+remembrance of what their ancestors did at Salamis, at Marathon, at
+Thermopylae, gives an additional interest to all that concerns them.
+But, to say the truth of them, they are a race of tigers, and their
+ancestors were the same. I shall be glad to see them fall upon their
+aigretted keeper and his pashas; but, confound them! I would not
+answer for their destroying the man that would break their fetters and
+set them loose in all the power of recognised freedom."
+
+There was much truth in those opinions, and Lord Cochrane was not
+blind to it. That he, though now in his fiftieth year, was too old
+for any difficult seamanship or daring warfare that came in his way
+he certainly was not inclined to admit; but he was not quite as
+enthusiastic as Sir Francis Burdett and many of his other friends
+regarding the immediate purposes and the ultimate issue of the Greek
+Revolution. He was now as hearty a lover of liberty, and as willing
+to employ all his great experience and his excellent ability in its
+service, as he had been eight years before when he went to aid the
+cause of South American independence. But both in Chili and in Brazil
+he had suffered much himself, and, what was yet more galling to one
+of his generous disposition, had seen how grievously his disinterested
+efforts for the benefit of others had been stultified, by the
+selfishness and imprudence, the meanness and treachery of those whom
+he had done his utmost to direct in a sure and rapid way of freedom.
+He feared, and had good reason for fearing, like disappointments in
+any relations into which he might enter with Greece. Therefore, though
+he readily consented to work for the Hellenic revolutionists, as he
+had worked for the Chilians and Brazilians, he did so with
+something of a forlorn hope, with a fear—which in the end was fully
+justified—that thereby his own troubles might only be augmented, and
+that his philanthropic plans might in great measure be frustrated.
+Coming newly to England, where the real state of affairs in Greece,
+the selfishness of the leaders, the want of discipline among
+the masses, and the consequent weakness and embarrassment to the
+revolutionary cause, were not thoroughly understood, and where this
+understanding was especially difficult for him without previous
+acquaintance even with all the details that were known and apprehended
+by his friends, he yet saw enough to lead him to the belief that
+the work they wished him to do in Greece would be harder and more
+thankless than they supposed.
+
+This must be remembered as an answer to the first of the
+misstatements—misstatements that will have to be controverted
+at every stage of the ensuing narrative—which were carefully
+disseminated, and have been persistently recorded by political
+opponents and jealous rivals of Lord Cochrane. It has been alleged
+that he was induced by mercenary motives, and by them alone, to enter
+the service of the Greeks. His sole inducements were a desire to do
+his best on all occasions towards the punishment of oppressors and
+the relief of the oppressed, and a desire, hardly less strong, to seek
+relief in the naval enterprise that was always very dear to him
+from the oppression under which he himself suffered so heavily.
+The ingratitude that he had lately experienced in Chili and Brazil,
+however, bringing upon him much present embarrassment in lawsuits and
+other troubles, led him to use what was only common prudence in his
+negotiations with the Greek Committee and with the Greek deputies,
+John Orlando and Andreas Luriottis, who were in London at the time,
+and on whom devolved the formal arrangements for employing him and
+providing him with suitable equipments for his work.
+
+These were done with help of a second Greek loan, contracted in London
+in 1825, for 2,000,000£ Out of this sum it was agreed that Lord
+Cochrane was to receive 37,000£ at starting, and a further sum of
+20,000£ on the completion of his services; and that he was to be
+provided with a suitable squadron, for which purpose 150,000£ were
+to be expended in the construction of six steamships in England, and a
+like sum on the building and fitting out of two sixty-gun frigates in
+the United States. With the disappointments that he had experienced
+in Chili and Brazil fresh in his mind, he refused to enter on this new
+engagement without a formidable little fleet, manned by English and
+American seamen, and under his exclusive direction; and he further
+stipulated that the entire Greek fleet should be at his sole
+command, and that he should have full power to carry out his views
+independently of the Greek Government.
+
+These arrangements were completed on the 16th of August, except that
+Lord Cochrane, not having yet been actually dismissed by the Brazilian
+envoy, refused formally to pledge himself to his new employers. In
+conjunction with Sir Francis Burdett, Mr. Hobhouse, Mr. Ellice, and
+the Ricardos, as contractors, however, he made all the preliminary
+arrangements, and before the end of August he went for a two months'
+visit to his native county and other parts of Scotland, from which he
+had been absent more than twenty years.
+
+One incident in that visit was noteworthy. On the 3rd of October, Lord
+and Lady Cochrane, being in Edinburgh, went to the theatre, where
+an eager crowd assembled to do them honour. Into the after-piece an
+allusion to South America was specially introduced. Upon that
+the whole audience rose and, turning to the seats occupied by the
+visitors, showed their admiration by plaudits so long and so vehement
+that Lady Cochrane, overpowered by her feelings, burst into tears.
+Thereupon Sir Walter Scott, who was in the theatre, wrote the
+following verses:—
+
+  "I knew thee, lady, by that glorious eye,
+  By that pure brow and those dark locks of thine,
+  I knew thee for a soldier's bride, and high
+  My full heart bounded: for the golden mine
+  Of heavenly thought kindled at sight of thee,
+  Radiant with all the stars of memory.
+
+  "I knew thee, and, albeit, myself unknown,
+  I called on Heaven to bless thee for thy love,
+  The strength, the constancy thou long hast shown,
+  Each selfish aim, each womanish fear above:
+  And, lady, Heaven is with thee; thou art blest,
+  Blest in whatever thy immortal soul loves best.
+
+  "Thy name, ask Brazil, for she knows it well;
+  It is a name a hero gave to thee;
+  In every letter lurks there not a spell,—
+  The mighty spell of immortality?
+  Ye sail together down time's glittering stream;
+  Around your heads two glittering haloes gleam.
+
+  "Even now, as through the air the plaudits rung,
+  I marked the smiles that in her features came;
+  She caught the word that fell from every tongue,
+  And her eye brightened at her Cochrane's name;
+  And brighter yet became her bright eyes' blaze;
+  It was his country, and she felt the praise,—
+
+  "Ay, even as a woman, and his bride, should feel,
+  With all the warmth of an o'erflowing soul:
+  Unshaken she had seen the ensanguined steel,
+  Unshaken she had heard war's thunders roll,
+  But now her noble heart could find relief
+  In tears alone, though not the tears of grief.
+
+  "May the gods guard thee, lady, whereso'er
+  Thou wanderest in thy love and loveliness!
+  For thee may every scene and sky be fair,
+  Each hour instinct with more than happiness!
+  May all thou valuest be good and great,
+  And be thy wishes thy own future fate!"
+
+Those aspirations were very far from realised. Even during his brief
+holiday in Scotland, Lord Cochrane was troubled by the news that Mr.
+Galloway, the engineer to whom had been entrusted the chief work in
+constructing steam-boilers for the Greek vessels, was proceeding very
+slowly with his task. "My conviction is," wrote Mr. Ellice, "that
+Galloway, in undertaking so much, has promised what he can never
+perform, and that it will be Christmas, if not later, before the
+whole work is completed. No engines are to be got either in Glasgow or
+Liverpool. You know I am not sanguine, and the sooner you are here to
+judge for yourself the better. There has been no hesitation about the
+means from the beginning, but money will not produce steam-engines and
+vessels in these times."
+
+In consequence of that letter, Lord Cochrane hurried up to London at
+once, intending personally to superintend and hasten on the work. He
+arrived on the 3rd of November; but only to find that fresh troubles
+were in store for him. He had already been exposed to vexatious
+litigation, arising out of groundless and malicious prosecutions with
+reference to his Brazilian enterprise. He was now informed that a more
+serious prosecution was being initiated. The Foreign Enlistment Act,
+passed shortly after his acceptance of service under the Chilian
+Republic, and at the special instigation of the Spanish Government,
+had made his work in South America an indictable offence; but it was
+supposed that no action would be taken against him now that he had
+returned to England. As soon as it was publicly known, however, that
+he was about to embark in a new enterprise, on behalf of Greece, steps
+were taken to restrain him by means of an indictment on the score of
+his former employment. "There is a most unchristian league against
+us," he wrote to his secretary, "and fearful odds too. To be
+prosecuted at home, and not permitted to go abroad, is the devil. How
+can I be prosecuted for fighting in Brazil for the heir-apparent
+to the throne, who, whilst his father was held in restraint by the
+rebellious Cortes, contended for the legitimate rights of the royal
+House of Braganza, then the ally of England, who had, during the
+contest, by the presence of her consuls and other official agents,
+sanctioned the acts of the Prince Regent of Brazil?"
+
+It soon became clear, however, that the Government had found some
+justification of its conduct, and that active measures were being
+adopted for Lord Cochrane's punishment. He was warned by Mr. Brougham
+that, if he stayed many days longer in England, he would be arrested
+and so prevented not only from facilitating the construction of the
+Greek vessels, but even from going to Greece at all. Therefore, at the
+earnest advice of his friends, he left London for Calais on the 9th
+of November, soon to proceed to Boulogne, where he was joined by his
+family, and where he waited for six weeks, vainly hoping that in
+his absence the contractors and their overseers would see that the
+ship-building was promptly and properly executed.
+
+While at Boulogne, foreseeing the troubles that would ensue from
+these new difficulties, he was half inclined to abandon his Greek
+engagement, and in that temper he wrote to Sir Francis Burdett for
+advice. "I have taken four-and-twenty hours," wrote his good friend
+in answer, on the 18th of November, "to consider your last letter, and
+have not one moment varied in my first opinion as to the propriety
+of your persevering in your glorious career. According to Brougham's
+opinion, you cannot be put in a worse situation,—that is, more in
+peril of Government here,—by continuing foreign service in the Greek
+cause than you already stand in by having served the Emperor of the
+Brazils. In my opinion you will be in a great deal less; for, the
+greater your renown, the less power will your enemies have, whatever
+may be their inclination, to meddle with you. Perhaps they only at
+present desist to look out for a better opportunity, 'reculer pour
+mieux sauter,' like the tiger. I don't mean to accuse them of this
+baseness; but, should it be the case, the less you do the more power
+they will have to injure you, if so inclined. Were they to prosecute
+you for having served the Brazilian Emperor, it would call forth no
+public sympathy, or but slight, in your favour. The case would be
+thought very hard, to be sure; but that would be all. Not so, should
+you triumph in the Greek cause. Transcendent glory would not only
+crown but protect you. No minister would dare to wag a finger—no, nor
+even Crown lawyer a tongue—against you; and, if they did, the feeling
+of the whole English public would surround you with an impenetrable
+shield. Fines would be paid; imprisonment protested and petitioned
+against; in short, I am convinced the nation would be in a flame, and
+you in far less danger of any attempt to your injury than at present.
+This, my dear Lord Cochrane, is my firm conviction."
+
+Encouraged by that letter and other like expressions of opinion from
+his English friends, Lord Cochrane determined to persevere in his
+Greek enterprise, and to reside at Boulogne until the fleet that was
+being prepared for him was ready for service. He had to wait, however,
+very much longer than had been anticipated, and he was unable to wait
+all the time in Boulogne. There also prosecution threatened him. About
+the middle of December he heard that proceedings were about to be
+instituted against him for his detention, while in the Pacific, of a
+French brig named _La Gazelle_, the real inducement thereto being in
+the fact, as it was reported, that the French Government had espoused
+the cause of the Pasha of Egypt, and so was averse to such a plan
+for destroying the Egyptian fleet under Ibrahim as Lord Cochrane
+was concocting. Therefore, he deemed it expedient to quit French
+territory, and accordingly he left Boulogne on the 23rd of December,
+and took up his residence at Brussels, with his family, on the 28th of
+the same month.
+
+Through four weary months and more he was waiting at Brussels,
+harassed by the prosecutions arising out of the lawsuits that have
+been already alluded to, in reference to which he said in one letter,
+"I think I must make up my mind, though it is a hard task, to quit
+England for ever;" harassed even more by the knowledge that the
+building and fitting out of the vessels for his Greek expedition were
+being delayed on frivolous pretexts and for selfish ends, which his
+presence in London, if that had been possible, might, to a great
+extent, have averted. "The welfare of Greece at this moment rests much
+on your lordship," wrote Orlando, the chief deputy in London, "and
+I dare hope that you will hasten her triumph:" yet Orlando and his
+fellows were idling in London, profiting by delays that increased
+their opportunities of peculation, and doing nothing to quicken the
+construction of the fleet. Galloway, the engineer, wrote again and
+again to promise that his work should be done in three weeks,—it was
+always "three weeks hence;" yet he was well informed that Galloway
+was wilfully negligent, though he did not know till afterwards that
+Galloway, having private connections with the Pasha of Egypt, never
+intended to do the work which he was employed to do. Lord Cochrane had
+good friends at home in Sir Francis Burdett, Mr. Hobhouse, and others;
+but they were not competent to take personal supervision of the
+details. He had an experienced deputy in Captain Abney Hastings, who
+had come from Greece some time before, and who was now to return
+as Lord Cochrane's second in command; but Captain Hastings,
+single-handed, could not exert much influence upon the rogues with
+whom he had to deal. "The _Perseverance_," he wrote of the largest of
+the ships, which was to be ready first, on the 10th of December, "may
+perhaps be ready to sail in six weeks—Mr. Galloway has said three
+weeks for the last month; but to his professions I do not, and have
+not for a length of time, paid the slightest attention. I believe he
+does all he can do; all I object against him is that he promises
+more than he can perform, and promises with the determination of not
+performing it. The _Perseverance_ is a fine vessel. Her power of two
+forty-horses will, however, be feeble. I suspect you are not quite
+aware of the delay which will take place." Lord Cochrane soon became
+quite aware of the delay, but was unable to prevent it, and the
+next few months were passed by him in tedious anxiety and ceaseless
+chagrin.
+
+There was one desperate mode of lessening the delay—for Lord Cochrane
+to go out in the _Perseverance_ as soon as it was ready to start,
+leaving the other vessels to follow as soon as they were ready.
+Captain Abney Hastings went to Brussels on purpose to urge him to that
+course, and Mr. Hobhouse also recommended it. "There are two points,"
+he wrote on the 23rd of December, "to which your attention will
+probably be chiefly directed by Captain Hastings. These are, the
+expediency of your going with the _Perseverance_, instead of waiting
+for the other boats, and the propriety of immediately disposing of the
+two frigates in America"—about which frequent reports had arrived,
+showing that their preparation was in even worse hands than was that
+of the London vessels—"to the highest bidder. As to the first, I
+am confident that, although it would have been desirable to have got
+together the whole force in the first instance, yet, as the salvation
+of Greece is a question of time only, and as it will be probably so
+late either as May or June next before the two larger boats can leave
+the river, it would be in every way inexpedient for you to wait until
+you could have the whole armament under your orders. Be assured, your
+presence in Greece would do more than the activity of any man living,
+and, as far as anything can be done in pushing forward the business at
+home, neither time nor pains shall be spared. I wish indeed you could
+have the whole of the boats at once; but Galloway has determined
+otherwise, and we must do the next best thing. Captain Hastings will
+tell you how much may be done even by one steam-vessel, commanded by
+you, and directing the operations of the fire-vessels. On such a
+topic I should not have the presumption to enlarge to you. As to the
+American frigates, it is Mr. Ellice's decided opinion, as well as my
+own, that you should have the money instead of the frigates. First and
+last, the frigates _never will be finished_. The rogues at New York
+demand 60,000£ above the 157,000£ which they have already received,
+and protest they will not complete their work without the additional
+sum. Now 70,000£ in your hands will be better than the _hopes_ —and
+they will be nothing but _hopes_ —of having the frigates. If you agree
+in this view, perhaps you will be so good as to state it in writing,
+which may remove Mr. Ricardo's objections."
+
+Lord Cochrane was tempted to follow Captain Hastings's and Mr.
+Hobhouse's advice; but he first, as was his wont, sought Sir Francis
+Burdett's opinion; and Sir Francis dissuaded him, for the time, at any
+rate. "I would by no means have you proceed with the first vessel, nor
+at all without adequate means," he wrote on the 15th of January, 1826;
+"for besides thinking of the Greeks, for whom I am, I own, greatly
+interested, I must think, and certainly not with less interest, of
+you, and, I may add, in some degree of myself too; for I am placed
+under much responsibility, and I don't mean to be a party to making
+shipwreck of you and your great naval reputation; nor will I ever
+consent to your going upon a forlorn and desperate attempt—that is,
+without the means necessary for the fair chance of success—in other
+words, adequate means. Although you have worked miracles, we can never
+be justified in expecting them, and still less in requiring them."
+
+Following that sound advice, Lord Cochrane resolved to wait until, at
+any rate, a good part of his fleet was ready. He wrote to that effect,
+and in as good spirits as he could muster, to Mr. Hobhouse, who in
+the answer which he despatched on the 5th of February acknowledged the
+wisdom of the decision. "I am very glad to perceive," he said in that
+answer, "that you have good heart and hope for the great cause.
+I assure you we have been doing all we can to induce the parties
+concerned to second your wishes in every respect; and I now learn from
+Mr. Hastings, who is our sheet anchor, that matters go on pretty well.
+I hope you write every now and then to Galloway, in whose hands is the
+fate of Greece—the worse our luck, for he is the great cause of our
+sad delay."
+
+"You see our House is opened," said Mr. Hobhouse in the same letter.
+"Not a word of Greece in the Speech, and I spoke to Hume and Wilson,
+and begged them not to touch upon the subject. It is much better to
+keep all quiet, in order to prevent angry words from the ministers,
+who, if nothing is said, will, I think, shut their eyes at what we are
+doing. There is a very prevalent notion here that the (Holy) Alliance
+have resolved to recommend something to Turkey in favour of the
+Greeks. Whether this is true or not signifies nothing. The Turks will
+promise anything, and do just what suits them. They have always lost
+in war, for more than a hundred years, and have uniformly gained by
+diplomacy. They will never abandon the hope of reconquering Greece
+until driven out of Europe themselves, which they ought to be. By
+the way, the Greeks really appear to have been doing a little better
+lately; but I still fear these disciplined Arabians. I have written
+a very strong letter to Prince Mavrocordatos, telling them to hold
+out:—no surrender on any terms. I have not mentioned your name; but I
+have stated vaguely that they may expect the promised assistance early
+in the spring. It would indeed be a fine thing if you could commence
+operations during the Rhamadan; but I fear that is impossible. Any
+time, however, will do against the stupid, besotted Turks. Were they
+not led by Frenchmen, even the Greeks would beat them."
+
+Of the leisure forced upon him, Lord Cochrane made good use in
+studying for himself the character of "the stupid, besotted Turks,"
+and the nature of the war that was being waged against them by the
+Greeks; and he asked Mr. Hobhouse to procure for him all the books
+published on the subject or in any way related to it, of which he was
+not already master. "With respect to books," wrote Mr. Hobhouse, in
+reply to this request, "there are very few that are not what you have
+found those you have read to be, namely, romances; but I will take
+care to send out with you such as are the best, together with the
+most useful map that can be got." More than fifty volumes were thus
+collected for Lord Cochrane's use.
+
+From Captain Abney Hastings, moreover, he obtained precise information
+about Greek waters, forts, and armaments, as well as "a list of the
+names of the principal persons in Greece, with their characters." This
+list, as showing the opinions of an intelligent Englishman, based
+on personal knowledge, as to the parties and persons with whom Lord
+Cochrane was soon to deal, is worth quoting entire, especially as it
+was the chief basis of Lord Cochrane's own judgment during this time
+of study and preparation.
+
+I. Archontes, or men influential by their riches.
+
+Lazaros Konduriottes.—A Hydriot merchant, the elder of the two
+brothers, who are the most wealthy men in that island, and even in all
+Greece. This one, by intrigue, by distributing his money adroitly
+in Hydra, and keeping in pay the most dissolute and unruly of the
+sailors, and protecting them in the commission of their crimes,
+has acquired almost unlimited power at Hydra. He asserts democracy,
+appealing on all occasions to the people, who are his creatures. The
+other primates hate him, of course. Lazaros has the reputation of
+being clever. He never quits Hydra for an instant, for fear of finding
+himself supplanted on his return.
+
+George Konduriottes.—Brother of the former, and, like him a Hydriot
+merchant; an ignorant weak man; said to be vindictive; espouses the
+party of his brother at Hydra, by which means he has obtained the
+Presidency [of Greece]. He made the land captains his enemies, and had
+not good men enough to form an army of his own, viz., regular troops.
+His penetration went no further than bribing one captain to destroy
+another; which had for effect merely the changing the names of
+chieftains without diminishing the power. I understand he has lately
+retired to Hydra, and takes no active part in affairs.
+
+EMANUEL TOMBAZES.—A Hydriot merchant and captain. There are two
+brothers, at the head of the party opposed to Konduriottes. This
+man was the first who ventured on the voyage from the Black Sea to
+Marseilles in a latteen-rigged vessel. This traffic afterwards gave
+birth to the colossal fortunes in Hydra. These men are the most
+enlightened in Hydra. This one is dignified, energetic, and a good
+sailor. However, he lost in Candia much of the reputation he had
+previously acquired; but with all the errors he committed there, the
+loss of that island is not attributable to him. 'Twould have been
+lost, under similar circumstances, had Cæsar commanded there.
+Konduriottes and his adherents hate him, of course, and did all they
+could to paralyze his operations in Crete. All considered, this man is
+more capable of introducing order and regularity into the ships than
+any other Greek.
+
+JAKOMAKI TOMBAZES.—A Hydriot merchant and captain, brother of the
+former. He commanded the fleet the first year of the Revolution, and
+to him is due the introduction of fire-vessels, by which he destroyed
+the first Turkish line-of-battle ship at Mytelene. He is perhaps the
+best-informed Hydriot; but he wants decision, and demands the advice
+of everybody at the moment he should be acting. This man takes little
+part in politics and follows his mercantile pursuits. His hobby-horse
+is ship-building, in which art he is such a proficient as to be
+quite the Seppings of Hydra. As to the rest, he is a very worthy,
+warm-hearted man, but excessively phlegmatic.
+
+MIAOULIS.—A Hydriot merchant and captain, who obtained command of the
+Hydriot fleet after Jakomaki resigned. He is a very dignified,
+worthy old man, possesses personal courage and decision, and is less
+intriguing than any Greek that I know.
+
+SAKTOURES.—A Hydriot captain. He has risen from a sailor, and is
+considered by the Archontes rather in the light of a _parvenu_. He is
+courageous and enterprising, but a bit of a pirate.
+
+BONDOMES, SAMADHOFF, GHIKA, ORLANDO.—Hydriot merchants without
+anything but their money to recommend them.
+
+PEPINOS.—A Hydriot sailor of the clan of Tombazes, who has
+distinguished himself frequently in fireships.
+
+KANARIS.—A Psarian sailor; the most distinguished of the commanders
+of fire-vessels.
+
+BOTAZES.—A Spetziot merchant; the most influential person in his
+island. But the Hydriot merchants possess so much property in Spetziot
+vessels that, in some measure, they rule that island.
+
+PETRO-BEY [or PETROS MAVROMICHALES].—The principal Archonte of Maina;
+was governor of that province under the Turks. A fat, stupid, worthy
+man; is sincere in the cause, in which he has lost two if not three
+sons.
+
+DELIYANNES.—A Moreot Archonte, and one of the most intriguing and
+ambitious; was formerly sworn enemy to Kolokotrones and the captains,
+but, having betrothed his daughter to Kolokotrones's son, they have
+become allies. This man, if not the richest Archonte in the Morea, is
+the one who affected the most pomp in the time of the Turks, and
+he cannot now easily brook his diminished influence. He is reported
+clever and unprincipled.
+
+NOTABAS.—A Moreot Archonte, considered the most ancient of the noble
+families in the Morea; is a well-meaning old blockhead; has a son, a
+good-looking youth, who commanded the Government forces against the
+captains in 1824; is said to be an egregious coward.
+
+LONDOS.—A Moreot Archonte; was much flattered by the Government, but
+afterwards leagued against them. He is a drunkard, and a man of no
+consideration but for his wealth.[A]
+
+[Footnote A: Lord Byron used to describe an evening passed in the
+company of Londos at Vostitza, when both were young men. After supper
+Londos, who had the face and figure of a chimpanzee, sprang upon
+a table, and commenced singing through his nose Rhiga's "Hymn to
+Liberty." A new cadi, passing near the house, inquired the cause of
+the discordant hubbub. A native Mussulman replied, "It is only the
+young primate Londos, who is drunk, and is singing hymns to the new
+franaghia of the Greeks, whom they call 'Eleftheria.'"—Finlay, vol.
+ii., p. 35.]
+
+ZAIMES.—A Moreot Archonte; said to possess considerable talent, and
+he exercises a very considerable influence. His brother was formerly a
+deputy in England.
+
+SISSINES.—A Moreot Archonte; was formerly a doctor at Patras; has
+risen into wealth and consequence since the Revolution; has great
+talent, and is a great rogue.
+
+SOTIRES XARALAMBI.—A Moreot Archonte of influence. I do not know his
+character.
+
+SPELIOTOPOLOS.—A Moreot Archonte, whose name would never have
+been heard by a foreigner, if he had not been made a member of the
+executive body; a stupid old man, possessing little influence of any
+kind.
+
+KOLETTES.—A Romeliot; was formerly doctor to Ali Pasha; possesses
+some talent; has held various situations in the ministry; is detested,
+yet I know not why. I never could ascertain any act of his that
+merited the dislike he has inspired a large party with. I fancy 'tis
+alone attributable to jealousy—the peculiar feature of the Greek
+character. It must nevertheless be acknowledged that he has sometimes
+made himself ridiculous by assuming the sword, for which profession
+he is totally incapacitated by want of courage. He is, however, poor,
+although in employment since the commencement of the Revolution.
+
+THIKOUPES.—An Archonte of Missolonghi; of some importance from the
+English education he has received from Lord Guildford; a worthy man,
+possessed of instruction, but, I think, not genius. He has married
+Mavrocordatos's sister.
+
+II. Phanaeiots.
+
+[DEMETRIUS] HYPSILANTES.—Is of a Phanariot family; was a Russian
+officer; although young, is bald and feeble. His appearance and voice
+are much against him. He does not so much want talent as ferocity. He
+possesses personal courage and probity, and may be said to be the only
+honest man that has figured upon the stage of the Revolution. He does
+not favour, but has never openly opposed, the party of the captains.
+He felt he had not the power to do it with success, and therefore
+showed his good sense in refraining. The Archontes, fearing the
+influence he might acquire would destroy theirs, have uniformly
+opposed him, secretly and openly; and they hate one another so
+cordially now that it is impossible they should ever unite.
+
+MAVROCORDATOS.—Of a Phanariot family; came forward under the auspices
+of Hypsilantes, and then tried to supplant him; and to do this he made
+himself the tool of the Hydriots, who, as soon as they had obtained
+all power in their hands, endeavoured to kick down the stepping-stool
+by which they had mounted. Perceiving this, he entered into
+negotiations with the captains, and frightened the Hydriots into an
+acknowledgment of some power for himself. He possesses quickness and
+intrigue; but I doubt if he has solid talent, and it is reported that
+he is particularly careful not to court danger.
+
+III. Captains or Land-Chieftains.
+
+KOLOKOTRONES.—A captain of the Morea, and the most powerful one in
+all Greece. He owes this partly to the numerous ramifications of his
+family, partly to his reputation as a hereditary robber, and also
+to the wealth he has amassed in his vocation. He is a fine,
+decided-looking man, and knows perfectly all the localities of the
+country for carrying on mountain warfare, and he knows also, better
+than any other, how to manage the Greek mountaineers. He is, however,
+entirely ignorant of any other species of warfare, and is not
+sufficiently civilized to look forward for any other advantage to
+himself or his country than that of possessing the mountains and
+keeping the Turks at bay. He proposed destroying all the fortresses
+except Nauplia. 'Twas an error of Mavrocordatos to have made this man
+an open enemy to himself and to organization. Had he been allowed to
+have profited by order, he would have espoused it. At present he may
+be considered irreconcilably opposed to order and the Hydriot party.
+
+NIKETAS.—There are two of this name; but the only one that merits
+notice is the Moreot captain, a relation of Kolokrotones. He is
+as ignorant and dirty as the rest of his brethren, but bears the
+reputation of being disinterested and courageous. He is always poor.
+All the chieftains are good bottle-men; but this one excels them so
+much that 'tis confidently asserted he drinks three bottles of rum per
+day.
+
+STAIKOS.—A Moreot captain who took part early with the Hydriot party
+from jealousy of Kolokotrones. When that party gained the ascendency,
+not finding himself sufficiently rewarded, he joined the captains.
+
+MOMGINOS.—A Mainot chieftain, a rival of Petro-Bey; is
+undistinguished, except by his colossal stature and ferocious
+countenance.
+
+GOURA.—A Romeliot captain; was a soldier of Odysseus, and employed
+by him in various assassinations, and thus he rose to preferment and
+supplanted his protector, and at length assassinated him. This man
+possesses courage and extreme ferocity, but is remarkably ignorant.
+In the hands of a similar master, he would have been a perfect Tristan
+l'Hermite. To supplant Odysseus, he was obliged to range himself with
+the Hydriot party.
+
+CONSTANTINE BOTZARES.—A Suliot captain; nephew to the celebrated
+Makrys, who, from all accounts, was a phenomenon among the captains.
+This man bears a good character.
+
+KARAÏSKAKES, RANGO, KALTZAS, ZAVELLA, &c. &c.—Romeliot captains; all
+more or less opposed to order, according as they see it suits their
+immediate interest.
+
+That estimate of the Greek heroes—in the main wonderfully
+accurate—was certainly not encouraging to Lord Cochrane. He
+determined, however, to go on with the work he had entered upon, and
+in doing his duty to the Greeks, to try to bring into healthy play the
+real patriotism that was being perverted by such unworthy leaders.
+
+Great benefit was conferred upon the Greeks by his entering into their
+service from its very beginning, in spite of the obstacles which were
+thrown in his way at starting, and which materially damaged all his
+subsequent work on their behalf. No sooner was it known that he was
+coming to aid them with his unsurpassed bravery and his unrivalled
+genius than they took heart and held out against the Turkish and
+Egyptian foes to whom they had just before been inclined to yield.
+And his enlistment in their cause had another effect, of which they
+themselves were ignorant. The mere announcement that he intended to
+fight and win for them, as he had fought and won for Chili, for Peru,
+and for Brazil, while it caused both England and France to do their
+utmost in hindering him from achieving an end which was more thorough
+than they desired, forced both England and France to shake off the
+listlessness with which they had regarded the contest during nearly
+five years, and initiate the temporizing action by which Greece was
+prevented from becoming as great and independent a state as it might
+have been, yet by which a smaller independence was secured for it.
+Hardly had Lord Cochrane consented to serve as admiral of the Greeks
+than the Duke of Wellington was despatched, in the beginning of 1826,
+on a mission to Russia, which issued in the protocol of April, 1826,
+and the treaty of July, 1827—both having for their avowed object the
+pacification of Greece—and in the battle of Navarino, by which that
+pacification was secured.
+
+The Duke of Wellington passed through Brussels, on his way to
+St. Petersburg, in March, 1826. Halting there, he informed the
+hotel-keeper that he could see no one _except Lord Cochrane_, which
+was as distinct an intimation that he desired an interview as,
+in accordance with the rules of etiquette, he could make. The
+hotel-keeper, however, was too dull to take the hint. He did not
+acquaint Lord Cochrane of the indirect message intended for him
+until the Duke of Wellington had proceeded on his journey. Thus was
+prevented a meeting between one of England's greatest soldiers and one
+of her greatest sailors, which could not but have been very memorable
+in itself, and which might have been far more memorable in its
+political consequences.
+
+The meeting was hindered, and, without listening either to the
+personal courtesies or to the diplomatic arguments of the Duke of
+Wellington, Lord Cochrane continued his preparations for active
+service in Greek waters. The details of these preparations and their
+practical execution, as has been shown, he was forced to leave in
+other and less competent hands, and their actual supervision was still
+impossible to him. Gradually the irritating and wasteful obstacles for
+which Mr. Galloway was chiefly responsible induced him to resolve upon
+following the advice tendered in December by Mr. Hobhouse and Captain
+Hastings—that is, to go to Greece with a small portion only of
+the naval armament for which he had stipulated, and which his most
+cautious friends deemed necessary to his enterprise. To this he was
+driven, not only by a desire to do something worthy of his great name,
+and something really helpful to the cause which he had espoused,
+but also by the knowledge that the tedious delays that arose were
+squandering all the money with which he had counted upon rendering his
+work efficient when he could get to Greece.
+
+Of this he received frequent and clear intimation from all his
+friends in London, though from none so emphatically as from the Greek
+deputies, Orlando and Luriottis, who, being themselves grievously to
+blame for their peculations and their bad management, threw all the
+blame upon Mr. Galloway and the other defaulters. Finding that the
+proceeds of the second Greek loan were being rapidly exhausted by
+their own and others' wrong-doing, they were even audacious enough to
+propose to Lord Cochrane that, not abandoning his Greek engagement,
+but rather continuing it under conditions involving much greater risk
+and anxiety than had been anticipated, he should return the 37,000£
+which had been handed over to Sir Francis Burdett on his account, and
+take as sole security for his ultimate recompense the two frigates
+half built in America, acknowledged to be of so little value that no
+purchaser could be found for them. "Our only desire." they said,
+"is to rescue the millions of souls that are praying with a thousand
+supplications that they may not fall victims to the despair which is
+only averted by the hope of your lordship's arrival."
+
+To that preposterous request Lord Cochrane made a very temperate
+answer. "I have perused your letter of the 18th," he wrote on the 28th
+of February, "with the utmost attention, and have since considered its
+contents with the most anxious desire to promote the objects you have
+in view in all ways in my power. But I have not been able to convince
+myself that, under existing circumstances, there is any means by which
+Greece can be so readily saved as by steady perseverance in equipping
+the steam-vessels, which are so admirably calculated to cut off the
+enemies' communication with Alexandria and Constantinople, and for
+towing fire-vessels and explosion-vessels by night into ports and
+places where the hostile squadrons anchor on the shores of Greece.
+With steam-vessels constructed for such purposes, and a few gunboats
+carrying heavy cannon, I have no doubt but that the Morea might in a
+few weeks be cleared of the enemy's naval force. I wish I could give
+you, without writing a volume, a clear view of the numerous reasons,
+derived from thirty-five years' experience, which induce me to prefer
+a force that can move in all directions in the obscurity of night
+through narrow channels, in shoal water, and with silence and
+celerity, over a naval armament of the usual kind, though of far
+superior force. You would then perceive with what efficacy the counsel
+of Demosthenes to your countrymen might be carried into effect by
+desultory attacks on the enemy; and, in fact, you would perceive that
+steam-vessels, whenever they shall be brought into war for hostile
+purposes, will prove the most formidable means that ever has been
+employed in naval warfare. Indeed, it is my opinion that twenty-four
+vessels moved by steam (such as the largest constructed for
+your service) could commence at St. Petersburg, and finish at
+Constantinople, the destruction of every ship of war in the European
+ports. I therefore hold that you ought to strain every nerve to get
+the steam-vessels equipped. For on these, next to the valour of
+the Greeks themselves, depends the fate of Greece, and not on large
+unwieldy ships, immovable in calms, and ill-calculated for nocturnal
+operations on the shores of the Morea and adjacent islands. Having
+thus repeated to you my opinions, I have only to add that, if
+you judge you can follow a better course, I release you from the
+engagement you entered into with me, and I am ready to return you the
+37,000£ on your receiving as part thereof 72,500 Greek scrip, at
+the price I gave for it on the day following my engagement (under the
+faith of the stipulations then entered into), as a further stimulus
+to my exertion, by casting my property, as well as my life, into the
+scale with Greece. This release I am ready to make at once; but I
+cannot consent to accept as security, for the fruits of seven years'
+toil, vessels manned by Americans, whose pay and provisions I see no
+adequate or regular means of providing. But should the 150,000£
+placed at the disposal of the Committee not prove sufficient for the
+objects _I have required_, I will advance the 37,000£ for the pay
+and provisions necessary for the steamboats on the security of the
+boats themselves. Thus you have the option of releasing me from
+the service, or of continuing my engagement, although I shall lose
+severely by my temporary acceptance of your offer."
+
+In that letter Lord Cochrane conceded more than ought to have been
+expected of him. In a supplementary letter written on the same day
+he added: "I again assure you that I am ready to do whatever is
+reasonable for the interest of Greece; but it cannot be expected that
+for such interest I ought to sacrifice totally those of my family
+and myself, as would be the case were I to give up both the means I
+possess to obtain justice in South America and my indemnification, on
+so slender a security as that offered to me. Believe me, I should have
+tendered the 37,000£, without reference to the Greek scrip I
+had purchased, had it not been evident to me that, under such
+circumstances, the security of your public funds would be dependent
+on chances which I cannot foresee, and over which I should have no
+control."
+
+Thus temperately rebuked, the Greek deputies did not urge their
+proposal any further. They only wrote to promise all possible
+expedition in completing the steam-vessels. Lord Cochrane, however,
+voluntarily acceded to one of their wishes. Hearing that the largest
+of the steamers, the _Perseverance_, was nearly ready for sea, and
+that Mr. Galloway had again solemnly pledged himself to complete the
+others in a short time, he determined not to wait for the whole force,
+but to start at once for the Mediterranean. It had been all along
+decided that the _Perseverance_ should be placed under Captain
+Hastings's command; and it was now arranged that he should take her to
+Greece as soon as she was ready, and that Lord Cochrane should follow
+in a schooner, the _Unicorn_, of 158 tons. It was not intended, of
+course, that with that boat alone he should go all the way to Greece;
+but it was considered—perhaps not very wisely—that if he were
+actually on his way to Greece, the completion of the other five
+steamships would be proceeded with more rapidly; and he agreed that,
+as soon as he was joined in the Mediterranean by the first two of
+these, the _Enterprise_ and the _Irresistible_, he would hasten on
+to the Archipelago, and there make the best of the small force at his
+disposal. Not only was it supposed that Mr. Galloway and the other
+agents would thus be induced to more vigorous action: it was also
+deemed that the effect of this step upon the Hellenic nation would
+be very beneficial. "As soon as the Greek Government know that your
+lordship is on your way to Greece," wrote the London deputies on the
+13th of April, "their courage will be animated, and their confidence
+renewed. We may with truth assert that your lordship is regarded by
+all classes of our countrymen as a Messiah, who is to come to their
+deliverance; and, from the enthusiasm which will prevail amongst the
+people, we may venture to predict that your lordship's valour and
+success at sea will give energy and victory to their arms on land."
+
+With the new arrangements necessitated by this change of plans the
+last two or three weeks of April and the first of May were occupied.
+Lord Cochrane put to sea on the 8th of May. "As a Greek citizen," one
+of the deputies in London, Andreas Luriottis, had written on the
+17th of April, "I cannot refrain from expressing my sincere gratitude
+towards your lordship for the resolution which you have taken to
+depart almost immediately for Greece. This generous determination, at
+a moment when my country is really in want of every assistance, cannot
+be regarded with indifference by my countrymen, who already look upon
+your lordship as a Messiah. Your talents and intrepidity cannot allow
+us for a moment to doubt of success. My countrymen will afford you
+every assistance, and confer on you all the powers necessary for your
+undertaking; although your lordship must be aware that Greece, after
+five years' struggle, cannot be expected to present a very favourable
+aspect to a stranger. Your lordship will, however, find men full of
+devotion and courage—men who have founded, their best hopes on you,
+and from whom, under such a leader, everything may be expected. Your
+lordship's previous exploits encourage me to hope that Greece will not
+be less successful than the Brazils, since the materials she offers
+for cultivation are superior. With patience and perseverance in the
+outset, all difficulties will soon vanish, and the course will be
+direct and unimpeded. The resources of Greece are not to be despised,
+and, if successful, she will find ample means to reward those who will
+have devoted themselves to her service and to the cause of liberty."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV.
+
+
+LORD COCHRANE'S DEPARTURE FOR GREECE.—HIS VISIT TO LONDON AND
+VOYAGE TO THE MEDITERRANEAN.—HIS STAY AT MESSINA, AND AFTERWARDS
+AT MARSEILLES.—THE DELAYS IN COMPLETING THE STEAMSHIPS, AND THE
+CONSEQUENT INJURY TO THE GREEK CAUSE, AND SERIOUS EMBARRASSMENT
+TO LORD COCHRANE.—HIS CORRESPONDENCE WITH MESSRS. J. AND S.
+RICARDO.—HIS LETTER TO THE GREEK GOVERNMENT.—CHEVALIER EYNARD, AND
+THE CONTINENTAL PHILHELLENES.—LORD COCHRANE'S FINAL DEPARTURE, AND
+ARRIVAL IN GREECE.
+
+
+[1826-1827.]
+
+Lord Cochrane, having passed from Brussels to Flushing, sailed thence
+in the _Unicorn_ on the 8th of May, 1826. Before proceeding to the
+Mediterranean, he determined, in spite of the personal risk he would
+thus be subjected to through the Foreign Enlistment Act, to see for
+himself in what state were the preparations for his enterprise in
+Greece. He accordingly landed at Weymouth, and hurrying up to London,
+spent the greater part of Sunday, the 16th of May, in Mr. Galloway's
+building yard at Greenwich.
+
+He found that the _Perseverance_ was apparently completed, though
+waiting for some finishing touches to be put to her boilers. "The two
+other vessels," he said, "were filled with pieces of the high-pressure
+engines, all unfixed, and scattered about in the engine-room and on
+deck. The boilers were in the small boats, and occupied nearly one
+half of their length, Mr. Galloway having, through inattention or
+otherwise, caused them to be made of the same dimensions as the
+boilers for the great vessels, which, by the by, had been improperly
+increased from sixteen feet, the length determined on, to twenty-three
+feet." The inspection was unsatisfactory; but Mr. Galloway pledged
+himself on his honour that the _Perseverance_ should start in a day or
+two, that the _Enterprise_ and the _Irresistible_ should be completed
+and sent to sea within a fortnight, and that the other three vessels
+should be out of hand in less than a month.
+
+Trusting to that promise, or at any rate hoping that it might be
+fulfilled, and after a parting interview with Sir Francis Burdett, Mr.
+Ellice, and other friends, Lord Cochrane left London on Monday, and
+joined the _Unicorn_, at Dartford, on the 20th of May. It had
+been arranged that he should wait in British waters for the first
+instalment of his little fleet, at any rate. With that object he
+called at Falmouth, and, receiving no satisfactory information there,
+went to make a longer halt in Bantry Bay. At length, hearing that the
+_Perseverance_ had actually started, with Captain Hastings for its
+commander, and that the other two large vessels were on the point of
+leaving the Thames, he left the coast of Ireland on the 12th of June.
+
+He vainly hoped that the vessels would promptly join him in the
+Mediterranean, and that within four or five weeks' time he should
+be at work in Greek waters. The journey, however, was to last nine
+months. The mismanagement and the wilful delays of Mr. Galloway and
+the other contractors and agents continued as before. The urgent
+need of Greece was unsatisfied; the funds collected for promoting her
+deliverance were wantonly perverted; and the looked-for deliverer was
+doomed to nearly a year of further inactivity—hateful to him at all
+times, but now a special source of annoyance, as it involved not
+only idleness to himself, but also serious injury to the cause he had
+espoused.
+
+He passed Oporto on the 18th, Lisbon on the 20th, and Gibraltar on the
+26th of June. He was off Algiers on the 3rd of July, and on the 12th
+he anchored in the harbour of Messina. There, and in the adjoining
+waters, he waited nearly three months, in daily expectation of
+the arrival of his vessels, Messina having been the appointed
+meeting-place. No vessels came, but instead only dismal and
+procrastinating letters. "We deeply lament," wrote Messrs. J. and S.
+Ricardo, the contractors for the Greek loan, in one of them, dated the
+9th of September, "that, after all the exertions which have been used,
+we have not yet been able to despatch the two large steam-vessels.
+Everything has been ready for some time; but Mr. Galloway's failure
+in the engines will now occasion a much longer detention. We leave to
+your brother, who writes by the same opportunity, to explain fully to
+your lordship how all this has arisen, and what measures it has been
+considered expedient to adopt. In the whole of this unfortunate affair
+we have endeavoured to follow your wishes; and our conduct towards Mr.
+Galloway, who has much to answer for, has been chiefly directed by
+his representations." "Galloway is the evil genius that pursues us
+everywhere," wrote the same correspondents on the 25th of September;
+"his presumption is only equalled by his incompetency. Whatever he has
+to do with is miserably deficient. We do not think his misconduct has
+been intentional; but it has proved most fatal to the interests of
+Greece, and of those engaged in her behalf. On your lordship it has
+pressed peculiarly hard; and most sincerely do we lament that an
+undertaking, which promised so fairly in the commencement should
+hitherto have proved unavailing, and that your power of assisting
+this unhappy country should have been rendered nugatory by the want of
+means to put it in effect."
+
+Those letters, and others written before and after, did not reach Lord
+Cochrane till the end of October. In the meanwhile, finding that the
+expected vessels did not arrive at Messina, and that in that place it
+was impossible even for him to receive accurate information as to the
+progress of affairs in London, he called at Malta about the middle
+of September, and thence proceeded to Marseilles, as a convenient
+halting-place, in which he had better chance of hearing how matters
+were proceeding, and from which he could easily go to meet the vessels
+when, if ever, they were ready to join him. He reached Marseilles
+on the 12th of October, and on the same day he forwarded a letter
+to Messrs. Ricardo. "I wrote to you a few days ago," he said, "from
+Malta, and, as the packet sailed with a fair wind, you will receive
+that letter very shortly. You will thereby perceive the distressing
+suspense in which I have been held, and the inconvenience to which
+I have been exposed, by remaining on board this small vessel for a
+period of five months, during all the heat of a Mediterranean summer,
+without exercise or recreation. This situation has been rendered
+the more unpleasant, as I have had no means to inform myself, except
+through the public papers, relative to the concern in which we are now
+engaged. My patience, however, is now worn out, and I have come here
+to learn whether I am to expect the steam-vessels or not,—whether
+the scandalous blunders of Mr. Galloway are to be remedied by
+those concerned, or if an ill-timed parsimony is to doom Greece to
+inevitable destruction; for such will be the consequence, if Ibrahim's
+resources are not cut up before the period at which it is usual for
+him to commence operations. You know my opinions so well, that it is
+unnecessary to repeat them to you. I shall, however, add, that
+the intelligence and plans I have obtained since my arrival in the
+Mediterranean confirm these opinions, and enable me to predict, with
+as much certainty as I ever could do on any enterprise, that if the
+vessels and the means to pay six months' expenses are forwarded, there
+shall not be a Turkish or Egyptian ship in the Archipelago at the
+termination of the winter. It may have been expected that I should
+immediately proceed to Greece in this vessel. I might have done so at
+an earlier period of my life, before I had proved by experience that
+advice is thrown away upon persons in the situation and circumstances
+in which the Greek rulers and their people are unfortunately placed.
+Having made up my mind on this subject, I must entreat you to let me
+know by the earliest possible means what I am to expect in regard to
+the steamships. I see by the 'Globe' of the 2nd of last month that the
+holders of Greek stock were to have a meeting. I conclude they came
+to some resolution, and this resolution I want to know. I wish I could
+give them my eyes to see with—they would then pursue a course which
+would secure their interests. This, however, is impossible; therefore
+they must, like the Greeks, be left to follow their own notions.
+I have, however, no objections to your stating to these gentlemen,
+either publicly or privately, that I pledge my reputation to free
+Greece if they will, by the smallest additional sacrifice that may be
+required, put the stipulated force at my disposal."[A]
+
+[Footnote A: This letter, like some others of this nature, is partly
+written in cypher, the key to which is lost. Its concluding sentences,
+therefore, are not given.]
+
+At Marseilles, Lord Cochrane received information, disheartening
+enough, though more encouraging than was justified by the real state
+of affairs, with reference to his intended fleet. On the 14th of
+October he wrote to explain his position, as he himself understood it,
+to the Greek Government. "By the most fortunate accident," he said, "I
+have met Mr. Hobhouse here, who, from his correspondence with Messrs.
+Ricardo and others in London, enables me to state to you that the two
+large steamboats will be completed on the 28th day of this month, and
+that they will proceed on the following day for the _rendezvous_ which
+I had assigned to them previous to my departure. You may, therefore,
+count on their being in Greece about the 14th of next month. The
+American frigate is said to be completed and on her way, and I feel a
+confident hope that I shall be able here to add a very efficient ship
+of war to the before-mentioned vessels.[A] It is probable," he added,
+"that many idle reports will be circulated here and through the public
+prints, because, under existing circumstances, I find it necessary to
+appear now as a person travelling about for private amusement. I can
+assure you, however, that the hundred and sixty days which I have
+already spent in this small vessel, without ever having my foot on
+shore till the day before yesterday, has been a sacrifice which I
+should not have made for any other cause than that in which I
+am engaged; but I considered it essential to conceal the real
+insignificance of my situation and allow rumours to circulate of
+squadrons collecting in various parts, judging that the effect would
+be to embarrass the operations of the enemy."
+
+[Footnote A: It should here be explained that the building and fitting
+out of the two frigates contracted for in New York, at a cost of
+150,000£, having been assigned to persons whose mismanagement was
+as scandalous as that which perplexed the Greek cause in London, one
+of them had been sold, and with the proceeds and some other funds the
+other had been completed and fitted out, more than 200,000£ having
+been spent upon her. She reached Greece at the end of 1826, there to
+be known as the _Hellas_.]
+
+That concealment had to be maintained, and the wearisome delays
+continued, for three months more. All the promises of Mr. Galloway and
+all the efforts, real or pretended, of the Greek deputies in London,
+were vain. The completion of the steam-vessels was retarded on all
+sorts of pretexts, and when each little portion of the work was said
+to be done, it was found to be so badly executed that it had to be
+cancelled and the whole thing done afresh. In this way all the residue
+of the loan of 1825 was exhausted, and all for worse than nothing.
+
+Lord Cochrane would never have been able to proceed to Greece at all,
+had the Greek deputies, Orlando and Luriottis, who had contracted for
+his employment, been his only supporters. Fortunately, however, he had
+other and worthier coadjutors. The Greek Committee in Paris did
+much on his behalf, and yet more was done by the Philhellenes of
+Switzerland, with Chevalier Eynard at their head, of whom one zealous
+member, Dr. L.A. Gosse, of Geneva, "well-informed, very zealous, full
+of genuine enthusiasm for the cause of humanity, and an excellent
+physician," as M. Eynard described him, was about to go in person
+to Greece, as administrator of the funds collected by the Swiss
+Committee. Lord Cochrane's disconsolate arrival at Marseilles, and the
+miserable failure of the plans for his enterprise, had not been known
+to M. Eynard and his friends a week, before they set themselves to
+remedy the mischief as far as lay in their power. As a first and
+chief movement they proposed to buy a French corvette, then lying
+in Marseilles Harbour, and fit her out as a stout auxiliary to Lord
+Cochrane's little force expected from London and New York. Lord
+Cochrane, being consulted on the scheme, eagerly acceded to it in a
+letter written on the 25th of October. "As I have yet no certainty,"
+he said, "that the person employed to fit the machinery of the
+steam-vessels will now perform his task better than he has heretofore
+done, I recommend purchasing the corvette, provided that she can be
+purchased for the sum of 200,000 francs, and, if funds are wanting, I
+personally am willing to advance enough to provision the corvette,
+and am ready to proceed in that or any fit vessel. But I am quite
+resolved, without a moral certainty of something following me, not
+to ruin and disgrace the cause by presenting myself in Greece in a
+schooner of two carronades of the smallest calibre."
+
+The corvette was bought and equipped; but in this several weeks
+were employed. In the interval, for a week or two after the 8th of
+December, Lord Cochrane went to Geneva, there to be the guest of
+Chevalier Eynard, to be introduced to Dr. Gosse, and to become
+personally acquainted with many other Philhellenes.
+
+Neither Lord Cochrane nor his friends could quite abandon hope of the
+ultimate completion of the London steam-vessels. They felt, too,
+that with nothing but the new vessel, the American frigate, and the
+_Perseverance_, Lord Cochrane would have very poor provision for his
+undertaking. "I have this moment received a letter from his lordship,"
+wrote M. Eynard to Mr. Hobhouse on the 12th of January, 1827, "wherein
+he appears rather disappointed with respect to the scantiness of the
+forces and the means placed at his disposal. He informs me that he has
+no officers, few sailors; and that, in case the steamers should
+not arrive, he will not feel qualified to encounter the Turkish and
+Egyptian naval forces, as well as the Algerines, who of all are the
+best manned. 'I therefore shall not be able to undertake anything
+of moment,' continues his lordship. 'Thus to stake my character and
+existence would be a mere Quixotic act. I will put to sea, however,
+but still with a heavy heart; yet not until I have with me all
+requisites, and my stores and ammunition be embarked likewise.'
+Discouragement appears throughout his lordship's letter."
+
+The discouragement is not to be wondered at. It is hardly necessary,
+however, to give further illustration of it, or of the troubles
+incident to this long waiting-time. Enough has been said to show Lord
+Cochrane's position in relation to this deplorable state of affairs,
+and to exonerate him from all blame in the matter. That he should have
+been blamed at all is only part of the wanton injustice that attended
+him nearly all through his life. He had consented, in the autumn
+of 1825, to enter the service of the Greeks, on the distinct
+understanding that six English-built steamships should be placed at
+his disposal, and to facilitate the arrangements he did and bore
+far more than could have been expected of him. For the delays and
+disasters that befel those arrangements he was in no way responsible:
+he was only thereby a very great sufferer. But his sufferings would
+have been greater, and he would have been really at fault, had he
+consented to go to Greece without any sort of provision, as a few
+rash friends and many eager enemies desired him to do, and afterwards
+blamed him for not doing.
+
+As it was, he greatly increased his difficulties by at last proceeding
+to Greece with the miserable equipment provided for him. In his little
+schooner, the _Unicorn_, he left Marseilles on the 14th of February,
+1827, and proceeded to St. Tropezy, where the French corvette, the
+_Sauveur_, was being fitted out under the direction of Captain Thomas,
+a brave and energetic officer. Thence he set sail, with the two
+vessels, on the 23rd of February. He reached Poros, and entered
+upon his service in Greek waters, on the 19th of March. "He had been
+wandering about the Mediterranean in a fine English yacht, purchased
+for him out of the proceeds of the loan, in order to accelerate his
+arrival in Greece, ever since the month of June, 1826," says the
+ablest historian of the Greek Revolution.[A] The preceding paragraphs
+will show how much truth is contained in that sarcastic sentence.
+
+[Footnote A: Finlay, vol. ii., p. 137.]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI.
+
+
+THE PROGRESS OF AFFAIRS IN GREECE.—THE SIEGE OF MISSOLONGHI.—ITS
+FALL.—THE BAD GOVERNMENT AND MISMANAGEMENT OF THE GREEKS.—GENERAL
+PONSONBY'S ACCOUNT OF THEM.—THE EFFECT OF LORD COCHRANE'S PROMISED
+ASSISTANCE.—THE FEARS OF THE TURKS, AS SHOWN IN THEIR CORRESPONDENCE
+WITH MR. CANNING.—THE ARRIVAL OF CAPTAIN HASTINGS IN GREECE, WITH THE
+"KARTERIA."—HIS OPINION OF GREEK CAPTAINS AND SAILORS.—THE FRIGATE
+"HELLAS."—LETTERS TO LORD COCHRANE FROM ADMIRAL MIAOULIS AND THE
+GOVERNING COMMISSION OF GREECE.
+
+
+[1826-1827.]
+
+During the one-and-twenty weary months that elapsed between Lord
+Cochrane's acceptance of service in the Greek War of Independence and
+his actual participation in the work, the Revolution passed through a
+new and disastrous stage. In the summer of 1825, when the invitation
+was sent to him, the disorganisation of the Greeks and the superior
+strength of the Turks, and yet more of their Egyptian and Arabian
+allies under Ibrahim Pasha, were threatening to undo all that had been
+achieved in the previous years. One bold stand had begun to be made,
+in which, throughout nearly a whole year, the Greeks fought with
+unsurpassed heroism, and then the whole struggle for liberty fell into
+the lawless and disordered condition which already had prevailed in
+many districts, and which was then to become universal and to offer
+obstacles too great even for Lord Cochrane's genius to overcome in
+his efforts to revive genuine patriotism and to render thoroughly
+successful the cause that he had espoused.
+
+The last great stand was at Missolonghi. Built on the edge of a marshy
+plain, bounded on the north by the high hills of Zygos and protected
+on the south by shallow lagoons at the mouth of the Gulf of Lepanto,
+and chiefly tenanted by hardy fishermen, this town had been the first
+in Western Greece to take part in the Revolution. Here in June, 1821,
+nearly all the Moslem residents had been slaughtered, the wealthiest
+and most serviceable only being spared to become the slaves of their
+Christian masters. In the last two months of 1822 the Ottomans
+had made a desperate attempt to win back the stronghold; but its
+inhabitants, led by Mavrocordatos, who had lately come to join in the
+work of regeneration, had resolutely beaten off the invaders and taken
+revenge upon the few Turks still resident among them. "The wife of one
+of the Turkish inhabitants of Missolonghi," said an English visitor
+in 1824, "imploring my pity, begged me to allow her to remain under
+my roof, in order to shelter her from the brutality and cruelty of the
+Greeks. They had murdered all her relations. A little girl, nine years
+old, remained to be the only companion of her misery."[A] Missolonghi
+continued to be one of the chief strongholds of independence in
+continental Greece; and, the revolutionists being forced into it by
+the Turks, who scoured the districts north and east of it in 1824 and
+1825, it became in the latter year the main object of attack and the
+scene of most desperate resistance. Here were concentrated the chief
+energies of the Greek warriors and of their Moslem antagonists, and
+here was exhibited the last and most heroic effort of the patriots,
+unaided by foreign champions of note, in their long and hard-fought
+battle for freedom.
+
+[Footnote A: Millingen, "Memoirs on the Affairs of Greece," p. 99.]
+
+Reshid Pasha, the ablest of the Turkish generals, having advanced into
+the neighbourhood of Missolonghi towards the end of April, began to
+besiege it in good earnest, at the head of an army of some seven
+or eight thousand picked followers, on the 7th of May. While he was
+forming his entrenchments and erecting his batteries, the townsmen,
+augmented by a number of fierce Suliots and others, were strengthening
+their defences. They increased their ramparts, and organised a
+garrison of four thousand soldiers and armed peasants, with a thousand
+citizens and boatmen as auxiliaries. At first the tide of fortune was
+with them. The Turks had to defend themselves as best they could from
+numerous sorties, well-planned and well-executed, in May and June; and
+fresh courage came to the Greeks with the intelligence that Admiral
+Miaoulis was on his way to the port, with as powerful a fleet as he
+could muster. While he was being expected, however, on the 10th of
+July, the Turkish Capitan Pasha of Greece arrived with fifty-five
+vessels. Miaoulis, with forty Greek sail, made his appearance on the
+2nd of August. Thus the naval and military forces of both sides were
+brought into formidable opposition.
+
+At first the Greeks triumphed on the sea. In the night of the 3rd of
+August, Miaoulis, finding that Missolonghi was being greatly troubled
+by the blockade established by the Turks, cleverly placed himself to
+windward of the enemy's line, and at daybreak on the 4th he dispersed
+the squadron nearest the shore. At noon the whole Turkish force came
+against him. He met them bravely, but being able to do no more
+than hold his own by the ordinary method of warfare, he sent three
+fireships against them in the afternoon. The Turks did not wait to be
+injured by them. They fled at once, going all the way to Alexandria
+in search of safety. Miaoulis then lost no time in seconding his first
+exploit by another. A detachment of the army of Eastern Greece, under
+the brave generals Karaïskakes and Zavellas, having been sent to
+harass Reshid Pasha's operations, the admiral assisted them in a
+successful piece of strategy. The Turks were, on the 6th of August,
+attacked simultaneously by the ships and by the outlying battalion
+of Greeks, while fifteen hundred of the garrison rushed out upon the
+invaders. Four Turkish batteries were seized, and a great number of
+their defenders were killed and captured; the remainder, after tough
+fighting during three hours and a half, being driven so far back that
+much of the besieging work had to be done over again.
+
+Miaoulis then went in search of the Ottoman fleet, leaving the
+townsmen, who were enabled, by the raising of the blockade, to receive
+fresh supplies of food, ammunition, and men, to continue their
+defence with a good heart. Reshid Pasha vigorously restored his siege
+operations, but, attempting to force his way into the town on the 21st
+of September, was again seriously repulsed. The Turks were allowed,
+and even tempted, to advance to a point which had been skilfully
+undermined by the besieged. The mine was then fired, and a great
+number of Moslems were blown into the air, while their comrades,
+fleeing in disorder, were further injured by a storm of shot from the
+ramparts. A similar device was resorted to, with like success, on the
+13th of October. Reshid had to retire to a safe distance and
+there build winter quarters for his diminished and starving army.
+Karaïskakes and Zavellas entered Missolonghi without hindrance, there
+to concert measures which, had they been promptly adopted, might have
+utterly destroyed the besieging force.
+
+They delayed their plans too long. The Capitan Pasha having in August
+fled in a cowardly way to Alexandria, there effected a junction with
+the Egyptians, and returned to the neighbourhood of Missolonghi in
+the middle of November with a huge fleet of a hundred and thirty-five
+vessels, well supplied with troops and provisions. These he landed at
+Patras on the 18th, just in time to be free from any annoyance that
+might have been occasioned by Miaoulis, who returned to Missolonghi
+on the 28th with a fleet of only thirty-three sail. He had vainly
+attacked a part of the Moslem force on its way, and now, after landing
+some stores at Missolonghi, made several vain attempts to overcome a
+force four times as strong as his own. He soon retired, intending to
+return as promptly as he could collect a large fleet and bring with
+him further supplies of the provisions of which the Missolonghites
+were beginning to be in need.
+
+The need was greater even than he imagined. Not only had the Capitan
+Pasha brought temporary assistance, in men and food, to the besieging
+force. Yet greater assistance soon came in the shape of an Egyptian
+army, led by Ibrahim Pasha himself. An overwhelming power was
+thus organized during the last weeks of 1825, and the defenders of
+Missolonghi were left to succumb to it, almost unaided. Their previous
+successes had induced the Greeks of other districts to believe that
+they could continue their defence alone, and almost the only relief
+obtained by them was from the Zantiots, who had all along been zealous
+in the despatch of money and provisions, and from Miaoulis and the
+small fleet and equipment that he was able to collect from the islands
+of the Archipelago. Miaoulis returned in January, 1826, and did much
+injury to the Turkish and Egyptian vessels. But he could offer no
+hindrance to the action of the Turks and Egyptians upon land. The
+rainy months of December and January, in which no important attack
+could be entered upon, were spent by Ibrahim and his companions in
+preparation for future work. The invaders were now well provided
+with every requisite. The besieged were in want of nearly everything.
+"Invested for ten months," says the contemporary historian,
+"frequently on the verge of starvation, thinned by fatigue, watching,
+and wounds, they had already buried fifteen hundred soldiers. The
+town was in ruins, and they lived amongst the mire and water of their
+ditches, exposed to the inclemency of a rigorous season, without shoes
+and in tattered clothing. As far as their vision stretched over the
+waves they beheld only Turkish flags. The plain was studded with
+Mussulman tents and standards; and the gradual appearance of new
+batteries more skilfully disposed, the field days of the Arabs, and
+the noise of saws and hammers, gave fearful warning. Yet these gallant
+Acarnanians, Etolians, and Epirots never flinched for an instant."[A]
+
+[Footnote A: Gordon, vol. ii., p. 253.]
+
+On the 13th of January, Ibrahim Pasha sent to say that he was willing
+to treat with them for an honourable surrender if they would convey
+their terms by deputies who could speak Albanian, Turkish, and French.
+"We are illiterate, and do not understand so many languages," was
+their blunt reply; "pashas we do not recognize; but we know how to
+handle the sword and gun."[A]
+
+[Footnote A: Ibid.]
+
+Sword and gun were handled with desperate prowess during February and
+March and the early part of April. In April, offers of capitulation
+were renewed by Ibrahim, and more disinterested attempts to avert
+the worst calamity were made by Sir Frederick Adam, the Lord High
+Commissioner of the Ionian Islands. Both proposals were stoutly
+rejected. The Missolonghiotes declared that they would defend their
+town to the last, and trust only in God and in their own strong arms.
+But on the 1st of April the last scanty distribution of public rations
+was exhausted. For three weeks the inhabitants subsisted upon nothing
+but cats, rats, hides, seaweed, and whatever other refuse and vermin
+they could collect. At length, on the 22nd of April, finding it
+impossible to hold out for a day longer, they resolved to evacuate the
+town in a body, and, cutting their way through the enemy, to try to
+join Karaïskakes and his small force, who, hiding among the mountain
+fastnesses, were vainly seeking for some way of assisting them, and to
+whom they now despatched a message, asking them to advance and help to
+clear a passage for their flight.
+
+After sunset four bridges of planks were secretly laid over the outer
+ditch of Missolonghi, and the inhabitants were ordered to prepare to
+leave in two hours. Many—about two thousand—lost heart at last; some
+betaking themselves to the powder stores, there, when all hope was
+over, to end their lives by easier death than the enemy might allow
+them; others, crouching in corners of their homesteads, deeming it
+better to be murdered there than in the open country. The rest obeyed
+the orders of the generals. All the women dressed themselves as men,
+with swords or daggers at their waists. Every child who could hold a
+weapon had one placed in his hand. There was bitter leave-taking, and
+desperate words of encouragement passed from one to another, as the
+patriots were marshalled in the order of their departure;—three
+thousand fighting men to open a passage and four thousand women and
+children to follow;—the whole being divided into three separate
+parties. At length all was ready, and the first party silently passed
+out of the town and advanced to the bridges. To their amazement,
+they no sooner appeared than they were met by volley after volley of
+Turkish fire. A traitor had revealed their plan, and every measure had
+been taken for their destruction. Some rushed on in despite; others
+hurried back, to fall into confusion, which it was hard indeed to
+overcome. They felt, however, that this deadly chance was their only
+chance of life, and they pressed on through the fire, and the swords
+of their foes, and by the sheer heroism of despair forced a passage
+to the mountains. Karaiskakes's aid—apparently through no fault of
+his—was only obtained when the worst dangers had been surmounted or
+succumbed to. Of the nine thousand persons who were in Missolonghi on
+the day of the evacuation, four thousand were killed in the town or on
+the way out of it. Only thirteen hundred men and two hundred women and
+children lived to reach Salona after more than a week of wandering and
+hiding among the mountains.
+
+The long siege of Missolonghi illustrates all the best and some of
+the worst features of the Greek Revolution. In it there was patriotism
+worthy, in its bursts of splendour, of the nation that claimed descent
+from the heroes of Plataea and Thermopylae. But the patriotism was
+often fitful in its working, and oftener wholly wanting. The Greeks
+could not shake off the pernicious influences that sprang, almost
+necessarily, from their long centuries of thraldom. Heroism was
+closely linked with treachery and meanness. The worthiest and most
+disinterested energy was intimately associated with ignorance as to
+the right methods of action, and with wilful action in wrong ways. The
+elements of weakness that had been apparent from the first were more
+and more developed as the painful struggle reached its termination.
+It seems as if, in spite of Reshid Pasha and Ibrahim and their
+fierce armies, it would have been easy for Missolonghi and its
+brave defenders to have been saved. But rival ambitions and
+paltry jealousies divided the leaders of the Revolution. They were
+quarrelling while the power that each one coveted for himself was,
+step by step, being wrested from them all; and when they tried to do
+well their want of discipline often rendered their efforts of small
+avail. No adequate attempt was made to relieve Missolonghi by land,
+and the brave conduct of Miaoulis on the sea was almost neutralized
+by the disorganization of his crews and the selfish policy of the
+islanders who sent him out.
+
+"With respect to the Greek army," wrote General Ponsonby to the Duke
+of Wellington, from Corfu, on the 15th of June, "it is, generally
+speaking, a mob; and a chief can only calculate upon keeping it
+together as long as he has provisions to give it or the prospect of
+plunder without danger. There is nothing to oppose the Egyptian
+army but a mob kept together by the small sums sent by the different
+committees in foreign countries. The Greeks have a great horror of
+the bayonet, which, however, they have never seen near, except at
+Missolonghi. The Suliots, who chiefly formed the garrison of that
+place, are fine men, and certainly fought with great courage. Much
+has been said of naval actions, but there is no truth in any of the
+accounts. The Greeks are better sailors than the Turks, but no action
+has been fought since the beginning of the war, if it is understood by
+action that there is risk and loss on both sides. The Greeks, however,
+have done wonders with their fleet. They have destroyed many large
+ships, and, in the month of February last, with twenty-three brigs,
+they out-manoeuvred the Turkish fleet of sixty sail, and threw
+provisions into Missolonghi. This, though done by seamanship, and not
+fighting, was called a great battle and a great victory. I was
+within two miles of the fleets, and the cannonade for six hours was
+tremendous; but when I spoke to Miaoulis the following morning he told
+me he had not lost a man in his fleet."[A]
+
+[Footnote A: "Despatches of the Duke of Wellington," vol. iii., p.
+338.]
+
+During the summer and winter following the fall of Missolonghi a
+series of small disasters, the aggregate of which was by no means
+small, befel the Greeks. It was the opinion of all parties, and
+admitted even by jealous rivals, that the tottering cause of
+independence was only sustained by the constant and eager expectation
+of the arrival of the powerful fleet which was supposed to be on its
+way to the Archipelago, under the able leadership of Lord Cochrane,
+the world-famous champion of Chilian and Brazilian freedom.
+
+His approach was hardly more a cause of hope to the Greeks than a
+subject of fear to the Turks. No sooner was it publicly known that he
+had espoused the cause of the insurgents than angry complaints were
+made by the Turkish Government to the British ministry, and Mr.
+Canning, then Foreign Secretary, had more than once to avow that the
+authorities in England knew nothing of his movements, and had done all
+that the law rendered possible to restrain him. He had also to promise
+that everything legal should be done to keep him in check on his
+arrival in Greek waters. "We have heard," he wrote in August to his
+cousin, Mr. Stratford Canning, afterwards Lord Stratford de Redcliffe,
+the ambassador at Constantinople, "that Lord Cochrane is gone to
+the Mediterranean; whether it be really so, we know not." He then
+proceeded to define the bearing of English and international law
+in the existing circumstances. "Lord Cochrane may enter the Greek
+service, and continue therein. He may even, as a Greek commander,
+institute (as he did in Brazil) blockades which British officers will
+respect, and exercise the belligerent rights of search on British
+merchant-ships, without exposing himself to any other penalty than
+that which the law will inflict upon him if ever hereafter he shall
+again bring himself within its reach, and be duly convicted of the
+offence for the punishment of which that law was enacted. If, indeed,
+he should do any of such things without a commission he would become a
+pirate, and liable to the summary justice to which, without reference
+to the municipal laws of his country, he would, as an enemy of the
+human race, be liable; and liable just as much from the officers of
+any other country as of his own."[A]
+
+[Footnote A: "Despatches of the Duke of Wellington," vol. iii., pp.
+357, 358.]
+
+While that correspondence was going on, Lord Cochrane, as we have
+seen, was battling with a long series of delays, as irksome to himself
+as they were unfortunate to the Greeks. It was not till the 14th of
+September, about eight months after the time fixed for the arrival of
+his whole fleet, that the first instalment of it, the _Perseverance_,
+which he had sent on as soon as it was completed, with Captain Abney
+Hastings as its commander, entered the harbour of Nauplia. On the 26th
+of October, Captain Hastings wrote a letter, giving curious evidence
+of the estimate formed by him of the Greek character. It was left
+at Nauplia and addressed to "the commander of the first American
+or English vessel that arrives in Greece to join the Greeks." "An
+apprenticeship in Greece tolerably long," he wrote, "has taught me the
+risks to which anybody newly arrived, and possessed of some place and
+power, is exposed. They know me, and they also know that I know them;
+yet they have not ceased, and never will cease, intriguing to get this
+vessel out of my hands and into their own, which would be
+tantamount to ruining her. Knowing all this, I take the liberty
+of leaving this letter, to be delivered to the first officer
+that arrives in Greece in the command of a vessel, to caution
+him not to receive on board his vessel any Greek captain. They
+will endeavour, under various pretences, to introduce themselves on
+board, and when once they have got a footing, they will gradually
+encroach until they feel themselves strong enough to turn out the
+original commander. The presence of such men can only be attended with
+inconvenience, for, if you are obliged to take a certain number of
+Greek sailors, these captains will render subordination among them
+impossible by their own irregularity and bad example. If you want
+seamen, take some from Hydra, Spetzas, Kranidi, or Poros. The Psarians
+may be trusted in very small numbers. Take a few men from one, a few
+from another island, and thus you will be best enabled to establish
+some kind of discipline. Take a good number of marines. Choose them
+from the peasantry and foreign Greeks, and you may make something of
+them. You must see, sir, that, in this my advice to the first officer
+arriving in command of a vessel, I can have no interest any further
+than inasmuch as I wish well to the Greek cause, and therefore do not
+wish to see a force that can be of great service rendered ineffective
+by falling into the hands of people totally incapable and unwilling to
+adopt a single right measure. In Greece there cannot be any military
+operations except such as are carried on by foreigners in their
+service."
+
+That letter was written after Captain Hastings had endured a month's
+annoyance from the trouble brought upon him by the Hydriot officers
+and seamen who tried to oust him from the command of his fine vessel,
+whose name was now changed from the _Perseverance_ to the _Karteria_.
+Unfortunately, his letter, left at Nauplia, did not reach the captain
+of the next reinforcement, the American frigate, which arrived at
+Egina on the 8th of December. "She was one of the finest ships in the
+world," we are told, "carrying sixty-four guns—long 32-pounders on
+the main, and 42-pound carronades on the upper deck—and was filled
+with flour, ammunition, medicines, and marine stores for eighteen
+months' consumption. The Greeks contemplated her with delight, but,
+upon the departure of the American officers and seamen who navigated
+her out, they discovered that she would be more embarrassing than
+useful to them. To manage vessels of such a size was beyond their
+capacity, and the mutual jealousy of the islanders suggested to the
+Government the absurd notion of putting the frigate into commission,
+Hydra, Spetzas, and the Psarian community being desired to send quotas
+of men. This plan was now found to be impracticable. Repeated fights
+occurred on board. The ship was twice in danger of being wrecked at
+Egina, and at Poros she actually drifted ashore, luckily on soft mud.
+She was finally given up to Miaoulis, with a Hydriot crew of his own
+selection."[A]
+
+[Footnote A: Gordon, vol. ii., p. 326.]
+
+This frigate, christened the _Hellas_, came too late to be of much
+service to Admiral Miaoulis, before the arrival of Lord Cochrane. In
+the previous summer and autumn, however, he had been harassing and
+keeping at bay the Turkish and Egyptian fleets—work in which Hastings
+was in time to assist him.
+
+Andreas Miaoulis, one of the least obtrusive, was almost the worthiest
+of all the Greek patriots. During five years he had never ceased to do
+the best that it was possible for him to do with the bad materials
+at his disposal. When the Greek Revolution was at its height, he
+had contributed largely to its success; and in the ensuing years
+of disaster upon land, he had maintained its dignity on the sea by
+offering bold resistance to the great naval power of the combined
+Turkish and Egyptian fleets. No better proof of his patriotism could
+be given than in the zeal with which he surrendered to Lord Cochrane
+the leadership of the fleet which had devolved upon him for so long
+and been so ably conducted by him. "I received four days ago," he
+wrote from Poros on the 23rd of February, 1827, "your amiable
+letter of the 19th of last month, and my great satisfaction at the
+announcement of your approaching arrival in Greece is joined with a
+special pleasure at the honour you do me in associating me with your
+important operations. I shall be happy, my admiral, if, in serving
+you, I can do my duty. I await you with impatience."
+
+Just a month before that, on the 23rd of January, a like letter
+of congratulation was addressed to Lord Cochrane from Egina by the
+Governing Commission of Greece. "The intelligence of your speedy
+coming to Greece," they said, "has awakened the liveliest joy and
+satisfaction, and has already begun to rekindle in the hearts of
+the Greeks that enthusiasm which is the most powerful weapon and the
+surest support of a nation that has devoted itself to the recovery of
+its most sacred rights. The Government of Greece is waiting with
+the utmost impatience for the most zealous defender of the nation's
+liberty. It hopes to see you in its midst as soon as possible after
+your arrival at Hydra, and then to make you acquainted with the actual
+state of Greece, and to furnish you with all the means in its power
+for the achievement of the grand results proposed by your lordship."
+The letter was signed by Andreas Zaimes, as President of
+the Commission, and by seven of its members, among whom were
+Mavromichales, or Petro-Bey, who, with Zaimes and two others,
+represented the Morea, Spiridion Trikoupes, the deputy for Roumelia,
+Zamados from Hydra, Monarchides from Psara, and Demetrakopoulos from
+the islands of the Egean Sea.
+
+By the same body was issued, on the 21st of February, a preliminary
+commission, intended to protect him in case of any opposition being
+raised to his progress by the authorities of other nations. "The
+Governing Commission of Greece," it was written, "makes known that
+Admiral Lord Cochrane is recognised as being in the service of Greece,
+and accordingly has the permission of the Government to hoist the
+Greek flag on all the vessels that are under his command. He has
+power, also, to fight the enemies of Greece to the utmost of his
+power. Therefore the officers of neutral powers, being informed of
+this, are implored, not only to offer no opposition to his movements,
+but also, if necessary, to supply him with any assistance he may
+require, seeing that it is our custom to do the same to all friendly
+nations." Armed with this document, and provided with the necessary
+means by the Philhellenes of England, France, and Switzerland, Lord
+Cochrane proceeded from Marseilles to Greece.
+
+
+
+
+APPENDIX.
+
+
+I.
+
+(Page 22.)
+
+The following "Resumé of the Services of the late Earl of Dundonald,
+none of which have been Requited or Officially Recognized," was
+written by his son, one of the authors of the present work, and
+printed for private circulation in 1861.
+
+1. The destruction of three heavily-armed French corvettes, near the
+mouth of the Garonne, the crew of Lord Cochrane's frigate, _Pallas_,
+being at the time, with the exception of forty men, engaged in cutting
+out the _Tapageuse_, lying under the protection of two batteries
+thirty miles up the river, in which operation they were also
+successful, four ships of war being thus captured or destroyed in a
+single day. For these services Lord Cochrane obtained nothing but
+his share of the _Tapageuse_, sold by auction for a trifling sum,
+the Government refusing to purchase her as a ship of war, though of
+admirable build and construction. Contrary to the usual rule, no ship
+ever taken by Lord Cochrane, throughout his whole career, was ever
+allowed to be bought into the navy. For the corvettes, which Lord
+Cochrane destroyed with so small a crew, he never received reward or
+thanks, the alleged reason being, that, having become wrecks, they
+were not in existence, and therefore could not have value attached
+to them. This decision of the Admiralty was contrary to custom, as
+admitted to the present day. In the late Russian war a gunboat of the
+enemy having been driven on shore and wrecked, compensation is said to
+have been awarded to the officers and crew of the British vessel
+which drove her on shore. The importance of wrecking a gunboat, in
+comparison with the destruction of three fast-sailing ships, which
+were picking up our merchantmen, in all directions, needs no comment.
+
+2. Lord Cochrane's services on the coast of Catalonia, of which Lord
+Collingwood, then commander-in-chief in the Mediterranean, testified
+of his lordship to the Admiralty that by his energy and foresight
+he had, with a single frigate, stopped a French army from occupying
+Eastern Spain. The services by which this was effected were as
+follows:—Preventing the reinforcement of the French garrison in
+Barcelona, by harassing the newly-arrived troops in their march along
+the coast, and organising and assisting the Spanish militia to oppose
+their progress, Lord Cochrane himself capturing one of their forts on
+shore, and taking the garrison prisoners.
+
+On the approach of a powerful French _corps d'armée_ towards
+Barcelona, Lord Cochrane blew up the roads along the coast, and taught
+the Spanish peasantry how to do so inland. By blowing up the cliff
+roads, near Mongat, Lord Cochrane interposed an insurmountable
+obstacle between the army and its artillery, capturing and throwing
+into the sea a considerable number of field-pieces, so that the
+operations of the French were rendered nugatory. For these services,
+Lord Cochrane, notwithstanding the strong representations of Lord
+Collingwood to the Board of Admiralty, neither received thanks nor
+reward of any kind; notwithstanding that whilst so engaged, and that
+voluntarily, in successfully accomplishing the work of an army, he
+patriotically gave up all chances of prize money, though easily to be
+obtained by cruising after the enemy's vessels. In place of this, he
+neither searched for nor captured a single prize, whilst engaged
+in harassing the French army on shore, devoting his whole energies
+towards the enterprise which he considered most conducive to the
+interests of his country.
+
+3. Having effected his object, Lord Cochrane sailed for the Gulf
+of Lyons, with the intention of cutting off the enemy's shore
+communications. This he accomplished by destroying their signal
+stations, telegraphs, and shore batteries along nearly the whole
+coast, navigating his frigate with perfect safety throughout this
+proverbially perilous part of the Mediterranean. In order further
+to paralyse the enemy's movements, Lord Cochrane made a practice
+of burning paper near the demolished stations, so as to deceive the
+French into the belief that he had burned their signal books; he
+rightly judging that from this circumstance they might not deem it
+necessary to alter their code of signals. The ruse succeeded, and,
+transmitting the signal books to Lord Collingwood, then watching the
+enemy's preparations in Toulon, the commander-in-chief was thus
+fully apprised, by the enemy's signals, not only of all their naval
+movements, but also of the position and movements of all British
+ships of war on the French coast. Lord Cochrane's single frigate
+thus performed the work of many vessels of observation, and Lord
+Collingwood testified of him to the Admiralty that "his resources
+seemed to have no end." Notwithstanding this testimony from his
+commander-in-chief, Lord Cochrane neither received reward nor thanks
+for the service rendered.
+
+4. On his return to the Spanish coast, Lord Cochrane found the French
+besieging Rosas, the Spaniards maintaining possession of the citadel,
+whilst Fort Trinidad had just been evacuated by the British officer
+who had been co-operating with the Spaniards in the larger fortress.
+Lord Cochrane, believing that if Fort Trinidad were held till
+reinforcements arrived, the French must be compelled to raise the
+siege of Rosas, persuaded the Spanish Governor not to surrender, as he
+was about to do, on its evacuation by the British officer aforesaid,
+and threw himself into the fort with a detachment from the seamen
+and marines of the _Impérieuse_, with which frigate he maintained
+uninterrupted communication, in spite of the enemy, who, on
+ascertaining it to be Lord Cochrane who was keeping them at bay,
+redoubled their efforts to capture the fort, the gallant defence of
+which is amongst the most remarkable events of naval warfare. Lord
+Cochrane held Fort Trinidad till, the Spaniards surrendering the
+citadel, he would not allow his men to run further risk in their
+behalf, and withdrew the seamen and marines in safety. For this
+remarkable exploit Lord Cochrane, though himself severely wounded,
+neither received reward nor thanks, except from Lord Collingwood,
+who again, without effect, warmly applauded his gallantry to the
+Admiralty.
+
+5. Immediately on his arrival at Plymouth, on leave of absence in
+consequence of ill health from his extraordinary exertions, Lord
+Cochrane was immediately summoned by the Admiralty to Whitehall,
+and asked for a plan whereby the French fleet in Basque Roads, then
+threatening our West India possessions, might be destroyed at one
+blow; this extraordinary request from a junior captain, after the most
+experienced officers in the navy had pronounced its impracticability,
+forcibly proving the very high opinion entertained by the Admiralty
+of Lord Cochrane's skill and resources. He gave in a plan, and was
+ordered to execute it, which order he reluctantly obeyed, having done
+all in his power to decline an invidious command, for fear of arousing
+the jealousy of officers to whom he was junior in the service. What
+followed is matter of history, and needs not to be recapitulated.
+Yet for the destruction of that powerful armament he neither received
+reward nor thanks from the Admiralty, though rewarded by his sovereign
+with the highest order of the Bath, a distinction which marked his
+Majesty's sense of the important service rendered.
+
+Nine years afterwards head money was awarded to the whole fleet,
+of which only the vessels directed by Lord Cochrane and a few sent
+afterwards, when too late for effective measures, took part in the
+action. The alleged reason of this award was that the _Calcutta_, one
+of the ships driven ashore by Lord Cochrane, did not surrender to him,
+but to ships sent to his assistance. This was not true, though after
+protracted deliberation so ruled by the Admiralty Court, and officers
+now living and present in the action have recently come forward to
+testify to the ship being in Lord Cochrane's possession before the
+arrival of the ships which subsequently came to his assistance. A
+small sum was therefore only awarded to him as a junior captain, in
+common with those who had been spectators only, and this he declined
+to receive. Such was his recompense for a service to the high merit of
+which Napoleon himself afterwards testified in the warmest manner; and
+it may be mentioned as a further testimony that a French Court Martial
+shot Captain Lafont, the commander of the _Calcutta_, because he
+surrendered to a vessel of inferior power, viz., Lord Cochrane's
+frigate, the _Impérieuse_ of forty-four guns, the _Calcutta_ carrying
+sixty guns.[A]
+
+[Footnote A: Captain Lafont was shot on board the _Ocean_, on
+September 9, 1809, _for surrendering the Calcutta to a ship of
+inferior force_, thus proving that she surrendered to Lord Cochrane
+alone, though Sir William Scott ruled in opposition to the facts
+adopted by the French Court Martial, which condemned Captain Lafont
+to death for the act. The surrender to Lord Cochrane alone is further
+proved by the additional fact, that the captains of the _Ville de
+Varsovie_ and _Aquilon_, which _did_ surrender to the other ships in
+conjunction with Lord Cochrane's frigate, were not even accused, much
+less punished for so doing.]
+
+The exploits of Lord Cochrane in the _Speedy_ and _Pallas_ are too
+well known in naval history to require recapitulation, and of these
+it may be said that the numerous prizes captured by these vessels
+constituted their own reward. It may here be mentioned in confirmation
+of what has previously been said, that the _Gamo_, a magnificent
+xebeque frigate of thirty-two guns, was not allowed to be bought into
+the navy, but was sold for a small sum to one of the piratical Barbary
+States, notwithstanding that Lord Cochrane had said that if he
+were allowed to have her in place of the _Speedy_, then in a very
+dilapidated condition, he would sweep the Mediterranean of the enemy's
+cruisers and privateers. His capacity so to do may be judged from what
+he effected with the _Speedy_, mounting only fourteen 4-pounders.
+
+With regard to the services previously enumerated, the case is
+different, notwithstanding their national importance in comparison
+with his minor acts, which may be classed as brilliant exploits only.
+But that no reward should have been conferred for doing effectively
+the work of an army, and that without the cost of a shilling to the
+nation beyond the ordinary expenditure of a small frigate, necessary
+to be disbursed whether she performed any effective service or not,
+is a neglect which, unless repaired in the persons of his successors,
+will for ever remain a blot on the British Government. Still more so
+will the worse neglect of not having in any way rewarded him for the
+destruction of the French fleet in Basque Roads, for though only four
+ships were destroyed at the moment, the whole fleet of the enemy was
+so damaged by having been driven on shore from terror of the explosive
+vessel, fired with Lord Cochrane's own hand, that it eventually became
+a wreck; and thus our West India commerce, then the most important
+branch of national export and import, was in a month after Lord
+Cochrane's arrival from the Mediterranean relieved from the panic
+which paralysed it, and restored to its wonted security;—a service
+which can only be estimated by the gloom and panic which had
+previously pervaded the whole country.
+
+Were reference made to the pension list, and note taken of the
+pensions granted to other officers and their successors for services
+which in point of national importance do not admit of comparison with
+those of Lord Cochrane, the present generation would be surprised at
+the national ingratitude manifested towards one, who, in his great
+exploits, had so patriotically sacrificed every consideration
+of private interest to his country's service. His cruise in the
+_Impérieuse_, which has no parallel in naval history, procured for
+Lord Cochrane nothing whatever but shattered health from the
+incessant anxiety and exertion he had undergone in the profitless but
+high-minded course he adopted to thwart the French in their attempts
+to establish a permanent footing in Eastern Spain. His exploits in
+Basque Roads procured him nothing but absolute ruin; for, from his
+refusal as a Member of Parliament to acquiesce in a vote of thanks to
+Lord Gambier, even though the same thanks were promised to himself,
+may be dated that active political persecution which commenced by
+depriving him of further naval employment and did not cease till it
+had accomplished his utter ruin, even to striking his name out of the
+_Navy List_.
+
+The animosity of this political partisanship towards one who had
+effected so much for his country is an anomaly even in political
+history. That amended representation of the people in Parliament, for
+which he strove up to 1818, had only fourteen years afterwards become
+the law of the land, and the boast of some who had persecuted Lord
+Cochrane for no offence beyond having been amongst the first to give
+expression to the popular will subsequently adopted by themselves.
+
+The efforts of Lord Cochrane in favour of reforming the abuses of the
+Navy and of Greenwich Hospital, which at that time brought upon him
+the wrath of the Administration, are at this moment seriously engaging
+the attention of parliament, as being of paramount national necessity.
+The doctrine then openly laid down, that no naval officer in
+parliament had a right to interfere with naval administration, has
+long been abrogated, and many of the brightest ornaments of the navy
+are now amongst the foremost to denounce naval abuses in the House of
+Commons. It is, in fact, to them that the country now looks for
+that vigilance which shall preserve the navy in a proper state of
+efficiency. Yet for these very things was Lord Cochrane persecuted,
+though modern Governments, which have been liberal enough to acquiesce
+in popular reforms, of which he was the early advocate, have not been
+liberal enough to make him amends for the wrongs he suffered as one of
+the indefatigable originators of their now-cherished measures. Still
+less have they deemed it inconsistent with the honour of this great
+country to refrain from rewarding him in the ordinary manner for his
+most important services, rendered when others shrank from them, as was
+the case at Basque Roads, where his plans, declined by his seniors in
+the service, were successfully executed by himself under the greatest
+possible discouragement and disadvantage.
+
+But the injustice manifested towards the late Earl of Dundonald did
+not end here. Driven from the service of his own country, and without
+fortune, he was compelled by his necessities to embark in the service
+of foreign states. With his own hand, directed by his own genius,
+which had to supply the place of adequate naval force, he liberated
+Chili, Peru, and Brazil from thraldom, consolidating the rebellious
+provinces of the latter empire on so permanent a basis, that its
+internal peace has never again been disturbed. Yet not one of these
+states has to this day satisfied the stipulated and indisputable
+arrangements by which he was induced to espouse their cause; the
+reason of their breach of contract being distinctly traceable to the
+course pursued towards Lord Dundonald in England. Seeing that the
+British Government paid no attention to the yet more important claims
+he had upon its gratitude, the South American States believed that
+they might with impunity disregard their own stipulations, and the
+dictates of national honour; the chief of one of them having had the
+audacity to tell Lord Cochrane that he would find no sympathy in the
+British Government.
+
+Three of the most distinguished officers in the British service, Sir
+Thomas Hastings, Sir John Burgoyne, and Colonel Colquhoun, have felt
+it their duty, when officially reporting on the efficacy of Lord
+Dundonald's war plans, to give him the highest credit for having kept
+his secret "
+_under peculiarly trying circumstances_," and from
+pure love of his native country. The "trying circumstances" were
+these,—that he had been driven from the service of that country by
+the machinations of a political faction, which, in the conscientious
+performance of his parliamentary duties, he had offended. Even this
+injury, which blasted his whole life and prospects, did not detract
+one _iota_ from the love of country, which to the day of his death
+was with him a passion; his acute mind well knowing how to draw the
+distinction between his country and those who were sacrificing its
+best interests to their love of power, if not to less worthy purposes.
+Never was praise more honourably given, than in the Ordnance Report
+of the above-named distinguished officers, and never was it more nobly
+deserved.
+
+Another "peculiarly trying circumstance" alluded to by those officers,
+was that, when compelled by actual pecuniary necessity, in consequence
+of the deprivation of his rank and pay, and the demands of increasing
+family, to accept service under a foreign state as his only means of
+subsistence, he lay before the castles of Callao, into which had been
+removed for security the whole wealth of the rich capital of Peru,
+including bullion and plate, estimated at upwards of a million
+sterling, he preserved his war secret, though strongly urged to put
+it in execution. Had he listened to the temptation, in six hours
+the whole of that wealth must have been in his possession. For not
+listening to it, he incurred the enmity of his employers, who urged
+that they were entitled to all his professional skill and knowledge,
+as a part of his bargain with them; and his non-compliance with their
+wishes is doubtless amongst the chief reasons why they have not, to
+this day, satisfied their own offered stipulations for his services.
+Yet, at the very moment when he was displaying this self-sacrificing
+patriotism, lest his country might suffer from his secret being
+divulged, the Government of Great Britain had, at the suggestion of
+the Spanish Government, passed a "Foreign Enlistment Act," with the
+express intention of enveloping him in its meshes.[A]
+
+[Footnote A: On Lord Cochrane's return from Brazil, having occasion
+to go before the Attorney-General, on the subject of a patent, that
+learned functionary rudely asked him, "
+_Whether he was not afraid to
+appear in his presence?_ " Lord Cochrane's reply was, "
+_No, nor in
+the presence of any man living_." Evidence exists that the
+Attorney-General asked the Ministry if he should prosecute Lord
+Cochrane under the Foreign Enlistment Act, the reply being in the
+negative.]
+
+II.
+
+(Page 23.)
+
+As a striking instance of Lord Cochrane's method of exposing naval
+abuses, part of a speech delivered by him in the House of Commons, on
+the 11th of May, 1809, is here copied from his "Autobiography," vol.
+ii. pp. 142-144.
+
+An admiral, worn out in the service, is superannuated at
+410£. a year, a captain at 210£., a clerk of the ticket office
+retires on 700£. a year! The widow of Admiral Sir Andrew
+Mitchell has one third of the allowance given to the widow of
+a Commissioner of the Navy.
+
+I will give the House another instance. Four daughters of the
+gallant Captain Courtenay have 12£. 10s. each, the daughter of
+Admiral Sir Andrew Mitchell has 25£., two daughters of Admiral
+Epworth have 25l. each, the daughter of Admiral Keppel 24£.,
+the daughter of Captain Mann, who was killed in action, 25£.,
+four children of Admiral Moriarty 25£. each. That is—thirteen
+daughters of admirals and captains, several of whose fathers
+fell in the service of their country, receive from the
+gratitude of the nation a sum less than Dame Mary Saxton, the
+widow of a commissioner.
+
+The pension list is not formed on any comparative rank or
+merit, length of service, or other rational principle, but
+appears to me to be dependent on parliamentary influence
+alone. Lieutenant Ellison, who lost his arm, is allowed 91£.
+5s., Captain Johnstone, who lost his arm, has only 45£.
+12s. 6d., Lieutenant Arden, who lost his arm, has 9£.
+5s., Lieutenant Campbell, who lost his leg, 40£., and poor
+Lieutenant Chambers, who lost both his legs, has only 80£.,
+whilst Sir A.S. Hamond retires on 1500£. per annum. The brave
+Sir Samuel Hood, who lost his arm, has only 500£., whilst the
+late Secretary of the Admiralty retires, in full health, on a
+pension of 1500£. per annum.
+
+To speak less in detail, 32 flag officers, 22 captains, 50
+lieutenants, 180 masters, 36 surgeons, 23 pursers, 91 boatswains, 97
+gunners, 202 carpenters, and 41 cooks, in all 774 persons, cost the
+country 4028l. less than the nett proceeds of the sinecures of Lords
+Arden (20,358£), Camden (20,536£), and Buckingham (20,693£).
+
+All the superannuated admirals, captains, and lieutenants put
+together, have but 1012l. more than Earl Camden's sinecure alone! All
+that is paid to the wounded officers of the whole British navy, and
+to the wives and children of those dead or killed in action, do
+not amount by 214l. to as much as Lord Arden's sinecure alone, viz.
+20,358£. What is paid to the mutilated officers themselves is but half
+as much.
+
+Is this justice? Is this the treatment which the officers of the
+navy deserve at the hands of those who call themselves his Majesty's
+Government? Does the country know of this injustice? Will this too be
+defended? If I express myself with warmth I trust in the indulgence
+of the House. I cannot suppress my feelings. Should 31 commissioners,
+commissioners' wives, and clerks have 3899l. more amongst them than
+all the wounded officers of the navy of England?
+
+I find upon examination that the Wellesleys receive from the public
+34,729£, a sum equal to 426 pairs of lieutenants' legs, calculated at
+the rate of allowance of Lieutenant Chambers's legs. Calculating
+for the pension of Captain Johnstone's arm, viz. 45l., Lord Arden's
+sinecure is equal to the value of 1022 captains' arms. The Marquis
+of Buckingham's sinecure alone will maintain the whole ordinary
+establishment of the victualling department at Chatham, Dover,
+Gibraltar, Sheerness, Downs, Heligoland, Cork, Malta, Mediterranean,
+Cape of Good Hope, Rio de Janeiro, and leave 5460£ in the Treasury.
+Two of these comfortable sinecures would victual the officers and men
+serving in all the ships in ordinary in Great Britain, viz. 117 sail
+of the line, 105 frigates, 27 sloops, and 50 hulks. Three of them
+would maintain the dockyard establishments at Portsmouth and Plymouth.
+The addition of a few more would amount to as much as the whole
+ordinary establishments of the royal dockyards at Chatham, Woolwich,
+Deptford, and Sheerness; whilst the sinecures and offices executed
+wholly by deputy would more than maintain the ordinary establishment
+of all the royal dockyards in the kingdom.
+
+Even Mr. Ponsonby, who lately made so pathetic an appeal to the good
+sense of the people of England against those whom he was pleased to
+term demagogues, actually receives, for having been thirteen months in
+office, a sum equal to nine admirals who have spent their lives in
+the service of their country; three times as much as all the pensions
+given to all the daughters and children of all the admirals,
+captains, lieutenants, and other officers who have died in indigent
+circumstances, or who have been killed in the service.
+
+III.
+
+(Page 258.)
+
+The following letter, too long to be quoted in the body of the work,
+but too important to be omitted, was addressed by Lord Cochrane to
+the Brazilian Secretary of State. It gives memorable evidence of
+the treatment to which he was subjected by the Portuguese faction in
+Brazil.
+
+Rio de Janeiro, May 3rd, 1824.
+
+MOST EXCELLENT SIR,
+
+
+I have received the honour of your excellency's reply to my letter
+of the 30th of March, and as I am thereby taught that the subjects on
+which I wrote are not now considered so intimately connected with your
+excellency's department as they were by your immediate predecessor,
+nor even so far relevant as to justify a direct communication to your
+excellency, I should feel it my duty to avoid troubling you farther
+on those subjects, were it not that you at the same time have freely
+expressed such opinions with respect to my conduct and motives as
+justice to myself requires me to controvert and refute.
+
+With regard to your excellency's assurance that it has ever been
+the intention of his Imperial Majesty and Council to act favourably
+towards me, I can in return assure your excellency that I have never
+doubted the just and benign intention of his Imperial Majesty himself,
+neither have I doubted that a part of his Privy Council has thought
+well of my services; and if I have imagined that a majority has been
+prejudiced against me, I have formed that conclusion merely from the
+effects which I have seen and experienced, and not from any undue
+prepossession against particular individuals, whether Brazilian or
+Portuguese. But when your excellency adds that those transactions
+between the late minister and myself, which, owing to their having
+been conducted verbally, have been ill-understood, have invariably
+been decided in a manner favourable to me, I confess myself at a loss
+to understand your excellency's meaning, not having any recollection
+of such favourable decisions, and therefore not feeling myself
+competent either to admit or deny unless in the first place your
+excellency shall be pleased to descend to particulars. I do indeed
+recollect that the late ministers, professing to have the authority of
+his Imperial Majesty, and which, from the personal countenance I
+have experienced from that august personage, I am sure they did not
+clandestinely assume, proffered to me the command of the imperial
+squadron, with every privilege, emolument, and advantage which
+I possessed in the command of the navy of Chili; and this, your
+excellency is desired to observe, was not a verbal transaction, but
+a written one, and therefore not liable to any of those
+misunderstandings to which verbal transactions, as your excellency
+observes, are naturally subject. Now, in Chili my commission was that
+of commander-in-chief of the squadron, without limitation as to time
+or any other restriction. My command, of course, was only to cease by
+my own voluntary resignation, or by sentence of court-martial, or by
+death, or other uncontrollable event. And accordingly the appointment
+which I accepted in the service of his Imperial Majesty, and in virtue
+of which I sailed in command of the expedition to Bahia, was that of
+commander-in-chief of the whole squadron, without limitation as to
+time or otherwise; and this, too, your excellency will be pleased
+to observe, was not a verbal transaction, but a solemn engagement
+in writing, bearing date the 26th day of March, 1823, and now in my
+possession. I had also the assurance in writing of the Minister of
+Marine, that the formalities of engrossment and registration of
+such appointment were only deferred from want of time, and should be
+executed immediately after my return.
+
+And now I most respectfully put it home to your excellency whether
+these engagements have or have not been fully confirmed and complied
+with under the present administration. I ask your excellency whether
+the patent which I received, bearing date the 25th November, 1823,
+did not contain a clause of limitation by which I might at any time be
+dismissed from the service under any pretence or without any pretence
+whatever—without even the form of a hearing in my own defence. Then
+again I ask your excellency whether my office as commander-in-chief of
+the squadron was not reduced for a period of three months—as appears
+by every official communication of the Minister of Marine to me during
+that period—to the command only of the vessels of war anchored
+in this port?[A] and further on this subject I ask your excellency
+whether after my repeated remonstrances against this injurious
+limitation of my stipulated authority, it was not pretended by the
+decree published in the Gazette of the 28th February, that I was then
+for the first time, as a mark of special favour, elevated to the rank
+of commander-in-chief of the squadron, and that too during the period
+only of the existing war: although nothing less than the chief command
+had been offered to me at the first, without any restriction as to
+time, and although it was only in that capacity I had consented to
+enter into the service, and under a written appointment as such I had
+then been in the service nearly twelve months. And then I ask your
+excellency whether the limitation introduced into the patent of the
+25th of November last, in violation of the original agreement, and
+confirmed and defined by the decree published on the 28th of February
+following; to which may be added the communication which I received
+from your excellency, excluding me from taking the oath, and becoming
+a party to the constitution, the 149th article of which provides for
+the protection of officers until lawfully deprived by sentence of
+court-martial; I say that I respectfully ask your excellency whether
+these proceedings were not well adapted for the purpose of casting me
+off with the utmost facility at the earliest moment that convenience
+might dictate; either with or without the admission of those claims
+for the future to which past services are usually considered entitled,
+as might best suit the inclination of those with whom my dismissal
+might originate. And is it not most probable that their inclination
+would run counter to those claims, especially when it is considered
+that my letter of the 6th of March to the Minister of Marine, in which
+I made the inquiry whether my right to half-pay would be recognized
+on the termination of the war, has never been answered, although my
+application for a reply has been repeated?[B] If then the explicit
+engagements in writing between the late minister of his Imperial
+Majesty and myself have, as I have shown, been set aside by the
+present ministry and council, and other arrangements far less
+favourable to me, and destructive of the lawful security of my present
+and future rights, have without my consent been substituted in their
+stead, where, I entreat your excellency, am I to look for those
+favourable constructions of "ill-understood verbal transactions,"
+which your excellency requires me to accept as a proof that the
+intentions of the present ministry and council, in respect to me, have
+ever been of the most favourable and obliging nature?
+
+[Footnote A: This was resorted to, in order to prevent Lord Cochrane
+from stationing the cruisers to annoy the enemy, to deprive him of
+any interest in future captures, and prevent his opposition to the
+unlawful restoration of enemy's property.]
+
+[Footnote B: An answer was at last given, a few days before Lord
+Cochrane's assistance was called for to put down the revolution
+at Pernambuco; and _half_ of the originally-granted _half-pay_ was
+decreed when he should return, after the termination of hostilities,
+to his native country.]
+
+I would beg permission, too, to inquire how it happened that
+portarias[A] from the Minister of Marine, charging me unjustly from
+time to time with neglecting to obey the command of his Imperial
+Majesty, were constantly made public, while my answers in refutation
+were always suppressed. And why, when I remonstrated against this
+injustice, was I answered that the same course should be persisted
+in, and that I had no alternative but to acquiesce, or to descend to
+a newspaper controversy by publishing my exculpations myself? Is it
+possible not to perceive that the _ex parte_ publication of
+these accusatory portarias was intended to lower me in the public
+estimation, and to prepare the way for the exercise of that power of
+summary dismissal which was so unfairly acquired by the means above
+described?
+
+[Footnote A: Official communications.]
+
+On the subject of the prizes your excellency is pleased to state: "Les
+difficultés survenues dans le jugement des prizes ont eu des motifs si
+connus et positifs qu'il est assez doloureux de les voir attribuir à
+la mauvaise volonté du Conseil de S.M.I." To this I reply that I know
+of no just cause for the delay which has arisen in the decision of the
+prizes, and consequently I have a right to impute blame for that delay
+to those who have the power to cause it or remove it. If the majority
+of the voices in council had been for a prompt condemnation to the
+captors of the prizes taken from the Portuguese nation, is
+it possible that individuals of that nation would be suffered
+to continue to be the judges of those prizes after an experience
+of many months has demonstrated either their determination
+to do nothing, or nothing favourable to the captors? The
+repugnance of Portuguese judges to condemn property captured from
+their fellow-countrymen, as a reward to those who have engaged in
+hostilities against Portugal, is natural enough, and is the only
+well-known and positive cause of the delay with which I am acquainted;
+but it is not such a cause for delay as ought to have been permitted
+to operate by the ministers and council of his Imperial Majesty, who
+are bound in honour and duty to act with fidelity towards those who
+have been engaged as auxiliaries in the attainment and maintenance of
+the independence of the empire. I did, however, inform your excellency
+that I had heard it stated that another difficulty had arisen in the
+apprehension that this Government might be under the necessity of
+eventually restoring the prizes to the original Portuguese owners as
+a condition of peace. But this, your excellency assures me, proves
+nothing but that I am a listener to "rapporteurs," whom I ought
+to drive from my presence. Unfortunately, however, for this bold
+explanation of your excellency, the individual whom I heard make the
+observation was no other than his excellency the present Minister of
+Marine, Francisco Villala Barboza. If your excellency considers that
+gentleman in the light of a "rapporteur," or talebearer, it is not for
+me to object; but the imputation of being a listener to or encourager
+of talebearers, so rashly advanced by your excellency against me,
+is without foundation in truth. It may be necessary for ministers
+of state to have their eavesdroppers and informers, but mine is a
+straightforward course, which needs no such precautions. And if there
+be any who volunteer information or advice, I can appreciate the value
+of it, and the motives of those who offer it. Those who know me much
+better than your excellency does, will admit that I am in the habit of
+thinking for myself, and not apt to act on the suggestions of others,
+especially if officiously tendered.
+
+As to the successive appointment and removal of incompetent auditors
+of marine, for which your excellency gives credit to the council,
+I can only say that the benefit of such repeated changes is by no
+means apparent. And to revert again to the difficulty of decision, for
+which your excellency intimates there is sufficient cause, I beg leave
+to ask your excellency what just reason can exist for not condemning
+these prizes to the captors. Can it be denied that the orders
+under which I sailed for the blockade of Bahia authorized me to act
+hostilely against the ships and property of the crown and subjects of
+Portugal? Can it be denied that war was regularly declared between
+the two nations? Was it not even promulgated under the sanction of his
+Imperial Majesty in a document giving to privateers certain privileges
+which it is admitted were possessed by the ships of war in the making
+and sale of captures? And yet did not the Prize Tribunal (consisting
+chiefly, as I before observed, of Portuguese), on the return of the
+squadron, eight months afterwards, pretend to be ignorant whether his
+Imperial Majesty was at war or at peace with the kingdom of Portugal?
+And did they not under that pretence avoid proceeding to adjudication?
+Was not this pretence a false one, or is it one of those well-founded
+causes of difficulty to which your excellency alludes? Can it be
+denied that the squadron sailed and acted in the full expectation,
+grounded on the assurance and engagements of the Government, that all
+captures made under the flag of the enemy, whether ships of war or
+merchant vessels, were to be prize to the captors? and yet when
+the prize judges were at length under the necessity of commencing
+proceedings, did they not endeavour to set aside the claims of the
+captors by the monstrous pretence that they had no interest in their
+captures when made within the distance of two leagues from the shore?
+Will your excellency contend that this was a good and sufficient
+reason? Was it founded in common sense, or on any rational precedent,
+or indeed any precedent whatever? Was it either honest to the squadron
+or faithful to the country? Was it not calculated to prevent the
+squadron from ever again assailing an invading enemy, or again
+expelling him from the shores of the empire? Then, in the next place,
+did not these most extraordinary judges pretend that at least all
+vessels taken in ports and harbours should be condemned as droits to
+the crown, and not as prize to the captors? Was not this another most
+pernicious attempt to deprive the imperial squadron not only of its
+reward for the past but of any adequate motive for the risk of
+future enterprise? And in effect, were not these successive pretences
+calculated to operate as invitations to invasions? Did they not tend
+to encourage the enemy to resume his occupation of the port of Bahia,
+and generally to renew his aggressions against the independence of
+the empire on her shores and in her ports without the probability
+of resistance by the squadrons of his Imperial Majesty? And have not
+these same judges actually condemned almost every prize as a droit
+to the crown, thereby doing as much as in them lay to defraud the
+squadron and to damp its zeal and destroy its energies? Nay, have
+not the auditors of marine actually issued decrees pronouncing the
+captures made at Maranhão to have been illegal, alleging that they
+were seized under the Brazilian flag, although in truth the flag
+of the enemy was flying at the time both in the forts and ships;
+declaring me a violator of the law of nations and law of the land;
+accusing me of having been guilty of an insult to the Emperor and
+the empire, and decreeing costs and damages against me under these
+infamous pretences? Can your excellency perceive either justice or
+decency in these decrees? Do they in any degree breathe the spirit of
+gratitude for the union of so important a province to the empire, or
+are they at all in accordance with the distinguished approbation which
+his Imperial Majesty himself has evinced of my services at Maranhão?
+
+Can it be unknown to your excellency that the late ministers, acting
+doubtless under the sanction of his Imperial Majesty, and assuredly
+under the guidance of common sense, held out that the value of ships
+of war taken from the enemy was to be the reward of the enterprise of
+the captors? And yet are we not now told that a law exists decreeing
+all captured men-of-war to the crown, and so rendering the engagements
+of the late ministers illegal and nugatory? Can anything be more
+contrary to justice, to good faith, to common sense, or to sound
+policy? Was it ever expected by any government employing foreign
+seamen in a war in which they can have no personal rights at stake,
+that those seamen will incur the risk of attacking a superior, or even
+an equal, force, without prospect of other reward than their ordinary
+pay? Is it not notorious that even in England it is found essential,
+or at least highly advantageous, to reward the officers and seamen,
+though fighting their own battles, not only with the full value of
+captured vessels of war, but even with additional premiums; and was
+it ever doubted that such liberal policy has mainly contributed to the
+surpassing magnitude of the naval power of that little island, and her
+consequent greatness as a nation?
+
+Can your excellency deny that the delay, the neglect, and the conduct
+generally of the prize judges, have been the cause of an immense
+diminution in the value of the captures? Have not the consequences
+been a wanton and shameful waste of property by decay and plunder?
+Can your excellency really believe in the existence of a good and
+sufficient motive for consigning such property to destruction, rather
+than at once awarding it to the captors in recompense for their
+services to the empire? Is it not true that all control over the sales
+and cargoes of the vessels, most of which are without invoices, have
+been taken from the captors and their agents and placed in the hands
+of individuals over whom they have no authority or influence, and from
+whom they can have no security of receiving a just account? And can
+it be doubted that the gracious intentions of his Imperial Majesty, as
+announced by himself, of rewarding the captors with the value of
+the prizes, are in the utmost danger of being defeated by such
+proceedings?
+
+Since the 12th day of February, when his Imperial Majesty was
+graciously pleased to signify his pleasure in his own handwriting that
+the prizes, though condemned to the crown, should be paid for to
+the captors, and that valuators should be appointed to estimate the
+amount, is it not true that nothing whatever, up to the date of my
+former letter to your excellency, had been done by his ministers
+and council in furtherance of such his gracious intentions? On the
+contrary, is it not notorious that, since the announcement of the
+imperial intention, numerous vessels and cargoes have been arbitrarily
+disposed of by authority of the auditors of marine, by being delivered
+to pretended owners and others without legal adjudication, and even
+without the decency of acquainting the captors or their agents that
+the property had been so transferred? And has not the whole cost
+of litigation, watching and guarding the vessels and cargoes, been
+entirely at the expense of the captors, notwithstanding the disposal
+of the property and the receipt of the proceeds by the agents of
+Government and others?
+
+So little hope of justice has been presented by the proceedings of the
+Prize Tribunal, that it has appeared quite useless to label the stores
+found in the naval and military arsenals of Maranhão, or the 66,000
+dollars in the chests of the Treasury and Custom House, with double
+that sum in bills, all of which was left for the use of the province,
+or permitted to be disbursed to satisfy the clamorous troops of Ceara
+and Pianhy. Has any remuneration been offered to the navy for these
+sacrifices, of which ministers were duly informed by my official
+despatches? or has any recompense been awarded for the Portuguese brig
+and schooner of war, both completely stored and equipped, which were
+surrendered at Maranhão, and which have ever since been employed in
+the naval service? To a proportion of all this I should have been
+entitled in Chili, as well as in the English service; and why, I ask,
+must I here be contented to be deprived of every hope of these the
+fruits of my labours? In addition to the prize vessels delivered to
+claimants without trial, have not the ministers appropriated others
+_to the uses of the state without valuation or recompense_?[A]
+
+[Footnote A: This conduct was afterwards more flagrantly exemplified
+on the arrival of the new and noble prize frigate _Imperatrice_, the
+equipment whereof had cost the captors 12,000 milreas, which sum has
+never been returned.]
+
+In short, is it not true that though more than a year has elapsed
+since the sailing of the imperial squadron under my command, and
+nearly half a year since its return, after succeeding in expelling the
+naval and military forces of the enemy from Bahia, and liberating the
+northern provinces, and uniting them to the empire; I say is it not
+true that not one shilling of prize money has yet been distributed
+to the squadron, and that no prospect is even now apparent of any
+distribution being speedily made? Is it not true that the only
+substantial reward of the officers and seamen of the squadron for the
+important services they have rendered has hitherto been nothing
+more than their mere pittance of ordinary pay; and even that in
+many instances vexatiously delayed and miserably curtailed? And with
+respect to myself individually, is it not notorious that I necessarily
+consume my whole pay in my current expenses; that my official rank
+cannot be upheld with less, and that it is wholly inadequate to the
+due support of the dignity of those high honours which his Imperial
+Majesty has been graciously pleased to confer?
+
+Under all these circumstances, it is in vain that I endeavour to
+make that discovery which your excellency assures me requires only
+a moment's reflection: "Au reste" (your excellency says), "que V'e.
+Ex'ce. réfléchisse un moment, celle trouverá que le Gouvernement de
+S.M.I. simplement et uniquement pour faire plaisir à V'e. Ex'ce. á
+s'est attiré une enormé responsabilité dans les engagemens pris
+avec V'e. Ex'ce." It is not one moment only nor one hour that I have
+reflected on these words, but without making the promised discovery,
+or any probable guess at your excellency's meaning. I would therefore
+entreat your excellency to tell me what it is that the Government
+has engaged to do. All that I know is they have engaged to pay me a
+certain sum per annum as commander-in-chief of the squadron; and this
+engagement, I admit, they have so far fulfilled. But the amount is
+little more than is received by the commander-in-chief of an English
+squadron; and is it not found in that service, and in every regular
+or established naval service, that for one officer qualified for any
+considerable command there are probably ten that are not qualified;
+though all have necessarily been reared and paid at the national
+expense? Whereas, in this case, so far from your having been at the
+expense of money in order to procure a few that are effective, you
+obtained at once, without any previous cost whatever, the services
+of myself and the officers that accompanied me, all of whom were
+experienced and efficient. Now, the united amount of the salaries you
+are engaged to pay to myself and the officers whom I brought with
+me does not exceed 25,000 dollars a year. To speak of this as an
+"enormous responsibility" as an empire, requires more than a "moment's
+reflection" to be clearly understood. The Government did, however,
+engage to pay to myself and my brother officers and seamen the value
+of our captures from the enemy, pursuant to the practice of all
+maritime belligerents, but this engagement has not hitherto been
+fulfilled. If, however, your excellency admits the responsibility of
+the Government to fulfil this engagement also, I am still equally at
+a loss to conceive in what sense that responsibility can be considered
+enormous, inasmuch as these prizes were not the property of the state,
+nor of individuals belonging to this nation, but were the property of
+Portugal, with whom this nation was and is engaged in lawful war.
+The payment, therefore, of the value of these prizes to the captors,
+supposing even the full value to be paid, does not in effect take
+one penny out of the national treasury, or out of the pocket of any
+Brazilian. If it be false—and your excellency appears to scout the
+idea—that any danger exists of having to pay twice for these prizes;
+if there really is no danger of being compelled to purchase peace
+with a defeated enemy by restoring them their forfeited property—it
+follows that the responsibility of the Government in fulfilling its
+engagement with the captors is so far from being enormous, that it is
+literally nothing. How the fulfilment of a lawful engagement by the
+simple act of paying over to the squadron the value of its prizes
+taken in time of war from the foreign enemies of the state (such
+payment occasioning no expense, and no loss to the state itself) can
+be attended with an enormous responsibility, I am utterly unable to
+comprehend. So far as the engagements of the Government with me,
+or with the captors in general of the Portuguese prizes, are of
+a pecuniary nature, they appear to me to lay no great weight of
+responsibility on the herculean shoulders of this vast empire. And it
+is only in a pecuniary sense that I can conceive it to be possible for
+your excellency to have thought of complaining of the responsibility
+attending the fulfilment of the engagements of the Government with me.
+
+It is no less difficult to comprehend how this supposed enormous
+responsibility has been incurred, "simplement et uniquement pour faire
+plaisir" to me; and it is still more difficult to comprehend how it
+happens that your excellency, "after all that you have heard and seen"
+(après ce que j'ai entendu et vu), should be at a loss to know in what
+manner I am to be contented (je ne saurais pas dequelle maniére on
+puisse vous contenter). If, indeed, your excellency imagines that I
+ought to be contented with honorary distinctions alone, however highly
+I may prize them as the free gift of his Imperial Majesty; if
+your excellency is of opinion that I ought with "remercimens et
+satisfaction" to put up with those honours in lieu of those stipulated
+substantial rewards, which even those very honours render more
+necessary; if your excellency thinks that I ought, like the dog in the
+fable, to resign the substance for a grasp at the shadow; if this is
+all that your excellency knows on the subject of giving me content, it
+is then very true that your excellency does not know in what manner it
+is to be done. But if, "after all that your excellency has heard and
+seen," you would be pleased to render yourself conversant with those
+written engagements under which I was induced to enter into the
+service, all that your excellency and the rest of the ministers and
+council of his Imperial Majesty would then have to do in order
+to content me to the full, would be to desist from evading the
+performance of those engagements, and to cause them at once to
+be fully and honourably fulfilled. And I do believe that my
+"Correspondance Officielle une fais rendue publique, en faira foi;"
+for I am not conscious that I have ever called on the Government to
+incur one farthing of expense on my account beyond the fulfilment of
+their written engagements, which were the same as those which I had
+with Chili, which were formed precisely on the practice of England.
+There was, indeed, a verbal and conditional engagement with the late
+ministers that certain losses which I might incur in consequence of
+leaving the service of Chili should be made good;[A] and the question
+as to the obligation of fulfilling that engagement I submitted (in
+my letter of the 6th of March to the Minister of Marine) to the
+consideration of their successors. It will be fortunate for me if this
+should prove to be one of those "ill-understood verbal transactions"
+which your excellency assures me the present ministers and council
+always decide in my favour. I shall not in that case be backward to
+receive the benefit of the decision with "thanks and satisfaction;"
+but I am willing to resign it rather than it should add an
+overwhelming weight to that "enormous responsibility" which your
+excellency complains has already been incurred with a view to
+my contentment. I repeat that I have never asked for more than I
+possessed in Chili, or than any officer of the same rank is entitled
+to in England; though British officers have heretofore received in the
+service of Portugal double the amount of their English pay; and though
+the burning climate of Brazil is injurious to health, while those
+of Chili and Portugal are salubrious. Your excellency, therefore, is
+perfectly welcome to publish the whole of my official correspondence,
+because instead of proving, as your excellency asserts, the great
+difficulty of contenting me, it would go far to prove the much greater
+difficulty of inducing those with whom I have to do to take any one
+step for that purpose.
+
+[Footnote A: As the Brazilian Government had obtained possession of a
+new corvette, named the _Maria de Gloria_, which cost the Government
+of Chili 90,000 dollars, without reimbursing to that State one single
+farthing; and by the said act had deprived Lord Cochrane of the
+benefit he would have derived, as commander-in-chief, from the
+services of that ship in the Pacific, the non-fulfilment of this
+engagement seems the more unjust.]
+
+I confess, however, that in order to content me effectually it is
+necessary to fulfil not only all written engagements with myself
+individually, but generally with all the officers and seamen with
+whom, while I hold the command, I consider myself identified; and the
+more particularly because, in my own firm reliance on the good faith
+of the Government, I did in some sort become responsible for that good
+faith to my brother officers and seamen. But with whom, I put it to
+your excellency, has good faith been kept? Is it not notorious that
+previous to the departure of the expedition to Bahia, declarations
+were made to the seamen in writing by the late Minister of Marine,
+through my medium, and in printed proclamations, that their dues
+should be paid with all possible regularity, and all their arrears
+discharged immediately on their return? And is not your excellency
+aware that specific contracts were entered into by the accredited
+agent of his Imperial Majesty in England, with a number of officers
+and seamen, who, in consequence, were induced to quit their native
+country and enter into the employ of his Imperial Majesty? Can it be
+denied that these declarations and contracts, written and printed,
+were known to, and are actually in the possession of the ministers, or
+in the hands of the officers of the pay department, and yet is it not
+true that they were neglected to be fulfilled for a period of upwards
+of three months after the return of the _Pedro Primiero_ ; and was
+not the tardy fulfilment which at length took place procured by my
+incessant representations and remonstrances?
+
+Permit me also to ask whether the good effects of prompt payment
+were not illustrated on the arrival of the frigates _Nitherohy_ and
+_Caroline_, which happened just at the period I had succeeded in
+procuring payment to be made. Was it not in consequence of immediate
+payment that the greater part of the English crew of the _Nitherohy_ remained quietly on board, and are now actually engaged on an
+important service to his Imperial Majesty? And, on the other hand, is
+it not equally true that the English seamen of the _Pedro Primiero_ were so disheartened and disgusted with the long delay which in their
+case had occurred, and the manifest bad faith which had been evinced,
+that by far the greater part of them actually abandoned the ship?
+And generally, is it not true that the violations of promise, the
+obstructions of justice, and the arbitrary acts of severity, have
+produced dissatisfaction and irritation in the minds of the officers
+and seamen, and done infinite prejudice to the service of his Imperial
+Majesty and to the interests and prospects of the empire?
+
+Can it be denied that the treatment to which the officers are exposed
+is in the highest degree cruel and unjust? Have they not in many
+instances been confined in a fortress or prison-ship without being
+told who is their accuser or what is the accusation? And are they not
+kept for many months at a time in that cruel state of suspense
+and restraint without the means or opportunity of justification or
+defence? Have not some of them while incarcerated in the fortress of
+the Island of Cobras been deprived of their pay for a great length of
+time, and even denied the provisions necessary for their subsistence?
+And if, after all, they are brought to trial, are not their judges
+composed of the natives of a nation with whom they are at war? Is it
+possible that English, or other foreign officers in the service,
+can be satisfied with such a system? Can your excellency entertain a
+doubt, that open accusation, prompt trial, unsuspected justice, and
+speedy punishment, if merited, are essential to the good government of
+a naval service? Nay, is it possible that your excellency should not
+know that the system of government in the naval service of Portugal is
+the most wretched in the world, and consequently the last that ought
+to have been adopted for the naval service of Brazil?
+
+And here I would respectfully ask your excellency whether you know of
+any one thing recommended by me for the benefit of the naval service
+being complied with? Have the laws been revised to adapt them to the
+better government of the service? Has a corps of marine artillery
+been formed and taught their duty? Have young gentlemen intended for
+officers been sent on board to learn their profession? Have young men
+been enlisted and sent on board to be bred up as seamen? Or has
+any encouragement been given to the employment of Brazilians in the
+commerce of the coast?[A]
+
+[Footnote A: It was the policy of Portugal to navigate the
+coasting-trade of Brazil by slaves; and that of Spain to allow none
+but Indians to exercise the trade of fishermen on the shores of their
+South American colonies.]
+
+With regard to those difficulties, delays, and other impediments of
+which I have complained as existing in the arsenal and other offices,
+and which your excellency supposes me to have represented as being
+caused, or at least tolerated, by the minister, and which you are
+pleased to characterise as "tout a fait imaginaires, et n'ayant
+d'outré source que l'ambition sordide de quelque intrigant," I shall
+not now enter into them again at any length, as much that I have
+already written tends to refute your excellency's notions on the
+subject. That such abuses do really exist I have proved beyond the
+power of contradiction; and that they are at least tolerated by
+those—whoever they may be—who possess without exercising the means
+of preventing, does not require the ingenuity of an "intrigant" to
+discover, as the fact is self-evident. I cannot, therefore, admit that
+either my complaints or suspicions are "tout a fait imaginaires,"
+or that they are "des petitesses," as your excellency is pleased
+contemptuously to term them; but whatever they are, they originate in
+my own observation, without any assistance from the spectacles of
+an "intrigant," with which I am so gratuitously accommodated by your
+excellency.
+
+In still further proof, however, of the real existence of the evils
+in question, I may just observe that since the return of the _Pedro
+Primiero_, that ship has been kept in constant disorder by the delay
+in commencing and the idle and negligent mode of executing even the
+trifling alterations in the channels, which were necessary to enable
+the rigging to be set up, and which, after the lapse of upwards of
+five months, is now scarcely finished, though it might have been
+accomplished in forty-eight hours. Even the time of caulking was
+spun out to a period nearly as long as was occupied last year in the
+accomplishment of that thorough repair which the ship then underwent;
+and the painting is far from being completed after sixteen or eighteen
+days' labour, though a British ship of war is usually painted in a
+day. Even my own cabin is in such a state that when I am on board
+I have no place to sit down in. All these things may appear to your
+excellency as "des petitesses," or even "tout a fait imaginaires,"
+but to me they appear matters of a serious nature, injurious and
+disgraceful to the service.
+
+I may not, perhaps, succeed in convincing your excellency, but I have
+the satisfaction of being inwardly conscious that, independent of my
+natural desire to obtain justice for myself and for all the officers
+and men of the squadron, no small part of my anxiety for the
+fulfilment of the engagements of the Government proceeds from a desire
+to see the navy of his Imperial Majesty rendered efficient; which it
+can never be unless the same good faith is observed with the officers
+and men as is kept between the Government and navy of England, and
+unless indeed many other important considerations are attended to,
+which appear to have hitherto escaped the regard of the Imperial
+Government. Why, for instance, is there that indifference in regard
+to the clothing of the men? What but discontent, debasement, and
+enervation, can be the effects of that ragged and almost naked
+condition in which they have so long been suffered to remain,
+notwithstanding the numerous applications that have been made for the
+necessary clothing? I would also inquire the reason that officers and
+men, strangers to each other, and destitute of attachment and mutual
+confidence, are hastily shipped together in vessels of war going on
+active service, when better arrangements might easily be made. What
+can be expected from the vessels of war just gone out, in case they
+should meet with any serious opposition, but disgrace to those by whom
+they were so imperfectly and improperly equipped?
+
+If this communication were not already too long, or if, after the
+letter I have received from your excellency, it were possible for me
+to continue my representations in the hope of redress, I could add to
+the list of those causes of complaint which I have already pointed out
+many particulars which none but those who are blindly attached to that
+wretched system which has been so injurious to the marine and kingdom
+of Portugal could consider either trifling or imaginary. But as my
+present object has been chiefly to repel those imputations in which
+your excellency has so freely indulged, and believing that I have
+fully succeeded in that object, and have shown clearly that your
+excellency has unjustly and untruly accused me of encouraging
+talebearers, making unfounded complaints, and of being of a nature so
+avaricious as never to be satisfied—which latter, by-the-by, is
+an extraordinary accusation to prefer against me—a man whom your
+excellency must know has not hitherto been benefited, after being
+more than a year in the service, to the amount of one shilling for the
+important services he has rendered, but who, on the contrary, as
+he can show by his accounts, has necessarily expended more in his
+official situation than he has received in the service; so that the
+"remercimens" and the "satisfaction," which your excellency accuses
+him of being deficient in, can scarcely yet be due, unless it is
+proper to be satisfied and grateful too for less than nothing—having,
+I say, fully repelled and refuted these unjust accusations, I shall
+avoid troubling your excellency with any further detail. But I repeat
+that your excellency has my free consent to cause the whole of my
+official correspondence to be published; for in all that I have
+advanced with respect to the violations of contracts, and on the
+subject of the unsatisfied claims of the squadron, and relative to
+the ill-usage of officers under arrest, and to the misconduct of the
+judges of prizes, and of those who have the management of the civil
+department of the marine,[A] and in all matters whatever in question
+between the Government of Brazil and myself, I am confident I may
+safely rely on the decision of the public. And if, at the same time,
+your excellency can give a satisfactory explanation of the motives of
+that line of conduct on the part of the ministers and council, which,
+without such explanation, would have the appearance of originating in
+bad faith, the publication would be doubly beneficial by placing the
+conduct and character of all parties in a proper point of view.
+
+[Footnote A: Also Portuguese.]
+
+    I have the honour to be, Most excellent sir, Your respectful
+    and most obedient Servant, COCHRANE AND MARANHAM.
+
+    His Excellency, João Sereriano Maciele da Costa, Secretary of
+    State for the Home Department, &c., &c., &c.
+
+END OF VOL. I.
+
+
+LONDON: PRINTED BY WILLIAM CLOWES AND SONS, STAMFORD STREET AND CHARING CROSS.
+
+
+
+
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+<title>The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Life of Thomas, Lord Cochrane, Tenth
+Earl of Dundonald, G.C.B., Admiral of the Red, Rear-Admiral of the Fleet, Etc.,
+Etc., by Thomas Cochrane, Earl of Dundonald</title>
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+<div style='text-align:center; font-size:1.2em; font-weight:bold;'>The Project Gutenberg eBook of The Life of Thomas, Lord Cochrane, Tenth Earl of Dundonald, G.C.B., Admiral of the Red, Rear-Admiral of the Fleet, Etc., Etc., by Thomas Cochrane, Earl of Dundonald</div>
+<div style='display:block;margin:1em 0'>
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and
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+whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms
+of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online
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+are not located in the United States, you will have to check the laws of the
+country where you are located before using this eBook.
+</div>
+<div style='display:block; margin-top:1em; margin-bottom:1em; margin-left:2em; text-indent:-2em'>Title: The Life of Thomas, Lord Cochrane, Tenth Earl of Dundonald, G.C.B., Admiral of the Red, Rear-Admiral of the Fleet, Etc., Etc.</div>
+<div style='display:block; margin-top:1em; margin-bottom:1em; margin-left:2em; text-indent:-2em'>Author: Thomas Cochrane, Earl of Dundonald</div>
+<div style='display:block;margin:1em 0'>Release Date: September 2, 2004 [eBook #13351]<br />
+[Most recently updated: January 15, 2021]</div>
+<div style='display:block;margin:1em 0'>Language: English</div>
+<div style='display:block;margin:1em 0'>Character set encoding: UTF-8</div>
+<div style='display:block; margin-left:2em; text-indent:-2em'>Produced by: Ted Garvin, Daniel Watkins and PG Distributed Proofreaders</div>
+<div style='margin-top:2em;margin-bottom:4em'>*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE LIFE OF THOMAS, LORD COCHRANE ***</div>
+
+<h1>THE LIFE OF<br />
+THOMAS, LORD COCHRANE, TENTH EARL OF DUNDONALD, G.C.B.,</h1>
+
+<h5>ADMIRAL OF THE RED, REAR-ADMIRAL OF THE FLEET, ETC., ETC.,</h5>
+
+<h5>COMPLETING "THE AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF A SEAMAN."</h5>
+
+<h2 class="no-break">by THOMAS, ELEVENTH EARL OF DUNDONALD,<br />
+AND H.R. FOX BOURNE,<br />
+AUTHOR OF "ENGLISH SEAMEN UNDER THE TUDORS," ETC. ETC.</h2>
+
+<h4>IN TWO VOLUMES. VOL. I.</h4>
+
+<p class="center">
+Published 1869.
+</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<p class="center">
+TO MISS ANGELA BURDETT COUTTS,<br />
+WHOSE HONOURED FATHER<br />
+WAS THE FIRMEST AND MOST CONSTANT FRIEND AND SUPPORTER<br />
+OF MY FATHER,<br />
+DURING A CAREER DEVOTED TO THE WELFARE OF HIS COUNTRY<br />
+AND THE HONOUR OF HIS PROFESSION,<br />
+AND WHOM IT IS MY HAPPINESS AND PRIVILEGE TO CALL MY FRIEND,<br />
+THIS WORK IS DEDICATED,<br />
+WITH ALL RESPECT AND REGARD,<br />
+BY
+HER ATTACHED AND FAITHFUL SERVANT,
+</p>
+
+<p class="center">
+DUNDONALD.
+</p>
+
+<div class="chapter">
+
+<h2>PREFACE.</h2>
+
+<p>
+In these Volumes is recounted the public life of my late father from
+the period to which the narrative was brought down by himself in his
+unfinished "Autobiography of a Seaman." The completion of that work
+was prevented by his death, which occurred almost immediately after
+the publication of the Second Volume, eight years and a half ago.
+I had hoped to supplement it sooner; but in this hope I have been
+thwarted.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+My father's papers were, at the time of his death, in the hands of
+a gentleman who had assisted him in the preparation of his
+"Autobiography," and to this gentleman was entrusted the completion
+of the work. Illness and other occupations, however, interfered, and,
+after a lapse of about two years, he died, leaving the papers, of
+which no use had been made by him, to fall into the possession of
+others. Only after long delay and considerable trouble and expense was
+I able to recover them and realize my long-cherished purpose.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Further delay in the publication of this book has arisen from my
+having been compelled, as my father's executor, to make three long and
+laborious journeys to Brazil, which have engrossed much time.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+At length, however, I find myself able to pay the debt which I
+owe both to my father's memory and to the public, by whom the
+"Autobiography of a Seaman" was read with so much interest. At the
+beginning of last year I placed all the necessary documents in the
+hands of my friend, Mr. H.R. Fox Bourne, asking him to handle them
+with the same zeal of research and impartiality of judgment which he
+has shown in his already published works. I have also furnished
+him with my own reminiscences of so much of my father's life as was
+personally known to me; and he has availed himself of all the help
+that could be obtained from other sources of information, both private
+and public. He has written the book to the best of his ability, and I
+have done my utmost to help him in making it as complete and accurate
+as possible. We hope that the late Earl of Dundonald's life and
+character have been all the better delineated in that the work has
+grown out of the personal knowledge of his son and the unbiassed
+judgment of a stranger.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+A long time having elapsed since the publication of the "Autobiography
+of a Seaman," it has been thought well to give a brief recapitulation
+of its story in an opening chapter.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The four following chapters recount my father's history during the
+five years following the cruel Stock Exchange trial, the subject last
+treated of in the "Autobiography." It is not strange that the
+harsh treatment to which he was subjected should have led him into
+opposition, in which there was some violence, which he afterwards
+condemned, against the Government of the day. But, if there were
+circumstances to be regretted in this portion of his career, it shows
+almost more plainly than any other with what strength of philanthropy
+he sought to aid the poor and the oppressed.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+His occupations as Chief Admiral, first of Chili and afterwards
+of Brazil, were described by himself in two volumes, entitled, "A
+Narrative of Services in Chili, Peru, and Brazil." Therefore, the
+seven chapters of the present work which describe these episodes
+have been made as concise as possible. Only the most memorable
+circumstances have been dwelt upon, and the details introduced have
+been drawn to some extent from documents not included in the volumes
+referred to.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+There was no reason for abridgment in treating of my father's
+connection with Greece. In the service of that country he was less
+able to achieve beneficial results than in Chili and Brazil; but
+as, on that ground, he has been frequently traduced by critics and
+historians, it seemed especially important to show how his successes
+were greater than these critics and historians have represented, and
+how his failures sprang from the faults of others and from misfortunes
+by which he was the chief sufferer. The documents left by him,
+moreover, afford abundant material for illustrating an eventful period
+in modern history. The chapters referring to Greece and Greek affairs,
+accordingly, enter with especial fullness into the circumstances
+of Lord Dundonald's life at this time, and his connection with
+contemporary politics.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Eight other chapters recount all that was of most public interest in
+the thirty years of my father's life after his return from Greece.
+Except during a brief period of active service in his profession,
+when he had command of the British squadron in North American and West
+Indian waters, those thirty years were chiefly spent in efforts&mdash;by
+scientific research, by mechanical experiment, and by persevering
+argument&mdash;to increase the naval power of his country, and in efforts
+no less zealous to secure for himself that full reversal of the
+wrongful sentence passed upon him in a former generation, which
+could only be attained by public restitution of the official rank and
+national honours of which he had been deprived.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+This restitution was begun by his Majesty King William IV., and
+completed by our present most gracious Queen and the Prince Consort.
+By the kindnesses which he received from these illustrious persons,
+my father's later years were cheered; and I can never cease to be
+profoundly grateful to my Sovereign, and her revered husband, for the
+personal interest with which they listened to my prayer immediately
+after his death. Through their gracious influence, the same banner of
+the Bath that had been taken from him nearly fifty years before, was
+restored to its place in Westminster Abbey, and allowed to float
+over his remains at their time of burial. Thus the last stain upon my
+father's memory was wiped out.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+DUNDONALD. London, May 24th, 1869.
+</p>
+
+<h3>CONTENTS OF THE FIRST VOLUME.</h3>
+
+<hr />
+
+<p class="center">
+<a href="#chap01">CHAPTER I.</a>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+[1775-1814.]
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Introduction.&mdash;Lord Cochrane's Ancestry.&mdash;His First Occupations in
+the Navy.&mdash;His Cruise in the <i>Speedy</i> and Capture of the <i>Gamo</i>.&mdash;His
+Exploits in the <i>Pallas</i>.&mdash;The beginning of his Parliamentary
+Life.&mdash;His two Elections as Member for Honiton.&mdash;His Election for
+Westminster.&mdash;Further Seamanship.&mdash;The Basque Roads Affair.&mdash;The
+Court-Martial on Lord Gambier, and its injurious effects on Lord
+Cochrane's Naval Career.&mdash;His Parliamentary Occupations.&mdash;His Visit to
+Malta and its Issues.&mdash;The Antecedents and Consequences of the Stock
+Exchange Trial - 1
+</p>
+
+<p class="center">
+<a href="#chap02">CHAPTER II.</a>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+[1814.]
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The Issue of the Stock Exchange Trial.&mdash;Lord Cochrane's Committal to
+the King's Bench Prison.&mdash;The Debate upon his Case in the House of
+Commons, and his Speech on that Occasion.&mdash;His Expulsion from the
+House, and Re-election as Member for Westminster.&mdash;The Withdrawal of
+his Sentence to the Pillory.&mdash;The Removal of his Insignia as a Knight
+of the Bath - 35
+</p>
+
+<p class="center">
+<a href="#chap03">CHAPTER III.</a>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+[1814-1815.]
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Lord Cochrane's Bearing in the King's Bench Prison.&mdash;His Street
+Lamps.&mdash;His Escape, and the Motives for it.&mdash;His Capture in the House
+of Commons, and subsequent Treatment.&mdash;His Confinement in the Strong
+Room of the King's Bench Prison.&mdash;His Release - 48
+</p>
+
+<p class="center">
+<a href="#chap04">CHAPTER IV.</a>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+[1815-1816.]
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Lord Cochrane's Return to the House of Commons.&mdash;His Share in the
+Refusal of the Duke of Cumberland's Marriage Pension.&mdash;His Charges
+against Lord Ellenborough, and their Rejection by the House.&mdash;His
+Popularity.&mdash;The Part taken by him in Public Meetings for the Relief
+of the People.&mdash;The London Tavern Meeting.&mdash;His further Prosecution,
+Trial at Guildford, and subsequent Imprisonment.&mdash;The Payment of his
+Fines by a Penny Subscription.&mdash;The Congratulations of his Westminster
+Constituents - 74
+</p>
+
+<p class="center">
+<a href="#chap05">CHAPTER V.</a>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+[1817-1818.]
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The State of Politics in England in 1817 and 1818, and Lord Cochrane's
+Share in them.&mdash;His Work as a Radical in and out of Parliament.&mdash;His
+futile Efforts to obtain the Prize Money due for his Services at
+Basque Roads.&mdash;The Holly Hill Siege.&mdash;The Preparations for his
+Enterprise in South America.&mdash;His last Speech in Parliament - 109
+</p>
+
+<p class="center">
+<a href="#chap06">CHAPTER VI.</a>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+[1810-1817.]
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The Antecedents of Lord Cochrane's Employments in South
+America.&mdash;The War of Independence in the Spanish
+Colonies.&mdash;Mexico.&mdash;Venezuela.&mdash;Colombia.&mdash;Chili.&mdash;The first
+Chilian Insurrection.&mdash;The Carreras and O'Higgins.&mdash;The Battle of
+Rancagua.&mdash;O'Higgins's Successes.&mdash;The Establishment of the Chilian
+Republic.&mdash;Lord Cochrane invited to enter the Chilian Service - 137
+</p>
+
+<p class="center">
+<a href="#chap07">CHAPTER VII.</a>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+[1818-1820.]
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Lord Cochrane's Voyage to Chili.&mdash;His Reception at Valparaiso and
+Santiago.&mdash;The Disorganization of the Chilian Fleet.&mdash;First Signs
+of Disaffection.&mdash;The Naval Forces of the Chilians and the
+Spaniards.&mdash;Lord Cochrane's first Expedition to Peru.&mdash;His Attack on
+Callao.&mdash;"Drake the Dragon" and "Cochrane the Devil."&mdash;Lord Cochrane's
+Successes in Overawing the Spaniards, in Treasure-taking, and
+in Encouragement of the Peruvians to join in the War of
+Independence.&mdash;His Plan for another Attack on Callao.&mdash;His
+Difficulties in Equipping the Expedition.&mdash;The Failure of
+the Attempt.&mdash;His Plan for Storming Valdivia.&mdash;Its Successful
+Accomplishment - 148
+</p>
+
+<p class="center">
+<a href="#chap08">CHAPTER VIII.</a>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+[1820-1822.]
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Lord Cochrane's Return to Valparaiso.&mdash;His Relations with the Chilian
+Senate.&mdash;The third Expedition to Peru.&mdash;General San Martin.&mdash;The
+Capture of the <i>Esmeralda</i>, and its Issue.&mdash;Lord Cochrane's subsequent
+Work.&mdash;San Martin's Treachery.&mdash;His Assumption of the Protectorate
+of Peru.&mdash;His Base Proposals to Lord Cochrane.&mdash;Lord Cochrane's
+Condemnation of them.&mdash;The Troubles of the Chilian Squadron.&mdash;Lord
+Cochrane's Seizure of Treasure at Ancon, and Employment of it in
+Paying his Officers and Men.&mdash;His Stay at Guayaquil.&mdash;The Advantages
+of Free Trade.&mdash;Lord Cochrane's Cruise along the Mexican Coast
+in Search of the remaining Spanish Frigates.&mdash;Their Annexation by
+Peru.&mdash;Lord Cochrane's last Visit to Callao - 177
+</p>
+
+<p class="center">
+<a href="#chap09">CHAPTER IX.</a>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+[1822-1823.]
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Lord Cochrane's Return to Valparaiso,&mdash;The Conduct of the Chilian
+Government towards him.&mdash;His Resignation of Chilian Employment, and
+Acceptance of Employment under the Emperor of Brazil.&mdash;His subsequent
+Correspondence with the Government of Chili.&mdash;The Results of his
+Chilian Service. - 208
+</p>
+
+<p class="center">
+<a href="#chap10">CHAPTER X.</a>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+[1823.]
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The Antecedents of Brazilian Independence.&mdash;Pedro I.'s Accession.&mdash;The
+Internal and External Troubles of the New Empire.&mdash;Lord Cochrane's
+Invitation to Brazil.&mdash;His Arrival at Rio de Janeiro, and Acceptance
+of Brazilian Service.&mdash;His first Occupations.&mdash;The bad condition of
+the Squadron, and the consequent Failure of his first Attack on the
+Portuguese off Bahia.&mdash;His Plans for Improving the Fleet, and their
+Success.&mdash;His Night Visit to Bahia, and the consequent Flight of the
+Enemy.&mdash;Lord Cochrane's Pursuit of them.&mdash;His Visit to Maranham,
+and Annexation of that Province and of Para.&mdash;His Return to Rio de
+Janeiro.&mdash;The Honours conferred upon him. - 223
+</p>
+
+<p class="center">
+<a href="#chap11">CHAPTER XI.</a>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+[1823-1824.]
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The Nature of the Rewards bestowed on Lord Cochrane for his first
+Services to Brazil.&mdash;Pedro I. and the Portuguese Faction.&mdash;Lord
+Cochrane's Advice to the Emperor.&mdash;The Troubles brought upon him by
+it.&mdash;The Conduct of the Government towards him and the Fleet.&mdash;The
+withholding of Prize-money and Pay.&mdash;Personal Indignities to Lord
+Cochrane.&mdash;An Amusing Episode.&mdash;Lord Cochrane's Threat of Resignation,
+and its Effect.&mdash;Sir James Mackintosh's Allusion to him in the House
+of Commons - 246
+</p>
+
+<p class="center">
+<a href="#chap12">CHAPTER XII.</a>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+[1824-1825.]
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The Insurrection in Pernambuco.&mdash;Lord Cochrane's Expedition to
+suppress it.&mdash;The Success of his Work.&mdash;His Stay at Maranham.&mdash;The
+Disorganized State of Affairs in that Province.&mdash;Lord Cochrane's
+efforts to restore Order and good Government.&mdash;Their result in further
+Trouble to himself.&mdash;His Cruise in the <i>Piranga</i>, and Return to
+England.&mdash;His Treatment there.&mdash;His Retirement from Brazilian
+Service.&mdash;His Letter to the Emperor Pedro I.&mdash;The End of his South
+American Employments - 266
+</p>
+
+<p class="center">
+<a href="#chap13">CHAPTER XIII.</a>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+[1820-1825.]
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The Greek Revolution and its Antecedents.&mdash;The Modern Greeks.&mdash;The
+Friendly Society.&mdash;Sultan Mahmud and Ali Pasha's Rebellion.&mdash;The
+Beginning of the Greek Insurrection.&mdash;Count John Capodistrias.&mdash;Prince
+Alexander Hypsilantes.&mdash;The Revolution in the Morca.&mdash;Theodore
+Kolokotrones.&mdash;The Revolution in the Islands.&mdash;The Greek Navy and its
+Character.&mdash;The Excesses of the Greeks.&mdash;Their bad Government.&mdash;Prince
+Alexander Mavrocordatos.&mdash;The Progress of the Revolution.&mdash;The
+Spoliation of Chios.&mdash;English Philhellenes; Thomas Gordon, Frank Abney
+Hastings, Lord Byron.&mdash;The first Greek Loan, and the bad uses to
+which it was put.&mdash;Reverses of the Greeks.&mdash;Ibrahim and his
+Successes.&mdash;Mavrocordatos's Letter to Lord Cochrane - 286
+</p>
+
+<p class="center">
+<a href="#chap14">CHAPTER XIV.</a>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+[1825-1826.]
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Lord Cochrane's Dismissal from Brazilian Service, and his Acceptance
+of Employment as Chief Admiral of the Greeks.&mdash;The Greek Committee and
+the Greek Deputies in London.&mdash;The Terms of Lord Cochrane's Agreement,
+and the consequent Preparations.&mdash;His Visit to Scotland.&mdash;Sir Walter
+Scott's Verses on Lady Cochrane.&mdash;Lord Cochrane's forced Retirement to
+Boulogne, and thence to Brussels.&mdash;The Delays in fitting out the
+Greek Armament.&mdash;Captain Hastings, Mr. Hobhouse, and Sir Francis
+Burdett.&mdash;Captain Hastings's Memoir on the Greek Leaders and
+their Characters.&mdash;The first Consequences of Lord Cochrane's new
+Enterprise.&mdash;The Duke of Wellington's Message to Lord Cochrane.&mdash;The
+Greek Deputies' Proposal to Lord Cochrane and his Answer.&mdash;The Final
+Arrangements for his Departure.&mdash;The Messiah of the Greeks. - 318
+</p>
+
+<p class="center">
+<a href="#chap15">CHAPTER XV.</a>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+[1826-1827.]
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Lord Cochrane's Departure for Greece.&mdash;His Visit to London and
+Voyage to the Mediterranean.&mdash;His Stay at Messina, and afterwards
+at Marseilles.&mdash;The Delays in Completing the Steamships, and the
+consequent Injury to the Greek Cause, and serious Embarrassment
+to Lord Cochrane.&mdash;His Correspondence with Messrs. J. and S.
+Ricardo.&mdash;His Letter to the Greek Government.&mdash;Chevalíer Eynard, and
+the Continental Philhellenes.&mdash;Lord Cochrane's Final Departure and
+Arrival in Greece. - 355
+</p>
+
+<p class="center">
+<a href="#chap16">CHAPTER XVI.</a>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+[1826-1827.]
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The Progress of Affairs in Greece.&mdash;The Siege of Missolonghi.&mdash;Its
+Fall.&mdash;The Bad Government and Mismanagement of the Greeks.&mdash;General
+Ponsonby's Account of them.&mdash;The Effect of Lord Cochrane's Promised
+Assistance.&mdash;The Fears of the Turks, as shown in their Correspondence
+with Mr. Canning.&mdash;The Arrival of Captain Hastings in Greece, with the
+<i>Karteria</i>.&mdash;His Opinion of Greek Captains and Sailors.&mdash;The Frigate
+<i>Hellas</i>,&mdash;Letters to Lord Cochrane from Admiral Miaoulis and the
+Governing Commission of Greece. - 368
+</p>
+
+<p class="center">
+<a href="#chap17">APPENDIX.</a>
+</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<p>
+I. (Page 22.)&mdash;"Resumé of the Services of the late Earl of Dundonald,
+none of which have been Requited or Officially Recognised," by Thomas,
+Eleventh Earl of Dundonald. - 389
+</p>
+
+<p>
+II. (Page 23.)&mdash;Part of a Speech delivered by Lord Cochrane in the
+House of Commons, on the 11th of May, 1809, on Naval Abuses. - 397
+</p>
+
+<p>
+III. (Page 258.)&mdash;A Letter written by Lord Cochrane to the Secretary
+of State of Brazil on the 3rd of May, 1824. - 400
+</p>
+
+</div><!--end chapter-->
+
+<div class="chapter">
+
+<h2>THE LIFE<br />
+OF<br />
+THOMAS, TENTH EARL OF DUNDONALD.
+</h2>
+
+</div><!--end chapter-->
+
+<div class="chapter">
+
+<h2><a name="chap01"></a>CHAPTER I.</h2>
+
+<p class="letter">
+INTRODUCTION.&mdash;LORD COCHRANE'S ANCESTRY.&mdash;HIS FIRST OCCUPATIONS IN
+THE NAVY.&mdash;HIS CRUISE IN THE "SPEEDY" AND CAPTURE OF THE "GAMO."&mdash;HIS
+EXPLOITS IN THE "PALLAS."&mdash;THE BEGINNING OF HIS PARLIAMENTARY
+LIFE.&mdash;HIS TWO ELECTIONS AS MEMBER FOR HONITON.&mdash;HIS ELECTION FOR
+WESTMINSTER.&mdash;FURTHER SEAMANSHIP.&mdash;THE BASQUE ROADS AFFAIR.&mdash;THE
+COURT-MARTIAL ON LORD GAMBIER, AND ITS INJURIOUS EFFECTS ON LORD
+COCHRANE'S NAVAL CAREER.&mdash;HIS PARLIAMENTARY OCCUPATIONS.&mdash;HIS VISIT TO
+MALTA AND ITS ISSUES.&mdash;THE ANTECEDENTS AND CONSEQUENCES OF THE STOCK
+EXCHANGE TRIAL.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+[1775-1814.]
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Thomas, Loud Cochrane, tenth Earl of Dundonald, was born at Annsfield,
+in Lanark, on the 14th of December, 1775, and died in London on the
+31st of October, 1860. Shortly before his death he wrote two volumes,
+styled "The Autobiography of a Seaman," which set forth his history
+down to 1814, the fortieth year of his age. To those volumes the
+present work, recounting his career during the ensuing six-and-forty
+years, is intended to serve as a sequel. Before entering upon the
+later narrative, however, it will be necessary briefly to recapitulate
+the incidents that have been already detailed.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The Earl of Dundonald was descended from a long line of knights and
+barons, chiefly resident in Renfrew and Ayr, many of whom were men
+of mark in Scottish history during the thirteenth and following
+centuries. Robert Cochran was the especial favourite and foremost
+counsellor of James III., who made him Earl of Mar; but the favours
+heaped upon him, and perhaps a certain arrogance in the use of those
+favours, led to so much opposition from his peers and rivals that he
+was assassinated by them in 1480.[A]
+</p>
+
+<p>
+[Footnote A: Pinkerton, the historian, gives some curious details,
+illustrating not only Robert Cochran's character, but also the
+condition of government and society in Scotland four centuries ago.
+"The Scottish army," he says, "amounting to about fifty thousand, had
+crowded to the royal banner at Burrough Muir, near Edinburgh, whence
+they marched to Soutray and to Lauder, at which place they encamped
+between the church and the village. Cochran, Earl of Mar, conducted
+the artillery. On the morning after their arrival at Lauder, the peers
+assembled in a secret council, in the church, and deliberated upon
+their designs of revenge…. Cochran, ignorant of their designs, left
+the royal presence to proceed to the council. The earl was attended by
+three hundred men, armed with light battle-axes, and distinguished
+by his livery of white with black fillets. He was clothed in a riding
+cloak of black velvet, and wore a large chain of gold around his
+neck; his horn of the chase, or of battle, was adorned with gold
+and precious stones, and his helmet, overlaid with the same valuable
+metal, was borne before him. Approaching the door of the church,
+he commanded an attendant to knock with authority; and Sir Robert
+Douglas, of Lochleven, who guarded the passage, inquiring the name,
+was answered, 'Tis I, the Earl of Mar.' Cochran and some of his
+friends were admitted. Angus advanced to him, and pulling the gold
+chain from his neck, said, 'A rope will become thee better,' while
+Douglas of Lochleven seized his hunting-horn, declaring that he had
+been too long a hunter of mischief. Rather astonished than alarmed,
+Cochran said, 'My lords, is it jest or earnest?' To which it was
+replied, 'It is good earnest, and so thou shalt find it; for thou
+and thy accomplices have too long abused our prince's favour. But no
+longer expect such advantage, for thou and thy followers shall now
+reap the deserved reward.' Having secured Mar, the lords despatched
+some men-at-arms to the king's pavilion, conducted by two or three
+moderate leaders, who amused James, while their followers seized the
+favourites. Sir William Roger and others were instantly hanged over
+the bridge at Lauder. Cochran was now brought out, his hands bound
+with a rope, and thus conducted to the bridge, and hanged above his
+fellows."] Later scions of the family prospered, and in 1641, Sir
+William Cochrane was raised to the peerage, as Lord Cochrane of
+Cowden, by Charles I. For his adherence to the royal cause this
+nobleman was fined 5000£ by the Long Parliament in 1654; and, in
+recompense for his loyalty, he was made first Earl of Dundonald by
+Charles II. in 1669. His successors were faithful to the Stuarts, and
+thereby they suffered heavily. Archibald, the ninth Earl, inheriting a
+patrimony much reduced by the loyalty and zeal of his ancestors, spent
+it all in the scientific pursuits to which he devoted himself, and
+in which he was the friendly rival of Watt, Priestley, Cavendish, and
+other leading chemists and mechanicians of two or three generations
+ago. His eldest son, heir to little more than a famous name and a
+chivalrous and enterprising disposition, had to fight his own way in
+the world.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Lord Cochrane&mdash;as the subject of these memoirs was styled in courtesy
+until his accession to the peerage in 1831&mdash;was intended by his father
+for the army, in which he received a captain's commission. But his
+own predilections were in favour of a seaman's life, and accordingly,
+after brief schooling, he joined the <i>Hind</i>, as a midshipman, in June,
+1793, when he was nearly eighteen years of age.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+During the next seven years he learnt his craft in various ships
+and seas, being helped in many ways by his uncle, the Hon. Alexander
+Cochrane, but profiting most by his own ready wit and hearty love
+of his profession. Having been promoted to the rank of lieutenant in
+1794, he was made commander of the <i>Speedy</i> early in 1800. This little
+sloop, not larger than a coasting brig, but crowded with eighty-four
+men and six officers, seemed to be intended only for playing at war.
+Her whole armament consisted of fourteen 4-pounders. When her new
+commander tried to add to these a couple of 12-pounders, the deck
+proved too small and the timbers too weak for them, and they had to be
+returned. So Lilliputian was his cabin, that, to shave himself, Lord
+Cochrane was obliged to thrust his head out of the skylight and make a
+dressing-table of the quarter-deck.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Yet the <i>Speedy</i>, ably commanded, was quite large enough to be of
+good service. Cruising in her along the Spanish coast, Lord Cochrane
+succeeded in capturing many gunboats and merchantmen, and the enemy
+soon learnt to regard her with especial dread. On one memorable
+occasion, the 6th of May, 1801, he fell in with the <i>Gamo</i>, a Spanish
+frigate furnished with six times as many men as were in the <i>Speedy</i> and with seven times her weight of shot. Lord Cochrane, boldly
+advancing, locked his little craft in the enemy's rigging. It was, in
+miniature, a contest as unequal as that by which Sir Francis Drake and
+his fellows overcame the Great Armada of Spain in 1588, and with like
+result. The heavy shot of the <i>Gamo</i> riddled the <i>Speedy's</i> sails,
+but, passing overhead, did no mischief to her hulk or her men. During
+an hour there was desperate fighting with small arms, and twice
+the Spaniards tried in vain to board their sturdy little foe. Lord
+Cochrane then determined to meet them on their own deck, and the
+daring project was facilitated by one of the smart expedients in which
+he was never wanting. Before going into action, "knowing," as he said,
+"that the final struggle would be a desperate one, and calculating
+on the superstitious wonder which forms an element in the Spanish
+character," he had ordered his crew to blacken their faces; and, "what
+with this and the excitement of combat, more ferocious-looking objects
+could scarcely be imagined." With these men following him he promptly
+gained the frigate's deck, and then their strong arms and hideous
+faces soon frightened the Spaniards into submission.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The senior officer of the <i>Gamo</i> asked for a certificate of his
+bravery, and received one testifying that he had conducted himself
+"like a true Spaniard." To Spain, of course, this was no sarcasm,
+and on the strength of the document its holder soon obtained further
+promotion.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+That achievement, which cost only three men's lives, led to
+consequences greater than could have been expected. Lord Cochrane,
+after three months' waiting, received the rank of post captain. But
+his desire that the services of Lieutenant Parker, his second in
+command, should also be recompensed led to a correspondence with Earl
+St. Vincent which turned him from a jealous superior into a bitter
+enemy. In reply to Lord Cochrane's recommendation, Earl St. Vincent
+alleged that "it was unusual to promote two officers for such a
+service,&mdash;besides which the small number of men killed on board the
+<i>Speedy</i> did not warrant the application." Lord Cochrane answered,
+with incautious honesty, that "his lordship's reasons for not
+promoting Lieutenant Parker, because there were only three men killed
+on board the <i>Speedy</i>, were in opposition to his lordship's own
+promotion to an earldom, as well as that of his flag-captain to
+knighthood, and his other officers to increased rank and honours; for
+that, in the battle from which his lordship derived his title there
+was only one man killed on board his own flagship." That was language
+too plain to be forgiven.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+In July, 1801, the <i>Speedy</i> was captured by three French
+line-of-battle ships, whose senior in command, Captain Pallière,
+declined to accept the sword of an officer "who had," as he said,
+"for so many hours struggled against impossibility," and asked Lord
+Cochrane, though a prisoner, still to wear it. He, however, was
+refused employment as commander of another ship. Thereupon, with
+characteristic energy, he devoted his forced leisure from professional
+pursuits to a year of student life at Edinburgh, where, in 1802, Lord
+Palmerston was his class-fellow under Professor Dugald Stewart.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+This occupation, however, was disturbed by the renewal of war with
+France in 1803. Lord Cochrane, though with difficulty, then obtained
+permission to return to active service, the <i>Arab</i>, one of the
+craziest little ships in the navy, being assigned to him. On his
+representing that she was too rotten for use off the French coast, he
+was ordered to employ her in cruising in the North Sea and protecting
+the fisheries north-east of the Orkneys, "where," as he said, "no
+vessel fished, and consequently there were no fisheries to protect."
+This ignominious work lasted for a year. It was brought to a close
+in December, 1804, soon after the appointment of Lord Melville, in
+succession to Earl St. Vincent, as First Lord of the Admiralty.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+By him Lord Cochrane was transferred from the <i>Arab</i> to the <i>Pallas</i>,
+a new and smart frigate of thirty-two guns, and allowed to use her in
+a famous cruise of prize-taking among the Azores and off the coast
+of Portugal. This was followed in 1806 by farther work in the same
+frigate, the closing portion of which was especially memorable. Being
+off the Basque Roads at the end of April he fixed his attention upon a
+frigate, the <i>Minerve</i>, and three brigs, forming an important part of
+the French squadron in the Mediterranean. After three weeks' waiting,
+on the 14th of May, he saw the frigate and the brigs approaching him,
+and promptly prepared to attack them. He was not deterred by knowing
+that the <i>Minerve</i> alone, carrying forty guns, was far stronger than
+the <i>Pallas</i>, which had also to withstand the force of the three
+brigs, each with sixteen guns, and to be prepared for the fire of the
+batteries on the Isle d'Aix. "This morning, when close to Isle d'Aix,
+reconnoitring the French squadron," he wrote concisely to his admiral,
+"it gave me great joy to find our late opponent, the black frigate,
+and her companions, the three brigs, getting under sail. We formed
+high expectations that the long wished-for opportunity was at last
+arrived. The <i>Pallas</i> remained under topsails by the wind to await
+them. At half-past eleven a smart point-blank firing commenced on both
+sides, which was severely felt by the enemy. The main topsail-yard
+of one of the brigs was cut through, and the frigate lost her
+after-sails. The batteries on I'lsle d'Aix opened on the <i>Pallas</i>, and
+a cannonade continued, interrupted on our part only by the necessity
+we were under to make various tacks to avoid the shoals, till one
+o'clock, when our endeavour to gain the wind of the enemy and get
+between him and the batteries proved successful. An effectual distance
+was now chosen. A few broadsides were poured in. The enemy's fire
+slackened. I ordered ours to cease, and directed Mr. Sutherland, the
+master, to run the frigate on board, with intention effectually to
+prevent her retreat. The enemy's side thrust our guns back into the
+ports. The whole were then discharged. The effect and crash were
+dreadful. Their decks were deserted. Three pistol-shots were the
+unequal return. With confidence I say that the frigate would have
+been lost to France, had not the unequal collision torn away our
+fore-topmast, jib-boom, fore and maintop-sails, spritsail-yards,
+bumpkin, cathead, chainplates, fore-rigging, foresail, and bower
+anchor, with which last I intended to hook on; but all proved
+insufficient. She would yet have been lost to France, had not the
+French admiral, seeing his frigate's foreyard gone, her rigging
+ruined, and the danger she was in, sent two others to her assistance.
+The <i>Pallas</i> being a wreck, we came out with what sail could be set,
+and his Majesty's sloop the <i>Kingfisher</i> afterwards took us in tow."
+The exploit was none the less valiant in that it was partly a failure.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The waiting-times before and after that cruise were occupied by Lord
+Cochrane with brief commencement of parliamentary life. Long before
+this time Lord Cochrane had resolved on entering the House of Commons,
+in order to expose the naval abuses which were then rife, and which he
+had never been deterred, by consideration of his own interests, from
+boldly denouncing. He stood for Honiton in 1805, and was defeated
+through his refusal to vie with his opponent in the art of bribery. He
+contrived, however, to profit by corruption while he punished it.
+As soon as the election was over, he gave ten guineas to each of the
+constituents who had freely voted for him. The consequence of this was
+his triumphant return at the new election, which took place in July,
+1806. When his supporters asked for like payment to that made in the
+previous instance, it was bluntly refused. "The former gift," said
+Lord Cochrane, "was for your disinterested conduct in not taking the
+bribe of five pounds from the agents of my opponent. For me now to pay
+you would be a violation of my principles."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+A short cruise in the Basque Roads prevented Lord Cochrane from
+occupying in the House of Commons the seat thus won, and in April,
+1807, very soon after his return, Parliament was again dissolved. He
+then resolved to stand for Westminster, with Sir Francis Burdett for
+his associate. Both were returned, and Lord Cochrane held his seat for
+eleven years. In 1807, however, he had only time to bring forward two
+motions respecting sinecures and naval abuses, which issued in violent
+but unproductive discussion, when he received orders to join the fleet
+in the Mediterranean as captain of the <i>Imperiéuse</i>. Naval employment
+was grudgingly accorded to him; but it was thought wiser to give him
+work abroad than to suffer under his free speech at home.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+This employment was marked by many brilliant deeds, which procured
+for him, on his surrendering his command of the <i>Imperiéuse</i> after
+eighteen months' duration, the reproach of having spent more sails,
+stores, gunpowder, and shot than had been used by any other captain in
+the service.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The most brilliant deed of all, one of the most brilliant deeds in
+the whole naval history of England, was his well-known exploit in the
+Basque Roads on the 11th, 12th, and 13th of April, 1809. Much against
+his will, he was persuaded by Lord Mulgrave, at that time First
+Lord of the Admiralty, to bear the responsibility of attacking and
+attempting to destroy the French squadron by means of fireships
+and explosion-vessels. The project was opposed by Lord Gambier, the
+Admiral of the Fleet, as being at once "hazardous, if not desperate,"
+and "a horrible and anti-Christian mode of warfare;" and consequently
+he gave no hearty co-operation. On Lord Cochrane devolved the whole
+duty of preparing for and executing the project. His own words will
+best tell the story.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"On the 11th of April," he said, "it blew hard, with a high sea. As
+all preparations were complete, I did not consider the state of
+the weather a justifiable impediment to the attack; so that, after
+nightfall, the officers who volunteered to command the fireships were
+assembled on board the <i>Caledonia</i>, and supplied with instructions
+according to the plan previously laid down by myself. The <i>Impérieuse</i> had proceeded to the edge of the Boyart Shoal, close to which she
+anchored with an explosion-vessel made fast to her stern, it being my
+intention, after firing the one of which I was about to take charge,
+to return to her for the other, to be employed as circumstances might
+require. At a short distance from the <i>Impérieuse</i> were anchored
+the frigates <i>Aigle</i>, <i>Unicorn</i>, and <i>Pallas</i>, for the purpose of
+receiving the crews of the fireships on their return, as well as to
+support the boats of the fleet assembled alongside the <i>Cæsar</i>, to
+assist the fireships. The boats of the fleet were not, however, for
+some reason or other made use of at all.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Having myself embarked on board the largest explosion-vessel,
+accompanied by Lieut. Bissel and a volunteer crew of four men only,
+we led the way to the attack. The night was dark, and, as the wind was
+fair, though blowing hard, we soon neared the estimated position
+of the advanced French ships, for it was too dark to discern them.
+Judging our distance, therefore, as well as we could, with regard to
+the time the fuse was calculated to burn, the crew of four men entered
+the gig, under the direction of Lieut. Bissel, whilst I kindled the
+portfires, and then, descending into the boat, urged the men to pull
+for their lives, which they did with a will, though, as wind and sea
+were strong against us, without making the expected progress.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"To our consternation, the fuses, which had been constructed to burn
+fifteen minutes, lasted little more than half that time, when the
+vessel blew up, filling the air with shells, grenades, and rockets;
+whilst the downward and lateral force of the explosion raised
+a solitary mountain of water, from the breaking of which in all
+directions our little boat narrowly escaped being swamped. The
+explosion-vessel did her work well, the effect constituting one of the
+grandest artificial spectacles imaginable. For a moment, the sky was
+red with the lurid glare arising from the simultaneous ignition of
+fifteen hundred barrels of powder. On this gigantic flash subsiding,
+the air seemed alive with shells, grenades, rockets, and masses of
+timber, the wreck of the shattered vessel. The sea was convulsed as
+by an earthquake, rising, as has been said, in a huge wave, on whose
+crest our boat was lifted like a cork, and as suddenly dropped into
+a vast trough, out of which as it closed upon us with the rush of a
+whirlpool, none expected to emerge. In a few minutes nothing but
+a heavy rolling sea had to be encountered, all having again become
+silence and darkness."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+In spite of its bursting too soon, the explosion-vessel did excellent
+work. The strong boom, composed of large spars bound by heavy chains,
+and firmly anchored at various points in its length of more than a
+mile, which was supposed to constitute an impassable barrier between
+the English ships that were outside and the French ships locked behind
+it, was broken in several parts. The enemy's ships were thoroughly
+disorganised by the sudden and appalling occurrence of the explosion.
+In their alarm and confusion, many of them fired into one another,
+and all might have been easily destroyed had the first success of the
+explosion-vessel been properly followed up. Unfortunately, however, on
+returning to the <i>Impérieuse</i>, Lord Cochrane found that there had been
+gross mismanagement of the fireships, which, according to his plans,
+were to have been despatched against various sections of the French
+fleet while it was too confused to protect itself. One of them, fired
+at the wrong time and sent in a wrong direction, nearly destroyed
+the <i>Impérieuse</i> and caused the wasting of a second explosion-vessel,
+which was meant to be held in reserve. The others, if not as
+mischievous in their effects, were almost as useless. "Of all the
+fire-ships, upwards of twenty in number," said Lord Cochrane, "only
+four reached the enemy's position, and not one did any damage. The
+<i>Impérieuse</i> lay three miles from the enemy, so that the one which was
+near setting fire to her became useless at the outset; whilst several
+others were kindled a mile and a half to the windward of this, or four
+miles and a half from the enemy. Of the remainder, many were at once
+rendered harmless from being brought to on the wrong tack. Six passed
+a mile to windward of the French fleet, and one grounded on Oleron."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Though the full success of Lord Cochrane's scheme was thus prevented,
+however, the work done by it was considerable. "As the fireships began
+to light up the roads," he said, "we could observe the enemy's fleet
+in great confusion. Without doubt, taking every fireship for an
+explosion-vessel, and being deceived as to their distance, not only
+did the French make no effort to divert them from their course, but
+some of their ships cut their cables and were seen drifting away
+broadside on to the wind and tide, whilst others made sail, as the
+only alternative to escape from what they evidently considered certain
+destruction. At daylight on the morning of the 12th, not a spar of the
+boom was anywhere visible, and, with the exception of the <i>Foudroyant</i> and <i>Cassard</i>, the whole of the enemy's vessels were helplessly
+aground. The flag-ship, <i>L'Océan</i>, a three-decker, drawing the most
+water, lay outermost on the north-west edge of the Palles Shoal,
+nearest the deep water, where she was most exposed to attack; whilst
+all, by the fall of the tide, were lying on their bilge, with
+their bottoms completely exposed to shot, and therefore beyond the
+possibility of resistance."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The French fleet had not been destroyed; yet it was so paralysed by
+the shock that its utter defeat seemed easy to Lord Cochrane. To the
+mast of the <i>Impérieuse</i>, between six o'clock in the morning of the
+12th and one in the afternoon, he hoisted signal after signal, urging
+Lord Gambier, who was with the main body of the fleet about fourteen
+miles off, to make an attack. Failing in all these, and growing
+desperate in his zeal, especially as every hour of delay was enabling
+the French to recover themselves and rendering success less sure, he
+suffered his single frigate to drift towards the enemy. "I did not
+venture to make sail," wrote Lord Cochrane, in his very modest account
+of this daring exploit, "lest the movement might be seen from the
+flag-ship, and a signal of recall should defeat my purpose of making
+an attack with the <i>Impérieuse</i> ; my object being to compel the
+Commander-in-Chief to send vessels to our assistance. We drifted by
+the wind and tide slowly past the fortifications on Isle d'Aix; but,
+though they fired at us with every gun that could be brought to bear,
+the distance was too great to inflict damage. Proceeding thus till
+1.30 p.m., we then suddenly made sail after the nearest of the enemy's
+vessels escaping. In order to divert our attention from the vessels
+we were pursuing, these having thrown their guns overboard, the
+<i>Calcutta</i>, a store-ship carrying fifty-six guns, which was still
+aground, broadside on, began firing at us. Before proceeding further,
+it became therefore necessary to attack her, and at 1.50 we shortened
+sail and returned the fire. At 2.0 the <i>Impérieuse</i> came to an anchor
+in five fathoms, and, veering to half a cable, kept fast the spring,
+firing upon the <i>Calcutta</i> with our broadside, and at the same time
+upon the <i>Aquillon</i> and <i>Ville de Varsovie</i>, two line-of-battle ships,
+each of seventy-four guns, with our forecastle and bow guns, both
+these ships being aground stern on, in an opposite direction. After
+some time we had the satisfaction of observing several ships sent
+to our assistance, namely, the <i>Emerald</i>, the <i>Unicorn</i>, the
+<i>Indefatigable</i>, the <i>Valiant</i>, the <i>Revenge</i>, the <i>Pallas</i>, and the
+<i>Aigle</i>. On seeing this, the captain and the crew of the <i>Calcutta</i> abandoned their vessel, of which the boats of the <i>Impérieuse</i> took
+possession before the vessels sent to our assistance came down." Soon
+after the arrival of the new ships, the two other vessels were also
+forced to surrender.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Most of the ships sent to his assistance returned to Lord Grambier on
+the 13th. Lord Cochrane, seeing that it would be easy for him to do
+much further mischief, made ready for the work on the morrow. But from
+this he was prevented by the inexcusable conduct of Lord Gambier, who,
+having discountenanced the attempt with the fireships, now not
+only refused to take part in the victory which his comrade had made
+possible, but also hindered its achievement by him.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Lord Cochrane had already overstepped the strict duty of a
+subordinate, though acting only as became an English sailor. The
+fireships with which he had been ordered to ruin the enemy's fleet had
+partly failed through the error of others. "It was then," he said, "a
+question with me whether I should disappoint the expectations of my
+country, be set down as a charlatan by the Admiralty, whose hopes had
+been raised by my plan, and have my future prospects destroyed, or
+force on an action which some had induced an easy Commander-in-Chief
+to believe impracticable." He did force on some fighting, which
+was altogether disastrous to the enemy, and rich in tokens of his
+unflinching heroism; but it was in violation of repeated orders,
+dubiously worded, from Lord Grambier, and, when at last an order was
+issued in terms too distinct to allow of any further evasion, he had
+no alternative but to abandon the enterprise. He was at once sent
+back to England, to be rewarded with much popular favour, and with a
+knighthood of the Order of the Bath, conferred by George III., but to
+become the victim of an official persecution, which, embittering his
+whole life, lasted almost to its close.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+It must be admitted that this persecution was in great measure
+provoked by Lord Cochrane's own fearless conduct. He was reasonably
+aggrieved at the effort made by the Admiralty authorities to attribute
+to Lord Gambier, who had taken no part at all in the achievements in
+Basque Roads, all the merit of their success. To use his own caustic
+but accurate words, "The only victory gained by Lord Gambier in Basque
+Roads was that of bringing his ships to anchor there, whilst the
+enemy's ships were quietly heaving off from the banks on which they
+had been driven nine miles distant from the fleet." When for this
+proceeding it was determined to honour Lord Gambier with the thanks
+of Parliament, Lord Cochrane, as member for Westminster, announced his
+intention of opposing the motion. As a bribe to silence he was offered
+an important command by Lord Mulgrave, and it was proposed that his
+name should be included in the vote of thanks. The bribe being
+refused and the opposition persisted in, Lord Gambier demanded a
+court-martial, in which, as he alleged, to controvert the insinuations
+thrown out against him by Lord Cochrane.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The history of this court-martial, its antecedents and its
+consequences, furnishes an episode almost unique in the annals
+of official injustice. As a preparation for it, Lord Gambier, in
+obedience to orders from the Admiralty, supplemented his first account
+of the victory by another of entirely different tenour. In the first,
+written on the spot, he had avowed that he could not speak highly
+enough of Lord Cochrane's vigour and gallantry in approaching the
+enemy,&mdash;conduct, he said, "which could not be exceeded by any feat of
+valour hitherto achieved by the British Navy." In the record, written
+four weeks later and in London, he altogether ignored Lord Cochrane's
+services, and transferred the entire merit to himself.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The whole conduct of the court-martial was in keeping with that
+prelude. No effort was spared in stifling all the evidence on Lord
+Cochrane's side, and in adducing false testimony against him. Logbooks
+and witnesses alike were tampered with. In support of his scheme for
+annihilating the whole French fleet, Lord Cochrane produced in court
+a chart showing the relative position of the various points in Aix
+Roads, and of the overhanging fort which was to protect the French
+ships. This chart, left lying upon the table, was tacitly accepted by
+the authorities of the Admiralty as a trustworthy document, and
+duly preserved among the official records. But at the time the court
+refused to receive it in evidence, and adopted instead two falsified
+charts, in which, by the introduction of imaginary shoals and the
+narrowing of the channel to Aix Roads from two miles to one, the
+success of the scheme appeared impossible. Although this gross
+deception was more than suspected, both then and afterwards, by Lord
+Cochrane, his repeated applications to the Admiralty for permission to
+inspect the documents were steadily refused. It was not till more than
+fifty years after the period of the court-martial that he was able to
+prove the scandalous fraud.[A]
+</p>
+
+<p>
+[Footnote A: Readers of "The Autobiography of a Seaman" need not be
+reminded of the copious and convincing evidence of the way in which he
+was treated by this court-martial that was adduced by Lord Dundonald
+in that work.]
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The result of the court-martial was, of course, such as from the first
+had been intended. Lord Grambier was acquitted, and unlimited blame
+was, by inference, thrown upon Lord Cochrane. The coveted vote
+of thanks was promptly obtained from the House of Commons; Lord
+Cochrane's proposal that the minutes of the court-martial be first
+investigated being, through ministerial influence, summarily rejected.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+These proceedings determined the course which men in power were to
+adopt, and fixed Lord Cochrane's future. It was a future to be made up
+of cruel disregard and of revengeful persecution.[A]
+</p>
+
+<p>
+[Footnote A: See Appendix (I.).]
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Soon after the close of the trial, the brave seaman applied to the
+Admiralty for permission to rejoin his old frigate, the <i>Impérieuse</i>,
+and accompanied his application with a bold plan for attacking the
+French fleet in the Scheldt. He received an insulting answer to the
+effect that, if he would be ready to quit the country in a week, and
+then to occupy a position subordinate to that which he had formerly
+held, his services would be accepted. On his replying that his
+great desire to be employed in his profession made him willing to
+do anything, and that all he wished for was a little longer time for
+preparation, no further communication was vouchsafed to him. He was
+quietly superseded in the command of the <i>Impérieuse</i>, and received no
+other ship.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Out of this ill-treatment, however, resulted some benefit to the
+nation. Lord Cochrane employed much of his forced leisure, during the
+next few years, in exposing abuses that were then over-abundant, and
+in strenuously advocating reform. In Parliament, voting always with
+his friend Sir Francis Burdett and the Radical party, he limited
+his exertions to naval matters, and such as were within his own
+experience. Herein there was plenty to occupy him, and much that it is
+now amusing to look back upon.[A]
+</p>
+
+<p>
+[Footnote A: See Appendix (II.).]
+</p>
+
+<p>
+One scandalous grievance led to a memorable episode in his life. The
+many prizes taken by him in the Mediterranean, which, according to
+rule, had been sent to the Maltese Admiralty Court for condemnation,
+had been encumbered with such preposterous charges that, instead of
+realizing anything by his captures, he was made out to be largely
+in debt to the Court. The principal agent of this Court was a Mr.
+Jackson, who illegally held office as at the same time marshal and
+proctor. "The consequence was," said Lord Cochrane, "that every
+prize placed in his hands as proctor had to pass through his hands
+as marshal; whilst as proctor it was further in his power to consult
+himself as marshal as often as he pleased, and to any extent he
+pleased. The amount of self-consultation may be imagined." As proctor
+he charged for visiting himself, and as marshal he charged for
+receiving visits from himself. As marshal he was paid for instructing
+himself, and as proctor he was paid for listening to his own
+instructions. Ten shillings and twopence three farthings was the
+customary charge for an oath to the effect that he had served a
+monition on himself. Of the sheets composing the bill for services of
+these sorts presented to him, Lord Cochrane formed a roll which, when
+unfolded and exhibited in Parliament, stretched from the Speaker's
+table to the bar of the House.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Not content, however, with laughing at the official robberies
+committed upon him, he determined, early in 1811, to proceed to Malta
+and personally investigate the matter. Reaching Valetta long before he
+was expected, he immediately presented himself at the court-house,
+and asked for a copy of the table of fees authorized by the Crown,
+and which, according to directions, ought to have been placed
+conspicuously in the public room. The existence of such a document
+being denied, he proceeded to hunt for it himself, and, after long and
+careful search, found it concealed in an out-of-the-way corner of
+the building. Having taken possession of it, he was carrying off the
+prize, which he intended to exhibit in the House of Commons, in token
+of the extent to which he and others had been defrauded, when he
+was arrested for contempt of court. He protested that the arrest was
+illegal, seeing that, as the court had not been sitting, no insult
+could have been offered to it. The plea was not accepted, and he
+was sent to gaol. No ground for punishment, however, could be found
+against him; and, after refusing to help the authorities out of their
+embarrassment by going at large on bail, and insisting on a proper
+exculpation or nothing at all, he let himself out of window by means
+of a rope. A gig was waiting for him, by which he was enabled to
+overtake the packet-boat that had quitted Malta shortly before,
+to return to London, and to present the document seized by him to
+Parliament a month before the official report of his escapade reached
+home.[A]
+</p>
+
+<p>
+[Footnote A: This letter from the Duke of Kent to Lord Cochrane will
+help to show that, even after the time of his Admiralty persecution,
+he was not without friends and admirers in high quarters:&mdash;"Kensington
+Palace, 7th July, 1812. My dear Lord,&mdash;I trust the acquaintance I
+have the satisfaction to possess with your lordship, and the long
+and intimate friendship subsisting between myself and your brother,
+Lieut.-Colonel Basil Cochrane, will warrant my intruding upon you for
+the purpose of seconding the wishes expressed by a young naval protégé
+of mine, and I cannot help adding my earnest request that when your
+distinguished zeal and talents in your profession are again called
+into action by Government, you will kindly oblige me by taking
+Lieutenant Edgar under your wing and protection; he is a fine young
+man, and I think would not disgrace the wardroom of your lordship's
+ship. I remain, with my sincere regard, my dear lord, yours
+faithfully, EDWARD.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"
+<i>The Right Honourable Lord Cochrane</i>."]
+</p>
+
+<p>
+An imprisonment of very different character occurred after an interval
+of nearly three years. This was in consequence of the famous Stock
+Exchange trial, the episode last treated of by the Earl of Dundonald
+in his Autobiography, and not quite recounted to the end before death
+stayed his hand.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+From 1809 to 1813, Lord Cochrane was allowed to take no active part in
+the work of his profession. But at the close of the latter year, his
+uncle, Sir Alexander Cochrane, having been selected for the command
+of the fleet on the North American station, appointed him his
+flag-captain&mdash;an appointment resting only with the Commander-in-Chief,
+and one with which the Government could not interfere. It was always
+Lord Cochrane's belief that the implacable enmity of his foes in the
+Admiralty Office&mdash;determined to prevent by irregular means, since no
+regular course was open to them, his return to naval work&mdash;helped
+to bring about the cruel persecution by which his whole life was
+embittered. But it must be admitted that the dishonesty of one of his
+own kinsmen&mdash;about which a chivalrous sense of honour caused him to be
+reticent during nearly fifty years&mdash;conduced to this result.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The chief agent of the fraud practised upon him was a foreigner, named
+De Berenger. This man, clever and unscrupulous, had been associated
+with Mr. Cochrane Johnstone, an uncle of Lord Cochrane's, in certain
+stock-jobbing transactions. In that or in some other way he became
+known to Lord Cochrane and to his other uncle, Sir Alexander Cochrane;
+and, being a smart chemist and pyrotechnist, it was proposed that he
+should accompany Lord Cochrane to North America, and assist him in the
+trial of his recently-discovered method of attacking forts and fleets
+in a secret and irresistible manner. With that object&mdash;of course
+clandestine&mdash;Sir Alexander Cochrane sought the permission of the
+Admiralty to employ De Berenger as a teacher of sharp-shooting, in
+which he was a well-known adept. This was not granted, and near the
+end of 1813, Sir Alexander set sail for Halifax, leaving Lord Cochrane
+to follow in the <i>Tonnant</i>, in charge of a convoy, and in getting
+the <i>Tonnant</i> ready for sea his lordship was busy during January and
+February, 1814. In the former month De Berenger sought him out and
+earnestly requested that, his official appointment being refused, he
+might be taken on board in a private capacity and allowed to rely
+upon the success of his work for recompense. Lord Cochrane declined
+to employ him without some sort of sanction from the Admiralty, and
+De Berenger left him with the avowed intention of doing his utmost to
+procure this sanction.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+He was otherwise occupied. Being in urgent need of money, with which
+to evade the grasp of his numerous creditors, he returned to his
+stock-jobbing pursuits&mdash;if indeed he had not been engaging in them
+all along; using his proposal for employment under Lord Cochrane as a
+blind or as a secondary resource. Instead of furthering his efforts to
+obtain this employment, he contrived a plan for causing a sudden rise
+in the funds, and thereby securing a large profit to himself and his
+accomplices. On the 20th of February he presented himself at the Ship
+Hotel at Dover, disguised as a foreigner and calling himself Colonel
+De Bourg, professing that he brought intelligence from France to
+the effect that Buonaparte had been killed by the Cossacks, that the
+allied armies were in full march towards Paris, and that a speedy
+cessation of the war was certain. Thence he hurried up to London and
+was traced to have gone, on the following morning, to Lord Cochrane's
+house. The ostensible object of that visit was to renew his
+application for employment on board the <i>Tonnant</i>. The real object
+was, by means of a trick, to get possession of a hat and cloak, with
+which to disguise himself afresh, and thus try to elude the pursuit
+of agents of the Stock Exchange, who would soon seek to punish him for
+his fraud. The disguise was given to him in all innocence, and might
+have been successful, had not Lord Cochrane, on finding how grossly
+he had been deceived, volunteered to assist in punishing the culprit.
+Leaving the <i>Tonnant</i>, in which he was about to start from Chatham, he
+returned to London, and gave full information as to his share in the
+transaction, with the view of furthering the cause of justice and
+clearing himself from all blame.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+That was prevented by as wanton a prosecution and as malicious a
+perverting of the forms of justice and the principles of equity as the
+annals of English law, not often abused even in a much less degree,
+can show. The straightforward evidence furnished by him was made
+the handle to an elaborate machinery of falsehood and perjury for
+effecting his own ruin. The solicitor who had managed the cause of the
+Admiralty at the court-martial on Lord Gambier, and therein proved his
+skill, was entrusted with the ugly work. By him an elaborate case for
+prosecution was trumped up, and Lord Cochrane, hindered from sailing
+to North America in the <i>Tonnant</i>, and hindered from obtaining any
+other employment in his country's service during four-and-thirty
+years, was, on the 8th of June, placed in the prisoner's dock at the
+Court of King's Bench on a charge of conspiring with his uncle, Mr.
+Cochrane Johnstone, with De Berenger, and with some other persons,
+to defraud the Stock Exchange. Lord Ellenborough, who presided at the
+trial, delivered a charge which was even more virulent and more marked
+by political spite than was his wont, and the too compliant jury
+brought in a verdict of "guilty." Lord Cochrane vainly sought for a
+new trial, and vainly adduced abundant proof of his innocence. The
+chance of justice that is every Englishman's right was denied to him.
+He was sentenced to an hour's detention in the pillory at the entrance
+of the Royal Exchange, to a year's imprisonment in the King's Bench
+Prison, and to a fine of a thousand pounds.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The first part of the sentence was not insisted upon, as Sir Francis
+Burdett, Lord Cochrane's noble-hearted colleague as member for
+Westminster, avowed his intention of standing also in the pillory, if
+his friend was subjected to that indignity, and of thus encouraging
+the storm of popular indignation, that, without any such
+encouragement, would probably have led to consequences which
+the Government, already hated by all Englishmen who loved their
+birthright, dared not brook. But the unworthy vengeance of his
+persecutors was amply satisfied in other ways. He had already suffered
+more than most men. "Neglect," he said, "I was accustomed to. But when
+an alleged offence was laid to my charge, in which, on the honour of
+a man now on the brink of the grave, I had not the slightest
+participation, and from which I never benefited, nor thought to
+benefit one farthing, and when this allegation was, by political
+rancour and legal chicanery, consummated in an unmerited conviction
+and an outrageous sentence, my heart for the first time sank within
+me, as conscious of a blow, the effect of which it has required all my
+energies to sustain."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+It is needless now to say anything in proof of Lord Cochrane's
+innocence of the charge brought against him. The world has long since
+reversed the verdict passed at Lord Ellenborough's dictation. That
+an officer and a gentleman of Lord Cochrane's reputation should have
+demeaned himself by becoming a party to the fraud of which he was
+accused, is, to say the least, improbable. That, if he had been guilty
+of that fraud, he should not have availed himself of the only benefit
+that could be derived from it by investing in the stocks when they
+were low and selling out during the brief time of their artificial
+value, is far more improbable. That, when the fraud was perpetrated,
+and its chief instrument was undiscovered, he should have left the
+<i>Tonnant</i> in order to expose him, instead of taking him away from
+England, and so almost ensuring the preservation of the secret, is
+utterly impossible.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+His only faults were too great faith in his own innocence and a too
+chivalrous desire to protect, or rather to abstain from injuring, his
+unworthy kinsman. "I must be here distinctly understood," it was said
+by Lord Brougham, in his "Historic Sketches of British Statesmen," "to
+deny the accuracy of the opinion which Lord Ellenborough appears to
+have formed in this case, and deeply to lament the verdict of
+'guilty' which the jury returned after three hours' consultation
+and hesitation. If Lord Cochrane was at all aware of his uncle Mr.
+Cochrane Johnstone's proceedings, it was the whole extent of his
+privity to the fact. Having been one of the counsel engaged in the
+cause, I can speak with some confidence respecting it, and I take upon
+me to assert that Lord Cochrane's conviction was mainly owing to the
+extreme repugnance which he felt to giving up his uncle, or taking
+those precautions for his own safety which would have operated against
+that near relation. Even when he, the real criminal, had confessed his
+guilt by taking to flight, and the other defendants were brought up
+for judgment, we, the counsel, could not persuade Lord Cochrane to
+shake himself loose from the contamination by abandoning him."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Part of a letter addressed to the Earl of Dundonald in 1859, on the
+anniversary of his eighty-fourth birthday, and shortly after the
+publication of the first volume of his "Autobiography of a Seaman," by
+the daughter of the man whose wrong-doing had conduced so terribly
+to his misfortunes, may here be fitly quoted:&mdash;"You are still active,
+still in health," says the writer, "and you have just given to the
+world a striking proof of the vigour of your mind and intellect. Many
+years I cannot wish for you; but may you live to finish your book,
+and, if it please God, may you and I have a peaceful death-bed. We
+have both suffered much mental anguish, though in various degrees; for
+yours was indeed the hardest lot that an honourable man can be called
+on to bear. Oh, my dear cousin, let me say once more, whilst we are
+still here, how, ever since that miserable time, I have felt that you
+suffered for my poor father's fault&mdash;how agonizing that conviction
+was&mdash;how thankful I am that <i>tardy justice</i> was done you. May God
+return you fourfold for your generous though misplaced confidence in
+him, and for all your subsequent forbearance!"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Another extract from a letter, from one out of a multitude of tributes
+to the Earl of Dundonald's honourable bearing, which were tendered
+after his death, shall close this introductory chapter. "Five years
+after the trial of Lord Cochrane," wrote Sir Fitzroy Kelly, now Lord
+Chief Baron, on the 17th of December, 1860, "I began to study for the
+bar, and very soon became acquainted with and interested in his case,
+and I have thought of it much and long during more than forty years;
+and I am profoundly convinced that, had he been defended singly and
+separately from the others accused, or had he at the last moment,
+before judgment was pronounced, applied, with competent legal advice
+and assistance, for a new trial, he would have been unhesitatingly and
+honourably acquitted. We cannot blot out this dark page from our legal
+and judicial history."
+</p>
+
+</div><!--end chapter-->
+
+<div class="chapter">
+
+<h2><a name="chap02"></a>CHAPTER II.</h2>
+
+<p class="letter">
+THE ISSUE OF THE STOCK EXCHANGE TRIAL.&mdash;LORD COCHRANE'S COMMITTAL TO
+THE KING'S BENCH PRISON.&mdash;THE DEBATE UPON HIS CASE IN THE HOUSE OF
+COMMONS, AND HIS SPEECH ON THAT OCCASION.&mdash;HIS EXPULSION FROM THE
+HOUSE, AND RE-ELECTION AS MEMBER FOR WESTMINSTER.&mdash;THE WITHDRAWAL OF
+HIS SENTENCE TO THE PILLORY.&mdash;THE REMOVAL OF HIS INSIGNIA AS A KNIGHT
+OF THE BATH.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+[1814.]
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The famous and infamous Stock Exchange trial occupied the 8th and 9th
+of June, 1814; but the sentence was deferred until the 21st of the
+same month, in consequence of Lord Cochrane's demand for a new trial.
+That demand was not complied with, in spite of the production
+of overwhelming evidence to justify it; and the victim of Lord
+Ellenborough and the tyrannical Government of the day was at once
+conveyed to the King's Bench Prison. No time was lost in heaping upon
+him all the indignities which, in accordance with precedent and in
+excess of all precedent, might supplement his degradation.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The first was a notice of motion which would result in his expulsion
+from the House of Commons. Lord Cochrane promptly availed himself of
+the opening thus afforded for a public avowal of his innocence. To
+the Hon. Charles Abbot, then Speaker of the House, he wrote from his
+prison on the 23rd of June. "Sir," runs the letter, "I respectfully
+entreat you to communicate to the Honourable House of Commons my
+earnest desire and prayer that no question arising out of the late
+convictions in the Court of King's Bench may be agitated without
+affording me timely notice and full opportunity of attending in my
+place for the justification of my character. From the House of Commons
+I hope to obtain that justice of which too implicit reliance on the
+consciousness of my innocence, and circumstances over which I had no
+control, have hitherto deprived me. The painful situation in which I
+am placed is known to the House, and I trust that I shall be enabled
+to demonstrate that a more injured man has never sought redress
+from those to whose justice I now appeal for the preservation of my
+character and existence."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+In compliance with that request, and with parliamentary rules, Lord
+Cochrane was conveyed from the King's Bench Prison to the House of
+Commons, and allowed to read a carefully-prepared statement of his
+case, on the 5th of July, the day fixed for investigation of the
+subject. From this statement it is not necessary to cite the clear
+and conclusive recapitulation of the evidence adduced at the trial, or
+refused admission therein because it was too convincing, in proof of
+Lord Cochrane's innocence; but room must be found for some passages
+illustrating the independent temper of the speaker and the perversions
+of justice to which he fell a victim.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"I am not here, sir," he said, "to bespeak compassion or to pave the
+way to pardon. Both ideas are alike repugnant to my feelings. That the
+public in general have felt indignation at the sentence that has been
+passed upon me does honour to their hearts, and tends still to make
+my country dear to me, in spite of what I have suffered from the
+malignity of persons in power. But, sir, I am not here to complain of
+the hardship of my case or about the cruelty of judges, who, for
+an act which was never till now ever known or thought to be a legal
+offence, have laid upon me a sentence more heavy than they have
+ever yet laid upon persons clearly convicted of the most horrid
+of crimes&mdash;crimes of which nature herself cries aloud against the
+commission. If, therefore, it was my object to complain of the cruelty
+of my judges, I should bid the public look into the calendar, and see
+if they could find a punishment like that inflicted on me; inflicted
+by these same judges on any one of these unnatural wretches. It is
+not, however, my business to complain of the cruelty of this sentence.
+I am here to assert, for the third time, my innocence in the most
+unqualified and solemn manner; I am here to expose the unfairness of
+the proceedings against me previous to the trial, at the trial,
+and subsequent to it; I am here to expose the long train of artful
+villainies which have been practised against me hitherto with so much
+success.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"I am persuaded, sir, that the House will easily perceive, and every
+honourable man, I am sure, participate in my feelings, that the
+fine, the imprisonment, the pillory&mdash;even that pillory to which I am
+condemned&mdash;are nothing, that they weigh not as a feather, when put
+in the balance against my desire to show that I have been unjustly
+condemned. Therefore, sir, I trust that the House will give a fair and
+impartial hearing to what I have to say respecting the conduct of
+my enemies, to expose which conduct is a duty which I owe to my
+constituents, and to my country, not less than to myself.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"In the first place, sir, I here, in the presence of this House, and
+with the eyes of the country fixed upon me, most solemnly declare that
+I am wholly innocent of the crime which has been laid to my
+charge, and for which I have been condemned to the most infamous of
+punishments. Having repeated this assertion of my innocence, I next
+proceed to complain of the means that have been made use of to effect
+my destruction. And first, sir, was it ever before known in this or in
+any other country, that the prosecutor should form a sort of court of
+his own erection, call witnesses before it of his own choosing, and,
+under offers of great rewards, take minutes of the evidence of such
+witnesses, and publish those minutes to the world under the forms and
+appearances of a judicial proceeding? Was it ever before known, that
+steps like these were taken previous to an indictment,&mdash;previous to
+the bringing of an intended victim into a court of justice? Was there
+ever before known so regular, so systematic a scheme for exciting
+suspicion against a man, and for implanting an immovable prejudice
+against him in the minds of a whole nation, previous to the preferring
+a Bill of Indictment, in order that the grand jury, be it composed
+of whomsoever it might, should be predisposed to find the bill? I ask
+you, sir, and I ask the House, whether it was ever before known, that
+means like these were resorted to, previous to a man's being legally
+accused? But, sir, what must the world think, when they see some of
+those to whom the welfare and the honour of the nation are committed
+covertly co-operating with a Committee of the Stock Exchange, and
+becoming their associates in so nefarious a scheme? Nevertheless, sir,
+this fact is now notorious to the whole world. I must confess I was
+not prepared to believe the thing possible."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Thereupon followed a detailed examination of the charges brought
+against Lord Cochrane, and of the way in which those charges were
+handled, special complaint being made concerning the malicious bearing
+of Lord Ellenborough. "It must be in the recollection of the House,"
+said Lord Cochrane, "as it is in that of the public, that he urged,
+that he compelled, the counsel to enter upon my defence <i>after
+midnight</i>, at the end of fifteen hours from the commencement of the
+trial, when that counsel declared himself quite exhausted, and when
+the jury, who were to decide, were in a state of such weariness as to
+render attention to what was said totally impossible. The speeches
+of the counsel being ended, the judge, at <i>half-past three in the
+morning</i>, adjourned the court till ten; thus separating the evidence
+from the argument, and reserving his own strength, and the strength
+of my adversaries' advocates, for the close; giving to both the great
+advantage of time to consider the reply, and to insert and arrange
+arguments to meet those which had been urged in my defence."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+All his treatment by Lord Ellenborough, as Lord Cochrane urged, was of
+that sort, or worse. "Of all tyrannies, sir," he said, "the worst
+is that which exercises its vengeance under the guise of judicial
+proceedings, and especially if a jury make part of the means by which
+its base purposes are effected. The man who is flung into prison, or
+sent to the scaffold, at the nod of an avowed despotism, has at least
+the consolation to know that his sufferings bring down upon that
+despotism the execration of mankind; but he who is entrapped
+and entangled in the meshes of a crafty and corrupt system of
+jurisprudence; who is pursued imperceptibly by a law with leaden
+feet and iron jaws; who is not put upon his trial till the ear of the
+public has been poisoned, and its heart steeled against him,&mdash;falls,
+at last, without being cheered with a hope of seeing his tyrants
+execrated even by the warmest of his friends. In their principle, the
+ancient and settled laws of England are excellent; but of late years,
+so many injurious and fatal alterations in the law have taken place,
+that any man who ventures to meddle with public affairs, and to oppose
+persons in power, is sure and certain, sooner or later, to suffer in
+some way or other.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Sir, the punishment which the malice of my enemies has procured to be
+inflicted on me is not, in my mind, worth a moment's reflection. The
+judge supposed, apparently, that the sentence of the pillory would
+disgrace and mortify me. I can assure him, and I now solemnly assure
+this House, my constituents, and my country, that I would rather stand
+in my own name, in the pillory, every day of my life, under such a
+sentence, than I would sit upon the bench in the name and with the
+real character of Lord Ellenborough for one single hour.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Something has been said, sir, in this House, as I have heard, about
+an application for a mitigation of my sentence, in a certain quarter,
+where, it is observed, that mercy never failed to flow; but I can
+assure the House that an application for pardon, extorted from me, is
+one of the things which even a partial judge and a packed jury have
+not the power to accomplish. No, sir; I will seek for, and I look for,
+pardon <i>nowhere</i>, for <i>I have committed no crime</i>. I have sought for,
+I still seek for, and I confidently expect JUSTICE; not, however, at
+the hands of those by whose machinations I have been brought to
+what they regard as my ruin, but at the hands of my enlightened and
+virtuous constituents, to whose exertions the nation owes that there
+is still a voice to cry out against that haughty and inexorable
+tyranny which commands silence to all but parasites and hypocrites."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Thus ended Lord Cochrane's written argument. It was followed by, a few
+words spoken on the spur of the moment: "Having so long occupied
+its time, I will not trouble the House longer than to implore it to
+investigate the circumstances of my case. I think I have stated enough
+to induce it to call for the minutes of the trial. All I wish is an
+inquiry. Many important facts yet remain to be considered, and I
+trust that the House will not come to a decision with its eyes shut.
+I entreat, I implore investigation. It is true that a sentence of a
+court of law has been pronounced against me; but that punishment is
+nothing, and will to me seem nothing, in comparison with what it is in
+the power of the House to inflict. I have already suffered much;
+but if after a deliberate and a fair investigation the House shall
+determine that I am guilty, then let me be deserted and abandoned by
+the world. I shall submit without repining to any the most dreadful
+penalty that the House can assign. I solemnly declare before Almighty
+God that I am ignorant of the whole transaction. Into the hearts of
+men we cannot penetrate; we cannot dive into their inmost thoughts;
+but my heart I lay open, and my most secret thoughts I disclose to
+the House. I entreat the strictest scrutiny and a patient hearing. I
+implore it at your hands, as an act of justice, and once more I call
+upon my Maker, upon Almighty God, to bear witness that I am innocent.
+He knows my heart, He knows all its secrets, and He knows that I am
+innocent."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+An animated debate followed upon that eloquent address. Viscount
+Castlereagh complained that Lord Cochrane, instead of defending
+himself, had only libelled Lord Ellenborough and the noblest
+institutions of the land. Other speakers expressed similar opinions;
+but others testified to the consistent character of Lord Cochrane,
+rendering it impossible that he should be guilty of the offence
+with which he was charged; and others again confessed that, having
+previously had doubts in the matter, those doubts had been removed by
+the high-minded tone and the powerful arguments of his defence. But in
+the end the House adopted the view set forth by Lord Castlereagh; that
+its duty was simply to accept the verdict of the Court of the King's
+Bench, and, according to precedent, to expel the member declared
+guilty by that court, without daring to revive the question of his
+guilt or innocence; and that it would be better for an innocent man
+thus to suffer, than for the House to assail "the bulwarks of English
+liberty," by turning itself into a Star Chamber, or an Inquisition,
+and attempting to interfere with "the regular administration of
+justice." The proposal that Lord Cochrane's case should be referred to
+a Select Committee was rejected without a division. The motion that he
+should be expelled from the House was carried by a hundred and forty
+members, against forty-four dissentients.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+That new act of injustice, however, though it added much to Lord
+Cochrane's suffering, brought him no fresh disgrace. It only led
+to his triumphant re-election as member for Westminster, under
+circumstances that were reasonably consoling to him. His seat having
+been taken from him on the 5th of July, a great meeting of the
+electors, attended by five thousand people, was held on the 11th.
+It was there unanimously resolved that Lord Cochrane was perfectly
+innocent of the Stock Exchange fraud, that he was a fit and proper
+person to represent the City of Westminster in Parliament, and that
+his re-election should be secured without any expense to him. Richard
+Brinsley Sheridan, his stout opponent at the previous election, who
+was now urged to oppose him again, honourably refused to do so; and
+therefore the election passed without a contest. But contest would
+only have added to its glory; unless, indeed, the people, over-zealous
+in their expression of sympathy for their representative, had been
+provoked thereby to violent exhibition of their temper. Even without
+such provocation the turmoil of the re-election day, the 16th of July,
+was great; angry crowds assembled in the streets, and menacing words
+against the Government and its myrmidons were loudly uttered. The
+wisdom of Sir Francis Burdett and other leaders of the popular party,
+however, prevented anything worse than angry speech.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Amongst all the occurrences of my life," said Lord Cochrane,
+writing from the King's Bench Prison to thank the electors for their
+confidence in him, "I can call to memory no one which has produced so
+great a degree of exultation in my breast as this, that, after all the
+machinations of corruption have been able to effect against me, the
+citizens of Westminster have, with unanimous voice, pronounced me
+worthy of continuing to be one of their representatives in Parliament.
+With regard to the case, the agitation of which has been the cause
+of this most gratifying result, I am in no apprehension as to the
+opinions and feelings of the world, and especially of the people
+of England, who, though they may be occasionally misled, are never
+deliberately cruel or unjust. Only let it be said of me: 'The Stock
+Exchange has accused; Lord Ellenborough has charged for guilty; the
+special jury have found that guilt; the Court have sentenced to the
+pillory; the House of Commons have expelled; and the Citizens of
+Westminster have re-elected,'&mdash;only let this be the record placed
+against my name, and I shall be proud to stand in the calendar of
+criminals all the days of my life."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The worst part of the sentence passed upon Lord Cochrane, as has been
+already said, was not carried out. The 10th of August had been fixed
+as the day on which he was to stand in the pillory for an hour in
+front of the Royal Exchange. But the danger of a disturbance among the
+people, and of fierce opposition in the House of Commons hindered the
+perpetration of this indignity. Some sentences of a letter addressed
+to Lord Ebrington, deprecating his motion in Parliament for a
+remission of this part of the sentence, are too characteristic,
+however, to be left unquoted. "I did not expect," said Lord Cochrane,
+"to be treated by your lordship as an object of mercy, on the grounds
+of past services, or severity of sentence. I cannot allow myself to be
+indebted to that tenderness of disposition which has led your lordship
+to form an erroneous estimate of the amount of punishment due to the
+crimes of which I have been accused; nor can I for a moment consent
+that any past services of mine should be prostituted to the purpose of
+protecting me from any part of the vengeance of the laws against which
+I, if at all, have grossly offended. If I am guilty, I richly merit
+the whole of the sentence that has been passed upon me. If innocent,
+one penalty cannot be inflicted with more justice than another."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+If the degradation of the pillory was remitted, another degradation
+quite as painful to Lord Cochrane was substituted for it. His name
+having, on the 25th of June, been struck off the list of naval
+officers in the Admiralty, the Knights Companions of the Bath promptly
+held a chapter to consider the propriety of expelling him from their
+ranks. That was soon done, and no time was lost in making the insult
+as thorough as possible. At one o'clock in the morning of the 11th
+of August, the Bath King at Arms repaired to King Henry the Seventh's
+Chapel in Westminster Abbey, and there, under a warrant signed by Lord
+Sidmouth, the Secretary of State, removed the banner of Lord Cochrane,
+which was suspended between those of Lord Beresford and Sir Brent
+Spencer. His arms were next unscrewed, and his helmet, sword, and
+other insignia were taken down from the stall. The banner was then
+kicked out of the chapel and down the steps by the official, eager to
+omit no possible indignity. It was an indignity unparalleled since the
+establishment of the order in 1725.
+</p>
+</div><!--end chapter-->
+
+<div class="chapter">
+
+<h2><a name="chap03"></a>CHAPTER III.</h2>
+
+<p class="letter">
+LORD COCHRANE'S BEARING IN THE KING'S BENCH PRISON&mdash;HIS STREET
+LAMPS.&mdash;HIS ESCAPE, AND THE MOTIVES FOR IT.&mdash;HIS CAPTURE IN THE HOUSE
+OF COMMONS, AND SUBSEQUENT TREATMENT.&mdash;HIS CONFINEMENT IN THE STRONG
+ROOM OF THE KING'S BENCH PRISON.&mdash;HIS RELEASE.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+[1814-1815.]
+</p>
+
+<p>
+During the first period of his imprisonment Lord Cochrane was not
+treated with more than usual severity. Two rooms in the King's Bench
+State House were provided for him, in which, of course, all the
+expenses of his maintenance devolved upon himself. He was led
+to understand that, if he chose to ask for it, he might have the
+privilege of "the rules," which would have allowed him, on certain
+conditions, a range of about half-a-mile round the prison. But he
+did not choose to ask. Rather, he said, than seek any favour from
+the Government, he would lie in a dungeon all through the term of his
+unjust imprisonment. Throughout that period he resolutely avowed his
+perfect innocence, to friends and foes alike; and the consciousness
+of his innocence helped him to bear up under a degradation that, to
+a nature as sensitive and chivalrous as his, was doubly bitter. Good
+friends, like Sir Francis Burdett, came to cheer him in his solitude,
+and over-zealous, yet honest, friends, like William Cobbett, came to
+take counsel with him as to ways of keeping alive and quickening the
+popular indignation which, without any stimulants from headstrong
+demagogues, was strong enough on his behalf.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The tedium of his captivity was further relieved by his devotion to
+those scientific and mechanical pursuits which, all through life,
+yielded employment very solacing to himself, and very profitable to
+the world. While in the King's Bench Prison he was especially occupied
+in completing a plan for lighting the public streets by means of a
+lamp invented by him, in which the main principle was the introduction
+of a steady current of fresh air into the globes, whereby all the oil
+was fairly burnt, and a brilliant light was always maintained. In this
+way lamps much cheaper than those previously in use were found to have
+a far greater illuminating power. Early in October, 1814, the lamps
+in St. Ann's parish, Westminster, numbering eight hundred in all, were
+taken down and replaced by four hundred constructed on Lord Cochrane's
+plan; and even political opponents spoke in acknowledgment of the
+excellent result of the change. Had it not been for the introduction
+of gas, the superiority of these new lamps must soon have compelled
+their adoption all over London. It is curious that the discovery of
+the illuminating power of gas&mdash;undoubtedly due to his father&mdash;should
+have superseded one of Lord Cochrane's most promising inventions as
+soon as it had been brought to recognized perfection.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+In such pursuits nine months of the unjust imprisonment were passed.
+"Lord Cochrane has hitherto borne all his hardships with great
+fortitude," wrote one of his most intimate friends on the 10th of
+November, "and, if there are any more in store for him, I hope he will
+continue to be cheerful and courageous." "His lordship always hopes
+for the best, and is never afraid of the worst," said the same
+authority on the 9th of December, "and therefore he is in good
+spirits."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+This fearless disposition led, in March, 1815, to a bold step, which
+some of Lord Cochrane's best friends deprecated. Knowing that he
+was unjustly imprisoned, he conceived that, since his re-election
+as member for Westminster, the imprisonment was illegal as well as
+unjust, in that it was contrary to the privilege of Parliament. The
+law provides that "no Member of Parliament can be imprisoned either
+for non-payment of a fine to the King, or for any other cause than
+treason, felony, or refusing to give security for the peace." It
+may be questioned whether, in the presence of this law, his first
+imprisonment, even under the sentence of the Court of King's Bench,
+was legal. But having been imprisoned, and having been expelled from
+the House of Commons, it is clear that his subsequent re-election
+could not interfere with the fulfilment, of the sentence passed
+against him, especially as he had not been able to make good his title
+to membership by taking the prescribed oaths and claiming a seat in
+the House. He, however&mdash;acting as it would seem under the advice of
+William Cobbett and other unsafe counsellors&mdash;thought otherwise,
+and considered that he was only vindicating a high constitutional
+principle, against the exercise of despotic power by the Government,
+in making his escape from the King's Bench Prison. "I did not quit
+these walls," he said in a letter addressed to the electors
+of Westminster, on the 12th of April, "to escape from personal
+oppression, but, at the hazard of my life, to assert that right to
+liberty which, as a member of the community, I have never forfeited,
+and that right, which I received from you, to attack in its very den
+the corruption which threatens to annihilate the liberties of us all.
+I did not quit them to fly from the justice of my country, but to
+expose the wickedness, fraud, and hypocrisy of those who elude that
+justice by committing their enormities under the colour of its name.
+I did not quit them from the childish motive of impatience under
+suffering. I stayed long enough to evince that I could endure
+restraint as a pain, but not as a penalty. I stayed long enough to be
+certain that my persecutors were conscious of their injustice, and to
+feel that my submission to their unmerited inflictions was losing the
+dignity of resignation, and sinking into the ignominious endurance of
+an insult."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The escape was effected on the 6th of March, and by the same means
+which had proved successful in Lord Cochrane's retreat from the
+gaol at Malta, just four years before. His rooms in the King's Bench
+Prison, being on the upper storey of the building known as the
+State House, were nearly as high as the wall which formed the prison
+boundary, and the windows were only a few feet distant from it.
+The possibility of escape by this way, however, had never been
+contemplated, and therefore the windows were unprotected by bars.
+Accordingly Lord Cochrane, having been supplied, from time to time, by
+the same servant who had aided him at Malta, with a quantity of small
+strong rope, managed, soon after midnight, and while the watchman
+going his rounds was in a distant part of the prison, to get out of
+window and climb on to the roof of the building. Thence he threw a
+running noose over the iron spikes placed on the wall, and, exercising
+the agility that he had acquired during his seaman's occupations,
+easily gained the summit&mdash;to be somewhat discomfited by having to sit
+upon the iron spikes while he fastened his rope to one of them and
+prepared, with its help, to slip down to the pavement on the outer
+side of the wall. The rope was not strong enough, however, to bear his
+weight; it snapped when he was some twenty-five feet from the ground,
+and caused him to fall with his back upon the stone pavement. There he
+lay, in an almost unconscious state, for a considerable time. But no
+passer-by observed him; and before daylight he was able to crawl to
+the house of an old nurse of his eldest son's, who gladly afforded him
+concealment.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Long concealment was not intended by him. "If it had not been," he
+said, "for the commotion excited by that obnoxious, injurious, and
+arbitrary measure, the Corn Bill, which began to evince itself on
+the day of my departure from prison, I should have lost no time in
+proceeding to the House of Commons; but, conjecturing that the spirit
+of disturbance might derive some encouragement from my unexpected
+appearance at that time, and having no inclination to promote tumult,
+I resolved to defer my appearance at the House, and, if possible,
+to conceal my departure from the prison, until the order of the
+metropolis should be restored."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+To the same effect was a letter addressed by Lord Cochrane to the
+Speaker of the House of Commons on the 9th of March. "I respectfully
+request," he said therein, "that you will state to the honourable
+the House of Commons, that I should immediately and personally
+have communicated to them my departure from the custody of Lord
+Ellenborough, by whom I have been long most unjustly detained; but I
+judged it better to endeavour to conceal my absence, and to defer my
+appearance in the House until the public agitation excited by the Corn
+Bill should subside. And I have further to request that you will also
+communicate to the House that it is my intention, on an early day, to
+present myself for the purpose of taking my seat and moving an inquiry
+into the conduct of Lord Ellenborough."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+On the day of that letter's delivery, the 10th of March&mdash;also famous
+as the day on which Buonaparte's escape from Elba was published in
+England&mdash;Lord Cochrane's gaolers discovered that he was no longer
+in his prison. Immediately a hue and cry was raised. This notice was
+issued: "Escaped from the King's Bench Prison, on Monday the 6th day
+of March, instant, Lord Cochrane. He is about five feet eleven inches
+in height,[A] thin and narrow-chested, with sandy hair and full eyes,
+red whiskers and eyebrows. Whoever will apprehend and secure Lord
+Cochrane in any of His Majesty's gaols in the kingdom shall have a
+reward of three hundred guineas from William Jones, Marshal of the
+King's Bench."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+[Footnote A: He was really about six feet two inches in height, and
+broad in proportion.]
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Great search was made in consequence of that notice, and Lord
+Cochrane's disappearance was an eleven days' wonder. Every newspaper
+had each day a new statement as to his whereabouts. Some declared that
+he had gone mad, and, as a madman's freak, was hiding himself in some
+corner of the prison; others that he was lodging at an apothecary's
+shop in London. According to one report, he had been seen at Hastings,
+according to another, at Farnham, and according to another, in Jersey;
+while others declared that he had been discovered in France and
+elsewhere on the Continent.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+None of the thousands whom political spite or the hope of reward set
+in search of him thought of looking for him in his real resting-place.
+"As soon as I had written to the Speaker," he said, "I went into
+Hampshire, where I remained eleven days, and till within one day of my
+appearance in the House of Commons. During that period I was occupied
+in regulating my affairs in that county, and in riding about the
+county, as was well known to the people of the neighbourhood, none of
+whom were base enough to be seduced by a bribe to deliver an injured
+man into the hands of his oppressors."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+At his own house, known as Holly Hill, in the south of Hampshire, Lord
+Cochrane remained quietly, though with no attempt to hide himself,
+until the 20th of March. He then, in fulfilment of his original
+purpose, returned to London, and on the following day entered the
+House of Commons at about two o'clock in the afternoon. Very great
+was the astonishment among the officials in attendance caused by his
+appearance, "dressed," according to one of the newspaper reports, "in
+his usual costume, grey pantaloons, frogged great-coat, &amp;c.;" and by
+some of them the intelligence of his arrival was promptly communicated
+to the Marshal of the King's Bench. In the meanwhile, considering
+himself safe within the precincts of the House at any rate, he
+proceeded to occupy his customary seat. To that it was objected that,
+until he had taken the oaths and complied with the prescribed forms
+consequent on his re-election, he had no right within the building.
+He answered that he was willing to do this, and, to see that all was
+according to rule, went at once to the clerks' office. There it was
+pretended that the writ of his re-election had not yet been received,
+and that it must first be procured from the Crown Office, in Chancery
+Lane. Awaiting the return of the messenger, ostensibly despatched for
+this purpose, he again entered the House, and there he was found, at a
+few minutes before four, by Mr. Jones, the marshal, who, on receiving
+the information sent to him, had hurried up, with a Bow Street runner
+and some tipstaves. The runner, walking up to Lord Cochrane and
+touching him on the shoulder, bluntly claimed him as his prisoner.
+Lord Cochrane asked by what authority he dared to arrest a Member of
+Parliament in the House of Commons. "My lord," answered the man, "my
+authority is the public proclamation of the Marshal of the King's
+Bench Prison, offering a reward for your apprehension." Lord Cochrane
+declared that he neither acknowledged, nor would yield to, any
+such authority, that he was there to resume his seat as one of the
+representatives of the City of Westminster, and that any who dared to
+touch him would do so at their peril. Two tipstaves thereupon rudely
+seized him by the arms. He again cautioned them that the Marshal of
+the King's Bench had no authority within those walls, and that their
+conduct was altogether illegal. The answer was that he had better
+go quietly; his reply that he would not go at all. Other officers,
+however, came up. After a short struggle, he was overpowered, and, on
+his refusing to walk, he was carried out of the House on the shoulders
+of the tipstaves and constables.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+There was a halt, however, in this disgraceful march. The Bow Street
+runner expressed a fear that Lord Cochrane had firearms concealed
+under his clothes, and he was accordingly taken into one of the
+committee-rooms to be searched. Nothing more dangerous was found about
+him than a packet of snuff. "If I had thought of that before," said
+Lord Cochrane, not quite wisely, "you should have had it in your
+eyes!" On this incident was founded a foolish story, to be told next
+day, amid a score of exaggerations and falsehoods, in the Government
+newspapers. "Being asked why he had provided himself with such a
+quantity of snuff," we there read, "he said he had bought a canister
+for the purpose of throwing it in the eyes of those who might attempt
+to secure him, unless the opposing force should be too strong for
+resistance, observing that he had found the use of a similar weapon
+when he was in the Bay of Rosas, as he had thrown a mixture of lime,
+sand, &amp;c., upon the Frenchmen who attempted to board his ship, and
+found it effectual." Another zealous organ of the Government added
+that he had also provided himself with a bottle of vitriol, to be used
+in the same way.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Had a penknife been found in his pocket, perhaps the Marshal of the
+King's Bench, the Bow Street runner, the tipstaves, and the constables
+would all have fled, deeming that the possession of so deadly an
+instrument made the retention of their captive too dangerous a thing
+to be attempted. The snuff having been seized, however, he was again
+lodged on the officers' shoulders and so conveyed into the courtyard.
+He then said that, being now beyond the privilege of the House, he was
+willing to proceed quietly. A coach was called, and he was taken back
+to the King's Bench Prison.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The indignity thus offered to him was small indeed in comparison with
+the indignity offered to the Parliament of England. In former times
+the slightest encroachment by the Crown, by the Government, or by
+any humbler part of the executive, was fiercely resented; and to this
+resentment some of the greatest and most memorable crises in the long
+fight for English liberty are due. But rarely had there been a
+more flagrant, never a more wanton, infringement of the hardly-won
+privileges of the House of Commons. Had Lord Cochrane been detected
+and seized violently in some out-of-the-way hiding-place, the
+over-zealous servants of the Crown would have had some excuse for
+their conduct. But in appearing publicly in the House, he showed to
+all the world that he was no runaway from justice, that he was willing
+to submit to its honest administration by honest hands, that all he
+sought was a fair hearing and a fair judgment upon his case, and that,
+believing it impossible to obtain that through the elaborate machinery
+of oppression which then went by the name of administration
+of justice, he now only asserted his right, the right of every
+Englishman, and especially the right of a Member of Parliament, to
+appeal from the agents of the law to the makers of the law, to call
+upon the legislators of his country to see whether he had not been
+wrongfully used by the men who, though practically too much their
+masters, were in theory only their servants.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"I did not go to the House of Commons," he said, "to complain about
+losses or sufferings, about fine or imprisonment; or of property, to
+the amount of ten times the fine, of which I had been cheated by this
+malicious prosecution. I did not go to the House to complain of
+the mockery of having been heard in my defence, and answered by a
+reference to the decision from which that defence was an appeal. I did
+not go there to complain of those who expelled me from my profession.
+I did not go to the House to complain <i>generally</i> of the advisers of
+the Crown. But I went there to complain of the conduct of him who has
+indeed the right of recommending to mercy, but whose privilege, as
+a Privy Councillor, of advising the confirmation of his own
+condemnations, and of interposing between the victims of
+legal vengeance and the justice of the throne, is spurious and
+unconstitutional. When it is considered that my intention of going to
+the House of Commons was announced on the day on which my absence from
+the prison was discovered; I say, when it is considered that, as soon
+as it was known that I had left the prison, it was also known that I
+had left it for the express purpose of going to the House of Commons
+to move for an inquiry into the conduct of Lord Ellenborough; when it
+is considered that every engine was set to work to tempt or intimidate
+me from that purpose, to frighten me out of the country or allure me
+back to the custody of the marshal, that assurances were given that
+the doors should be kept open for my admission at any hour of the
+night, and that I should be received with secresy, courtesy, and
+indemnity; and when it is considered that I was afterwards seized in
+the House of Commons, in defiance of the privileges of the House&mdash;can
+there be a doubt that the object of that apprehension was less the
+accomplishment of the sentence of the court than the prevention of
+the exposure which I was prepared to make of the injustice of that
+sentence? That recourse should have been had to violence to stifle the
+accusations which I was prepared to bring forward, that terror of the
+truth should have so superseded a wonted reverence for parliamentary
+privileges as to have admitted the intrusion of tipstaves and
+thief-takers into the House of Commons, to seize the person of an
+individual elected to serve as a member of that House, and avowedly
+attendant for that purpose, is extraordinary, though not unnatural."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+It must be admitted that the question of breach of privilege was
+somewhat more complicated than Lord Cochrane considered. His opponents
+did not think with him that he was still a member of the House of
+Commons. That membership had been taken from him, formally, though
+wrongfully, by his expulsion on the 5th of July, and he had
+himself recognized the expulsion by accepting re-election from the
+constituents of Westminster on the 16th of the same month. According
+to precedent, however, that re-election could not be perfected until
+the customary oaths had been taken; and, through a trick contrived
+in the clerks' office, he was hindered from taking them before the
+arrival of the marshal and his consequent arrest. Yet there can be no
+doubt that, in the special circumstances of the case, this arrest was
+especially indecorous, and, in the method of effecting it, altogether
+illegal. If he had no right in the House of Commons, he was a common
+trespasser, and ought to have been at once removed by the servants of
+the House, who alone could have power to touch him within the walls.
+To allow him a seat therein, without molestation, until the arrival
+of the servants of the King's Bench Prison, and then to allow those
+servants to enter the House and act upon an authority that could there
+be no authority, was wholly unwarrantable, a gross insult to Lord
+Cochrane, and, to the customs of the House of Commons, an insult yet
+more gross. But to the hardship and the insult alike the House of
+Commons, servile in its devotion to the Government of the day, was
+blind.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+A miserable farce ensued. While the House was sitting, a few hours
+after Lord Cochrane's capture, a letter from the Marshal of the King's
+Bench was read by the Speaker, in which his bold act was formally
+reported and apologized for. "I humbly hope," he there said, "that I
+have not committed any breach of privilege by the steps I have taken;
+and that, if I have done wrong, it will be attributed to error in
+judgment, and not to any intention of doing anything that might give
+offence."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The short debate that followed the reading of that letter is very
+noteworthy. Lord Castlereagh spoke first, and dictated the view to
+be taken by all loyal members of the House. "From the nature of the
+arrest and the circumstances attending it, I do not think, sir," he
+said, "that the House is called upon to interfere. I am not aware, as
+the House was not actually sitting, with the mace on the table and the
+Speaker in the chair, when the arrest took place, that any breach of
+privilege has been committed. It must be quite obvious to every man
+that the marshal has not acted wilfully in violation of the privileges
+of the House. No blame can attach to him, since he has submitted
+himself to the judgment of the House of Commons after having done
+that which he considered his duty as a civil officer. Having had Lord
+Cochrane in his custody, from which he escaped, the marshal was bound
+not to pass over any justifiable means of putting him under arrest
+whenever a fair opportunity occurred."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Most of the members thought, with Lord Castlereagh, that this was
+a "fair opportunity." Only one, Mr. Tierney&mdash;and he very
+feebly&mdash;ventured to express an opposite opinion. "I consider this,"
+he said, "to be the case of a member regularly elected to serve in
+Parliament, and coming down to take his seat. Now, sir, the House is
+regularly adjourned until ten o'clock in the morning; and I recollect
+occasions when the Speaker did take the chair at that hour. Suppose,
+then, a member, about to take his seat, came down here at an early
+hour, with the proper documents in his hand, and desired to be
+instructed in the mode of proceeding, and, while waiting, an officer
+entered, arrested him, and took his person away, would not this be a
+case to call for the interference of the House?" Mr. Tierney admitted
+that he approved of Lord Cochrane's arrest, but feared it might become
+a precedent and be put to the "improper purpose" of sanctioning the
+arrest of members more deserving of consideration.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+To please him, and to satisfy the formalities, therefore, the question
+was referred to a committee of privileges. This committee reported, on
+the 23rd of March, "that, under the particular circumstances, it did
+not appear that the privileges of Parliament had been violated, so as
+to call for the interposition of the House;" and the House of Commons
+being satisfied with that opinion, no further attention was paid to
+the subject.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+In the meanwhile Lord Cochrane was being punished, with inexcusable
+severity, for his contempt of the authority of Lord Ellenborough and
+Mr. Jones. A member of the House, during the discussion of the 21st of
+March, had said that he had just come from the King's Bench Prison.
+"I found Lord Cochrane," he had averred, "confined there in a strong
+room, fourteen feet square, without windows, fireplace, table, or
+bed. I do not think it can be necessary for the purpose of security
+to confine him in this manner. According to my own feelings, it is a
+place unfit for the noble lord, or for any other person whatsoever."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+In this Strong Room, however, Lord Cochrane was detained for more
+than three weeks. It was partly underground, devoid of ventilation or
+necessary warmth, and, according to the testimony of Dr. Buchan, one
+of the physicians who visited him in it, "rendered extremely damp and
+unpleasant by the exudations coming through the wall."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+On being taken to this den immediately after his capture, Lord
+Cochrane was informed by Mr. Jones that he would be detained in it for
+a short time only, until the apartments over the lobby of the prison
+were prepared for his reception. That was done in a few days; but no
+intimation of a change was made until the 1st of April, when a message
+to that effect was sent to the prisoner. On the following day he
+received a letter from Mr. Jones informing him that, if he would
+anticipate the payment of the fine of 1000£ levied against him, and
+would also pledge himself, and give security for the keeping of the
+promise, to make no further effort to escape, he might be allowed to
+occupy the more comfortable quarters. "It is no new thing," said Lord
+Cochrane, "for a prisoner to escape or to be retaken; but to require
+of any prisoner a bond and securities not to repeat such escape was,
+I think, a proposition without precedent, and such as the marshal knew
+could not be complied with by me without humiliation, and therefore
+could not be proposed by him without insult. Besides, he had my
+assurance that if I were again to quit his custody (which I gave him
+no reason to believe I should attempt, and which, as I observed and
+believe, it was as easy for me to effect from that room as from any
+other part of the prison), I should proceed no further than to the
+House of Commons, and that where he found me before he might find me
+again; I having had no other object in view than that of expressing,
+by some peculiar act, the keen sense which I entertained of <i>peculiar</i> injustice, and of endeavouring to bring such additional proofs of that
+injustice before the House as were not in my possession when I was
+heard in my defence." Mr. Jones, however, resolved to keep his captive
+in the Strong Room, unless he would promise to resign himself to
+captivity in a less obnoxious part of the prison.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Even for that negative favour the marshal took great credit to himself
+in a document which he issued at the time. "If a humane and kind
+concern for this unfortunate nobleman," he there averred, "had not
+softened the solicitude which I naturally felt for my own security, I
+could have committed him, on my own warrant for the escape, to the new
+gaol in Horsemonger Lane, for the space of a month; and that power
+is still within my jurisdiction. Had I thought proper to exercise it,
+Lord Cochrane would then have been confined in a solitary cell with a
+stone floor, with windows impenetrably barred and without glass; nor
+would it have proved half the size of the Strong Room in the King's
+Bench, which has a boarded floor and glazed lights." That statement
+reasonably stirred the anger of Lord Cochrane. "Though the solitary
+cell in Horsemonger Lane," he answered, "may be half the size of the
+Strong Room, it could not, I apprehend, have been more gloomy, damp,
+filthy, or injurious to health than the last-mentioned dungeon. And
+since Mr. Jones could only have confined me in the former place for
+a month, and did confine me in the latter for twenty-six days, I can
+scarcely see that degree of difference which should entitle him to
+those 'grateful sentiments for his mode of acting on the occasion'
+which, he submits to the public, it is my duty to entertain. The
+'glazed lights' mentioned by Mr. Jones were not put up till I had been
+thirty hours in the place, and I have always understood that I was
+indebted for them to the good offices of Mr. Bennet and Mr. Lambton,
+who happened [as part of a Parliamentary Committee] to be prosecuting
+their inquiry into the state of the prison at the time of my return.
+For these and all other mercies of the said marshal, my gratitude is
+due to their friendship and sense of duty, and to his dread of their
+discoveries and proceedings."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+It is clear that nothing but fear of the consequences induced Mr.
+Jones to remove Lord Cochrane from the Strong Room, after twenty-six
+days of confinement therein. On the 12th of April the prisoner issued
+an address to the electors of Westminster, detailing some of the
+hardships to which he was being subjected; and its publication
+immediately roused so much popular interest that the authorities of
+King's Bench Prison deemed it necessary to make at any rate a show of
+amelioration in his treatment. On the 13th, his physician, Dr. Buchan,
+was allowed to visit him, and his report was such that another medical
+man of eminence, Mr. Saumarez, was sent to examine into the state of
+the prisoner's health. Part of Dr. Buchan's certificate has already
+been quoted. The rest was as follows: "This is to certify that I have
+this day visited Lord Cochrane, who is affected with severe pain of
+the breast. His pulse is low, his hands cold, and he has many symptoms
+of a person about to have typhus or putrid fever. These symptoms are,
+in my opinion, produced by the stagnant air of the Strong Room in
+which he is now confined." "I hereby certify," wrote Mr. Saumarez,
+"that I have visited Lord Cochrane, and am of opinion, from the state
+of his health at this time, that it is essentially necessary that he
+should be removed from the room which he now inhabits to one which
+is better ventilated, and in which there is a fireplace. His lordship
+complains of pain in the chest, with difficulty of respiration,
+accompanied with great coldness of the hands; and, from the general
+state of his health, there is great reason to fear that a low typhus
+may come on."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The only result of those medical opinions was a renewal of the
+offer to remove Lord Cochrane to the rooms prepared for him, on the
+conditions previously specified by Mr. Jones. Lord Cochrane answered
+that he would rather die than submit to such an insulting arrangement.
+He published the doctors' certificates, however, on the 15th of April,
+and their effect upon the public was so great that the authorities
+were forced on the following day to take him out of his dungeon. Mr.
+Jones's account of this step is worth quoting. "I again tried," he
+reported, "to induce Lord Cochrane's friends and relations to give me
+any kind of undertaking against another escape. On their refusal, I
+determined myself to become his friend, and, at my own risk, to remove
+him to the rooms which have been already mentioned, and where, I am
+confident, he can have no cause of complaint. These rooms not being
+altogether safe against such a person as Lord Cochrane, should he
+determine to risk another escape, I must look to the laws of my
+country as a safeguard, in the hope that the terrors of them will
+discourage him from attempting a repetition of his offence, and
+prevent him from incurring the penalties of another indictment."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Lord Cochrane never really intended to attempt a second escape. Had it
+been otherwise, the illness induced by his confinement in the Strong
+Room would have restrained him. Being placed in healthier apartments
+on the 16th of April, he quietly remained there for the remainder of
+his term of imprisonment. On the 20th of June he was informed that,
+the term being now at an end, he was at liberty to depart on payment
+of the fine of 1000£ levied against him. This he at first refused
+to do, and accordingly he was detained in prison for a fortnight more;
+but at length the entreaties of his friends prevailed. On the 3rd of
+July he tendered to the Marshal of the King's Bench a 1000£ note,
+with this memorable endorsement: "My health having suffered by long
+and close confinement, and my oppressors being resolved to deprive
+me of property or life, I submit to robbery to protect myself from
+murder, in the hope that I shall live to bring the delinquents to
+justice." Upon that the prison doors were opened for him, and he was
+able once more to fight for the justice so cruelly withheld from
+him, and to make his innocence entirely clear to all whose selfish
+interests did not force them to be blind to the truth.
+</p>
+
+</div><!--end chapter-->
+
+<div class="chapter">
+
+<h2><a name="chap04"></a>CHAPTER IV.</h2>
+
+<p class="letter">
+LORD COCHRANE'S RETURN TO THE HOUSE OF COMMONS.&mdash;HIS SHARE IN THE
+REFUSAL OF THE DUKE OF CUMBERLAND'S MARRIAGE PENSION.&mdash;HIS CHARGES
+AGAINST LORD ELLENBOROUGH, AND THEIR REJECTION BY THE HOUSE.&mdash;HIS
+POPULARITY.&mdash;THE PART TAKEN BY HIM IN PUBLIC MEETINGS FOR THE RELIEF
+OF THE PEOPLE.&mdash;THE LONDON TAVERN MEETING.&mdash;HIS FURTHER PROSECUTION,
+TRIAL AT GUILDFORD, AND SUBSEQUENT IMPRISONMENT.&mdash;THE PAYMENT OF HIS
+FINES BY A PENNY SUBSCRIPTION.&mdash;THE CONGRATULATIONS OF HIS WESTMINSTER
+CONSTITUENTS.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+[1815-1816.]
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Released from imprisonment on Monday, the 3rd of July, Lord Cochrane
+resumed his seat in the House of Commons on the evening of the
+same day, just in time to secure the defeat of a measure which was
+especially obnoxious to his Radical friends. The Duke of Cumberland
+having lately married a daughter of the Duke of Mecklenburg-Strelitz,
+it was proposed to augment his income of about 20,000£ a year by
+a further pension of 6000£ A bill to that effect was brought in by
+Lord Castlereagh, and, after much sullen opposition from independent
+members, allowed a first reading by a majority of seventeen. On the
+second division the majority was reduced to twelve. The bill was
+brought on for the third reading on the 3rd of July, and would have
+been passed through the House of Commons by the Speaker's casting vote
+but for Lord Cochrane's sudden appearance. His vote secured a majority
+against it, and thereby it was finally overthrown. Great, on the
+morrow, were the rejoicings of his supporters. "What a triumph," it
+was said in a friendly newspaper, "is this to innocence! After being
+sentenced to the scandalous and disgraceful punishment of the pillory,
+after being confined in a loathsome dungeon, fined 1000£ in money
+to the king, disgracefully removed from that service in which he had
+attained such high honours and rendered to his country such essential
+service, his escutcheon kicked out of Westminster Abbey, his order
+of knighthood taken from him; in short, after having every possible
+indignity which the most malignant imagination could invent heaped
+upon him in every way, his single vote, on the very first day of his
+returning to his parliamentary duties, has been the means of obtaining
+a signal victory over those under whose persecution he had been so
+long suffering."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The one victory upon which Lord Cochrane set his heart, however&mdash;the
+reversal of the unjust sentence passed upon him, and the consequent
+restoration of the honours and offices that were now doubly dear to
+him&mdash;he was not able to obtain. On the 6th of July, just before the
+prorogation of Parliament, he gave notice that, early in the next
+session, he should move for the appointment of a committee to inquire
+into the conduct of Lord Ellenborough and others towards him during
+the Stock Exchange trial. In arranging for this new effort at
+self-justification, he was partly occupied during the ensuing autumn
+and winter, and the question was brought prominently before the House
+of Commons in the spring of 1816; only to issue, however, in further
+injustice and disappointment.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+His purpose from the first was, of course, virtually the impeachment
+of Lord Ellenborough; and that object was yet more apparent from the
+altered shape which the question assumed when introduced in the new
+session. During the recess, Lord Cochrane, with the help of advisers,
+some of whom were more zealous than wise, William Cobbett being the
+chief, had prepared an elaborate series of "charges of partiality,
+misrepresentation, injustice, and oppression against the Lord Chief
+Justice;" and these were formally introduced to the House of Commons
+on the 5th of March. "When I recollect," said Lord Cochrane on that
+occasion, "the imputations cast upon my character, and circulated
+industriously previous to any legal proceedings, the conduct pursued
+at my trial, the verdict obtained, the ineffectual endeavours; to
+procure a revision of my case in the Court of King's Bench, and the
+infamous sentence there pronounced, together with my expulsion from
+this House without being suffered to expose its injustice&mdash;when I call
+to mind my dismissal from a service in which I have spent the fairest
+portion of my life, at least without reproach, and my illegal and
+unmerited deprivation of the order of the Bath&mdash;it is impossible
+to speak without emotion. I have but one course now left to pursue,
+namely, to show that the charge of the Lord Chief Justice, on which he
+directed the jury to decide, was not only unsupported by, but was
+in direct contradiction to, the evidence on which it professed to
+be founded. This is the best course to pursue both in justice to the
+learned judge and to myself. Either I am unfit to sit in this House,
+or the judge has no right to his place on the bench. I have courted
+investigation in every shape; and I trust that the learned lord will
+not shrink from it or suffer his friends on the opposite side to evade
+the consideration of these charges by 'the previous question.'"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Lord Cochrane thereupon tendered to the House thirteen charges against
+Lord Ellenborough, in which every point of importance in the Stock
+Exchange trial was minutely detailed and discussed; and these charges
+being read, therein occupying nearly three hours, were ordered to be
+printed. A fourteenth charge, bearing upon Lord Ellenborough's conduct
+subsequent to the trial, was introduced on the 29th of March; but
+this, as it included aspersions upon the character of another judge,
+Sir Simon Le Blanc, was objected to and withdrawn. There was further
+discussion on the subject on the 1st and the 29th of April; but not
+much was done until the 30th of April.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+On that evening, Lord Cochrane formally moved that his charges against
+Lord Ellenborough should be referred to a Committee of the whole
+House, and that evidence in support of them should be heard at the
+bar. A lengthy discussion then ensued, the most notable speeches
+being made by the Solicitor-General, Sir Francis Burdett, and the
+Attorney-General.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The Solicitor-General of course opposed the motion. "As the House, on
+the one hand," he said, "should jealously watch over the conduct of
+judges, so, on the other, it should protect them when deserving of
+protection, not only as a debt of justice due to the judges, but as
+a debt due to justice herself, in order that the public confidence in
+the purity of the administration of our laws may not be disappointed,
+and that the course of that administration may continue the admiration
+of the world; for, unless the judges are protected in the exercise of
+their functions, the public opinion of the excellence of our laws will
+be inevitably weakened,&mdash;and to weaken public opinion is to weaken
+justice herself."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+That sort of argument, too frivolous and faulty, it might be supposed,
+to influence any one, had weight with the House of Commons to which it
+was addressed; and the Solicitor-General adduced much more of it.
+To him the spotless character of Lord Ellenborough appeared to be an
+ample defence against Lord Cochrane's charges. "Never," he said, with
+a truthfulness that posterity can appreciate, "never was there an
+individual at the bar or on the bench less liable to the imputation
+of corrupt motives; never was there one more remarkable for
+independence&mdash;I will say, sturdy independence&mdash;of character, than the
+noble and learned lord. For twelve years he has presided on the bench
+with unsullied honour, displaying a perfect knowledge of the
+law; evincing as much legal knowledge as was ever amassed by any
+individual; and now, in the latter part of his life, when he has
+arrived at the highest dignity to which a man can arrive, by a
+promotion well-earned at the bar, and doubly well-earned at the bench,
+we are told that he has sacrificed all his honours by acting from
+corrupt motives!"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Sir Francis Burdett replied effectively to the speeches of the
+Solicitor-General and others who sided with him, and nobly defended
+his friend. He showed that the proposal to refuse investigation of
+this case because it might weaken the cause of justice, by making the
+conduct of the administrators of justice contemptible, was worse than
+frivolous. "Such language," he averred, "would operate against the
+investigation of any charges whatever against any judge; would indeed
+form a barrier against the exercise of the best privilege of this
+House&mdash;the privilege of inquiring into the conduct of courts of
+justice. It would serve equally well to shelter even those judges
+who have been dragged from the bench for their misconduct." He then
+reviewed the incidents of the Stock Exchange trial, and urged that
+Lord Cochrane had good reason for bringing forward his charges. "The
+question for the House to consider is, 'Do these charges, if admitted,
+contain criminal matter for the consideration of the House?' I
+conceive that they do. No doubt the judges who condemned Russell and
+Sidney were, at the time, spoken of as men of high character, who
+could not be supposed to suffer any base motives to influence their
+conduct. Such arguments as those ought to be banished from this House.
+It is our duty to look, with constitutional suspicion on jealousy, on
+the proceedings of the judges; and, when a grave charge is solemnly
+brought forward, justice to the country, as well as to the judge,
+demands an inquiry into it."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+That, however, was refused. After a long speech from the
+Attorney-General, and an eloquent reply by Lord Cochrane, the House
+divided on the motion. Eighty-nine members voted against it. Its only
+supporters were Sir Francis Burdett and Lord Cochrane himself. Not
+only did the House refuse to listen to the allegations against Lord
+Ellenborough; in the excess of its devotion to such law and such order
+as the Government of the day appointed, it even resolved that all the
+entries in its record of proceedings which referred to this subject
+should be expunged from the journals. Lord Cochrane made no
+resistance to this further insult thrown upon him. "It gives me great
+satisfaction," he said, in the brief and dignified speech with which
+he closed the discussion, "to think that the vote which has been come
+to has been come to without any of my charges having been disproved.
+Whatever may be done with them now, they will find their way to
+posterity, and posterity will form a different judgment concerning
+them than that which has been adopted by this House. So long as I have
+a seat in this House, however, I will continue to bring them forward,
+year by year and time after time, until I am allowed the opportunity
+of establishing the truth of my allegations."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Other occupations prevented the full realization of that purpose. But
+to the end of his life Lord Cochrane used every occasion of asserting
+his innocence and courting a full investigation of all the incidents
+on which his assertion was based. Posterity, as he truly prophesied,
+has learnt to endorse his judgment; and therefore, in the ensuing
+pages, it will not be necessary to adduce from his letters and actions
+more than occasional illustrations of the temper which animated him
+throughout with reference to this heaviest of all his heavy troubles.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+By these troubles, however, even in the time of their greatest
+pressure, he was not overcome; and in the midst of them he found time
+and heart for active labour in the good work of various sorts that was
+always dear to him. He used the advantages of his liberty in striving
+to perfect the invention of improved street lamps and lighting
+material that had occupied him while in prison, and to procure their
+general adoption. His place in Parliament, moreover, all through the
+session of 1816, was employed not only in seeking justice for himself,
+but also in furthering every project advanced for benefiting the
+community and checking the pernicious action of the Government. A
+zealous, honest Whig before, he was now as zealous and as honest
+as ever in all his political conduct. And his devotion to the best
+interests of the people was yet more apparent in his unflagging
+labours, out of Parliament, for the public good. His great abilities,
+rendered all the more prominent by the cruel persecution to which he
+had been and still was subjected, made him a leading champion of the
+people during the turmoil to which misgovernment at home, and the
+distracted state of foreign politics, gave a special stimulus in 1816.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+A long list might be made of the great meetings which he attended,
+and took part in, both among his own constituents of Westminster
+and elsewhere, for the consideration of popular grievances and their
+remedies. One such meeting, attended by Henry Brougham and Sir Francis
+Burdett among others, was held in Palace Yard, Westminster, on the
+1st of March, for the purpose of petitioning Parliament against the
+renewal of the property-tax and the maintenance of a standing army in
+time of peace. Lord Cochrane, the hero of the day, on account of "the
+spirit of opposition which he had shown to the infringement of the
+constitution and the grievances of the people," won for himself new
+favour by the boldness with which he denounced the policy of the
+Government, which, boasting that it was ruining the French nation, was
+at the same time bringing misery also upon Englishmen by the excessive
+taxation and the reckless extravagance to which it resorted.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+A smaller, but much more momentous meeting assembled at the City
+of London Tavern on the 29th of July, under the auspices of the
+Association for the Relief of the Manufacturing and Labouring Poor.
+Instigated in a spirit of praiseworthy charity by many of the most
+influential persons of the day, it was used by Lord Cochrane for the
+enforcement of the views as to public right and public duty, and the
+mutual relations of the rich and the poor, which were forced upon him
+by his recent troubles, and the relations in which he was at this time
+placed with some over-zealous champions of popular reform, and some
+unreasonable exponents of popular grievances. That his conduct on this
+occasion was extravagant and even factious, he afterwards heartily
+regretted. Yet as a memorable illustration of the power and
+earnestness with which he fought for what seemed to him to be right,
+as well with word as with sword, its details, as reported at the time,
+may be here set forth at length.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+About half-past one o'clock the Duke of York entered and took
+the chair, supported on his right by the Duke of Kent, and on
+his left by the Duke of Cambridge. He was accompanied on
+his entrance by the Archbishop of Canterbury, the Bishop of
+London, the Duke of Rutland, Lord Manvers, the Chancellor
+of the Exchequer, Mr. Wilberforce, and other distinguished
+individuals.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+His Royal Highness the Duke of York immediately
+proceeded to open the business of the day, by observing that the
+present meeting had been called to consider and, as far as possible,
+to alleviate the present distress and sufferings of the labouring
+classes of the community. These distresses were, he feared, too well
+known to all who heard him to require any description; and all he
+had to add to the bare statement of them was the expression of his
+confidence that the liberality which had been so signally manifested
+in the course of foreign distress would not be found wanting when the
+direction of it was to be towards the comfort and relief of our own
+countrymen at home.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+THE DUKE OF KENT, after alluding to the exertions of the Committee of
+1812, observed that the immediate object was to raise a fund, in
+the subsequent accumulation and management of which many ulterior
+arrangements might be projected, and from which charity might soon
+emanate in a thousand directions. He doubted not that every county and
+every town would be quick to imitate the example of the metropolis.
+The association of 1812 had at least the merit of producing this
+effect, and had spread through the whole land that spirit of active
+benevolence which he was feebly invoking on this occasion. He trusted
+that it was necessary for him to say but little more to insure the
+adoption of the resolution which he should have the honour to propose.
+He confessed he felt gratified when he saw so great a concourse of
+his countrymen assembled together for such a purpose, and additional
+gratification at seeing by whom they were supported. He was sure,
+then, that he should not plead in vain to the national liberality; but
+that the remedy would be promptly afforded to an evil which he trusted
+would be found but temporary. If they should be so happy as but to
+succeed in discovering new sources of employment to supply the place
+of those channels which had been suddenly shut up, he should
+indeed despond if we did not soon restore the country to that
+same flourishing condition which had long made her the envy of
+the world. The royal Duke then moved the first resolution,
+as follows:&mdash;"That the transition from a state of extensive
+warfare to a system of peace has occasioned a stagnation of
+employment and a revulsion of trade, deeply affecting the
+situation of many parts of the community, and producing many
+instances of great local distress."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The resolution was seconded by Mr. Harman.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Lord Cochrane offered himself to the attention of the meeting,
+but was for some time unable to proceed, his voice being lost
+in the huzzas and hisses which his presence called forth.
+Silence being at length in some measure obtained, his lordship
+said he would not have addressed the meeting but that, having
+received a circular letter from the committee, and feeling
+the importance of the subject, he would have thought it a
+dereliction of his duty if he refrained from attending. He
+rose thus early because the observations he had to submit
+would not be suitable if made when the other resolutions were
+put. The first resolution was, in his opinion, founded on
+a gross fallacy; and this was his reason for saying so. The
+existing distresses could not be truly ascribed to any sudden
+transition from war to peace. Could it be pretended that it
+was peace which had occasioned the fall in the value of all
+agricultural produce? Or could any man venture to assert that
+the difficulties and sufferings of the manufacturing classes
+had any other cause than a prodigious and enormous burthen of
+taxation? He was much gratified at seeing the royal Dukes so
+active in promoting a generous and laudable undertaking, and
+he hoped he should not be understood as treating them with
+disrespect when he repeated that the resolution was founded
+on an entire fallacy. But, not to content himself with a mere
+assertion of his own belief,
+he had brought official documents to prove the correctness
+of his statements; and if he should be wrong, he saw the
+Chancellor of the Exchequer near him, who would have the
+opportunity of correcting his misrepresentation. This brief
+statement, he believed, would be quite sufficient to show that
+the financial situation of the country was such as to render
+any attempts of that meeting for the purpose of extending
+general relief utterly ineffectual. The whole revenue of the
+kingdom was 62,267,450£, deducting the property-tax, and
+the revenue was thus expended. The interest of the national
+debt, including the interest of unfunded exchequer bills, was
+upwards of 40,300,000£, leaving to support the expenses of
+Government only about 22,000,000£ It was this enormous sum
+which now hung round our necks&mdash;it was this, which unnecessary
+extravagance had caused to increase from year to year to its
+present terrible amount, which was the cause of all the
+evils of the country at this moment. This taxation, and
+extravagance, for which the country was now suffering, was
+supported and sanctioned by those who had derived and still
+derived large emoluments from them. These were truths that
+the people ought to know; for they were the source of their
+burthens, and the origin of all the mischief. It was this
+profuse expenditure of the public money, to say no worse of
+it, that occasioned the present calamities. It was the lavish
+expenditure to meet a compliant list of placemen that brought
+the country to its present state. The deficiency in the
+revenue occasioned by the enormous interest of the national
+debt, which ministers would have to supply, would, according
+to the present disbursements and receipts, amount to
+11,578,000£ unless that expenditure were reduced, every
+such attempt as they were at present making would, he was
+convinced, prove abortive: it was a mere topical application
+while a mortal distemper was raging within. He had taken
+no notice in his estimate of the charges for sinecures or
+the bounties on exports and imports: and yet the returns upon
+which he went, exclusive of these charges, showed a deficit
+for the ensuing year of 3,500,000£ Were those who heard him
+prepared to make this good? It was, he believed, undeniable
+that nothing could equalize our revenue with our expenditure,
+but the putting down entirely the army and navy, or the
+extinction of one half of the national debt; but when he
+looked to the actual receipt of the last quarter and found
+a falling off of 2,400,000£, which, with a corresponding
+decrease in the three succeeding quarters, must create a new
+deficit of 10,000,000£, and, added to the 3,500,000£
+to which he had alluded, would form a sum equal to the whole
+amount of the boasted sinking-fund, he felt that it was worse
+than trifling to suppose we could go on upon the present
+system. Were they prepared to make up this enormous
+deficiency? [A voice from the crowd cried "Yes."] He was happy
+to hear it: he supposed it was some fund-holder who answered,
+and if any class could do so, it was the fund-holders. They
+alone had the ability, they alone now derived any returns
+from their property; but even if they should be both able and
+willing, still it would only remain a positive deficit made
+good, and no new facility would be derived for alleviating
+the existing burthens. The burthens and distresses must
+still remain what they were before. He spoke not now upon
+conjecture, or loose calculation, he had brought his authority
+with him. These were the records from which he derived his
+statements&mdash;the official returns of the Treasury; and
+if false, the Chancellor of the Exchequer was present to
+contradict them. He was glad, he confessed, to see him, for
+those who heard him were, no doubt, aware that it was not
+always in the House of Commons that a minister could discover
+the genuine sentiments of the people. If, therefore, no other
+person should move an amendment, he should feel it his duty
+to propose an omission of that part of the resolution which
+ascribed the distressed state of the country to the transition
+from a state of war to a state of peace, and to state the
+cause to be an enormous debt, and a lavish expenditure. He had
+come there with the expectation of seeing the Duke of Rutland
+in the chair; and with some hopes, as he took the lead upon
+this occasion, that it was his intention to surrender that
+sinecure of 9,000£ a-year which he was now in the habit
+of putting in his pocket. He still trusted that all who were
+present and were also holders of sinecures had it in their
+intention to sacrifice them to their liberality and their
+justice; and that they did not come there to aid the
+distresses of their country by paying half-a-crown per cent,
+out of the hundreds which they took from it. If they did not,
+all he could say was, that to him their pretended charity was
+little better than a fraud. Without, however, taking up more
+of their time, he should move his amendment, with this one
+additional observation, that it would be a disgrace to an
+enlightened meeting, and particularly to a meeting which might
+be considered as comprising an aggregate mass of the property
+and intellect of the country, to place a fallacy upon the
+record of their proceedings, and to build all their following
+resolutions upon an assertion which had no foundation in
+truth. He concluded by moving the following amendment to the
+first resolution:&mdash;"That the enormous load of the national
+debt, together with the large military establishment and the
+profuse expenditure of public money, was the real cause of the
+present public distress."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Mr. Wilberforce said he was himself too much of an Englishman,
+and had been too long engaged in political discussions to feel
+any surprise that those who felt warmly on such a subject as
+the present should be anxious to give
+expression to their sentiments: but he could not help thinking
+that, upon cool reflection, the noble lord would be of opinion
+that his own object would be better attained if he confined
+himself, on this occasion, to the distinct question under
+consideration. The noble lord said the country was in a
+crisis, and would they apply a mere topical remedy? but he
+might ask the noble lord if he would refuse to assuage the
+pain of a temporary distemper because he had it not in his
+power at once to cure it radically? To him the existing
+distress appeared to be a distemper which rather called for
+immediate alleviation, than for the speculative discussion of
+its cause. He thought the most charitable and manly course to
+be pursued&mdash;and that which must be most congenial to what
+he knew to be the noble lord's own charitable and manly
+disposition&mdash;was not to call upon the meeting to give any
+opinion upon a political question not under consideration,
+so as to divert them from pursuing it with diligence and
+confidence, but to postpone to a better opportunity a
+discussion of this nature, and to unite cordially in the
+general cause of finding employment and encouragement for our
+suffering fellow-citizens. If the noble lord would reflect
+upon the best mode of relieving the distresses of the people,
+he would find his amendment not likely to have that tendency.
+Let him reserve all discussion on the question it involved
+until he could do it without interrupting the stream of
+charity, and until he could enter upon it under fair and
+proper circumstances. He (Mr. Wilberforce), in a proper place,
+would not shrink from meeting the noble lord on that inquiry;
+he was twice as old in public life as the noble lord could
+pretend to be, and fully as independent; yet he would not have
+easily supposed any man, however young in politics, could have
+started such topics there. For his part, he should be sorry to
+take advantage of any credit which might be
+to supposed to belong to him upon such an occasion as this to
+cast reproaches upon those who were concurring with him in a
+benevolent design. The meeting must on the present occasion
+feel how much indebted it stood to the royal personages for
+their attendance. They had come to listen to a discussion
+which had for its avowed and direct object the relief of the
+people, and they were in the room suddenly called upon to lay
+aside the practical part of their inquiry and to enter upon
+a distinct pursuit. Was such a course fair towards those
+illustrious individuals? Was it that which was likely
+to induce them to listen to proposals for their personal
+co-operation on occasions of benevolence, if they had no
+security against the occupation of their time for discussions
+of a different character? In conclusion, he entreated the
+noble lord, of whose real disposition to relieve the people
+of England he had no doubt, and whose motives he could justly
+appreciate, to withdraw his amendment.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Lord Cochrane thanked the honourable gentleman for his
+personal civilities towards him, and said that he would feel
+no hesitation in withdrawing his amendment if the honourable
+gentleman would state to the meeting, on his own personal
+veracity and honour, that he believed that the original
+resolution contained the true cause of the public distress,
+and the amendment the false one. If the honourable gentleman
+would say that&mdash;if any respectable man present would say
+it&mdash;he would be satisfied.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Mr. Cotes said he was entirely unconnected with the noble
+lord, and had never even had the honour of speaking, to him.
+He agreed, however, with him in thinking that this was a
+moment when the eyes of the public ought to be open to their
+real situation. The amendment harmonized entirely with all
+the opinions which he had been able to form upon subject. Mr.
+Wilberforce, to whose humane and benevolent
+Mr. character he was happy to pay his acknowledgments, had
+attempted to get rid of the noble lord's amendment by a sort
+of side-wind; but to his judgment there was no incompatibility
+between the object of the meeting and the amendment. There was
+nothing irrelevant in it; it naturally grew out of the course
+adopted by the chair, and in which a cause of the prevailing
+distress was distinctly specified. The question was, then,
+ought their resolutions to go forth to the public with a
+falsehood upon the face of them? Ought they not to state the
+true cause, since His Royal Highness by mistake had assigned
+a fallacious one? Mr. Wilberforce, with his usual ability, but
+in a manner that still marked its duplicity&mdash;he meant the
+word in no offensive sense&mdash;had asked, would he enter into
+a political discussion when we were called upon to extend
+relief? He begged to state this was not the true question: it
+was whether they would found all the future proceedings
+upon error and misstatement, or upon incontrovertible facts.
+Another question was, would they be satisfied to patch up the
+wounds of the country for a short period or seek to remedy
+the disease in its spring and in its sources before it became
+still more alarming and incurable? The Duke of Kent said he
+had offered the resolution as it had been put into his hand;
+and if he had conceived there had been any mention of a course
+upon which difference of opinion could exist, he hoped they
+knew him sufficiently to believe that he should have been
+incapable of requiring their assent to it. He now, therefore,
+proposed an omission of all that part of the resolution
+which had any reference whatever to the cause of the present
+distress. He knew the noble lord well enough&mdash;and he had known
+him in early life&mdash;to be assured that he would agree with him,
+at least in a declaration as to the fact. Their common object,
+he believed, was to afford relief and to admit its necessity
+without assigning
+either one cause or another. For his own part, it had not been
+his intention to attend a political discussion. He would never
+enter the arena of politics with the noble lord; but he begged
+leave to say, he considered himself as competent to plead
+the cause of humanity, to advocate the interests of the
+weather-beaten sufferer, as the noble lord could be. There
+were, however, other times and other places for men to engage
+in discussion of party politics, and he therefore implored the
+noble lord not to distract the attention of the meeting by the
+introduction of these; and to keep solely in view that they
+had met as the friends of benevolence, not as the advocates of
+a party. His Royal Highness then proposed to alter the motion
+as follows:&mdash;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Resolved that there do at this moment exist a stagnation
+of employment and a revulsion of trade, deeply affecting the
+situation of many parts of the community, and producing many
+instances of great local distress."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Lord Cochrane, in reply, stated that he had no wish to excite
+a difference of opinion on such an occasion, and that, after
+the alteration in the resolution, nothing gave him more
+pleasure than the opportunity of withdrawing his amendment;
+but, in justification of what he had done, it became necessary
+for him to say that he never would have thought of his
+amendment if it had not been for the assertion as to the cause
+of existing distress&mdash;he had no doubt in his mind as to the
+nature of that cause, and he held it but just and honourable
+that if a cause must be assigned, it should be the true one.
+After returning thanks to Mr. Wilberforce and the Duke of Kent
+for their expressions of personal civility, the noble lord
+consented to withdraw his motion so far as he was personally
+concerned in it.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Considerable opposition, however, from various parts of the
+hall was manifested to this mode of withdrawing the
+amendment, and a great deal of disturbance took place. At last
+the resolution, as altered by the Duke of Kent, was put and
+carried.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The Duke of Cambridge, in his speech, which followed, returned
+his warm thanks to the noble lord for the handsome manner in
+which he had withdrawn his amendment. He moved the following
+resolution, which was unanimously agreed to:&mdash;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"From the experienced generosity of the British nation it may
+be confidently expected that those who are able to afford the
+means of relief to their fellow-subjects will contribute their
+utmost endeavours to remedy or alleviate the sufferings of
+those who are particularly distressed."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The Archbishop of Canterbury moved the following resolution,
+which was seconded and carried unanimously: "That although it
+is obviously impossible for any association of individuals to
+attempt a general relief of difficulties affecting so large a
+proportion of the public, yet that it has been proved by
+the experience of this association that most important and
+extensive benefits may be derived from the co-operation and
+correspondence of a society in the metropolis encouraging the
+efforts of those benevolent individuals who may be disposed to
+associate themselves in the different districts for the relief
+of their several neighbourhoods."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The Duke of Rutland afterwards addressed the meeting,
+and moved that a subscription be immediately opened, and
+contributions generally solicited for carrying into effect the
+objects of this association; which was seconded, and agreed
+to.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The Earl of Manvers, after stating that he had opposed the
+amendment of the noble lord (Lord Cochrane) solely from his
+anxiety to preserve the unanimity of the meeting, as it was
+only by becoming unanimous they could gain their
+object, moved: "That subscribers of 100£ and upwards be
+added to the committee of the Association for the Relief of
+the Manufacturing and Labouring Poor; that the committee have
+full power to dispose of the funds to be collected, and to
+name sub-committees for correspondence."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+    The motion was seconded by Sir T. Bell, and unanimously
+    carried.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+    The Bishop of London proposed a vote of thanks to the Duke of
+    York, which Mr. C. Barclay was about to second, but&mdash;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Lord Cochrane again stepped forward and gained the attention
+of the meeting. He repeated the explanation of the motives
+for withdrawing his proposed amendment, adding, that he had no
+wish again to press that amendment upon the consideration
+of the meeting. But he could not forbear from observing what
+would have been the fate of such a proposition, if brought
+forward in another place, which he need not name. For there,
+instead of being requested to withdraw the proposition, it
+would have been met by a direct negative or by 'the previous
+question,' in support of which, no doubt, a majority of that
+assembly, miscalled the representatives of the people, would
+have voted. Yet the manner in which this, a meeting of the
+people, would have decided, was pretty obvious; and hence it
+might be inferred how far the people concurred in sentiment
+and feeling with the House of Commons. That the proposed, or
+any charitable subscription, must be inadequate to relieve the
+actual distress of the country was a proposition which could
+not be disputed, but yet he did not intend to oppose that
+subscription; on the contrary, he should give it every
+possible support in his power; and it was, he felt, a
+consolation to them that there were still some persons in this
+country who could afford something to relieve the poor; but
+he was afraid that neither the landowner nor the mercantile
+interest had the means of
+doing so; for the former could obtain no rent, and the latter
+no trade&mdash;the only persons, in fact, who were able to assist
+the poor under present circumstances were the placemen, the
+sinecurists, and the fund-holders, who must give up at least
+half of their ill-gotten gains in order to effect the object.
+With this impression fixed upon his mind, he felt it his duty
+to propose an additional resolution, that the ministers of
+the crown, that the Government of the country, who wielded
+the power of Parliament, were alone competent to remove and
+to alleviate the national distress. This, indeed, was evident
+from the statement of our financial situation which he
+had already made. He had called upon the Chancellor of the
+Exchequer, who was present, to contradict that statement if
+he could; but the right honourable gentleman had felt it
+expedient not to utter one word, as the meeting had witnessed.
+Yet from that statement it must be obvious, as he had already
+observed, that the military and naval situation of the country
+must be abandoned, or at least half the national debt must be
+extinguished, for the resources of the empire could not endure
+such burthens. The noble lord concluded with expressing his
+intention when the present resolutions were got over, to move
+another, stating the real cause of the present distress,
+and that the Chancellor of the Exchequer and his majesty's
+ministers were alone capable of affording serious relief to
+the present distress.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+    Mr. Barclay seconded the motion of the Right Reverend the
+    Bishop of London, to which Lord Cochrane assured the meeting
+    he entertained no objection.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+    Great confusion prevailed in the meeting, some crying out
+    for Lord Cochrane's motion, while others were equally loud in
+    testifying their anxiety for the vote of thanks.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The Duke of Kent then put the motion.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Lord Cochrane said that his sole object was to have an
+opportunity of moving his resolution after the present was
+disposed of.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+A person from a distant part of the room exclaimed: "That resolution
+shall not be put, for it is a libel on the Parliament." Several other
+remarks were made, but they were generally unintelligible from the
+violent uproar and confusion that prevailed. Loud cries of "Put Lord
+Cochrane's motion first" were mixed with the cry of "Chair, chair."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The Duke of Kent said that he had attended this meeting with a view
+to assist in promoting an object of charity, and he had no doubt that
+such was the intention of the noble lord (Cochrane). Of this he
+was sure from the noble lord's own declaration, as well as from his
+knowledge of the noble lord's feelings. The noble lord had, indeed,
+himself stated that he had no wish to introduce any political, or to
+press any, measure likely to interfere with the object of the
+meeting. Therefore, he called upon the noble lord, in consistency, in
+politeness and urbanity, not to urge any political principle; and the
+noble lord must be aware that his proposition had a strong political
+tendency. The proposition was indeed such, that the noble lord must be
+aware that it was calculated to injure the subscription, for those who
+were not of the noble lord's opinion in politics were but too likely
+to leave the room if that proposition were pressed to a vote, and thus
+a material object of charity would suffer through a desire to urge a
+declaration of a mere political opinion.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Lord Cochrane disclaimed any wish to provoke political discussion.
+He expressed his desire merely to declare a truth which no man
+could venture to dispute in any popular assembly, in order that
+the Chancellor of the Exchequer, and others present, might have an
+opportunity of reporting to Government the decided sentiment
+and real feeling of the people.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The Archbishop of Canterbury begged leave to call back the
+attention of the meeting to the motion before it, and which,
+he had no doubt, would be unanimously adopted. This motion,
+the most reverend prelate added, was not intended in any
+degree to interfere with the motion of the noble lord.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Amid loud cries of "Put Lord Cochrane's motion first, for if
+the motion of thanks be disposed of, the Duke of York will
+leave the chair, and the noble lord's motion will not be put
+at all," the Duke of Kent declared that there could be
+no intention to get rid of the noble lord's motion by any
+side-wind.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The motion of thanks was then passed while Lord Cochrane was
+engaged in writing his motion, and the Duke of York, having
+bowed to the meeting, immediately withdrew, amidst loud
+hissings, and cries of "Shame! shame! a trick! a trick!"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The Duke of Kent, whose head was turned towards Lord Cochrane,
+was much surprised and disappointed at discovering the absence
+of the chairman.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The general cry was then raised: "The Duke of Kent to the
+chair."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+His Royal Highness addressed the meeting. Having, he said,
+pledged himself on proposing the last resolution that there
+was no intention of getting rid of Lord Cochrane's motion by
+any side-wind, he felt himself in a very awkward predicament.
+"But," he added, "I hope that, as liberal Englishmen, you
+will consider my situation and who I am; and that after my
+illustrious relatives have retired from the meeting, you
+will not insist upon my taking the chair for the purpose of
+pressing the declaration of a political opinion;
+but that you will commend my motives, and do justice to
+those feelings which determine the propriety of my immediate
+departure." His Royal Highness accordingly withdrew.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The majority of the meeting still remained, calling for the
+nomination of another chairman, and pressing the adoption of
+Lord Cochrane's motion; but the noble lord also withdrew, and
+the meeting separated.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+That meeting was memorable. If Lord Cochrane's bearing at it was
+factious, it must be remembered how greatly he had suffered and how
+earnestly he desired to save the people at large from the sufferings
+entailed upon them by the Government which he and they had learnt to
+regard with a common dislike. By exposing what appeared to him and
+many others to be the hypocrisy of seeming philanthropists, and
+showing what he deemed the only real cause and the only real remedy
+of the national distress, he only acted as a brave and honest man, and
+his work was appreciated by the masses in whose interest it was done.
+A thrill of satisfaction ran through the land. During the ensuing
+weeks and months congratulations were heaped upon him from all
+quarters, and from nearly every class of society. If he had lessened
+the resources of the Association for the Belief of the Manufacturing
+and Labouring Poor, he was thanked even for this, since it was
+believed to be a good thing for shallow charity to be stayed, in order
+that the cause of real justice might be promoted.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The thanks were all the heartier because of the fresh persecution to
+which Lord Cochrane was subjected on account of his patriotism. This
+persecution was in the shape of legal proceedings instituted against
+him by the Marshal of the King's Bench Prison for his escape therefrom
+on the 10th of March, 1815. The action had been formally commenced
+almost immediately after the alleged offence, but on technical
+grounds, and perhaps from the consciousness that he was already
+punished enough, it was delayed for more than a year. As the
+previous punishment, however, had not been enough to silence him, the
+Government determined to revive the old charge as a further act of
+vengeance. At the special instigation of Lord Ellenborough, as it
+was averred, the prosecution had been renewed in May, 1816, almost
+immediately after the rejection by the House of Commons of Lord
+Cochrane's charges against the vindictive and unprincipled judge; but
+the time was too far gone for trial to take place during the summer
+term. It was again renewed, and at length successfully, directly after
+Lord Cochrane's fresh exhibition of his hostility to the Government at
+the London Tavern meeting.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The trial was at Guildford, on the 17th of August. Its history and
+issue may best be told in the words of an autobiographical fragment,
+written by Lord Dundonald shortly before his death. "I was accompanied
+to Guildford," he said, "by Sir Francis Burdett and several other
+leading inhabitants of Westminster, whose names are forgotten by me. I
+took neither counsel nor witnesses, having determined to rest my case
+on the point of law that 'no Member of Parliament can be imprisoned,
+either for non-payment of a fine to the king, or for any other cause
+than treason or felony, or refusing to give security to keep the
+peace,' my inference being that as I was illegally imprisoned, I had
+committed no illegality in escaping. I read to the jury a general
+statement, on which they unequivocally expressed their conviction that
+the trial had better not have been instituted, for that the punishment
+already sustained was more than adequate to the offence alleged to
+have been committed. The judge, however, interfered, and told the
+jury that, as I had admitted the escape in my statement, they had no
+alternative but to bring in a verdict of guilty, which was reluctantly
+done, and judgment was deferred.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"After the trial I returned to my house in Hampshire, and not hearing
+anything more of the affair, naturally concluded that, in the face of
+the opinion expressed by the jury, the Government would be ashamed to
+prosecute the matter further. Not liking, however, to trust to their
+mercy, whilst their malevolence might be exercised at an inconvenient
+season, or made to depend upon my political conduct, I directed my
+attorney to inquire whether it was intended to put in execution the
+sentence at Guildford. The reply was that no steps had been taken,
+and the impression was, that Government would be against further
+proceedings, lest they should tend to increase my popularity.
+Considering that this might be a feint to put me off my guard, I went
+to London for the purpose of attending a large political meeting, in
+the conduct of which I participated. Shortly afterwards I received
+a summons to appear at Westminster Hall and receive judgment on the
+verdict; the judgment being that I was condemned to pay a fine of
+100£ to the Crown.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"On my refusal to pay the fine, on the 21st of November, I was again
+taken into custody, I alleging that the sentence would amount to
+perpetual imprisonment, for that I would never pay a fine imposed for
+escaping from an illegal detention.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"On my being taken back to prison, however, a meeting of the electors
+of Westminster was held, at which it was determined that the amount
+of the fine should be paid by a penny subscription, no person being
+allowed to subscribe more. This plan was adopted in order that the
+public throughout the kingdom might have an opportunity of manifesting
+their disapprobation of the oppressive way in which I was being
+treated. Though I knew nothing of the intentions of the committee at
+the time, it was expected that the subscription would amount to a
+much larger sum than the fine, and resolved that the surplus should be
+devoted to the re-imbursement of the former fine of 1000£ and of the
+expenses to which I had been put at the trial. Receiving-houses were
+accordingly opened in the metropolis and in various other large towns,
+and the amount of the fine of 100£ was speedily collected in London
+alone.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Meanwhile meetings were constantly being held to petition Parliament
+for reform, and at these my name and sufferings formed a prominent
+topic, so that the Government would have been glad to be rid of
+me. After one of these meetings in Spafields, for the purpose of
+requesting Sir Francis Burdett and myself to present a petition to
+Parliament, a serious riot took place in the city of London, in which
+a gentleman was shot by the military. The Government, in alarm lest
+the people should proceed to the King's Bench and liberate me, did me
+the honour to send a company of infantry to guard me, the officers of
+the prison being ordered to admit no strangers whatever. The troops
+were further ordered to continue their attendance till I was released
+from custody.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"The subscription having been completed in pence, sent from all parts
+of the kingdom, my secretary, Mr. Jackson, applied to the Master of
+the Crown Office to receive the amount of the fine in coppers. This
+was refused, as not being a legal tender. The Master, however, in
+token of the suffering to which I had so unworthily been subjected,
+said that, as payment of the fine in such a manner marked the sense of
+the people on my case, he would not oppose himself to the expression
+of public sentiment, but would take 10£ of the sum in coppers. This
+was accordingly paid, and the remainder in notes and silver, which
+were given by various tradesmen in exchange for the coppers of the
+people, whose money was thus literally appropriated to the payment of
+the fine.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Finding, on my liberation, whole chests filled with penny pieces, I
+wrote to the committee, stating that sufficient had been collected.
+The reply was that the subscription should go on till the amount of
+the fine of 1000£ was paid in addition. The whole of the amount of
+the fine was thus realized, with something beyond&mdash;I do not recollect
+how much&mdash;towards my law expenses, which had necessarily been
+excessive. Taking, however, the 1100£ paid in pence, this
+alone showed that two million six hundred and forty thousand
+persons&mdash;composing a very large portion of the adult population of
+the kingdom&mdash;sympathised with me. Not one of my persecutors could have
+elicited such an expression of public sympathy."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The fine being thus paid, Lord Cochrane was released from the King's
+Bench Prison on the 7th of December, after a confinement of sixteen
+days, which was attended by all the wanton severity shown to him
+during his previous incarceration. Having been apprehended on a
+Thursday, he was, on his arrival at the King's Bench, placed in an
+unhealthy room protected by an iron grating. In the evening, having
+complained of such unusual treatment, he was informed that it was
+under the express directions of the Marshal. Next day, being seriously
+unwell, a physician was sent to him, who reported that he was
+suffering from palpitation of the heart and other symptoms of
+dangerous excitement, which made it necessary that he should be
+removed to better quarters. Accordingly, worse quarters were found for
+him, in a damp, dark, and very imperfectly-ventilated room, entirely
+devoid of furniture, in the middle of the building. Stedfastly
+refusing to go there, he was allowed to remain for that night in
+the room, first assigned to him. On Saturday morning, just as he
+was sitting down to breakfast, he was ordered to proceed to his new
+dungeon. Again refusing, his untasted breakfast was forcibly taken
+from him until he consented to eat it in the appointed place. Thither
+he accordingly went, and there he was detained for the fortnight that
+passed before his liberation.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+On the 17th of December an enthusiastic meeting of the citizens of
+Westminster was held to congratulate Lord Cochrane upon his release.
+"We, your lordship's constituents," it was stated in an address
+adopted by that meeting, "beg leave, on the present occasion, to
+declare that, after having had long and ample means for inquiry and
+reflection, we remain in the full and entire conviction of the perfect
+innocence of your lordship of every part of the offence laid to your
+charge at the outset of that series of persecutions by which, during
+the last three years of your life, you have been incessantly harassed.
+But, indeed, those persons must have very little knowledge of public
+affairs, and particularly of your distinguished naval and political
+career, who do not clearly perceive that all those persecutions have
+arisen from your public virtues, and who are not well convinced that,
+if you had not served the people by your exposure of the abuses in the
+prize courts, by your endeavours to restore to the right owners
+the immense sums unjustly alienated under the names of Droits of
+Admiralty, by your honest explanation of the causes which prevented
+the naval renown of your country being complete at Basque Roads, and
+by having caused to be produced in Parliament, and published to the
+nation, that memorable account of sinecures, pensions, and grants
+which so usefully enlightened the public, you never would have
+been prosecuted for a pretended fraud on the funds. Your lordship's
+constituents, being thus fully sensible that you have suffered and are
+still suffering solely for their and their country's sake, would deem
+themselves amongst the most ungrateful of mankind were they to neglect
+this occasion to tender you the most solemn assurances of their
+unabated attachment and their most resolute support, and, whilst they
+are endeavouring to discharge their duty towards your lordship, they
+entertain the consoling reflection that the day is not distant when
+you will mainly assist in carrying forward that measure of radical
+parliamentary reform which alone can be a safeguard against all sorts
+of oppressions, and especially oppressions under which your lordship
+has so long and so severely suffered."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+To that honourable address an honourable reply was penned by Lord
+Cochrane on the 24th of December, and presented to the electors of
+Westminster at another meeting assembled for the purpose on the 1st of
+January ensuing.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The direct persecution which began with the Stock Exchange trial and
+its antecedents was now at an end, after three years of gross and
+untiring vindictiveness. Indirect persecution was to continue for more
+than thirty years.
+</p>
+
+</div><!--end chapter-->
+
+<div class="chapter">
+
+<h2><a name="chap05"></a>CHAPTER V.</h2>
+
+<p>
+THE STATE OF POLITICS IN ENGLAND IN 1817 AND 1818, AND LORD COCHRANE's
+SHARE IN THEM.&mdash;HIS WORK AS A RADICAL IN AND OUT OF PARLIAMENT.&mdash;HIS
+FUTILE ATTEMPTS TO OBTAIN THE PRIZE MONEY DUE FOR HIS SERVICES
+AT BASQUE ROADS.&mdash;THE HOLLY HILL BATTLE.&mdash;THE PREPARATIONS FOR HIS
+ENTERPRISE IN SOUTH AMERICA.&mdash;HIS LAST SPEECH IN PARLIAMENT.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+[1817-1818.]
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The years 1817 and 1818 were years of great political turmoil. The
+English people, weary of the European wars, which in two-and-twenty
+years had raised the national debt from 230,000,000£ to
+860,000,000£, thus causing a taxation which amounted, in the average,
+to 25£ a year upon every family of five persons, were in no mood to
+be made happy even by the restitution of peace. Partly by necessity,
+partly by the bad management of the Government and its officials, the
+war-burdens were continued, and to the starving multitudes they were
+more burdensome than ever. Angry complaints were uttered openly, and
+repeated again and again with steadily-increasing vehemence, in all
+parts of the country. That the ministers and agents of the Crown were
+grievously at fault was patent to all; and it is not strange that, in
+the excitement and the misery that prevailed, they should be blamed
+even more than was their due. But the men in power did not choose to
+be blamed at all; they denied that any fault attached to them, and
+fiercely reprobated every complaint as sedition, every opponent as a
+lawless and unpatriotic demagogue. Hence the Government and the people
+came to be at deadly feud. Most right was with the people, and their
+bold assertion of that right, albeit sometimes in wrong ways, has
+secured memorable benefits in later times; but power was still with
+the Government, and it was used even more roughly than in former
+years.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+That Lord Cochrane, having suffered so much from the vindictive
+persecution of the Tories, should have thrown in his lot with its
+most extreme opponents, is not to be wondered at. During 1817 he was
+intimately associated with the popular party in all its efforts for
+the redress of grievances and in all the assertions of its real and
+fancied rights. In and out of Parliament he was alike active and
+outspoken. The history of his public conduct at this time forms
+no small section of the history of the Radical movement during the
+period. It resulted naturally from the circumstances in which he had
+lately been placed. Energetic in thought and action, a ready writer
+and an able speaker, his recent sufferings helped to place him in the
+foremost rank of patriots, as they were called by friends&mdash;demagogues,
+as they were called by enemies. With the exception of Sir Francis
+Burdett, than whom he even went further, the people had, outside their
+own ranks, no sturdier champion.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+If there had been any doubt before as to his line of action, there
+could be no doubt after the re-assembling of Parliament in January,
+1817. During the recess, monster meetings had been held in all parts
+of the country to consider the popular troubles and to insist upon
+popular reforms. Lord Cochrane agreed to present to the House of
+Commons many of the petitions that resulted from these meetings, and
+this he did on the 29th of January, the very day of the re-opening of
+Parliament.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+In anticipation of this measure, there was a great assembling of
+reform delegates from all parts of England, and of others favourable
+to their purpose, in front of Lord Cochrane's residence at No. 7,
+Palace Yard, Westminster. Shortly before two o'clock Lord Cochrane
+showed himself at the window, and announced that he was now on his
+way to the House, there to watch over the rights and liberties of the
+people, and that he would shortly return and let them know what was
+passing. This he did at four o'clock, part of the interval being
+occupied with a fervid address from Henry Hunt. On his reappearance,
+Lord Cochrane stated that the speech with which the Prince Regent had
+opened Parliament had not disappointed his expectations, for it was
+wholly disappointing to the people. The Regent had complained of the
+disaffection pervading the country, and had announced his intention of
+using all the power given him by the Constitution for its suppression.
+Lord Cochrane expressed his confident hope that the people, having
+the right on their side, would so demean themselves as to give their
+enemies no ground of charge against them; for those enemies desired
+nothing so much as riot and disorder.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Thereupon an immense bundle of petitions was handed him, and he
+himself was placed in a chair, and so conveyed on men's shoulders to
+the door of Westminster Hall, where the crowd dispersed in an orderly
+way.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+In the House, before the motion for an address in answer to the Prince
+Regent's speech, Lord Cochrane rose to present a petition, signed by
+more than twenty thousand inhabitants of Bristol, setting forth the
+present distress of the country, the increase of paupers and beggars,
+the grievous lack of employment for industrious persons, and
+the misery that resulted from this state of things. In these
+circumstances, the petitioners urged, it was in vain to pretend to
+relieve the sufferers by giving them soup, while, for the support of
+sinecure placemen, pensioners without number, and an insatiable
+civil list, half their earnings were taken from them by the enormous
+taxation under which the country groaned. After considerable
+opposition, the petition was allowed to lie on the table.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Lord Cochrane then presented a smaller but much more outspoken
+petition from the inhabitants of Quirk, in Yorkshire. "The
+petitioners," it was there urged, "have a full and immovable
+conviction&mdash;a conviction which they believe to be universal throughout
+the kingdom&mdash;that the House does not, in any constitutional or
+rational sense, represent the nation; that, when the people have
+ceased to be represented, the Constitution is subverted; that taxation
+without representation is a state of slavery; that the scourge
+of taxation without representation has now reached a severity too
+harassing and vexatious, too intolerable and degrading, to be longer
+endured without resistance by all possible means warranted by the
+Constitution; that such a condition of affairs has now been reached
+that contending factions are alike guilty of their country's wrongs,
+alike forgetful of her rights, mocking the public patience with
+repeated, protracted, and disgusting debates on questions of
+refinement in the complicated and abstruse science of taxation, as if
+in such refinement, and not in a reformed representation, as if in a
+consolidated corruption, and not in a renovated Constitution,
+relief were to be found; that thus there are left no human means of
+redressing the people's wrongs or composing their distracted minds,
+or of preventing the subversion of liberty and the establishment of
+despotism, unless by calling the collected wisdom and virtue of the
+community into counsel by the election of a free Parliament; and
+therefore, considering that, through the usurpation of borough
+factions and other causes, the people have been put even out of a
+condition to consent to taxes; and considering also that, until their
+sacred right of election shall be restored, no free Parliament can
+have existence, it is necessary that the House shall, without delay,
+pass a law for putting the aggrieved and much-aroused people in
+possession of their undoubted right to representation co-extensive
+with taxation, to an equal distribution of such representation
+throughout the community, and to Parliaments of a continuance
+according to the Constitution, namely, not exceeding one year."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+A long discussion ensued as to whether this petition should be
+accepted by the House or rejected as an insulting libel. Several
+members of the House denounced it. Other members, while objecting to
+its terms, urged its acceptance. Among them the most notable was
+Mr. Brougham. The petition, he said, was rudely worded, and its
+recommendations were such as no wise lover of the English Constitution
+could wholly subscribe to; but it pointed to real grievances and
+recommended improvements which were necessary to the well-being of the
+State, and therefore it ought to be admitted. Mr. Canning was one of
+those who insisted upon its rejection, and this was ultimately done by
+a majority of 87, 48 being in favour of the petition, and 135 against
+it.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Four other petitions presented by Lord Cochrane, being to the same
+effect, were also rejected; and two, more moderate in their language,
+were accepted. Lord Cochrane thus succeeded, at any rate, in forcing
+the House during several hours to take into consideration the troubled
+state of the country, and the pressing need, as it seemed to great
+masses of the people, of thorough parliamentary reform.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"You will see by the 'Debates,'" he wrote next day to a friend, "that
+I presented a number of petitions last night, and had a hard battle to
+fight. Today I am quite indisposed, by reason of the corruption of the
+Honourable House. It is impossible to support a bad cause by honest
+means. God knows where all these base projects will end." That his own
+cause was a good one, and that the means used by him were honest, he
+had no doubt. In the same letter he referred to the opposition offered
+to him, even by some of his own relatives, on account of his conduct.
+"Mr. Cochrane has thought proper to disavow, through the public
+papers, any connection with my politics. The consciousness that I am
+acting as I ought makes that light which I should otherwise feel as a
+heavy clog in following that course which I think honour and justice
+require."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Therefore he persevered in his Herculean task. Having presented and
+spoken upon others in the interval, he presented another monster
+petition to the House on the 5th of February. It was signed, he said,
+by twenty-four thousand inhabitants of London and the neighbourhood.
+It complained of the unbearable weight of taxation and the distresses
+of the country, and of the squandering of the money extracted from the
+pockets of an oppressed and impoverished people to support sinecure
+placemen and pensioners. "It appears to me," he said, "surprising that
+there should be any set of men so cruel and unjust as to wallow in
+wealth at the public expense while poor wretches are starving at every
+corner of the streets." He represented that the petition was drawn
+up in temperate, respectful language,&mdash;more temperate, indeed, than
+he should have employed had he dictated its phrases. He urged that the
+people had good cause for complaint as to the way in which Parliament
+neglected their interests, and good ground for asserting that the
+system of parliamentary representation then afforded them was no real
+representation at all. Members entered the House only in pursuit of
+their own selfish ends, and the Government encouraged this state of
+things by fostering a system of wholesale bribery and corruption,
+degrading in itself and fraught with terrible mischief to the
+community. What wonder, then, that the people should pray, as they did
+in this petition, for a thorough reform, and should point to annual
+Parliaments and universal suffrage as the only efficient remedies?
+</p>
+
+<p>
+It is needless to recapitulate all the arguments offered again
+and again by Lord Cochrane, with ever fresh-force and cogency, in
+presenting massive petitions to the House, and in introducing into
+the occasional debates on reform with which the House amused itself
+a vigour and practicalness in which few other members cared to
+sympathize. Nor need we enumerate all the meetings, in London and the
+provinces, in which he took prominent part. It is enough to say that
+in Parliament he always spoke with exceeding boldness, and that upon
+the people, notwithstanding the contrary assertions of his detractors,
+he always enjoined, if not conciliation and forbearance, at any rate
+such action as was within the strict letter of the law, and most
+likely, in the end, to obtain the realization of their wishes. On all
+occasions he defended them from the charges of sedition and conspiracy
+brought against them by their opponents, and proved, to all who were
+open to proof, that their objects were patriotic, and were being
+sought in patriotic ways.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Of this, however, the Government did not choose to be convinced.
+Taking advantage of some intemperate speeches of demagogues, making
+much of some violent handbills circulated by police-officers under
+secret instructions, mightily exaggerating a few lawless acts,&mdash;as
+when a drunken old sailor summoned the keepers of the Tower of London
+to surrender,&mdash;they procured, on the 26th of February, the suspension
+of the Habeas Corpus Act. Therefrom resulted, at any rate, some good.
+The Whigs, who had hitherto mainly supported the Tory Government, were
+now turned against it, and with them the wiser Radicals, like Lord
+Cochrane, sought to effect a coalition. "You will perceive by the
+papers," he said in a letter dated February the 28th, "that I have
+resolved to steer another political course, seeing that the only means
+of averting military despotism from the country is to unite the people
+and the Whigs, so far as they can be induced to co-operate, which they
+must do if they wish to preserve the remainder of the Constitution.
+The 'Times' of yesterday contains the fullest account of the late
+debates on the suspension of the Habeas Corpus Act, and by that report
+you will perceive that the Whigs really made a good stand."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+In that temper, Lord Cochrane spoke at a Westminster meeting, held
+on the 11th of March, "to take into consideration the propriety
+of agreeing to an address to His Royal Highness the Prince Regent,
+beseeching that he will, in his well-known solicitude for the freedom
+and happiness of His Majesty's subjects, remove from his royal
+councils those ministers who appear resolved to adopt no effectual
+measures of economy and retrenchment, but, on the contrary, to
+persevere in measures calculated to drive a suffering people to
+despair."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+There was some flattery or some mockery, or something of both, in
+that announcement; and both, with much earnest enunciation of popular
+grievances, were in Lord Cochrane's speech on the subject. He said
+that the Regent had as much cause as the people to complain of his
+present ministers, seeing how shamelessly they sought to hide from him
+the real state of the country. It was to be expected, from the early
+habits and character of the Regent, that he would anxiously pursue
+the interests of the nation, if, instead of being in the hands of an
+odious oligarchy, he could act for himself. This, at any rate, Lord
+Cochrane maintained should be urged upon him, for if something were
+not quickly done for the relief of the nation, trade and commerce
+would soon be utterly ruined, and the whole community would share the
+misery that had so long oppressed the lower orders. He again dwelt
+forcibly on the causes of this misery, and again denounced the conduct
+of the ministers and placemen who, while squandering the hardly-earned
+pounds of the people, claimed respect for their exemplary charity
+in doling out a few farthings for "the relief of the poor." In the
+previous year, he showed, Lord Castlereagh, "the bell-wether of the
+House of Commons," and thirteen other persons, had drawn from the
+revenues of the country 309,861£, and out of that amount had given
+back, in "sinecure soup," only 1505£
+</p>
+
+<p>
+On a hundred other occasions, both outside of the House of Commons and
+within its walls, Lord Cochrane continued fearlessly to set forth
+the troubles of the people and the wrong-doing of its governors. In
+Parliament petitions without number were presented, and, amid all
+sorts of contumely, defended by him; and he took a no less active part
+in various important discussions, of which it will suffice, by way of
+illustration, to name the debates of the 3rd, 14th, and 28th of March,
+on the famous Seditious Meetings Bill, and that of the 13th of March
+on the depressed condition of English trade and its causes&mdash;a subject
+which was recurred to by Mr. Brougham in his memorable motion of the
+11th of July on the state of the nation.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Six weeks before that, on the 20th of May, Lord Cochrane spoke on
+another famous motion&mdash;that made by his friend Sir Francis Burdett
+in favour of parliamentary reform. Once more, he complained that the
+existing House of Commons in no way represented the people, and was
+entirely regardless of its interests. Nothing better, he alleged,
+could be hoped for, without a radical change in the system of
+representation. "But," he continued, "reform we must have, whether we
+will or no. The state of the country is such that things cannot much
+longer be conducted as they now are. There is a general call for
+reform. If the call is not obeyed, thank God the evil will produce
+its own remedy, the mass of corruption will destroy itself, for the
+maggots it engenders will eat it up. The members of this House are the
+maggots of the Constitution. They are the locusts that devour it and
+cause all the evils that are complained of. There is nothing wicked
+which does not emanate from this House. In it originate all knavery,
+perjury, and fraud. You well know all this. You also know that the
+means by which the great majority of the House is returned is one
+great cause of the corruption of the whole people. It has been said,
+'Let the people reform themselves;' but if sums of money are offered
+for seats within these walls, there will always be found men ready to
+receive them. It is impossible to imagine that the profuse expenditure
+of the late war would have taken place, had it not been for a corrupt
+majority devoted to their selfish interests. At least it would have
+had a shorter duration, from being carried on in a more effective
+manner, had it not been conducive to the views of many to prevent its
+speedy termination. Much has been said about the glorious result of
+the war; but has not lavish expenditure loaded us with taxation which
+is impoverishing the people and annihilating commerce? Are not vessels
+seen everywhere with brooms at their mastheads? Are not sailors
+starving? Is not agriculture languishing? Are not our manufactures in
+the most distressed state?"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Lord Cochrane asserted that the real revolutionists of England were
+the ministers and their followers. "I am persuaded that no man without
+doors wishes the subversion of the Constitution; but within it,
+bribery and corruption stand for the Constitution. Mr. Pitt himself
+confessed that no honest man could hold the situation of minister for
+any length of time. There can be no honest minister until measures
+have been taken to purge and purify the House. If this be not done,
+it is in vain to hope for a renewal of successful enterprise in this
+country: the sun of the country is set for ever. It may indeed exist
+as a petty military German despotism, with horsemen parading up and
+down, with large whiskers, with sabres ringing by their horses' sides,
+with fantastically-shaped caps of fantastical colours on their
+heads; but this country cannot thus be made a great military power.
+A previous speaker has instanced juries as one of the benefits of the
+Constitution; but I will affirm, with respect to the manner in which
+juries are chosen under the present system, that justice is much
+better administered, in a more summary manner, with less expense, and
+no chicanery, by the Dey of Algiers. If this country were erected at
+once into a downright, honest, open despotism, the people would be
+gainers. If a judge or despot then proved a rogue, he would at
+once appear in his true character; but now villany can be artfully
+concealed under the verdict of a packed jury. I am satisfied that the
+present system of corruption is more detrimental to the country than a
+despotism."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+No other speaker spoke so boldly as Lord Cochrane; but his eloquent
+words were substantially endorsed by many; by Sir Samuel Romilly and
+Mr. Brougham in especial; and on a division, though 265 voted
+against Sir Francis Burdett's motion, it was supported by a
+minority&mdash;unusually large for the time&mdash;of 77.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Slowly but surely the better principles of government for which
+Lord Cochrane fought so persistently were gaining ground, destined
+ultimately to produce the changes in national temper which made plain
+the duty and expediency of adopting the changes in political systems
+in which the years 1832 and 1867 are epochs. In after years, Lord
+Cochrane himself clearly saw that he had been rash in his advocacy
+of the sweeping reforms which the excited people deemed necessary for
+their welfare in the years of trouble and misgovernment consequent on
+the tedious war-time ending with the battle of Waterloo. But he never
+had cause to regret the honest zeal and the generous sympathy with
+which he strove, though in violent ways, to lessen the weight of the
+popular distresses.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Distresses were not wanting to himself during this period. The weight
+of his former troubles still hung heavily upon him. He could not
+forget the terrible disgrace&mdash;none the less terrible because it was
+unmerited&mdash;that had befallen him. And in pecuniary ways he was a
+grievous sufferer by them. In losing his naval employment he lost
+the income on which he had counted. His resources were thus seriously
+crippled; and the scientific pursuits, in which he still persevered,
+failed to bring to him the profit that he anticipated.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+In one characteristic way&mdash;only one among many&mdash;the Government
+persecution still clung to him. In the distribution of prize-money
+for the achievement at Basque Roads all the officers and crews of
+Lord Grambier's fleet had been considered entitled to share. To this
+arrangement Lord Cochrane objected. He urged that as the whole triumph
+was due to the <i>Impérieuse</i> and the few ships actually engaged with
+her, the reward ought to be limited to them. "I am preparing to
+proceed in the Court of Admiralty on the question of head-money for
+Basque Roads," he wrote on the 5th of November, 1816; "my affidavit
+has reluctantly been admitted, though strenuously opposed, on the
+ground that I was not to be believed on my oath!"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Lord Cochrane's council in this case was Dr. Lushington, afterwards
+the eminent judge of the Admiralty Court. Dr. Lushington showed
+plainly that the greater part of the fleet, having taken no share in
+the action, had no right to head-money, and that therefore all ought
+to be divided among those who actually shared with Lord Cochrane
+the danger and the success of the enterprise. But Sir William Scott
+(afterwards Lord Stowell), the judge at that time, was not disposed
+to sanction this view. Therefore he thwarted it by delays. The case
+having been postponed from November, 1816, was brought up again in the
+first term of 1817. "The judge has again delayed his decision," wrote
+Lord Cochrane on the 28th of February, the day of the announcement,
+"and I believe has done so until next session. He gave a curious
+reason for this, namely, that I took part at the Westminster meeting
+against the suspension of the Habeas Corpus Act!"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+At the next session it was again postponed, all the time available
+for its consideration being taken up with a frivolous discussion as to
+Lord Cochrane's right to give evidence. "They have gone the length,"
+wrote his secretary, Mr. Jackson, on the 3rd of May, "of denying Lord
+Cochrane's credibility in a court of justice. They had no other way
+of answering his affidavit, which would have gained his cause in the
+Court of Admiralty, as it proved that the French ships in Basque Roads
+were destroyed by his own exertions in fighting without orders from
+the Admiral. The denial-of Lord Cochrane's competency to give evidence
+has excited a great deal of interest, and the Court of Admiralty was
+quite crowded on Tuesday, when the question came on to be discussed.
+I thought that our counsel had much the best of the argument, and I
+believe the judge, Sir William Scott, thought so too, as he put off
+his sentence to a future day." On the future day the judge admitted as
+much. "We have gained a bit of a victory in the Admiralty Court," said
+the same writer in a letter dated the 9th of June, "the judge having
+been compelled to pronounce in favour of his lordship's right to
+be believed on his oath." The time taken by him to arrive at this
+decision, however, was so long that the case had to be adjourned to
+November term, and thereby Lord Cochrane's enemies so far attained
+their object, that it was impossible for him, in November term, to
+renew the suit.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+In the interval he had gone to France, preparatory to a much longer
+and more momentous journey to South America, in anticipation of which
+he was winding up his affairs and realizing his property during and
+after the summer of 1817.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+In this settlement of accounts there was at any rate one amusing
+incident. It will be remembered that, on the occasion of his being
+elected Member of Parliament for Honiton in 1806, Lord Cochrane had
+refused to follow the almost universal fashion of bribery, but, after
+the election was over, had thoughtlessly yielded to the proposal
+of his agent that he should entertain his constituents at a public
+supper.[A] This entertainment, either through spite or through wanton
+extravagance, was turned by those to whom the management of it was
+assigned into a great occasion of feasting for all the inhabitants of
+the town; and for defrayment of the expenses thus incurred a claim
+for more than 1200£ was afterwards made upon Lord Cochrane. Through
+eleven years he bluntly refused to pay the preposterous demand; but
+his creditors had the law upon their side, and in the spring of 1817
+an order was granted for putting an execution into his house at Holly
+Hill.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+[Footnote A: 'The Autobiography of a Seaman,' vol. i. pp. 203, 204.]
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Lord Cochrane, however, having resisted the demand thus far,
+determined to resist to the end. For more than six weeks he prevented
+the agents of the law from entering the house. "I still hold out,"
+he said in a letter to his secretary, "though the castle has several
+times been threatened in great force. The trumpeter is now blowing for
+a parley, but no one appears on the ramparts. Explosion-bags are set
+in the lower embrasures, and all the garrison is under arms." In
+the explosion-bags there was nothing more dangerous than powdered
+charcoal; but, supposing they contained gunpowder or some other
+combustible, the sheriff of Hampshire and twenty-five officers were
+held at bay by them, until at length one official, more daring than
+the rest, jumped in at an open window, to find Lord Cochrane sitting
+at breakfast and to be complimented by him upon the wonderful bravery
+which he had shown in coming up to a building defended by charcoal
+dust.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+That battle with the sheriff and bailiffs of Hampshire occupied nearly
+the whole of April and May, 1817. In the latter month, if not before,
+Lord Cochrane began to think seriously of proceeding to join in
+battles of a more serious sort in South America, under inducements and
+with issues that will presently be detailed. "His lordship has made up
+his mind to go to South America," wrote his secretary on the 31st of
+May. "Numbers of gentlemen of great respectability are desirous of
+accompanying him, and even Sir Francis Burdett has declared that he
+feels a great temptation to do so; but Lord Cochrane discourages all.
+They think he is going to immolate the Spaniards by his secret plans;
+but he is not going to do anything of the kind, having promised the
+Prince Regent not to divulge or use them otherwise than in the service
+of his country."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+With this expedition in view, and purposing to start upon it nearly a
+year sooner than he found himself able to do, Lord Cochrane sold Holly
+Hill and his other property in Hampshire, in July. In August he went
+for a few months to France, partly for the benefit of Lady Cochrane's
+health, partly, as it would seem, in the hope of introducing into
+that country the lamps which he had lately invented, and from which he
+hoped to derive considerable profit.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+To this matter, and to his efforts to obtain some share, at any rate,
+of his rights from the English Government, the letters written by
+him from France chiefly refer. But there are in them some notes and
+illustrations of more general interest. "I am quite astonished at the
+state of Boulogne," he wrote thence on the 14th of August. "Neither
+the town nor the heights are fortified; so great was Napoleon's
+confidence in the terror of his name and the knowledge he possessed
+of the stupidity and ignorance of our Government." In a letter from
+Paris, dated the 23rd of August, we read: "Everything is looking much
+more settled than when I was formerly here, and I do really think that
+the Government, from the conciliatory measures wisely adopted, will
+stand their ground against the adherents of Buonaparte. We are to have
+a great rejoicing to-morrow. All Paris will be dancing, fiddling, and
+singing. They are a light-hearted people. I wish I could join in their
+fun. I was hopeful that I should; but the cursed recollection of the
+injustice that has been done to me is never out of my mind; so that
+all my pleasures are blasted, from whatever source they might be
+expected to arise."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+That last sentence fairly indicates the state of Lord Cochrane's mind
+during these painful years. Weighed down by troubles heavy enough to
+break the heart of an ordinary man, he fought nobly for the thorough
+justification of his character and for the protection of others from
+such persecution as had befallen him. In both objects, altogether
+praise-worthy in themselves, he may have sometimes been intemperate;
+but ample excuse for far greater intemperance would be found in the
+troubles that oppressed him. "The cursed recollection of the injustice
+that has been done to me is never out of my mind; all my pleasures are
+blasted!"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+In the same temper, after a lapse of nine months, about which it is
+only necessary to say that, like their forerunners, they were
+employed in private cares, and, especially after the reassembling of
+Parliament, in zealous action for the public good, he made his last
+speech in the House of Commons on the 2nd of June, 1818. The occasion
+was a debate upon a second motion by Sir Francis Burdett in favour of
+parliamentary reform, more cogent and effective than that of the
+20th of May, 1817, to Lord Cochrane's share in which we have already
+referred. The former speech was wholly of public interest. This has a
+personal significance, very painful and very memorable. It brings to a
+pathetic close the saddest epoch in Lord Cochrane's life&mdash;so very full
+of sadness.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"I rise, sir," he said, "to second the motion of my honourable friend.
+In what I have to say, I do not presume to think that I can add to
+the able arguments that have just been uttered; but it is my duty
+distinctly to declare my opinions on the subject. When I recollect all
+the proceedings of this House, I confess that I do not entertain much
+hope of a favourable result to the present motion. To me it seems
+chiefly serviceable as an exhibition of sound principles, and as
+showing the people for what they ought to petition. I shall perhaps be
+told that it is unparliamentary to say there are any representatives
+of the people in this House who have sold themselves to the purposes
+and views of any set of men in power; but the history of the
+degenerate senate of that once free people, the Romans, will serve
+to show how far corruption may make inroads upon public virtue or
+patriotism. The tyranny inflicted on the Roman people, and on mankind
+in general, under the form of acts passed by the Roman senate, will
+ever prove a useful memento to nations which have any freedom to lose.
+It is not for me to prophesy when our case will be like theirs; but
+this I will say, that those who are the slaves of a despotic
+monarch are far less reprehensible for their actions than those who
+voluntarily sell themselves when they have the means of remaining
+free.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"And here," he continued, in sentences broken by his emotions, "as it
+is probably the last time I shall ever have the honour of addressing
+the House on any subject, I am anxious to tell its members what I
+think of their conduct. It is now nearly eleven years since I have
+had the honour of a seat in this House, and since then there have
+been very few measures in which I could agree with the opinions of the
+majority. To say that these measures were contrary to justice would
+not be parliamentary. I will not even go into the inquiry whether
+they tend to the national good or not; but I will merely appeal to the
+feelings of the landholders present, I will appeal to the knowledge
+of those members who are engaged in commerce, and ask them whether the
+acts of the legislative body have not been of a description, during
+the late war, that would, if not for the timely intervention of the
+use of machinery, have sent this nation to total ruin? The country is
+burthened to a degree which, but for this intervention, it would have
+been impossible for the people to bear. The cause of these measures
+having such an effect upon the country has been examined and gone
+into by my honourable colleague (Sir Francis Burdett); they are to
+be traced to that patronage and influence which, a number of powerful
+individuals possess over the nomination of a great proportion of the
+members of this House; a power which, devolving on a few, becomes
+thereby the more liable to be affected by the influence of the Crown;
+and which has in fact been rendered almost entirely subservient to
+that influence. To reform the abuses which arise out of this system
+is the object of my honourable friend's motion. I will not, cannot,
+anticipate the success of the motion; but I will say, as has been
+said before by the great Chatham, the father of Mr. Pitt, that, if the
+House does not reform itself from within, it will be reformed with
+a vengeance from without. The people will take up the subject, and
+a reform will take place which will make many members regret their
+apathy in now refusing that reform which might be rendered efficient
+and permanent. But, unfortunately, in the present formation of the
+House, it appears to me that from within no reform can be expected,
+and for the truth of this I appeal to the experience of the few
+members, less than a hundred, who are now present, nearly six hundred
+being absent; I appeal to their experience to say whether they have
+ever known of any one instance in which a petition of the people for
+reform has been taken into consideration, or any redress afforded in
+consequence of such a petition? This I regret, because I foresee the
+consequence which must necessarily result from it. I do trust and
+hope that before it is too late some measures shall be adopted for
+redressing the grievances of the people; for certain I am that
+unless some measures are taken to stop the feelings which the people
+entertain towards this House and to restore their confidence in it,
+you will one day have ample cause to repent the line of conduct you
+have pursued. The gentlemen who now sit on the benches opposite
+with such triumphant feelings will one day repent their conduct. The
+commotions to which that conduct will inevitably give rise will shake,
+not only this House, but the whole framework of Government and society
+to its foundations. I have been actuated by the wish to prevent this,
+and I have had no other intention.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"I shall not trespass longer on your time," he continued, in a few
+broken sentences, uttered painfully and with agitation that aroused
+much sympathy in the House. "The situation I have held for
+eleven years in this House I owe to the favour of the electors of
+Westminster. The feelings of my heart are gratified by the manner
+in which they have acted towards me. They have rescued me from a
+desperate and wicked conspiracy which has nearly involved me in total
+ruin. I forgive those who have so done; and I hope when they depart to
+their graves they will be equally able to forgive themselves. All
+this is foreign to the subject before the House, but I trust you will
+forgive me. I shall not trespass on your time longer now&mdash;perhaps
+never again on any subject. I hope his Majesty's ministers will take
+into their serious consideration what I now say. I do not utter it
+with any feelings of hostility&mdash;such feelings have now left me&mdash;but
+I trust they will take my warning, and save the country by abandoning
+the present system before it is too late."
+</p>
+
+</div><!--end chapter-->
+
+<div class="chapter">
+
+<h2><a name="chap06"></a>CHAPTER VI.</h2>
+
+<p class="letter">
+THE ANTECEDENTS OF LORD COCHRANE'S EMPLOYMENTS IN AMERICA.&mdash;THE WAR
+OF INDEPENDENCE IN THE SPANISH COLONIES.&mdash;MEXICO.&mdash;VENEZUELA.
+&mdash;COLOMBIA.&mdash;CHILI.&mdash;THE FIRST CHILIAN INSURRECTION.&mdash;THE CARRERAS
+AND O'HIGGINS.&mdash;THE BATTLE OF BANCAGUA.&mdash;O'HIGGINS'S SUCCESSES.&mdash;THE
+ESTABLISHMENT OF THE CHILIAN REPUBLIC.&mdash;LORD COCHRANE INVITED TO ENTER
+THE CHILIAN SERVICE.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+(1810&mdash;1817.)
+</p>
+
+<p>
+To an understanding of Lord Cochrane's share in the South American
+wars of independence a brief recapitulation of their antecedents, and
+of the state of affairs at the time of his first connection with them,
+is necessary.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The Spanish possessions in both North and South America, which had
+reached nearly their full dimensions before the close of the sixteenth
+century, had been retained, with little opposition from without,
+and with still less from within, down to the close of the eighteenth
+century. These possessions, including Mexico and Central America, New
+Granada, Venezuela, Peru, La Plata, and Chili, covered an area larger
+than that of Europe, more than twice as large as that of the present
+United States. Through half a dozen generations they had been governed
+with all the short-sighted tyranny for which the Spanish Government is
+famous; the resources of the countries had been crippled in order that
+each day's greed might be satisfied; and the inhabitants, who, for the
+most part, were the mixed offspring of Spanish and native parents,
+had been kept in abject dependence and in ignorant ferocity. There
+was plenty of internal hatred and strife; but no serious thought of
+winning their liberty and working out their own regeneration seems to
+have existed among the people of the several provinces, until it was
+suggested by the triumphant success of the United States in throwing
+off the stronger but much less oppressive thraldom of Great Britain.
+That success having been achieved, however, it was soon emulated by
+the colonial subjects of Spain.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The first leader of agitation was Francisco Miranda, a Venezuelan
+Creole. He visited England in 1790, and received some encouragement in
+his revolutionary projects from Pitt. He went to France in 1792, and
+there, while waiting some years for fit occasion of prosecuting the
+work on which his heart was set, he helped to fight the battle of the
+revolution against the Bourbons and the worn-out feudalism of which
+they were representatives. During his absence, in 1794, conspiracies
+against Spain arose in Mexico and New Granada, and, these continuing,
+he went in 1794, armed by secret promises of assistance from Pitt, to
+help in fomenting them. They prospered for several years; and in 1806
+Miranda obtained substantial aid from Sir Alexander Cochrane, Lord
+Cochrane's uncle, then the admiral in command of the West India
+station. But in 1806 Pitt died. The Whigs came into power, and with
+their coming occurred a change in the English policy. In 1807, General
+Crawfurd was ordered to throw obstacles in the way of Miranda, then
+heading a formidable insurrection. The result was a temporary check
+to the work of revolution. In 1810 Miranda renewed his enterprise
+in Venezuela, still with poor success; and in the same year a fresh
+revolt was stirred up in Mexico by Miguel Hidalgo, of Costilla, a
+priest of Dolores. Hidalgo's insurrection was foolish in design and
+bloodthirsty in execution. It was continued, in better spirit, but
+with poor success, by Morelos and Rayon, who, sustaining a serious
+defeat in 1815, left the strife to degenerate into a coarse bandit
+struggle, very disastrous to Spain, but hardly beneficial to the cause
+of Mexican independence.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+In the meanwhile a more prosperous and worthier contest was being
+waged in South America. Besides the efforts of Miranda in Venezuela,
+which were renewed between 1810 and 1812, when he was taken prisoner
+and sent to Spain, there to die in a dungeon, a separate standard of
+revolt was raised in Quito by Narinno and his friends in 1809. After
+fighting desperately, in guerilla fashion, for five years, Narinno
+was captured and forced to share Miranda's lot. A greater man, the
+greatest hero of South American independence, Simon Bolivar, succeeded
+them.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Bolivar, a native of Caraccas, had passed many years in Europe, when
+in 1810, at the age of twenty-seven, he went to serve under Miranda
+in Venezuela. Miranda's defeat in 1812 compelled him to retire to New
+Granada, but there he did good service. He improved the fighting ways
+and extended the fighting area, and in December, 1814, was appointed
+captain-general of Venezuela and New Granada, soon, however, to be
+driven back and forced to take shelter in Jamaica by the superior
+strength of Morillo, the Spanish general, who arrived with a
+formidable army in 1815. In 1816 Bolivar again showed himself in the
+field at the head of his famous liberating army, which, crossing
+over from Trinidad, and gaining reinforcements at every step, planted
+freedom, such as it was, all along the northern parts of South
+America, in which the new republic of Colombia was founded under his
+presidency, in the neighbouring district of New Granada, and down to
+the La Plata province, where he established the republic of Bolivia,
+so named in his honour. With these patriotic labours he was busied
+upon land, while Lord Cochrane was securing the independence of the
+Spanish colonies by his brave warfare on the sea.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+As the cause of liberty progressed in South America, it became
+apparent that it had poor chance of permanence, while the
+revolutionists were unable to cope with the Spaniards in naval
+strife or to wrest from Spain her strongholds on the coast. This was
+especially the case with the maritime provinces of Chili and Peru.
+Peru, held firmly by the army garrisoned in Lima, to which Callao
+served as an almost impregnable port, had been unable to share in the
+contest waged on the other side of the Andes; and Chili, though
+strong enough to declare its independence, was too weak to maintain it
+without foreign aid.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The Chilian struggle began in 1810, when the Spanish captain-general,
+Carrasco, was deposed, and a native government set up under Count de
+la Conquista. By this government the sovereignty of Spain was still
+recognised, although various reforms were adopted which Spain could
+not be expected to endorse. Accordingly, in April, 1811, an attempt
+was made by the Spanish soldiers to overturn the new order of
+things. The result was that, after brief fighting, the revolutionists
+triumphed, and the yoke of Spain was thrown off.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+But the independence of Chili, thus easily begun, was not easily
+continued. Three brothers, Jose Miguel, Juan Jose, and Luis Carreras,
+and their sister, styled the Anne Boleyn of Chili, determined to
+pervert the public weal to their own aggrandisement. Winning their way
+into popularity, they overturned the national congress that had been
+established in June, and in December set up a new junta, with Jose
+Miguel Carrera at its head. A dismal period of misrule ensued, which
+encouraged the Spanish generals, Pareja and Sanchez, to attempt the
+reconquest of Chili in 1813. Pareja and Sanchez were successfully
+resisted, and a better man, General Bernardo O'Higgins, the republican
+son of an Irishman who had been Viceroy of Peru, was put at the
+head of affairs. He succeeded to the command of the Chilian army in
+November, 1813, when a fresh attack from the Spaniards was expected.
+At first his good soldiership was successful. The enemy, having come
+almost to the gates of Santiago, was forced to retire in May, 1814;
+and the Chilian cause might have continued to prosper under O'Higgins,
+had not the Carreras contrived, in hopes of reinstating themselves in
+power, to divide the republican interests, and so, while encouraging
+renewed invasion by the Spaniards from Lima, make their resistance
+more difficult. Wisely deeming it right to set aside every other
+consideration than the necessity of saving Chili from the danger
+pressing upon it from without, O'Higgins effected a junction with the
+Carreras, hoping thus to bring the whole force of the republic against
+the royalist army, larger than its predecessors, which was marching
+towards Santiago and Valparaiso. Had his magnanimous proposals been
+properly acted upon, the issue might have been very different. But
+the Carreras, even in the most urgent hour of danger, could not forget
+their private ambitions. Holding aloof with their part of the army,
+they allowed O'Higgins and his force of nine hundred to be defeated
+by four thousand royalists under General Osorio, in the preliminary
+fight which took place at the end of September. They were guilty of
+like treachery during the great battle of the 1st of October. On that
+day the royalists entered Rancagua, the town in which O'Higgins and
+his little band had taken shelter. They were fiercely resisted, and
+the fighting lasted through thirty-six hours. So brave was the conduct
+of the patriots that the Spanish general was, after some hours'
+contest, on the point of retreating. He saw that he would have no
+chance of success, had the Carreras brought up their troops, as
+was expected by both sides of the combatants. But the Carreras,
+short-sighted in their selfishness, and nothing loth that O'Higgins
+should be defeated, still held aloof. Thereupon the Spaniards took
+heart, and made one more desperate effort. With hatchets and swords
+they forced their way, inch by inch and hour by hour, into the centre
+of the town. There, in an open square, O'Higgins, with two hundred
+men&mdash;all the remnant of his little army&mdash;made a last resistance. When
+only a few dozen of his soldiers were left alive, and when he himself
+was seriously wounded, he determined, not to surrender, but to end the
+battle. The residue of the patriots dashed through the town, cutting
+a road through the astonished crowd of their opponents, and effected
+a retreat in which those opponents, though more than twenty times as
+numerous, durst not pursue them.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+That memorable battle of Rancagua caused throughout the American
+continent, and, across the Atlantic, through Europe, a thrill of
+sympathy for the Chilian war of independence. But its immediate
+effects were most disastrous. The Carreras, too selfish to fight
+before, were now too cowardly. They and their followers fled.
+O'Higgins had barely soldiers enough left to serve as a weak escort
+to the fourteen hundred old men, women, and children who crossed the
+Andes with him on foot, to pass two years and a half in voluntary
+exile at Mendoza.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+During those two years and a half the Spaniards were masters in
+Santiago, and Chili was once more a Spanish province, in which the
+inhabitants were punished terribly in confiscations, imprisonments,
+and executions for their recent defection. Deliverance, however,
+was at hand. General San Martin, through whom chiefly La Plata had
+achieved its freedom, gave assistance to O'Higgins and the Chilian
+patriots. The main body of the Spanish army, numbering about five
+thousand, had been stationed on the heights of Chacabuco, whence
+Santiago, Valparaiso, and the other leading towns of Chili were
+overawed. On the 12th of February, 1817, San Martin and O'Higgins,
+with a force nearly as large, surprised this garrison, and, with
+excellent strategy and very little loss of life, to the patriots at
+any rate, it was entirely subdued. Santiago was entered in triumph on
+the 14th of February, and a few weeks served for the entire dispersion
+of the royalist forces. The supreme directorship of the renovated
+republic was offered to San Martin. On his declining the honour, it
+was assigned, to the satisfaction of all parties, to O'Higgins.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The new dictator and the wisest of his counsellors, however, were not
+satisfied with the temporary advantage that they had achieved. They
+knew that armies would continue to come down from Peru, the defeat
+of which, even if that could be relied upon, would waste all the
+resources of the republic. They knew, too, that the Spanish war-ships
+which supplied Peru with troops and ammunition from home, passing the
+Chilian coast on their way, would seriously hinder the commerce on
+which the young state had to depend for its development, even if
+they did not destroy that commerce at its starting-point by seizing
+Valparaiso and the other ports. Therefore they resolved to seek
+for efficient help from Europe. With that end Don Jose Alvarez,
+a high-minded patriot, who had done much good service to Chili in
+previous years, was immediately sent to Europe, commissioned to borrow
+money, to build or buy warships, and in all the ways in his power to
+enlist the sympathies of the English people in the republican cause.
+In the last of these projects, at any rate, he succeeded beyond all
+reasonable expectation.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Beaching London in April, 1817, Alvarez was welcomed by many friends
+of South American freedom&mdash;Sir Francis Burdett, Sir James Mackintosh,
+Mr. Henry Brougham, and Mr. Edward Ellice among the number. Lord
+Cochrane was just then out of London, fighting his amusing battle with
+the sheriffs and bailiffs of Hampshire; but as soon as that business
+was over he took foremost place among the friends of Don Alvarez and
+the Chilian cause which he represented. With a message to him, indeed,
+Alvarez was specially commissioned. He was invited by the Chilian
+Government to undertake the organization and command of an improved
+naval force, and so, by exercise of the prowess which he had displayed
+in the Mediterranean and elsewhere, to render invaluable service to
+the young republic.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+He promptly accepted the invitation, being induced thereto by many
+sufficient reasons. Sick at heart, as we have seen, under the cruel
+treatment to which for so many years he had been subjected by his
+enemies in power, he saw here an opportunity of, at the same
+time, escaping from his persecutors, returning to active work in
+a profession very dear to him, and giving efficient aid to a noble
+enterprise.
+</p>
+
+</div><!--end chapter-->
+
+<div class="chapter">
+
+<h2><a name="chap07"></a>CHAPTER VII.</h2>
+
+<p class="letter">
+LORD COCHRANE'S VOYAGE TO CHILI.&mdash;HIS RECEPTION AT VALPARAISO AND
+SANTIAGO.&mdash;THE DISORGANIZATION OF THE CHILIAN FLEET.&mdash;FIRST SIGNS
+OF DISAFFECTION.&mdash;THE NAVAL FORCES OF THE CHILIANS AND THE
+SPANIARDS.&mdash;LORD COCHRANE'S FIRST EXPEDITION TO PERU.&mdash;HIS ATTACK ON
+CALLAO.&mdash;"DRAKE THE DRAGON" AND "COCHRANE THE DEVIL."&mdash;LORD COCHRANE'S
+SUCCESSES IN OVERAWING THE SPANIARDS, IN TREASURE-TAKING, AND
+IN ENCOURAGEMENT OF THE PERUVIANS TO JOIN IN THE WAR OF
+INDEPENDENCE.&mdash;HIS PLAN FOE ANOTHER ATTACK ON CALLAO.&mdash;HIS
+DIFFICULTIES IN EQUIPPING THE EXPEDITION.&mdash;THE FAILURE OF
+THE ATTEMPT.&mdash;HIS PLAN FOR STORMING VALDIVIA.&mdash;ITS SUCCESSFUL
+ACCOMPLISHMENT.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+[1818-1820.]
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Having accepted, in May, 1817, the offer conveyed to him by the
+Chilian Government through Don Jose Alvarez, Lord Cochrane's departure
+from England was delayed for more than a year. This was chiefly on
+account of the war-steamer, the <i>Rising Star</i>, which it was arranged
+to build and equip in London under his superintendence. But the work
+proceeded so slowly, in consequence of the difficulty experienced by
+Alvarez in raising the requisite funds, that, at last, Lord Cochrane,
+being urgently needed in South America, where the Spaniards were
+steadily gaining ground, was requested to leave the superintendence
+of the <i>Rising Star</i> in other hands, and to cross the Atlantic without
+her.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Accompanied by Lady Cochrane and his two children, he went first from
+Rye to Boulogne, and there, on the 15th of August, 1818, embarked in
+the <i>Rose</i>, a merchantman which had formerly been a warsloop. The long
+voyage was uninteresting until Cape Horn was reached. There, and in
+passing along the rugged coast-line of Tierra del Fuego, Lord Cochrane
+was struck by its wild scenery. He watched the lazy penguins that
+crowded on the rocks, among evergreens that showed brightly amid the
+imposing mass of snow, and caught with hooks the lazier sea-pigeons
+that skimmed the heavy waves and hovered round the bulwarks and got
+entangled among the rigging of the <i>Rose</i>. He shot several of the
+huge albatrosses that floated fearlessly over the deck, but was not
+successful in his efforts to catch the fish that were seen coming to
+the surface of the troubled sea. The sea was made so boisterous by
+rain and snow, and such a stiff wind blew from the west, that for two
+or three days the <i>Rose</i> could not double the Cape. She was forced to
+tack towards the south until a favourable gale set in, which carried
+her safely to Valparaiso.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Valparaiso was reached on the 28th of November, after ten weeks passed
+on shipboard. There and at Santiago, the seat of government, to which
+he proceeded as soon as the congratulations of his new friends
+would allow him, Lord Cochrane was heartily welcomed. So profuse and
+prolonged were the entertainments in his favour&mdash;splendid dinners,
+at which zealous patriots tendered their hearty compliments, being
+followed by yet more splendid balls, at which handsome women showed
+their gratitude in smiles, and eagerly sought the honour of being led
+by him through the dances which were their chief delight&mdash;that he had
+to remind his guests that he had come to Chili not to feast but to
+fight.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+There was prompt need of fighting. The Spaniards had a strong land
+force pressing up from the south and threatening to invest Santiago.
+Their formidable fleet swept the seas, and was being organized for an
+attack on Valparaiso. Admiral Blanco Encalada had just returned from
+a cruise in which he had succeeded in capturing, in Talcuanho Bay, a
+fine Spanish fifty-gun frigate, the Maria Isabel; but his fleet
+was ill-ordered and poorly equipped, quite unable, without thorough
+re-organization, to withstand the superior force of the enemy. An
+instance of the bad state of affairs was induced by Lord Cochrane's
+arrival, and seemed likely to cause serious trouble to him and worse
+misfortune to his Chilian employers. One of the republican vessels was
+the <i>Hecate</i>, a sloop of eighteen guns which had been sold out of the
+British navy and bought as a speculation by Captains Guise and Spry.
+Having first offered her in vain to the Buenos Ayrean Government,
+they had brought her on to Chili, and there contrived to sell her with
+advantage and to be themselves taken into the Chilian service. They
+and another volunteer, Captain Worcester, a North American, liking
+the ascendancy over Admiral Bianco which their experience had won
+for them, formed a cabal with the object of securing Admiral Blanco's
+continuance in the chief command, or its equal division between him
+and Lord Cochrane. Nothing but the Chilian admiral's disinterested
+patriotism prevented a serious rupture. He steadily withstood all
+temptations to his vanity, and avowed his determination to accept no
+greater honour&mdash;if there could be a greater&mdash;than that of serving as
+second in command under the brave Englishman who had come to fight
+for the independence of Chili. Thus, though some troubles afterwards
+sprang from the disaffections of Guise, Spry, and Worcester, the
+mischief schemed by them was prevented at starting.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+A few days after his arrival Lord Cochrane received his commission as
+"Vice-Admiral of Chili, Admiral, and Commander-in-Chief of the
+Naval Forces of the Republic." His flag was hoisted, on the 22nd
+of December, on board the <i>Maria Isabel</i>, now rechristened the
+<i>O'Higgins</i>, and fitted out as the principal ship in the small Chilian
+fleet. The other vessels of the fleet were the <i>San Martin</i>, formerly
+an Indiaman in the English service, of fifty-six guns; the <i>Lautaro</i>,
+also an old Indiaman, of forty-four guns; the <i>Galvarino</i>, as the
+<i>Hecate</i> of Captains Cruise and Spry was now styled, of eighteen guns;
+the <i>Chacabuco</i>, of twenty guns; the <i>Aracauno</i>, of sixteen guns; and
+a sloop of fourteen guns named the <i>Puyrredon</i>.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The Spanish fleet, which these seven ships had to withstand, comprised
+fourteen vessels and twenty-seven gunboats. Of the former three were
+frigates, the <i>Esmeralda</i>, of forty-four guns, the <i>Venganza</i>, of
+forty-two guns, and the <i>Sebastiana</i>, of twenty-eight guns; four were
+brigs, the <i>Maypeu</i>, of eighteen guns, the <i>Pezuela</i>, of twenty-two
+guns, the <i>Potrilla</i>, of eighteen guns, and another, whose name is not
+recorded, also of eighteen guns. There was a schooner, name unknown,
+which carried one large gun and twenty culverins. The rest were armed
+merchantmen, the <i>Resolution</i>, of thirty-six guns; the <i>Cleopatra</i>, of
+twenty-eight guns; the <i>La Focha</i>, of twenty guns; the <i>Guarmey</i>, of
+eighteen guns; the Fernando, of twenty-six guns, and the San Antonio,
+of eighteen guns. Only ten out of the fourteen, however, were ready
+for sea; and before the whole naval force could be got ready for
+service, it had been partly broken up by Lord Cochrane.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+There was delay, also, in getting the Chilian fleet under sail. After
+waiting at Valparaiso as long as he deemed prudent, Lord Cochrane left
+the three smaller vessels to complete their equipment under Admiral
+Blanco's direction, and passed out of port on the 16th of January,
+with the O'Higgins, the San Martin, the Lautaro, and the Chacabuco. He
+had hardly started before a mutiny broke out on board the last-named
+vessel, which compelled him to halt at Coquimbo long enough to try
+and punish the mutineers. Resuming the voyage, he proceeded along the
+Chilian and Peruvian coast as far northward as Callao Bay, where he
+cruised about for some days, awaiting an opportunity of attacking the
+Spanish shipping there collected in considerable force.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+While thus waiting he employed his leisure in observations, great and
+small, of the sort and in the way characteristic of him all through
+life. One of his rough notes runs thus:&mdash;"Cormorants resort in
+enormous nights, coming in the morning from the northward to Callao
+Bay, and proceeding along shore to the southward, diving in regular
+succession one after another on the fish which, driven at the same
+time from below by shoals of porpoises, seem to have no chance but to
+be devoured under water or scooped up in the large bags pendent from
+the enormous bills of the cormorants." "Prodigious seals," we read in
+another note, "inhabit the rocks, whose grave faces and grey beards
+look more like the human countenance than the faces of most other
+animals. They are very unwieldy in their movements when on shore, but
+most expert in the water. There is a small kind of duck in the bay,
+which, from the clearness of the water, can be seen flying with its
+wings under water in chase of small fry, which it speedily overtakes
+from its prodigious speed."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+From note-making of that sort, Lord Cochrane turned to more serious
+business. The batteries of Callao and of San Lorenzo, a little island
+in the bay which helped to form the port, mounted one hundred and
+sixty guns, and more than twice as many were at the command of vessels
+there lying-to. Direct attack of a force so very much superior to
+that of the Chilian fleet seemed out of the question. Therefore
+Lord Cochrane bethought him of a subterfuge. Learning that two North
+American war-ships were expected at Callao, he determined to personate
+them with the <i>O'Higgins</i> and <i>Lautaro</i>, and so enter the port under
+alien colours. It was then carnival-time, and on the 21st of February,
+deeming that the Spaniards were more likely to be off their guard, he
+proposed "to make a feint of sending a boat ashore with despatches,
+and in the mean time suddenly to dash at the frigates and cut them
+out." Unfortunately a dense fog set in, which lasted till the 28th,
+and made it impossible for him to effect his purpose before the
+carnival was over. Let the sequel be told in his own words.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"On the 28th, hearing heavy firing and imagining that one of the ships
+was engaged with the enemy, I stood with the flag-ship into the
+bay. The other ships, imagining the same thing, also steered in the
+direction of the firing, when, the fog clearing for a moment, we
+discovered each other, as well as a strange sail near us. This proved
+to be a Spanish gunboat, with a lieutenant and twenty men, who, on
+being made prisoners, informed us that the firing was a salute
+in honour of the Viceroy, who had that morning been on a visit of
+inspection to the batteries and shipping, and was then on board the
+brig-of-war <i>Pezuela</i>, which we saw crowding sail in the direction
+of the batteries. The fog, again coming on, suggested to me the
+possibility of a direct attack. Accordingly, still maintaining our
+disguise under American colours, the <i>O'Higgins</i> and <i>Lautaro</i> stood
+towards the batteries, narrowly escaping going ashore in the fog. The
+Viceroy, having no doubt witnessed the capture of the gunboat, had,
+however, provided for our reception, the garrison being at their guns,
+and the crews of the ships-of-war at their quarters. Notwithstanding
+the great odds, I determined to persist in an attack, as our
+withdrawing, without firing a shot, would produce an effect upon the
+minds of the Spaniards the reverse of that intended. I had sufficient
+experience in war to know that moral effect, even if the result of a
+degree of temerity, will not unfrequently supply the place of superior
+force.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"The wind falling light, I did not venture on laying the flag-ship and
+the <i>Lautaro</i> alongside the Spanish frigates, as I at first intended,
+but anchored with springs on our cables, abreast of the shipping,
+which was arranged in a half-moon of two lines, the rear-rank being
+judiciously disposed so as to cover the intervals of the ships in the
+front line. A dead calm succeeded, and we were for two hours exposed
+to a heavy fire from the batteries, in addition to that from the
+two frigates, the brigs <i>Pezuela</i> and <i>Maypeu</i>, and seven or eight
+gunboats. Nevertheless the northern angle of one of the principal
+forts was silenced by our fire. As soon as a breeze sprang up, we
+weighed anchor, standing to and fro in front of the batteries,
+and returning their fire, until Captain Guise, who commanded the
+<i>Lautaro</i>, being severely wounded, that ship sheered off and never
+again came within range. As, from want of wind, or doubt of the
+result, neither the <i>San Martin</i> nor the <i>Chacabuco</i> had ever got
+within fire, the flag-ship was thus left alone, and I was reluctantly
+compelled to relinquish the attack. I withdrew to the island of San
+Lorenzo, about three miles distant from the forts; the Spaniards,
+though nearly quadruple our numbers, exclusive of their gunboats, not
+venturing to follow us.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"The action having been commenced in a fog, the Spaniards imagined
+that all the Chilian vessels were engaged. They were not a little
+surprised, as it again cleared, to find that their own frigate, the
+quondam <i>Maria Isabella</i>, was almost their only opponent. So much were
+they dispirited by this discovery that, as soon as possible after the
+close of the contest, their ships-of-war were dismantled, the topmasts
+and spars being formed into a double boom across the anchorage, so as
+to prevent approach. The Spaniards were also previously unaware of my
+being in command of the Chilian squadron. On becoming acquainted with
+this fact, they bestowed upon me the not very complimentary title of
+'El Diablo,' by which I was afterwards known amongst them."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Two hundred and forty years before, almost to a day, Sir Francis
+Drake&mdash;whom, of all English seamen, Lord Cochrane most resembled in
+chivalrous daring and in chivalrous hatred of oppression&mdash;had secretly
+led his little <i>Golden Hind</i> into the harbour of Callao, and there
+despoiled a Spanish fleet of seventeen vessels; for which and for his
+other brave achievements he won the nickname of El Dracone. Drake the
+Dragon and Cochrane the Devil were kinsmen in noble hatred, and noble
+punishment, of Spanish wrong-doing.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Retiring to San Lorenzo, after the fight in Callao Bay on the 28th
+of February, Lord Cochrane occupied the island, and from it blockaded
+Callao for five weeks. On the island he found thirty-seven Chilian
+soldiers, whom the Spaniards had made prisoners eight years before.
+"The unhappy men," he said, "had ever since been forced to work in
+chains under the supervision of a military guard&mdash;now prisoners in
+turn; their sleeping-place during the whole of this period being a
+filthy shed, in which they were every night chained by one leg to an
+iron bar." Yet worse, as he was informed by the poor fellows whom he
+freed from their misery, was the condition of some Chilian officers
+and seamen imprisoned in Lima, and so cruelly chained that the fetters
+had worn bare their ankles to the bone. He accordingly, under a flag
+of truce, sent to the Spanish Viceroy, Don Joaquim de la Pezuela,
+offering to exchange for these Chilian prisoners a larger number of
+Spaniards captured by himself and others. This proposal was bluntly
+refused by the Viceroy, who took occasion, in his letter, to avow
+his surprise that a British nobleman should come to fight for a
+rebel community "unacknowledged by all the powers of the globe."
+Lord Cochrane replied that "a British nobleman was a free man, and
+therefore had a right to assist any country which was endeavouring to
+re-establish the rights of aggrieved humanity." "I have," he added,
+"adopted the cause of Chili with the same freedom of judgment that I
+previously exercised when refusing the offer of an admiral's rank in
+Spain, made to me not long ago by the Spanish ambassador in London."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Except in blockading Callao and repairing his ships little was done by
+Lord Cochrane during his stay at San Lorenzo. On the 1st of March he
+went into the harbour again and opened a destructive fire upon
+the Spanish gunboats, but as these soon sought shelter under the
+batteries, which the <i>O'Higgins</i> and the <i>Lautaro</i> were not strong
+enough to oppose, the demonstration did not last long. Unsuccessful
+also was an attempt made upon the batteries, with the aid of an
+explosion-vessel, on the 22nd of March. The explosion-vessel, when
+just within musket-range, was struck by a round shot, and foundered,
+thus spoiling the intended enterprise. But other plans fared better.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+At the beginning of April, Lord Cochrane left San Lorenzo and
+proceeded to Huacho, a few leagues north of Callao. Its inhabitants
+were for the most part in sympathy with the republican cause, and the
+Spanish garrison fled at almost the first gunshot, leaving a large
+quantity of government property and specie in the hands of the
+assailants. Much other treasure, which proved very serviceable to
+the impoverished Chilian exchequer, was captured by the little fleet
+during a two months' cruise about the coast of Peru, both north and
+south of Callao. Everywhere, too, the Spanish cause was weakened,
+and the natives were encouraged to share in the great work of South
+American rebellion against a tyranny of three centuries' duration. "It
+was my object," said Lord Cochrane, "to make friends of the Peruvian
+people, by adopting towards them a conciliatory course, and by strict
+care that none but Spanish property should be taken. Confidence was
+thus inspired, and the universal dissatisfaction with Spanish rule
+speedily became changed into an earnest desire to be freed from it."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Having cruised about the Peruvian coast during April and May, Lord
+Cochrane returned to Valparaiso on the 16th of June. "The objects of
+the first expedition," he said, "had been fully accomplished, namely,
+to reconnoitre, with a view to future operations, when the squadron
+should be rendered efficient; but more especially to ascertain the
+inclinations of the Peruvians&mdash;a point of the first importance to
+Chili, as being obliged to be constantly on the alert for her own
+newly-acquired liberties so long as the Spaniards were in undisturbed
+possession of Peru. To the accomplishment of these objects had been
+superadded the restriction of the Spanish naval force to the
+shelter of the forts, the defeat of their military forces wherever
+encountered, and the capture of no inconsiderable amount of treasure."
+That was work enough to be done by four small ships, ill-manned and
+ill-provisioned, during a five months' absence from Valparaiso; and
+the Chilians were not ungrateful.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Their gratitude, however, was not strong enough to make them zealous
+co-operators in his schemes for their benefit. Lord Cochrane was eager
+to start upon another expedition, in which he hoped for yet greater
+success. But for this were needed preparations which the poverty and
+mismanagement of the Chilian Government made almost impossible. He
+asked for a thousand troops with which to facilitate a second attack
+on Callao. This force, certainly not a large one, was promised, but,
+when he was about to embark, only ninety soldiers were ready, and even
+then a private subscription had to be raised for giving them decent
+clothing instead of the rags in which they appeared. For the assault
+on Callao, also, an ample supply of rockets was required. An engineer
+named Goldsack had gone from England to construct them, and, that
+there might be no stinting in the work, Lord Cochrane offered to
+surrender all his share of prize-money. The offer was refused; but, to
+save money, their manufacture was assigned to some Spanish prisoners,
+who showed their patriotism in making them so badly that, when tried,
+they were found utterly worthless. There were other instances of false
+economy, whereby Lord Cochrane's intended services to his Chilian
+employers were seriously hindered. The vessels were refitted, however,
+and a new one, an American-built corvette, named the <i>Independencia</i>,
+of twenty-eight guns, was added to the number.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+After nearly three months' stay at Valparaiso, he again set sail on
+the 12th of September, 1819. Admiral Blanco was his second in command,
+and his squadron consisted of the <i>O'Higgins</i>, the <i>San Martin</i>, the
+<i>Lautaro</i>, the <i>Independencia</i>, the <i>Galvarino</i>, the <i>Araucano</i>, and
+the <i>Puyrredon</i>, mounting two hundred and twenty guns in all. There
+were also two old vessels, to be used as fireships.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The fleet entered Callao Roads on the 29th of September. On this
+occasion there was no subterfuge. On the 30th Lord Cochrane despatched
+a boat to Callao with a flag of truce, and a challenge to the Viceroy
+to send out his ships&mdash;nearly twice as strong as those of Chili in
+guns and men&mdash;for a fair fight in the open sea. The challenge was
+bluntly rejected, and an attack on the batteries and the ships in
+harbour was then planned. On the 1st of October, the smaller vessels
+reconnoitred the bay, and there was some fighting, in which the
+<i>Araucano</i> was damaged. Throughout the night of the 2nd, a formidable
+attack was attempted, in which the main reliance was placed in the
+Goldsack rockets; but, in consequence of the treacherous handling
+of the Spanish soldiers who had filled them, they proved worse than
+useless, doing nearly as much injury to the men who fired them as
+to the enemy. Only one gunboat was sunk by the shells from a raft
+commanded by Major Miller, who also did some damage to the forts and
+shipping. On the night of the 4th, Lord Cochrane amused himself, while
+a fireship was being prepared, by causing a burning tar-barrel to be
+drifted with the tide towards the enemy's shipping. It was, in the
+darkness, supposed to be a much more formidable antagonist, and
+volleys of Spanish shot were spent upon it. On the following evening
+a fireship was despatched; but this also was a failure. A sudden calm
+prevented her progress. She was riddled through and through by the
+enemy's guns, and, rapidly gaining water in consequence, had to be
+fired so much too soon that she exploded before getting near enough to
+work any serious mischief among the Spanish shipping.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+By these misfortunes Lord Cochrane was altogether disheartened. The
+rockets, on which he had chiefly relied, had proved worthless, and,
+one fireship having been wasted, he did not care to risk the loss of
+the other. He found too that the Spaniards, profiting by the warning
+which he had previously given, had so strengthened their booms that it
+was quite impossible, with the small force at his command, to get at
+them or to reach the port. His store of provisions, also, was nearly
+exhausted, and the fresh supply promised from Chili had not arrived.
+He therefore reluctantly, for the time, abandoned his project for
+taking Callao.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+He continued to watch the port for a few weeks, however, hoping for
+some chance opportunity of injuring it; and, in the interval, sent
+three hundred and fifty soldiers and marines, under Lieutenant-Colonel
+Charles and Major Miller, in the <i>Lautaro</i>, the <i>Galvarino</i>, and the
+remaining fireship, commanded by Captain Guise, to attack Pisco and
+procure from it and the neighbourhood the requisite provisions. This
+was satisfactorily done; but the sickness of many of his men caused
+his further detention at Santa, whither he had gone from Callao. On
+the 21st of November the sick were sent to Valparaiso, in the charge
+of the <i>San Martin</i>, the <i>Independencia</i>, and the <i>Araucano</i>. With the
+remaining ships, the <i>O'Higgins</i>, the <i>Lautaro</i>, the <i>Galvarino</i>, and
+the <i>Puyrredon</i>, Lord Cochrane proceeded to the mouth of the River
+Guayaquil. There, on the 28th of the month, he captured two large
+Spanish vessels, one of twenty and the other of sixteen guns, laden
+with timber, and took possession of the village of Puna. At Guayaquil
+there was another delay of a fortnight, owing to a mutiny attempted
+by Captains Guise and Spry, whose treacherous disposition has already
+been mentioned.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Not till the middle of December was he able to escape from the
+troubles brought upon him by others, and to return to work worthy of
+his great name and character. Then, however, sending one of his ships,
+with the prizes, to Valparaiso, and leaving two others to watch
+the Peruvian coast, he started, with only his flag-ship, upon an
+enterprise as brilliant in conception and execution as any in his
+whole eventful history. "The Chilian people," he said, "expected
+impossibilities; and I. had for some time been revolving in my mind
+a plan to achieve one which should gratify them, and allay my own
+wounded feelings. I had now only one ship, so that there were no
+other inclinations to consult; and I felt quite sure of Major Miller's
+concurrence where there was any fighting to be done. My design was,
+with the flag-ship alone, to capture by a <i>coup de main</i> the
+numerous forts and garrison of Valdivia, a fortress previously deemed
+impregnable, and thus to counteract the disappointment which would
+ensue in Chili from our want of success at Callao. The enterprise
+was a desperate one; nevertheless, I was not about to do anything
+desperate, having resolved that, unless I was fully satisfied as to
+its practicability, I would not attempt it. Rashness, though often
+imputed to me, forms no part of my composition. There is a rashness
+without calculation of consequences; but with that calculation
+well-founded, it is no longer rashness. And thus, now that I was
+unfettered by people who did not second my operations as they ought
+to have done, I made up my mind to take Valdivia, if the attempt came
+within the scope of my calculations."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Valdivia was the stronghold and centre of Spanish attack upon Chili
+from the south, just as were Lima and Callao on the north. To reach it
+Lord Cochrane had to sail northwards along the coast of Peru and Chili
+to some distance below Valparaiso. This he did without loss of time,
+to work out an excellent strategy which will be best understood from
+his own report of it.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"The first step," he said, "clearly was to reconnoitre Valdivia. The
+flag-ship arrived on the 18th of January, 1820, under Spanish colours,
+and made a signal for a pilot, who&mdash;as the Spaniards mistook the
+<i>O'Higgins</i> for a ship of their own&mdash;promptly came off, together with
+a complimentary retinue of an officer and four soldiers, all of whom
+were made prisoners as soon as they came on board. The pilot was
+ordered to take us into the channels leading to the forts, whilst the
+officer and his men, knowing there was little chance of their finding
+their way on shore again, thought it most conducive to their interests
+to supply all the information demanded, the result being increased
+confidence on my part as to the possibility of a successful attack.
+Amongst other information obtained was the expected arrival of the
+Spanish brig <i>Potrillo</i>, with money on board for the payment of the
+garrison.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"As we were busily employing ourselves in inspecting the channels, the
+officer commanding the garrison began to suspect that our object might
+not altogether be pacific, a suspicion which was confirmed by the
+detention of his officer. Suddenly a heavy fire was opened upon
+us from the various forts, to which we did not reply, but, our
+reconnoissance being now complete, withdrew beyond its reach. Two days
+were occupied in reconnoitring. On the third day the <i>Potrillo</i> hove
+in sight, and she, being also deceived by our Spanish colours, was
+captured without a shot, twenty thousand dollars and some important
+despatches being found on board."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+That first business having been satisfactorily achieved, Lord Cochrane
+proceeded to Concepcion, there to ask and obtain from its Chilian
+governor, General Freire, a force of two hundred and fifty soldiers,
+under Major Beauchef, a French volunteer. In Talcahuano Bay, moreover,
+he found a Chilian schooner, the <i>Montezuma</i>, and a Brazilian brig,
+the <i>Intrepido</i>. He attached the former to his service, and accepted
+the volunteered aid of the latter. With this augmented but still
+insignificant force, very defective in some important respects, he
+returned to Valdivia. "The flag-ship," he said, "had only two naval
+officers on board, one of these being under arrest for disobedience
+of orders, whilst the other was incapable of performing the duty of
+lieutenant; so that I had to act as admiral, captain and lieutenant,
+taking my turn in the watch&mdash;or rather being constantly on the
+watch&mdash;as the only available officer was so incompetent."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"We sailed from Talcahuano on the 25th of January," the narrative
+proceeds, "when I communicated my intentions to the military officers,
+who displayed great eagerness in the cause&mdash;alone questioning their
+success from motives of prudence. On my explaining to them that, if
+unexpected projects are energetically put in execution, they almost
+invariably succeed in spite of odds, they willingly entered into my
+plans.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"On the night of the 29th, we were off the island of Quiriquina, in
+a dead calm. From excessive fatigue in the execution of subordinate
+duties, I had lain down to rest, leaving the ship in charge of
+the lieutenant, who took advantage of my absence to retire also,
+surrendering the watch to the care of a midshipman, who fell asleep.
+Knowing our dangerous position, I had left strict orders that I was
+to be called the moment a breeze sprang up; but these orders were
+neglected. A sudden wind took the ship unawares, and the midshipman,
+in attempting to bring her round, ran her upon the sharp edge of a
+rock, where she lay beating, suspended, as it were, upon her keel;
+and, had the swell increased, she must inevitably have gone to pieces.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"We were forty miles from the mainland, the brig and schooner being
+both out of sight. The first impulse, both of officers and crew, was
+to abandon the ship, but, as we had six hundred men on board, whilst
+not more than a hundred and fifty could have entered the boats, this
+would have been but a scramble for life. Pointing out to the men that
+those who escaped could only reach the coast of Arauco, where they
+would meet nothing but torture and inevitable death at the hands of
+the Indians, I with some difficulty got them to adopt the alternative
+of attempting to save the ship. The first sounding gave five feet
+of water in the hold, and the pumps were entirely out of order. Our
+carpenter, who was only one by name, was incompetent to repair them;
+but, having myself some skill in carpentry, I took off my coat, and
+by midnight, got them into working order, the water in the meanwhile
+gaining on us, though the whole crew were engaged in baling it out
+with buckets.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"To our great delight, the leak did not increase, upon which I got
+out the stream anchor and commenced heaving off the ship; the officers
+clamoured first to ascertain the extent of the leak; but this I
+expressly forbade, as calculated to damp the energy of the men,
+whilst, as we now gained on the leak, there was no doubt the ship
+would swim as far as Valdivia, which was the chief point to be
+regarded, the capture of the fortress being my object, after which the
+ship might be repaired at leisure. As there was no lack of physical
+force on board, she was at length floated; but the powder magazine
+having been under water, the ammunition of every kind, except a little
+upon deck and in the cartouche-boxes of the troops, was rendered
+unserviceable; though about this I cared little, as it involved the
+necessity of using the bayonet in our anticipated attack; and to
+facing this weapon the Spaniards had, in every case, evinced a rooted
+aversion."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The <i>O'Higgins</i>, thus bravely saved from wreck, was soon joined by the
+<i>Intrepido</i> and the <i>Montezuma</i>, and these vessels being now most fit
+for action, as many men as possible were transferred to them, and the
+<i>O'Higgins</i> was ordered to stand out to sea, only to be made use of in
+case of need. The <i>Montezuma</i> now became the flag-ship, and with her
+and her consort Lord Cochrane sailed into Valdivia Harbour on the 2nd
+of February.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"The fortifications of Valdivia," he said, "are placed on both sides
+of a channel three quarters of a mile in width, and command the
+entrance, anchorage, and river leading to the town, crossing their
+fire in all directions so effectually that, with proper caution on the
+part of the garrison, no ship could enter without suffering severely,
+while she would be equally exposed at anchor. The principal forts on
+the western shore are placed in the following order:&mdash;El Ingles, San
+Carlos, Amargos, Chorocomayo, Alto, and Corral Castle. Those on the
+eastern side are Niebla, directly opposite Amargos, and Piojo; whilst
+on the island of Manzanera is a strong fort mounted with guns of large
+calibre, commanding the whole range of the entrance channel. These
+forts and a few others, fifteen in all, would render the place in the
+hands of a skilful garrison almost impregnable, the shores on
+which they stand being inaccessible by reason of the surf, with the
+exception of a small landing-place at Fort Ingles.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"It was to this landing-place that we first directed our attention,
+anchoring the brig and schooner off the guns of Fort Ingles on the
+afternoon of February the 3rd, amidst a swell which rendered immediate
+disembarkation impracticable. The troops were carefully kept below;
+and, to avert the suspicion of the Spaniards, we had trumped up a
+story of our having just arrived from Cadiz and being in want of a
+pilot. They told us to send a boat for one. To this we replied that
+our boats had been washed away in the passage round Cape Horn.
+Not being quite satisfied, they began to assemble troops at the
+landing-place, firing alarm-guns, and rapidly bringing up the
+garrisons of the western forts to Fort Ingles, but not molesting us.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Unfortunately for the credit of the story about the loss of the
+boats, which were at the time carefully concealed under the lee of the
+vessels, one drifted astern, so that our object became apparent, and
+the guns of Fort Ingles, under which we lay, forthwith opened upon
+us, the first shots passing through the sides of the <i>Intrepido</i> and
+killing two men, so that it became necessary to land in spite of the
+swell. We had only two launches and a gig. I directed the operation in
+the gig, whilst Major Miller, with forty-four marines, pushed off in
+the first launch, under the fire of the party at the landing-place,
+on to which they soon leaped, driving the Spaniards before them at
+the point of the bayonet. The second launch then pushed off from the
+<i>Intrepido</i>, while the other was returning; and in this way, in less
+than an hour, three hundred men had made good their footing on shore.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"The most difficult task, the capture of the forts, was to come. The
+only way in which the first, Fort Ingles, could be approached, was
+by a precipitous path, along which the men could only pass in single
+file, the fort itself being inaccessible except by a ladder, which the
+enemy, after being routed by Major Miller, had drawn up.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"As soon as it was dark, a picked party, under the guidance of one
+of the Spanish prisoners, silently advanced to the attack. This party
+having taken up its position, the main body moved forward, cheering
+and firing in the air, to intimate to the Spaniards that their
+chief reliance was on the bayonet. The enemy, meanwhile, kept up
+an incessant fire of artillery and musketry in the direction of the
+shouts, but without effect, as no aim could be taken in the dark.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Whilst the patriots were thus noisily advancing, a gallant young
+officer, Ensign Vidal, got under the inland flank of the fort, and,
+with a few men, contrived to tear up some pallisades, by which a
+bridge was made across the ditch. In that way he and his small party
+entered and formed noiselessly under cover of some branches of trees,
+while the garrison, numbering about eight hundred soldiers, were
+directing their whole attention in an opposite direction.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"A volley from Vidal's party convinced the Spaniards that they had
+been taken in flank. Without waiting to ascertain the number of those
+who had outflanked them, they instantly took to flight, filling with a
+like panic a column of three hundred men drawn up behind the fort.
+The Chilians, who were now well up, bayoneted them by dozens as they
+attempted to gain the forts; and when the forts were opened to receive
+them the patriots entered at the same time, and thus drove them from
+fort to fort into the Castle of Corral, together with two hundred more
+who had abandoned some guns advantageously placed on a height at Fort
+Chorocomayo. The Corral was stormed with equal rapidity, a number
+of the enemy escaping in boats to Valdivia, others plunging into the
+forest. Upwards of a hundred fell into our hands, and on the following
+morning the like number were found to have been bayoneted. Our loss
+was seven men killed and nineteen wounded.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"On the 5th, the <i>Intrepido</i> and <i>Montezuma</i>, which had been left near
+Fort Ingles, entered the harbour, being fired at in their passage by
+Fort Niebla, on the eastern shore. On their coming to an anchor at the
+Corral, two hundred men were again embarked to attack Forts Niebla,
+Carbonero, and Piojo. The <i>O'Higgins</i> also appeared in sight off the
+mouth of the harbour. The Spaniards thereupon summarily abandoned the
+forts on the eastern side; no doubt judging that, as the western forts
+had been captured without the aid of the frigate, they had, now that
+she had arrived, no chance of successfully defending them.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"On the 6th, the troops were again embarked to pursue the flying
+garrison up the river, when we received a flag of truce, informing us
+that the enemy had abandoned the town, after plundering the private
+houses and magazines, and with the governor, Colonel Montoya, had
+fled in the direction of Chiloe. The booty which fell into our
+hands, exclusive of the value of the forts and public buildings, was
+considerable, Valdivia being the chief military depôt in the southern
+side of the continent. Amongst the military stores were upwards of 50
+tons of gunpowder, 10,000 cannon-shot, 170,000 musket-cartridges, a
+large quantity of small arms, 128 guns, of which 53 were brass and the
+remainder iron, the ship <i>Dolores</i> &mdash;afterwards sold at Valparaiso for
+twenty thousand dollars&mdash;with public stores sold for the like value,
+and plate, of which General Sanchez had previously stripped the
+churches of Concepcion, valued at sixteen thousand dollars."
+Those prizes compensated over and over again for the loss of the
+<i>Intrepido</i>, which grounded in the channel, and the injuries done to
+the <i>O'Higgins</i> on her way to Valdivia.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+But the value of Lord Cochrane's capture of this stronghold was not to
+be counted in money. By its daring conception and easy completion
+the Spaniards, besides losing their great southern starting-point for
+attacks on Chili and the other states that were fighting for their
+freedom, lost heart, to a great extent, in their whole South American
+warfare. They saw that their insurgent colonists had now found a
+champion too bold, too cautious, too honest, and too prosperous for
+them any longer to hope that they could succeed in their efforts to
+win back the dependencies which were shaking off the thraldom of three
+centuries.
+</p>
+
+</div><!--end chapter-->
+
+<div class="chapter">
+
+<h2><a name="chap08"></a>CHAPTER VIII.</h2>
+
+<p class="letter">
+LORD COCHRANE'S RETURN TO VALPARAISO.&mdash;HIS ILL-TREATMENT BY
+THE CHILIAN SENATE.&mdash;THE THIRD EXPEDITION TO PERU.&mdash;GENERAL SAN
+MARTIN.&mdash;THE CAPTURE OF THE "ESMERALDA," AND ITS ISSUE.&mdash;LORD
+COCHRANE'S SUBSEQUENT WORK.&mdash;SAN MARTIN'S TREACHERY.&mdash;HIS
+ASSUMPTION OF THE PROTECTORATE OF PERU.&mdash;HIS BASE PROPOSALS TO LORD
+COCHRANE.&mdash;LORD COCHRANE'S CONDEMNATION OF THEM.&mdash;THE TROUBLES OF THE
+CHILIAN SQUADRON.&mdash;LORD COCHRANE'S SEIZURE OF TREASURE AT ANCON,
+AND EMPLOYMENT OF IT IN PAYING HIS OFFICERS AND MEN.&mdash;HIS STAY AT
+GUAYAQUIL.&mdash;THE ADVANTAGES OF FREE TRADE.&mdash;LORD COCHRANE'S
+CRUISE ALONG THE MEXICAN COAST IN SEARCH OF THE REMAINING SPANISH
+FRIGATES.&mdash;THEIR ANNEXATION BY PERU.&mdash;LORD COCHRANE'S LAST VISIT TO
+CALLAO.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+[1820-1822.]
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Lord Cochrane returned to Valparaiso on the 27th of February, 1820.
+By General O'Higgins, the Supreme Director, and by the populace he was
+enthusiastically received. But Zenteno, the Minister of Marine, and
+other members of the Government, jealous of the fresh renown which he
+had won by his conquest of Valdivia, showed their jealousy in various
+offensive ways.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+In anticipation of his failure they had prepared an elaborate charge
+of insubordination, in that he had not come back direct from
+Callao. Now that he had triumphed, they sought at first to have him
+reprimanded for attempting so hazardous an exploit, and afterwards
+to rob him of his due on the ground that his achievement was
+insignificant and valueless. When they were compelled by the voice of
+the people to declare publicly that "the capture of Valdivia was the
+happy result of an admirably-arranged plan and of the most daring
+execution," they refused to award either to him or to his comrades any
+other recompense than was contained in the verbal compliment; and,
+on his refusing to give up his prizes until the seamen had been
+paid their arrears of wages, he was threatened with prosecution for
+detention of the national property.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The threat was impotent, as the people of Chili would not for a moment
+have permitted such an indignity to their champion. But so irritating
+were this and other attempted persecutions to Lord Cochrane that, on
+the 14th of May, he tendered to the Supreme Director his resignation
+of service under the Chilian Government. That proposal was, of course,
+rejected; but with the rejection came a promise of better treatment.
+The seamen were paid in July, and the Valdivian prize-money was
+nominally awarded. Lord Cochrane's share amounted to 67,000 dollars,
+and to this was added a grant of land at Rio Clara. But the money was
+never paid, and the estate was forcibly seized a few years afterwards.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Other annoyances, which need not here be detailed, were offered to
+Lord Cochrane, and thus six months were wasted by Zenteno and his
+associates in the Chilian senate. "The senate," said Lord Cochrane,
+"was an anomaly in state government. It consisted of five members,
+whose functions were to remain only during the first struggles of the
+country for independence; but this body had now assumed a permanent
+right to dictatorial control, whilst there was no appeal from their
+arbitrary conduct, except to themselves. They arrogated the title
+of 'Most Excellent,' whilst the Supreme Director was simply 'His
+Excellency;' his position, though nominally head of the executive,
+being really that of mouthpiece to the senate, which, assuming all
+power, deprived the Executive Government of its legitimate influence,
+so that no armament could be equipped, no public work undertaken,
+no troops raised, and no taxes levied, except by the consent of this
+irresponsible body. For such a clique the plain, simple good sense
+of the Supreme Director was no match. He was led to believe that a
+crooked policy was a necessary evil of government, and, as such a
+policy was adverse to his own nature, he was the more easily induced
+to surrender its administration to others who were free from his
+conscientious principles." Those sentences explain the treatment to
+which, now and afterwards, Lord Cochrane was subjected.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+He was allowed, however, to do further excellent service to the nation
+which had already begun to reward him with nothing but ingratitude. As
+soon as the Chilian Government could turn from its spiteful exercise
+to its proper duty of consolidating the independence of the insurgents
+from Spanish dominion, it was resolved to despatch as strong a force
+as could be raised for another and more formidable expedition to
+Peru, whereby at the same time the Peruvians should be freed from the
+tyranny by which they were still oppressed, and the Chilians should be
+rid of the constant danger that they incurred from the presence of a
+Spanish army in Lima, Callao, and other garrisons, ready to bear down
+upon them again and again, as it had often done before. In 1819 Lord
+Cochrane had vainly asked for a suitable land force with which to aid
+his attack upon Callao. It was now resolved to organize a Liberating
+Army, after the fashion of that with which Bolivar had nobly scoured
+the northern districts of South America, and to place it under the
+direction of General San Martin, in co-operation with whom Lord
+Cochrane was to pursue his work as chief admiral of the fleet.
+San Martin had fought worthily in La Plata, and he had earned the
+gratitude of the Chilians by winning back their freedom in conjunction
+with O'Higgins in 1817. Vanity and ambition, however, had since
+unhinged him, and he now proved himself a champion of liberty very
+inferior, both in prowess and in honesty, to Bolivar.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+His army, numbering four thousand two hundred men, was collected by
+the 21st of August, and on that day it was embarked at Valparaiso in
+the whole Chilian squadron. Lord Cochrane proposed to go at once to
+Chilca, the nearest point both to Lima and to Callao. San Martin,
+however, decided upon Pisco as a safer landing-place, and there the
+troops were deposited on the 8th of September. For fifty days they
+were detained there, and the fleet was forced to share their idleness,
+capturing only a few passing merchantmen. On the 28th of October they
+were re-embarked, and Lord Cochrane again urged a vigorous attack on
+the capital and its port. Again he was thwarted by San Martin, who
+requested to be landed at Ancon, considerably to the north of Callao,
+and as unsuitable a halting-place as was the southerly town of Pisco.
+Lord Cochrane had to comply; but he bethought him of a plan for
+achieving a great work, in spite of San Martin. Sending the main body
+of his fleet to Ancon with the troops, no the 20th, he retained
+the <i>O'Higgins</i>, the <i>Independencia</i>, and the <i>Lautaro</i>, with the
+professed object of merely blockading Callao at a safe distance.
+"The fact was," he said, "that, annoyed, in common with the whole
+expedition, at this irresolution on the part of General San Martin, I
+determined that the means of Chili, furnished with great difficulty,
+should not be wholly wasted, without some attempt at accomplishing the
+object of the expedition. I accordingly formed a plan of attack with
+the three ships which I had kept back, though, being apprehensive
+that my design would be opposed by General San Martin, I had not
+even mentioned to him my intentions. This design was, to cut out the
+<i>Esmeralda</i> frigate from under the fortifications, and also to get
+possession of another ship, on board of which we had learned that a
+million of dollars was embarked."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The plan was certainly a bold one. The <i>Esmeralda</i>, of forty-four
+guns, was the finest Spanish ship in the Pacific Ocean. Now especially
+well armed and manned, in readiness for any work that had to be done,
+she was lying in Callao Harbour, protected by three hundred pieces
+of artillery on shore and by a strong boom with chain moorings,
+by twenty-seven gunboats and several armed block-ships. These
+considerations, however, only induced Lord Cochrane to proceed
+cautiously upon his enterprise. Three days were spent in preparations,
+the purpose of which was known only to himself and to his chief
+officers. On the afternoon of the 5th of November he issued this
+proclamation:&mdash;"Marines and seamen,&mdash;This night we shall give the
+enemy a mortal blow. To-morrow you will present yourself proudly
+before Callao, and all your comrades will envy your good fortune.
+One hour of courage and resolution is all that is required for you
+to triumph. Remember that you have conquered in Valdivia, and have no
+fear of those who have hitherto fled from you. The value of all the
+vessels captured in Callao will be yours, and the same reward will be
+distributed amongst you as has been offered by the Spaniards in Lima
+to those who should capture any of the Chilian squadron. The moment of
+glory is approaching. I hope that the Chilians will fight as they have
+been accustomed to do, and that the English will act as they have ever
+done at home and abroad."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+A request was made for volunteers, and the whole body of seamen and
+marines on board the three ships offered to follow Lord Cochrane
+wherever he might lead. This was more than he wanted. "A hundred
+and sixty seamen and eighty marines," said Lord Cochrane, whose own
+narrative of the sequel will best describe it, "were placed, after
+dark, in fourteen boats alongside the flag-ship, each man, armed with
+cutlass and pistol, being, for distinction's sake, dressed in white,
+with a blue band on the left arm. The Spaniards, I expected, would
+be off their guard, and consider themselves safe from attack for that
+night, since, by way of ruse, the other ships had been sent out of the
+bay under the charge of Captain Foster, as though in pursuit of some
+vessels in the offing.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"At ten o'clock all was in readiness, the boats being formed in two
+divisions, the first commanded by Flag-Captain Crosbie and the second
+by Captain Gruise,&mdash;my boat leading. The strictest silence and the
+exclusive use of cutlasses were enjoined; so that, as the oars were
+muffled and the night was dark, the enemy had not the least suspicion
+of the impending attack.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"It was just upon midnight when we neared the small opening left in
+the boom, our plan being well-nigh frustrated by the vigilance of a
+guard-boat upon which my launch had unluckily stumbled. The challenge
+was given, upon which, in an undertone, I threatened the occupants of
+the boat with instant death if they made the least alarm. No reply
+was made to the threat, and in a few minutes our gallant fellows
+were alongside the frigate in line, boarding at several points
+simultaneously. The Spaniards were completely taken by surprise,
+the whole, with the exception of the sentries, being asleep at their
+quarters; and great was the havoc made amongst them by the Chilian
+cutlasses whilst they were recovering themselves. Retreating to the
+forecastle, they there made a gallant stand, and it was not until the
+third charge that the position was carried. The fight was for a short
+time renewed on the quarterdeck, where the Spanish marines fell to
+a man, the rest of the enemy leaping overboard and into the hold to
+escape slaughter.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"On boarding the ship by the main-chains, I was knocked back by the
+sentry's musket, and falling on the tholl-pin of the boat, it entered
+my back near the spine, inflicting a severe injury, which caused me
+many years of subsequent suffering. Immediately regaining my footing,
+I reascended the side, and, when on deck, was shot through the thigh.
+But, binding a handkerchief tightly round the wound, I managed, though
+with great difficulty, to direct the contest to its close.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"The whole affair, from beginning to end, occupied only a quarter of
+an hour, our loss being eleven killed and thirty wounded, whilst that
+of the Spaniards was a hundred and sixty, many of whom fell under
+the cutlasses of the Chilians before they could stand to their arms.
+Greater bravery I never saw displayed than by our gallant fellows.
+Before boarding, the duties of all had been appointed, and a party
+was told off to take possession of the tops. We had not been on deck
+a minute, when I hailed the foretop, and was instantly answered by our
+own men, an equally prompt answer being returned from the frigate's
+main-top. No British man-of-war's crew could have excelled this minute
+attention to orders.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"The uproar speedily alarmed the garrison, who, hastening to their
+guns, opened fire on their own frigate, thus paying us the compliment
+of having taken it; though, even in this case, their own men must
+still have been on board, so that firing on them was a wanton
+proceeding. Several Spaniards were killed or wounded by the shot of
+the fortress. Amongst the wounded was Captain Coig, the commander of
+the <i>Esmeralda</i>, who, after he was made prisoner, received a severe
+contusion by a shot from his own party.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"The fire from the fortress was, however, neutralized by a successful
+expedient. There were two foreign ships of war present during the
+contest, the United States frigate <i>Macedonian</i> and the British
+frigate <i>Hyperion</i> ; and these, as had been previously agreed upon with
+the Spanish authorities in case of a night attack, hoisted peculiar
+lights as signals, to prevent being fired upon. This contingency being
+provided for by us, as soon as the fortress commenced its fire on the
+<i>Esmeralda</i>, we also ran up similar lights, so that the garrison did
+not know which vessel to fire at. The <i>Hyperion</i> and <i>Macedonian</i> were several times struck, while the <i>Esmeralda</i> was comparatively
+untouched. Upon this the neutral vessels cut their cables and moved
+away. Contrary to my orders, Captain Gruise then cut the <i>Esmeralda's</i> cables also, so that there was nothing to be done but to loose her
+topsails and follow. The fortress thereupon ceased its fire.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"I had distinctly ordered that the cables of the <i>Esmeralda</i> were not
+to be cut, but that after taking her, the force was to capture the
+<i>Maypeu</i>, a brig of war previously taken from Chili, and then to
+attack and cut adrift every ship near, there being plenty of time
+before us. I had no doubt that, when the <i>Esmeralda</i> was taken, the
+Spaniards would desert the other ships as fast as their boats would
+permit them, so that the whole might have been either captured or
+burnt. To this end all my previous plans had been arranged; but, on
+my being placed <i>hors de combat</i> by my wounds, Captain Gruise, on whom
+the command of the prize devolved, chose to interpose his own judgment
+and content himself with the <i>Esmeralda</i> alone; the reason assigned
+being that the English had broken into her spirit-room and were
+getting drunk, whilst the Chilians were disorganized by plundering.
+It was a great mistake. If we could capture the <i>Esmeralda</i> with her
+picked and well-appointed crew, there would have been little or no
+difficulty in cutting the other ships adrift in succession. It would
+only have been the rout of Valdivia over again, chasing the enemy,
+without loss, from ship to ship instead of from fort to fort."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Lord Cochrane's exploit, however, though less complete than he had
+intended, was as successful in its issue as it was brilliant in its
+achievement. "This loss of the <i>Esmeralda</i>," wrote Captain Basil Hall,
+then commanding a British war-ship in South American waters, "was a
+death-blow to the Spanish naval force in that quarter of the world;
+for, although there were still two Spanish frigates and some smaller
+vessels in the Pacific, they never afterwards ventured to show
+themselves, but left Lord Cochrane undisputed master of the coast."
+The speedy liberation of Peru was its direct consequence, although
+that good work was seriously impaired by the continued and increasing
+misconduct of General San Martin, inducing troubles, of which Lord
+Cochrane received his full share.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+In the first burst of his enthusiasm at the intelligence of Lord
+Cochrane's action, San Martin was generous for once. "The importance
+of the service you have rendered to the country, my lord," he wrote on
+the 10th of November, "by the capture of the frigate <i>Esmeralda</i>, and
+the brilliant manner in which you conducted the gallant officers and
+seamen under your orders to accomplish that noble enterprise, have
+augmented the gratitude due to your former services by the Government,
+as well as that of all interested in the public welfare and in your
+fame. All those who participated in the risks and glory of the deed
+also deserve well of their countrymen; and I have the satisfaction to
+be the medium of transmitting the sentiments of admiration which such
+transcendent success has excited in the chiefs of the army under my
+command." "It is impossible for me to eulogize in proper language,"
+he also wrote to the Chilian administration, "the daring enterprise
+of the 5th of November, by which Lord Cochrane has decided the
+superiority of our naval forces, augmented the splendour and power of
+Chili, and secured the success of this campaign."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+A few days later, however, San Martin wrote in very different terms.
+"Before the General-in-Chief left the Vice-Admiral of the squadron,"
+he said, in a bulletin to the army, "they agreed on the execution of
+a memorable project, sufficient to astonish intrepidity itself, and to
+make the history of the liberating expedition of Peru eternal." "This
+glory," he added, "was reserved for the Liberating Army, whose efforts
+have snatched the victims of tyranny from its hands." Thus impudently
+did he arrogate to himself a share, at any rate, in the initiation of
+a project which Lord Cochrane, knowing that he would oppose it, had
+purposely kept secret from him, and assign the whole merit of its
+completion to the army which his vacillation and incompetence were
+holding in unwelcome inactivity.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Lord Cochrane was too much accustomed to personal injustice, however,
+to be very greatly troubled by that fresh indignity. It was a far
+heavier trouble to him that his first triumph was not allowed to be
+supplemented by prompt completion of the work on which, and not on
+any individual aggrandisement, his heart was set&mdash;the establishment of
+Peruvian as well as Chilian freedom.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+San Martin, having done nothing hitherto but allow his army to waste
+its strength and squander its resources, first at Pisco and afterwards
+at Ancon, now fixed upon Huacha as another loitering-place. Thither
+Lord Cochrane had to convey it, before he was permitted to resume the
+blockade of Callao. This blockade lasted, though not all the while
+under his personal direction, for eight months.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Several attempts were now made," said Lord Cochrane, with reference
+to the first few weeks of the blockade, "to entice the remaining
+Spanish naval force from their shelter under the batteries by placing
+the <i>Esmeralda</i> apparently within reach, and the flagship herself in
+situations of some danger. One day I carried her through an intricate
+strait called the Boqueron, in which nothing beyond a fifty-ton
+schooner was ever seen. The Spaniards, expecting every moment to see
+the ship strike, manned their gunboats, ready to attack as soon as she
+was aground; of which there was little danger, for we had found, and
+buoyed off with small bits of wood invisible to the enemy, a channel
+through which a vessel could pass without much difficulty. At another
+time, the Esmeralda being in a more than usually tempting position,
+the Spanish gunboats ventured out in the hope of recapturing her, and
+for an hour maintained a smart fire; but on seeing the <i>O'Higgins</i> manoeuvring to cut them off, they precipitately retreated."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+In ways like those the Spaniards were locked in, and harassed, in
+Callao Bay. Good result came in the steady weakening of the Spanish
+cause. On the 3rd of December, six hundred and fifty soldiers deserted
+to the Chilian army. On the 8th they were followed by forty officers;
+and after that hardly a day passed without some important defections
+to the patriot force.'
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Unfortunately, however, there was weakness also among the patriots.
+San Martin, idle himself, determined to profit by the advantages,
+direct and indirect, which Lord Cochrane's prowess had secured and
+was securing. It began to be no secret that, as soon as Peru was
+freed from the Spanish yoke, he proposed to subject it to a military
+despotism of his own. This being resented by Lord Cochrane, who on
+other grounds could have little sympathy or respect for his associate,
+coolness arose between the leaders. Lord Cochrane, anxious to do
+some more important work, if only a few troops might be allowed to
+co-operate with his sailors, was forced to share some of San Martin's
+inactivity. In March, 1821, he offered, if two thousand soldiers were
+assigned to him, to capture Lima; and when this offer was rejected, he
+declared himself willing to undertake the work with half the number of
+men. With difficulty he at last obtained a force of six hundred; and
+by them and the fleet nearly all the subsequent fighting in Peru
+was done. Lord Cochrane did not venture upon a direct assault on the
+capital with so small an army; but he used it vigorously from point to
+point on the coast, between Callao and Arica, and thus compelled the
+capitulation of Lima on the 6th of July.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Again, as heretofore, he was thanked in the first moment of triumph,
+to be slighted at leisure. Lord Cochrane, on entering the city, was
+welcomed as the great deliverer of Peru: the medals distributed on
+the 28th of July&mdash;the day on which Peru's independence was
+proclaimed&mdash;testified that the honour was due to General San Martin
+and his Liberating Army. That, however, was only part of a policy long
+before devised. "It is now became evident to me," said Lord Cochrane,
+"that the army had been kept inert for the purpose of preserving it
+entire to further the ambitious views of the General, and that, with
+the whole force now at Lima, the inhabitants were completely at the
+mercy of their pretended liberator, but in reality their conqueror."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+With that policy, however much he reprobated it, Lord Cochrane wisely
+judged that it was not for him to quarrel. "As the existence of this
+self-constituted authority," he said, "was no less at variance with
+the institutions of the Chilian Republic than with its solemn
+promises to the Peruvians, I hoisted my flag on board the <i>O'Higgins</i>,
+determined to adhere solely to the interests of Chili; but not
+interfering in any way with General San Martin's proceedings till they
+interfered with me in my capacity as Commander-in-Chief of the Chilian
+navy." He was not, therefore, in Lima on the 3rd of August, when San
+Martin issued a proclamation declaring himself Protector of Peru, and
+appointing three of his creatures as his Ministers of State. Of the
+way in which he became acquainted of this violent and lawless measure,
+a precise description has been given by an eye-witness, Mr. W.B.
+Stevenson.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"On the following morning, the 4th of August," he says, "Lord
+Cochrane, uninformed of the change which had taken place in the
+title of San Martin, visited the palace, and began to beg the
+General-in-Chief to propose some means for the payment of the seamen
+who had served their time and fulfilled their contract. To this San
+Martin answered that 'he would never pay the Chilian squadron unless
+it was sold to Peru, and then the payment should be considered part of
+the purchase-money.' Lord Cochrane replied that 'by such a transaction
+the squadron of Chili would be transferred to Peru by merely paying
+what was due to the officers and crews for services done to that
+State.' San Martin knit his brows and, turning to his ministers,
+Garcia and Monteagudo, ordered them to retire; to which his lordship
+objected, stating that, 'as he was not master of the Spanish language,
+he wished them to remain as interpreters, being fearful that some
+expression, not rightly understood, might be considered offensive.'
+San Martin now turned round to the Admiral and said, 'Are you aware,
+my lord, that I am Protector of Peru?' 'No,' said his lordship. 'I
+ordered my secretaries to inform you of it,' returned San Martin.
+'That is now unnecessary, for you have personally informed me,' said
+his lordship: 'I hope that the friendship which has existed between
+General San Martin and myself will continue to exist between the
+Protector of Peru and myself.' San Martin then, rubbing his hands,
+said, 'I have only to say that I am Protector of Peru.' The manner
+in which this last sentence was expressed roused the Admiral, who,
+advancing, said, 'Then it becomes me, as senior officer of Chili,
+and consequently the representative of the nation, to request the
+fulfilment of all the promises made to Chili and the squadron; but
+first, and principally, the squadron.' San Martin returned, 'Chili!
+Chili! I will never pay a single real to Chili! As to the squadron,
+you may take it where you please, and go where you choose. A couple
+of schooners are quite enough for me.' On hearing this Garcia left the
+room, and Monteagudo walked to the balcony. San Martin paced the room
+for a short time, and, turning to his lordship, said, 'Forget, my
+lord, what is past.' The Admiral replied, 'I will when I can,' and
+immediately left the palace.[A] "One thing has been omitted in
+the preceding narrative," said Lord Cochrane. "General San Martin,
+following me to the staircase, had the temerity to propose to me
+to follow his example&mdash;namely, to break faith with the Chilian
+Government, to which we had both sworn, to abandon the squadron to his
+interests, and to accept the higher grade of First Admiral of Peru.
+I need scarcely say that a proposition so dishonourable was declined;
+when, in a tone of irritation, he declared that 'he would neither give
+the seamen their arrears of pay nor the gratuity he had promised.'"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+[Footnote A: W.B. Stevenson, "Twenty Years' Residence in South
+America." 1825.]
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Lord Cochrane lost no time in returning to his flagship in Callao
+Roads. Thence, however, on the 7th of August, he wrote a letter to San
+Martin, couched in terms as temperate and persuasive as he could bring
+himself to use. "My dear General," he there said, "I address you
+for the last time under your late designation, being aware that the
+liberty I may take as a friend might not be deemed decorous to you
+under the title of Protector, for I shall not, with a gentleman of
+your understanding, take into account, as a motive for abstaining to
+speak truth, any chance of your resentment. Nay, were I certain that
+such would be the effect of this letter, I would nevertheless perform
+such an act of friendship, in repayment of the support you gave me
+at a time when the basest plots were laid for my dismissal from the
+Chilian service. Permit me to give you the experience of eleven years,
+during which I sat in the first senate in the world, and to say what I
+anticipate on the one hand, and what I fear on the other&mdash;nay, what
+I foresee. You have it in your power to be the Napoleon of South
+America; but you have also the power to choose your course, and if the
+first steps are false, the eminence on which you stand will, as though
+from the brink of a precipice, make your fall the more heavy and the
+more certain. The real strength of government is public opinion. What
+would the world say, were the Protector of Peru, as his first act, to
+cancel the bonds of San Martin, even though gratitude may be a private
+and not a public virtue? What would they say, were the Protector to
+refuse to pay the expense of that expedition which placed him in his
+present elevated situation? What would they say, were it promulgated
+to the world that he intended not even to remunerate those employed
+in the navy which contributed to his success?" Much more to the same
+effect Lord Cochrane wrote, urging honesty upon San Martin as the only
+path by which he could win for himself a permanent success, and making
+a special claim upon his honesty in the interests of the seamen and
+naval officers, to whom neither pay nor prize-money had been given
+since their departure from Chili nearly a year before.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+It was all in vain. San Martin wrote, on the 9th of August, a
+letter making professions of virtue and acknowledging much personal
+indebtedness to Lord Cochrane and the fleet, but evading the whole
+question at issue. "I am disposed," he said, "to recompense valour
+displayed in the cause of the country. But you know, my lord, that the
+wages of the crews do not come under these circumstances, and that I,
+never having engaged to pay the amount, am not obliged to do so. That
+debt is due from Chili, whose Government engaged the seamen."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Lord Cochrane knew that Chili would decline to pay for work that, if
+intended to be done in its interests, had been perverted from that
+intention; and his crews, also knowing it, became reasonably mutinous.
+After much further correspondence&mdash;in which San Martin suggested as
+his only remedy that Lord Cochrane should accept the dishonourable
+proposal made to him, and, becoming himself First Admiral of Peru,
+should induce the fleet to join in the same rebellion against Chili to
+which the army had been brought by its general, and in which Captains
+Guise and Spry, always evil-minded, had already joined&mdash;Lord Cochrane
+adopted a bold but altogether justifiable manoeuvre. A large quantity
+of treasure, seized from the Spaniards, having been deposited by San
+Martin at Ancon, he sailed thither, in the middle of September, and
+quietly took possession of it. So much as lawful owners could be
+found for was given up to them. With the residue, amounting to 285,000
+dollars, Lord Cochrane paid off the year's arrears to every officer
+and man in his employ, taking nothing for himself, but reserving the
+small surplus for the pressing exigencies and re-equipment of the
+squadron.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+It is unnecessary to detail the angry correspondence that arose out
+of that rough act of justice. Before the money was distributed,
+treacherous offers to restore it and enter into rebellious league with
+San Martin were made to Lord Cochrane; and with these were alternated
+mock-virtuous complaints and bombastic threats. Both bribes and
+threats were treated by him with equal contempt.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"After a lapse of nearly forty years' anxious consideration," he wrote
+in 1858, "I cannot reproach myself with having done any wrong in
+the seizure of the money of the Protectorial Government. General San
+Martin and myself had been in our respective departments deputed to
+liberate Peru from Spain, and to give to the Peruvians the same free
+institutions which Chili herself enjoyed. The first part of our object
+had been fully effected by the achievements and vigilance of the
+squadron; the second part was frustrated by General San Martin
+arrogating to himself despotic power, which set at naught the wishes
+and voice of the people. As 'my fortune in common with his own' was
+only to be secured by acquiescence in the wrong he had done to Chili
+by casting off his allegiance to her, and by upholding him in the
+still greater wrong he was inflicting on Peru, I did not choose to
+sacrifice my self-esteem and professional character by lending myself
+as an instrument to purposes so unworthy. I did all in my power
+to warn General San Martin of the consequences of ambition so
+ill-directed, but the warning was neglected, if not despised. Chili
+trusted to him to defray the expenses of the squadron, when its
+objects, as laid down by the Supreme Director, should be accomplished;
+but, in place of fulfilling the obligation, he permitted the squadron
+to starve, its crews to go in rags, and the ships to be in perpetual
+danger for want of the proper equipment which Chili could not afford
+to give them when they sailed from Valparaiso. The pretence for this
+neglect was want of means, though, at the same time, money to a
+vast amount was sent away from the capital to Ancon. Seeing that no
+intention existed on the part of the Protector's Government to do
+justice to the Chilian squadron, whilst every effort was made to
+excite discontent among the officers and men with the purpose of
+procuring their transfer to Peru, I seized the public money, satisfied
+the men, and saved the navy to the Chilian Republic, which afterwards
+warmly thanked me for what I had done. Despite the obloquy cast upon
+me by the Protector's Government, there was nothing wrong in the
+course I pursued, if only for the reason that, if the Chilian squadron
+was to be preserved, it was impossible for me to have done otherwise.
+Years of reflection have only produced the conviction that, were I
+again placed in similar circumstances, I should adopt precisely the
+same course."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+In spite of his treachery to the Chilian Government, General San
+Martin professed to retain his functions as Commander-in-Chief of the
+Chilian liberating expedition to Peru; and, accordingly, when he found
+it useless to make further efforts, by bribes or threats, to seduce
+Lord Cochrane from his allegiance, he ordered him to return at once to
+Valparaiso. This order Lord Cochrane refused to obey, seeing that the
+work entrusted to him&mdash;the entire destruction of the Spanish squadron
+in the Pacific&mdash;had not yet been completed.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+He determined to complete that work, first going to Guayaquil to
+repair and refit his ships, which San Martin would not allow him to do
+in any Peruvian port. He was thus employed during six weeks following
+the 18th of October, 1821.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+On his departure, a complimentary address from the townsmen afforded
+him an opportunity of offering some good advice on a matter in which
+his long and intelligent political experience showed him that they
+were especially at fault. The inhabitants of Guayaquil, like many
+other young communities, sought to increase their revenues and
+strengthen their independence by violent restrictions upon foreign
+commerce and arbitrary support of native monopolists. Lord Cochrane
+eloquently propounded to them the doctrine of free trade. "Let your
+public press," he said, "declare the consequences of monopoly, and
+affix your names to the defence of your enlightened system. Let it
+show, if your province contains eighty thousand inhabitants, and if
+eighty of these are privileged merchants according to the old system,
+that nine hundred and ninety-nine persons out of a thousand must
+suffer because their cotton, coffee, tobacco, timber, and other
+productions, must come into the hands of the monopolist, as the only
+purchaser of what they have to sell, and the only seller of what they
+must necessarily buy; the effect being that he will buy at the lowest
+possible rate and sell at the dearest, so that not only are the nine
+hundred and ninety-nine injured, but the lands will remain waste, the
+manufactories without workmen, and the people will be lazy and poor
+for want of a stimulus, it being a law of nature that no man will
+labour solely for the gain of another. Tell the monopolist that the
+true method of acquiring general riches, political power, and even his
+own private advantage, is to sell his country's produce as high, and
+foreign goods as low, as possible, and that public competition can
+alone accomplish this. Let foreign merchants, who bring capital,
+and those who practise any art or handicraft, be permitted to settle
+freely. Thus a competition will be formed, from which all must reap
+advantage. Then will land and fixed property increase in value. The
+magazines, instead of being the receptacles of filth and crime, will
+be full of the richest foreign and domestic productions; and all will
+be energy and activity, because the reward will be in proportion to
+the labour. Your river will be filled with ships, and the monopolist
+degraded and shamed. You will bless the day in which Omnipotence
+permitted to be rent asunder the veil of obscurity, under which the
+despotism of Spain, the abominable tyranny of the Inquisition, and the
+want of liberty of the press, so long hid the truth from your sight.
+Let your customs' duties be moderate, in order to promote the greatest
+possible consumption of foreign and domestic goods; then smuggling
+will cease and the returns to the treasury increase. Let every man
+do as he pleases as regards his own property, views, and interests;
+because each individual will watch over his own with more zeal than
+senates, ministers, or kings. By your enlarged views set an example
+to the New World; and thus, as Guayaquil is, from its situation,
+the central republic, it will become the centre of the agriculture,
+commerce, and riches of the Pacific."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Lord Cochrane left Guayaquil on the 3rd of December, and cruised
+northwards in search of the <i>Prueba</i> and the <i>Venganza</i>, the only two
+remaining Spanish frigates, which had made their escape from Callao
+and gone in the direction of Mexico. He sailed along the Colombian
+and Mexican coasts as far as Acapulco, where he called on the 29th
+of January, 1822, without finding the objects of his search. He there
+learned, on the 2nd of February, from an in-coming merchantman, that
+the frigates had eluded him and were now somewhere to the southwards.
+Upon that he at once retraced his course, and, in spite of a storm
+which nearly wrecked his two best ships, one of them being the
+captured <i>Esmeralda</i>, now christened the <i>Valdivia</i>, was at Guayaquil
+again on the 13th of March. There, as he expected, from information
+received on the passage, he found the <i>Venganza.</i> Both the frigates
+had been compelled, by want of provisions, to run the risk of halting
+at Guayaquil, whither also an envoy from San Martin had arrived,
+instructed to tempt the Guayaquilians into friendship with Peru and
+jealousy of Chili. On the appearance of the Spanish frigates, he had
+persuaded their captains, as the only means of averting the certain
+ruin that Lord Cochrane was planning for them, quietly to surrender to
+the Peruvian Government. In this way Chili was cheated of its prizes,
+although Lord Cochrane's main object, the entire overthrow of the
+Spanish war shipping in the Pacific, was accomplished without further
+use of powder and shot. The <i>Prueba</i> had been sent to Callao, and the
+<i>Venganza</i> was now being refitted at Guayaquil.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Lord Cochrane had now done all that it was possible for him to do in
+fulfilment of the naval mission on which he had quitted Chili a year
+and a half before. Proceeding southward, he anchored in Callao Roads
+from the 25th of April till the 10th of May. San Martin's Government,
+fearing punishment for their misdeeds, prepared to defend Callao. Lord
+Cochrane, however, wrote to say that he had no intention of making
+war upon the Peruvians; that all he asked was adequate payment for
+the services rendered to them by his officers and seamen. In the
+same letter he denounced the new treachery that had been shown with
+reference to the <i>Venganza</i> and the <i>Prueba</i>.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The answer to that letter was a visit from San Martin's chief
+minister, who begged Lord Cochrane to recall it, and impudently
+repeated the old offers of service under the Peruvian Government,
+adding that San Martin had written a private letter to the same
+effect. "Tell the Protector from me," said Lord Cochrane, "that if,
+after the conduct he has pursued, he had sent me a private letter, it
+would certainly have been returned unanswered. You may also tell him
+that it is not my wish to injure him, that I neither fear him nor hate
+him, but that I disapprove of his conduct."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Lord Cochrane's brief stay off Callao sufficed to convince him that,
+though the people of Peru were being for the time subjected to a
+tyranny almost equal to that practised by Spain, no one was likely to
+be long in fear of San Martin, as his treacheries and his vices were
+already bringing upon him well-deserved disgrace and punishment. To
+that purport Lord Cochrane wrote to O'Higgins on the 2nd of May. "As
+the attached and sincere friend of your excellency," he said, "I hope
+you will take into your serious consideration the propriety of at once
+fixing the Chilian Government upon a base not to be shaken by the
+fall of the present tyranny in Peru, of which there are not only
+indications, but the result is inevitable&mdash;unless, indeed, the
+mischievous counsels of vain and mercenary men can suffice to prop up
+a fabric of the most barbarous political architecture, serving as a
+screen from whence to dart their weapons against the heart of liberty.
+Thank God, my hands are free from the stain of labouring in any such
+work; and having finished all you gave me to do, I may now rest till
+you shall command my further endeavours for the honour and security of
+my adopted land."
+</p>
+
+</div><!--end chapter-->
+
+<div class="chapter">
+
+<h2><a name="chap09"></a>CHAPTER IX.</h2>
+
+<p class="letter">
+LORD COCHRANE'S RETURN TO VALPARAISO.&mdash;HIS FURTHER ILL-TREATMENT BY
+THE CHILIAN GOVERNMENT.&mdash;HIS RESIGNATION OF CHILIAN EMPLOYMENT, AND
+ACCEPTANCE OF EMPLOYMENT UNDER THE EMPEROR OF BRAZIL.&mdash;HIS SUBSEQUENT
+CORRESPONDENCE WITH THE GOVERNMENT OF CHILI.&mdash;THE RESULTS OF HIS
+CHILIAN SERVICE.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+[1822-1823.]
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Lord Cochrane returned to Valparaiso on the 3rd of June, 1822, having
+been absent more than twenty months. An enthusiastic welcome awaited
+him. Medals were struck in his honour, and in various ephemeral ways
+the public gratitude was expressed.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+It was, however, only ephemeral. There was no substantial recognition
+of his great services. His men were left unpaid, and he himself was
+subjected to further indignities of the sort already described. It is
+not necessary here to give any detailed account of them, or to enter
+into a particular rehearsal of his efforts during the next six months
+to continue his beneficial services to Chili. He had done the great
+service for which he had been invited to South America. In the course
+of about three years he had scoured the Pacific of the Spanish ships,
+which had offered an obstacle too serious for the patriots to overcome
+by any force or wisdom of their own. He had made it possible for
+them to assert their independence of a foreign yoke, and, if their
+patriotism had been genuine enough, to work out internal reforms, by
+which the sometime colonies of Spain in South America might have been
+able to vie in greatness with the sometime colonies of England in the
+northern continent. The benefits which he conferred especially upon
+Chili were shared by all the liberated communities along the whole
+Pacific coastline up to Mexico. But all were alike ungrateful, except
+in fitful words and in sentiments that prompted to no action.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Shortly after his return to Chili, Lord Cochrane went to live upon the
+estates that had been conferred upon him. Soon, however, he was forced
+to go back to Valparaiso, there to look after the interests of the
+officers and crews who had served him and Chili during the previous
+fighting time. His earnest arguments on their behalf were not heeded.
+The poor fellows were left to starve and be perished by the cold of
+a South American winter, against which the pitiful rags in which they
+were clothed afforded no protection. And before long fresh incidents
+arose which made it impossible for him to persevere in fighting their
+battle.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+General San Martin, having run his course of petty tyranny in Peru,
+was soon forced to resign his protectorate and seek safety in Chili.
+He reached Valparaiso on the 12th of October, and then Lord Cochrane,
+who had long before seen good reasons for suspecting it, was convinced
+that Zenteno and many other influential men in Chili were in league
+with him. He claimed that San Martin should be tried by court-martial
+for his treasons, known to all the world. Instead of that San Martin
+was loaded with honours, and fresh indignities were heaped upon
+his chief accuser. This monstrous action of the ministers led to a
+revolution, which, if Lord Cochrane had stayed to the end, might have
+proved much to his advantage. But the revolution, headed by General
+Freire, an honest man, had for its object the overthrow of O'Higgins,
+also an honest man, though too weak to withstand the influences
+brought to bear upon him by the bad men by whom he was surrounded.
+Lord Cochrane refused Freire's offers to join in opposition to
+O'Higgins, always, as far as his small powers permitted, his good
+friend. He preferred to abandon Chili, or rather to allow it to
+abandon one who had done for it so much and had received so little in
+return. "The difficulties," he said, in a dignified letter addressed
+to General O'Higgins, still nominally the Supreme Director, in which
+he virtually resigned his appointment as Vice-Admiral of the Republic,
+"the difficulties which I have experienced in accomplishing the naval
+enterprises successfully achieved during the period of my command as
+Admiral of Chili have not been mastered without responsibility such as
+I would scarcely again undertake, not because I would hesitate to make
+any personal sacrifice in a cause of so much interest, but because
+even these favourable results have led to the total alienation of
+the sympathies of meritorious officers&mdash;whose co-operation was
+indispensable&mdash;in consequence of the conduct of the Government.
+That which has made most impression on their minds has been, not the
+privations they have suffered, nor the withholding of their pay
+and other dues, but the absence of any public acknowledgment by the
+Government of the honours and distinctions promised for their fidelity
+and constancy to Chili; especially at a time when no temptation was
+withheld that could induce them to abandon the cause of Chili for the
+service of the Protector of Peru. Ever since that time, though there
+was no want of means or knowledge of facts on the part of the Chilian
+Government, it has submitted itself to the influence of the agents
+of an individual whose power, having ceased in Peru, has been again
+resumed in Chili. The effect of this on me is so keen that I cannot
+trust myself in words to express my personal feelings. Whatever I
+have recommended or asked for the good of the naval service has been
+scouted or denied, though acquiescence would have placed Chili in
+the first rank of maritime states in this quarter of the globe. My
+requisitions and suggestions were founded on the practice of the first
+naval service in the world&mdash;that of England. They have, however, met
+with no consideration, as though their object had been directed to
+my own personal benefit. Until now I have never eaten the bread of
+idleness. I cannot reconcile to my mind a state of inactivity which
+might even now impose upon the Chilian Republic an annual pension for
+past services; especially as an Admiral of Peru is actually in command
+of a portion of the Chilian squadron, whilst other vessels are sent to
+sea without the orders under which they act being communicated to
+me, and are despatched through the instrumentality of the governor of
+Valparaiso [Zenteno]. I mention these circumstances incidentally as
+having confirmed me in the resolution to withdraw myself from Chili
+for a time, asking nothing for myself during my absence; whilst, as
+regards the sums owing to me, I forbear to press for their payment
+till the Government shall be more freed from its difficulties. I have
+complied with all that my public duty demanded, and, if I have
+not been able to accomplish more, the deficiency has arisen from
+circumstances beyond my control. At any rate, having the world still
+before me, I hope to prove that it is not owing to me. I have received
+proposals from Mexico, from Brazil, and from a European state, but
+have not as yet accepted any of these offers. Nevertheless, the habits
+of my life do not permit me to refuse my services to those labouring
+under oppression, as Chili was before the annihilation of the Spanish
+naval force in the Pacific. In this I am prepared to justify whatever
+course I may pursue. In thus taking leave of Chili, I do so with
+sentiments of deep regret that I have not been suffered to be more
+useful to the cause of liberty, and that I am compelled to separate
+myself from individuals with whom I hoped to live for a long period,
+without violating such sentiments of honour as, were they broken,
+would render me odious to myself and despicable in their eyes."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+That letter sufficiently explains the reasons which induced Lord
+Cochrane to resign his Chilian command. He had, as he said, received
+invitations to enter the service of Brazil, of Mexico, and of Greece.
+The Mexican offer he declined at once, as acceptance of it would
+involve little of the active work in fighting which, if for a good
+cause, was always attractive to him. Assistance of the Greeks who, a
+year and a half before, had begun to throw off their long servitude to
+Turkey, and who were now fighting desperately for their freedom,
+was an enterprise on which he would gladly have embarked, but
+the invitation from Brazil was more pressing, and he therefore
+conditionally accepted it. "The war in the Pacific," he said, on the
+29th of November, in answer to two letters written on behalf of the
+newly-elected Emperor of Brazil, "having been happily terminated by
+the total destruction of the Spanish naval force, I am, of course,
+free for the crusade of liberty in any other quarter of the globe. I
+confess, however, that I have not hitherto directed my attention
+to the Brazils; considering that the struggle for the liberties of
+Greece, the most oppressed of modern states, afforded the fairest
+opportunity for enterprise and exertion. I have to-day tendered my
+ultimate resignation to the Government of Chili, and am not at this
+moment aware that any material delay will be necessary previous to my
+setting off, by way of Cape Horn, for Rio de Janeiro; it being, in the
+meantime, understood that I hold myself free to decline, as well as
+entitled to accept, the offer which has, through you, been made to me
+by his Imperial Majesty. I only mention this from a desire to preserve
+a consistency of character, should the Government (which I by no means
+anticipate) differ so widely in its nature from those which I have
+been in the habit of supporting as to render the proposed situation
+repugnant to my principles, and so justly expose me to suspicion, and
+render me unworthy the confidence of his Majesty and the nation."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+In accordance with the terms of that letter, Lord Cochrane wrote as we
+have seen to the Supreme Director of Chili, not completely resigning
+his employment, but proposing to absent himself for an indefinite
+period. His proposal was at once accepted by the Chilian Government,
+to whom his honesty and his popularity with the people made him
+particularly obnoxious. He thereupon made prompt arrangements for his
+departure. He quitted Valparaiso on the 18th of January, 1823, in a
+vessel chartered for his own use and that of several European officers
+and seamen, who, like him, were tired of Chilian ingratitude, and who
+begged to be employed under him wherever he might serve.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Of the subsequent occurrences in the Western States, for which he had
+done so much, and tried to do so much more than was permitted, it is
+enough to say that Peru, sadly abused by San Martin, and almost won
+back to Spain, was rescued by the valour and wisdom of Bolivar, and
+that Chili, destined to much future trouble through the bad action
+of its false patriots, was temporarily benefited by the successful
+revolution which placed General Freire in the Supreme Directorship.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Lord Cochrane had not been absent three months before a new Minister
+of Marine wrote to inform him of Freire's accession and to solicit his
+return. From this, however, he excused himself, on the grounds that
+he had now entered into engagements with Brazil which he was bound
+to fulfil, and that his past treatment by the Chilian Government
+discouraged him from renewal of relations which had been so full of
+annoyance to him. "On my quitting Chili," he said in his reply, "there
+was no looking to the past without regret, nor to the future without
+despair, for I had learned by experience what were the views and
+motives which guided the counsels of the State. Believe me that
+nothing but a thorough conviction that it was impracticable to
+render the good people of Chili any further service under existing
+circumstances, or to live in tranquillity under such a system, could
+have induced me to remove myself from a country which I had vainly
+hoped would have afforded me that tranquil asylum which, after
+the anxieties I had suffered, I felt needful to my repose. My
+inclinations, too, were decidedly in favour of a residence in Chili,
+from a feeling of the congeniality which subsisted between my own
+habits and the manners and customs of the people, those few only
+excepted who were corrupted by contiguity with the court, or debased
+in their minds and practices by that species of Spanish colonial
+education which inculcates duplicity as the chief qualification of
+statesmen in all their dealings, both with individuals and the
+public. I now speak more particularly of the persons lately in power,
+excepting, however, the Supreme Director, whom I believe to have been
+the dupe of their deceit. Point out to me one engagement that has been
+honourably fulfilled, one military enterprise of which the professed
+object has not been perverted, or one solemn pledge that has not been
+forfeited. Look at my representations on the necessities of the navy,
+and see how they were relieved. Look at my memorial, proposing to
+establish a nursery for seamen by encouraging the coasting trade, and
+compare its principles with the code of Rodriguez, which annihilated
+both. You will see in this, as in all other cases, that whatever I
+recommended, in regard to the promotion of the good of the marine, was
+set at nought, or opposed by measures directly the reverse. Look to
+the orders which I received, and see whether I had more liberty of
+action than a schoolboy in the execution of his task. Sir, that which
+I suffered from anxiety of mind whilst in the Chilian service, I will
+never again endure for any consideration. To organize new crews, to
+navigate ships destitute of sails, cordage, provisions, and stores,
+to secure them in port without anchors and cables, except so far as I
+could supply these essentials by accidental means, were difficulties
+sufficiently harassing; but to live amongst officers and men
+discontented and mutinous on account of arrears of pay and other
+numerous privations, to be compelled to incur the responsibility
+of seizing by force from Peru funds for their payment, in order to
+prevent worse consequences to Chili, and then to be exposed to the
+reproach of one party for such seizure, and the suspicions of
+another that the sums were not duly applied, are all circumstances so
+disagreeable and so disgusting that, until I have certain proof that
+the present ministers are disposed to act in another manner, I cannot
+possibly consent to renew my services where, under such circumstances,
+they would be wholly unavailing to the true interests of the people."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Writing thus to the Minister of Marine, Lord Cochrane wrote also at
+the same time to General Freire, who, as has been said, asked him to
+join his revolutionary movement. "It would give me great pleasure, my
+respected friend, to learn that the change which has been effected in
+the government of Chili proves alike conducive to your happiness and
+to the interests of the State. For my own part, like yourself, I have
+suffered so long and so much that I could not bear the neglect and
+double-dealing of those in power any longer, but adopted other means
+of freeing myself from an unpleasant situation. Not being under
+those imperious obligations which, as a native Chilian, rendered it
+incumbent on you to rescue your country from the mischiefs with which
+it was assailed, I could not accept your offer. My heart was with you
+in the measures you adopted for their removal; and my hand was only
+restrained by a conviction that my interference, as a foreigner, in
+the internal affairs of the State would not only have been improper
+in itself, but would have tended to shake that confidence in my
+undeviating rectitude which it was my ambition that the people of
+Chili should ever justly entertain. Permit me to add my opinion that,
+whoever may possess the supreme authority in Chili, until after the
+present generation, educated as it has been under the Spanish colonial
+yoke, shall have passed away, will have to contend with so much error
+and so many prejudices as to be disappointed in his utmost endeavours
+to pursue steadily the course best calculated to promote the freedom
+and happiness of the people. I admire the middle and lower classes
+of Chili, but I have ever found the senate, the ministers, and the
+convention actuated by the narrowest policy, which led them to adopt
+the worst measures. It is my earnest wish that you may find better men
+to co-operate with you. If so, you may be fortunate and may succeed in
+what you have most at heart, the promotion of your country's good."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+For the real welfare of Chili Lord Cochrane was always eager; but in
+the treatment which he himself experienced he had strong proof, both
+during his four years' active service under the republic and in all
+after times, of the difficulties in the way of its advancement.
+Not only was he subjected to the contumely and neglect of which he
+complained in the letters just quoted from: he was also directly
+mulcted to a very large extent in the scanty recompense for his
+services to which he was legally entitled, and indirectly injured to
+a yet larger extent. "I was compelled to quit Chili," he wrote at
+a later date, "without any of the emoluments due to my position as
+Commander-in-Chief of the Navy, or any share of the sums belonging
+to myself and the officers and seamen; which sums, on the faith of
+repayment, had, at my solicitation, been appropriated to the repairs
+and maintenance of the squadron generally, but more especially at
+Guayaquil and Acapulco, when in pursuit of the <i>Prueba</i> and the
+<i>Venganza</i>. Neither was any compensation made for the value of stores
+captured and collected by the squadron, whereby its efficiency was
+chiefly maintained during the whole period of the Peruvian blockade.
+The Supreme Director of Chili, recognizing the justice of payment
+being made by the Peruvians for at least the value of the <i>Esmeralda</i>,
+the capture of which inflicted the death-blow on Spanish power, sent
+me a bill on the Peruvian Government for 120,000 dollars, which
+was dishonoured, and has never since been paid by any succeeding
+Government. Even the 40,000 dollars stipulated by the authorities
+at Guayaquil as the penalty for giving up the <i>Venganza</i> was never
+liquidated. No compensation for the severe wounds received during the
+capture of the <i>Esmeralda</i> was either offered or received.
+Shortly after my departure for Brazil, the Government forcibly and
+indefensibly resumed the estate at Rio Clara, which had been awarded
+to me and my family in perpetuity, as a remuneration for the capture
+of Valdivia, and my bailiff, who had been left upon it for its
+management and direction, was summarily ejected. Unhappily, this
+ingratitude for services rendered was the least misfortune which my
+devotedness to Chili brought upon me. On my return to England in
+1825, after the termination of my services in Brazil, I found myself
+involved in litigation on account of the seizure of neutral vessels
+by authority of the then unacknowledged Government of Chili. These
+litigations cost me, directly, upwards of 14,000£, and, indirectly,
+more than double that amount. Thus, in place of receiving anything for
+my efforts in the cause of Chilian and Peruvian independence, I was a
+loser of upwards of 25,000£, this being more than double the
+whole amount I had received as pay whilst in command of the Chilian
+squadron."
+</p>
+
+</div><!--end chapter-->
+
+<div class="chapter">
+
+<h2><a name="chap10"></a>CHAPTER X.</h2>
+
+<p>
+THE ANTECEDENTS OF BRAZILIAN INDEPENDENCE.&mdash;PEDRO I.'s ACCESSION.&mdash;THE
+INTERNAL AND EXTERNAL TROUBLES OF THE NEW EMPIRE.&mdash;LORD COCHRANE'S
+INVITATION TO BRAZIL.&mdash;HIS ARRIVAL AT RIO DE JANEIRO, AND ACCEPTANCE
+OF BRAZILIAN SERVICE.&mdash;HIS FIRST MISFORTUNES.&mdash;THE BAD CONDITION OF
+HIS SQUADRON, AND THE CONSEQUENT FAILURE OF HIS FIRST ATTACK ON THE
+PORTUGUESE OFF BAHIA.&mdash;HIS PLANS FOR IMPROVING THE FLEET, AND THEIR
+SUCCESS.&mdash;HIS NIGHT VISIT TO BAHIA, AND THE CONSEQUENT FLIGHT OF THE
+ENEMY.&mdash;LORD COCHRANE'S PURSUIT OF THEM.&mdash;HIS VISIT TO MARANHAM,
+AND ANNEXATION OF THAT PROVINCE AND OF PARÀ.&mdash;HIS RETURN TO RIO DE
+JANEIRO.&mdash;THE HONOURS CONFERRED UPON HIM.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+[1823.]
+</p>
+
+<p>
+In 1808, King John VI. of Portugal, driven by Buonaparte from his
+European dominions, took refuge in his great colonial possession of
+Brazil, and the result of his emigration was considerable enlargement
+of the liberties of the Brazilians. Thereby the immense Portuguese
+colony in South America was prevented from following in the
+revolutionary steps of the numerous Spanish provinces adjoining it.
+In Brazil, however, during the ensuing years party faction produced
+nearly as much turmoil as attended the struggle for independence in
+Chili and the other Spanish, colonies. Those Brazilians who were
+still intimately connected with the inhabitants of the mother country
+rallied under Portuguese leaders, and did their utmost to maintain
+the Portuguese supremacy over the colony. Quite as many, on the other
+hand, were eager to take advantage of the new state of things as a
+means of consolidating the freedom of Brazil. Plots and counterplots,
+broils and insurrections, lasted, almost without intermission, until
+1821, when King John returned to Portugal, leaving his son, Don Pedro,
+as lieutenant and regent, to cope with yet greater difficulties. The
+Cortes of Portugal, able to get back their king, desired also to bring
+back Brazil to all its former servitude. So great was the opposition
+thus provoked that the native or true Brazilian party induced Don
+Pedro to throw off allegiance to his father. In October, 1822, the
+independence of the colony was publicly declared, and on the 1st of
+December Don Pedro assumed the title of Emperor of Brazil.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Only the southern part of Brazil, however, acknowledged his authority.
+The northern provinces, including Bahia, Maranham, and Para, were
+ruled by the Portuguese faction and held by Portuguese troops. A
+formidable fleet, moreover, swept the seas, and the independent
+provinces were threatened with speedy subjection to the sway of
+Portugal.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+That was the state of affairs in the young empire of Brazil during the
+months in which Lord Cochrane, having destroyed the Spanish fleet
+in the Pacific, was being subjected to the worst ingratitude of his
+Chilian employers. Don Pedro and his advisers, hearing of this, lost
+no time in inviting him to enter the service of the Brazilian nation.
+Equal rank and position to those held by him under Chili were offered
+to him. "Abandonnez vous, milord," wrote the official who conveyed the
+Emperor's message, on the 4th of November, 1822, "à la reconnaisance
+Brésilienne, à la munificence du Prince, à la probité sans tache de
+l'actuel Gouvernement; on vous fera justice; on ne rabaissera
+d'un seul point la haute considération, rang, grade, caractère, et
+avantages qui vous sont dûs." In yet stronger terms a second letter
+was written soon afterwards. "Venez, milord; l'honneur vous invite;
+la gloire vous appelle. Venez donner à nos armes navales cet ordre
+merveilleux et discipline incomparable de puissante Albion."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Lord Cochrane, as we have seen, accepted this invitation; not,
+however, without some misgivings, which, in the end, were fully
+justified. Having quitted Valparaiso on the 18th of January, 1823, he
+arrived at Rio de Janeiro on the 13th of March. He had not been there
+a week before he discovered that, while all classes were anxious to
+secure his aid, the Emperor Pedro I. stood almost alone in the desire
+to treat him honourably and in a way worthy of his character and
+reputation. Vague promises were made to him; but, when a statement
+of his position was asked for in writing, very different terms were
+employed. He was only to have the rank of a subordinate admiral, with
+pay of less amount than the Chilian pension that he had resigned. His
+employment was to be temporary and informal, subjecting him to the
+chance of dismissal at any moment. When, however, resenting these
+trickeries, he announced his intention of proceeding at once to
+Europe, and accepting the Greek service offered to him, a different
+tone was adopted. Under the Emperor's signature he was appointed, on
+the 21st of March, First Admiral of the National and Imperial Navy,
+with emoluments equal to those he had received from Chili.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+He did not then know, though he was soon to learn it by hard
+experience, how strong, even at the imperial court, was the influence
+of the Portuguese party, and by what meanness and trickery it sought
+to maintain and augment that influence. "Where the Portuguese party
+was really to blame," he afterwards said, "was in this,&mdash;that, seeing
+disorder everywhere more or less prevalent, they strained every nerve
+to increase it, hoping to paralyze further attempts at independence by
+exposing whole provinces to the evils of anarchy and confusion. Their
+loyalty also partook more of self-interest than of attachment to the
+supremacy of Portugal; for the commercial classes, which formed the
+real strength of the Portuguese faction, hoped, by preserving the
+authority of the mother country in her distant provinces, to obtain as
+their reward the revival of old trade monopolies which, twelve years
+before, had been thrown open, enabling the English traders&mdash;whom
+they cordially hated&mdash;to supersede them in their own markets. Being
+a citizen of the rival nation, their aversion to me personally was
+undisguised&mdash;the more so, perhaps, that they believed me capable
+of achieving at Bahia, whither the squadron was destined, that
+irreparable injury to their own cause which the imperial troops had
+been unable to effect. Had I, at the time, been aware of the influence
+and latent power of the Portuguese party in the empire, nothing would
+have induced me to accept the command of the Brazilian navy; for to
+contend with faction is more dangerous than to engage an enemy, and a
+contest of intrigue is foreign to my nature and inclination."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Having entered the Brazilian service, however, Lord Cochrane applied
+himself to his work with characteristic energy and success. He hoisted
+his flag on board the <i>Pedro Primiero</i> on the 21st of March, and
+put to sea on the 3rd of April. His squadron consisted of the <i>Pedro
+Primiero</i>, a fine and well-appointed ship, rated rather too highly for
+seventy-four guns, commanded by Captain Crosbie; of the <i>Piranga</i>, a
+fine frigate, entrusted to Captain Jowett; of the <i>Maria de Gloria</i>,
+a showy but comparatively worthless clipper, mounting thirty-two
+small guns, under Captain Beaurepaire; of the <i>Liberal</i>, under Captain
+Garcaõ. He was accompanied by two old vessels, the <i>Guarani</i> and
+the <i>Real</i>, to be used as fireships. Two other ships of war, the
+<i>Nitherohy</i>, assigned to Captain Taylor, and the <i>Carolina</i>, were left
+behind to complete their equipment, and the first of these joined
+the squadron on its way to Bahia, which, being the nearest of the
+disaffected provinces, was the first to be subdued.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The coast of Bahia was reached on the 1st of May, and Lord Cochrane
+was arranging to blockade its capital and port, on the 4th, when the
+Portuguese fleet came out of the harbour. It comprised the <i>Don Joaõ</i>,
+of seventy-four guns; the <i>Constitucaõ</i>, of fifty; the <i>Perola</i>, of
+forty-four; the <i>Princeza Real</i>, of twenty-eight; the <i>Regeneracaõ</i>,
+the <i>Dez de Fevereiro</i>, the <i>San Gaulter</i>, the <i>Principe de Brazil</i>,
+and the <i>Restauracaõ</i>, of twenty-six each; the <i>Calypso</i> and the
+<i>Activa</i>, of twenty-two; the <i>Audaz</i>, of twenty; and the <i>Canceicaõ</i>,
+of eight; being one line-of-battle ship, five frigates, five
+corvettes, a brig, and a schooner. Lord Cochrane did not venture with
+his small and as yet untried force to attack the whole squadron, but
+he proceeded to cut off the four rearmost ships. This he did with the
+<i>Pedro Primiero</i>, but, to his disgust, the other vessels, heedless
+of his orders, failed to follow him. "Had the rest of the Brazilian
+squadron," he said, "come down in obedience to signals, the ships cut
+off might have been taken or dismantled, as with the flag-ship I
+could have kept the others at bay, and no doubt have crippled all in
+a position to render them assistance. To my astonishment, the signals
+were disregarded, and no efforts were made to second my operations."
+The <i>Pedro Primiero</i>, after fighting alone for some time, and during
+that time even doing but little mischief, by reason of the clumsy way
+in which her guns were handled, had to be withdrawn.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+At that failure Lord Cochrane was reasonably chagrined. Worse than the
+fact that the Portuguese had escaped uninjured for this once, was the
+knowledge that he could not hope thoroughly to punish them without
+first effecting great reform in the materials at his disposal. On the
+5th of May he wrote to the Government to complain of the miserable
+condition of the ships and crews provided for him by the Brazilian
+Government. "From the defective sailing and manning of the squadron,"
+he said, "it seems to me that the <i>Pedro Primiero</i> is the only one
+that can assail an enemy's ship-of-war, or act in the face of a
+superior force so as not to compromise the interests of the empire and
+the character of the officers commanding. Even this ship, in common
+with the rest, is so ill-equipped as to be much less efficient than
+she otherwise would be. Our cartridges are all unfit for service,
+and I have been obliged to cut up every flag and ensign that could
+be spared to render them serviceable, so as to prevent the men's arms
+being blown off whilst working the guns. The guns are without locks.
+The bed of the mortar which I received on board this ship was crushed
+on the first fire, being entirely rotten. The fuses for the shells are
+formed of such wretched composition that it will not take fire with
+the discharge of the mortar. Even the powder is so bad that six pounds
+will not throw out shells more than a thousand yards. The marines
+understand neither gun exercise, the use of small arms, nor the sword,
+and yet have so high an opinion of themselves that they will not
+assist to wash the decks, or even to clean out their own berths, but
+sit and look on whilst these operations are being performed by seamen.
+I warned the Minister of Marine that every native of Portugal put on
+board the squadron, with the exception of officers of known character,
+would prove prejudicial to the expedition, and yesterday we had clear
+proof of the fact. The Portuguese stationed in the magazine actually
+withheld the powder whilst this ship was in the midst of the enemy,
+and I have since learnt that they did so from feelings of attachment
+to their own countrymen. I enclose two letters, one from the officer
+commanding the <i>Real</i>, whose crew were on the point of carrying that
+vessel into the enemy's squadron for the purpose of delivering her
+up. I have also reason to believe that the conduct of the <i>Liberal</i> yesterday in not bearing down upon the enemy, and not complying with
+the signal which I had made to break the line, was owing to her being
+manned by Portuguese. The <i>Maria de Gloria</i> also has a great number
+of Portuguese, which is the more to be regretted as otherwise her
+superior sailing, with the zeal and activity of her captain, would
+render her an effective vessel. To disclose to you the truth, it
+appears to me that one half of the squadron is necessary to watch over
+the other half. Assuredly this is a system which ought to be put an
+end to without delay."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Other indignant complaints of that sort, which need not here be
+repeated, were reasonably made by Lord Cochrane. The bad equipment
+of his squadron, both in men and in material, had hindered him, at
+starting, from achieving a brilliant success over the enemy, and
+though his subsequent achievements were of unsurpassed brilliance,
+he was to the end seriously hindered by the wilful and accidental
+mismanagement of his employers.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Lord Cochrane lost no time, however, in correcting by his own prudent
+action the evil effects of this mismanagement. Not choosing to run the
+risk of a second failure, and believing that two good ships would be
+more serviceable than any number of bad ones, he took his squadron to
+the Moro San Paulo, where he transferred all the best men and the most
+serviceable fittings to the flag-ship and the <i>Maria de Gloria</i>. There
+he left the other vessels to be improved as far as possible, directing
+that instruction should be given in seamanship to all the incompetent
+men who showed any promise of being made efficient, and that several
+small prizes which he had taken on his way from Rio de Janeiro should
+be turned into fireships for future use. With the two refitted ships
+he then went back to Bahia, to watch its whole coast and blockade the
+port.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The wisdom of this course was at once apparent. Several minor captures
+were made; the supplies of Bahia were cut off, and the enemy's
+squadron was locked in the harbour for three weeks. Lord Cochrane went
+to the Moro San Paulo on the 26th, leaving the <i>Maria de Gloria</i> to
+overlook the port, and then the Portuguese fleet ventured out for a
+few days. It dared not show fight, however, and was driven back by the
+flag-ship, which returned on the 2nd of June. "On the 11th of June,"
+said Lord Cochrane, "information was received that the enemy was
+seriously thinking of evacuating the port before the fireships were
+completed. I therefore ordered the <i>Maria de Gloria</i> to water and
+re-victual for three months, so as to be in readiness for anything
+which might occur, as, in case the rumour proved correct, our
+operations might take a different turn to those previous intended.
+The <i>Piranga</i> was also directed to have everything in readiness for
+weighing immediately on the flag-ship appearing off the Moro and
+making signals to that effect. The whole squadron was at the same time
+ordered to re-victual, and to place its surplus articles in a large
+shed constructed of trees and branches felled in the neighbourhood of
+the Moro. Whilst the other ships were thus engaged, I determined to
+increase the panic of the enemy with the flag-ship alone. The position
+of their fleet was about nine miles up the bay, under shelter of
+fortifications, so that an attack by day would have been more perilous
+than prudent. Nevertheless, it appeared practicable to pay them a
+hostile visit on the first dark night, when, if we were unable
+to effect any serious mischief, it would at least be possible
+to ascertain their exact position, and to judge what could be
+accomplished when the fireships were brought to bear upon them.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Accordingly," the narrative proceeds, "having during the day
+carefully taken bearings at the mouth of the river, on the night
+of the 12th of June, I decided on making the attempt, which might
+possibly result in the destruction of part of the enemy's fleet, in
+consequence of the confused manner in which the ships were
+anchored. As soon as it became dark we proceeded up the river; but,
+unfortunately, when we were within hail of the outermost ship, the
+wind failed, and, the tide soon after turning, our plan of attack was
+rendered abortive. Determined, however, to complete the reconnoisance,
+we threaded our way amongst the outermost vessels. In spite of the
+darkness, the presence of a strange ship under sail was discovered,
+and some beat to quarters, hailing to know what ship it was. The
+reply, 'An English vessel,' satisfied them, however, and so our
+investigation was not molested. The chief object thus accomplished, we
+succeeded in dropping out with the ebb-tide, now rapidly running,
+and were enabled to steady our course stern-foremost with the stream
+anchor adrag, whereby we reached our former position."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+That exploit was more daring than Lord Cochrane's modest description
+would imply; and, though the bold hope that it might be possible for
+a single invading ship to conquer the whole Portuguese squadron in its
+moorings was not realized, the effect was all that could be desired.
+The Portuguese Admiral and his chief officers were at a ball in
+Bahia while Lord Cochrane was quietly sailing round and amongst their
+squadron, and the report of this achievement was brought to them in
+the midst of their festivities. "What!" exclaimed the Admiral,
+"Lord Cochrane's line-of-battle ship in the very midst of our fleet!
+Impossible! No large ship can have come up in the dark." When it was
+known that the thing had really been done, and that the construction
+of fireships at the Moro San Paulo was being rapidly proceeded with,
+the Portuguese authorities, both naval and military, considered that
+it would be no longer safe to remain in Bahia Harbour. They were
+seriously inconvenienced, moreover, by the success with which Lord
+Cochrane had blockaded the port and all its approaches. "The means
+of subsistence fail us, and we cannot secure the entrance of any
+provisions," said the Commander-in-Chief, in the proclamation
+intimating that the so-called defenders of the province were
+thinking of abandoning their post. This they did after a fortnight's
+consideration. On the 2nd of July the whole squadron of thirteen
+war-vessels and about seventy merchantmen and transports, filled with a
+large body of troops, evacuated the port.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+That was a movement with which Lord Cochrane was well pleased. He had
+been in doubt as to the prudence of leading his small fleet into a
+desperate action in the harbour, by which the inexperience of his
+crews might ruin everything, and which might have to be followed
+by fighting on land. But now that the Portuguese, both soldiers and
+sailors, were in the open sea, he could give them chase without much
+risk, as, in the event of their turning round upon him with more
+valour than he gave them credit for, the worst that could happen would
+be his forced abandonment of the pursuit. The valour was not shown.
+No sooner were the Portuguese out of port, with their sails set for
+Maranham, where they hoped to join other ships and troops, and so
+augment their strength, than Lord Cochrane proceeded to follow them
+and dog their progress.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+His scheme was a bold one, but as successful as it was bold.
+Attended first by the <i>Maria de Gloria</i> alone, and afterwards by the
+<i>Carolina</i>, the <i>Nitherohy</i>, and a small merchant brig, the <i>Colonel
+Allen</i>, in which he had placed a few guns, he pursued and harassed
+the cumbrous crowd of Portuguese warships, troop-ships, and trading
+vessels, about eighty in all, through fourteen days. The chase,
+indeed, was practically conducted by his flag-ship, the <i>Pedro
+Primiero</i>, alone. The other vessels were ordered to look out for any
+of the enemy's fleet that lagged behind or were borne away from the
+main body of the fugitives, either to the right hand or to the left.
+Of these there were plenty, and none were allowed to escape. The
+pursuers had easy work in prize-taking. "I have the honour to inform
+you," wrote Lord Cochrane in a concise despatch to the Brazilian
+Minister of Marine, on the 7th of July, "that half the enemy's army,
+their colours, cannon, ammunition, stores, and baggage have been
+taken. We are still in pursuit, and shall endeavour to intercept the
+remainder of the troops, and shall then look after the ships of war,
+which would have been my first object but that, in pursuing
+this course, the military would have escaped to occasion further
+hostilities against the Brazilian empire."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Most of his prizes and prisoners Lord Cochrane sent into Pernambuco,
+the port then nearest to him, and he despatched two officers to hold
+Bahia for Brazil. With his flag-ship he continued his pursuit of the
+enemy, losing them once during a fog, and, when, he found them,
+being prevented from doing all the mischief which he hoped, as a calm
+enabled them to keep close together and present a front too formidable
+for attack by a single assailant. The Portuguese, however, continued
+their flight as soon as the wind permitted. Lord Cochrane did not
+trouble them much during the day, but each night he swept down on
+them, like a hawk upon its prey, and harassed them with wonderful
+effect. They were chased past Fernando Island, past the Equator, and
+more than half way to Cape Verde. Then, on the 16th of July, Lord
+Cochrane, after a parting broadside, left them to make their way in
+peace to Lisbon, there to tell how, by one daring vessel, thirteen
+ships of war had been ignominiously driven home, accompanied by only
+thirteen out of the seventy vessels that had placed themselves under
+their protection.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Lord Cochrane would have continued the pursuit still farther, had not
+some of the troop-ships contrived to escape; and as he was anxious
+that these should not get into shelter at Maranham, or, if there,
+should not have time to recover their spirits, he deemed it best to
+hasten thither. He reached Maranham before them, and thus found it
+possible to carry through an excellent expedient which he had devised
+on the way.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Maranham, the wealthiest province of the old Brazilian colony, was
+best guarded by the Portuguese, and now served as the centre and
+stronghold of resistance to the authority of the new Emperor. Lord
+Cochrane's plan had for its object nothing less than the annexation of
+the whole province singlehanded and without a blow. With this intent,
+he entered the River Maranham, which served as a harbour to the port
+of the same name, on the 26th of July, with Portuguese colours flying
+from the mast of the <i>Pedro Primiero</i>. The authorities, deceived
+thereby, promptly sent a messenger with despatches and congratulations
+on the safe arrival of what was supposed to be a valuable
+reinforcement from Portugal. The messenger was soon undeceived, but
+Lord Cochrane at once made him the agent of a much more elaborate
+and altogether justifiable deception Announcing to him that the swift
+sailing of the <i>Pedro Primiero</i> had brought her first to Maranham, but
+that she was being followed by a formidable squadron, intended for the
+invasion of the province, he sent him back with letters to the same
+effect, addressed to the Portuguese commandant and to the local Junta
+of Maranham. "The naval and military forces under my command," he
+wrote to the former, "leave me no room to doubt the success of
+the enterprise in which I am about to engage, in order to free the
+province of Maranham from foreign domination, and to allow the people
+free choice of government. Of the flight of the Portuguese naval and
+military forces from Bahia you are aware. I have now to inform you of
+the capture of two-thirds of the transports and troops, with all their
+stores and ammunition. I am anxious not to let loose the imperial
+troops of Bahia upon Maranham, exasperated as they are at the injuries
+and cruelties exercised towards themselves and their countrymen, as
+well as by the plunder of the people and churches of Bahia. It is
+for you to decide whether the inhabitants of these countries shall be
+further exasperated by resistance, which appears to me unavailing, and
+alike prejudicial to the best interests of Portugal and Brazil," "The
+forces of his Imperial Majesty," he said to the Junta, "having freed
+the city and province of Bahia from the enemies of independence, I now
+hasten&mdash;in conformity with the will of his Majesty that the beautiful
+province of Maranham should be free also&mdash;to offer to the oppressed
+inhabitants whatever aid and protection they need against a foreign
+yoke; desiring to accomplish their liberation and to hail them
+as brethren and friends. Should there, however, be any who, from
+self-interested motives, oppose themselves to the deliverance of their
+country, let such be assured that the naval and military forces which
+have driven the Portuguese from the south are again ready to draw the
+sword in the like just cause, and the result cannot be long doubtful."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Those mingled promises and threats took prompt effect. On the
+following day, the 27th of July, after a conditional offer of
+capitulation had been rejected, the members of the Junta, the Bishop
+of Maranham, and other leading persons, went on board the <i>Pedro
+Primiero</i> to tender their submission to the Emperor of Brazil. The
+city and forts were surrendered without reserve, and in less than
+twenty-four hours from Lord Cochrane's first appearance in the river
+the flag of Portugal was replaced by that of Brazil. A great province
+had been added to the dominions of Pedro I. without bloodshed, and
+with no more expenditure of ammunition than was needed for the volleys
+discharged in honour of the triumph.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The liberation of Maranham was publicly celebrated on the 28th of
+July, and on the following day the Portuguese troops embarked for
+Europe, special concessions being made to them by Lord Cochrane, who
+deemed it well that they should be out of the way before the device
+by which he had outwitted them was made known. No resentment was to
+be expected from the civilians, as even those most hearty in their
+adherence to the Portuguese faction in Brazil would not dare to offer
+direct opposition to the sentiments of the majority. But Lord Cochrane
+wisely set himself to conciliate all. "To the inhabitants of the
+city," he said, "I was careful to accord complete liberty, claiming
+in return that perfect order should be preserved and property of all
+kinds respected. The delight of the people was unbounded at being
+freed from a terrible system of exaction and imprisonment which, when
+I entered the river, was being carried on with unrelenting rigour by
+the Portuguese authorities towards all suspected of a leaning to
+the Imperial Government. Instead of retaliating, as would have been
+gratifying to those so recently labouring under oppression, I directed
+oaths to the constitution to be administered, not to Brazilians only,
+but also to all Portuguese who chose to remain and conform to the new
+order of things; a privilege of which many influential persons of that
+nation availed themselves."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+With the capture of Maranham alone, however, Lord Cochrane was not
+satisfied. Without a day's delay, he despatched a Portuguese brig
+which he had seized in the river and christened by its name, under
+Captain Grenfell, to follow at Parà, the only important province of
+Brazil still under the Portuguese yoke, the same course which he
+had just adopted with such wonderful success. He himself found it
+necessary to remain at Maranham for more than two months, where he had
+to curb with a strong hand the passions of the liberated inhabitants,
+eager to use their liberty in lawless ways and to retaliate upon the
+Portuguese still resident among them for all the hardships which they
+had hitherto endured.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+On the 20th of September, having heard that Captain Grenfell had
+entirely succeeded in his designs on Parà, he started for Rio de
+Janeiro, and there he arrived on the 9th of November. "I immediately
+forwarded to the Minister of Marine," he said, "a recapitulation of
+all transactions since my departure seven months before; namely,&mdash;the
+evacuation of Bahia by the Portuguese in consequence of our nocturnal
+visit, connected with the dread of my reputed skill in the use of
+fireships, arising from the affair of Basque Roads; the pursuit of
+their fleet beyond the Equator, and the dispersion of its convoy; the
+capture and disabling of the transports filled with troops intended
+to maintain Portuguese domination on Maranham and Parà; the device
+adopted to obtain the surrender, to the <i>Pedro Primiero</i> alone, of
+the enemy's naval and military forces at Maranham; the capitulation of
+Parà, with the ships of war, to my summons sent by Captain Grenfell;
+the deliverance of the Brazilian patriots whom the Portuguese had
+imprisoned; the declaration of independence by the intermediate
+provinces thus liberated, and their union with the empire; the
+appointment of provisional governments; the embarkation and departure
+of every Portuguese soldier from Brazil; and the enthusiasm with which
+all my measures&mdash;though unauthorised and therefore extra-official&mdash;had
+been, received by the people of the northern provinces, who, thus
+relieved from the dread of further oppression, had everywhere
+acknowledged and proclaimed his Majesty as constitutional Emperor."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Lord Cochrane's services had, indeed, been, many of them,
+"unauthorised and therefore extra-official." He had been sent out
+merely to recover Bahia; but, besides doing that, he had gained for
+Brazil other territories more than half as large as Europe. For this,
+however, nothing but gratitude could be shown, and the gratitude was,
+for the time at any rate, unalloyed. On the very day of the <i>Pedro
+Primiero's</i> return, the Emperor went on board to offer his thanks in
+person. Further, thanks were voted by the legislature, and tendered by
+all classes of the people.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Taking into consideration the great services which your excellency
+has just rendered to the nation," wrote the Emperor on the 25th of
+November, "and desiring to give your excellency a public testimonial
+of gratitude for those high and extraordinary services on behalf
+of the generous Brazilian people, who will ever preserve a lively
+remembrance of such illustrious acts, I deem it right to confer upon
+your excellency the title of Marquis of Maranham." The decoration
+of the Imperial Order of the Cruizeiro was also bestowed upon Lord
+Cochrane, and on the 19th of December he was made a Privy Councillor
+of Brazil, the highest honour which it was in the Emperor's power to
+grant. On the same day he also received from the Emperor a charter
+confirming his rank and emoluments as First Admiral of Brazil, "seeing
+how advantageous it would be for the interests of this empire to avail
+itself of the skill of so valuable an officer," and in recognition of
+"the valour, intelligence, and activity by which he had distinguished
+himself in the different services with which he had been entrusted."
+</p>
+
+</div><!--end chapter-->
+
+<div class="chapter">
+
+<h2><a name="chap11"></a>CHAPTER XI.</h2>
+
+<p class="letter">
+THE NATURE OF THE REWARDS BESTOWED ON LORD COCHRANE FOR HIS FIRST
+SERVICES TO BRAZIL.&mdash;PEDRO I. AND THE PORTUGUESE FACTION.&mdash;LORD
+COCHRANE'S ADVICE TO THE EMPEROR.&mdash;THE FRESH TROUBLES BROUGHT UPON HIM
+BY IT.&mdash;THE UNJUST TREATMENT ADOPTED TOWARDS HIM AND THE FLEET.&mdash;THE
+WITHHOLDING OF PRIZE-MONEY AND PAY.&mdash;PERSONAL INDIGNITIES TO LORD
+COCHRANE.&mdash;AN AMUSING EPISODE.&mdash;LORD COCHRANE'S THREAT OF RESIGNATION,
+AND ITS EFFECT.&mdash;SIR JAMES MACKINTOSH'S ALLUSION TO LORD COCHRANE IN
+THE HOUSE OF COMMONS.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+[1823-1824.]
+</p>
+
+<p>
+All the rewards bestowed upon Lord Cochrane for his wonderful
+successes in the northern part of Brazil, except the confirmation of
+his patent as First Admiral, be it noted, were unsubstantial. He had
+for ever crushed the power of Portugal in South America; he had added
+vast provinces to the imperial dominion, and had thus augmented the
+imperial revenues by considerably more than a million dollars a-year,
+besides the great and immediate profits of his prize-taking. And all
+this had been done with a small fleet, poorly equipped and unpaid.
+The ships entrusted to him had been rendered efficient by his own
+ingenuity, unaided by the Government, and with scant addition to his
+resources from the numerous captures made by him. In excess of his
+instructions, and with nothing but cheap compliments and cheaper
+promises to encourage him, he had acquired Maranham and Parà, and all
+the provinces dependent upon them, as well as Bahia. Relying on the
+honour of his employers, he had pledged his own honour, that on their
+returning to Rio de Janeiro, his crews, who were clamouring for
+some part, at any rate, of the wages due to them, should be fully
+recompensed, and he had the reasonable expectation, that, out of
+the abundant wealth that he had gained for Brazil, he himself should
+receive his lawful share of the prize-money gained by his exertions.
+Instead of that he and his subordinates, both officers and men, were
+subjected to an unparalleled course of meanness, trickery, and fraud.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+This partly resulted from an unfortunate change in the Government that
+had occurred during his absence. When he left Rio de Janeiro, Pedro
+I.'s chief secretary of state had been Don José Bonifacio de Andrada
+y Silva, a wise and patriotic Brazilian. The Emperor and his minister
+had all along been seriously crippled in fulfilment of their good
+purposes by subordinates of the Portuguese faction, who persistently
+twisted their instructions, when they did not act in direct
+opposition to those instructions, so as to promote their own and their
+countrymen's selfish and unpatriotic objects; but there had been hope
+that the zeal of Pedro and José de Andrada would overcome these evil
+devices, and secure the healthy consolidation of the empire. When Lord
+Cochrane returned, however, he found that the honest minister had
+been deposed, that his party had been ousted, and that the Emperor was
+surrounded by bad counsellors, who, unable to pervert his judgment,
+were strong enough to restrain its action, and who were robbing him,
+one by one, of all his constitutional functions, and doing their
+best to bring Brazil into a state of anarchy, with a view to the
+re-establishment of Portuguese authority in its old or in some new but
+no less obnoxious form. The Emperor, desiring to do well, had hardly
+improved his position, a few days before the <i>Pedro Primiero's</i> arrival, by violently dissolving the Legislative Assembly, banishing
+some of its members, and threatening to place Rio de Janeiro itself
+under military law.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+That was the state of affairs when Lord Cochrane entered the port.
+Only five days afterwards, on the 14th of November, 1823, he wrote a
+bold letter to the Emperor. "My sense of the impropriety of intruding
+myself on the attention of your Imperial Majesty on any subject
+unconnected with the official position with which your Majesty has
+been pleased to honour me," he said, "could only have been overcome by
+an irresistible desire, under existing circumstances, to contribute to
+the service of your Majesty, and the empire. The conduct of the late
+Legislative Assembly, which sought to derogate from the dignity and
+prerogatives of your Majesty, even presuming to require you to divest
+yourself of your crown in their presence&mdash;which deprived you of your
+Council of State and denied you a voice in the enactment of laws and
+the formation of the constitution&mdash;and which dared to object to your
+exercising the only remaining function of royalty, that of rewarding
+services and conferring honours&mdash;could no longer be tolerated; and
+the justice and wisdom of your Imperial Majesty in dissolving such
+an assembly will be duly appreciated by discerning men, and by those
+whose love of good order and their country supersedes their ambition
+or personal interests. There are, however, individuals who will
+wickedly take advantage of the late proceedings to kindle the flames
+of discord, and throw the empire into anarchy and confusion, unless
+timely prevented by the wisdom and energy of your Imperial Majesty.
+The declaration that you will give to your people a practical
+constitution, more free even than that which the late Assembly
+professed an intention to establish, cannot&mdash;considering the spirit
+which now pervades South America&mdash;have the effect of averting
+impending evils, unless your Imperial Majesty shall be pleased to
+dissipate all doubts by at once declaring&mdash;before the news of the
+recent events can be dispersed throughout the provinces, and before
+the discontented members of the late congress can return to their
+constituents&mdash;what is the precise nature of that constitution which
+your Imperial Majesty intends to bestow. As no monarch is more happy
+or more truly powerful than the limited monarch of England, surrounded
+by a free people, enriched by that industry which the security of
+property by means of just laws never fails to create, permit me humbly
+and respectfully to suggest, that if your Majesty were to decree that
+the English constitution, in its most perfect practical form&mdash;which,
+with slight alteration, and chiefly in name, is also the constitution
+of the United States of North America&mdash;shall be the model for the
+government of Brazil under your Imperial Majesty, with power to the
+Constituent Assembly to alter particular parts as local circumstances
+may render advisable, it would excite the sympathy of powerful states
+abroad, and the firm allegiance of the Brazilian people to your
+Majesty's throne. Were your Majesty, by a few brief lines in the
+'Gazette,' to announce your intention so to do, and were you to banish
+all distrust from the public mind by removing from your person for a
+time, and finding employment on honourable missions abroad for, those
+Portuguese individuals of whom the Brazilians are jealous, the purity
+of your Majesty's motives would be secured from the possibility of
+misrepresentation, the factions which disturb the country would be
+silenced or converted, and the feelings of the world, especially those
+of England and North America, would be interested in promoting the
+glory, happiness, and prosperity of your Imperial Majesty."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+That advice, in the main adopted by the Emperor, led to a
+reconstruction of the Brazilian Constitution in its present shape, and
+so added another to the many great benefits which Brazil owes to Lord
+Cochrane. But the whole, and especially the last part of it, being
+directly at variance with the plans and interests of the Portuguese
+faction, it won for him much hatred and many personal troubles.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"That I, a foreigner, having nothing to do with national politics," he
+said, "should have counselled his Majesty to banish those who opposed
+him, was not to be borne, and the resentment caused by my recent
+services was increased to bitter enmity for meddling in affairs which,
+it was considered, did not concern me; though I could have had no
+other object than the good of the empire by the establishment of
+a constitution which should give it stability in the estimation of
+European states."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Consequently, in return for the great services he had conferred to
+Brazil, he received, as had been the case in Chili, little but insult
+and injury, the course of insult and injury being hardly stayed
+even during the period in which he was needed to engage in further
+services. The Emperor honestly tried to be generous; but he could not
+rid himself of the Portuguese faction, generally dominant in Brazil,
+and his worthy intentions were thwarted in every possible way. With
+difficulty could he secure for Lord Cochrane the confirmation of his
+patent as First Admiral, which has been already referred to. No great
+resistance was made to his conferment of the empty title of Marquis of
+Maranham, but he was not allowed to make the grant of land which was
+intended to go with the title and enable it to be borne with dignity.
+Prevented from being generous, he was even hindered from exercising
+the barest justice.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The injustice was shown not only to Lord Cochrane, but also to all
+the officers and crews who, serving under him, had enabled Brazil
+to maintain its resistance to the tyranny of Portugal, though not to
+shake off the tyranny of the faction which still had the interests of
+Portugal at heart. It is not necessary to describe in detail the long
+course of ill-usage to which he and his subordinates were exposed.
+Part of that ill-usage will be best and most briefly indicated by
+citing a portion of an eloquent memorial which Lord Cochrane addressed
+to the Imperial Government on the 30th of January, 1825.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The memorial began by enumerating the achievements of the fleet at
+Bahia, Maranham, Parà, and elsewhere. "The imperial squadron," it
+proceeds, "made sail for Rio de Janeiro, in the full expectation of
+reaping a reward for their labours; not only because they had been
+mainly instrumental in rescuing from the hands of the Portuguese,
+and adding to the imperial dominion, one half of the empire; but also
+because their hopes seemed to be firmly grounded, independently of
+such services, on the capture of upwards of one hundred transports and
+merchant vessels, exclusive of ships of war, all of which, they had a
+just right to expect, would, under the existing laws, be adjudged to
+the captors. The whole of them were seized under Portuguese colours,
+with Portuguese registers, manned by Portuguese seamen, having on
+board Portuguese troops and ammunition or Portuguese produce and
+manufacture. On arriving at Rio de Janeiro, there was no feeling but
+one of satisfaction among the officers and seamen, and the Brazilian
+marine might from that moment, without the expense of one milrei to
+the nation, have been rapidly raised to a state of efficiency and
+discipline which had not yet been attained in any marine in South
+America, and which the navies of Portugal and Spain do not possess.
+It could not, however, be long concealed from the knowledge of the
+squadron that political or other reasons had prevented any proceedings
+being had in the adjudication of their prizes; and the extraordinary
+declaration that was made by the Tribunal of Prizes,&mdash;'that they were
+not aware that hostilities existed between Brazil and Portugal'&mdash;led
+to an inquiry of whom that tribunal was composed. All surprise at
+so extraordinary a declaration then ceased; but other sentiments
+injurious to the imperial service, arose,&mdash;those of indignation and
+disgust that the power of withholding their rights should be placed
+in the hands of persons who were natives of that very nation against
+which they were employed in war. His Imperial Majesty, however, having
+signified to this tribunal his pleasure that they should delay no
+longer in proceeding to the adjudication of the captured vessels,
+the result was that, in almost every instance, at the commencement of
+their proceedings, the vessels were condemned, not as lawful prizes to
+the captors, but as droits to the Crown. His Majesty was then pleased
+to desire that the said droits should be granted to the squadron, and
+about one-fifth part of the value of the prizes taken was eventually
+paid under the denomination of a 'grant of the droits of the Crown.'
+But when this decree of his Imperial Majesty was promulgated,
+the tribunal altered their course of proceeding, and, instead of
+condemning to the Crown, did, in almost every remaining instance,
+pronounce the acquittal of the vessels captured, and adjudged them
+to be given up to pretended Brazilian owners, notwithstanding that
+Brazilian property embarked in enemy's vessels was, by the law,
+declared to be forfeited; and that, too, with such indecent
+precipitancy that, in cases where the hull only had been claimed, the
+cargo also was decreed to be given up to the claimants of the hull,
+without any part of it having, at any time, been even pretended to be
+their property. Other ships and cargoes were given up without any form
+of trial, and without any intimation whatever to the captors and their
+agents; and, in most cases, costs and quadruple damages were unjustly
+decreed against the captors, to the amount of 300,000 milreis. That
+the prizes of which the captors were thus fraudulently deprived,
+chiefly under the unlawful and false pretence of their belonging to
+Brazilians, were really the property of Portuguese and well known so
+to be by the said tribunal, has since been fully demonstrated, by
+the arrival in Lisbon of the whole of the vessels liberated by their
+decisions. Thus the charge of a system of wilful injustice, brought
+by the squadron against the Portuguese Tribunal of Prizes at Rio de
+Janeiro, is established beyond the possibility of contradiction."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+It was only an aggravation of that injustice that, when Lord Cochrane
+claimed the prompt and equitable adjudication of the prizes, an
+attempt was made to silence him on the 24th of November by a message
+from the Minister of Marine, to the effect that the Emperor would do
+everything in his power for him personally. "His Majesty," answered
+Lord Cochrane, "has already conferred honours upon me quite equal to
+my merits, and the greatest personal favour he can bestow is to urge
+on the speedy adjudication of the prizes, so that the officers and
+seamen may reap the reward decreed by the Emperor's own authority."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+A hardship to the fleet even greater than the withholding of its
+prize-money was the withholding of the arrears of pay, which had been
+accumulating ever since the departure from Rio de Janeiro in April. On
+the 27th of November, three months' wages were offered to men to whom
+more than twice the amount was due. This they indignantly refused, and
+all Lord Cochrane's tact was needed to restrain them from open mutiny.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+In spite of the Emperor's friendship towards Lord Cochrane, or rather
+in consequence of it, he was in all sorts of ways insulted by the
+ministry, the head of which was now Severiano da Costa. A new ship,
+the <i>Atulanta</i>, was on the 27th of December, without reference to him,
+ordered for service at Monte Video. He was on the same day publicly
+described as "Commander of the Naval Forces in the Port of Rio de
+Janeiro," being thus placed on a level with other officers in the
+service of which, by the Emperor's patent, he was First Admiral, and
+no notice was taken of his protest against that insult. On the 24th
+of February he was gazetted as "Commander-in-Chief of all the Naval
+Forces of the Empire during the present war," by which his functions,
+though not now limited in extent, were limited in time. At length,
+reasonably indignant at these and other violations of the contract
+made with him, he offered to resign his command altogether. "If
+I thought that the course pursued towards me was dictated by his
+Imperial Majesty," he wrote to the Minister of Marine on the 20th of
+March, "it would be impossible for me to remain an hour longer in
+his service, and I should feel it my duty, at the earliest possible
+moment, to lay my commission at his feet. If I have not done so
+before, from the treatment which, in common with the navy. I have
+experienced, it has been solely from an anxious desire to promote his
+Majesty's real interests. Indeed, to struggle against prejudices, and
+at the same time against those in power whose prepossessions are at
+variance with the interests of his Majesty and the tranquillity and
+independence of Brazil, is a task to which I am by no means equal.
+I am, therefore, perfectly willing to resign the situation I
+hold, rather than contend against difficulties which appear to me
+insurmountable."[A]
+</p>
+
+<p>
+[Footnote A: See Appendix (III).]
+</p>
+
+<p>
+That letter was answered with complimentary phrases, and Lord Cochrane
+was induced to continue in the employment from which he could not be
+spared; but there was no diminution of the ill-treatment to which
+he was subjected. One special indignity was attended by some amusing
+incidents. On the 3rd of June, while he was residing on shore, it was
+proposed to search his flag-ship, on the pretext that he had there
+concealed large sums of money which were the property of the nation.
+"Late in the evening," he said, "I received a visit from Madame
+Bonpland, the talented wife of the distinguished French naturalist.
+This lady, who had singular opportunities for becoming acquainted with
+state secrets, came expressly to inform me that my house was at that
+moment surrounded by a guard of soldiers. She further informed me
+that, under the pretence of a review to be held at the opposite side
+of the harbour early in the following morning, preparations had
+been made by the ministers to board the flag-ship, which was to be
+thoroughly overhauled whilst I was detained on shore, and all the
+money found taken possession of. Thanking my friend for her timely
+warning, I clambered over my garden fence, as the only practicable way
+to the stables, selected a horse, and, notwithstanding the lateness
+of the hour, proceeded to San Christoval, the country palace of the
+Emperor, where, on my arrival, I demanded to see his Majesty. The
+request being refused by the gentleman in waiting, in such a way as to
+confirm the statement of Madame Bonpland, I dared him at his peril to
+refuse me admission, adding that the matter on which I had come was
+fraught with grave consequences to his Majesty and the empire. 'But,'
+said he, 'his Majesty has retired to bed long ago.' 'No matter,' I
+replied; 'in bed or not in bed, I demand to see him, in virtue of my
+privilege of access to him at all times, and, if you refuse to concede
+permission, look to the consequences.' His Majesty was not, however,
+asleep, and, the royal chamber being close at hand, he recognized my
+voice in the altercation with the attendant. Hastily coming out of his
+apartments, he asked what could have brought me there at that time of
+night. My reply was that, understanding that the troops ordered for
+review were destined to proceed to the flag-ship in search of supposed
+treasure, I had come to request his Majesty immediately to appoint
+confidential persons to accompany me on board, when the keys of every
+chest in the ship should be placed in their hands and every place
+thrown open to inspection, but that, if any of his anti-Brazilian
+administration ventured to board the ship in perpetration of the
+contemplated insult, they would certainly be regarded as pirates and
+treated as such; adding at the same time, 'Depend upon it, they are
+not more my enemies than the enemies of your Majesty and the empire,
+and an intrusion so unwarrantable the officers and crew are bound
+to resist.' 'Well,' replied his Majesty, 'you seem to be apprised of
+everything; but the plot is not mine, being, as far as I am concerned,
+convinced that no money would be found more than we already know of
+from yourself.' I then entreated his Majesty to take such steps for
+my justification as would be satisfactory to the public. 'There is no
+necessity for any,' he replied. 'But how to dispense with the review
+is the puzzle. I will be ill in the morning; so go home and think
+no more of the matter. I give you my word, your flag shall not be
+outraged.' The Emperor kept his word, and in the night was taken
+suddenly ill. As his Majesty was really beloved by his Brazilian
+subjects, all the native respectability of Rio was early next day on
+its way to the palace to inquire after the royal health, and ordering
+my carriage, I also proceeded to the palace, lest my absence might
+seem singular. On my entering the room,&mdash;where the Emperor was in
+the act of explaining the nature of his disease to the anxious
+inquirers,&mdash;his Majesty burst into a fit of uncontrollable laughter,
+in which I as heartily joined, the bystanders evidently, from the
+gravity of their countenances, considering that we had both taken
+leave of our senses. The ministers looked astounded, but said nothing.
+His Majesty kept his secret, and I was silent."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+That anecdote fairly illustrates the treatment adopted towards Lord
+Cochrane, and the straits to which the Emperor was reduced in his
+efforts to protect him from his enemies in power. The ill-treatment
+both of himself and of the whole fleet continuing, he addressed an
+indignant protest to his Majesty in July. "The time has at length
+arrived," he there said, "when it is impossible to doubt that the
+influence which the Portuguese faction has so long exerted, with the
+view of depriving the officers and seamen of their stipulated rights,
+has succeeded in its object, and has even prevailed against the
+expressed wishes and intentions of your Majesty. The determined
+perseverance in a course so opposed to justice must come to an end.
+The general discontent which prevails in the squadron has rendered
+the situation in which I am placed one of the most embarrassing
+description; for, though a few may be aware that my own cause of
+complaint is equal to theirs, many cannot perceive the consistency
+of my patient continuance in the service with disapprobation of the
+measures pursued. Even the honours which your Majesty has been pleased
+to bestow upon me are deemed by most of the officers, and by the whole
+of the men, who know not the assiduity with which I have persevered in
+earnest but unavailing remonstrance, as a bribe by which I have been
+induced to abandon their interests. Much, therefore, as I prize those
+honours, as the gracious gift of your Imperial Majesty, yet, holding
+in still dearer estimation my character as an officer and a man, I
+cannot hesitate in choosing which to sacrifice when the retention of
+both is evidently incompatible. I can, therefore, no longer delay to
+demonstrate to the squadron and the world that I am no partner in the
+deceptions and oppressions which are practised on the naval service;
+and, as the first and most painful step in the performance of this
+imperious duty, I crave permission, with all humility and respect,
+to return those honours, and lay them at the feet of your Imperial
+Majesty. I should, however, fall short of my duty to those who were
+induced to enter the service by my example or invitation, were I to
+do nothing more than convince them that I had been deceived. It is
+incumbent on me to make every effort to obtain for them the fulfilment
+of engagements for which I made myself responsible. As far as I am
+personally concerned, I could be content to quit the service of your
+Imperial Majesty, either with or without the expectation of obtaining
+compensation at a future period. After effectually fighting the
+battles of freedom and independence on both sides of South America,
+and clearing the two seas of every vessel of war, I could submit to
+return to my native country unrewarded; but I cannot submit to adopt
+any course which shall not redeem my pledge to my brother officers and
+seamen."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+That and other arguments contained in the same letter, aided by
+inducements of a different sort, to be presently referred to, had
+partial effect. A small portion of the prize-money and wages due to
+the squadron was issued, and Lord Cochrane remained for another year
+in the service of Brazil. His weary waiting-time at Rio de Janeiro,
+however, extending over nearly nine months, was almost at an end. On
+the 2nd of August he left it, never to return.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+While the ingratitude shown to him in Brazil was at its worst it is
+interesting to notice that a few, at any rate, of his own countrymen
+were remembering his past troubles and his present worth. On the 21st
+of June, Sir James Mackintosh, in one of the many speeches in the
+British House of Commons in which he nobly advocated the recognition
+of the independence of the South American states, both as a political
+duty and as a necessary measure in the interests of commerce, made a
+graceful allusion to Lord Cochrane. "I know," he said, "that I am here
+touching on a topic of great delicacy; but I must say that commerce
+has been gallantly protected by that extraordinary man who was once a
+British officer, who once filled a distinguished post in the
+British navy at the brightest period of its annals. I mention this
+circumstance with struggling and mingled emotions&mdash;emotions of pride
+that the individual I speak of is a Briton, emotions of regret that
+he is no longer a British officer. Can any one imagine a more gallant
+action than the cutting out of the <i>Esmeralda</i> from Callao? Never
+was there a greater display of judgment, calmness, and enterprising
+British valour than was shown on that memorable occasion. No man ever
+felt a more ardent, a more inextinguishable love of country, a more
+anxious desire to promote its interests and extend its prosperity,
+than the gallant individual to whom I allude. I speak for myself. No
+person is responsible for the opinions which I now utter. But ask,
+what native of this country can help wishing that such a man were
+again amongst us? I hope I shall be excused for saying thus much; but
+I cannot avoid fervently wishing that such advice may be given to
+the Crown by his Majesty's constitutional advisers as will induce his
+Majesty graciously to restore Lord Cochrane to the country which he
+so warmly loves, and to that noble service to the glory of which, I am
+convinced, he willingly would sacrifice every earthly consideration."
+</p>
+
+</div><!--end chapter-->
+
+<div class="chapter">
+
+<h2><a name="chap12"></a>CHAPTER XII.</h2>
+
+<p>
+THE INSURRECTION IN PERNAMBUCO.&mdash;LORD COCHRANE's EXPEDITION TO
+SUPPRESS IT.&mdash;THE SUCCESS OF HIS WORK.&mdash;HIS STAY AT MARANHAM.&mdash;THE
+DISORGANISED STATE OF AFFAIRS IN THAT PROVINCE.&mdash;LORD COCHRANE's
+EFFORTS TO RESTORE ORDER AND GOOD GOVERNMENT.&mdash;THEIR RESULT IN FURTHER
+TROUBLE TO HIMSELF.&mdash;HIS CRUISE IN THE "PIRANGA," AND RETURN TO
+ENGLAND.&mdash;THE FRESH INDIGNITIES THERE OFFERED TO HIM.&mdash;HIS RETIREMENT
+FROM BRAZILIAN SERVICE.&mdash;HIS LETTER TO THE EMPEROR PEDRO I.&mdash;THE END
+OF HIS SOUTH AMERICAN EMPLOYMENTS.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+[1824-1825.]
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The political turmoils which Lord Cochrane found to be prevalent
+in Rio de Janeiro, on his return from Maranham, were, as he had
+anticipated, very disastrous to the whole Brazilian empire. The
+unpatriotic action of men in power at head-quarters encouraged yet
+more unpatriotic action in the outlying and newly-acquired provinces.
+Portuguese sympathizers in Pernambuco, in Maranham, and in the
+neighbouring districts, following the policy of the Portuguese faction
+at the centre of government, and acting even more unworthily,
+induced serious trouble; and the trouble was aggravated by the fierce
+opposition which was in many cases offered to them. Before the end of
+1823 information arrived that an insurrection, having for its object
+the establishment in the northern provinces of a government distinct
+from both Brazil and Portugal, had broken out in Pernambuco, and
+nearly every week brought fresh intelligence of the spread of this
+insurrection and of the troubles induced by it. The Emperor Pedro I.
+was eager to send thither the squadron under Lord Cochrane, and so to
+win back the allegiance of the inhabitants; and for this Lord Cochrane
+was no less eager. To the Portuguese partizans, however, whose great
+effort was to weaken the resources of the empire, the news of the
+insurrection was welcome; and perhaps their strongest inducement to
+the long course of injustice detailed in the last chapter was the
+knowledge that by so doing they were most successfully preventing the
+despatch of an armament strong enough to restore order in the northern
+provinces. Herein they prospered. For more than six months the Emperor
+was prevented from suppressing the insurrection, which all through
+that time was extending and becoming more and more formidable. Not
+till July was anything done to satisfy the claims of the seamen for
+payment of their prize-money and the arrears of wages due to them,
+without which they refused to return to their work and render possible
+the equipment and despatch of the squadron; and even then only 200,000
+milreis&mdash;less than a tenth of the prize-money that was owing&mdash;were
+granted as an instalment of the payment to be made to them.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+With that money, however, Lord Cochrane, using his great personal
+influence with the officers and crews, induced them to rejoin the
+fleet. The funds were placed in his hands on the 12th of July, 1824,
+and equitably disbursed by him during the following three weeks. On
+the 2nd of August he set sail in the <i>Pedro Primiero</i> from Rio de
+Janeiro, attended by the <i>Maranham</i> and three transports containing
+twelve hundred soldiers.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Having landed General Lima and the troops at Alagoas on the 16th,
+he arrived off Pernambuco on the 18th. There he found that a strong
+republican Government had been set up under the presidentship of
+Manoel de Carvalho Pais d'Andrade, whose authority, secret or open,
+extended far into the interior and along the adjoining coasts.
+"Knowing that it would take some time for the troops to come up," he
+said, "I determined to try the effect of a threat of bombardment, and
+issued a proclamation remonstrating with the inhabitants on the folly
+of permitting themselves to be deceived by men who lacked the ability
+to execute their schemes; pointing out, moreover, that persistence in
+revolt would involve both the town and its rulers in one common ruin,
+for, if forced to the necessity of bombardment, I would reduce the
+port and city to insignificance. On the other hand, I assured them
+that, if they retraced their steps and rallied round the imperial
+throne, thus aiding to protect it from foreign influence, it would be
+more gratifying to me to act the part of a mediator, and to restore
+Pernambuco to peace, prosperity, and happiness, than to carry out the
+work of destruction which would be my only remaining alternative. In
+another proclamation I called the attention of the inhabitants to the
+distracted state of the Spanish republics on the other side of the
+continent, asking whether it would be wise to risk the benefits of
+orderly government for social and political confusion, and entreating
+them not to compel me to proceed to extremities, as it would become my
+duty to destroy their shipping and block up their port, unless, within
+eight days, the integrity of the empire were acknowledged."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+While waiting to see the result of those proclamations Lord Cochrane
+received a message from Carvalho, offering him immediate payment of
+400,000 milreis if he would abandon the imperial cause and go over to
+the republicans. "Frankness is the distinguishing character of free
+men," wrote Carvalho, "but your excellency has not found it in your
+connection with the Imperial Government. Your not having been rewarded
+for the first expedition affords a justifiable inference that you will
+get nothing for the second." That audacious proposal, it need hardly
+be said, was indignantly resented by Lord Cochrane. "If I shall have
+an opportunity of becoming personally known to your excellency," he
+wrote, "I can afford you proof that the opinion you have formed of me
+has had its origin in the misrepresentations of those in power, whose
+purposes I was incapable of serving."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The threats and promises of Lord Cochrane's proclamation did not lead
+to the peaceable surrender of Pernambuco, and at the end of the eight
+days' waiting-time he proceeded to bombard the town. In that, however,
+he was hindered by bad weather, which made it impossible for him to
+enter the shallow water without great risk of shipwreck. He was in
+urgent need, also, of anchors and other fittings. Therefore, after
+a brief show of attack, which frightened the inhabitants, but had no
+other effect, he left the smaller vessels to maintain the blockade,
+and went on the 4th of September in the flag-ship to Bahia, there to
+procure the necessary articles. On his return he found that General
+Lima had marched against Pernambuco on the 11th, and, with the
+assistance of the blockading vessels, made an easy capture of it.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+There was plenty of other work, however, to be done. All the
+northern provinces were disaffected, if not in actual revolt, and, in
+compliance with the Emperor's directions, Lord Cochrane proceeded to
+visit their ports and reduce them to order. Some other ships having
+arrived from Rio de Janeiro, he selected the <i>Piranga</i> and two smaller
+vessels for service with the flag-ship, leaving the others at the
+disposal of General Lima, and sailed from Pernambuco on the 10th of
+October.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+He reached Cearà on the 18th, and then, by his mere presence,
+compelled the insurgents, who had seized the city, to retire, and
+enabled the well-disposed inhabitants to organize a vigorous scheme of
+self-protection.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+A harder task awaited him at Maranham, at which he arrived on the
+9th of November. There the utmost confusion prevailed. The Portuguese
+faction had the supremacy, and there were special causes of animosity
+and misconduct among the members of the opposite party of native
+Brazilians.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"In Maranham," said Lord Cochrane, "as in the other northern provinces
+of the empire, there had been no amelioration whatever in the
+condition of the people, and, without such amelioration, it was absurd
+to place reliance on the hyperbolical professions of devotion to
+the Emperor which were now abundantly avowed by those who, before my
+arrival, had been foremost in promoting and cherishing disturbance.
+The condition of the province, and indeed of all the provinces, was
+in no way better than they had been under the dominion of Portugal,
+though they presented one of the finest fields imaginable for
+improvement. All the old colonial imports and duties remained without
+alteration; the manifold hindrances to commerce and agriculture still
+existed; and arbitrary power was everywhere exercised uncontrolled: so
+that, in place of being benefited by emancipation from the Portuguese
+yoke, the condition of the great mass of the population was literally
+worse than before. To amend this state of things it was necessary
+to begin with the officers of Government, of whose corruption and
+arbitrary conduct complaints, signed by whole communities, were daily
+arriving from every part of the province. To such an extent, indeed,
+wad this misrule carried that neither the lives nor the property of
+the inhabitants were safe."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+This state of things Lord Cochrane set himself zealously to remedy;
+and, during his six months' stay at Maranham, he did all that, with
+the bad materials at his disposal and in the harassing circumstances
+of his position, it was possible for him to do. Unable to break down
+the cabals and intrigues, the mutual jealousies and the unworthy
+ambitions that had prevailed previous to his arrival, he held them all
+in check while he was present and secured the observance of law and
+the freedom of all classes of the community.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Thereby, however, he brought upon himself much fresh hatred. The
+governor of the province, being devoted to the Portuguese party and a
+chief cause of the existing troubles, had to be suspended and sent to
+Rio de Janeiro; and though the suspension occurred after orders had
+been despatched by the Emperor for his recall, it afforded an excuse
+to the governor and his friends in office for denunciation of Lord
+Cochrane's conduct, alleged to be greatly in excess of his powers and
+in contempt of the constituted authority. In fact, the same bad policy
+that had embarrassed him before, while he was in Rio de Janeiro,
+continued to embarrass him yet more during his service in Maranham.
+That that service was very helpful to the best interests of Brazil
+no one attempted to deny. The French and English consuls, speaking
+on behalf of all their countrymen resident in the northern provinces,
+overstepped the line of strict neutrality, and entreated him to
+persevere in the measures by which he was making it possible for
+commerce to prosper and the rules of civilized life to be observed.
+The Emperor sent to thank him for his work. "His Majesty," wrote the
+secretary on the 2nd of December, "approves of the First Admiral's
+determination to establish order and obedience in the northern
+provinces, a duty which he has so wisely and judiciously undertaken,
+and in which he must continue until the provinces submit themselves
+to the authorities lately appointed, and enjoy the benefits of the
+paternal government of his Imperial Majesty."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The Emperor, however, was at this time almost powerless. The leaders
+of the Portuguese faction reigned, and by them Lord Cochrane continued
+to be treated with every possible indignity and insult. Not daring
+openly to dismiss him or even to accept the resignation which he
+frequently offered, they determined to wear out his patience, and, if
+possible, to drive him to some act on which they could fasten as
+an excuse for degrading him. They partly succeeded, though the only
+wonder is that Lord Cochrane should have been, for so long a time, as
+patient as he proved. His temper is well shown in the numerous
+letters which he addressed to Pedro I. and the Government during these
+harassing months. "The condescension," he wrote, "with which your
+Imperial Majesty has been pleased to permit me to approach your royal
+person, on matters regarding the public service, and even on those
+more particularly relating to myself, emboldens me to adopt the only
+means in my power, at this distance, of craving that your Majesty will
+be graciously pleased to judge of my conduct in the imperial service
+by the result of my endeavours to promote your Majesty's interests,
+and not by the false reports spread by those who, for reasons best
+known to themselves, desire to alienate your Majesty's mind from me,
+and thus to bring about my removal from your Majesty's service. I
+trust that your Imperial Majesty will please to believe me to be
+sensible that the honours which you have so graciously bestowed upon
+me it is my duty not to tarnish, and that your Majesty will further
+believe that, highly as I prize those honours, I hold the maintenance
+of my reputation in my native country in equal estimation. I
+respectfully crave permission to add that, perceiving it is impossible
+to continue in the service of your Imperial Majesty without at
+all times subjecting my professional character, under the present
+management of the Marine Department, to great risks, I trust your
+Majesty will be graciously pleased to grant me leave to retire
+from your imperial service, in which it appears to me I have now
+accomplished all that can be expected from me, the authority of your
+Imperial Majesty being established throughout the whole extent of
+Brazil."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+That request was not granted, or in any way answered; and the
+statement that the whole of Brazil was finally subjected to the
+Emperor's authority proved to be not quite correct. Fresh turmoils
+arose in Parà, and Lord Cochrane had to send thither a small force,
+by which order was restored. He himself found ample employment in
+restraining the factions that could not be suppressed at Maranham.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+That was the state of things in the early months of 1825, until
+unlooked-for circumstances arose, by which Lord Cochrane's Brazilian
+employment was brought to a termination in a way that he had not
+anticipated. "The anxiety occasioned by the constant harassing which
+I had undergone, unalleviated by any acknowledgment on the part of the
+Imperial Government of the services which had a second time saved the
+empire from intestine war, anarchy, and revolution," he said, "began
+to make serious inroads on my health; whilst that of the officers and
+men, in consequence of the great heat and pestilential exhalations of
+the climate, and of the double duty which they had to perform afloat
+and ashore, was even less satisfactory. As I saw no advantage in
+longer contending with factious intrigues at Maranham, unsupported and
+neglected as I was by the Administration at Rio de Janeiro, I resolved
+upon a short run into a more bracing northerly atmosphere, which would
+answer the double purpose of restoring our health and of giving us a
+clear offing for our subsequent voyage to the capital.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Accordingly," the narrative proceeds, "I shifted my flag into the
+<i>Piranga</i>, despatched the <i>Pedro Primiero</i> to Rio, and, leaving
+Captain Manson, of the <i>Cacique</i>, in charge of the naval department
+at Maranham, put to sea on the 18th of May. On the 21st we crossed
+the Equator, and, meeting with a succession of easterly winds, were
+carried to the northward of the Azores, passing St. Michael's on the
+11th of June. It had been my intention to sail into the latitude of
+the Azores, and then to return to Rio de Janeiro. But, strong gales
+coming on, we made the unpleasant discovery that the frigate's
+main-topmast was sprung, and, when putting her about, the main and
+main-topsail yards were discovered to be unserviceable. For the
+condition of the ship's spars I had depended on others, not deeming
+it necessary to take upon myself such investigation. It was, however,
+possible that we might have patched these up, had not the running
+rigging been as rotten as the masts, and we had no spare cordage on
+board. A still worse disaster was that the salt provisions shipped at
+Maranham were reported bad, mercantile ingenuity having resorted to
+the device of placing good meat at the top and bottom of the barrels,
+whilst the middle, being composed of unsound articles, had tainted
+the whole, thereby rendering it not only unpalatable but positively
+dangerous to health. The good provisions on board being little more
+than sufficient for a week's subsistence, a direct return to Rio de
+Janeiro was out of the question."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+It was therefore absolutely necessary to seek some nearer harbour; but
+Lord Cochrane was considerably embarrassed in his choice of a
+port. Portugal was an enemy's country, and Spain, by reason of his
+achievements in Chili and Peru, was no less hostile to him. France had
+not yet recognised the independence of Brazil, and therefore a stay on
+any part of its coast might lead to difficulties. England afforded the
+only safe halting-place, though there Lord Cochrane was uncertain as
+to the way in which, in consequence of the Foreign Enlistment Act,
+he might be received. To England, however, he resolved to go; and,
+sighting its coast on the 25th of June, he anchored at Spithead on
+the following day. Salutes were exchanged with a British ship lying
+in harbour, and in the afternoon he landed at Portsmouth, to be
+enthusiastically welcomed by nearly all classes of his countrymen,
+whose admiration for his personal character and his excellence as a
+naval officer was heightened by the renown of his exploits in South
+America during an absence of six years and a half.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+His subsequent relations with Brazil can be briefly told. His
+unavoidable return to England afforded just the excuse which his
+enemies in Brazil had been seeking for ousting him from his command.
+They and the Chevalier Manoel Rodriguez Gameiro Pessoa, the Brazilian
+Envoy in London, who altogether sympathised with them, chose to regard
+this occurrence as an act of desertion. Lord Cochrane lost no time in
+reporting his arrival and requesting to be provided with the necessary
+means for refitting the <i>Piranga</i> and preparing for a speedy return to
+Rio de Janeiro. To expedite matters, he even advanced 2000£ out of
+his own property&mdash;which was never repaid to him&mdash;for this purpose. His
+repeated applications for instructions were either unheeded or only
+answered with insult. He was ordered to return to Brazil at once,
+towards which no assistance was given to him; and at the same time
+his officers and crew were ordered to repudiate his authority and to
+return without him.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Lord Cochrane had no room to doubt that by going back to Brazil he
+should only expose himself to yet worse treatment than that from which
+he had been suffering during nearly two years; but at the same time
+he was resolved to do nothing at variance with his duty to the Emperor
+from whom he had received his commission, and nothing invalidating his
+claims to the recompense which was clearly due to him. At length he
+was relieved from some of his perplexities, after they had lasted more
+than three months. On the 3rd of November, 1825, peace was declared
+between Brazil and Portugal; and thereby his relations with his
+employers were materially altered. The work which he had pledged
+himself to do was completed, and he was justified in resigning his
+command, or at any rate in declining to resume it until the causes of
+his recent troubles were removed.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+This he did in a letter addressed to the Emperor Pedro I., from
+London, on the 10th of November. "The gracious condescension which I
+experienced from your Imperial Majesty, from the first moment of my
+arrival in the Brazils, the honorary distinctions which I received
+from your Majesty, and the attention with which you were pleased to
+listen to all my personal representations relating to the promotion
+of the naval power of your empire," he wrote, "have impressed upon
+my mind a high sense of the honour which your Majesty conferred, and
+forbid my entertaining any other sentiments than those of attachment
+to your Majesty and devotion to your true interests. But, whilst I
+express these my unfeigned sentiments towards your Imperial Majesty,
+it is with infinite pain and regret that I recall to my recollection
+the conduct that has been pursued towards the naval service, and to
+myself personally, since the members of the Brazilian administration
+of José Bonifacio de Andrade were superseded by persons devoted to
+the views and interests of Portugal,&mdash;views and interests which are
+directly opposed to the adoption of that line of conduct which can
+alone promote and secure the true interests and glory of your Imperial
+Majesty, founded on the tranquillity and happiness of the Brazilian
+people. Without imputing to such ministers as Severiano, Gomez, and
+Barboza disaffection to the person of your Imperial Majesty, it is
+sufficient to know that they are men bigoted to the unenlightened
+opinions of their ancestors of four centuries ago, that they are men
+who, from their limited intercourse with the world, from the paucity
+of the literature of their native language, and from their want of
+all rational instruction in the service of government and political
+economy, have no conception of governing Brazil by any other than the
+same wretched and crooked policy to which the nation had been so long
+subjected in its condition as a colony. Nothing further need be said,
+while we acquit them of treason, to convict them of unfitness to be
+the counsellors of your Imperial Majesty.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"None but such ministers as these could have endeavoured to impress
+upon the mind of your Imperial Majesty that the refugee Portuguese
+from the provinces and many thousands from Europe, collected in Rio
+de Janeiro, were the only true friends and supporters of the imperial
+crown of Brazil. None but such ministers would have endeavoured to
+impress your Imperial Majesty with a belief that the Brazilian people
+were inimical to your person and the imperial crown, merely because
+they were hostile to the system pursued by those ministers. None but
+such ministers would have placed in important offices of trust the
+natives of a nation with which your Imperial Majesty was at war. None
+but such ministers would have endeavoured to induce your Imperial
+Majesty to believe that officers who had abandoned their King and
+native country for their own private interests could be depended on as
+faithful servants to a hostile Government and a foreign land. None but
+such ministers could have induced your Imperial Majesty to place
+in the command of your fortresses, regiments, and ships of war such
+individuals as these. None but such ministers would have attempted to
+excite in the breast of your Imperial Majesty suspicions with respect
+to the fidelity of myself and of those other officers who, by the most
+zealous exertions, had proved our devotion to the best interests
+of your Imperial Majesty and your Brazilian people. None but such
+ministers would have endeavoured by insults and acts of the grossest
+injustice, to drive us from the service of your Imperial Majesty and
+to place Portuguese officers in our stead. And, above all, none but
+such ministers could have suggested to your Imperial Majesty that
+extraordinary proceeding which was projected to take place on the
+night of the 3rd of June, 1824, a proceeding which, had it not been
+averted by a timely discovery and prompt interposition on my part,
+would have tarnished for ever the glory of your Imperial Majesty, and
+which, if it had failed to prove fatal to myself and officers, must
+inevitably have driven us from your imperial service. When placed
+in competition with this plot of these ministers and the false
+insinuations by which they induced your Imperial Majesty to listen to
+their insidious counsel, all their previous intrigues, and those of
+the whole Portuguese faction, to ruin the naval power of Brazil, sink
+into insignificance. But for the advancement of Portuguese interests
+there was nothing too treacherous or malignant for such ministers and
+such men as these to insinuate to your Imperial Majesty, especially
+when they had discovered that it was not possible by their unjust
+conduct to provoke me to abandon the service of Brazil so long as my
+exertions could be useful to secure its independence, which I believed
+to be alike the object of your Imperial Majesty and the interest of
+the Brazilian people.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"If the counsels of such persons should prove fatal to the interests
+of your Imperial Majesty, no one will regret the event more sincerely
+than myself. My only consolation will be the knowledge that your
+Imperial Majesty cannot but be conscious that I, individually, have
+discharged my duty, both in a military and in a private capacity,
+towards your Majesty, whose true interest, I may venture to add, I
+have held in greater regard than my own; for, had I connived at the
+views of the Portuguese faction, even without dereliction of my duty
+as an officer, I might have shared amply in the honours and emoluments
+which such influence has enabled these persons to obtain, instead of
+being deprived, by their means, of even the ordinary rewards of my
+labours in the cause of independence which your Imperial Majesty had
+engaged me to maintain,&mdash;which cause I neither have abandoned nor will
+abandon, if ever it should be in my power successfully to renew my
+exertions for the true interests of your Imperial Majesty and those of
+the Brazilian people.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Meanwhile my office as Commander-in-Chief of your Imperial Majesty's
+Naval Forces having terminated by the conclusion of peace and by the
+decree promulgated on the 28th of February, 1824, I have notified to
+your Imperial Majesty's Envoy, the Chevalier de Gameiro, that I have
+directed my flag to be struck this day. Praying that the war now
+terminated abroad may be accompanied by tranquillity at home, I
+respectfully take leave of your Imperial Majesty."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+All Lord Cochrane's subsequent correspondence with Brazil had for its
+object the recovery of the payments due to him and to his officers and
+crews for the great services done by them to the empire. Lord Cochrane
+had saved that empire from being brought back to the position of
+a Portuguese colony, and had enabled it to enter on a career of
+independence. In return for it he was subjected to more than two years
+of galling insult, was deprived of his proper share of the prizes
+taken by him and his squadron, was refused the estate in Maranham
+which the Emperor, more grateful than his ministers, had bestowed upon
+him, and was mulcted of a portion of his pay and of all the pension
+to which he was entitled by imperial decree and the ordinances of the
+Government. His services to Brazil, like his services to Chili, adding
+much to his renown as a disinterested champion of liberty and an
+unrivalled seaman and warrior, brought upon him personally little but
+trouble and misfortune. Only near the end of his life, when a worthy
+Emperor and honest ministers succeeded to power, was any recompence
+accorded to him.
+</p>
+
+</div><!--end chapter-->
+
+<div class="chapter">
+
+<h2><a name="chap13"></a>CHAPTER XIII.</h2>
+
+<p class="letter">
+THE GREEK REVOLUTION AND ITS ANTECEDENTS.&mdash;THE MODERN GREEKS.&mdash;THE
+FRIENDLY SOCIETY.&mdash;SULTAN MAHMUD AND ALI PASHA'S REBELLION.&mdash;THE
+BEGINNING OF THE GREEK INSURRECTION.&mdash;COUNT JOHN CAPODISTRIAS.&mdash;PRINCE
+ALEXANDER HYPSILANTES.&mdash;THE REVOLUTION IN THE MOREA.&mdash;THEODORE
+KOLKOTRONES.&mdash;THE REVOLUTION IN THE ISLANDS.&mdash;THE GREEK NAVY AND ITS
+CHARACTER.&mdash;THE EXCESSES OF THE GREEKS.&mdash;THEIR BAD GOVERNMENT.&mdash;PRINCE
+ALEXANDER MAVROCORDATOS.&mdash;THE PROGRESS OF THE REVOLUTION.&mdash;THE
+SPOLIATION OF THE CHIOS.&mdash;ENGLISH PHILHELLENES; THOMAS GORDON, FRANK
+ABNEY HASTINGS, LORD BYRON.&mdash;THE FIRST GREEK LOAN, AND THE BAD USES
+TO WHICH IT WAS PUT.&mdash;REVERSES OF THE GREEKS.&mdash;IBRAHIM AND HIS
+SUCCESSES.&mdash;MAVROCORDATOS'S LETTER TO LORD COCHRANE.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+[1820-1825.]
+</p>
+
+<p>
+While Lord Cochrane was rendering efficient service to the cause of
+freedom in South America, another war of independence was being waged
+in Europe; and he had hardly been at home a week before solicitations
+pressed upon him from all quarters that he should lend his great name
+and great abilities to this war also. As he consented to do so, and
+almost from the moment of his arrival was intimately connected with
+the Greek Revolution, the previous stages of this memorable episode,
+the incidents that occurred during his absence in Chili and Brazil,
+need to be here reviewed and recapitulated.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The Greek Revolution began openly in 1821. But there had been long
+previous forebodings of it. The dwellers in the land once peopled by
+the noble race which planned and perfected the arts and graces, the
+true refinements and the solid virtues that are the basis of our
+modern civilization, had been for four centuries and more the slaves
+of the Turks. They were hardly Greeks, if by that name is implied
+descent from the inhabitants of classic Greece. With the old stock had
+been blended, from generation to generation, so many foreign elements
+that nearly all trace of the original blood had disappeared, and the
+modern Greeks had nothing but their residence and their language to
+justify them in maintaining the old title. But their slavery was only
+too real. Oppressed by the Ottomans on account of their race and their
+religion, the oppression was none the less in that it induced many of
+them to cast off the last shreds of freedom and deck themselves in the
+coarser, but, to slavish minds, the pleasanter bondage of trickery and
+meanness. During the eighteenth century, many Greeks rose to eminence
+in the Turkish service, and proved harder task-masters to their
+brethren than the Turks themselves generally were. The hope of further
+aggrandisement, however, led them to scheme the overthrow of their
+Ottoman employers, and their projects were greatly aided by the truer,
+albeit short-sighted, patriotism that animated the greater number of
+their kinsmen. They groaned under Turkish thraldom, and yearned to
+be freed from it, in the temper so well described and so worthily
+denounced by Lord Byron in 1811:&mdash;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+  "And many dream withal the hour is nigh
+  That gives them back their fathers' heritage:
+  For foreign arms and aid they loudly sigh,
+  Nor solely dare encounter hostile rage.
+  Hereditary bondsmen! know ye not
+  Who would be free themselves must strike the blow?
+  By their right arm the conquest must be wrought.
+  Will Gaul or Muscovite redress ye?&mdash;No!
+  True, they may lay your proud despoilers low,
+  But not for you will Freedom's altars flame."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The Greeks, all but a few genuine patriots, thought otherwise. They
+sought deliverance at the hands of Gauls and Muscovites; and, as the
+Muscovites had good reason for desiring the overthrow of Turkey, they
+listened to their prayers, and other ties than that of community in
+religion bound the persecuted Greeks to Russia. The Philiké Hetaira,
+or Friendly Society, chief representative of a very general movement,
+was founded at Odessa in 1814. It was a secret society, which speedily
+had ramifications among the Greek Christians in every part of Turkey,
+encouraging them to prepare for insurrection as soon as the Czar
+Alexander I. deemed it expedient to aid them by open invasion of
+Turkey, or as soon as they themselves could take the initiative,
+trusting to Russia to complete the work of revolution. The Friendly
+Society increased its influence and multiplied its visionary schemes
+during many years previous to 1821.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Its strength was augmented by the political condition of Turkey at the
+time. The Sultan Mahmud&mdash;a true type of the Ottoman sovereign at
+his worst&mdash;had attempted to perfect his power by a long train of
+cruelties, of which murder was the lightest. Defeating his own purpose
+thereby, he aroused the opposition of Mahometan as well as Christian
+subjects, and induced the rebellious schemes of Ali Pasha of Joannina,
+the boldest of his vassals. In Albania Ali ruled with a cruelty that
+was hardly inferior to Mahmud's. Byron tells how his
+</p>
+
+<p>
+  "dread command
+  Is lawless law; for with a bloody hand
+  He sways a nation turbulent and told."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The cruelty could be tolerated; but not opposition to Mahmud's
+will. Long and growing jealousy existed between the Sultan and his
+tributary. At length, in 1820, there was an open rupture. Ali was
+denounced as a traitor, and ordered to surrender his pashalik. Instead
+of so doing, he organized his army for prompt rebellion, trusting for
+success partly to the support of the Greeks. Most of the Greeks held
+aloof; but the Suliots, a race of Christian marauders, the fiercest of
+the fierce community of Albanians, sided with him, and for more than a
+year rendered him valuable aid by reason of their hereditary skill in
+lawless warfare. Not till January, 1822, was Ali forced to surrender,
+and then only, perhaps, through the defection of the Suliots.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The Suliots, dissatisfied with Ali's recompense for their services,
+had gone over to the Greeks, who, not caring to serve under Ali in his
+rebellion, had welcomed that rebellion as a Heaven-sent opportunity
+for realising their long-cherished hopes. The Turkish garrisons in
+Greece being half unmanned in order that the strongest possible force
+might be used in subduing Ali, and Turkish government in the peninsula
+being at a standstill, the Greeks found themselves in an excellent
+position for asserting their freedom. Had they been less degraded than
+they were by their long centuries of slavery, or had there been some
+better organization than that which the purposes and the methods of
+the Friendly Society afforded for developing the latent patriotism
+which was honest and wide-spread, they might have achieved a triumph
+worthy of the classic name they bore and the heroic ancestry that they
+claimed.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Unfortunately, the Friendly Society, already degenerated from the
+unworthy aim with which it started, now an elaborate machinery of
+personal ambition, private greed, and local spite, the willing tool of
+Russia, was master of the situation. The mastery, however, was by no
+means thorough. The society had dispossessed all other organizations,
+but had no organization of its own adequate to the working out of
+a successful rebellion. Its machinery was tolerably perfect, but
+efficient motive-power was wanting. Its exchequer was empty; its
+counsels were divided; above all, it had alienated the sympathies of
+the worthiest patriots of Greece. Finding itself suddenly in the
+way of triumph, it was incapable of rightly progressing in that way.
+Obstacles of its own raising, and obstacles raised by others, stood
+in the path, and only a very wise man had the chance of successfully
+removing them.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The wise man did not exist, or was not to be obtained. Perhaps the
+wisest, though, as later history proved, not very wise, was Count John
+Capodistrias, a native of Corfu. Born in 1777, he had gone to Italy to
+study and practise medicine. There also he studied, afterwards to put
+in practice, the effete Machiavellianism then in vogue. In 1803 he
+entered political life as secretary to the lately-founded republic
+of the Ionian Islands. Napoleon's annexation of the Ionian Islands in
+1807 drove him into the service of Russia, and, as Russian agent, he
+advocated, at the Vienna Conference of 1815, the reconstruction of the
+Ionian republic. The partial concession of Great Britain towards that
+project, by which the Ionian Islands were established as a sort of
+commonwealth, dependent upon England, enabled him to live and work
+in Corfu, awaiting the realization of his own patriotic schemes, and
+watching the patriotic movement in Greece. Italian in his education,
+and Russian in his sympathies, he was still an honest Greek, worthier
+and abler than most other influential Greeks. "He had many virtues and
+great abilities," says a competent critic. "His conduct was firm and
+disinterested, his manners simple and dignified. His personal feelings
+were warm, and, as a consequence of this virtue, they were sometimes
+so strong as to warp his judgment. He wanted the equanimity and
+impartiality of mind, and the elevation of soul necessary to make
+a great man."[A] In spite of his defects, he might have done good
+service to the Greek Revolution, had he accepted the offer of its
+leadership, shrewdly tendered to him by the Friendly Society. But this
+he declined, having no liking for the society, and no trust in its
+methods and designs.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+[Footnote A: Finlay, "History of the Greek Revolution" (1861), vol.
+ii., p. 196. Mr. Finlay served as a volunteer in Greece under Captain
+Abney Hastings. His work is certainly the best on the subject, though
+we shall have in later pages to differ widely from its strictures on
+Lord Cochrane's motives and action. But our complaints will be less
+against his history than against the two other leading ones&mdash;General
+Gordon's "History of the Greek Revolution" (1832), and M. Trikoupes's
+"[Greek: Historia tês Hellênikês Epanastaseôs]" (1853-6), which is not
+very much more than a paraphrase of Gordon's work.]
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The Friendly Society then sought and found a leader, far inferior
+to Count Capodistrias, in Prince Alexander Hypsilantes, the son of a
+Hospodar of Wallachia who had been deposed in 1806. Hypsilantes had
+been educated in Russia, and had there risen to some rank, high enough
+at any rate to quicken his ambition and vanity, both as a soldier and
+as a courtier. He was not without virtues; but he was utterly unfit
+for the duties imposed upon him as leader of the Greek Revolution.
+Not a Greek himself, his purpose in accepting the office seems to have
+been to make Greece an appendage of the despotic monarchy, which, by
+means of the political crisis, he hoped to establish in Wallachia,
+under Russian protection. With that view, in March 1821, he led the
+first crude army of Greek and other Christian rebels into Moldavia.
+There and in Wallachia he stirred up a brief revolt, attended by
+military blunders and lawless atrocities which soon brought vengeance
+upon himself and made a false beginning of the revolutionary work.
+Moldavia and Wallachia were quickly restored to Turkish rule, and
+Hypsilantes had in June to fly for safety into Austria. But the bad
+example that he set, and the evil influence that he and his promoters
+and followers of the Friendly Society exerted, initiated a false
+policy and encouraged a pernicious course of action, by which the
+cause of the Greeks was injured for years.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The real Greek revolution began in the Morea. There the Friendly
+Society did good work in showing the people that the hour for action
+had come; but its direction of that action was for the most part
+mischievous. The worst Greeks were the leaders, and, under their
+guidance, the play of evil passions&mdash;inevitable in all efforts of the
+oppressed to overturn their oppressors&mdash;was developed to a grievous
+extent. Turkish blood was first shed on the 25th of March, 1821, and
+within a week the whole of the Morea was in a ferment of rebellion. By
+the 22nd of April, which was Easter Sunday, it is reckoned that from
+ten to fifteen thousand Mahometans had been slaughtered in cold blood,
+and about three thousand Turkish homes destroyed.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The promoters of all that wanton atrocity were the directors of the
+Friendly Society, among whom the Archimandrate Gregorios Dikaios,
+nicknamed Pappa Phlesas, and Petros Mavromichales, or Petro-Bey, were
+the most conspicuous. Its principal agents were the klepht or brigand
+chieftains, best represented by Theodore Kolokotrones.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Born about 1770, of a family devoted to the use of arms in predatory
+ways, Kolokotrones had led a lawless life until 1806, when the Greek
+peasantry called in the assistance of their Turkish rulers in hunting
+down their persecutors of their own race, and when, several of his
+family being slain, he himself had to seek refuge in Zante. There he
+maintained himself, partly by piracy, partly by cattle-dealing.
+In 1810 the English annexation of the Ionian Islands led to his
+employment, first as captain and afterwards as major, in the Greek
+contingent of the British army. He had amassed much wealth, and was
+in the prime of life when, in January, 1821, he returned to his early
+home, to revive his old brigand life under the name of legitimate
+warfare. His thorough knowledge of the country, its passes and its
+strongholds, and his familiarity with the modes of fighting proper to
+them, his handsome person and agreeable deportment, his shrewd wit and
+persuasive oratory, made him one of the most influential agents of
+the Revolution at its commencement, and his influence grew during the
+ensuing years.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The flame of rebellion, having spread through the Morea during the
+early weeks of April, extended rapidly over the adjoining districts of
+the mainland. By the end of June the insurgents were masters of
+nearly all the country now possessed by modern Greece. Their cause
+was heartily espoused by the Suliots of Albania and other
+fellow-Christians in the various Turkish provinces, and their kinsmen
+of the outlying islands were eager to join in the work of national
+regeneration, and to contribute largely to the completion of that work
+by their naval prowess.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+It was naval prowess, as our later pages will abundantly show, of
+a very barbarous and undeveloped sort. Besides the two principal
+seaports on the mainland, Tricheri on Mount Pelion and Galaxidhi on
+the Gulf of Corinth, there were famous colonies of Greek seamen in the
+islands of Psara and Kasos, and similar colonies of Albanians in Hydra
+and Spetzas. These and the other islands had long practised irregular
+commerce, and protected that commerce by irregular fighting with the
+Turks. At the first sound of revolution they threw in their lot with
+the insurgents of the mainland, and thus a nondescript navy of some
+four hundred brigs and schooners, of from sixty to four hundred tons'
+burthen, and manned by about twelve thousand sailors, adepts alike
+in trade and piracy, but very unskilled in orderly warfare, and very
+feebly inspired by anything like disinterested patriotism, was ready
+to use and abuse its powers during the ensuing seven years' fight for
+Greek independence.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+During the summer of 1821, while the continental Greeks were rushing
+to arms, murdering the Turkish residents among them by thousands, and
+thus bringing down upon themselves, or upon those of their own race
+who, as peasants and burghers, took no important share in actual
+fighting, the murderous vengeance of the Turkish troops sent to
+attempt the suppression of the revolt, these sailors were pursuing an
+easier and more profitable game. The Turkish ports were not warlike,
+and the Turkish trading ships were not prepared for fighting. In May,
+a formidable crowd of vessels left the islands on a cruise, from which
+they soon returned with an immense store of booty. Early in June, the
+best Turkish fleet that could be brought together, consisting of two
+line-of-battle ships, three frigates, and three sloops, went out to
+harass, if not to destroy, the swarm of smaller enemies. Jakomaki
+Tombazes, with thirty-seven of these smaller enemies, set off to meet
+them, and falling in with one of the ships, gave her chase, till, in
+the roads of Eripos, she was attacked on the 8th of June, and, with
+the help of a fireship, destroyed with a loss of nearly four hundred
+men. That victory caused the flight of the other Turkish vessels, and
+was the beginning of much cruel work at sea and with ships, which,
+not often daring to meet in open fight, wrought terrible mischief to
+unprotected ports and islands.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The mischief wrought upon the land was yet more terrible. A seething
+tide of Greek and Moslem blood heaved to and fro, as, during the
+second half of 1821, each party in turn gained temporary ascendency in
+one district after another. Greeks murdered Turks, and Turks murdered
+Greeks, with equal ferocity; or perhaps the ferocity of the Greeks,
+stirred by bad leaders to revenge themselves for all their previous
+sufferings, even surpassed that of the Turks. Of their cruelty a
+glaring instance occurred in their capture of Navarino. The Turkish
+inhabitants having held out as long as a mouthful of food was left
+in the town, were forced to capitulate on the 19th of August. It was
+promised that, upon their surrendering, the Greek vessels were to
+convey them, their wearing apparel, and their household furniture,
+either to Egypt or to Tunis. No sooner were the gates opened than
+a wholesale plunder and slaughter ensued. A Greek ecclesiastic has
+described the scene. "Women wounded with musket-balls and sabre-cuts
+rushed to the sea, seeking to escape, and were deliberately shot.
+Mothers robbed of their clothes, with infants in their arms, plunged
+into the water to conceal themselves from shame, and they were then
+made a mark for inhuman riflemen. Greeks seized infants from their
+mothers' breasts and dashed them against the rocks. Children, three
+and four years old, were hurled, living, into the sea, and left to
+drown. When the massacre was ended, the dead bodies washed ashore, or
+piled on the beach, threatened to cause a pestilence."[A] At the sack
+of Tripolitza, on the 8th of October, about eight thousand Moslems
+were murdered, the last two thousand, chiefly women and children,
+being taken into a neighbouring ravine, there to be slaughtered at
+leisure. Two years afterwards a ghastly heap of bones attested the
+inhuman deed.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+[Footnote A: Finlay, vol. i.; p. 263, citing Phrantzes.]
+</p>
+
+<p>
+In ways like these the first stage of the Greek Revolution was
+achieved. Before the close of 1821, it appeared to the Greeks
+themselves, to their Moslem enemies, and to their many friends in
+England, France, and other countries, that the triumph was complete.
+Unfortunately, the same bad motives and the same bad methods that had
+so grievously polluted the torrent of patriotism continued to poison
+and disturb the stream which might otherwise have been henceforth
+clear, steady, and health-giving. Greece was free, but, unless another
+and a much harder revolution could be effected in the temper and
+conduct of its own people, unfit to put its freedom to good use or
+even to maintain it. "The rapid success of the Greeks during the first
+few weeks of the revolution," says their ablest historian, "threw the
+management of much civil and financial business into the hands of the
+proësti and demogeronts in office. The primates, who already exercised
+great official authority, instantly appropriated that which had been
+hitherto exercised by murdered voivodes and beys. Every primate strove
+to make himself a little independent potentate, and every captain of
+a district assumed the powers of a commander-in-chief. The Revolution,
+before six months had passed, seemed to have peopled Greece with a
+host of little Ali Pashas. When the primate and the captain acted in
+concert, they collected the public revenues; administered the Turkish
+property, which was declared national; enrolled, paid, and provisioned
+as many troops as circumstances required, or as they thought fit;
+named officers; formed a local guard for the primate of the best
+soldiers in the place, who were thus often withdrawn from the public
+service; and organised a local police and a local treasury. This I
+system of local self-government, constituted in a very self-willed
+manner, and relieved from almost all responsibility, was soon
+established as a natural result of the Revolution over all Greece.
+The Sultan's authority having ceased, every primate assumed the
+prerogatives of the Sultan. For a few weeks this state of things was
+unavoidable, and, to an able and honest chief or government, it would
+have facilitated the establishment of a strong central authority; but
+by the vices of Greek society it was perpetuated into an organised
+anarchy. No improvement was made in financial arrangements, or in the
+system of taxation; no measures were adopted for rendering property
+more secure; no attempt was made to create an equitable administration
+of justice; no courts of law were established; and no financial
+accounts were published. Governments were formed, constitutions were
+drawn up, national assemblies met, orators debated, and laws were
+passed according to the political fashion patronised by the liberals
+of the day. But no effort was made to prevent the Government
+being virtually absolute, unless it was by rendering it absolutely
+powerless. The constitutions were framed to remain a dead letter. The
+national assemblies were nothing but conferences of parties, and the
+laws passed were intended to fascinate Western Europe, not to operate
+with effect in Greece."[A]
+</p>
+
+<p>
+[Footnote A: Finlay, vol. i., pp. 280, 281.]
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The supreme government of Greece had been assumed in June by Prince
+Demetrius Hypsilantes, a worthier man than his brother Alexander, but
+by no means equal to the task he took in hand. At first the brigand
+chiefs and local potentates, not willing to surrender any of the power
+they had acquired, were disposed to render to him nominal submission,
+believing that his name and his Russian influence would be serviceable
+to the cause of Greece. But Hypsilantes showed himself utterly
+incompetent, and it was soon apparent that his sympathies were wholly
+alien to those both of the Greek people and of their military and
+civil leaders. Therefore another master had to be chosen. Kolokotrones
+might have succeeded to the dignity, and he certainly had vigour
+enough of disposition, and enough honesty and dishonesty combined, to
+make the position one of power as well as of dignity. For that very
+reason, however, his comrades and rivals were unwilling to place him
+in it. They desired a president skilful enough to hold the reins of
+government with a very loose hand, yet so as to keep them from getting
+hopelessly entangled&mdash;one who should be a smart secretary and adviser,
+without assuming the functions of a director.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Such a man they found in Prince Alexander Mavrocordatos, then about
+thirty-two years old. He was a kinsman of a Hospodar of Wallachia,
+by whom he had in his youth been employed in political matters. After
+that he had resided in France, where he acquired much fresh knowledge,
+and where his popularity helped to quicken sympathy on behalf of
+the Greek Revolution at its first outburst. He had lately come
+to Missolonghi with a ship-load of ammunition and other material,
+procured and brought at his own expense, and soon attained
+considerable influence. Always courteous in his manners, only
+ungenerous in his actions where the interests of others came into
+collision with his own, less strong-willed and less ambitious than
+most of his associates, those associates were hardly jealous of his
+popularity at home, and wholly pleased with his popularity among
+foreigners. It was a clear gain to their cause to have Shelley writing
+his "Hellas," and dedicating the poem to Mavrocordatos, as "a token of
+admiration, sympathy, and friendship."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Mavrocordatos was named President of Greece in the Constitution of
+Epidaurus, chiefly his own workmanship, which was proclaimed on the
+13th of January&mdash;New Year's Day, according to the reckoning of the
+Greek Church&mdash;1822. It is not necessary here to detail his own acts or
+those of his real or professing subordinates. All we have to do is to
+furnish a general account, and a few characteristic illustrations, of
+the course of events during the Greek Revolution, in explanation of
+the state of parties and of politics at the time of Lord Cochrane's
+advent among them. These events were marked by continuance of the same
+selfish policy, divided interests, class prejudice, and individual
+jealousy that have been already referred to. The mass of the Greek
+people were, as they had been from the first, zealous in their desire
+for freedom, and, having won it, they were not unwilling to use it
+honestly. For their faults their leaders are chiefly to be blamed; and
+in apology for those leaders, it must be remembered that they were an
+assemblage of soldiers who had been schooled in oriental brigandage,
+of priests whose education had been in a corrupt form of Christianity
+made more corrupt by persecution, of merchants who had found it hard
+to trade without trickery, and of seamen who had been taught to
+regard piracy as an honourable vocation. Perhaps we have less cause to
+condemn them for the errors and vices that they exhibited during their
+fight for freedom, than to wonder that those errors and vices were not
+more reprehensible in themselves and disastrous in their issues.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+For about six years the fight was maintained without foreign aid, save
+that given by private volunteers and generous champions in Western
+Europe, against a state numerically nearly twenty times as strong as
+the little community of revolutionists. In it, along with much wanton
+cruelty, was displayed much excellent heroism. But the heroism was
+reckless and undisciplined, and therefore often worse than useless.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Memorable instances both of recklessness and of want of discipline
+appeared in the attempts made to wrest Chios from the Turks in 1822.
+The Greek inhabitants of this island, on whom the Turkish yoke pressed
+lightly, had refused to join in the insurgent movement of their
+brethren on the mainland and in the neighbouring islands. But it was
+considered that a little coercion would induce them to share in
+the Revolution and convert their prosperous island into a Greek
+possession. Therefore, in March, a small force of two thousand five
+hundred men crossed the archipelago, took possession of Koutari,
+the principal town, and proceeded to invest the Turkish citadel.
+The Chiots, though perhaps not very willingly, took part in the
+enterprise; but the invading party was quite unequal to the work it
+had undertaken. In April a formidable Turkish squadron arrived, and
+by it Chios was easily recovered, to become the scene of vindictive
+atrocities, which brought all the terrified inhabitants who were
+not slaughtered, or who could not escape, into abject submission.
+Thereupon, on the 10th of May, a Greek fleet of fifty-six vessels was
+despatched by Mavrocordatos to attempt a more thorough capture of the
+island. Its commander was Andreas Miaoulis, a Hydriot merchant, who
+proved himself the best sea-captain among the Greeks. Had Miaoulis
+been able, as he wished, to start sooner and meet the Turkish squadron
+on its way to Chios, a brilliant victory might have resulted, instead
+of one of the saddest catastrophes in the whole Greek war. Being
+deterred therefrom by the vacillation of Mavrocordatos and the
+insubordination of his captains and their crews, he was only able to
+reach the island when it was again in the hands of the enemy, and when
+all was ready for withstanding him. There was useless fighting on the
+31st of May and the two following days. On the 18th of June, Miaoulis
+made another attack; but he was only able to destroy the Turkish
+flag-ship, and nearly all on board, by means of a fire-vessel. His
+fleet was unmanageable, and he had to abandon the enterprise and to
+leave the unfortunate Chiots to endure further punishment for offences
+that were not their own. This punishment was so terrible that, in six
+months, the population of Chios was reduced from one hundred thousand
+to thirty thousand. Twenty thousand managed to escape. Fifty thousand
+were either put to death or sold as slaves in Asia Minor.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+That failure of the Greeks at Chios, quickly followed by their
+defeat on land at Petta, greatly disheartened the revolutionists.
+Mavrocordatos virtually resigned his presidentship, and there was
+anarchy in Greece till 1828. Athens, captured from the Turks in June,
+1822, became the centre of jealous rivalry and visionary scheming,
+mismanagement, and government that was worse than no government at
+all. Odysseus, the vilest of the vile men whom the Revolution brought
+to the surface, was its master for some time; and, when he played
+traitor to the Turks, he was succeeded by others hardly better than
+himself.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+In spite of some heavy disasters, however, the Greeks were so far
+successful during 1822 that in 1823 they were able to hold their
+newly-acquired territory and to wrest some more fortresses from their
+enemies. The real heroism that they had displayed, moreover&mdash;the foul
+cruelties of which they were guilty and the selfish courses which they
+pursued being hardly reported to their friends, and, when reported,
+hardly believed&mdash;awakened keen sympathy on their behalf. Shelley and
+Byron, and many others of less note, had sung their virtues and their
+sufferings in noble verse and enlarged upon them in eloquent prose,
+and in England and France, in Switzerland, Germany, and the United
+States, a strong party of Philhellenes was organized to collect money
+and send recruits for their assistance.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The two Philhellenes of greatest note who served in Greece during the
+earlier years of the Revolution were Thomas Gordon and Frank Abney
+Hastings. Gordon, who attained the rank of general in the army of
+independence, had the advantage of a long previous and thorough
+acquaintance with the character of both Turks and Greeks and with the
+languages that they spoke. He watched all the revolutionary movements
+from the beginning, and took part in many of them. In the "History
+of the Greek Revolution," which he published in 1832, he gave such
+a vivid and, in the main, so accurate an account of them that his
+narrative has formed the basis of the more ambitious work of the
+native historian, Mr. Trikoupes. Of the vices and errors of the
+people on whose behalf he fought and wrote he spoke boldly. "Whatever
+national or individual wrong the Greeks may have endured," he said
+in one place, "it is impossible to justify the ferocity of their
+vengeance or to deny that a comparison instituted between them and the
+Ottoman generals, Mehemet Aboulaboud, Omer Vrioni, and the Kehaya Bey
+of Kurshid, would give to the latter the palm of humanity. Humanity,
+however, is a word quite out of place when applied either to them or
+to their opponents." In another page, further denouncing the Greek
+leaders, he wrote: "Panourias was the worst of these local despots,
+whom some writers have elevated into heroes. He was, in fact, an
+ignoble robber, hardened in evil. He enriched himself with the spoils
+of the Mahometans; yet he and his retinue of brigands compelled the
+people to maintain them at free quarters, in idleness and luxury,
+exacting not only bread, meat, wine, and forage, but also sugar and
+coffee. Hence springs the reflection that the Greeks had cause to
+repent their early predilection for the klephts, who were almost all,
+beginning with Kolokotrones, infamous for the sordid perversity of
+their dispositions."[A] Gordon's disinterested and brave efforts to
+bring about a better state of things and to help on the cause of
+real patriotism in Greece were highly praiseworthy; but, as another
+historian has truly said, "he did not possess the activity and
+decision of character necessary to obtain commanding influence in
+council, or to initiate daring measures in the field."[B]
+</p>
+
+<p>
+[Footnote A: Gordon, vol. i., pp. 313, 400.]
+</p>
+
+<p>
+[Footnote B: Finlay, vol. ii., p. 129.]
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Frank Abney Hastings was an abler man. Born in 1794, he was started in
+the naval profession when only eleven years old. Six months after the
+commencement of his midshipman's life he was present, on board the
+<i>Neptune</i>, at the battle of Trafalgar, and during the ensuing fourteen
+years he served in nearly every quarter of the globe. His independent
+spirit, however&mdash;something akin to Lord Cochrane's&mdash;brought him into
+disfavour, and, in 1819, for challenging a superior officer who had
+insulted him, he was dismissed from the British navy. Disheartened and
+disgusted, he resided in France for about three years. At length he
+resolved to go and fight for the Greeks, partly out of sympathy for
+their cause, partly as a relief from the misery of forced idleness,
+partly with the view of developing a plan which he had been devising
+for extending the use of steamships in naval warfare,&mdash;to which last
+excellent improvement he greatly contributed. He arrived at Hydra in
+April, 1822, just in time to take part in the fighting off Chios.
+One of his ingenious suggestions, made to Andreas Miaoulis, and its
+reception, have been described by himself. "I proposed to direct a
+fireship and three other vessels upon the frigate, and, when near the
+enemy, to set fire to certain combustibles which should throw out
+a great flame. The enemy would naturally conclude they were all
+fireships. The vessels were then to attach themselves to the frigate,
+fire broadsides, double-shotted, throwing on board the enemy at the
+same time combustible balls which gave a great smoke without flame.
+This would doubtless induce him to believe he was on fire, and give
+a most favourable opportunity for boarding him. However, the admiral
+returned my plan, saying only [Greek: kalo], without asking a single
+question, or wishing me to explain its details; and I observed a kind
+of insolent contempt in his manner. This interview with the admiral
+disgusted me. They place you in a position in which it is impossible
+to render any service, and then they boast of their own superiority,
+and of the uselessness of the Franks, as they call us, in Turkish
+warfare." Miaoulis, however, soon gained wisdom and made good use of
+Captain Hastings, who spent more than 7000£&mdash;all his patrimony&mdash;in
+serving the Greeks. He was almost the only officer in their employ
+who, during the earlier years of the Revolution, succeeded in
+establishing any sort of discipline or good management.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Lord Byron, the most illustrious of all the early Philhellenes, used
+to say, shortly before his death, that with Napier at the head of the
+army and Hastings in command of a fleet the triumph of Greece might
+be insured. Byron was then at Missolonghi, whither he had gone in
+January, 1824, to die in April. Long before, while stirring up the
+sympathy of all lovers of liberty for the cause of regeneration in
+Greece, he had shown that regeneration could be by no means a short or
+easy work, and now he had to report that the real work was hardly
+yet begun&mdash;nay, that it seemed almost further off than ever. "Of the
+Greeks," he wrote, "I can't say much good hitherto, and I do not like
+to speak ill of them, though they do of one another."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+It was chiefly at Byron's instigation that the first Greek loan was
+contracted, in London, early in 1824. Its proceeds, 300,000£, were
+spent partly in unprofitable outlay upon ships, ammunition, and the
+like, of which the people were in no position to make good use, but
+mostly in civil war and in pandering to the greed and vanity of the
+members of the Government and their subordinate officials. "Phanariots
+and doctors in medicine," says an eye-witness, "who, in the month
+of April, 1824, were clad in ragged coats, and who lived on scanty
+rations, threw off that patriotic chrysalis before summer was past,
+and emerged in all the splendour of brigand life, fluttering about in
+rich Albanian habiliments, refulgent with brilliant and unused arms,
+and followed by diminutive pipe-bearers and tall henchmen."[A]
+</p>
+
+<p>
+[Footnote A: Finky, vol. ii. p. 39.]
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Even the scanty allowance made by the Greek Government out of its
+newly-acquired wealth for fighting purposes was for the most part
+squandered almost as frivolously. One general who drew pay and rations
+for seven hundred soldiers went to fight and die at Sphakteria at
+the head of seventeen armed peasants.[A] And that is only a glaring
+instance of peculations that were all but universal.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+[Footnote A: Trikoupes, vol. iii., p. 206.]
+</p>
+
+<p>
+That being the degradation to which the leaders of the Greek
+Revolution had sunk, it is not strange that its gains in previous
+years should have begun in 1824 to be followed by heavy losses. The
+Greek people&mdash;the peasants and burghers&mdash;were still patriots, though
+ill-trained and misdirected. They could defend their own homesteads
+with unsurpassed heroism, and hold their own mountains and valleys
+with fierce persistency. But they were unfit for distant fighting,
+even when their chiefs consented to employ them in it. Sultan Mahmud,
+therefore, who had been profiting by the hard experience of former
+years, and whose strength had been steadily growing while the power
+of the insurgents had been rapidly weakening, entered on a new and
+successful policy. He left the Greeks to waste their energies in their
+own possessions, and resolved to recapture, one after another, the
+outposts and ill-protected islands. For this he took especial care
+in augmenting his navy, and, besides developing his own resources,
+induced his powerful and turbulent vassal, Mohammed Ali, the Pasha of
+Egypt, to equip a formidable fleet and entrust it to his son Ibrahim,
+on whom was conferred the title of Vizier of the Morea.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Even without that aid Mahmud was able to do much in furtherance of his
+purpose. The island of Kasos was easily recovered, and full vengeance
+was wreaked on its Greek inhabitants on the 20th of June. Soon
+afterwards Psara was seized and punished yet more hardly.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+On the 19th of July Ibrahim left Alexandria with a naval force which
+swept the southern seas of Greek pirates or privateers. On the 1st
+of September he effected a junction with the Turkish fleet at Budrun.
+Their united strength comprised forty-six ships, frigates, and
+corvettes, and about three hundred transports, large and small. The
+Greek fleet, between seventy and eighty sail, would have been strong
+enough to withstand it under any sort of good management; but good
+management was wanting, and the crews were quite beyond the control of
+their masters. The result was that in a series of small battles during
+the autumn of 1824 the Mahometans were generally successful, and their
+enemies found themselves at the close of the year terribly discomfited
+The little organization previously existing was destroyed, and the
+revolutionists felt that they had no prospect of advantageously
+carrying on their strife at sea without assistance and guidance that
+could not be looked for among themselves.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Their troubles were increased in the following year. In February and
+March, 1825, Ibrahim landed a formidable army in the Morea, and began
+a course of operations in which the land forces and the fleet
+combined to dispossess the Greeks of their chief strongholds. The
+strongly-fortified island of Sphakteria, the portal of Navarino and
+Pylos, was taken on the 8th of May. Pylos capitulated on the 11th,
+and Navarino on the 21st of the same month. Other citadels, one after
+another, were surrendered; and Ibrahim and his army spent the summer
+in scouring the Morea and punishing its inhabitants, with the utmost
+severity, for the lawless brigandage and the devoted patriotism of
+which they had been guilty during the past four years.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The result was altogether disheartening to the Greeks. They saw that
+their condition was indeed desperate. George Konduriottes, a Hydriot
+merchant, an Albanian who could not speak Greek, and who was alike
+unable to govern himself or others, had, in June, 1824, been named
+president of the republic, and since then the rival interests of the
+primates, the priests, and the military leaders had been steadily
+causing the decay of all that was left of patriotism and increase of
+the selfishness that had so long been rampant.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+There was one consequence of this degradation, however, which promised
+to be very beneficial. Seeing that their cause was being rapidly
+weakened, and that their hard-fought battle for liberty was in danger
+of speedy and ignominious reversal by their own divisions, by the
+stealthy encroachments of the Ottomans in the north, and by the more
+energetic advances of the Egyptians in the south, the Greeks resolved
+to abandon some of their jealousies and greeds, to look for a saviour
+from without, and, on his coming, to try and submit themselves
+honestly and heartily to his leadership. The issue of that resolution
+was the following letter, written by Mavrocordatos, then Secretary to
+the National Assembly:&mdash;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Milord,&mdash;Tandis que vos rares talens étaient consacrés à procurer le
+bonheur d'un pays séparé par un espace immense de la Grèce, celle-ci
+ne voyait pas sans admiration, sans intérêt, sans une espèce de
+jalousie secrète même, les succès brillants qui ont toujours couronné
+vos nobles efforts, et rendu à l'indépendance un des plus beaux, des
+plus riches pays du monde. Votre retour en Angleterre a excité la plus
+vive joie dans le coeur du citoyen Grèc et de ses représentans par
+l'espoir flattereur qu'ils commencent à concevoir que, celui qui s'est
+si noblement dédié à procurer le bonheur d'une nation, ne refusera
+pas d'en faire autant pour celui d'une autre, qui ne lui offre pas
+une carrière moins brillante et moins digne de lui et par son nom
+historique, et par ses malheurs passés et par ses efforts actuels pour
+reconquérir sa liberté et son indépendance. Les mers qui rappellent
+les victoires des Thémistocles et des Timon, ne seront pas un théâtre
+indifférent pour celui qui sait apprécier les grands hommes, et un des
+premiers amiraux de notre siècle ne verra qu' avec plaisir qu'il est
+appellé à renouveler les beaux jours de Salamine et de Mycale à la
+tête des Miaoulis, des Sachtouris et des Kanaris.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"C'est avec la plus grande satisfaction, milord, que je me vois chargé
+de faire, au nom du Gouvernement, à votre seigneurie, la proposition
+du commandement général des forces navales de la Grèce. Si votre
+seigneurie est disposée à l'accepter, Messieurs les Deputés
+du Gouvernement Grèc à Londres ont toute l'autorisation et les
+instructions nécessaires pour combiner avec elle sur les moyens à
+mettre à sa disposition, afin d'utiliser le plutôt possible
+votre noble décision et accélérer l'heureux moment que la Grèce
+reconnaissante et enthousiasmée vous verra combattre pour la cause de
+sa liberté.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Je profite de cette occasion pour prier votre seigneurie de vouloir
+bien agréer l'assurance de mon respect et de la plus haute estime avec
+laquelle j'ai l'honneur d'être, milord, de votre seigneurie le très
+humble et très obéissant serviteur,
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"A. Mavrocordatos,
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Naples de Romanie,
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Secre-genl d'Etat.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"
+<i>le 20 Août</i>, &mdash;&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;- 1825 1er 7bre
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"A Sa Seigneurie le très Honorable Lord Cochrane, à Londres."
+</p>
+
+</div><!--end chapter-->
+
+<div class="chapter">
+
+<h2><a name="chap14"></a>CHAPTER XIV.</h2>
+
+<p>
+LORD COCHRANE's DISMISSAL FROM BRAZILIAN SERVICE, AND HIS ACCEPTANCE
+OF EMPLOYMENT AS CHIEF ADMIRAL OF THE GREEKS.&mdash;THE GREEK COMMITTEE AND
+THE GREEK DEPUTIES IN LONDON&mdash;THE TERMS OF LORD COCHRANE's AGREEMENT,
+AND THE CONSEQUENT PREPARATIONS.&mdash;HIS VISIT TO SCOTLAND&mdash;SIR WALTER
+SCOTT'S VERSES ON LADY COCHRANE.&mdash;LORD COCHRANE'S FORCED RETIREMENT TO
+BOULOGNE, AND THENCE TO BRUSSELS.&mdash;THE DELAYS IN FITTING OUT THE
+GREEK ARMAMENT.&mdash;CAPTAIN HASTINGS, MR. HOBHOUSE, AND SIR FRANCES
+BURDETT.&mdash;CAPTAIN HASTINGS'S MEMOIR ON THE GREEK LEADERS AND
+THEIR CHARACTERS.&mdash;THE FIRST CONSEQUENCE OF LORD COCHRANE's NEW
+ENTERPRISE.&mdash;THE DUKE OF WELLINGTON'S INDIRECT MESSAGE TO LORD
+COCHRANE.&mdash;THE GREEK DEPUTIES' PROPOSAL TO LORD COCHRANE AND HIS
+ANSWER.&mdash;THE FINAL ARRANGEMENTS FOR HIS DEPARTURE.&mdash;THE MESSIAH OF THE
+GREEKS.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+[1825-1826.]
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The letter from Mavrocordatos quoted in the last chapter was only part
+of a series of negotiations that had been long pending. Lord Cochrane,
+as we have seen, had arrived at Portsmouth on the 26th of June, 1825,
+in command of a Brazilian war-ship and still holding office as First
+Admiral of the Empire of Brazil. His intention in visiting England
+had been only to effect the necessary repairs in his ship before going
+back to Rio de Janeiro. He had no sooner arrived, however, than it was
+clear to him, from the vague and insolent language of the Brazilian
+envoy in London, that it was designed by that official, if not by the
+authorities in Rio de Janeiro, to oust him from his command. During
+four months he remained in uncertainty, determined not willingly to
+retire from his Brazilian service, but gradually convinced by the
+increasing insolence of the envoy's treatment of him that it would
+be inexpedient for him hastily to return to Brazil, where, before
+his departure, he had experienced the grossest ingratitude for his
+brilliant achievements and neglect and abuse of all sorts. At length,
+in November, upon learning that his captain and crew had been formally
+instructed to "cast off all subordination" to him, he deemed that he
+had no alternative but to consider himself dismissed from Brazilian
+employment and free to enter upon a new engagement.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+That engagement had been urged upon him even while he was in South
+America by his friends in England, who were also devoted friends to
+the cause of Greek independence, and the proposal had been renewed
+very soon after his arrival at Portsmouth. It was so freely talked of
+among all classes of the English public and so openly discussed in the
+newspapers before the middle of August that by it Lord Cochrane's last
+relations with the Brazilian envoy were seriously complicated. "Lord
+Cochrane is looking very well, after eight years of harassing and
+ungrateful service," wrote Sir Francis Burdett on the 20th of August,
+"and, I trust, will be the liberator of Greece. What a glorious
+title!"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+It is needless to say that Sir Francis Burdett, always the noble
+and disinterested champion of the oppressed, and the far-seeing and
+fearless advocate of liberty both at home and abroad, was a leading
+member of the Greek Committee in London. This committee was a
+counterpart&mdash;though composed of more illustrious members than any of
+the others&mdash;of Philhellenic associations that had been organized in
+nearly every capital of Europe and in the chief towns of the United
+States. Everywhere a keen sympathy was aroused on behalf of the
+down-trodden Greeks; and the sympathy only showed itself more
+zealously when it appeared that the Greeks were still burdened with
+the moral degradation of their long centuries of slavery, and needed
+the guidance and support of men more fortunately trained than they
+had been in ways of freedom. Such a man, and foremost among such men,
+always generous, wise, and earnest, was Sir Francis Burdett, Lord
+Cochrane's oldest and best political friend, his readiest adviser
+and stoutest defender all through the weary time of his subjection to
+unmerited disgrace and heartless contumely. Another leading member
+of the Greek Committee was Mr. John Cam Hobhouse, afterwards Lord
+Broughton, Lord Byron's friend and fellow-traveller, now Sir Francis
+Burdett's colleague in the representation of Westminster as successor
+to Lord Cochrane. Another of high note was Mr. Edward Ellice, eminent
+alike as a merchant and as a statesman. Another, no less eminent, was
+Joseph Hume. Another was Mr. (afterwards Sir) John Bowring, secretary
+to the Greek Committee. By them and many others the progress of the
+Greek Revolution was carefully watched and its best interests were
+strenuously advocated, and by all the return of Lord Cochrane to
+England and the prospect of his enlistment in the Philhellenic
+enterprise afforded hearty satisfaction. To them the real liberty of
+Greece was a cherished object; and one and all united in welcoming the
+great promoter of Chilian and Brazilian independence as the liberator
+of Greece.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Other honest friends of Greece were less sanguine, and more disposed
+to urge caution upon Lord Cochrane. "My very dear friend," wrote one
+of them, Dr. William Porter, from Bristol on the 25th of August, "I
+will not suffer you to be longer in England without welcoming you; for
+your health, happiness, and fame are all dear to me. I have followed
+you in your Transatlantic career with deep feelings of anxiety for
+your life, but none for your glory: I know you too well to entertain
+a fear for that. I had hoped that you would repose on your laurels and
+enjoy the evening of life in peace, but am told that you are about to
+launch a thunderbolt against the Grand Seignior on behalf of Greece.
+I wish to see Greece free; but could also wish you to rest from your
+labours. For a sexagenarian to command a fleet in ordinary war is an
+easy task, and even threescore and ten might do it; but fifty years
+are too many to conduct a naval war for a people whose pretensions to
+nautical skill you will find on a thousand occasions to give rise to
+jealousies against you. You will also find that on some important day
+they will withhold their co-operation, in order to rob you of your
+glory. The cause of Greece is, nevertheless, a glorious cause. Our
+remembrance of what their ancestors did at Salamis, at Marathon, at
+Thermopylae, gives an additional interest to all that concerns them.
+But, to say the truth of them, they are a race of tigers, and their
+ancestors were the same. I shall be glad to see them fall upon their
+aigretted keeper and his pashas; but, confound them! I would not
+answer for their destroying the man that would break their fetters and
+set them loose in all the power of recognised freedom."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+There was much truth in those opinions, and Lord Cochrane was not
+blind to it. That he, though now in his fiftieth year, was too old
+for any difficult seamanship or daring warfare that came in his way
+he certainly was not inclined to admit; but he was not quite as
+enthusiastic as Sir Francis Burdett and many of his other friends
+regarding the immediate purposes and the ultimate issue of the Greek
+Revolution. He was now as hearty a lover of liberty, and as willing
+to employ all his great experience and his excellent ability in its
+service, as he had been eight years before when he went to aid the
+cause of South American independence. But both in Chili and in Brazil
+he had suffered much himself, and, what was yet more galling to one
+of his generous disposition, had seen how grievously his disinterested
+efforts for the benefit of others had been stultified, by the
+selfishness and imprudence, the meanness and treachery of those whom
+he had done his utmost to direct in a sure and rapid way of freedom.
+He feared, and had good reason for fearing, like disappointments in
+any relations into which he might enter with Greece. Therefore, though
+he readily consented to work for the Hellenic revolutionists, as he
+had worked for the Chilians and Brazilians, he did so with
+something of a forlorn hope, with a fear&mdash;which in the end was fully
+justified&mdash;that thereby his own troubles might only be augmented, and
+that his philanthropic plans might in great measure be frustrated.
+Coming newly to England, where the real state of affairs in Greece,
+the selfishness of the leaders, the want of discipline among
+the masses, and the consequent weakness and embarrassment to the
+revolutionary cause, were not thoroughly understood, and where this
+understanding was especially difficult for him without previous
+acquaintance even with all the details that were known and apprehended
+by his friends, he yet saw enough to lead him to the belief that
+the work they wished him to do in Greece would be harder and more
+thankless than they supposed.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+This must be remembered as an answer to the first of the
+misstatements&mdash;misstatements that will have to be controverted
+at every stage of the ensuing narrative&mdash;which were carefully
+disseminated, and have been persistently recorded by political
+opponents and jealous rivals of Lord Cochrane. It has been alleged
+that he was induced by mercenary motives, and by them alone, to enter
+the service of the Greeks. His sole inducements were a desire to do
+his best on all occasions towards the punishment of oppressors and
+the relief of the oppressed, and a desire, hardly less strong, to seek
+relief in the naval enterprise that was always very dear to him
+from the oppression under which he himself suffered so heavily.
+The ingratitude that he had lately experienced in Chili and Brazil,
+however, bringing upon him much present embarrassment in lawsuits and
+other troubles, led him to use what was only common prudence in his
+negotiations with the Greek Committee and with the Greek deputies,
+John Orlando and Andreas Luriottis, who were in London at the time,
+and on whom devolved the formal arrangements for employing him and
+providing him with suitable equipments for his work.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+These were done with help of a second Greek loan, contracted in London
+in 1825, for 2,000,000£ Out of this sum it was agreed that Lord
+Cochrane was to receive 37,000£ at starting, and a further sum of
+20,000£ on the completion of his services; and that he was to be
+provided with a suitable squadron, for which purpose 150,000£ were
+to be expended in the construction of six steamships in England, and a
+like sum on the building and fitting out of two sixty-gun frigates in
+the United States. With the disappointments that he had experienced
+in Chili and Brazil fresh in his mind, he refused to enter on this new
+engagement without a formidable little fleet, manned by English and
+American seamen, and under his exclusive direction; and he further
+stipulated that the entire Greek fleet should be at his sole
+command, and that he should have full power to carry out his views
+independently of the Greek Government.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+These arrangements were completed on the 16th of August, except that
+Lord Cochrane, not having yet been actually dismissed by the Brazilian
+envoy, refused formally to pledge himself to his new employers. In
+conjunction with Sir Francis Burdett, Mr. Hobhouse, Mr. Ellice, and
+the Ricardos, as contractors, however, he made all the preliminary
+arrangements, and before the end of August he went for a two months'
+visit to his native county and other parts of Scotland, from which he
+had been absent more than twenty years.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+One incident in that visit was noteworthy. On the 3rd of October, Lord
+and Lady Cochrane, being in Edinburgh, went to the theatre, where
+an eager crowd assembled to do them honour. Into the after-piece an
+allusion to South America was specially introduced. Upon that
+the whole audience rose and, turning to the seats occupied by the
+visitors, showed their admiration by plaudits so long and so vehement
+that Lady Cochrane, overpowered by her feelings, burst into tears.
+Thereupon Sir Walter Scott, who was in the theatre, wrote the
+following verses:&mdash;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+  "I knew thee, lady, by that glorious eye,
+  By that pure brow and those dark locks of thine,
+  I knew thee for a soldier's bride, and high
+  My full heart bounded: for the golden mine
+  Of heavenly thought kindled at sight of thee,
+  Radiant with all the stars of memory.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+  "I knew thee, and, albeit, myself unknown,
+  I called on Heaven to bless thee for thy love,
+  The strength, the constancy thou long hast shown,
+  Each selfish aim, each womanish fear above:
+  And, lady, Heaven is with thee; thou art blest,
+  Blest in whatever thy immortal soul loves best.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+  "Thy name, ask Brazil, for she knows it well;
+  It is a name a hero gave to thee;
+  In every letter lurks there not a spell,&mdash;
+  The mighty spell of immortality?
+  Ye sail together down time's glittering stream;
+  Around your heads two glittering haloes gleam.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+  "Even now, as through the air the plaudits rung,
+  I marked the smiles that in her features came;
+  She caught the word that fell from every tongue,
+  And her eye brightened at her Cochrane's name;
+  And brighter yet became her bright eyes' blaze;
+  It was his country, and she felt the praise,&mdash;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+  "Ay, even as a woman, and his bride, should feel,
+  With all the warmth of an o'erflowing soul:
+  Unshaken she had seen the ensanguined steel,
+  Unshaken she had heard war's thunders roll,
+  But now her noble heart could find relief
+  In tears alone, though not the tears of grief.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+  "May the gods guard thee, lady, whereso'er
+  Thou wanderest in thy love and loveliness!
+  For thee may every scene and sky be fair,
+  Each hour instinct with more than happiness!
+  May all thou valuest be good and great,
+  And be thy wishes thy own future fate!"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Those aspirations were very far from realised. Even during his brief
+holiday in Scotland, Lord Cochrane was troubled by the news that Mr.
+Galloway, the engineer to whom had been entrusted the chief work in
+constructing steam-boilers for the Greek vessels, was proceeding very
+slowly with his task. "My conviction is," wrote Mr. Ellice, "that
+Galloway, in undertaking so much, has promised what he can never
+perform, and that it will be Christmas, if not later, before the
+whole work is completed. No engines are to be got either in Glasgow or
+Liverpool. You know I am not sanguine, and the sooner you are here to
+judge for yourself the better. There has been no hesitation about the
+means from the beginning, but money will not produce steam-engines and
+vessels in these times."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+In consequence of that letter, Lord Cochrane hurried up to London at
+once, intending personally to superintend and hasten on the work. He
+arrived on the 3rd of November; but only to find that fresh troubles
+were in store for him. He had already been exposed to vexatious
+litigation, arising out of groundless and malicious prosecutions with
+reference to his Brazilian enterprise. He was now informed that a more
+serious prosecution was being initiated. The Foreign Enlistment Act,
+passed shortly after his acceptance of service under the Chilian
+Republic, and at the special instigation of the Spanish Government,
+had made his work in South America an indictable offence; but it was
+supposed that no action would be taken against him now that he had
+returned to England. As soon as it was publicly known, however, that
+he was about to embark in a new enterprise, on behalf of Greece, steps
+were taken to restrain him by means of an indictment on the score of
+his former employment. "There is a most unchristian league against
+us," he wrote to his secretary, "and fearful odds too. To be
+prosecuted at home, and not permitted to go abroad, is the devil. How
+can I be prosecuted for fighting in Brazil for the heir-apparent
+to the throne, who, whilst his father was held in restraint by the
+rebellious Cortes, contended for the legitimate rights of the royal
+House of Braganza, then the ally of England, who had, during the
+contest, by the presence of her consuls and other official agents,
+sanctioned the acts of the Prince Regent of Brazil?"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+It soon became clear, however, that the Government had found some
+justification of its conduct, and that active measures were being
+adopted for Lord Cochrane's punishment. He was warned by Mr. Brougham
+that, if he stayed many days longer in England, he would be arrested
+and so prevented not only from facilitating the construction of the
+Greek vessels, but even from going to Greece at all. Therefore, at the
+earnest advice of his friends, he left London for Calais on the 9th
+of November, soon to proceed to Boulogne, where he was joined by his
+family, and where he waited for six weeks, vainly hoping that in
+his absence the contractors and their overseers would see that the
+ship-building was promptly and properly executed.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+While at Boulogne, foreseeing the troubles that would ensue from
+these new difficulties, he was half inclined to abandon his Greek
+engagement, and in that temper he wrote to Sir Francis Burdett for
+advice. "I have taken four-and-twenty hours," wrote his good friend
+in answer, on the 18th of November, "to consider your last letter, and
+have not one moment varied in my first opinion as to the propriety
+of your persevering in your glorious career. According to Brougham's
+opinion, you cannot be put in a worse situation,&mdash;that is, more in
+peril of Government here,&mdash;by continuing foreign service in the Greek
+cause than you already stand in by having served the Emperor of the
+Brazils. In my opinion you will be in a great deal less; for, the
+greater your renown, the less power will your enemies have, whatever
+may be their inclination, to meddle with you. Perhaps they only at
+present desist to look out for a better opportunity, 'reculer pour
+mieux sauter,' like the tiger. I don't mean to accuse them of this
+baseness; but, should it be the case, the less you do the more power
+they will have to injure you, if so inclined. Were they to prosecute
+you for having served the Brazilian Emperor, it would call forth no
+public sympathy, or but slight, in your favour. The case would be
+thought very hard, to be sure; but that would be all. Not so, should
+you triumph in the Greek cause. Transcendent glory would not only
+crown but protect you. No minister would dare to wag a finger&mdash;no, nor
+even Crown lawyer a tongue&mdash;against you; and, if they did, the feeling
+of the whole English public would surround you with an impenetrable
+shield. Fines would be paid; imprisonment protested and petitioned
+against; in short, I am convinced the nation would be in a flame, and
+you in far less danger of any attempt to your injury than at present.
+This, my dear Lord Cochrane, is my firm conviction."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Encouraged by that letter and other like expressions of opinion from
+his English friends, Lord Cochrane determined to persevere in his
+Greek enterprise, and to reside at Boulogne until the fleet that was
+being prepared for him was ready for service. He had to wait, however,
+very much longer than had been anticipated, and he was unable to wait
+all the time in Boulogne. There also prosecution threatened him. About
+the middle of December he heard that proceedings were about to be
+instituted against him for his detention, while in the Pacific, of a
+French brig named <i>La Gazelle</i>, the real inducement thereto being in
+the fact, as it was reported, that the French Government had espoused
+the cause of the Pasha of Egypt, and so was averse to such a plan
+for destroying the Egyptian fleet under Ibrahim as Lord Cochrane
+was concocting. Therefore, he deemed it expedient to quit French
+territory, and accordingly he left Boulogne on the 23rd of December,
+and took up his residence at Brussels, with his family, on the 28th of
+the same month.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Through four weary months and more he was waiting at Brussels,
+harassed by the prosecutions arising out of the lawsuits that have
+been already alluded to, in reference to which he said in one letter,
+"I think I must make up my mind, though it is a hard task, to quit
+England for ever;" harassed even more by the knowledge that the
+building and fitting out of the vessels for his Greek expedition were
+being delayed on frivolous pretexts and for selfish ends, which his
+presence in London, if that had been possible, might, to a great
+extent, have averted. "The welfare of Greece at this moment rests much
+on your lordship," wrote Orlando, the chief deputy in London, "and
+I dare hope that you will hasten her triumph:" yet Orlando and his
+fellows were idling in London, profiting by delays that increased
+their opportunities of peculation, and doing nothing to quicken the
+construction of the fleet. Galloway, the engineer, wrote again and
+again to promise that his work should be done in three weeks,&mdash;it was
+always "three weeks hence;" yet he was well informed that Galloway
+was wilfully negligent, though he did not know till afterwards that
+Galloway, having private connections with the Pasha of Egypt, never
+intended to do the work which he was employed to do. Lord Cochrane had
+good friends at home in Sir Francis Burdett, Mr. Hobhouse, and others;
+but they were not competent to take personal supervision of the
+details. He had an experienced deputy in Captain Abney Hastings, who
+had come from Greece some time before, and who was now to return
+as Lord Cochrane's second in command; but Captain Hastings,
+single-handed, could not exert much influence upon the rogues with
+whom he had to deal. "The <i>Perseverance</i>," he wrote of the largest of
+the ships, which was to be ready first, on the 10th of December, "may
+perhaps be ready to sail in six weeks&mdash;Mr. Galloway has said three
+weeks for the last month; but to his professions I do not, and have
+not for a length of time, paid the slightest attention. I believe he
+does all he can do; all I object against him is that he promises
+more than he can perform, and promises with the determination of not
+performing it. The <i>Perseverance</i> is a fine vessel. Her power of two
+forty-horses will, however, be feeble. I suspect you are not quite
+aware of the delay which will take place." Lord Cochrane soon became
+quite aware of the delay, but was unable to prevent it, and the
+next few months were passed by him in tedious anxiety and ceaseless
+chagrin.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+There was one desperate mode of lessening the delay&mdash;for Lord Cochrane
+to go out in the <i>Perseverance</i> as soon as it was ready to start,
+leaving the other vessels to follow as soon as they were ready.
+Captain Abney Hastings went to Brussels on purpose to urge him to that
+course, and Mr. Hobhouse also recommended it. "There are two points,"
+he wrote on the 23rd of December, "to which your attention will
+probably be chiefly directed by Captain Hastings. These are, the
+expediency of your going with the <i>Perseverance</i>, instead of waiting
+for the other boats, and the propriety of immediately disposing of the
+two frigates in America"&mdash;about which frequent reports had arrived,
+showing that their preparation was in even worse hands than was that
+of the London vessels&mdash;"to the highest bidder. As to the first, I
+am confident that, although it would have been desirable to have got
+together the whole force in the first instance, yet, as the salvation
+of Greece is a question of time only, and as it will be probably so
+late either as May or June next before the two larger boats can leave
+the river, it would be in every way inexpedient for you to wait until
+you could have the whole armament under your orders. Be assured, your
+presence in Greece would do more than the activity of any man living,
+and, as far as anything can be done in pushing forward the business at
+home, neither time nor pains shall be spared. I wish indeed you could
+have the whole of the boats at once; but Galloway has determined
+otherwise, and we must do the next best thing. Captain Hastings will
+tell you how much may be done even by one steam-vessel, commanded by
+you, and directing the operations of the fire-vessels. On such a
+topic I should not have the presumption to enlarge to you. As to the
+American frigates, it is Mr. Ellice's decided opinion, as well as my
+own, that you should have the money instead of the frigates. First and
+last, the frigates <i>never will be finished</i>. The rogues at New York
+demand 60,000£ above the 157,000£ which they have already received,
+and protest they will not complete their work without the additional
+sum. Now 70,000£ in your hands will be better than the <i>hopes</i> &mdash;and
+they will be nothing but <i>hopes</i> &mdash;of having the frigates. If you agree
+in this view, perhaps you will be so good as to state it in writing,
+which may remove Mr. Ricardo's objections."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Lord Cochrane was tempted to follow Captain Hastings's and Mr.
+Hobhouse's advice; but he first, as was his wont, sought Sir Francis
+Burdett's opinion; and Sir Francis dissuaded him, for the time, at any
+rate. "I would by no means have you proceed with the first vessel, nor
+at all without adequate means," he wrote on the 15th of January, 1826;
+"for besides thinking of the Greeks, for whom I am, I own, greatly
+interested, I must think, and certainly not with less interest, of
+you, and, I may add, in some degree of myself too; for I am placed
+under much responsibility, and I don't mean to be a party to making
+shipwreck of you and your great naval reputation; nor will I ever
+consent to your going upon a forlorn and desperate attempt&mdash;that is,
+without the means necessary for the fair chance of success&mdash;in other
+words, adequate means. Although you have worked miracles, we can never
+be justified in expecting them, and still less in requiring them."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Following that sound advice, Lord Cochrane resolved to wait until, at
+any rate, a good part of his fleet was ready. He wrote to that effect,
+and in as good spirits as he could muster, to Mr. Hobhouse, who in
+the answer which he despatched on the 5th of February acknowledged the
+wisdom of the decision. "I am very glad to perceive," he said in that
+answer, "that you have good heart and hope for the great cause.
+I assure you we have been doing all we can to induce the parties
+concerned to second your wishes in every respect; and I now learn from
+Mr. Hastings, who is our sheet anchor, that matters go on pretty well.
+I hope you write every now and then to Galloway, in whose hands is the
+fate of Greece&mdash;the worse our luck, for he is the great cause of our
+sad delay."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"You see our House is opened," said Mr. Hobhouse in the same letter.
+"Not a word of Greece in the Speech, and I spoke to Hume and Wilson,
+and begged them not to touch upon the subject. It is much better to
+keep all quiet, in order to prevent angry words from the ministers,
+who, if nothing is said, will, I think, shut their eyes at what we are
+doing. There is a very prevalent notion here that the (Holy) Alliance
+have resolved to recommend something to Turkey in favour of the
+Greeks. Whether this is true or not signifies nothing. The Turks will
+promise anything, and do just what suits them. They have always lost
+in war, for more than a hundred years, and have uniformly gained by
+diplomacy. They will never abandon the hope of reconquering Greece
+until driven out of Europe themselves, which they ought to be. By
+the way, the Greeks really appear to have been doing a little better
+lately; but I still fear these disciplined Arabians. I have written
+a very strong letter to Prince Mavrocordatos, telling them to hold
+out:&mdash;no surrender on any terms. I have not mentioned your name; but I
+have stated vaguely that they may expect the promised assistance early
+in the spring. It would indeed be a fine thing if you could commence
+operations during the Rhamadan; but I fear that is impossible. Any
+time, however, will do against the stupid, besotted Turks. Were they
+not led by Frenchmen, even the Greeks would beat them."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Of the leisure forced upon him, Lord Cochrane made good use in
+studying for himself the character of "the stupid, besotted Turks,"
+and the nature of the war that was being waged against them by the
+Greeks; and he asked Mr. Hobhouse to procure for him all the books
+published on the subject or in any way related to it, of which he was
+not already master. "With respect to books," wrote Mr. Hobhouse, in
+reply to this request, "there are very few that are not what you have
+found those you have read to be, namely, romances; but I will take
+care to send out with you such as are the best, together with the
+most useful map that can be got." More than fifty volumes were thus
+collected for Lord Cochrane's use.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+From Captain Abney Hastings, moreover, he obtained precise information
+about Greek waters, forts, and armaments, as well as "a list of the
+names of the principal persons in Greece, with their characters." This
+list, as showing the opinions of an intelligent Englishman, based
+on personal knowledge, as to the parties and persons with whom Lord
+Cochrane was soon to deal, is worth quoting entire, especially as it
+was the chief basis of Lord Cochrane's own judgment during this time
+of study and preparation.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+I. Archontes, or men influential by their riches.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Lazaros Konduriottes.&mdash;A Hydriot merchant, the elder of the two
+brothers, who are the most wealthy men in that island, and even in all
+Greece. This one, by intrigue, by distributing his money adroitly
+in Hydra, and keeping in pay the most dissolute and unruly of the
+sailors, and protecting them in the commission of their crimes,
+has acquired almost unlimited power at Hydra. He asserts democracy,
+appealing on all occasions to the people, who are his creatures. The
+other primates hate him, of course. Lazaros has the reputation of
+being clever. He never quits Hydra for an instant, for fear of finding
+himself supplanted on his return.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+George Konduriottes.&mdash;Brother of the former, and, like him a Hydriot
+merchant; an ignorant weak man; said to be vindictive; espouses the
+party of his brother at Hydra, by which means he has obtained the
+Presidency [of Greece]. He made the land captains his enemies, and had
+not good men enough to form an army of his own, viz., regular troops.
+His penetration went no further than bribing one captain to destroy
+another; which had for effect merely the changing the names of
+chieftains without diminishing the power. I understand he has lately
+retired to Hydra, and takes no active part in affairs.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+EMANUEL TOMBAZES.&mdash;A Hydriot merchant and captain. There are two
+brothers, at the head of the party opposed to Konduriottes. This
+man was the first who ventured on the voyage from the Black Sea to
+Marseilles in a latteen-rigged vessel. This traffic afterwards gave
+birth to the colossal fortunes in Hydra. These men are the most
+enlightened in Hydra. This one is dignified, energetic, and a good
+sailor. However, he lost in Candia much of the reputation he had
+previously acquired; but with all the errors he committed there, the
+loss of that island is not attributable to him. 'Twould have been
+lost, under similar circumstances, had Cæsar commanded there.
+Konduriottes and his adherents hate him, of course, and did all they
+could to paralyze his operations in Crete. All considered, this man is
+more capable of introducing order and regularity into the ships than
+any other Greek.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+JAKOMAKI TOMBAZES.&mdash;A Hydriot merchant and captain, brother of the
+former. He commanded the fleet the first year of the Revolution, and
+to him is due the introduction of fire-vessels, by which he destroyed
+the first Turkish line-of-battle ship at Mytelene. He is perhaps the
+best-informed Hydriot; but he wants decision, and demands the advice
+of everybody at the moment he should be acting. This man takes little
+part in politics and follows his mercantile pursuits. His hobby-horse
+is ship-building, in which art he is such a proficient as to be
+quite the Seppings of Hydra. As to the rest, he is a very worthy,
+warm-hearted man, but excessively phlegmatic.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+MIAOULIS.&mdash;A Hydriot merchant and captain, who obtained command of the
+Hydriot fleet after Jakomaki resigned. He is a very dignified,
+worthy old man, possesses personal courage and decision, and is less
+intriguing than any Greek that I know.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+SAKTOURES.&mdash;A Hydriot captain. He has risen from a sailor, and is
+considered by the Archontes rather in the light of a <i>parvenu</i>. He is
+courageous and enterprising, but a bit of a pirate.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+BONDOMES, SAMADHOFF, GHIKA, ORLANDO.&mdash;Hydriot merchants without
+anything but their money to recommend them.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+PEPINOS.&mdash;A Hydriot sailor of the clan of Tombazes, who has
+distinguished himself frequently in fireships.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+KANARIS.&mdash;A Psarian sailor; the most distinguished of the commanders
+of fire-vessels.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+BOTAZES.&mdash;A Spetziot merchant; the most influential person in his
+island. But the Hydriot merchants possess so much property in Spetziot
+vessels that, in some measure, they rule that island.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+PETRO-BEY [or PETROS MAVROMICHALES].&mdash;The principal Archonte of Maina;
+was governor of that province under the Turks. A fat, stupid, worthy
+man; is sincere in the cause, in which he has lost two if not three
+sons.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+DELIYANNES.&mdash;A Moreot Archonte, and one of the most intriguing and
+ambitious; was formerly sworn enemy to Kolokotrones and the captains,
+but, having betrothed his daughter to Kolokotrones's son, they have
+become allies. This man, if not the richest Archonte in the Morea, is
+the one who affected the most pomp in the time of the Turks, and
+he cannot now easily brook his diminished influence. He is reported
+clever and unprincipled.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+NOTABAS.&mdash;A Moreot Archonte, considered the most ancient of the noble
+families in the Morea; is a well-meaning old blockhead; has a son, a
+good-looking youth, who commanded the Government forces against the
+captains in 1824; is said to be an egregious coward.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+LONDOS.&mdash;A Moreot Archonte; was much flattered by the Government, but
+afterwards leagued against them. He is a drunkard, and a man of no
+consideration but for his wealth.[A]
+</p>
+
+<p>
+[Footnote A: Lord Byron used to describe an evening passed in the
+company of Londos at Vostitza, when both were young men. After supper
+Londos, who had the face and figure of a chimpanzee, sprang upon
+a table, and commenced singing through his nose Rhiga's "Hymn to
+Liberty." A new cadi, passing near the house, inquired the cause of
+the discordant hubbub. A native Mussulman replied, "It is only the
+young primate Londos, who is drunk, and is singing hymns to the new
+franaghia of the Greeks, whom they call 'Eleftheria.'"&mdash;Finlay, vol.
+ii., p. 35.]
+</p>
+
+<p>
+ZAIMES.&mdash;A Moreot Archonte; said to possess considerable talent, and
+he exercises a very considerable influence. His brother was formerly a
+deputy in England.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+SISSINES.&mdash;A Moreot Archonte; was formerly a doctor at Patras; has
+risen into wealth and consequence since the Revolution; has great
+talent, and is a great rogue.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+SOTIRES XARALAMBI.&mdash;A Moreot Archonte of influence. I do not know his
+character.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+SPELIOTOPOLOS.&mdash;A Moreot Archonte, whose name would never have
+been heard by a foreigner, if he had not been made a member of the
+executive body; a stupid old man, possessing little influence of any
+kind.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+KOLETTES.&mdash;A Romeliot; was formerly doctor to Ali Pasha; possesses
+some talent; has held various situations in the ministry; is detested,
+yet I know not why. I never could ascertain any act of his that
+merited the dislike he has inspired a large party with. I fancy 'tis
+alone attributable to jealousy&mdash;the peculiar feature of the Greek
+character. It must nevertheless be acknowledged that he has sometimes
+made himself ridiculous by assuming the sword, for which profession
+he is totally incapacitated by want of courage. He is, however, poor,
+although in employment since the commencement of the Revolution.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+THIKOUPES.&mdash;An Archonte of Missolonghi; of some importance from the
+English education he has received from Lord Guildford; a worthy man,
+possessed of instruction, but, I think, not genius. He has married
+Mavrocordatos's sister.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+II. Phanaeiots.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+[DEMETRIUS] HYPSILANTES.&mdash;Is of a Phanariot family; was a Russian
+officer; although young, is bald and feeble. His appearance and voice
+are much against him. He does not so much want talent as ferocity. He
+possesses personal courage and probity, and may be said to be the only
+honest man that has figured upon the stage of the Revolution. He does
+not favour, but has never openly opposed, the party of the captains.
+He felt he had not the power to do it with success, and therefore
+showed his good sense in refraining. The Archontes, fearing the
+influence he might acquire would destroy theirs, have uniformly
+opposed him, secretly and openly; and they hate one another so
+cordially now that it is impossible they should ever unite.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+MAVROCORDATOS.&mdash;Of a Phanariot family; came forward under the auspices
+of Hypsilantes, and then tried to supplant him; and to do this he made
+himself the tool of the Hydriots, who, as soon as they had obtained
+all power in their hands, endeavoured to kick down the stepping-stool
+by which they had mounted. Perceiving this, he entered into
+negotiations with the captains, and frightened the Hydriots into an
+acknowledgment of some power for himself. He possesses quickness and
+intrigue; but I doubt if he has solid talent, and it is reported that
+he is particularly careful not to court danger.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+III. Captains or Land-Chieftains.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+KOLOKOTRONES.&mdash;A captain of the Morea, and the most powerful one in
+all Greece. He owes this partly to the numerous ramifications of his
+family, partly to his reputation as a hereditary robber, and also
+to the wealth he has amassed in his vocation. He is a fine,
+decided-looking man, and knows perfectly all the localities of the
+country for carrying on mountain warfare, and he knows also, better
+than any other, how to manage the Greek mountaineers. He is, however,
+entirely ignorant of any other species of warfare, and is not
+sufficiently civilized to look forward for any other advantage to
+himself or his country than that of possessing the mountains and
+keeping the Turks at bay. He proposed destroying all the fortresses
+except Nauplia. 'Twas an error of Mavrocordatos to have made this man
+an open enemy to himself and to organization. Had he been allowed to
+have profited by order, he would have espoused it. At present he may
+be considered irreconcilably opposed to order and the Hydriot party.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+NIKETAS.&mdash;There are two of this name; but the only one that merits
+notice is the Moreot captain, a relation of Kolokrotones. He is
+as ignorant and dirty as the rest of his brethren, but bears the
+reputation of being disinterested and courageous. He is always poor.
+All the chieftains are good bottle-men; but this one excels them so
+much that 'tis confidently asserted he drinks three bottles of rum per
+day.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+STAIKOS.&mdash;A Moreot captain who took part early with the Hydriot party
+from jealousy of Kolokotrones. When that party gained the ascendency,
+not finding himself sufficiently rewarded, he joined the captains.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+MOMGINOS.&mdash;A Mainot chieftain, a rival of Petro-Bey; is
+undistinguished, except by his colossal stature and ferocious
+countenance.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+GOURA.&mdash;A Romeliot captain; was a soldier of Odysseus, and employed
+by him in various assassinations, and thus he rose to preferment and
+supplanted his protector, and at length assassinated him. This man
+possesses courage and extreme ferocity, but is remarkably ignorant.
+In the hands of a similar master, he would have been a perfect Tristan
+l'Hermite. To supplant Odysseus, he was obliged to range himself with
+the Hydriot party.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+CONSTANTINE BOTZARES.&mdash;A Suliot captain; nephew to the celebrated
+Makrys, who, from all accounts, was a phenomenon among the captains.
+This man bears a good character.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+KARAÏSKAKES, RANGO, KALTZAS, ZAVELLA, &amp;c. &amp;c.&mdash;Romeliot captains; all
+more or less opposed to order, according as they see it suits their
+immediate interest.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+That estimate of the Greek heroes&mdash;in the main wonderfully
+accurate&mdash;was certainly not encouraging to Lord Cochrane. He
+determined, however, to go on with the work he had entered upon, and
+in doing his duty to the Greeks, to try to bring into healthy play the
+real patriotism that was being perverted by such unworthy leaders.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Great benefit was conferred upon the Greeks by his entering into their
+service from its very beginning, in spite of the obstacles which were
+thrown in his way at starting, and which materially damaged all his
+subsequent work on their behalf. No sooner was it known that he was
+coming to aid them with his unsurpassed bravery and his unrivalled
+genius than they took heart and held out against the Turkish and
+Egyptian foes to whom they had just before been inclined to yield.
+And his enlistment in their cause had another effect, of which they
+themselves were ignorant. The mere announcement that he intended to
+fight and win for them, as he had fought and won for Chili, for Peru,
+and for Brazil, while it caused both England and France to do their
+utmost in hindering him from achieving an end which was more thorough
+than they desired, forced both England and France to shake off the
+listlessness with which they had regarded the contest during nearly
+five years, and initiate the temporizing action by which Greece was
+prevented from becoming as great and independent a state as it might
+have been, yet by which a smaller independence was secured for it.
+Hardly had Lord Cochrane consented to serve as admiral of the Greeks
+than the Duke of Wellington was despatched, in the beginning of 1826,
+on a mission to Russia, which issued in the protocol of April, 1826,
+and the treaty of July, 1827&mdash;both having for their avowed object the
+pacification of Greece&mdash;and in the battle of Navarino, by which that
+pacification was secured.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The Duke of Wellington passed through Brussels, on his way to
+St. Petersburg, in March, 1826. Halting there, he informed the
+hotel-keeper that he could see no one <i>except Lord Cochrane</i>, which
+was as distinct an intimation that he desired an interview as,
+in accordance with the rules of etiquette, he could make. The
+hotel-keeper, however, was too dull to take the hint. He did not
+acquaint Lord Cochrane of the indirect message intended for him
+until the Duke of Wellington had proceeded on his journey. Thus was
+prevented a meeting between one of England's greatest soldiers and one
+of her greatest sailors, which could not but have been very memorable
+in itself, and which might have been far more memorable in its
+political consequences.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The meeting was hindered, and, without listening either to the
+personal courtesies or to the diplomatic arguments of the Duke of
+Wellington, Lord Cochrane continued his preparations for active
+service in Greek waters. The details of these preparations and their
+practical execution, as has been shown, he was forced to leave in
+other and less competent hands, and their actual supervision was still
+impossible to him. Gradually the irritating and wasteful obstacles for
+which Mr. Galloway was chiefly responsible induced him to resolve upon
+following the advice tendered in December by Mr. Hobhouse and Captain
+Hastings&mdash;that is, to go to Greece with a small portion only of
+the naval armament for which he had stipulated, and which his most
+cautious friends deemed necessary to his enterprise. To this he was
+driven, not only by a desire to do something worthy of his great name,
+and something really helpful to the cause which he had espoused,
+but also by the knowledge that the tedious delays that arose were
+squandering all the money with which he had counted upon rendering his
+work efficient when he could get to Greece.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Of this he received frequent and clear intimation from all his
+friends in London, though from none so emphatically as from the Greek
+deputies, Orlando and Luriottis, who, being themselves grievously to
+blame for their peculations and their bad management, threw all the
+blame upon Mr. Galloway and the other defaulters. Finding that the
+proceeds of the second Greek loan were being rapidly exhausted by
+their own and others' wrong-doing, they were even audacious enough to
+propose to Lord Cochrane that, not abandoning his Greek engagement,
+but rather continuing it under conditions involving much greater risk
+and anxiety than had been anticipated, he should return the 37,000£
+which had been handed over to Sir Francis Burdett on his account, and
+take as sole security for his ultimate recompense the two frigates
+half built in America, acknowledged to be of so little value that no
+purchaser could be found for them. "Our only desire." they said,
+"is to rescue the millions of souls that are praying with a thousand
+supplications that they may not fall victims to the despair which is
+only averted by the hope of your lordship's arrival."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+To that preposterous request Lord Cochrane made a very temperate
+answer. "I have perused your letter of the 18th," he wrote on the 28th
+of February, "with the utmost attention, and have since considered its
+contents with the most anxious desire to promote the objects you have
+in view in all ways in my power. But I have not been able to convince
+myself that, under existing circumstances, there is any means by which
+Greece can be so readily saved as by steady perseverance in equipping
+the steam-vessels, which are so admirably calculated to cut off the
+enemies' communication with Alexandria and Constantinople, and for
+towing fire-vessels and explosion-vessels by night into ports and
+places where the hostile squadrons anchor on the shores of Greece.
+With steam-vessels constructed for such purposes, and a few gunboats
+carrying heavy cannon, I have no doubt but that the Morea might in a
+few weeks be cleared of the enemy's naval force. I wish I could give
+you, without writing a volume, a clear view of the numerous reasons,
+derived from thirty-five years' experience, which induce me to prefer
+a force that can move in all directions in the obscurity of night
+through narrow channels, in shoal water, and with silence and
+celerity, over a naval armament of the usual kind, though of far
+superior force. You would then perceive with what efficacy the counsel
+of Demosthenes to your countrymen might be carried into effect by
+desultory attacks on the enemy; and, in fact, you would perceive that
+steam-vessels, whenever they shall be brought into war for hostile
+purposes, will prove the most formidable means that ever has been
+employed in naval warfare. Indeed, it is my opinion that twenty-four
+vessels moved by steam (such as the largest constructed for
+your service) could commence at St. Petersburg, and finish at
+Constantinople, the destruction of every ship of war in the European
+ports. I therefore hold that you ought to strain every nerve to get
+the steam-vessels equipped. For on these, next to the valour of
+the Greeks themselves, depends the fate of Greece, and not on large
+unwieldy ships, immovable in calms, and ill-calculated for nocturnal
+operations on the shores of the Morea and adjacent islands. Having
+thus repeated to you my opinions, I have only to add that, if
+you judge you can follow a better course, I release you from the
+engagement you entered into with me, and I am ready to return you the
+37,000£ on your receiving as part thereof 72,500 Greek scrip, at
+the price I gave for it on the day following my engagement (under the
+faith of the stipulations then entered into), as a further stimulus
+to my exertion, by casting my property, as well as my life, into the
+scale with Greece. This release I am ready to make at once; but I
+cannot consent to accept as security, for the fruits of seven years'
+toil, vessels manned by Americans, whose pay and provisions I see no
+adequate or regular means of providing. But should the 150,000£
+placed at the disposal of the Committee not prove sufficient for the
+objects <i>I have required</i>, I will advance the 37,000£ for the pay
+and provisions necessary for the steamboats on the security of the
+boats themselves. Thus you have the option of releasing me from
+the service, or of continuing my engagement, although I shall lose
+severely by my temporary acceptance of your offer."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+In that letter Lord Cochrane conceded more than ought to have been
+expected of him. In a supplementary letter written on the same day
+he added: "I again assure you that I am ready to do whatever is
+reasonable for the interest of Greece; but it cannot be expected that
+for such interest I ought to sacrifice totally those of my family
+and myself, as would be the case were I to give up both the means I
+possess to obtain justice in South America and my indemnification, on
+so slender a security as that offered to me. Believe me, I should have
+tendered the 37,000£, without reference to the Greek scrip I
+had purchased, had it not been evident to me that, under such
+circumstances, the security of your public funds would be dependent
+on chances which I cannot foresee, and over which I should have no
+control."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Thus temperately rebuked, the Greek deputies did not urge their
+proposal any further. They only wrote to promise all possible
+expedition in completing the steam-vessels. Lord Cochrane, however,
+voluntarily acceded to one of their wishes. Hearing that the largest
+of the steamers, the <i>Perseverance</i>, was nearly ready for sea, and
+that Mr. Galloway had again solemnly pledged himself to complete the
+others in a short time, he determined not to wait for the whole force,
+but to start at once for the Mediterranean. It had been all along
+decided that the <i>Perseverance</i> should be placed under Captain
+Hastings's command; and it was now arranged that he should take her to
+Greece as soon as she was ready, and that Lord Cochrane should follow
+in a schooner, the <i>Unicorn</i>, of 158 tons. It was not intended, of
+course, that with that boat alone he should go all the way to Greece;
+but it was considered&mdash;perhaps not very wisely&mdash;that if he were
+actually on his way to Greece, the completion of the other five
+steamships would be proceeded with more rapidly; and he agreed that,
+as soon as he was joined in the Mediterranean by the first two of
+these, the <i>Enterprise</i> and the <i>Irresistible</i>, he would hasten on
+to the Archipelago, and there make the best of the small force at his
+disposal. Not only was it supposed that Mr. Galloway and the other
+agents would thus be induced to more vigorous action: it was also
+deemed that the effect of this step upon the Hellenic nation would
+be very beneficial. "As soon as the Greek Government know that your
+lordship is on your way to Greece," wrote the London deputies on the
+13th of April, "their courage will be animated, and their confidence
+renewed. We may with truth assert that your lordship is regarded by
+all classes of our countrymen as a Messiah, who is to come to their
+deliverance; and, from the enthusiasm which will prevail amongst the
+people, we may venture to predict that your lordship's valour and
+success at sea will give energy and victory to their arms on land."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+With the new arrangements necessitated by this change of plans the
+last two or three weeks of April and the first of May were occupied.
+Lord Cochrane put to sea on the 8th of May. "As a Greek citizen," one
+of the deputies in London, Andreas Luriottis, had written on the
+17th of April, "I cannot refrain from expressing my sincere gratitude
+towards your lordship for the resolution which you have taken to
+depart almost immediately for Greece. This generous determination, at
+a moment when my country is really in want of every assistance, cannot
+be regarded with indifference by my countrymen, who already look upon
+your lordship as a Messiah. Your talents and intrepidity cannot allow
+us for a moment to doubt of success. My countrymen will afford you
+every assistance, and confer on you all the powers necessary for your
+undertaking; although your lordship must be aware that Greece, after
+five years' struggle, cannot be expected to present a very favourable
+aspect to a stranger. Your lordship will, however, find men full of
+devotion and courage&mdash;men who have founded, their best hopes on you,
+and from whom, under such a leader, everything may be expected. Your
+lordship's previous exploits encourage me to hope that Greece will not
+be less successful than the Brazils, since the materials she offers
+for cultivation are superior. With patience and perseverance in the
+outset, all difficulties will soon vanish, and the course will be
+direct and unimpeded. The resources of Greece are not to be despised,
+and, if successful, she will find ample means to reward those who will
+have devoted themselves to her service and to the cause of liberty."
+</p>
+
+</div><!--end chapter-->
+
+<div class="chapter">
+
+<h2><a name="chap15"></a>CHAPTER XV.</h2>
+
+<p class="letter">
+LORD COCHRANE'S DEPARTURE FOR GREECE.&mdash;HIS VISIT TO LONDON AND
+VOYAGE TO THE MEDITERRANEAN.&mdash;HIS STAY AT MESSINA, AND AFTERWARDS
+AT MARSEILLES.&mdash;THE DELAYS IN COMPLETING THE STEAMSHIPS, AND THE
+CONSEQUENT INJURY TO THE GREEK CAUSE, AND SERIOUS EMBARRASSMENT
+TO LORD COCHRANE.&mdash;HIS CORRESPONDENCE WITH MESSRS. J. AND S.
+RICARDO.&mdash;HIS LETTER TO THE GREEK GOVERNMENT.&mdash;CHEVALIER EYNARD, AND
+THE CONTINENTAL PHILHELLENES.&mdash;LORD COCHRANE'S FINAL DEPARTURE, AND
+ARRIVAL IN GREECE.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+[1826-1827.]
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Lord Cochrane, having passed from Brussels to Flushing, sailed thence
+in the <i>Unicorn</i> on the 8th of May, 1826. Before proceeding to the
+Mediterranean, he determined, in spite of the personal risk he would
+thus be subjected to through the Foreign Enlistment Act, to see for
+himself in what state were the preparations for his enterprise in
+Greece. He accordingly landed at Weymouth, and hurrying up to London,
+spent the greater part of Sunday, the 16th of May, in Mr. Galloway's
+building yard at Greenwich.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+He found that the <i>Perseverance</i> was apparently completed, though
+waiting for some finishing touches to be put to her boilers. "The two
+other vessels," he said, "were filled with pieces of the high-pressure
+engines, all unfixed, and scattered about in the engine-room and on
+deck. The boilers were in the small boats, and occupied nearly one
+half of their length, Mr. Galloway having, through inattention or
+otherwise, caused them to be made of the same dimensions as the
+boilers for the great vessels, which, by the by, had been improperly
+increased from sixteen feet, the length determined on, to twenty-three
+feet." The inspection was unsatisfactory; but Mr. Galloway pledged
+himself on his honour that the <i>Perseverance</i> should start in a day or
+two, that the <i>Enterprise</i> and the <i>Irresistible</i> should be completed
+and sent to sea within a fortnight, and that the other three vessels
+should be out of hand in less than a month.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Trusting to that promise, or at any rate hoping that it might be
+fulfilled, and after a parting interview with Sir Francis Burdett, Mr.
+Ellice, and other friends, Lord Cochrane left London on Monday, and
+joined the <i>Unicorn</i>, at Dartford, on the 20th of May. It had
+been arranged that he should wait in British waters for the first
+instalment of his little fleet, at any rate. With that object he
+called at Falmouth, and, receiving no satisfactory information there,
+went to make a longer halt in Bantry Bay. At length, hearing that the
+<i>Perseverance</i> had actually started, with Captain Hastings for its
+commander, and that the other two large vessels were on the point of
+leaving the Thames, he left the coast of Ireland on the 12th of June.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+He vainly hoped that the vessels would promptly join him in the
+Mediterranean, and that within four or five weeks' time he should
+be at work in Greek waters. The journey, however, was to last nine
+months. The mismanagement and the wilful delays of Mr. Galloway and
+the other contractors and agents continued as before. The urgent
+need of Greece was unsatisfied; the funds collected for promoting her
+deliverance were wantonly perverted; and the looked-for deliverer was
+doomed to nearly a year of further inactivity&mdash;hateful to him at all
+times, but now a special source of annoyance, as it involved not
+only idleness to himself, but also serious injury to the cause he had
+espoused.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+He passed Oporto on the 18th, Lisbon on the 20th, and Gibraltar on the
+26th of June. He was off Algiers on the 3rd of July, and on the 12th
+he anchored in the harbour of Messina. There, and in the adjoining
+waters, he waited nearly three months, in daily expectation of
+the arrival of his vessels, Messina having been the appointed
+meeting-place. No vessels came, but instead only dismal and
+procrastinating letters. "We deeply lament," wrote Messrs. J. and S.
+Ricardo, the contractors for the Greek loan, in one of them, dated the
+9th of September, "that, after all the exertions which have been used,
+we have not yet been able to despatch the two large steam-vessels.
+Everything has been ready for some time; but Mr. Galloway's failure
+in the engines will now occasion a much longer detention. We leave to
+your brother, who writes by the same opportunity, to explain fully to
+your lordship how all this has arisen, and what measures it has been
+considered expedient to adopt. In the whole of this unfortunate affair
+we have endeavoured to follow your wishes; and our conduct towards Mr.
+Galloway, who has much to answer for, has been chiefly directed by
+his representations." "Galloway is the evil genius that pursues us
+everywhere," wrote the same correspondents on the 25th of September;
+"his presumption is only equalled by his incompetency. Whatever he has
+to do with is miserably deficient. We do not think his misconduct has
+been intentional; but it has proved most fatal to the interests of
+Greece, and of those engaged in her behalf. On your lordship it has
+pressed peculiarly hard; and most sincerely do we lament that an
+undertaking, which promised so fairly in the commencement should
+hitherto have proved unavailing, and that your power of assisting
+this unhappy country should have been rendered nugatory by the want of
+means to put it in effect."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Those letters, and others written before and after, did not reach Lord
+Cochrane till the end of October. In the meanwhile, finding that the
+expected vessels did not arrive at Messina, and that in that place it
+was impossible even for him to receive accurate information as to the
+progress of affairs in London, he called at Malta about the middle
+of September, and thence proceeded to Marseilles, as a convenient
+halting-place, in which he had better chance of hearing how matters
+were proceeding, and from which he could easily go to meet the vessels
+when, if ever, they were ready to join him. He reached Marseilles
+on the 12th of October, and on the same day he forwarded a letter
+to Messrs. Ricardo. "I wrote to you a few days ago," he said, "from
+Malta, and, as the packet sailed with a fair wind, you will receive
+that letter very shortly. You will thereby perceive the distressing
+suspense in which I have been held, and the inconvenience to which
+I have been exposed, by remaining on board this small vessel for a
+period of five months, during all the heat of a Mediterranean summer,
+without exercise or recreation. This situation has been rendered
+the more unpleasant, as I have had no means to inform myself, except
+through the public papers, relative to the concern in which we are now
+engaged. My patience, however, is now worn out, and I have come here
+to learn whether I am to expect the steam-vessels or not,&mdash;whether
+the scandalous blunders of Mr. Galloway are to be remedied by
+those concerned, or if an ill-timed parsimony is to doom Greece to
+inevitable destruction; for such will be the consequence, if Ibrahim's
+resources are not cut up before the period at which it is usual for
+him to commence operations. You know my opinions so well, that it is
+unnecessary to repeat them to you. I shall, however, add, that
+the intelligence and plans I have obtained since my arrival in the
+Mediterranean confirm these opinions, and enable me to predict, with
+as much certainty as I ever could do on any enterprise, that if the
+vessels and the means to pay six months' expenses are forwarded, there
+shall not be a Turkish or Egyptian ship in the Archipelago at the
+termination of the winter. It may have been expected that I should
+immediately proceed to Greece in this vessel. I might have done so at
+an earlier period of my life, before I had proved by experience that
+advice is thrown away upon persons in the situation and circumstances
+in which the Greek rulers and their people are unfortunately placed.
+Having made up my mind on this subject, I must entreat you to let me
+know by the earliest possible means what I am to expect in regard to
+the steamships. I see by the 'Globe' of the 2nd of last month that the
+holders of Greek stock were to have a meeting. I conclude they came
+to some resolution, and this resolution I want to know. I wish I could
+give them my eyes to see with&mdash;they would then pursue a course which
+would secure their interests. This, however, is impossible; therefore
+they must, like the Greeks, be left to follow their own notions.
+I have, however, no objections to your stating to these gentlemen,
+either publicly or privately, that I pledge my reputation to free
+Greece if they will, by the smallest additional sacrifice that may be
+required, put the stipulated force at my disposal."[A]
+</p>
+
+<p>
+[Footnote A: This letter, like some others of this nature, is partly
+written in cypher, the key to which is lost. Its concluding sentences,
+therefore, are not given.]
+</p>
+
+<p>
+At Marseilles, Lord Cochrane received information, disheartening
+enough, though more encouraging than was justified by the real state
+of affairs, with reference to his intended fleet. On the 14th of
+October he wrote to explain his position, as he himself understood it,
+to the Greek Government. "By the most fortunate accident," he said, "I
+have met Mr. Hobhouse here, who, from his correspondence with Messrs.
+Ricardo and others in London, enables me to state to you that the two
+large steamboats will be completed on the 28th day of this month, and
+that they will proceed on the following day for the <i>rendezvous</i> which
+I had assigned to them previous to my departure. You may, therefore,
+count on their being in Greece about the 14th of next month. The
+American frigate is said to be completed and on her way, and I feel a
+confident hope that I shall be able here to add a very efficient ship
+of war to the before-mentioned vessels.[A] It is probable," he added,
+"that many idle reports will be circulated here and through the public
+prints, because, under existing circumstances, I find it necessary to
+appear now as a person travelling about for private amusement. I can
+assure you, however, that the hundred and sixty days which I have
+already spent in this small vessel, without ever having my foot on
+shore till the day before yesterday, has been a sacrifice which I
+should not have made for any other cause than that in which I
+am engaged; but I considered it essential to conceal the real
+insignificance of my situation and allow rumours to circulate of
+squadrons collecting in various parts, judging that the effect would
+be to embarrass the operations of the enemy."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+[Footnote A: It should here be explained that the building and fitting
+out of the two frigates contracted for in New York, at a cost of
+150,000£, having been assigned to persons whose mismanagement was
+as scandalous as that which perplexed the Greek cause in London, one
+of them had been sold, and with the proceeds and some other funds the
+other had been completed and fitted out, more than 200,000£ having
+been spent upon her. She reached Greece at the end of 1826, there to
+be known as the <i>Hellas</i>.]
+</p>
+
+<p>
+That concealment had to be maintained, and the wearisome delays
+continued, for three months more. All the promises of Mr. Galloway and
+all the efforts, real or pretended, of the Greek deputies in London,
+were vain. The completion of the steam-vessels was retarded on all
+sorts of pretexts, and when each little portion of the work was said
+to be done, it was found to be so badly executed that it had to be
+cancelled and the whole thing done afresh. In this way all the residue
+of the loan of 1825 was exhausted, and all for worse than nothing.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Lord Cochrane would never have been able to proceed to Greece at all,
+had the Greek deputies, Orlando and Luriottis, who had contracted for
+his employment, been his only supporters. Fortunately, however, he had
+other and worthier coadjutors. The Greek Committee in Paris did
+much on his behalf, and yet more was done by the Philhellenes of
+Switzerland, with Chevalier Eynard at their head, of whom one zealous
+member, Dr. L.A. Gosse, of Geneva, "well-informed, very zealous, full
+of genuine enthusiasm for the cause of humanity, and an excellent
+physician," as M. Eynard described him, was about to go in person
+to Greece, as administrator of the funds collected by the Swiss
+Committee. Lord Cochrane's disconsolate arrival at Marseilles, and the
+miserable failure of the plans for his enterprise, had not been known
+to M. Eynard and his friends a week, before they set themselves to
+remedy the mischief as far as lay in their power. As a first and
+chief movement they proposed to buy a French corvette, then lying
+in Marseilles Harbour, and fit her out as a stout auxiliary to Lord
+Cochrane's little force expected from London and New York. Lord
+Cochrane, being consulted on the scheme, eagerly acceded to it in a
+letter written on the 25th of October. "As I have yet no certainty,"
+he said, "that the person employed to fit the machinery of the
+steam-vessels will now perform his task better than he has heretofore
+done, I recommend purchasing the corvette, provided that she can be
+purchased for the sum of 200,000 francs, and, if funds are wanting, I
+personally am willing to advance enough to provision the corvette,
+and am ready to proceed in that or any fit vessel. But I am quite
+resolved, without a moral certainty of something following me, not
+to ruin and disgrace the cause by presenting myself in Greece in a
+schooner of two carronades of the smallest calibre."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The corvette was bought and equipped; but in this several weeks
+were employed. In the interval, for a week or two after the 8th of
+December, Lord Cochrane went to Geneva, there to be the guest of
+Chevalier Eynard, to be introduced to Dr. Gosse, and to become
+personally acquainted with many other Philhellenes.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Neither Lord Cochrane nor his friends could quite abandon hope of the
+ultimate completion of the London steam-vessels. They felt, too,
+that with nothing but the new vessel, the American frigate, and the
+<i>Perseverance</i>, Lord Cochrane would have very poor provision for his
+undertaking. "I have this moment received a letter from his lordship,"
+wrote M. Eynard to Mr. Hobhouse on the 12th of January, 1827, "wherein
+he appears rather disappointed with respect to the scantiness of the
+forces and the means placed at his disposal. He informs me that he has
+no officers, few sailors; and that, in case the steamers should
+not arrive, he will not feel qualified to encounter the Turkish and
+Egyptian naval forces, as well as the Algerines, who of all are the
+best manned. 'I therefore shall not be able to undertake anything
+of moment,' continues his lordship. 'Thus to stake my character and
+existence would be a mere Quixotic act. I will put to sea, however,
+but still with a heavy heart; yet not until I have with me all
+requisites, and my stores and ammunition be embarked likewise.'
+Discouragement appears throughout his lordship's letter."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The discouragement is not to be wondered at. It is hardly necessary,
+however, to give further illustration of it, or of the troubles
+incident to this long waiting-time. Enough has been said to show Lord
+Cochrane's position in relation to this deplorable state of affairs,
+and to exonerate him from all blame in the matter. That he should have
+been blamed at all is only part of the wanton injustice that attended
+him nearly all through his life. He had consented, in the autumn
+of 1825, to enter the service of the Greeks, on the distinct
+understanding that six English-built steamships should be placed at
+his disposal, and to facilitate the arrangements he did and bore
+far more than could have been expected of him. For the delays and
+disasters that befel those arrangements he was in no way responsible:
+he was only thereby a very great sufferer. But his sufferings would
+have been greater, and he would have been really at fault, had he
+consented to go to Greece without any sort of provision, as a few
+rash friends and many eager enemies desired him to do, and afterwards
+blamed him for not doing.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+As it was, he greatly increased his difficulties by at last proceeding
+to Greece with the miserable equipment provided for him. In his little
+schooner, the <i>Unicorn</i>, he left Marseilles on the 14th of February,
+1827, and proceeded to St. Tropezy, where the French corvette, the
+<i>Sauveur</i>, was being fitted out under the direction of Captain Thomas,
+a brave and energetic officer. Thence he set sail, with the two
+vessels, on the 23rd of February. He reached Poros, and entered
+upon his service in Greek waters, on the 19th of March. "He had been
+wandering about the Mediterranean in a fine English yacht, purchased
+for him out of the proceeds of the loan, in order to accelerate his
+arrival in Greece, ever since the month of June, 1826," says the
+ablest historian of the Greek Revolution.[A] The preceding paragraphs
+will show how much truth is contained in that sarcastic sentence.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+[Footnote A: Finlay, vol. ii., p. 137.]
+</p>
+
+</div><!--end chapter-->
+
+<div class="chapter">
+
+<h2><a name="chap16"></a>CHAPTER XVI.</h2>
+
+<p class="letter">
+THE PROGRESS OF AFFAIRS IN GREECE.&mdash;THE SIEGE OF MISSOLONGHI.&mdash;ITS
+FALL.&mdash;THE BAD GOVERNMENT AND MISMANAGEMENT OF THE GREEKS.&mdash;GENERAL
+PONSONBY'S ACCOUNT OF THEM.&mdash;THE EFFECT OF LORD COCHRANE'S PROMISED
+ASSISTANCE.&mdash;THE FEARS OF THE TURKS, AS SHOWN IN THEIR CORRESPONDENCE
+WITH MR. CANNING.&mdash;THE ARRIVAL OF CAPTAIN HASTINGS IN GREECE, WITH THE
+"KARTERIA."&mdash;HIS OPINION OF GREEK CAPTAINS AND SAILORS.&mdash;THE FRIGATE
+"HELLAS."&mdash;LETTERS TO LORD COCHRANE FROM ADMIRAL MIAOULIS AND THE
+GOVERNING COMMISSION OF GREECE.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+[1826-1827.]
+</p>
+
+<p>
+During the one-and-twenty weary months that elapsed between Lord
+Cochrane's acceptance of service in the Greek War of Independence and
+his actual participation in the work, the Revolution passed through a
+new and disastrous stage. In the summer of 1825, when the invitation
+was sent to him, the disorganisation of the Greeks and the superior
+strength of the Turks, and yet more of their Egyptian and Arabian
+allies under Ibrahim Pasha, were threatening to undo all that had been
+achieved in the previous years. One bold stand had begun to be made,
+in which, throughout nearly a whole year, the Greeks fought with
+unsurpassed heroism, and then the whole struggle for liberty fell into
+the lawless and disordered condition which already had prevailed in
+many districts, and which was then to become universal and to offer
+obstacles too great even for Lord Cochrane's genius to overcome in
+his efforts to revive genuine patriotism and to render thoroughly
+successful the cause that he had espoused.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The last great stand was at Missolonghi. Built on the edge of a marshy
+plain, bounded on the north by the high hills of Zygos and protected
+on the south by shallow lagoons at the mouth of the Gulf of Lepanto,
+and chiefly tenanted by hardy fishermen, this town had been the first
+in Western Greece to take part in the Revolution. Here in June, 1821,
+nearly all the Moslem residents had been slaughtered, the wealthiest
+and most serviceable only being spared to become the slaves of their
+Christian masters. In the last two months of 1822 the Ottomans
+had made a desperate attempt to win back the stronghold; but its
+inhabitants, led by Mavrocordatos, who had lately come to join in the
+work of regeneration, had resolutely beaten off the invaders and taken
+revenge upon the few Turks still resident among them. "The wife of one
+of the Turkish inhabitants of Missolonghi," said an English visitor
+in 1824, "imploring my pity, begged me to allow her to remain under
+my roof, in order to shelter her from the brutality and cruelty of the
+Greeks. They had murdered all her relations. A little girl, nine years
+old, remained to be the only companion of her misery."[A] Missolonghi
+continued to be one of the chief strongholds of independence in
+continental Greece; and, the revolutionists being forced into it by
+the Turks, who scoured the districts north and east of it in 1824 and
+1825, it became in the latter year the main object of attack and the
+scene of most desperate resistance. Here were concentrated the chief
+energies of the Greek warriors and of their Moslem antagonists, and
+here was exhibited the last and most heroic effort of the patriots,
+unaided by foreign champions of note, in their long and hard-fought
+battle for freedom.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+[Footnote A: Millingen, "Memoirs on the Affairs of Greece," p. 99.]
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Reshid Pasha, the ablest of the Turkish generals, having advanced into
+the neighbourhood of Missolonghi towards the end of April, began to
+besiege it in good earnest, at the head of an army of some seven
+or eight thousand picked followers, on the 7th of May. While he was
+forming his entrenchments and erecting his batteries, the townsmen,
+augmented by a number of fierce Suliots and others, were strengthening
+their defences. They increased their ramparts, and organised a
+garrison of four thousand soldiers and armed peasants, with a thousand
+citizens and boatmen as auxiliaries. At first the tide of fortune was
+with them. The Turks had to defend themselves as best they could from
+numerous sorties, well-planned and well-executed, in May and June; and
+fresh courage came to the Greeks with the intelligence that Admiral
+Miaoulis was on his way to the port, with as powerful a fleet as he
+could muster. While he was being expected, however, on the 10th of
+July, the Turkish Capitan Pasha of Greece arrived with fifty-five
+vessels. Miaoulis, with forty Greek sail, made his appearance on the
+2nd of August. Thus the naval and military forces of both sides were
+brought into formidable opposition.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+At first the Greeks triumphed on the sea. In the night of the 3rd of
+August, Miaoulis, finding that Missolonghi was being greatly troubled
+by the blockade established by the Turks, cleverly placed himself to
+windward of the enemy's line, and at daybreak on the 4th he dispersed
+the squadron nearest the shore. At noon the whole Turkish force came
+against him. He met them bravely, but being able to do no more
+than hold his own by the ordinary method of warfare, he sent three
+fireships against them in the afternoon. The Turks did not wait to be
+injured by them. They fled at once, going all the way to Alexandria
+in search of safety. Miaoulis then lost no time in seconding his first
+exploit by another. A detachment of the army of Eastern Greece, under
+the brave generals Karaïskakes and Zavellas, having been sent to
+harass Reshid Pasha's operations, the admiral assisted them in a
+successful piece of strategy. The Turks were, on the 6th of August,
+attacked simultaneously by the ships and by the outlying battalion
+of Greeks, while fifteen hundred of the garrison rushed out upon the
+invaders. Four Turkish batteries were seized, and a great number of
+their defenders were killed and captured; the remainder, after tough
+fighting during three hours and a half, being driven so far back that
+much of the besieging work had to be done over again.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Miaoulis then went in search of the Ottoman fleet, leaving the
+townsmen, who were enabled, by the raising of the blockade, to receive
+fresh supplies of food, ammunition, and men, to continue their
+defence with a good heart. Reshid Pasha vigorously restored his siege
+operations, but, attempting to force his way into the town on the 21st
+of September, was again seriously repulsed. The Turks were allowed,
+and even tempted, to advance to a point which had been skilfully
+undermined by the besieged. The mine was then fired, and a great
+number of Moslems were blown into the air, while their comrades,
+fleeing in disorder, were further injured by a storm of shot from the
+ramparts. A similar device was resorted to, with like success, on the
+13th of October. Reshid had to retire to a safe distance and
+there build winter quarters for his diminished and starving army.
+Karaïskakes and Zavellas entered Missolonghi without hindrance, there
+to concert measures which, had they been promptly adopted, might have
+utterly destroyed the besieging force.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+They delayed their plans too long. The Capitan Pasha having in August
+fled in a cowardly way to Alexandria, there effected a junction with
+the Egyptians, and returned to the neighbourhood of Missolonghi in
+the middle of November with a huge fleet of a hundred and thirty-five
+vessels, well supplied with troops and provisions. These he landed at
+Patras on the 18th, just in time to be free from any annoyance that
+might have been occasioned by Miaoulis, who returned to Missolonghi
+on the 28th with a fleet of only thirty-three sail. He had vainly
+attacked a part of the Moslem force on its way, and now, after landing
+some stores at Missolonghi, made several vain attempts to overcome a
+force four times as strong as his own. He soon retired, intending to
+return as promptly as he could collect a large fleet and bring with
+him further supplies of the provisions of which the Missolonghites
+were beginning to be in need.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The need was greater even than he imagined. Not only had the Capitan
+Pasha brought temporary assistance, in men and food, to the besieging
+force. Yet greater assistance soon came in the shape of an Egyptian
+army, led by Ibrahim Pasha himself. An overwhelming power was
+thus organized during the last weeks of 1825, and the defenders of
+Missolonghi were left to succumb to it, almost unaided. Their previous
+successes had induced the Greeks of other districts to believe that
+they could continue their defence alone, and almost the only relief
+obtained by them was from the Zantiots, who had all along been zealous
+in the despatch of money and provisions, and from Miaoulis and the
+small fleet and equipment that he was able to collect from the islands
+of the Archipelago. Miaoulis returned in January, 1826, and did much
+injury to the Turkish and Egyptian vessels. But he could offer no
+hindrance to the action of the Turks and Egyptians upon land. The
+rainy months of December and January, in which no important attack
+could be entered upon, were spent by Ibrahim and his companions in
+preparation for future work. The invaders were now well provided
+with every requisite. The besieged were in want of nearly everything.
+"Invested for ten months," says the contemporary historian,
+"frequently on the verge of starvation, thinned by fatigue, watching,
+and wounds, they had already buried fifteen hundred soldiers. The
+town was in ruins, and they lived amongst the mire and water of their
+ditches, exposed to the inclemency of a rigorous season, without shoes
+and in tattered clothing. As far as their vision stretched over the
+waves they beheld only Turkish flags. The plain was studded with
+Mussulman tents and standards; and the gradual appearance of new
+batteries more skilfully disposed, the field days of the Arabs, and
+the noise of saws and hammers, gave fearful warning. Yet these gallant
+Acarnanians, Etolians, and Epirots never flinched for an instant."[A]
+</p>
+
+<p>
+[Footnote A: Gordon, vol. ii., p. 253.]
+</p>
+
+<p>
+On the 13th of January, Ibrahim Pasha sent to say that he was willing
+to treat with them for an honourable surrender if they would convey
+their terms by deputies who could speak Albanian, Turkish, and French.
+"We are illiterate, and do not understand so many languages," was
+their blunt reply; "pashas we do not recognize; but we know how to
+handle the sword and gun."[A]
+</p>
+
+<p>
+[Footnote A: Ibid.]
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Sword and gun were handled with desperate prowess during February and
+March and the early part of April. In April, offers of capitulation
+were renewed by Ibrahim, and more disinterested attempts to avert
+the worst calamity were made by Sir Frederick Adam, the Lord High
+Commissioner of the Ionian Islands. Both proposals were stoutly
+rejected. The Missolonghiotes declared that they would defend their
+town to the last, and trust only in God and in their own strong arms.
+But on the 1st of April the last scanty distribution of public rations
+was exhausted. For three weeks the inhabitants subsisted upon nothing
+but cats, rats, hides, seaweed, and whatever other refuse and vermin
+they could collect. At length, on the 22nd of April, finding it
+impossible to hold out for a day longer, they resolved to evacuate the
+town in a body, and, cutting their way through the enemy, to try to
+join Karaïskakes and his small force, who, hiding among the mountain
+fastnesses, were vainly seeking for some way of assisting them, and to
+whom they now despatched a message, asking them to advance and help to
+clear a passage for their flight.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+After sunset four bridges of planks were secretly laid over the outer
+ditch of Missolonghi, and the inhabitants were ordered to prepare to
+leave in two hours. Many&mdash;about two thousand&mdash;lost heart at last; some
+betaking themselves to the powder stores, there, when all hope was
+over, to end their lives by easier death than the enemy might allow
+them; others, crouching in corners of their homesteads, deeming it
+better to be murdered there than in the open country. The rest obeyed
+the orders of the generals. All the women dressed themselves as men,
+with swords or daggers at their waists. Every child who could hold a
+weapon had one placed in his hand. There was bitter leave-taking, and
+desperate words of encouragement passed from one to another, as the
+patriots were marshalled in the order of their departure;&mdash;three
+thousand fighting men to open a passage and four thousand women and
+children to follow;&mdash;the whole being divided into three separate
+parties. At length all was ready, and the first party silently passed
+out of the town and advanced to the bridges. To their amazement,
+they no sooner appeared than they were met by volley after volley of
+Turkish fire. A traitor had revealed their plan, and every measure had
+been taken for their destruction. Some rushed on in despite; others
+hurried back, to fall into confusion, which it was hard indeed to
+overcome. They felt, however, that this deadly chance was their only
+chance of life, and they pressed on through the fire, and the swords
+of their foes, and by the sheer heroism of despair forced a passage
+to the mountains. Karaiskakes's aid&mdash;apparently through no fault of
+his&mdash;was only obtained when the worst dangers had been surmounted or
+succumbed to. Of the nine thousand persons who were in Missolonghi on
+the day of the evacuation, four thousand were killed in the town or on
+the way out of it. Only thirteen hundred men and two hundred women and
+children lived to reach Salona after more than a week of wandering and
+hiding among the mountains.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The long siege of Missolonghi illustrates all the best and some of
+the worst features of the Greek Revolution. In it there was patriotism
+worthy, in its bursts of splendour, of the nation that claimed descent
+from the heroes of Plataea and Thermopylae. But the patriotism was
+often fitful in its working, and oftener wholly wanting. The Greeks
+could not shake off the pernicious influences that sprang, almost
+necessarily, from their long centuries of thraldom. Heroism was
+closely linked with treachery and meanness. The worthiest and most
+disinterested energy was intimately associated with ignorance as to
+the right methods of action, and with wilful action in wrong ways. The
+elements of weakness that had been apparent from the first were more
+and more developed as the painful struggle reached its termination.
+It seems as if, in spite of Reshid Pasha and Ibrahim and their
+fierce armies, it would have been easy for Missolonghi and its
+brave defenders to have been saved. But rival ambitions and
+paltry jealousies divided the leaders of the Revolution. They were
+quarrelling while the power that each one coveted for himself was,
+step by step, being wrested from them all; and when they tried to do
+well their want of discipline often rendered their efforts of small
+avail. No adequate attempt was made to relieve Missolonghi by land,
+and the brave conduct of Miaoulis on the sea was almost neutralized
+by the disorganization of his crews and the selfish policy of the
+islanders who sent him out.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"With respect to the Greek army," wrote General Ponsonby to the Duke
+of Wellington, from Corfu, on the 15th of June, "it is, generally
+speaking, a mob; and a chief can only calculate upon keeping it
+together as long as he has provisions to give it or the prospect of
+plunder without danger. There is nothing to oppose the Egyptian
+army but a mob kept together by the small sums sent by the different
+committees in foreign countries. The Greeks have a great horror of
+the bayonet, which, however, they have never seen near, except at
+Missolonghi. The Suliots, who chiefly formed the garrison of that
+place, are fine men, and certainly fought with great courage. Much
+has been said of naval actions, but there is no truth in any of the
+accounts. The Greeks are better sailors than the Turks, but no action
+has been fought since the beginning of the war, if it is understood by
+action that there is risk and loss on both sides. The Greeks, however,
+have done wonders with their fleet. They have destroyed many large
+ships, and, in the month of February last, with twenty-three brigs,
+they out-manoeuvred the Turkish fleet of sixty sail, and threw
+provisions into Missolonghi. This, though done by seamanship, and not
+fighting, was called a great battle and a great victory. I was
+within two miles of the fleets, and the cannonade for six hours was
+tremendous; but when I spoke to Miaoulis the following morning he told
+me he had not lost a man in his fleet."[A]
+</p>
+
+<p>
+[Footnote A: "Despatches of the Duke of Wellington," vol. iii., p.
+338.]
+</p>
+
+<p>
+During the summer and winter following the fall of Missolonghi a
+series of small disasters, the aggregate of which was by no means
+small, befel the Greeks. It was the opinion of all parties, and
+admitted even by jealous rivals, that the tottering cause of
+independence was only sustained by the constant and eager expectation
+of the arrival of the powerful fleet which was supposed to be on its
+way to the Archipelago, under the able leadership of Lord Cochrane,
+the world-famous champion of Chilian and Brazilian freedom.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+His approach was hardly more a cause of hope to the Greeks than a
+subject of fear to the Turks. No sooner was it publicly known that he
+had espoused the cause of the insurgents than angry complaints were
+made by the Turkish Government to the British ministry, and Mr.
+Canning, then Foreign Secretary, had more than once to avow that the
+authorities in England knew nothing of his movements, and had done all
+that the law rendered possible to restrain him. He had also to promise
+that everything legal should be done to keep him in check on his
+arrival in Greek waters. "We have heard," he wrote in August to his
+cousin, Mr. Stratford Canning, afterwards Lord Stratford de Redcliffe,
+the ambassador at Constantinople, "that Lord Cochrane is gone to
+the Mediterranean; whether it be really so, we know not." He then
+proceeded to define the bearing of English and international law
+in the existing circumstances. "Lord Cochrane may enter the Greek
+service, and continue therein. He may even, as a Greek commander,
+institute (as he did in Brazil) blockades which British officers will
+respect, and exercise the belligerent rights of search on British
+merchant-ships, without exposing himself to any other penalty than
+that which the law will inflict upon him if ever hereafter he shall
+again bring himself within its reach, and be duly convicted of the
+offence for the punishment of which that law was enacted. If, indeed,
+he should do any of such things without a commission he would become a
+pirate, and liable to the summary justice to which, without reference
+to the municipal laws of his country, he would, as an enemy of the
+human race, be liable; and liable just as much from the officers of
+any other country as of his own."[A]
+</p>
+
+<p>
+[Footnote A: "Despatches of the Duke of Wellington," vol. iii., pp.
+357, 358.]
+</p>
+
+<p>
+While that correspondence was going on, Lord Cochrane, as we have
+seen, was battling with a long series of delays, as irksome to himself
+as they were unfortunate to the Greeks. It was not till the 14th of
+September, about eight months after the time fixed for the arrival of
+his whole fleet, that the first instalment of it, the <i>Perseverance</i>,
+which he had sent on as soon as it was completed, with Captain Abney
+Hastings as its commander, entered the harbour of Nauplia. On the 26th
+of October, Captain Hastings wrote a letter, giving curious evidence
+of the estimate formed by him of the Greek character. It was left
+at Nauplia and addressed to "the commander of the first American
+or English vessel that arrives in Greece to join the Greeks." "An
+apprenticeship in Greece tolerably long," he wrote, "has taught me the
+risks to which anybody newly arrived, and possessed of some place and
+power, is exposed. They know me, and they also know that I know them;
+yet they have not ceased, and never will cease, intriguing to get this
+vessel out of my hands and into their own, which would be
+tantamount to ruining her. Knowing all this, I take the liberty
+of leaving this letter, to be delivered to the first officer
+that arrives in Greece in the command of a vessel, to caution
+him not to receive on board his vessel any Greek captain. They
+will endeavour, under various pretences, to introduce themselves on
+board, and when once they have got a footing, they will gradually
+encroach until they feel themselves strong enough to turn out the
+original commander. The presence of such men can only be attended with
+inconvenience, for, if you are obliged to take a certain number of
+Greek sailors, these captains will render subordination among them
+impossible by their own irregularity and bad example. If you want
+seamen, take some from Hydra, Spetzas, Kranidi, or Poros. The Psarians
+may be trusted in very small numbers. Take a few men from one, a few
+from another island, and thus you will be best enabled to establish
+some kind of discipline. Take a good number of marines. Choose them
+from the peasantry and foreign Greeks, and you may make something of
+them. You must see, sir, that, in this my advice to the first officer
+arriving in command of a vessel, I can have no interest any further
+than inasmuch as I wish well to the Greek cause, and therefore do not
+wish to see a force that can be of great service rendered ineffective
+by falling into the hands of people totally incapable and unwilling to
+adopt a single right measure. In Greece there cannot be any military
+operations except such as are carried on by foreigners in their
+service."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+That letter was written after Captain Hastings had endured a month's
+annoyance from the trouble brought upon him by the Hydriot officers
+and seamen who tried to oust him from the command of his fine vessel,
+whose name was now changed from the <i>Perseverance</i> to the <i>Karteria</i>.
+Unfortunately, his letter, left at Nauplia, did not reach the captain
+of the next reinforcement, the American frigate, which arrived at
+Egina on the 8th of December. "She was one of the finest ships in the
+world," we are told, "carrying sixty-four guns&mdash;long 32-pounders on
+the main, and 42-pound carronades on the upper deck&mdash;and was filled
+with flour, ammunition, medicines, and marine stores for eighteen
+months' consumption. The Greeks contemplated her with delight, but,
+upon the departure of the American officers and seamen who navigated
+her out, they discovered that she would be more embarrassing than
+useful to them. To manage vessels of such a size was beyond their
+capacity, and the mutual jealousy of the islanders suggested to the
+Government the absurd notion of putting the frigate into commission,
+Hydra, Spetzas, and the Psarian community being desired to send quotas
+of men. This plan was now found to be impracticable. Repeated fights
+occurred on board. The ship was twice in danger of being wrecked at
+Egina, and at Poros she actually drifted ashore, luckily on soft mud.
+She was finally given up to Miaoulis, with a Hydriot crew of his own
+selection."[A]
+</p>
+
+<p>
+[Footnote A: Gordon, vol. ii., p. 326.]
+</p>
+
+<p>
+This frigate, christened the <i>Hellas</i>, came too late to be of much
+service to Admiral Miaoulis, before the arrival of Lord Cochrane. In
+the previous summer and autumn, however, he had been harassing and
+keeping at bay the Turkish and Egyptian fleets&mdash;work in which Hastings
+was in time to assist him.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Andreas Miaoulis, one of the least obtrusive, was almost the worthiest
+of all the Greek patriots. During five years he had never ceased to do
+the best that it was possible for him to do with the bad materials
+at his disposal. When the Greek Revolution was at its height, he
+had contributed largely to its success; and in the ensuing years
+of disaster upon land, he had maintained its dignity on the sea by
+offering bold resistance to the great naval power of the combined
+Turkish and Egyptian fleets. No better proof of his patriotism could
+be given than in the zeal with which he surrendered to Lord Cochrane
+the leadership of the fleet which had devolved upon him for so long
+and been so ably conducted by him. "I received four days ago," he
+wrote from Poros on the 23rd of February, 1827, "your amiable
+letter of the 19th of last month, and my great satisfaction at the
+announcement of your approaching arrival in Greece is joined with a
+special pleasure at the honour you do me in associating me with your
+important operations. I shall be happy, my admiral, if, in serving
+you, I can do my duty. I await you with impatience."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Just a month before that, on the 23rd of January, a like letter
+of congratulation was addressed to Lord Cochrane from Egina by the
+Governing Commission of Greece. "The intelligence of your speedy
+coming to Greece," they said, "has awakened the liveliest joy and
+satisfaction, and has already begun to rekindle in the hearts of
+the Greeks that enthusiasm which is the most powerful weapon and the
+surest support of a nation that has devoted itself to the recovery of
+its most sacred rights. The Government of Greece is waiting with
+the utmost impatience for the most zealous defender of the nation's
+liberty. It hopes to see you in its midst as soon as possible after
+your arrival at Hydra, and then to make you acquainted with the actual
+state of Greece, and to furnish you with all the means in its power
+for the achievement of the grand results proposed by your lordship."
+The letter was signed by Andreas Zaimes, as President of
+the Commission, and by seven of its members, among whom were
+Mavromichales, or Petro-Bey, who, with Zaimes and two others,
+represented the Morea, Spiridion Trikoupes, the deputy for Roumelia,
+Zamados from Hydra, Monarchides from Psara, and Demetrakopoulos from
+the islands of the Egean Sea.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+By the same body was issued, on the 21st of February, a preliminary
+commission, intended to protect him in case of any opposition being
+raised to his progress by the authorities of other nations. "The
+Governing Commission of Greece," it was written, "makes known that
+Admiral Lord Cochrane is recognised as being in the service of Greece,
+and accordingly has the permission of the Government to hoist the
+Greek flag on all the vessels that are under his command. He has
+power, also, to fight the enemies of Greece to the utmost of his
+power. Therefore the officers of neutral powers, being informed of
+this, are implored, not only to offer no opposition to his movements,
+but also, if necessary, to supply him with any assistance he may
+require, seeing that it is our custom to do the same to all friendly
+nations." Armed with this document, and provided with the necessary
+means by the Philhellenes of England, France, and Switzerland, Lord
+Cochrane proceeded from Marseilles to Greece.
+</p>
+
+</div><!--end chapter-->
+
+<div class="chapter">
+
+<h2><a name="chap17"></a>APPENDIX.</h2>
+
+<h3>I.</h3>
+
+<p>
+(Page 22.)
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The following "Resumé of the Services of the late Earl of Dundonald,
+none of which have been Requited or Officially Recognized," was
+written by his son, one of the authors of the present work, and
+printed for private circulation in 1861.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+1. The destruction of three heavily-armed French corvettes, near the
+mouth of the Garonne, the crew of Lord Cochrane's frigate, <i>Pallas</i>,
+being at the time, with the exception of forty men, engaged in cutting
+out the <i>Tapageuse</i>, lying under the protection of two batteries
+thirty miles up the river, in which operation they were also
+successful, four ships of war being thus captured or destroyed in a
+single day. For these services Lord Cochrane obtained nothing but
+his share of the <i>Tapageuse</i>, sold by auction for a trifling sum,
+the Government refusing to purchase her as a ship of war, though of
+admirable build and construction. Contrary to the usual rule, no ship
+ever taken by Lord Cochrane, throughout his whole career, was ever
+allowed to be bought into the navy. For the corvettes, which Lord
+Cochrane destroyed with so small a crew, he never received reward or
+thanks, the alleged reason being, that, having become wrecks, they
+were not in existence, and therefore could not have value attached
+to them. This decision of the Admiralty was contrary to custom, as
+admitted to the present day. In the late Russian war a gunboat of the
+enemy having been driven on shore and wrecked, compensation is said to
+have been awarded to the officers and crew of the British vessel
+which drove her on shore. The importance of wrecking a gunboat, in
+comparison with the destruction of three fast-sailing ships, which
+were picking up our merchantmen, in all directions, needs no comment.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+2. Lord Cochrane's services on the coast of Catalonia, of which Lord
+Collingwood, then commander-in-chief in the Mediterranean, testified
+of his lordship to the Admiralty that by his energy and foresight
+he had, with a single frigate, stopped a French army from occupying
+Eastern Spain. The services by which this was effected were as
+follows:&mdash;Preventing the reinforcement of the French garrison in
+Barcelona, by harassing the newly-arrived troops in their march along
+the coast, and organising and assisting the Spanish militia to oppose
+their progress, Lord Cochrane himself capturing one of their forts on
+shore, and taking the garrison prisoners.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+On the approach of a powerful French <i>corps d'armée</i> towards
+Barcelona, Lord Cochrane blew up the roads along the coast, and taught
+the Spanish peasantry how to do so inland. By blowing up the cliff
+roads, near Mongat, Lord Cochrane interposed an insurmountable
+obstacle between the army and its artillery, capturing and throwing
+into the sea a considerable number of field-pieces, so that the
+operations of the French were rendered nugatory. For these services,
+Lord Cochrane, notwithstanding the strong representations of Lord
+Collingwood to the Board of Admiralty, neither received thanks nor
+reward of any kind; notwithstanding that whilst so engaged, and that
+voluntarily, in successfully accomplishing the work of an army, he
+patriotically gave up all chances of prize money, though easily to be
+obtained by cruising after the enemy's vessels. In place of this, he
+neither searched for nor captured a single prize, whilst engaged
+in harassing the French army on shore, devoting his whole energies
+towards the enterprise which he considered most conducive to the
+interests of his country.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+3. Having effected his object, Lord Cochrane sailed for the Gulf
+of Lyons, with the intention of cutting off the enemy's shore
+communications. This he accomplished by destroying their signal
+stations, telegraphs, and shore batteries along nearly the whole
+coast, navigating his frigate with perfect safety throughout this
+proverbially perilous part of the Mediterranean. In order further
+to paralyse the enemy's movements, Lord Cochrane made a practice
+of burning paper near the demolished stations, so as to deceive the
+French into the belief that he had burned their signal books; he
+rightly judging that from this circumstance they might not deem it
+necessary to alter their code of signals. The ruse succeeded, and,
+transmitting the signal books to Lord Collingwood, then watching the
+enemy's preparations in Toulon, the commander-in-chief was thus
+fully apprised, by the enemy's signals, not only of all their naval
+movements, but also of the position and movements of all British
+ships of war on the French coast. Lord Cochrane's single frigate
+thus performed the work of many vessels of observation, and Lord
+Collingwood testified of him to the Admiralty that "his resources
+seemed to have no end." Notwithstanding this testimony from his
+commander-in-chief, Lord Cochrane neither received reward nor thanks
+for the service rendered.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+4. On his return to the Spanish coast, Lord Cochrane found the French
+besieging Rosas, the Spaniards maintaining possession of the citadel,
+whilst Fort Trinidad had just been evacuated by the British officer
+who had been co-operating with the Spaniards in the larger fortress.
+Lord Cochrane, believing that if Fort Trinidad were held till
+reinforcements arrived, the French must be compelled to raise the
+siege of Rosas, persuaded the Spanish Governor not to surrender, as he
+was about to do, on its evacuation by the British officer aforesaid,
+and threw himself into the fort with a detachment from the seamen
+and marines of the <i>Impérieuse</i>, with which frigate he maintained
+uninterrupted communication, in spite of the enemy, who, on
+ascertaining it to be Lord Cochrane who was keeping them at bay,
+redoubled their efforts to capture the fort, the gallant defence of
+which is amongst the most remarkable events of naval warfare. Lord
+Cochrane held Fort Trinidad till, the Spaniards surrendering the
+citadel, he would not allow his men to run further risk in their
+behalf, and withdrew the seamen and marines in safety. For this
+remarkable exploit Lord Cochrane, though himself severely wounded,
+neither received reward nor thanks, except from Lord Collingwood,
+who again, without effect, warmly applauded his gallantry to the
+Admiralty.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+5. Immediately on his arrival at Plymouth, on leave of absence in
+consequence of ill health from his extraordinary exertions, Lord
+Cochrane was immediately summoned by the Admiralty to Whitehall,
+and asked for a plan whereby the French fleet in Basque Roads, then
+threatening our West India possessions, might be destroyed at one
+blow; this extraordinary request from a junior captain, after the most
+experienced officers in the navy had pronounced its impracticability,
+forcibly proving the very high opinion entertained by the Admiralty
+of Lord Cochrane's skill and resources. He gave in a plan, and was
+ordered to execute it, which order he reluctantly obeyed, having done
+all in his power to decline an invidious command, for fear of arousing
+the jealousy of officers to whom he was junior in the service. What
+followed is matter of history, and needs not to be recapitulated.
+Yet for the destruction of that powerful armament he neither received
+reward nor thanks from the Admiralty, though rewarded by his sovereign
+with the highest order of the Bath, a distinction which marked his
+Majesty's sense of the important service rendered.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Nine years afterwards head money was awarded to the whole fleet,
+of which only the vessels directed by Lord Cochrane and a few sent
+afterwards, when too late for effective measures, took part in the
+action. The alleged reason of this award was that the <i>Calcutta</i>, one
+of the ships driven ashore by Lord Cochrane, did not surrender to him,
+but to ships sent to his assistance. This was not true, though after
+protracted deliberation so ruled by the Admiralty Court, and officers
+now living and present in the action have recently come forward to
+testify to the ship being in Lord Cochrane's possession before the
+arrival of the ships which subsequently came to his assistance. A
+small sum was therefore only awarded to him as a junior captain, in
+common with those who had been spectators only, and this he declined
+to receive. Such was his recompense for a service to the high merit of
+which Napoleon himself afterwards testified in the warmest manner; and
+it may be mentioned as a further testimony that a French Court Martial
+shot Captain Lafont, the commander of the <i>Calcutta</i>, because he
+surrendered to a vessel of inferior power, viz., Lord Cochrane's
+frigate, the <i>Impérieuse</i> of forty-four guns, the <i>Calcutta</i> carrying
+sixty guns.[A]
+</p>
+
+<p>
+[Footnote A: Captain Lafont was shot on board the <i>Ocean</i>, on
+September 9, 1809, <i>for surrendering the Calcutta to a ship of
+inferior force</i>, thus proving that she surrendered to Lord Cochrane
+alone, though Sir William Scott ruled in opposition to the facts
+adopted by the French Court Martial, which condemned Captain Lafont
+to death for the act. The surrender to Lord Cochrane alone is further
+proved by the additional fact, that the captains of the <i>Ville de
+Varsovie</i> and <i>Aquilon</i>, which <i>did</i> surrender to the other ships in
+conjunction with Lord Cochrane's frigate, were not even accused, much
+less punished for so doing.]
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The exploits of Lord Cochrane in the <i>Speedy</i> and <i>Pallas</i> are too
+well known in naval history to require recapitulation, and of these
+it may be said that the numerous prizes captured by these vessels
+constituted their own reward. It may here be mentioned in confirmation
+of what has previously been said, that the <i>Gamo</i>, a magnificent
+xebeque frigate of thirty-two guns, was not allowed to be bought into
+the navy, but was sold for a small sum to one of the piratical Barbary
+States, notwithstanding that Lord Cochrane had said that if he
+were allowed to have her in place of the <i>Speedy</i>, then in a very
+dilapidated condition, he would sweep the Mediterranean of the enemy's
+cruisers and privateers. His capacity so to do may be judged from what
+he effected with the <i>Speedy</i>, mounting only fourteen 4-pounders.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+With regard to the services previously enumerated, the case is
+different, notwithstanding their national importance in comparison
+with his minor acts, which may be classed as brilliant exploits only.
+But that no reward should have been conferred for doing effectively
+the work of an army, and that without the cost of a shilling to the
+nation beyond the ordinary expenditure of a small frigate, necessary
+to be disbursed whether she performed any effective service or not,
+is a neglect which, unless repaired in the persons of his successors,
+will for ever remain a blot on the British Government. Still more so
+will the worse neglect of not having in any way rewarded him for the
+destruction of the French fleet in Basque Roads, for though only four
+ships were destroyed at the moment, the whole fleet of the enemy was
+so damaged by having been driven on shore from terror of the explosive
+vessel, fired with Lord Cochrane's own hand, that it eventually became
+a wreck; and thus our West India commerce, then the most important
+branch of national export and import, was in a month after Lord
+Cochrane's arrival from the Mediterranean relieved from the panic
+which paralysed it, and restored to its wonted security;&mdash;a service
+which can only be estimated by the gloom and panic which had
+previously pervaded the whole country.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Were reference made to the pension list, and note taken of the
+pensions granted to other officers and their successors for services
+which in point of national importance do not admit of comparison with
+those of Lord Cochrane, the present generation would be surprised at
+the national ingratitude manifested towards one, who, in his great
+exploits, had so patriotically sacrificed every consideration
+of private interest to his country's service. His cruise in the
+<i>Impérieuse</i>, which has no parallel in naval history, procured for
+Lord Cochrane nothing whatever but shattered health from the
+incessant anxiety and exertion he had undergone in the profitless but
+high-minded course he adopted to thwart the French in their attempts
+to establish a permanent footing in Eastern Spain. His exploits in
+Basque Roads procured him nothing but absolute ruin; for, from his
+refusal as a Member of Parliament to acquiesce in a vote of thanks to
+Lord Gambier, even though the same thanks were promised to himself,
+may be dated that active political persecution which commenced by
+depriving him of further naval employment and did not cease till it
+had accomplished his utter ruin, even to striking his name out of the
+<i>Navy List</i>.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The animosity of this political partisanship towards one who had
+effected so much for his country is an anomaly even in political
+history. That amended representation of the people in Parliament, for
+which he strove up to 1818, had only fourteen years afterwards become
+the law of the land, and the boast of some who had persecuted Lord
+Cochrane for no offence beyond having been amongst the first to give
+expression to the popular will subsequently adopted by themselves.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The efforts of Lord Cochrane in favour of reforming the abuses of the
+Navy and of Greenwich Hospital, which at that time brought upon him
+the wrath of the Administration, are at this moment seriously engaging
+the attention of parliament, as being of paramount national necessity.
+The doctrine then openly laid down, that no naval officer in
+parliament had a right to interfere with naval administration, has
+long been abrogated, and many of the brightest ornaments of the navy
+are now amongst the foremost to denounce naval abuses in the House of
+Commons. It is, in fact, to them that the country now looks for
+that vigilance which shall preserve the navy in a proper state of
+efficiency. Yet for these very things was Lord Cochrane persecuted,
+though modern Governments, which have been liberal enough to acquiesce
+in popular reforms, of which he was the early advocate, have not been
+liberal enough to make him amends for the wrongs he suffered as one of
+the indefatigable originators of their now-cherished measures. Still
+less have they deemed it inconsistent with the honour of this great
+country to refrain from rewarding him in the ordinary manner for his
+most important services, rendered when others shrank from them, as was
+the case at Basque Roads, where his plans, declined by his seniors in
+the service, were successfully executed by himself under the greatest
+possible discouragement and disadvantage.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+But the injustice manifested towards the late Earl of Dundonald did
+not end here. Driven from the service of his own country, and without
+fortune, he was compelled by his necessities to embark in the service
+of foreign states. With his own hand, directed by his own genius,
+which had to supply the place of adequate naval force, he liberated
+Chili, Peru, and Brazil from thraldom, consolidating the rebellious
+provinces of the latter empire on so permanent a basis, that its
+internal peace has never again been disturbed. Yet not one of these
+states has to this day satisfied the stipulated and indisputable
+arrangements by which he was induced to espouse their cause; the
+reason of their breach of contract being distinctly traceable to the
+course pursued towards Lord Dundonald in England. Seeing that the
+British Government paid no attention to the yet more important claims
+he had upon its gratitude, the South American States believed that
+they might with impunity disregard their own stipulations, and the
+dictates of national honour; the chief of one of them having had the
+audacity to tell Lord Cochrane that he would find no sympathy in the
+British Government.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Three of the most distinguished officers in the British service, Sir
+Thomas Hastings, Sir John Burgoyne, and Colonel Colquhoun, have felt
+it their duty, when officially reporting on the efficacy of Lord
+Dundonald's war plans, to give him the highest credit for having kept
+his secret "
+<i>under peculiarly trying circumstances</i>," and from
+pure love of his native country. The "trying circumstances" were
+these,&mdash;that he had been driven from the service of that country by
+the machinations of a political faction, which, in the conscientious
+performance of his parliamentary duties, he had offended. Even this
+injury, which blasted his whole life and prospects, did not detract
+one <i>iota</i> from the love of country, which to the day of his death
+was with him a passion; his acute mind well knowing how to draw the
+distinction between his country and those who were sacrificing its
+best interests to their love of power, if not to less worthy purposes.
+Never was praise more honourably given, than in the Ordnance Report
+of the above-named distinguished officers, and never was it more nobly
+deserved.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Another "peculiarly trying circumstance" alluded to by those officers,
+was that, when compelled by actual pecuniary necessity, in consequence
+of the deprivation of his rank and pay, and the demands of increasing
+family, to accept service under a foreign state as his only means of
+subsistence, he lay before the castles of Callao, into which had been
+removed for security the whole wealth of the rich capital of Peru,
+including bullion and plate, estimated at upwards of a million
+sterling, he preserved his war secret, though strongly urged to put
+it in execution. Had he listened to the temptation, in six hours
+the whole of that wealth must have been in his possession. For not
+listening to it, he incurred the enmity of his employers, who urged
+that they were entitled to all his professional skill and knowledge,
+as a part of his bargain with them; and his non-compliance with their
+wishes is doubtless amongst the chief reasons why they have not, to
+this day, satisfied their own offered stipulations for his services.
+Yet, at the very moment when he was displaying this self-sacrificing
+patriotism, lest his country might suffer from his secret being
+divulged, the Government of Great Britain had, at the suggestion of
+the Spanish Government, passed a "Foreign Enlistment Act," with the
+express intention of enveloping him in its meshes.[A]
+</p>
+
+<p>
+[Footnote A: On Lord Cochrane's return from Brazil, having occasion
+to go before the Attorney-General, on the subject of a patent, that
+learned functionary rudely asked him, "
+<i>Whether he was not afraid to
+appear in his presence?</i> " Lord Cochrane's reply was, "
+<i>No, nor in
+the presence of any man living</i>." Evidence exists that the
+Attorney-General asked the Ministry if he should prosecute Lord
+Cochrane under the Foreign Enlistment Act, the reply being in the
+negative.]
+</p>
+
+<h3>II.</h3>
+
+<p>
+(Page 23.)
+</p>
+
+<p>
+As a striking instance of Lord Cochrane's method of exposing naval
+abuses, part of a speech delivered by him in the House of Commons, on
+the 11th of May, 1809, is here copied from his "Autobiography," vol.
+ii. pp. 142-144.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+An admiral, worn out in the service, is superannuated at
+410£. a year, a captain at 210£., a clerk of the ticket office
+retires on 700£. a year! The widow of Admiral Sir Andrew
+Mitchell has one third of the allowance given to the widow of
+a Commissioner of the Navy.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+I will give the House another instance. Four daughters of the
+gallant Captain Courtenay have 12£. 10s. each, the daughter of
+Admiral Sir Andrew Mitchell has 25£., two daughters of Admiral
+Epworth have 25l. each, the daughter of Admiral Keppel 24£.,
+the daughter of Captain Mann, who was killed in action, 25£.,
+four children of Admiral Moriarty 25£. each. That is&mdash;thirteen
+daughters of admirals and captains, several of whose fathers
+fell in the service of their country, receive from the
+gratitude of the nation a sum less than Dame Mary Saxton, the
+widow of a commissioner.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The pension list is not formed on any comparative rank or
+merit, length of service, or other rational principle, but
+appears to me to be dependent on parliamentary influence
+alone. Lieutenant Ellison, who lost his arm, is allowed 91£.
+5s., Captain Johnstone, who lost his arm, has only 45£.
+12s. 6d., Lieutenant Arden, who lost his arm, has 9£.
+5s., Lieutenant Campbell, who lost his leg, 40£., and poor
+Lieutenant Chambers, who lost both his legs, has only 80£.,
+whilst Sir A.S. Hamond retires on 1500£. per annum. The brave
+Sir Samuel Hood, who lost his arm, has only 500£., whilst the
+late Secretary of the Admiralty retires, in full health, on a
+pension of 1500£. per annum.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+To speak less in detail, 32 flag officers, 22 captains, 50
+lieutenants, 180 masters, 36 surgeons, 23 pursers, 91 boatswains, 97
+gunners, 202 carpenters, and 41 cooks, in all 774 persons, cost the
+country 4028l. less than the nett proceeds of the sinecures of Lords
+Arden (20,358£), Camden (20,536£), and Buckingham (20,693£).
+</p>
+
+<p>
+All the superannuated admirals, captains, and lieutenants put
+together, have but 1012l. more than Earl Camden's sinecure alone! All
+that is paid to the wounded officers of the whole British navy, and
+to the wives and children of those dead or killed in action, do
+not amount by 214l. to as much as Lord Arden's sinecure alone, viz.
+20,358£. What is paid to the mutilated officers themselves is but half
+as much.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Is this justice? Is this the treatment which the officers of the
+navy deserve at the hands of those who call themselves his Majesty's
+Government? Does the country know of this injustice? Will this too be
+defended? If I express myself with warmth I trust in the indulgence
+of the House. I cannot suppress my feelings. Should 31 commissioners,
+commissioners' wives, and clerks have 3899l. more amongst them than
+all the wounded officers of the navy of England?
+</p>
+
+<p>
+I find upon examination that the Wellesleys receive from the public
+34,729£, a sum equal to 426 pairs of lieutenants' legs, calculated at
+the rate of allowance of Lieutenant Chambers's legs. Calculating
+for the pension of Captain Johnstone's arm, viz. 45l., Lord Arden's
+sinecure is equal to the value of 1022 captains' arms. The Marquis
+of Buckingham's sinecure alone will maintain the whole ordinary
+establishment of the victualling department at Chatham, Dover,
+Gibraltar, Sheerness, Downs, Heligoland, Cork, Malta, Mediterranean,
+Cape of Good Hope, Rio de Janeiro, and leave 5460£ in the Treasury.
+Two of these comfortable sinecures would victual the officers and men
+serving in all the ships in ordinary in Great Britain, viz. 117 sail
+of the line, 105 frigates, 27 sloops, and 50 hulks. Three of them
+would maintain the dockyard establishments at Portsmouth and Plymouth.
+The addition of a few more would amount to as much as the whole
+ordinary establishments of the royal dockyards at Chatham, Woolwich,
+Deptford, and Sheerness; whilst the sinecures and offices executed
+wholly by deputy would more than maintain the ordinary establishment
+of all the royal dockyards in the kingdom.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Even Mr. Ponsonby, who lately made so pathetic an appeal to the good
+sense of the people of England against those whom he was pleased to
+term demagogues, actually receives, for having been thirteen months in
+office, a sum equal to nine admirals who have spent their lives in
+the service of their country; three times as much as all the pensions
+given to all the daughters and children of all the admirals,
+captains, lieutenants, and other officers who have died in indigent
+circumstances, or who have been killed in the service.
+</p>
+
+<h3>III.</h3>
+
+<p>
+(Page 258.)
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The following letter, too long to be quoted in the body of the work,
+but too important to be omitted, was addressed by Lord Cochrane to
+the Brazilian Secretary of State. It gives memorable evidence of
+the treatment to which he was subjected by the Portuguese faction in
+Brazil.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Rio de Janeiro, May 3rd, 1824.
+</p>
+
+<p class="letter">
+MOST EXCELLENT SIR,
+</p>
+
+<p>
+I have received the honour of your excellency's reply to my letter
+of the 30th of March, and as I am thereby taught that the subjects on
+which I wrote are not now considered so intimately connected with your
+excellency's department as they were by your immediate predecessor,
+nor even so far relevant as to justify a direct communication to your
+excellency, I should feel it my duty to avoid troubling you farther
+on those subjects, were it not that you at the same time have freely
+expressed such opinions with respect to my conduct and motives as
+justice to myself requires me to controvert and refute.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+With regard to your excellency's assurance that it has ever been
+the intention of his Imperial Majesty and Council to act favourably
+towards me, I can in return assure your excellency that I have never
+doubted the just and benign intention of his Imperial Majesty himself,
+neither have I doubted that a part of his Privy Council has thought
+well of my services; and if I have imagined that a majority has been
+prejudiced against me, I have formed that conclusion merely from the
+effects which I have seen and experienced, and not from any undue
+prepossession against particular individuals, whether Brazilian or
+Portuguese. But when your excellency adds that those transactions
+between the late minister and myself, which, owing to their having
+been conducted verbally, have been ill-understood, have invariably
+been decided in a manner favourable to me, I confess myself at a loss
+to understand your excellency's meaning, not having any recollection
+of such favourable decisions, and therefore not feeling myself
+competent either to admit or deny unless in the first place your
+excellency shall be pleased to descend to particulars. I do indeed
+recollect that the late ministers, professing to have the authority of
+his Imperial Majesty, and which, from the personal countenance I
+have experienced from that august personage, I am sure they did not
+clandestinely assume, proffered to me the command of the imperial
+squadron, with every privilege, emolument, and advantage which
+I possessed in the command of the navy of Chili; and this, your
+excellency is desired to observe, was not a verbal transaction, but
+a written one, and therefore not liable to any of those
+misunderstandings to which verbal transactions, as your excellency
+observes, are naturally subject. Now, in Chili my commission was that
+of commander-in-chief of the squadron, without limitation as to time
+or any other restriction. My command, of course, was only to cease by
+my own voluntary resignation, or by sentence of court-martial, or by
+death, or other uncontrollable event. And accordingly the appointment
+which I accepted in the service of his Imperial Majesty, and in virtue
+of which I sailed in command of the expedition to Bahia, was that of
+commander-in-chief of the whole squadron, without limitation as to
+time or otherwise; and this, too, your excellency will be pleased
+to observe, was not a verbal transaction, but a solemn engagement
+in writing, bearing date the 26th day of March, 1823, and now in my
+possession. I had also the assurance in writing of the Minister of
+Marine, that the formalities of engrossment and registration of
+such appointment were only deferred from want of time, and should be
+executed immediately after my return.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+And now I most respectfully put it home to your excellency whether
+these engagements have or have not been fully confirmed and complied
+with under the present administration. I ask your excellency whether
+the patent which I received, bearing date the 25th November, 1823,
+did not contain a clause of limitation by which I might at any time be
+dismissed from the service under any pretence or without any pretence
+whatever&mdash;without even the form of a hearing in my own defence. Then
+again I ask your excellency whether my office as commander-in-chief of
+the squadron was not reduced for a period of three months&mdash;as appears
+by every official communication of the Minister of Marine to me during
+that period&mdash;to the command only of the vessels of war anchored
+in this port?[A] and further on this subject I ask your excellency
+whether after my repeated remonstrances against this injurious
+limitation of my stipulated authority, it was not pretended by the
+decree published in the Gazette of the 28th February, that I was then
+for the first time, as a mark of special favour, elevated to the rank
+of commander-in-chief of the squadron, and that too during the period
+only of the existing war: although nothing less than the chief command
+had been offered to me at the first, without any restriction as to
+time, and although it was only in that capacity I had consented to
+enter into the service, and under a written appointment as such I had
+then been in the service nearly twelve months. And then I ask your
+excellency whether the limitation introduced into the patent of the
+25th of November last, in violation of the original agreement, and
+confirmed and defined by the decree published on the 28th of February
+following; to which may be added the communication which I received
+from your excellency, excluding me from taking the oath, and becoming
+a party to the constitution, the 149th article of which provides for
+the protection of officers until lawfully deprived by sentence of
+court-martial; I say that I respectfully ask your excellency whether
+these proceedings were not well adapted for the purpose of casting me
+off with the utmost facility at the earliest moment that convenience
+might dictate; either with or without the admission of those claims
+for the future to which past services are usually considered entitled,
+as might best suit the inclination of those with whom my dismissal
+might originate. And is it not most probable that their inclination
+would run counter to those claims, especially when it is considered
+that my letter of the 6th of March to the Minister of Marine, in which
+I made the inquiry whether my right to half-pay would be recognized
+on the termination of the war, has never been answered, although my
+application for a reply has been repeated?[B] If then the explicit
+engagements in writing between the late minister of his Imperial
+Majesty and myself have, as I have shown, been set aside by the
+present ministry and council, and other arrangements far less
+favourable to me, and destructive of the lawful security of my present
+and future rights, have without my consent been substituted in their
+stead, where, I entreat your excellency, am I to look for those
+favourable constructions of "ill-understood verbal transactions,"
+which your excellency requires me to accept as a proof that the
+intentions of the present ministry and council, in respect to me, have
+ever been of the most favourable and obliging nature?
+</p>
+
+<p>
+[Footnote A: This was resorted to, in order to prevent Lord Cochrane
+from stationing the cruisers to annoy the enemy, to deprive him of
+any interest in future captures, and prevent his opposition to the
+unlawful restoration of enemy's property.]
+</p>
+
+<p>
+[Footnote B: An answer was at last given, a few days before Lord
+Cochrane's assistance was called for to put down the revolution
+at Pernambuco; and <i>half</i> of the originally-granted <i>half-pay</i> was
+decreed when he should return, after the termination of hostilities,
+to his native country.]
+</p>
+
+<p>
+I would beg permission, too, to inquire how it happened that
+portarias[A] from the Minister of Marine, charging me unjustly from
+time to time with neglecting to obey the command of his Imperial
+Majesty, were constantly made public, while my answers in refutation
+were always suppressed. And why, when I remonstrated against this
+injustice, was I answered that the same course should be persisted
+in, and that I had no alternative but to acquiesce, or to descend to
+a newspaper controversy by publishing my exculpations myself? Is it
+possible not to perceive that the <i>ex parte</i> publication of
+these accusatory portarias was intended to lower me in the public
+estimation, and to prepare the way for the exercise of that power of
+summary dismissal which was so unfairly acquired by the means above
+described?
+</p>
+
+<p>
+[Footnote A: Official communications.]
+</p>
+
+<p>
+On the subject of the prizes your excellency is pleased to state: "Les
+difficultés survenues dans le jugement des prizes ont eu des motifs si
+connus et positifs qu'il est assez doloureux de les voir attribuir à
+la mauvaise volonté du Conseil de S.M.I." To this I reply that I know
+of no just cause for the delay which has arisen in the decision of the
+prizes, and consequently I have a right to impute blame for that delay
+to those who have the power to cause it or remove it. If the majority
+of the voices in council had been for a prompt condemnation to the
+captors of the prizes taken from the Portuguese nation, is
+it possible that individuals of that nation would be suffered
+to continue to be the judges of those prizes after an experience
+of many months has demonstrated either their determination
+to do nothing, or nothing favourable to the captors? The
+repugnance of Portuguese judges to condemn property captured from
+their fellow-countrymen, as a reward to those who have engaged in
+hostilities against Portugal, is natural enough, and is the only
+well-known and positive cause of the delay with which I am acquainted;
+but it is not such a cause for delay as ought to have been permitted
+to operate by the ministers and council of his Imperial Majesty, who
+are bound in honour and duty to act with fidelity towards those who
+have been engaged as auxiliaries in the attainment and maintenance of
+the independence of the empire. I did, however, inform your excellency
+that I had heard it stated that another difficulty had arisen in the
+apprehension that this Government might be under the necessity of
+eventually restoring the prizes to the original Portuguese owners as
+a condition of peace. But this, your excellency assures me, proves
+nothing but that I am a listener to "rapporteurs," whom I ought
+to drive from my presence. Unfortunately, however, for this bold
+explanation of your excellency, the individual whom I heard make the
+observation was no other than his excellency the present Minister of
+Marine, Francisco Villala Barboza. If your excellency considers that
+gentleman in the light of a "rapporteur," or talebearer, it is not for
+me to object; but the imputation of being a listener to or encourager
+of talebearers, so rashly advanced by your excellency against me,
+is without foundation in truth. It may be necessary for ministers
+of state to have their eavesdroppers and informers, but mine is a
+straightforward course, which needs no such precautions. And if there
+be any who volunteer information or advice, I can appreciate the value
+of it, and the motives of those who offer it. Those who know me much
+better than your excellency does, will admit that I am in the habit of
+thinking for myself, and not apt to act on the suggestions of others,
+especially if officiously tendered.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+As to the successive appointment and removal of incompetent auditors
+of marine, for which your excellency gives credit to the council,
+I can only say that the benefit of such repeated changes is by no
+means apparent. And to revert again to the difficulty of decision, for
+which your excellency intimates there is sufficient cause, I beg leave
+to ask your excellency what just reason can exist for not condemning
+these prizes to the captors. Can it be denied that the orders
+under which I sailed for the blockade of Bahia authorized me to act
+hostilely against the ships and property of the crown and subjects of
+Portugal? Can it be denied that war was regularly declared between
+the two nations? Was it not even promulgated under the sanction of his
+Imperial Majesty in a document giving to privateers certain privileges
+which it is admitted were possessed by the ships of war in the making
+and sale of captures? And yet did not the Prize Tribunal (consisting
+chiefly, as I before observed, of Portuguese), on the return of the
+squadron, eight months afterwards, pretend to be ignorant whether his
+Imperial Majesty was at war or at peace with the kingdom of Portugal?
+And did they not under that pretence avoid proceeding to adjudication?
+Was not this pretence a false one, or is it one of those well-founded
+causes of difficulty to which your excellency alludes? Can it be
+denied that the squadron sailed and acted in the full expectation,
+grounded on the assurance and engagements of the Government, that all
+captures made under the flag of the enemy, whether ships of war or
+merchant vessels, were to be prize to the captors? and yet when
+the prize judges were at length under the necessity of commencing
+proceedings, did they not endeavour to set aside the claims of the
+captors by the monstrous pretence that they had no interest in their
+captures when made within the distance of two leagues from the shore?
+Will your excellency contend that this was a good and sufficient
+reason? Was it founded in common sense, or on any rational precedent,
+or indeed any precedent whatever? Was it either honest to the squadron
+or faithful to the country? Was it not calculated to prevent the
+squadron from ever again assailing an invading enemy, or again
+expelling him from the shores of the empire? Then, in the next place,
+did not these most extraordinary judges pretend that at least all
+vessels taken in ports and harbours should be condemned as droits to
+the crown, and not as prize to the captors? Was not this another most
+pernicious attempt to deprive the imperial squadron not only of its
+reward for the past but of any adequate motive for the risk of
+future enterprise? And in effect, were not these successive pretences
+calculated to operate as invitations to invasions? Did they not tend
+to encourage the enemy to resume his occupation of the port of Bahia,
+and generally to renew his aggressions against the independence of
+the empire on her shores and in her ports without the probability
+of resistance by the squadrons of his Imperial Majesty? And have not
+these same judges actually condemned almost every prize as a droit
+to the crown, thereby doing as much as in them lay to defraud the
+squadron and to damp its zeal and destroy its energies? Nay, have
+not the auditors of marine actually issued decrees pronouncing the
+captures made at Maranhão to have been illegal, alleging that they
+were seized under the Brazilian flag, although in truth the flag
+of the enemy was flying at the time both in the forts and ships;
+declaring me a violator of the law of nations and law of the land;
+accusing me of having been guilty of an insult to the Emperor and
+the empire, and decreeing costs and damages against me under these
+infamous pretences? Can your excellency perceive either justice or
+decency in these decrees? Do they in any degree breathe the spirit of
+gratitude for the union of so important a province to the empire, or
+are they at all in accordance with the distinguished approbation which
+his Imperial Majesty himself has evinced of my services at Maranhão?
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Can it be unknown to your excellency that the late ministers, acting
+doubtless under the sanction of his Imperial Majesty, and assuredly
+under the guidance of common sense, held out that the value of ships
+of war taken from the enemy was to be the reward of the enterprise of
+the captors? And yet are we not now told that a law exists decreeing
+all captured men-of-war to the crown, and so rendering the engagements
+of the late ministers illegal and nugatory? Can anything be more
+contrary to justice, to good faith, to common sense, or to sound
+policy? Was it ever expected by any government employing foreign
+seamen in a war in which they can have no personal rights at stake,
+that those seamen will incur the risk of attacking a superior, or even
+an equal, force, without prospect of other reward than their ordinary
+pay? Is it not notorious that even in England it is found essential,
+or at least highly advantageous, to reward the officers and seamen,
+though fighting their own battles, not only with the full value of
+captured vessels of war, but even with additional premiums; and was
+it ever doubted that such liberal policy has mainly contributed to the
+surpassing magnitude of the naval power of that little island, and her
+consequent greatness as a nation?
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Can your excellency deny that the delay, the neglect, and the conduct
+generally of the prize judges, have been the cause of an immense
+diminution in the value of the captures? Have not the consequences
+been a wanton and shameful waste of property by decay and plunder?
+Can your excellency really believe in the existence of a good and
+sufficient motive for consigning such property to destruction, rather
+than at once awarding it to the captors in recompense for their
+services to the empire? Is it not true that all control over the sales
+and cargoes of the vessels, most of which are without invoices, have
+been taken from the captors and their agents and placed in the hands
+of individuals over whom they have no authority or influence, and from
+whom they can have no security of receiving a just account? And can
+it be doubted that the gracious intentions of his Imperial Majesty, as
+announced by himself, of rewarding the captors with the value of
+the prizes, are in the utmost danger of being defeated by such
+proceedings?
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Since the 12th day of February, when his Imperial Majesty was
+graciously pleased to signify his pleasure in his own handwriting that
+the prizes, though condemned to the crown, should be paid for to
+the captors, and that valuators should be appointed to estimate the
+amount, is it not true that nothing whatever, up to the date of my
+former letter to your excellency, had been done by his ministers
+and council in furtherance of such his gracious intentions? On the
+contrary, is it not notorious that, since the announcement of the
+imperial intention, numerous vessels and cargoes have been arbitrarily
+disposed of by authority of the auditors of marine, by being delivered
+to pretended owners and others without legal adjudication, and even
+without the decency of acquainting the captors or their agents that
+the property had been so transferred? And has not the whole cost
+of litigation, watching and guarding the vessels and cargoes, been
+entirely at the expense of the captors, notwithstanding the disposal
+of the property and the receipt of the proceeds by the agents of
+Government and others?
+</p>
+
+<p>
+So little hope of justice has been presented by the proceedings of the
+Prize Tribunal, that it has appeared quite useless to label the stores
+found in the naval and military arsenals of Maranhão, or the 66,000
+dollars in the chests of the Treasury and Custom House, with double
+that sum in bills, all of which was left for the use of the province,
+or permitted to be disbursed to satisfy the clamorous troops of Ceara
+and Pianhy. Has any remuneration been offered to the navy for these
+sacrifices, of which ministers were duly informed by my official
+despatches? or has any recompense been awarded for the Portuguese brig
+and schooner of war, both completely stored and equipped, which were
+surrendered at Maranhão, and which have ever since been employed in
+the naval service? To a proportion of all this I should have been
+entitled in Chili, as well as in the English service; and why, I ask,
+must I here be contented to be deprived of every hope of these the
+fruits of my labours? In addition to the prize vessels delivered to
+claimants without trial, have not the ministers appropriated others
+<i>to the uses of the state without valuation or recompense</i>?[A]
+</p>
+
+<p>
+[Footnote A: This conduct was afterwards more flagrantly exemplified
+on the arrival of the new and noble prize frigate <i>Imperatrice</i>, the
+equipment whereof had cost the captors 12,000 milreas, which sum has
+never been returned.]
+</p>
+
+<p>
+In short, is it not true that though more than a year has elapsed
+since the sailing of the imperial squadron under my command, and
+nearly half a year since its return, after succeeding in expelling the
+naval and military forces of the enemy from Bahia, and liberating the
+northern provinces, and uniting them to the empire; I say is it not
+true that not one shilling of prize money has yet been distributed
+to the squadron, and that no prospect is even now apparent of any
+distribution being speedily made? Is it not true that the only
+substantial reward of the officers and seamen of the squadron for the
+important services they have rendered has hitherto been nothing
+more than their mere pittance of ordinary pay; and even that in
+many instances vexatiously delayed and miserably curtailed? And with
+respect to myself individually, is it not notorious that I necessarily
+consume my whole pay in my current expenses; that my official rank
+cannot be upheld with less, and that it is wholly inadequate to the
+due support of the dignity of those high honours which his Imperial
+Majesty has been graciously pleased to confer?
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Under all these circumstances, it is in vain that I endeavour to
+make that discovery which your excellency assures me requires only
+a moment's reflection: "Au reste" (your excellency says), "que V'e.
+Ex'ce. réfléchisse un moment, celle trouverá que le Gouvernement de
+S.M.I. simplement et uniquement pour faire plaisir à V'e. Ex'ce. á
+s'est attiré une enormé responsabilité dans les engagemens pris
+avec V'e. Ex'ce." It is not one moment only nor one hour that I have
+reflected on these words, but without making the promised discovery,
+or any probable guess at your excellency's meaning. I would therefore
+entreat your excellency to tell me what it is that the Government
+has engaged to do. All that I know is they have engaged to pay me a
+certain sum per annum as commander-in-chief of the squadron; and this
+engagement, I admit, they have so far fulfilled. But the amount is
+little more than is received by the commander-in-chief of an English
+squadron; and is it not found in that service, and in every regular
+or established naval service, that for one officer qualified for any
+considerable command there are probably ten that are not qualified;
+though all have necessarily been reared and paid at the national
+expense? Whereas, in this case, so far from your having been at the
+expense of money in order to procure a few that are effective, you
+obtained at once, without any previous cost whatever, the services
+of myself and the officers that accompanied me, all of whom were
+experienced and efficient. Now, the united amount of the salaries you
+are engaged to pay to myself and the officers whom I brought with
+me does not exceed 25,000 dollars a year. To speak of this as an
+"enormous responsibility" as an empire, requires more than a "moment's
+reflection" to be clearly understood. The Government did, however,
+engage to pay to myself and my brother officers and seamen the value
+of our captures from the enemy, pursuant to the practice of all
+maritime belligerents, but this engagement has not hitherto been
+fulfilled. If, however, your excellency admits the responsibility of
+the Government to fulfil this engagement also, I am still equally at
+a loss to conceive in what sense that responsibility can be considered
+enormous, inasmuch as these prizes were not the property of the state,
+nor of individuals belonging to this nation, but were the property of
+Portugal, with whom this nation was and is engaged in lawful war.
+The payment, therefore, of the value of these prizes to the captors,
+supposing even the full value to be paid, does not in effect take
+one penny out of the national treasury, or out of the pocket of any
+Brazilian. If it be false&mdash;and your excellency appears to scout the
+idea&mdash;that any danger exists of having to pay twice for these prizes;
+if there really is no danger of being compelled to purchase peace
+with a defeated enemy by restoring them their forfeited property&mdash;it
+follows that the responsibility of the Government in fulfilling its
+engagement with the captors is so far from being enormous, that it is
+literally nothing. How the fulfilment of a lawful engagement by the
+simple act of paying over to the squadron the value of its prizes
+taken in time of war from the foreign enemies of the state (such
+payment occasioning no expense, and no loss to the state itself) can
+be attended with an enormous responsibility, I am utterly unable to
+comprehend. So far as the engagements of the Government with me,
+or with the captors in general of the Portuguese prizes, are of
+a pecuniary nature, they appear to me to lay no great weight of
+responsibility on the herculean shoulders of this vast empire. And it
+is only in a pecuniary sense that I can conceive it to be possible for
+your excellency to have thought of complaining of the responsibility
+attending the fulfilment of the engagements of the Government with me.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+It is no less difficult to comprehend how this supposed enormous
+responsibility has been incurred, "simplement et uniquement pour faire
+plaisir" to me; and it is still more difficult to comprehend how it
+happens that your excellency, "after all that you have heard and seen"
+(après ce que j'ai entendu et vu), should be at a loss to know in what
+manner I am to be contented (je ne saurais pas dequelle maniére on
+puisse vous contenter). If, indeed, your excellency imagines that I
+ought to be contented with honorary distinctions alone, however highly
+I may prize them as the free gift of his Imperial Majesty; if
+your excellency is of opinion that I ought with "remercimens et
+satisfaction" to put up with those honours in lieu of those stipulated
+substantial rewards, which even those very honours render more
+necessary; if your excellency thinks that I ought, like the dog in the
+fable, to resign the substance for a grasp at the shadow; if this is
+all that your excellency knows on the subject of giving me content, it
+is then very true that your excellency does not know in what manner it
+is to be done. But if, "after all that your excellency has heard and
+seen," you would be pleased to render yourself conversant with those
+written engagements under which I was induced to enter into the
+service, all that your excellency and the rest of the ministers and
+council of his Imperial Majesty would then have to do in order
+to content me to the full, would be to desist from evading the
+performance of those engagements, and to cause them at once to
+be fully and honourably fulfilled. And I do believe that my
+"Correspondance Officielle une fais rendue publique, en faira foi;"
+for I am not conscious that I have ever called on the Government to
+incur one farthing of expense on my account beyond the fulfilment of
+their written engagements, which were the same as those which I had
+with Chili, which were formed precisely on the practice of England.
+There was, indeed, a verbal and conditional engagement with the late
+ministers that certain losses which I might incur in consequence of
+leaving the service of Chili should be made good;[A] and the question
+as to the obligation of fulfilling that engagement I submitted (in
+my letter of the 6th of March to the Minister of Marine) to the
+consideration of their successors. It will be fortunate for me if this
+should prove to be one of those "ill-understood verbal transactions"
+which your excellency assures me the present ministers and council
+always decide in my favour. I shall not in that case be backward to
+receive the benefit of the decision with "thanks and satisfaction;"
+but I am willing to resign it rather than it should add an
+overwhelming weight to that "enormous responsibility" which your
+excellency complains has already been incurred with a view to
+my contentment. I repeat that I have never asked for more than I
+possessed in Chili, or than any officer of the same rank is entitled
+to in England; though British officers have heretofore received in the
+service of Portugal double the amount of their English pay; and though
+the burning climate of Brazil is injurious to health, while those
+of Chili and Portugal are salubrious. Your excellency, therefore, is
+perfectly welcome to publish the whole of my official correspondence,
+because instead of proving, as your excellency asserts, the great
+difficulty of contenting me, it would go far to prove the much greater
+difficulty of inducing those with whom I have to do to take any one
+step for that purpose.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+[Footnote A: As the Brazilian Government had obtained possession of a
+new corvette, named the <i>Maria de Gloria</i>, which cost the Government
+of Chili 90,000 dollars, without reimbursing to that State one single
+farthing; and by the said act had deprived Lord Cochrane of the
+benefit he would have derived, as commander-in-chief, from the
+services of that ship in the Pacific, the non-fulfilment of this
+engagement seems the more unjust.]
+</p>
+
+<p>
+I confess, however, that in order to content me effectually it is
+necessary to fulfil not only all written engagements with myself
+individually, but generally with all the officers and seamen with
+whom, while I hold the command, I consider myself identified; and the
+more particularly because, in my own firm reliance on the good faith
+of the Government, I did in some sort become responsible for that good
+faith to my brother officers and seamen. But with whom, I put it to
+your excellency, has good faith been kept? Is it not notorious that
+previous to the departure of the expedition to Bahia, declarations
+were made to the seamen in writing by the late Minister of Marine,
+through my medium, and in printed proclamations, that their dues
+should be paid with all possible regularity, and all their arrears
+discharged immediately on their return? And is not your excellency
+aware that specific contracts were entered into by the accredited
+agent of his Imperial Majesty in England, with a number of officers
+and seamen, who, in consequence, were induced to quit their native
+country and enter into the employ of his Imperial Majesty? Can it be
+denied that these declarations and contracts, written and printed,
+were known to, and are actually in the possession of the ministers, or
+in the hands of the officers of the pay department, and yet is it not
+true that they were neglected to be fulfilled for a period of upwards
+of three months after the return of the <i>Pedro Primiero</i> ; and was
+not the tardy fulfilment which at length took place procured by my
+incessant representations and remonstrances?
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Permit me also to ask whether the good effects of prompt payment
+were not illustrated on the arrival of the frigates <i>Nitherohy</i> and
+<i>Caroline</i>, which happened just at the period I had succeeded in
+procuring payment to be made. Was it not in consequence of immediate
+payment that the greater part of the English crew of the <i>Nitherohy</i> remained quietly on board, and are now actually engaged on an
+important service to his Imperial Majesty? And, on the other hand, is
+it not equally true that the English seamen of the <i>Pedro Primiero</i> were so disheartened and disgusted with the long delay which in their
+case had occurred, and the manifest bad faith which had been evinced,
+that by far the greater part of them actually abandoned the ship?
+And generally, is it not true that the violations of promise, the
+obstructions of justice, and the arbitrary acts of severity, have
+produced dissatisfaction and irritation in the minds of the officers
+and seamen, and done infinite prejudice to the service of his Imperial
+Majesty and to the interests and prospects of the empire?
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Can it be denied that the treatment to which the officers are exposed
+is in the highest degree cruel and unjust? Have they not in many
+instances been confined in a fortress or prison-ship without being
+told who is their accuser or what is the accusation? And are they not
+kept for many months at a time in that cruel state of suspense
+and restraint without the means or opportunity of justification or
+defence? Have not some of them while incarcerated in the fortress of
+the Island of Cobras been deprived of their pay for a great length of
+time, and even denied the provisions necessary for their subsistence?
+And if, after all, they are brought to trial, are not their judges
+composed of the natives of a nation with whom they are at war? Is it
+possible that English, or other foreign officers in the service,
+can be satisfied with such a system? Can your excellency entertain a
+doubt, that open accusation, prompt trial, unsuspected justice, and
+speedy punishment, if merited, are essential to the good government of
+a naval service? Nay, is it possible that your excellency should not
+know that the system of government in the naval service of Portugal is
+the most wretched in the world, and consequently the last that ought
+to have been adopted for the naval service of Brazil?
+</p>
+
+<p>
+And here I would respectfully ask your excellency whether you know of
+any one thing recommended by me for the benefit of the naval service
+being complied with? Have the laws been revised to adapt them to the
+better government of the service? Has a corps of marine artillery
+been formed and taught their duty? Have young gentlemen intended for
+officers been sent on board to learn their profession? Have young men
+been enlisted and sent on board to be bred up as seamen? Or has
+any encouragement been given to the employment of Brazilians in the
+commerce of the coast?[A]
+</p>
+
+<p>
+[Footnote A: It was the policy of Portugal to navigate the
+coasting-trade of Brazil by slaves; and that of Spain to allow none
+but Indians to exercise the trade of fishermen on the shores of their
+South American colonies.]
+</p>
+
+<p>
+With regard to those difficulties, delays, and other impediments of
+which I have complained as existing in the arsenal and other offices,
+and which your excellency supposes me to have represented as being
+caused, or at least tolerated, by the minister, and which you are
+pleased to characterise as "tout a fait imaginaires, et n'ayant
+d'outré source que l'ambition sordide de quelque intrigant," I shall
+not now enter into them again at any length, as much that I have
+already written tends to refute your excellency's notions on the
+subject. That such abuses do really exist I have proved beyond the
+power of contradiction; and that they are at least tolerated by
+those&mdash;whoever they may be&mdash;who possess without exercising the means
+of preventing, does not require the ingenuity of an "intrigant" to
+discover, as the fact is self-evident. I cannot, therefore, admit that
+either my complaints or suspicions are "tout a fait imaginaires,"
+or that they are "des petitesses," as your excellency is pleased
+contemptuously to term them; but whatever they are, they originate in
+my own observation, without any assistance from the spectacles of
+an "intrigant," with which I am so gratuitously accommodated by your
+excellency.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+In still further proof, however, of the real existence of the evils
+in question, I may just observe that since the return of the <i>Pedro
+Primiero</i>, that ship has been kept in constant disorder by the delay
+in commencing and the idle and negligent mode of executing even the
+trifling alterations in the channels, which were necessary to enable
+the rigging to be set up, and which, after the lapse of upwards of
+five months, is now scarcely finished, though it might have been
+accomplished in forty-eight hours. Even the time of caulking was
+spun out to a period nearly as long as was occupied last year in the
+accomplishment of that thorough repair which the ship then underwent;
+and the painting is far from being completed after sixteen or eighteen
+days' labour, though a British ship of war is usually painted in a
+day. Even my own cabin is in such a state that when I am on board
+I have no place to sit down in. All these things may appear to your
+excellency as "des petitesses," or even "tout a fait imaginaires,"
+but to me they appear matters of a serious nature, injurious and
+disgraceful to the service.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+I may not, perhaps, succeed in convincing your excellency, but I have
+the satisfaction of being inwardly conscious that, independent of my
+natural desire to obtain justice for myself and for all the officers
+and men of the squadron, no small part of my anxiety for the
+fulfilment of the engagements of the Government proceeds from a desire
+to see the navy of his Imperial Majesty rendered efficient; which it
+can never be unless the same good faith is observed with the officers
+and men as is kept between the Government and navy of England, and
+unless indeed many other important considerations are attended to,
+which appear to have hitherto escaped the regard of the Imperial
+Government. Why, for instance, is there that indifference in regard
+to the clothing of the men? What but discontent, debasement, and
+enervation, can be the effects of that ragged and almost naked
+condition in which they have so long been suffered to remain,
+notwithstanding the numerous applications that have been made for the
+necessary clothing? I would also inquire the reason that officers and
+men, strangers to each other, and destitute of attachment and mutual
+confidence, are hastily shipped together in vessels of war going on
+active service, when better arrangements might easily be made. What
+can be expected from the vessels of war just gone out, in case they
+should meet with any serious opposition, but disgrace to those by whom
+they were so imperfectly and improperly equipped?
+</p>
+
+<p>
+If this communication were not already too long, or if, after the
+letter I have received from your excellency, it were possible for me
+to continue my representations in the hope of redress, I could add to
+the list of those causes of complaint which I have already pointed out
+many particulars which none but those who are blindly attached to that
+wretched system which has been so injurious to the marine and kingdom
+of Portugal could consider either trifling or imaginary. But as my
+present object has been chiefly to repel those imputations in which
+your excellency has so freely indulged, and believing that I have
+fully succeeded in that object, and have shown clearly that your
+excellency has unjustly and untruly accused me of encouraging
+talebearers, making unfounded complaints, and of being of a nature so
+avaricious as never to be satisfied&mdash;which latter, by-the-by, is
+an extraordinary accusation to prefer against me&mdash;a man whom your
+excellency must know has not hitherto been benefited, after being
+more than a year in the service, to the amount of one shilling for the
+important services he has rendered, but who, on the contrary, as
+he can show by his accounts, has necessarily expended more in his
+official situation than he has received in the service; so that the
+"remercimens" and the "satisfaction," which your excellency accuses
+him of being deficient in, can scarcely yet be due, unless it is
+proper to be satisfied and grateful too for less than nothing&mdash;having,
+I say, fully repelled and refuted these unjust accusations, I shall
+avoid troubling your excellency with any further detail. But I repeat
+that your excellency has my free consent to cause the whole of my
+official correspondence to be published; for in all that I have
+advanced with respect to the violations of contracts, and on the
+subject of the unsatisfied claims of the squadron, and relative to
+the ill-usage of officers under arrest, and to the misconduct of the
+judges of prizes, and of those who have the management of the civil
+department of the marine,[A] and in all matters whatever in question
+between the Government of Brazil and myself, I am confident I may
+safely rely on the decision of the public. And if, at the same time,
+your excellency can give a satisfactory explanation of the motives of
+that line of conduct on the part of the ministers and council, which,
+without such explanation, would have the appearance of originating in
+bad faith, the publication would be doubly beneficial by placing the
+conduct and character of all parties in a proper point of view.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+[Footnote A: Also Portuguese.]
+</p>
+
+<p>
+    I have the honour to be, Most excellent sir, Your respectful
+    and most obedient Servant, COCHRANE AND MARANHAM.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+    His Excellency, João Sereriano Maciele da Costa, Secretary of
+    State for the Home Department, &amp;c., &amp;c., &amp;c.
+</p>
+
+<p class="center">
+END OF VOL. I.
+</p>
+
+<p class="center">
+LONDON: PRINTED BY WILLIAM CLOWES AND SONS, STAMFORD STREET AND CHARING CROSS.
+</p>
+
+</div><!--end chapter-->
+
+<div style='display:block;margin-top:4em'>*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE LIFE OF THOMAS, LORD COCHRANE ***</div>
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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Life of Thomas, Lord Cochrane, Tenth
+Earl of Dundonald, G.C.B., Admiral of the Red, Rear-Admiral of the Fleet, Etc., Etc., by Thomas Cochrane, Earl of Dundonald
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: The Life of Thomas, Lord Cochrane, Tenth Earl of Dundonald, G.C.B., Admiral of the Red, Rear-Admiral of the Fleet, Etc., Etc.
+
+Author: Thomas Cochrane, Earl of Dundonald
+
+Release Date: September 2, 2004 [EBook #13351]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE LIFE OF THOMAS, LORD COCHRANE ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Ted Garvin, Daniel Watkins and PG Distributed Proofreaders
+
+
+
+
+THE LIFE OF
+
+THOMAS, LORD COCHRANE, TENTH EARL OF DUNDONALD, G.C.B., ADMIRAL OF THE
+RED, REAR-ADMIRAL OF THE FLEET, ETC., ETC.,
+
+COMPLETING "THE AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF A SEAMAN."
+
+BY
+
+THOMAS, ELEVENTH EARL OF DUNDONALD, AND H.R. FOX BOURNE, AUTHOR OF
+"ENGLISH SEAMEN UNDER THE TUDORS," ETC. ETC.
+
+IN TWO VOLUMES. VOL. I.
+
+  Published 1869.
+
+  TO MISS ANGELA BURDETT COUTTS,
+  WHOSE HONOURED FATHER
+  WAS THE FIRMEST AND MOST CONSTANT FRIEND AND SUPPORTER
+  OF MY FATHER,
+  DURING A CAREER DEVOTED TO THE WELFARE OF HIS COUNTRY
+  AND THE HONOUR OF HIS PROFESSION,
+  AND WHOM IT IS MY HAPPINESS AND PRIVILEGE TO CALL MY FRIEND,
+  THIS WORK IS DEDICATED,
+  WITH ALL RESPECT AND REGARD,
+  BY
+  HER ATTACHED AND FAITHFUL SERVANT,
+
+  DUNDONALD.
+
+
+PREFACE.
+
+
+In these Volumes is recounted the public life of my late father from
+the period to which the narrative was brought down by himself in his
+unfinished "Autobiography of a Seaman." The completion of that work
+was prevented by his death, which occurred almost immediately after
+the publication of the Second Volume, eight years and a half ago.
+I had hoped to supplement it sooner; but in this hope I have been
+thwarted.
+
+My father's papers were, at the time of his death, in the hands of
+a gentleman who had assisted him in the preparation of his
+"Autobiography," and to this gentleman was entrusted the completion
+of the work. Illness and other occupations, however, interfered, and,
+after a lapse of about two years, he died, leaving the papers, of
+which no use had been made by him, to fall into the possession of
+others. Only after long delay and considerable trouble and expense was
+I able to recover them and realize my long-cherished purpose.
+
+Further delay in the publication of this book has arisen from my
+having been compelled, as my father's executor, to make three long and
+laborious journeys to Brazil, which have engrossed much time.
+
+At length, however, I find myself able to pay the debt which I
+owe both to my father's memory and to the public, by whom the
+"Autobiography of a Seaman" was read with so much interest. At the
+beginning of last year I placed all the necessary documents in the
+hands of my friend, Mr. H.R. Fox Bourne, asking him to handle them
+with the same zeal of research and impartiality of judgment which he
+has shown in his already published works. I have also furnished
+him with my own reminiscences of so much of my father's life as was
+personally known to me; and he has availed himself of all the help
+that could be obtained from other sources of information, both private
+and public. He has written the book to the best of his ability, and I
+have done my utmost to help him in making it as complete and accurate
+as possible. We hope that the late Earl of Dundonald's life and
+character have been all the better delineated in that the work has
+grown out of the personal knowledge of his son and the unbiassed
+judgment of a stranger.
+
+A long time having elapsed since the publication of the "Autobiography
+of a Seaman," it has been thought well to give a brief recapitulation
+of its story in an opening chapter.
+
+The four following chapters recount my father's history during the
+five years following the cruel Stock Exchange trial, the subject last
+treated of in the "Autobiography." It is not strange that the
+harsh treatment to which he was subjected should have led him into
+opposition, in which there was some violence, which he afterwards
+condemned, against the Government of the day. But, if there were
+circumstances to be regretted in this portion of his career, it shows
+almost more plainly than any other with what strength of philanthropy
+he sought to aid the poor and the oppressed.
+
+His occupations as Chief Admiral, first of Chili and afterwards
+of Brazil, were described by himself in two volumes, entitled, "A
+Narrative of Services in Chili, Peru, and Brazil." Therefore, the
+seven chapters of the present work which describe these episodes
+have been made as concise as possible. Only the most memorable
+circumstances have been dwelt upon, and the details introduced have
+been drawn to some extent from documents not included in the volumes
+referred to.
+
+There was no reason for abridgment in treating of my father's
+connection with Greece. In the service of that country he was less
+able to achieve beneficial results than in Chili and Brazil; but
+as, on that ground, he has been frequently traduced by critics and
+historians, it seemed especially important to show how his successes
+were greater than these critics and historians have represented, and
+how his failures sprang from the faults of others and from misfortunes
+by which he was the chief sufferer. The documents left by him,
+moreover, afford abundant material for illustrating an eventful period
+in modern history. The chapters referring to Greece and Greek affairs,
+accordingly, enter with especial fullness into the circumstances
+of Lord Dundonald's life at this time, and his connection with
+contemporary politics.
+
+Eight other chapters recount all that was of most public interest in
+the thirty years of my father's life after his return from Greece.
+Except during a brief period of active service in his profession,
+when he had command of the British squadron in North American and West
+Indian waters, those thirty years were chiefly spent in efforts--by
+scientific research, by mechanical experiment, and by persevering
+argument--to increase the naval power of his country, and in efforts
+no less zealous to secure for himself that full reversal of the
+wrongful sentence passed upon him in a former generation, which
+could only be attained by public restitution of the official rank and
+national honours of which he had been deprived.
+
+This restitution was begun by his Majesty King William IV., and
+completed by our present most gracious Queen and the Prince Consort.
+By the kindnesses which he received from these illustrious persons,
+my father's later years were cheered; and I can never cease to be
+profoundly grateful to my Sovereign, and her revered husband, for the
+personal interest with which they listened to my prayer immediately
+after his death. Through their gracious influence, the same banner of
+the Bath that had been taken from him nearly fifty years before, was
+restored to its place in Westminster Abbey, and allowed to float
+over his remains at their time of burial. Thus the last stain upon my
+father's memory was wiped out.
+
+DUNDONALD. London, May 24th, 1869.
+
+
+CONTENTS OF THE FIRST VOLUME.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+CHAPTER I.
+
+[1775-1814.]
+
+Introduction.--Lord Cochrane's Ancestry.--His First Occupations in
+the Navy.--His Cruise in the _Speedy_ and Capture of the _Gamo_.--His
+Exploits in the _Pallas_.--The beginning of his Parliamentary
+Life.--His two Elections as Member for Honiton.--His Election for
+Westminster.--Further Seamanship.--The Basque Roads Affair.--The
+Court-Martial on Lord Gambier, and its injurious effects on Lord
+Cochrane's Naval Career.--His Parliamentary Occupations.--His Visit to
+Malta and its Issues.--The Antecedents and Consequences of the Stock
+Exchange Trial - 1
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II.
+
+[1814.]
+
+
+The Issue of the Stock Exchange Trial.--Lord Cochrane's Committal to
+the King's Bench Prison.--The Debate upon his Case in the House of
+Commons, and his Speech on that Occasion.--His Expulsion from the
+House, and Re-election as Member for Westminster.--The Withdrawal of
+his Sentence to the Pillory.--The Removal of his Insignia as a Knight
+of the Bath - 35
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III.
+
+[1814-1815.]
+
+
+Lord Cochrane's Bearing in the King's Bench Prison.--His Street
+Lamps.--His Escape, and the Motives for it.--His Capture in the House
+of Commons, and subsequent Treatment.--His Confinement in the Strong
+Room of the King's Bench Prison.--His Release - 48
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV.
+
+[1815-1816.]
+
+
+Lord Cochrane's Return to the House of Commons.--His Share in the
+Refusal of the Duke of Cumberland's Marriage Pension.--His Charges
+against Lord Ellenborough, and their Rejection by the House.--His
+Popularity.--The Part taken by him in Public Meetings for the Relief
+of the People.--The London Tavern Meeting.--His further Prosecution,
+Trial at Guildford, and subsequent Imprisonment.--The Payment of his
+Fines by a Penny Subscription.--The Congratulations of his Westminster
+Constituents - 74
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V.
+
+[1817-1818.]
+
+
+The State of Politics in England in 1817 and 1818, and Lord Cochrane's
+Share in them.--His Work as a Radical in and out of Parliament.--His
+futile Efforts to obtain the Prize Money due for his Services at
+Basque Roads.--The Holly Hill Siege.--The Preparations for his
+Enterprise in South America.--His last Speech in Parliament - 109
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI.
+
+[1810-1817.]
+
+
+The Antecedents of Lord Cochrane's Employments in South
+America.--The War of Independence in the Spanish
+Colonies.--Mexico.--Venezuela.--Colombia.--Chili.--The first
+Chilian Insurrection.--The Carreras and O'Higgins.--The Battle of
+Rancagua.--O'Higgins's Successes.--The Establishment of the Chilian
+Republic.--Lord Cochrane invited to enter the Chilian Service - 137
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII.
+
+[1818-1820.]
+
+
+Lord Cochrane's Voyage to Chili.--His Reception at Valparaiso and
+Santiago.--The Disorganization of the Chilian Fleet.--First Signs
+of Disaffection.--The Naval Forces of the Chilians and the
+Spaniards.--Lord Cochrane's first Expedition to Peru.--His Attack on
+Callao.--"Drake the Dragon" and "Cochrane the Devil."--Lord Cochrane's
+Successes in Overawing the Spaniards, in Treasure-taking, and
+in Encouragement of the Peruvians to join in the War of
+Independence.--His Plan for another Attack on Callao.--His
+Difficulties in Equipping the Expedition.--The Failure of
+the Attempt.--His Plan for Storming Valdivia.--Its Successful
+Accomplishment - 148
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII.
+
+[1820-1822.]
+
+
+Lord Cochrane's Return to Valparaiso.--His Relations with the Chilian
+Senate.--The third Expedition to Peru.--General San Martin.--The
+Capture of the _Esmeralda_, and its Issue.--Lord Cochrane's subsequent
+Work.--San Martin's Treachery.--His Assumption of the Protectorate
+of Peru.--His Base Proposals to Lord Cochrane.--Lord Cochrane's
+Condemnation of them.--The Troubles of the Chilian Squadron.--Lord
+Cochrane's Seizure of Treasure at Ancon, and Employment of it in
+Paying his Officers and Men.--His Stay at Guayaquil.--The Advantages
+of Free Trade.--Lord Cochrane's Cruise along the Mexican Coast
+in Search of the remaining Spanish Frigates.--Their Annexation by
+Peru.--Lord Cochrane's last Visit to Callao - 177
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX.
+
+[1822-1823.]
+
+
+Lord Cochrane's Return to Valparaiso,--The Conduct of the Chilian
+Government towards him.--His Resignation of Chilian Employment, and
+Acceptance of Employment under the Emperor of Brazil.--His subsequent
+Correspondence with the Government of Chili.--The Results of his
+Chilian Service. - 208
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X.
+
+[1823.]
+
+
+The Antecedents of Brazilian Independence.--Pedro I.'s Accession.--The
+Internal and External Troubles of the New Empire.--Lord Cochrane's
+Invitation to Brazil.--His Arrival at Rio de Janeiro, and Acceptance
+of Brazilian Service.--His first Occupations.--The bad condition of
+the Squadron, and the consequent Failure of his first Attack on the
+Portuguese off Bahia.--His Plans for Improving the Fleet, and their
+Success.--His Night Visit to Bahia, and the consequent Flight of the
+Enemy.--Lord Cochrane's Pursuit of them.--His Visit to Maranham,
+and Annexation of that Province and of Para.--His Return to Rio de
+Janeiro.--The Honours conferred upon him. - 223
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI
+
+[1823-1824.]
+
+
+The Nature of the Rewards bestowed on Lord Cochrane for his first
+Services to Brazil.--Pedro I. and the Portuguese Faction.--Lord
+Cochrane's Advice to the Emperor.--The Troubles brought upon him by
+it.--The Conduct of the Government towards him and the Fleet.--The
+withholding of Prize-money and Pay.--Personal Indignities to Lord
+Cochrane.--An Amusing Episode.--Lord Cochrane's Threat of Resignation,
+and its Effect.--Sir James Mackintosh's Allusion to him in the House
+of Commons - 246
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII.
+
+[1824-1825.]
+
+The Insurrection in Pernambuco.--Lord Cochrane's Expedition to
+suppress it.--The Success of his Work.--His Stay at Maranham.--The
+Disorganized State of Affairs in that Province.--Lord Cochrane's
+efforts to restore Order and good Government.--Their result in further
+Trouble to himself.--His Cruise in the _Piranga_, and Return to
+England.--His Treatment there.--His Retirement from Brazilian
+Service.--His Letter to the Emperor Pedro I.--The End of his South
+American Employments - 266
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII.
+
+[1820-1825.]
+
+The Greek Revolution and its Antecedents.--The Modern Greeks.--The
+Friendly Society.--Sultan Mahmud and Ali Pasha's Rebellion.--The
+Beginning of the Greek Insurrection.--Count John Capodistrias.--Prince
+Alexander Hypsilantes.--The Revolution in the Morca.--Theodore
+Kolokotrones.--The Revolution in the Islands.--The Greek Navy and its
+Character.--The Excesses of the Greeks.--Their bad Government.--Prince
+Alexander Mavrocordatos.--The Progress of the Revolution.--The
+Spoliation of Chios.--English Philhellenes; Thomas Gordon, Frank Abney
+Hastings, Lord Byron.--The first Greek Loan, and the bad uses to
+which it was put.--Reverses of the Greeks.--Ibrahim and his
+Successes.--Mavrocordatos's Letter to Lord Cochrane - 286
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV.
+
+[1825-1826.]
+
+Lord Cochrane's Dismissal from Brazilian Service, and his Acceptance
+of Employment as Chief Admiral of the Greeks.--The Greek Committee and
+the Greek Deputies in London.--The Terms of Lord Cochrane's Agreement,
+and the consequent Preparations.--His Visit to Scotland.--Sir Walter
+Scott's Verses on Lady Cochrane.--Lord Cochrane's forced Retirement to
+Boulogne, and thence to Brussels.--The Delays in fitting out the
+Greek Armament.--Captain Hastings, Mr. Hobhouse, and Sir Francis
+Burdett.--Captain Hastings's Memoir on the Greek Leaders and
+their Characters.--The first Consequences of Lord Cochrane's new
+Enterprise.--The Duke of Wellington's Message to Lord Cochrane.--The
+Greek Deputies' Proposal to Lord Cochrane and his Answer.--The Final
+Arrangements for his Departure.--The Messiah of the Greeks. - 318
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV.
+
+[1826-1827.]
+
+
+Lord Cochrane's Departure for Greece.--His Visit to London and
+Voyage to the Mediterranean.--His Stay at Messina, and afterwards
+at Marseilles.--The Delays in Completing the Steamships, and the
+consequent Injury to the Greek Cause, and serious Embarrassment
+to Lord Cochrane.--His Correspondence with Messrs. J. and S.
+Ricardo.--His Letter to the Greek Government.--Cheval�er Eynard, and
+the Continental Philhellenes.--Lord Cochrane's Final Departure and
+Arrival in Greece. - 355
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI.
+
+[1826-1827.]
+
+
+The Progress of Affairs in Greece.--The Siege of Missolonghi.--Its
+Fall.--The Bad Government and Mismanagement of the Greeks.--General
+Ponsonby's Account of them.--The Effect of Lord Cochrane's Promised
+Assistance.--The Fears of the Turks, as shown in their Correspondence
+with Mr. Canning.--The Arrival of Captain Hastings in Greece, with the
+_Karteria_.--His Opinion of Greek Captains and Sailors.--The Frigate
+_Hellas_,--Letters to Lord Cochrane from Admiral Miaoulis and the
+Governing Commission of Greece. - 368
+
+
+
+
+APPENDIX.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+I. (Page 22.)--"Resum� of the Services of the late Earl of Dundonald,
+none of which have been Requited or Officially Recognised," by Thomas,
+Eleventh Earl of Dundonald. - 389
+
+II. (Page 23.)--Part of a Speech delivered by Lord Cochrane in the
+House of Commons, on the 11th of May, 1809, on Naval Abuses. - 397
+
+III. (Page 258.)--A Letter written by Lord Cochrane to the Secretary
+of State of Brazil on the 3rd of May, 1824. - 400
+
+
+
+
+THE LIFE
+
+OF
+
+THOMAS, TENTH EARL OF DUNDONALD.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I.
+
+INTRODUCTION.--LORD COCHRANE'S ANCESTRY.--HIS FIRST OCCUPATIONS IN
+THE NAVY.--HIS CRUISE IN THE "SPEEDY" AND CAPTURE OF THE "GAMO."--HIS
+EXPLOITS IN THE "PALLAS."--THE BEGINNING OF HIS PARLIAMENTARY
+LIFE.--HIS TWO ELECTIONS AS MEMBER FOR HONITON.--HIS ELECTION FOR
+WESTMINSTER.--FURTHER SEAMANSHIP.--THE BASQUE ROADS AFFAIR.--THE
+COURT-MARTIAL ON LORD GAMBIER, AND ITS INJURIOUS EFFECTS ON LORD
+COCHRANE'S NAVAL CAREER.--HIS PARLIAMENTARY OCCUPATIONS.--HIS VISIT TO
+MALTA AND ITS ISSUES.--THE ANTECEDENTS AND CONSEQUENCES OF THE STOCK
+EXCHANGE TRIAL.
+
+[1775-1814.]
+
+
+Thomas, Loud Cochrane, tenth Earl of Dundonald, was born at Annsfield,
+in Lanark, on the 14th of December, 1775, and died in London on the
+31st of October, 1860. Shortly before his death he wrote two volumes,
+styled "The Autobiography of a Seaman," which set forth his history
+down to 1814, the fortieth year of his age. To those volumes the
+present work, recounting his career during the ensuing six-and-forty
+years, is intended to serve as a sequel. Before entering upon the
+later narrative, however, it will be necessary briefly to recapitulate
+the incidents that have been already detailed.
+
+
+The Earl of Dundonald was descended from a long line of knights and
+barons, chiefly resident in Renfrew and Ayr, many of whom were men
+of mark in Scottish history during the thirteenth and following
+centuries. Robert Cochran was the especial favourite and foremost
+counsellor of James III., who made him Earl of Mar; but the favours
+heaped upon him, and perhaps a certain arrogance in the use of those
+favours, led to so much opposition from his peers and rivals that he
+was assassinated by them in 1480.[A]
+
+[Footnote A: Pinkerton, the historian, gives some curious details,
+illustrating not only Robert Cochran's character, but also the
+condition of government and society in Scotland four centuries ago.
+"The Scottish army," he says, "amounting to about fifty thousand, had
+crowded to the royal banner at Burrough Muir, near Edinburgh, whence
+they marched to Soutray and to Lauder, at which place they encamped
+between the church and the village. Cochran, Earl of Mar, conducted
+the artillery. On the morning after their arrival at Lauder, the peers
+assembled in a secret council, in the church, and deliberated upon
+their designs of revenge.... Cochran, ignorant of their designs, left
+the royal presence to proceed to the council. The earl was attended by
+three hundred men, armed with light battle-axes, and distinguished
+by his livery of white with black fillets. He was clothed in a riding
+cloak of black velvet, and wore a large chain of gold around his
+neck; his horn of the chase, or of battle, was adorned with gold
+and precious stones, and his helmet, overlaid with the same valuable
+metal, was borne before him. Approaching the door of the church,
+he commanded an attendant to knock with authority; and Sir Robert
+Douglas, of Lochleven, who guarded the passage, inquiring the name,
+was answered, 'Tis I, the Earl of Mar.' Cochran and some of his
+friends were admitted. Angus advanced to him, and pulling the gold
+chain from his neck, said, 'A rope will become thee better,' while
+Douglas of Lochleven seized his hunting-horn, declaring that he had
+been too long a hunter of mischief. Rather astonished than alarmed,
+Cochran said, 'My lords, is it jest or earnest?' To which it was
+replied, 'It is good earnest, and so thou shalt find it; for thou
+and thy accomplices have too long abused our prince's favour. But no
+longer expect such advantage, for thou and thy followers shall now
+reap the deserved reward.' Having secured Mar, the lords despatched
+some men-at-arms to the king's pavilion, conducted by two or three
+moderate leaders, who amused James, while their followers seized the
+favourites. Sir William Roger and others were instantly hanged over
+the bridge at Lauder. Cochran was now brought out, his hands bound
+with a rope, and thus conducted to the bridge, and hanged above his
+fellows."] Later scions of the family prospered, and in 1641, Sir
+William Cochrane was raised to the peerage, as Lord Cochrane of
+Cowden, by Charles I. For his adherence to the royal cause this
+nobleman was fined 5000_l._ by the Long Parliament in 1654; and, in
+recompense for his loyalty, he was made first Earl of Dundonald by
+Charles II. in 1669. His successors were faithful to the Stuarts, and
+thereby they suffered heavily. Archibald, the ninth Earl, inheriting a
+patrimony much reduced by the loyalty and zeal of his ancestors, spent
+it all in the scientific pursuits to which he devoted himself, and
+in which he was the friendly rival of Watt, Priestley, Cavendish, and
+other leading chemists and mechanicians of two or three generations
+ago. His eldest son, heir to little more than a famous name and a
+chivalrous and enterprising disposition, had to fight his own way in
+the world.
+
+
+Lord Cochrane--as the subject of these memoirs was styled in courtesy
+until his accession to the peerage in 1831--was intended by his father
+for the army, in which he received a captain's commission. But his
+own predilections were in favour of a seaman's life, and accordingly,
+after brief schooling, he joined the _Hind_, as a midshipman, in June,
+1793, when he was nearly eighteen years of age.
+
+During the next seven years he learnt his craft in various ships
+and seas, being helped in many ways by his uncle, the Hon. Alexander
+Cochrane, but profiting most by his own ready wit and hearty love
+of his profession. Having been promoted to the rank of lieutenant in
+1794, he was made commander of the _Speedy_ early in 1800. This little
+sloop, not larger than a coasting brig, but crowded with eighty-four
+men and six officers, seemed to be intended only for playing at war.
+Her whole armament consisted of fourteen 4-pounders. When her new
+commander tried to add to these a couple of 12-pounders, the deck
+proved too small and the timbers too weak for them, and they had to be
+returned. So Lilliputian was his cabin, that, to shave himself, Lord
+Cochrane was obliged to thrust his head out of the skylight and make a
+dressing-table of the quarter-deck.
+
+Yet the _Speedy_, ably commanded, was quite large enough to be of
+good service. Cruising in her along the Spanish coast, Lord Cochrane
+succeeded in capturing many gunboats and merchantmen, and the enemy
+soon learnt to regard her with especial dread. On one memorable
+occasion, the 6th of May, 1801, he fell in with the _Gamo_, a Spanish
+frigate furnished with six times as many men as were in the _Speedy_
+and with seven times her weight of shot. Lord Cochrane, boldly
+advancing, locked his little craft in the enemy's rigging. It was, in
+miniature, a contest as unequal as that by which Sir Francis Drake and
+his fellows overcame the Great Armada of Spain in 1588, and with like
+result. The heavy shot of the _Gamo_ riddled the _Speedy's_ sails,
+but, passing overhead, did no mischief to her hulk or her men. During
+an hour there was desperate fighting with small arms, and twice
+the Spaniards tried in vain to board their sturdy little foe. Lord
+Cochrane then determined to meet them on their own deck, and the
+daring project was facilitated by one of the smart expedients in which
+he was never wanting. Before going into action, "knowing," as he said,
+"that the final struggle would be a desperate one, and calculating
+on the superstitious wonder which forms an element in the Spanish
+character," he had ordered his crew to blacken their faces; and, "what
+with this and the excitement of combat, more ferocious-looking objects
+could scarcely be imagined." With these men following him he promptly
+gained the frigate's deck, and then their strong arms and hideous
+faces soon frightened the Spaniards into submission.
+
+The senior officer of the _Gamo_ asked for a certificate of his
+bravery, and received one testifying that he had conducted himself
+"like a true Spaniard." To Spain, of course, this was no sarcasm,
+and on the strength of the document its holder soon obtained further
+promotion.
+
+That achievement, which cost only three men's lives, led to
+consequences greater than could have been expected. Lord Cochrane,
+after three months' waiting, received the rank of post captain. But
+his desire that the services of Lieutenant Parker, his second in
+command, should also be recompensed led to a correspondence with Earl
+St. Vincent which turned him from a jealous superior into a bitter
+enemy. In reply to Lord Cochrane's recommendation, Earl St. Vincent
+alleged that "it was unusual to promote two officers for such a
+service,--besides which the small number of men killed on board the
+_Speedy_ did not warrant the application." Lord Cochrane answered,
+with incautious honesty, that "his lordship's reasons for not
+promoting Lieutenant Parker, because there were only three men killed
+on board the _Speedy_, were in opposition to his lordship's own
+promotion to an earldom, as well as that of his flag-captain to
+knighthood, and his other officers to increased rank and honours; for
+that, in the battle from which his lordship derived his title there
+was only one man killed on board his own flagship." That was language
+too plain to be forgiven.
+
+In July, 1801, the _Speedy_ was captured by three French
+line-of-battle ships, whose senior in command, Captain Palli�re,
+declined to accept the sword of an officer "who had," as he said,
+"for so many hours struggled against impossibility," and asked Lord
+Cochrane, though a prisoner, still to wear it. He, however, was
+refused employment as commander of another ship. Thereupon, with
+characteristic energy, he devoted his forced leisure from professional
+pursuits to a year of student life at Edinburgh, where, in 1802, Lord
+Palmerston was his class-fellow under Professor Dugald Stewart.
+
+This occupation, however, was disturbed by the renewal of war with
+France in 1803. Lord Cochrane, though with difficulty, then obtained
+permission to return to active service, the _Arab_, one of the
+craziest little ships in the navy, being assigned to him. On his
+representing that she was too rotten for use off the French coast, he
+was ordered to employ her in cruising in the North Sea and protecting
+the fisheries north-east of the Orkneys, "where," as he said, "no
+vessel fished, and consequently there were no fisheries to protect."
+This ignominious work lasted for a year. It was brought to a close
+in December, 1804, soon after the appointment of Lord Melville, in
+succession to Earl St. Vincent, as First Lord of the Admiralty.
+
+By him Lord Cochrane was transferred from the _Arab_ to the _Pallas_,
+a new and smart frigate of thirty-two guns, and allowed to use her in
+a famous cruise of prize-taking among the Azores and off the coast
+of Portugal. This was followed in 1806 by farther work in the same
+frigate, the closing portion of which was especially memorable. Being
+off the Basque Roads at the end of April he fixed his attention upon a
+frigate, the _Minerve_, and three brigs, forming an important part of
+the French squadron in the Mediterranean. After three weeks' waiting,
+on the 14th of May, he saw the frigate and the brigs approaching him,
+and promptly prepared to attack them. He was not deterred by knowing
+that the _Minerve_ alone, carrying forty guns, was far stronger than
+the _Pallas_, which had also to withstand the force of the three
+brigs, each with sixteen guns, and to be prepared for the fire of the
+batteries on the Isle d'Aix. "This morning, when close to Isle d'Aix,
+reconnoitring the French squadron," he wrote concisely to his admiral,
+"it gave me great joy to find our late opponent, the black frigate,
+and her companions, the three brigs, getting under sail. We formed
+high expectations that the long wished-for opportunity was at last
+arrived. The _Pallas_ remained under topsails by the wind to await
+them. At half-past eleven a smart point-blank firing commenced on both
+sides, which was severely felt by the enemy. The main topsail-yard
+of one of the brigs was cut through, and the frigate lost her
+after-sails. The batteries on I'lsle d'Aix opened on the _Pallas_, and
+a cannonade continued, interrupted on our part only by the necessity
+we were under to make various tacks to avoid the shoals, till one
+o'clock, when our endeavour to gain the wind of the enemy and get
+between him and the batteries proved successful. An effectual distance
+was now chosen. A few broadsides were poured in. The enemy's fire
+slackened. I ordered ours to cease, and directed Mr. Sutherland, the
+master, to run the frigate on board, with intention effectually to
+prevent her retreat. The enemy's side thrust our guns back into the
+ports. The whole were then discharged. The effect and crash were
+dreadful. Their decks were deserted. Three pistol-shots were the
+unequal return. With confidence I say that the frigate would have
+been lost to France, had not the unequal collision torn away our
+fore-topmast, jib-boom, fore and maintop-sails, spritsail-yards,
+bumpkin, cathead, chainplates, fore-rigging, foresail, and bower
+anchor, with which last I intended to hook on; but all proved
+insufficient. She would yet have been lost to France, had not the
+French admiral, seeing his frigate's foreyard gone, her rigging
+ruined, and the danger she was in, sent two others to her assistance.
+The _Pallas_ being a wreck, we came out with what sail could be set,
+and his Majesty's sloop the _Kingfisher_ afterwards took us in tow."
+The exploit was none the less valiant in that it was partly a failure.
+
+The waiting-times before and after that cruise were occupied by Lord
+Cochrane with brief commencement of parliamentary life. Long before
+this time Lord Cochrane had resolved on entering the House of Commons,
+in order to expose the naval abuses which were then rife, and which he
+had never been deterred, by consideration of his own interests, from
+boldly denouncing. He stood for Honiton in 1805, and was defeated
+through his refusal to vie with his opponent in the art of bribery. He
+contrived, however, to profit by corruption while he punished it.
+As soon as the election was over, he gave ten guineas to each of the
+constituents who had freely voted for him. The consequence of this was
+his triumphant return at the new election, which took place in July,
+1806. When his supporters asked for like payment to that made in the
+previous instance, it was bluntly refused. "The former gift," said
+Lord Cochrane, "was for your disinterested conduct in not taking the
+bribe of five pounds from the agents of my opponent. For me now to pay
+you would be a violation of my principles."
+
+A short cruise in the Basque Roads prevented Lord Cochrane from
+occupying in the House of Commons the seat thus won, and in April,
+1807, very soon after his return, Parliament was again dissolved. He
+then resolved to stand for Westminster, with Sir Francis Burdett for
+his associate. Both were returned, and Lord Cochrane held his seat for
+eleven years. In 1807, however, he had only time to bring forward two
+motions respecting sinecures and naval abuses, which issued in violent
+but unproductive discussion, when he received orders to join the fleet
+in the Mediterranean as captain of the _Imperi�use_. Naval employment
+was grudgingly accorded to him; but it was thought wiser to give him
+work abroad than to suffer under his free speech at home.
+
+This employment was marked by many brilliant deeds, which procured
+for him, on his surrendering his command of the _Imperi�use_ after
+eighteen months' duration, the reproach of having spent more sails,
+stores, gunpowder, and shot than had been used by any other captain in
+the service.
+
+The most brilliant deed of all, one of the most brilliant deeds in
+the whole naval history of England, was his well-known exploit in the
+Basque Roads on the 11th, 12th, and 13th of April, 1809. Much against
+his will, he was persuaded by Lord Mulgrave, at that time First
+Lord of the Admiralty, to bear the responsibility of attacking and
+attempting to destroy the French squadron by means of fireships
+and explosion-vessels. The project was opposed by Lord Gambier, the
+Admiral of the Fleet, as being at once "hazardous, if not desperate,"
+and "a horrible and anti-Christian mode of warfare;" and consequently
+he gave no hearty co-operation. On Lord Cochrane devolved the whole
+duty of preparing for and executing the project. His own words will
+best tell the story.
+
+"On the 11th of April," he said, "it blew hard, with a high sea. As
+all preparations were complete, I did not consider the state of
+the weather a justifiable impediment to the attack; so that, after
+nightfall, the officers who volunteered to command the fireships were
+assembled on board the _Caledonia_, and supplied with instructions
+according to the plan previously laid down by myself. The _Imp�rieuse_
+had proceeded to the edge of the Boyart Shoal, close to which she
+anchored with an explosion-vessel made fast to her stern, it being my
+intention, after firing the one of which I was about to take charge,
+to return to her for the other, to be employed as circumstances might
+require. At a short distance from the _Imp�rieuse_ were anchored
+the frigates _Aigle_, _Unicorn_, and _Pallas_, for the purpose of
+receiving the crews of the fireships on their return, as well as to
+support the boats of the fleet assembled alongside the _C�sar_, to
+assist the fireships. The boats of the fleet were not, however, for
+some reason or other made use of at all.
+
+"Having myself embarked on board the largest explosion-vessel,
+accompanied by Lieut. Bissel and a volunteer crew of four men only,
+we led the way to the attack. The night was dark, and, as the wind was
+fair, though blowing hard, we soon neared the estimated position
+of the advanced French ships, for it was too dark to discern them.
+Judging our distance, therefore, as well as we could, with regard to
+the time the fuse was calculated to burn, the crew of four men entered
+the gig, under the direction of Lieut. Bissel, whilst I kindled the
+portfires, and then, descending into the boat, urged the men to pull
+for their lives, which they did with a will, though, as wind and sea
+were strong against us, without making the expected progress.
+
+"To our consternation, the fuses, which had been constructed to burn
+fifteen minutes, lasted little more than half that time, when the
+vessel blew up, filling the air with shells, grenades, and rockets;
+whilst the downward and lateral force of the explosion raised
+a solitary mountain of water, from the breaking of which in all
+directions our little boat narrowly escaped being swamped. The
+explosion-vessel did her work well, the effect constituting one of the
+grandest artificial spectacles imaginable. For a moment, the sky was
+red with the lurid glare arising from the simultaneous ignition of
+fifteen hundred barrels of powder. On this gigantic flash subsiding,
+the air seemed alive with shells, grenades, rockets, and masses of
+timber, the wreck of the shattered vessel. The sea was convulsed as
+by an earthquake, rising, as has been said, in a huge wave, on whose
+crest our boat was lifted like a cork, and as suddenly dropped into
+a vast trough, out of which as it closed upon us with the rush of a
+whirlpool, none expected to emerge. In a few minutes nothing but
+a heavy rolling sea had to be encountered, all having again become
+silence and darkness."
+
+In spite of its bursting too soon, the explosion-vessel did excellent
+work. The strong boom, composed of large spars bound by heavy chains,
+and firmly anchored at various points in its length of more than a
+mile, which was supposed to constitute an impassable barrier between
+the English ships that were outside and the French ships locked behind
+it, was broken in several parts. The enemy's ships were thoroughly
+disorganised by the sudden and appalling occurrence of the explosion.
+In their alarm and confusion, many of them fired into one another,
+and all might have been easily destroyed had the first success of the
+explosion-vessel been properly followed up. Unfortunately, however, on
+returning to the _Imp�rieuse_, Lord Cochrane found that there had been
+gross mismanagement of the fireships, which, according to his plans,
+were to have been despatched against various sections of the French
+fleet while it was too confused to protect itself. One of them, fired
+at the wrong time and sent in a wrong direction, nearly destroyed
+the _Imp�rieuse_ and caused the wasting of a second explosion-vessel,
+which was meant to be held in reserve. The others, if not as
+mischievous in their effects, were almost as useless. "Of all the
+fire-ships, upwards of twenty in number," said Lord Cochrane, "only
+four reached the enemy's position, and not one did any damage. The
+_Imp�rieuse_ lay three miles from the enemy, so that the one which was
+near setting fire to her became useless at the outset; whilst several
+others were kindled a mile and a half to the windward of this, or four
+miles and a half from the enemy. Of the remainder, many were at once
+rendered harmless from being brought to on the wrong tack. Six passed
+a mile to windward of the French fleet, and one grounded on Oleron."
+
+Though the full success of Lord Cochrane's scheme was thus prevented,
+however, the work done by it was considerable. "As the fireships began
+to light up the roads," he said, "we could observe the enemy's fleet
+in great confusion. Without doubt, taking every fireship for an
+explosion-vessel, and being deceived as to their distance, not only
+did the French make no effort to divert them from their course, but
+some of their ships cut their cables and were seen drifting away
+broadside on to the wind and tide, whilst others made sail, as the
+only alternative to escape from what they evidently considered certain
+destruction. At daylight on the morning of the 12th, not a spar of the
+boom was anywhere visible, and, with the exception of the _Foudroyant_
+and _Cassard_, the whole of the enemy's vessels were helplessly
+aground. The flag-ship, _L'Oc�an_, a three-decker, drawing the most
+water, lay outermost on the north-west edge of the Palles Shoal,
+nearest the deep water, where she was most exposed to attack; whilst
+all, by the fall of the tide, were lying on their bilge, with
+their bottoms completely exposed to shot, and therefore beyond the
+possibility of resistance."
+
+The French fleet had not been destroyed; yet it was so paralysed by
+the shock that its utter defeat seemed easy to Lord Cochrane. To the
+mast of the _Imp�rieuse_, between six o'clock in the morning of the
+12th and one in the afternoon, he hoisted signal after signal, urging
+Lord Gambier, who was with the main body of the fleet about fourteen
+miles off, to make an attack. Failing in all these, and growing
+desperate in his zeal, especially as every hour of delay was enabling
+the French to recover themselves and rendering success less sure, he
+suffered his single frigate to drift towards the enemy. "I did not
+venture to make sail," wrote Lord Cochrane, in his very modest account
+of this daring exploit, "lest the movement might be seen from the
+flag-ship, and a signal of recall should defeat my purpose of making
+an attack with the _Imp�rieuse_; my object being to compel the
+Commander-in-Chief to send vessels to our assistance. We drifted by
+the wind and tide slowly past the fortifications on Isle d'Aix; but,
+though they fired at us with every gun that could be brought to bear,
+the distance was too great to inflict damage. Proceeding thus till
+1.30 p.m., we then suddenly made sail after the nearest of the enemy's
+vessels escaping. In order to divert our attention from the vessels
+we were pursuing, these having thrown their guns overboard, the
+_Calcutta_, a store-ship carrying fifty-six guns, which was still
+aground, broadside on, began firing at us. Before proceeding further,
+it became therefore necessary to attack her, and at 1.50 we shortened
+sail and returned the fire. At 2.0 the _Imp�rieuse_ came to an anchor
+in five fathoms, and, veering to half a cable, kept fast the spring,
+firing upon the _Calcutta_ with our broadside, and at the same time
+upon the _Aquillon_ and _Ville de Varsovie_, two line-of-battle ships,
+each of seventy-four guns, with our forecastle and bow guns, both
+these ships being aground stern on, in an opposite direction. After
+some time we had the satisfaction of observing several ships sent
+to our assistance, namely, the _Emerald_, the _Unicorn_, the
+_Indefatigable_, the _Valiant_, the _Revenge_, the _Pallas_, and the
+_Aigle_. On seeing this, the captain and the crew of the _Calcutta_
+abandoned their vessel, of which the boats of the _Imp�rieuse_ took
+possession before the vessels sent to our assistance came down." Soon
+after the arrival of the new ships, the two other vessels were also
+forced to surrender.
+
+Most of the ships sent to his assistance returned to Lord Grambier on
+the 13th. Lord Cochrane, seeing that it would be easy for him to do
+much further mischief, made ready for the work on the morrow. But from
+this he was prevented by the inexcusable conduct of Lord Gambier, who,
+having discountenanced the attempt with the fireships, now not
+only refused to take part in the victory which his comrade had made
+possible, but also hindered its achievement by him.
+
+Lord Cochrane had already overstepped the strict duty of a
+subordinate, though acting only as became an English sailor. The
+fireships with which he had been ordered to ruin the enemy's fleet had
+partly failed through the error of others. "It was then," he said, "a
+question with me whether I should disappoint the expectations of my
+country, be set down as a charlatan by the Admiralty, whose hopes had
+been raised by my plan, and have my future prospects destroyed, or
+force on an action which some had induced an easy Commander-in-Chief
+to believe impracticable." He did force on some fighting, which
+was altogether disastrous to the enemy, and rich in tokens of his
+unflinching heroism; but it was in violation of repeated orders,
+dubiously worded, from Lord Grambier, and, when at last an order was
+issued in terms too distinct to allow of any further evasion, he had
+no alternative but to abandon the enterprise. He was at once sent
+back to England, to be rewarded with much popular favour, and with a
+knighthood of the Order of the Bath, conferred by George III., but to
+become the victim of an official persecution, which, embittering his
+whole life, lasted almost to its close.
+
+It must be admitted that this persecution was in great measure
+provoked by Lord Cochrane's own fearless conduct. He was reasonably
+aggrieved at the effort made by the Admiralty authorities to attribute
+to Lord Gambier, who had taken no part at all in the achievements in
+Basque Roads, all the merit of their success. To use his own caustic
+but accurate words, "The only victory gained by Lord Gambier in Basque
+Roads was that of bringing his ships to anchor there, whilst the
+enemy's ships were quietly heaving off from the banks on which they
+had been driven nine miles distant from the fleet." When for this
+proceeding it was determined to honour Lord Gambier with the thanks
+of Parliament, Lord Cochrane, as member for Westminster, announced his
+intention of opposing the motion. As a bribe to silence he was offered
+an important command by Lord Mulgrave, and it was proposed that his
+name should be included in the vote of thanks. The bribe being
+refused and the opposition persisted in, Lord Gambier demanded a
+court-martial, in which, as he alleged, to controvert the insinuations
+thrown out against him by Lord Cochrane.
+
+The history of this court-martial, its antecedents and its
+consequences, furnishes an episode almost unique in the annals
+of official injustice. As a preparation for it, Lord Gambier, in
+obedience to orders from the Admiralty, supplemented his first account
+of the victory by another of entirely different tenour. In the first,
+written on the spot, he had avowed that he could not speak highly
+enough of Lord Cochrane's vigour and gallantry in approaching the
+enemy,--conduct, he said, "which could not be exceeded by any feat of
+valour hitherto achieved by the British Navy." In the record, written
+four weeks later and in London, he altogether ignored Lord Cochrane's
+services, and transferred the entire merit to himself.
+
+The whole conduct of the court-martial was in keeping with that
+prelude. No effort was spared in stifling all the evidence on Lord
+Cochrane's side, and in adducing false testimony against him. Logbooks
+and witnesses alike were tampered with. In support of his scheme for
+annihilating the whole French fleet, Lord Cochrane produced in court
+a chart showing the relative position of the various points in Aix
+Roads, and of the overhanging fort which was to protect the French
+ships. This chart, left lying upon the table, was tacitly accepted by
+the authorities of the Admiralty as a trustworthy document, and
+duly preserved among the official records. But at the time the court
+refused to receive it in evidence, and adopted instead two falsified
+charts, in which, by the introduction of imaginary shoals and the
+narrowing of the channel to Aix Roads from two miles to one, the
+success of the scheme appeared impossible. Although this gross
+deception was more than suspected, both then and afterwards, by Lord
+Cochrane, his repeated applications to the Admiralty for permission to
+inspect the documents were steadily refused. It was not till more than
+fifty years after the period of the court-martial that he was able to
+prove the scandalous fraud.[A]
+
+[Footnote A: Readers of "The Autobiography of a Seaman" need not be
+reminded of the copious and convincing evidence of the way in which he
+was treated by this court-martial that was adduced by Lord Dundonald
+in that work.]
+
+The result of the court-martial was, of course, such as from the first
+had been intended. Lord Grambier was acquitted, and unlimited blame
+was, by inference, thrown upon Lord Cochrane. The coveted vote
+of thanks was promptly obtained from the House of Commons; Lord
+Cochrane's proposal that the minutes of the court-martial be first
+investigated being, through ministerial influence, summarily rejected.
+
+These proceedings determined the course which men in power were to
+adopt, and fixed Lord Cochrane's future. It was a future to be made up
+of cruel disregard and of revengeful persecution.[A]
+
+[Footnote A: See Appendix (I.).]
+
+Soon after the close of the trial, the brave seaman applied to the
+Admiralty for permission to rejoin his old frigate, the _Imp�rieuse_,
+and accompanied his application with a bold plan for attacking the
+French fleet in the Scheldt. He received an insulting answer to the
+effect that, if he would be ready to quit the country in a week, and
+then to occupy a position subordinate to that which he had formerly
+held, his services would be accepted. On his replying that his
+great desire to be employed in his profession made him willing to
+do anything, and that all he wished for was a little longer time for
+preparation, no further communication was vouchsafed to him. He was
+quietly superseded in the command of the _Imp�rieuse_, and received no
+other ship.
+
+Out of this ill-treatment, however, resulted some benefit to the
+nation. Lord Cochrane employed much of his forced leisure, during the
+next few years, in exposing abuses that were then over-abundant, and
+in strenuously advocating reform. In Parliament, voting always with
+his friend Sir Francis Burdett and the Radical party, he limited
+his exertions to naval matters, and such as were within his own
+experience. Herein there was plenty to occupy him, and much that it is
+now amusing to look back upon.[A]
+
+[Footnote A: See Appendix (II.).]
+
+One scandalous grievance led to a memorable episode in his life. The
+many prizes taken by him in the Mediterranean, which, according to
+rule, had been sent to the Maltese Admiralty Court for condemnation,
+had been encumbered with such preposterous charges that, instead of
+realizing anything by his captures, he was made out to be largely
+in debt to the Court. The principal agent of this Court was a Mr.
+Jackson, who illegally held office as at the same time marshal and
+proctor. "The consequence was," said Lord Cochrane, "that every
+prize placed in his hands as proctor had to pass through his hands
+as marshal; whilst as proctor it was further in his power to consult
+himself as marshal as often as he pleased, and to any extent he
+pleased. The amount of self-consultation may be imagined." As proctor
+he charged for visiting himself, and as marshal he charged for
+receiving visits from himself. As marshal he was paid for instructing
+himself, and as proctor he was paid for listening to his own
+instructions. Ten shillings and twopence three farthings was the
+customary charge for an oath to the effect that he had served a
+monition on himself. Of the sheets composing the bill for services of
+these sorts presented to him, Lord Cochrane formed a roll which, when
+unfolded and exhibited in Parliament, stretched from the Speaker's
+table to the bar of the House.
+
+Not content, however, with laughing at the official robberies
+committed upon him, he determined, early in 1811, to proceed to Malta
+and personally investigate the matter. Reaching Valetta long before he
+was expected, he immediately presented himself at the court-house,
+and asked for a copy of the table of fees authorized by the Crown,
+and which, according to directions, ought to have been placed
+conspicuously in the public room. The existence of such a document
+being denied, he proceeded to hunt for it himself, and, after long and
+careful search, found it concealed in an out-of-the-way corner of
+the building. Having taken possession of it, he was carrying off the
+prize, which he intended to exhibit in the House of Commons, in token
+of the extent to which he and others had been defrauded, when he
+was arrested for contempt of court. He protested that the arrest was
+illegal, seeing that, as the court had not been sitting, no insult
+could have been offered to it. The plea was not accepted, and he
+was sent to gaol. No ground for punishment, however, could be found
+against him; and, after refusing to help the authorities out of their
+embarrassment by going at large on bail, and insisting on a proper
+exculpation or nothing at all, he let himself out of window by means
+of a rope. A gig was waiting for him, by which he was enabled to
+overtake the packet-boat that had quitted Malta shortly before,
+to return to London, and to present the document seized by him to
+Parliament a month before the official report of his escapade reached
+home.[A]
+
+[Footnote A: This letter from the Duke of Kent to Lord Cochrane will
+help to show that, even after the time of his Admiralty persecution,
+he was not without friends and admirers in high quarters:--"Kensington
+Palace, 7th July, 1812. My dear Lord,--I trust the acquaintance I
+have the satisfaction to possess with your lordship, and the long
+and intimate friendship subsisting between myself and your brother,
+Lieut.-Colonel Basil Cochrane, will warrant my intruding upon you for
+the purpose of seconding the wishes expressed by a young naval prot�g�
+of mine, and I cannot help adding my earnest request that when your
+distinguished zeal and talents in your profession are again called
+into action by Government, you will kindly oblige me by taking
+Lieutenant Edgar under your wing and protection; he is a fine young
+man, and I think would not disgrace the wardroom of your lordship's
+ship. I remain, with my sincere regard, my dear lord, yours
+faithfully, EDWARD.
+
+"_The Right Honourable Lord Cochrane_."]
+
+An imprisonment of very different character occurred after an interval
+of nearly three years. This was in consequence of the famous Stock
+Exchange trial, the episode last treated of by the Earl of Dundonald
+in his Autobiography, and not quite recounted to the end before death
+stayed his hand.
+
+From 1809 to 1813, Lord Cochrane was allowed to take no active part in
+the work of his profession. But at the close of the latter year, his
+uncle, Sir Alexander Cochrane, having been selected for the command
+of the fleet on the North American station, appointed him his
+flag-captain--an appointment resting only with the Commander-in-Chief,
+and one with which the Government could not interfere. It was always
+Lord Cochrane's belief that the implacable enmity of his foes in the
+Admiralty Office--determined to prevent by irregular means, since no
+regular course was open to them, his return to naval work--helped
+to bring about the cruel persecution by which his whole life was
+embittered. But it must be admitted that the dishonesty of one of his
+own kinsmen--about which a chivalrous sense of honour caused him to be
+reticent during nearly fifty years--conduced to this result.
+
+The chief agent of the fraud practised upon him was a foreigner, named
+De Berenger. This man, clever and unscrupulous, had been associated
+with Mr. Cochrane Johnstone, an uncle of Lord Cochrane's, in certain
+stock-jobbing transactions. In that or in some other way he became
+known to Lord Cochrane and to his other uncle, Sir Alexander Cochrane;
+and, being a smart chemist and pyrotechnist, it was proposed that he
+should accompany Lord Cochrane to North America, and assist him in the
+trial of his recently-discovered method of attacking forts and fleets
+in a secret and irresistible manner. With that object--of course
+clandestine--Sir Alexander Cochrane sought the permission of the
+Admiralty to employ De Berenger as a teacher of sharp-shooting, in
+which he was a well-known adept. This was not granted, and near the
+end of 1813, Sir Alexander set sail for Halifax, leaving Lord Cochrane
+to follow in the _Tonnant_, in charge of a convoy, and in getting
+the _Tonnant_ ready for sea his lordship was busy during January and
+February, 1814. In the former month De Berenger sought him out and
+earnestly requested that, his official appointment being refused, he
+might be taken on board in a private capacity and allowed to rely
+upon the success of his work for recompense. Lord Cochrane declined
+to employ him without some sort of sanction from the Admiralty, and
+De Berenger left him with the avowed intention of doing his utmost to
+procure this sanction.
+
+He was otherwise occupied. Being in urgent need of money, with which
+to evade the grasp of his numerous creditors, he returned to his
+stock-jobbing pursuits--if indeed he had not been engaging in them
+all along; using his proposal for employment under Lord Cochrane as a
+blind or as a secondary resource. Instead of furthering his efforts to
+obtain this employment, he contrived a plan for causing a sudden rise
+in the funds, and thereby securing a large profit to himself and his
+accomplices. On the 20th of February he presented himself at the Ship
+Hotel at Dover, disguised as a foreigner and calling himself Colonel
+De Bourg, professing that he brought intelligence from France to
+the effect that Buonaparte had been killed by the Cossacks, that the
+allied armies were in full march towards Paris, and that a speedy
+cessation of the war was certain. Thence he hurried up to London and
+was traced to have gone, on the following morning, to Lord Cochrane's
+house. The ostensible object of that visit was to renew his
+application for employment on board the _Tonnant_. The real object
+was, by means of a trick, to get possession of a hat and cloak, with
+which to disguise himself afresh, and thus try to elude the pursuit
+of agents of the Stock Exchange, who would soon seek to punish him for
+his fraud. The disguise was given to him in all innocence, and might
+have been successful, had not Lord Cochrane, on finding how grossly
+he had been deceived, volunteered to assist in punishing the culprit.
+Leaving the _Tonnant_, in which he was about to start from Chatham, he
+returned to London, and gave full information as to his share in the
+transaction, with the view of furthering the cause of justice and
+clearing himself from all blame.
+
+That was prevented by as wanton a prosecution and as malicious a
+perverting of the forms of justice and the principles of equity as the
+annals of English law, not often abused even in a much less degree,
+can show. The straightforward evidence furnished by him was made
+the handle to an elaborate machinery of falsehood and perjury for
+effecting his own ruin. The solicitor who had managed the cause of the
+Admiralty at the court-martial on Lord Gambier, and therein proved his
+skill, was entrusted with the ugly work. By him an elaborate case for
+prosecution was trumped up, and Lord Cochrane, hindered from sailing
+to North America in the _Tonnant_, and hindered from obtaining any
+other employment in his country's service during four-and-thirty
+years, was, on the 8th of June, placed in the prisoner's dock at the
+Court of King's Bench on a charge of conspiring with his uncle, Mr.
+Cochrane Johnstone, with De Berenger, and with some other persons,
+to defraud the Stock Exchange. Lord Ellenborough, who presided at the
+trial, delivered a charge which was even more virulent and more marked
+by political spite than was his wont, and the too compliant jury
+brought in a verdict of "guilty." Lord Cochrane vainly sought for a
+new trial, and vainly adduced abundant proof of his innocence. The
+chance of justice that is every Englishman's right was denied to him.
+He was sentenced to an hour's detention in the pillory at the entrance
+of the Royal Exchange, to a year's imprisonment in the King's Bench
+Prison, and to a fine of a thousand pounds.
+
+The first part of the sentence was not insisted upon, as Sir Francis
+Burdett, Lord Cochrane's noble-hearted colleague as member for
+Westminster, avowed his intention of standing also in the pillory, if
+his friend was subjected to that indignity, and of thus encouraging
+the storm of popular indignation, that, without any such
+encouragement, would probably have led to consequences which
+the Government, already hated by all Englishmen who loved their
+birthright, dared not brook. But the unworthy vengeance of his
+persecutors was amply satisfied in other ways. He had already suffered
+more than most men. "Neglect," he said, "I was accustomed to. But when
+an alleged offence was laid to my charge, in which, on the honour of
+a man now on the brink of the grave, I had not the slightest
+participation, and from which I never benefited, nor thought to
+benefit one farthing, and when this allegation was, by political
+rancour and legal chicanery, consummated in an unmerited conviction
+and an outrageous sentence, my heart for the first time sank within
+me, as conscious of a blow, the effect of which it has required all my
+energies to sustain."
+
+It is needless now to say anything in proof of Lord Cochrane's
+innocence of the charge brought against him. The world has long since
+reversed the verdict passed at Lord Ellenborough's dictation. That
+an officer and a gentleman of Lord Cochrane's reputation should have
+demeaned himself by becoming a party to the fraud of which he was
+accused, is, to say the least, improbable. That, if he had been guilty
+of that fraud, he should not have availed himself of the only benefit
+that could be derived from it by investing in the stocks when they
+were low and selling out during the brief time of their artificial
+value, is far more improbable. That, when the fraud was perpetrated,
+and its chief instrument was undiscovered, he should have left the
+_Tonnant_ in order to expose him, instead of taking him away from
+England, and so almost ensuring the preservation of the secret, is
+utterly impossible.
+
+His only faults were too great faith in his own innocence and a too
+chivalrous desire to protect, or rather to abstain from injuring, his
+unworthy kinsman. "I must be here distinctly understood," it was said
+by Lord Brougham, in his "Historic Sketches of British Statesmen," "to
+deny the accuracy of the opinion which Lord Ellenborough appears to
+have formed in this case, and deeply to lament the verdict of
+'guilty' which the jury returned after three hours' consultation
+and hesitation. If Lord Cochrane was at all aware of his uncle Mr.
+Cochrane Johnstone's proceedings, it was the whole extent of his
+privity to the fact. Having been one of the counsel engaged in the
+cause, I can speak with some confidence respecting it, and I take upon
+me to assert that Lord Cochrane's conviction was mainly owing to the
+extreme repugnance which he felt to giving up his uncle, or taking
+those precautions for his own safety which would have operated against
+that near relation. Even when he, the real criminal, had confessed his
+guilt by taking to flight, and the other defendants were brought up
+for judgment, we, the counsel, could not persuade Lord Cochrane to
+shake himself loose from the contamination by abandoning him."
+
+Part of a letter addressed to the Earl of Dundonald in 1859, on the
+anniversary of his eighty-fourth birthday, and shortly after the
+publication of the first volume of his "Autobiography of a Seaman," by
+the daughter of the man whose wrong-doing had conduced so terribly
+to his misfortunes, may here be fitly quoted:--"You are still active,
+still in health," says the writer, "and you have just given to the
+world a striking proof of the vigour of your mind and intellect. Many
+years I cannot wish for you; but may you live to finish your book,
+and, if it please God, may you and I have a peaceful death-bed. We
+have both suffered much mental anguish, though in various degrees; for
+yours was indeed the hardest lot that an honourable man can be called
+on to bear. Oh, my dear cousin, let me say once more, whilst we are
+still here, how, ever since that miserable time, I have felt that you
+suffered for my poor father's fault--how agonizing that conviction
+was--how thankful I am that _tardy justice_ was done you. May God
+return you fourfold for your generous though misplaced confidence in
+him, and for all your subsequent forbearance!"
+
+Another extract from a letter, from one out of a multitude of tributes
+to the Earl of Dundonald's honourable bearing, which were tendered
+after his death, shall close this introductory chapter. "Five years
+after the trial of Lord Cochrane," wrote Sir Fitzroy Kelly, now Lord
+Chief Baron, on the 17th of December, 1860, "I began to study for the
+bar, and very soon became acquainted with and interested in his case,
+and I have thought of it much and long during more than forty years;
+and I am profoundly convinced that, had he been defended singly and
+separately from the others accused, or had he at the last moment,
+before judgment was pronounced, applied, with competent legal advice
+and assistance, for a new trial, he would have been unhesitatingly and
+honourably acquitted. We cannot blot out this dark page from our legal
+and judicial history."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II.
+
+THE ISSUE OF THE STOCK EXCHANGE TRIAL.--LORD COCHRANE'S COMMITTAL TO
+THE KING'S BENCH PRISON.--THE DEBATE UPON HIS CASE IN THE HOUSE OF
+COMMONS, AND HIS SPEECH ON THAT OCCASION.--HIS EXPULSION FROM THE
+HOUSE, AND RE-ELECTION AS MEMBER FOR WESTMINSTER.--THE WITHDRAWAL OF
+HIS SENTENCE TO THE PILLORY.--THE REMOVAL OF HIS INSIGNIA AS A KNIGHT
+OF THE BATH.
+
+[1814.]
+
+
+The famous and infamous Stock Exchange trial occupied the 8th and 9th
+of June, 1814; but the sentence was deferred until the 21st of the
+same month, in consequence of Lord Cochrane's demand for a new trial.
+That demand was not complied with, in spite of the production
+of overwhelming evidence to justify it; and the victim of Lord
+Ellenborough and the tyrannical Government of the day was at once
+conveyed to the King's Bench Prison. No time was lost in heaping upon
+him all the indignities which, in accordance with precedent and in
+excess of all precedent, might supplement his degradation.
+
+The first was a notice of motion which would result in his expulsion
+from the House of Commons. Lord Cochrane promptly availed himself of
+the opening thus afforded for a public avowal of his innocence. To
+the Hon. Charles Abbot, then Speaker of the House, he wrote from his
+prison on the 23rd of June. "Sir," runs the letter, "I respectfully
+entreat you to communicate to the Honourable House of Commons my
+earnest desire and prayer that no question arising out of the late
+convictions in the Court of King's Bench may be agitated without
+affording me timely notice and full opportunity of attending in my
+place for the justification of my character. From the House of Commons
+I hope to obtain that justice of which too implicit reliance on the
+consciousness of my innocence, and circumstances over which I had no
+control, have hitherto deprived me. The painful situation in which I
+am placed is known to the House, and I trust that I shall be enabled
+to demonstrate that a more injured man has never sought redress
+from those to whose justice I now appeal for the preservation of my
+character and existence."
+
+In compliance with that request, and with parliamentary rules, Lord
+Cochrane was conveyed from the King's Bench Prison to the House of
+Commons, and allowed to read a carefully-prepared statement of his
+case, on the 5th of July, the day fixed for investigation of the
+subject. From this statement it is not necessary to cite the clear
+and conclusive recapitulation of the evidence adduced at the trial, or
+refused admission therein because it was too convincing, in proof of
+Lord Cochrane's innocence; but room must be found for some passages
+illustrating the independent temper of the speaker and the perversions
+of justice to which he fell a victim.
+
+"I am not here, sir," he said, "to bespeak compassion or to pave the
+way to pardon. Both ideas are alike repugnant to my feelings. That the
+public in general have felt indignation at the sentence that has been
+passed upon me does honour to their hearts, and tends still to make
+my country dear to me, in spite of what I have suffered from the
+malignity of persons in power. But, sir, I am not here to complain of
+the hardship of my case or about the cruelty of judges, who, for
+an act which was never till now ever known or thought to be a legal
+offence, have laid upon me a sentence more heavy than they have
+ever yet laid upon persons clearly convicted of the most horrid
+of crimes--crimes of which nature herself cries aloud against the
+commission. If, therefore, it was my object to complain of the cruelty
+of my judges, I should bid the public look into the calendar, and see
+if they could find a punishment like that inflicted on me; inflicted
+by these same judges on any one of these unnatural wretches. It is
+not, however, my business to complain of the cruelty of this sentence.
+I am here to assert, for the third time, my innocence in the most
+unqualified and solemn manner; I am here to expose the unfairness of
+the proceedings against me previous to the trial, at the trial,
+and subsequent to it; I am here to expose the long train of artful
+villainies which have been practised against me hitherto with so much
+success.
+
+"I am persuaded, sir, that the House will easily perceive, and every
+honourable man, I am sure, participate in my feelings, that the
+fine, the imprisonment, the pillory--even that pillory to which I am
+condemned--are nothing, that they weigh not as a feather, when put
+in the balance against my desire to show that I have been unjustly
+condemned. Therefore, sir, I trust that the House will give a fair and
+impartial hearing to what I have to say respecting the conduct of
+my enemies, to expose which conduct is a duty which I owe to my
+constituents, and to my country, not less than to myself.
+
+"In the first place, sir, I here, in the presence of this House, and
+with the eyes of the country fixed upon me, most solemnly declare that
+I am wholly innocent of the crime which has been laid to my
+charge, and for which I have been condemned to the most infamous of
+punishments. Having repeated this assertion of my innocence, I next
+proceed to complain of the means that have been made use of to effect
+my destruction. And first, sir, was it ever before known in this or in
+any other country, that the prosecutor should form a sort of court of
+his own erection, call witnesses before it of his own choosing, and,
+under offers of great rewards, take minutes of the evidence of such
+witnesses, and publish those minutes to the world under the forms and
+appearances of a judicial proceeding? Was it ever before known, that
+steps like these were taken previous to an indictment,--previous to
+the bringing of an intended victim into a court of justice? Was there
+ever before known so regular, so systematic a scheme for exciting
+suspicion against a man, and for implanting an immovable prejudice
+against him in the minds of a whole nation, previous to the preferring
+a Bill of Indictment, in order that the grand jury, be it composed
+of whomsoever it might, should be predisposed to find the bill? I ask
+you, sir, and I ask the House, whether it was ever before known, that
+means like these were resorted to, previous to a man's being legally
+accused? But, sir, what must the world think, when they see some of
+those to whom the welfare and the honour of the nation are committed
+covertly co-operating with a Committee of the Stock Exchange, and
+becoming their associates in so nefarious a scheme? Nevertheless, sir,
+this fact is now notorious to the whole world. I must confess I was
+not prepared to believe the thing possible."
+
+Thereupon followed a detailed examination of the charges brought
+against Lord Cochrane, and of the way in which those charges were
+handled, special complaint being made concerning the malicious bearing
+of Lord Ellenborough. "It must be in the recollection of the House,"
+said Lord Cochrane, "as it is in that of the public, that he urged,
+that he compelled, the counsel to enter upon my defence _after
+midnight_, at the end of fifteen hours from the commencement of the
+trial, when that counsel declared himself quite exhausted, and when
+the jury, who were to decide, were in a state of such weariness as to
+render attention to what was said totally impossible. The speeches
+of the counsel being ended, the judge, at _half-past three in the
+morning_, adjourned the court till ten; thus separating the evidence
+from the argument, and reserving his own strength, and the strength
+of my adversaries' advocates, for the close; giving to both the great
+advantage of time to consider the reply, and to insert and arrange
+arguments to meet those which had been urged in my defence."
+
+All his treatment by Lord Ellenborough, as Lord Cochrane urged, was of
+that sort, or worse. "Of all tyrannies, sir," he said, "the worst
+is that which exercises its vengeance under the guise of judicial
+proceedings, and especially if a jury make part of the means by which
+its base purposes are effected. The man who is flung into prison, or
+sent to the scaffold, at the nod of an avowed despotism, has at least
+the consolation to know that his sufferings bring down upon that
+despotism the execration of mankind; but he who is entrapped
+and entangled in the meshes of a crafty and corrupt system of
+jurisprudence; who is pursued imperceptibly by a law with leaden
+feet and iron jaws; who is not put upon his trial till the ear of the
+public has been poisoned, and its heart steeled against him,--falls,
+at last, without being cheered with a hope of seeing his tyrants
+execrated even by the warmest of his friends. In their principle, the
+ancient and settled laws of England are excellent; but of late years,
+so many injurious and fatal alterations in the law have taken place,
+that any man who ventures to meddle with public affairs, and to oppose
+persons in power, is sure and certain, sooner or later, to suffer in
+some way or other.
+
+"Sir, the punishment which the malice of my enemies has procured to be
+inflicted on me is not, in my mind, worth a moment's reflection. The
+judge supposed, apparently, that the sentence of the pillory would
+disgrace and mortify me. I can assure him, and I now solemnly assure
+this House, my constituents, and my country, that I would rather stand
+in my own name, in the pillory, every day of my life, under such a
+sentence, than I would sit upon the bench in the name and with the
+real character of Lord Ellenborough for one single hour.
+
+"Something has been said, sir, in this House, as I have heard, about
+an application for a mitigation of my sentence, in a certain quarter,
+where, it is observed, that mercy never failed to flow; but I can
+assure the House that an application for pardon, extorted from me, is
+one of the things which even a partial judge and a packed jury have
+not the power to accomplish. No, sir; I will seek for, and I look for,
+pardon _nowhere_, for _I have committed no crime_. I have sought for,
+I still seek for, and I confidently expect JUSTICE; not, however, at
+the hands of those by whose machinations I have been brought to
+what they regard as my ruin, but at the hands of my enlightened and
+virtuous constituents, to whose exertions the nation owes that there
+is still a voice to cry out against that haughty and inexorable
+tyranny which commands silence to all but parasites and hypocrites."
+
+Thus ended Lord Cochrane's written argument. It was followed by, a few
+words spoken on the spur of the moment: "Having so long occupied
+its time, I will not trouble the House longer than to implore it to
+investigate the circumstances of my case. I think I have stated enough
+to induce it to call for the minutes of the trial. All I wish is an
+inquiry. Many important facts yet remain to be considered, and I
+trust that the House will not come to a decision with its eyes shut.
+I entreat, I implore investigation. It is true that a sentence of a
+court of law has been pronounced against me; but that punishment is
+nothing, and will to me seem nothing, in comparison with what it is in
+the power of the House to inflict. I have already suffered much;
+but if after a deliberate and a fair investigation the House shall
+determine that I am guilty, then let me be deserted and abandoned by
+the world. I shall submit without repining to any the most dreadful
+penalty that the House can assign. I solemnly declare before Almighty
+God that I am ignorant of the whole transaction. Into the hearts of
+men we cannot penetrate; we cannot dive into their inmost thoughts;
+but my heart I lay open, and my most secret thoughts I disclose to
+the House. I entreat the strictest scrutiny and a patient hearing. I
+implore it at your hands, as an act of justice, and once more I call
+upon my Maker, upon Almighty God, to bear witness that I am innocent.
+He knows my heart, He knows all its secrets, and He knows that I am
+innocent."
+
+An animated debate followed upon that eloquent address. Viscount
+Castlereagh complained that Lord Cochrane, instead of defending
+himself, had only libelled Lord Ellenborough and the noblest
+institutions of the land. Other speakers expressed similar opinions;
+but others testified to the consistent character of Lord Cochrane,
+rendering it impossible that he should be guilty of the offence
+with which he was charged; and others again confessed that, having
+previously had doubts in the matter, those doubts had been removed by
+the high-minded tone and the powerful arguments of his defence. But in
+the end the House adopted the view set forth by Lord Castlereagh; that
+its duty was simply to accept the verdict of the Court of the King's
+Bench, and, according to precedent, to expel the member declared
+guilty by that court, without daring to revive the question of his
+guilt or innocence; and that it would be better for an innocent man
+thus to suffer, than for the House to assail "the bulwarks of English
+liberty," by turning itself into a Star Chamber, or an Inquisition,
+and attempting to interfere with "the regular administration of
+justice." The proposal that Lord Cochrane's case should be referred to
+a Select Committee was rejected without a division. The motion that he
+should be expelled from the House was carried by a hundred and forty
+members, against forty-four dissentients.
+
+That new act of injustice, however, though it added much to Lord
+Cochrane's suffering, brought him no fresh disgrace. It only led
+to his triumphant re-election as member for Westminster, under
+circumstances that were reasonably consoling to him. His seat having
+been taken from him on the 5th of July, a great meeting of the
+electors, attended by five thousand people, was held on the 11th.
+It was there unanimously resolved that Lord Cochrane was perfectly
+innocent of the Stock Exchange fraud, that he was a fit and proper
+person to represent the City of Westminster in Parliament, and that
+his re-election should be secured without any expense to him. Richard
+Brinsley Sheridan, his stout opponent at the previous election, who
+was now urged to oppose him again, honourably refused to do so; and
+therefore the election passed without a contest. But contest would
+only have added to its glory; unless, indeed, the people, over-zealous
+in their expression of sympathy for their representative, had been
+provoked thereby to violent exhibition of their temper. Even without
+such provocation the turmoil of the re-election day, the 16th of July,
+was great; angry crowds assembled in the streets, and menacing words
+against the Government and its myrmidons were loudly uttered. The
+wisdom of Sir Francis Burdett and other leaders of the popular party,
+however, prevented anything worse than angry speech.
+
+"Amongst all the occurrences of my life," said Lord Cochrane,
+writing from the King's Bench Prison to thank the electors for their
+confidence in him, "I can call to memory no one which has produced so
+great a degree of exultation in my breast as this, that, after all the
+machinations of corruption have been able to effect against me, the
+citizens of Westminster have, with unanimous voice, pronounced me
+worthy of continuing to be one of their representatives in Parliament.
+With regard to the case, the agitation of which has been the cause
+of this most gratifying result, I am in no apprehension as to the
+opinions and feelings of the world, and especially of the people
+of England, who, though they may be occasionally misled, are never
+deliberately cruel or unjust. Only let it be said of me: 'The Stock
+Exchange has accused; Lord Ellenborough has charged for guilty; the
+special jury have found that guilt; the Court have sentenced to the
+pillory; the House of Commons have expelled; and the Citizens of
+Westminster have re-elected,'--only let this be the record placed
+against my name, and I shall be proud to stand in the calendar of
+criminals all the days of my life."
+
+The worst part of the sentence passed upon Lord Cochrane, as has been
+already said, was not carried out. The 10th of August had been fixed
+as the day on which he was to stand in the pillory for an hour in
+front of the Royal Exchange. But the danger of a disturbance among the
+people, and of fierce opposition in the House of Commons hindered the
+perpetration of this indignity. Some sentences of a letter addressed
+to Lord Ebrington, deprecating his motion in Parliament for a
+remission of this part of the sentence, are too characteristic,
+however, to be left unquoted. "I did not expect," said Lord Cochrane,
+"to be treated by your lordship as an object of mercy, on the grounds
+of past services, or severity of sentence. I cannot allow myself to be
+indebted to that tenderness of disposition which has led your lordship
+to form an erroneous estimate of the amount of punishment due to the
+crimes of which I have been accused; nor can I for a moment consent
+that any past services of mine should be prostituted to the purpose of
+protecting me from any part of the vengeance of the laws against which
+I, if at all, have grossly offended. If I am guilty, I richly merit
+the whole of the sentence that has been passed upon me. If innocent,
+one penalty cannot be inflicted with more justice than another."
+
+If the degradation of the pillory was remitted, another degradation
+quite as painful to Lord Cochrane was substituted for it. His name
+having, on the 25th of June, been struck off the list of naval
+officers in the Admiralty, the Knights Companions of the Bath promptly
+held a chapter to consider the propriety of expelling him from their
+ranks. That was soon done, and no time was lost in making the insult
+as thorough as possible. At one o'clock in the morning of the 11th
+of August, the Bath King at Arms repaired to King Henry the Seventh's
+Chapel in Westminster Abbey, and there, under a warrant signed by Lord
+Sidmouth, the Secretary of State, removed the banner of Lord Cochrane,
+which was suspended between those of Lord Beresford and Sir Brent
+Spencer. His arms were next unscrewed, and his helmet, sword, and
+other insignia were taken down from the stall. The banner was then
+kicked out of the chapel and down the steps by the official, eager to
+omit no possible indignity. It was an indignity unparalleled since the
+establishment of the order in 1725.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III.
+
+LORD COCHRANE'S BEARING IN THE KING'S BENCH PRISON--HIS STREET
+LAMPS.--HIS ESCAPE, AND THE MOTIVES FOR IT.--HIS CAPTURE IN THE HOUSE
+OF COMMONS, AND SUBSEQUENT TREATMENT.--HIS CONFINEMENT IN THE STRONG
+ROOM OF THE KING'S BENCH PRISON.--HIS RELEASE.
+
+[1814-1815.]
+
+
+During the first period of his imprisonment Lord Cochrane was not
+treated with more than usual severity. Two rooms in the King's Bench
+State House were provided for him, in which, of course, all the
+expenses of his maintenance devolved upon himself. He was led
+to understand that, if he chose to ask for it, he might have the
+privilege of "the rules," which would have allowed him, on certain
+conditions, a range of about half-a-mile round the prison. But he
+did not choose to ask. Rather, he said, than seek any favour from
+the Government, he would lie in a dungeon all through the term of his
+unjust imprisonment. Throughout that period he resolutely avowed his
+perfect innocence, to friends and foes alike; and the consciousness
+of his innocence helped him to bear up under a degradation that, to
+a nature as sensitive and chivalrous as his, was doubly bitter. Good
+friends, like Sir Francis Burdett, came to cheer him in his solitude,
+and over-zealous, yet honest, friends, like William Cobbett, came to
+take counsel with him as to ways of keeping alive and quickening the
+popular indignation which, without any stimulants from headstrong
+demagogues, was strong enough on his behalf.
+
+The tedium of his captivity was further relieved by his devotion to
+those scientific and mechanical pursuits which, all through life,
+yielded employment very solacing to himself, and very profitable to
+the world. While in the King's Bench Prison he was especially occupied
+in completing a plan for lighting the public streets by means of a
+lamp invented by him, in which the main principle was the introduction
+of a steady current of fresh air into the globes, whereby all the oil
+was fairly burnt, and a brilliant light was always maintained. In this
+way lamps much cheaper than those previously in use were found to have
+a far greater illuminating power. Early in October, 1814, the lamps
+in St. Ann's parish, Westminster, numbering eight hundred in all, were
+taken down and replaced by four hundred constructed on Lord Cochrane's
+plan; and even political opponents spoke in acknowledgment of the
+excellent result of the change. Had it not been for the introduction
+of gas, the superiority of these new lamps must soon have compelled
+their adoption all over London. It is curious that the discovery of
+the illuminating power of gas--undoubtedly due to his father--should
+have superseded one of Lord Cochrane's most promising inventions as
+soon as it had been brought to recognized perfection.
+
+In such pursuits nine months of the unjust imprisonment were passed.
+"Lord Cochrane has hitherto borne all his hardships with great
+fortitude," wrote one of his most intimate friends on the 10th of
+November, "and, if there are any more in store for him, I hope he will
+continue to be cheerful and courageous." "His lordship always hopes
+for the best, and is never afraid of the worst," said the same
+authority on the 9th of December, "and therefore he is in good
+spirits."
+
+This fearless disposition led, in March, 1815, to a bold step, which
+some of Lord Cochrane's best friends deprecated. Knowing that he
+was unjustly imprisoned, he conceived that, since his re-election
+as member for Westminster, the imprisonment was illegal as well as
+unjust, in that it was contrary to the privilege of Parliament. The
+law provides that "no Member of Parliament can be imprisoned either
+for non-payment of a fine to the King, or for any other cause than
+treason, felony, or refusing to give security for the peace." It
+may be questioned whether, in the presence of this law, his first
+imprisonment, even under the sentence of the Court of King's Bench,
+was legal. But having been imprisoned, and having been expelled from
+the House of Commons, it is clear that his subsequent re-election
+could not interfere with the fulfilment, of the sentence passed
+against him, especially as he had not been able to make good his title
+to membership by taking the prescribed oaths and claiming a seat in
+the House. He, however--acting as it would seem under the advice of
+William Cobbett and other unsafe counsellors--thought otherwise,
+and considered that he was only vindicating a high constitutional
+principle, against the exercise of despotic power by the Government,
+in making his escape from the King's Bench Prison. "I did not quit
+these walls," he said in a letter addressed to the electors
+of Westminster, on the 12th of April, "to escape from personal
+oppression, but, at the hazard of my life, to assert that right to
+liberty which, as a member of the community, I have never forfeited,
+and that right, which I received from you, to attack in its very den
+the corruption which threatens to annihilate the liberties of us all.
+I did not quit them to fly from the justice of my country, but to
+expose the wickedness, fraud, and hypocrisy of those who elude that
+justice by committing their enormities under the colour of its name.
+I did not quit them from the childish motive of impatience under
+suffering. I stayed long enough to evince that I could endure
+restraint as a pain, but not as a penalty. I stayed long enough to be
+certain that my persecutors were conscious of their injustice, and to
+feel that my submission to their unmerited inflictions was losing the
+dignity of resignation, and sinking into the ignominious endurance of
+an insult."
+
+The escape was effected on the 6th of March, and by the same means
+which had proved successful in Lord Cochrane's retreat from the
+gaol at Malta, just four years before. His rooms in the King's Bench
+Prison, being on the upper storey of the building known as the
+State House, were nearly as high as the wall which formed the prison
+boundary, and the windows were only a few feet distant from it.
+The possibility of escape by this way, however, had never been
+contemplated, and therefore the windows were unprotected by bars.
+Accordingly Lord Cochrane, having been supplied, from time to time, by
+the same servant who had aided him at Malta, with a quantity of small
+strong rope, managed, soon after midnight, and while the watchman
+going his rounds was in a distant part of the prison, to get out of
+window and climb on to the roof of the building. Thence he threw a
+running noose over the iron spikes placed on the wall, and, exercising
+the agility that he had acquired during his seaman's occupations,
+easily gained the summit--to be somewhat discomfited by having to sit
+upon the iron spikes while he fastened his rope to one of them and
+prepared, with its help, to slip down to the pavement on the outer
+side of the wall. The rope was not strong enough, however, to bear his
+weight; it snapped when he was some twenty-five feet from the ground,
+and caused him to fall with his back upon the stone pavement. There he
+lay, in an almost unconscious state, for a considerable time. But no
+passer-by observed him; and before daylight he was able to crawl to
+the house of an old nurse of his eldest son's, who gladly afforded him
+concealment.
+
+Long concealment was not intended by him. "If it had not been," he
+said, "for the commotion excited by that obnoxious, injurious, and
+arbitrary measure, the Corn Bill, which began to evince itself on
+the day of my departure from prison, I should have lost no time in
+proceeding to the House of Commons; but, conjecturing that the spirit
+of disturbance might derive some encouragement from my unexpected
+appearance at that time, and having no inclination to promote tumult,
+I resolved to defer my appearance at the House, and, if possible,
+to conceal my departure from the prison, until the order of the
+metropolis should be restored."
+
+To the same effect was a letter addressed by Lord Cochrane to the
+Speaker of the House of Commons on the 9th of March. "I respectfully
+request," he said therein, "that you will state to the honourable
+the House of Commons, that I should immediately and personally
+have communicated to them my departure from the custody of Lord
+Ellenborough, by whom I have been long most unjustly detained; but I
+judged it better to endeavour to conceal my absence, and to defer my
+appearance in the House until the public agitation excited by the Corn
+Bill should subside. And I have further to request that you will also
+communicate to the House that it is my intention, on an early day, to
+present myself for the purpose of taking my seat and moving an inquiry
+into the conduct of Lord Ellenborough."
+
+On the day of that letter's delivery, the 10th of March--also famous
+as the day on which Buonaparte's escape from Elba was published in
+England--Lord Cochrane's gaolers discovered that he was no longer
+in his prison. Immediately a hue and cry was raised. This notice was
+issued: "Escaped from the King's Bench Prison, on Monday the 6th day
+of March, instant, Lord Cochrane. He is about five feet eleven inches
+in height,[A] thin and narrow-chested, with sandy hair and full eyes,
+red whiskers and eyebrows. Whoever will apprehend and secure Lord
+Cochrane in any of His Majesty's gaols in the kingdom shall have a
+reward of three hundred guineas from William Jones, Marshal of the
+King's Bench."
+
+[Footnote A: He was really about six feet two inches in height, and
+broad in proportion.]
+
+Great search was made in consequence of that notice, and Lord
+Cochrane's disappearance was an eleven days' wonder. Every newspaper
+had each day a new statement as to his whereabouts. Some declared that
+he had gone mad, and, as a madman's freak, was hiding himself in some
+corner of the prison; others that he was lodging at an apothecary's
+shop in London. According to one report, he had been seen at Hastings,
+according to another, at Farnham, and according to another, in Jersey;
+while others declared that he had been discovered in France and
+elsewhere on the Continent.
+
+None of the thousands whom political spite or the hope of reward set
+in search of him thought of looking for him in his real resting-place.
+"As soon as I had written to the Speaker," he said, "I went into
+Hampshire, where I remained eleven days, and till within one day of my
+appearance in the House of Commons. During that period I was occupied
+in regulating my affairs in that county, and in riding about the
+county, as was well known to the people of the neighbourhood, none of
+whom were base enough to be seduced by a bribe to deliver an injured
+man into the hands of his oppressors."
+
+At his own house, known as Holly Hill, in the south of Hampshire, Lord
+Cochrane remained quietly, though with no attempt to hide himself,
+until the 20th of March. He then, in fulfilment of his original
+purpose, returned to London, and on the following day entered the
+House of Commons at about two o'clock in the afternoon. Very great
+was the astonishment among the officials in attendance caused by his
+appearance, "dressed," according to one of the newspaper reports, "in
+his usual costume, grey pantaloons, frogged great-coat, &c.;" and by
+some of them the intelligence of his arrival was promptly communicated
+to the Marshal of the King's Bench. In the meanwhile, considering
+himself safe within the precincts of the House at any rate, he
+proceeded to occupy his customary seat. To that it was objected that,
+until he had taken the oaths and complied with the prescribed forms
+consequent on his re-election, he had no right within the building.
+He answered that he was willing to do this, and, to see that all was
+according to rule, went at once to the clerks' office. There it was
+pretended that the writ of his re-election had not yet been received,
+and that it must first be procured from the Crown Office, in Chancery
+Lane. Awaiting the return of the messenger, ostensibly despatched for
+this purpose, he again entered the House, and there he was found, at a
+few minutes before four, by Mr. Jones, the marshal, who, on receiving
+the information sent to him, had hurried up, with a Bow Street runner
+and some tipstaves. The runner, walking up to Lord Cochrane and
+touching him on the shoulder, bluntly claimed him as his prisoner.
+Lord Cochrane asked by what authority he dared to arrest a Member of
+Parliament in the House of Commons. "My lord," answered the man, "my
+authority is the public proclamation of the Marshal of the King's
+Bench Prison, offering a reward for your apprehension." Lord Cochrane
+declared that he neither acknowledged, nor would yield to, any
+such authority, that he was there to resume his seat as one of the
+representatives of the City of Westminster, and that any who dared to
+touch him would do so at their peril. Two tipstaves thereupon rudely
+seized him by the arms. He again cautioned them that the Marshal of
+the King's Bench had no authority within those walls, and that their
+conduct was altogether illegal. The answer was that he had better
+go quietly; his reply that he would not go at all. Other officers,
+however, came up. After a short struggle, he was overpowered, and, on
+his refusing to walk, he was carried out of the House on the shoulders
+of the tipstaves and constables.
+
+There was a halt, however, in this disgraceful march. The Bow Street
+runner expressed a fear that Lord Cochrane had firearms concealed
+under his clothes, and he was accordingly taken into one of the
+committee-rooms to be searched. Nothing more dangerous was found about
+him than a packet of snuff. "If I had thought of that before," said
+Lord Cochrane, not quite wisely, "you should have had it in your
+eyes!" On this incident was founded a foolish story, to be told next
+day, amid a score of exaggerations and falsehoods, in the Government
+newspapers. "Being asked why he had provided himself with such a
+quantity of snuff," we there read, "he said he had bought a canister
+for the purpose of throwing it in the eyes of those who might attempt
+to secure him, unless the opposing force should be too strong for
+resistance, observing that he had found the use of a similar weapon
+when he was in the Bay of Rosas, as he had thrown a mixture of lime,
+sand, &c., upon the Frenchmen who attempted to board his ship, and
+found it effectual." Another zealous organ of the Government added
+that he had also provided himself with a bottle of vitriol, to be used
+in the same way.
+
+Had a penknife been found in his pocket, perhaps the Marshal of the
+King's Bench, the Bow Street runner, the tipstaves, and the constables
+would all have fled, deeming that the possession of so deadly an
+instrument made the retention of their captive too dangerous a thing
+to be attempted. The snuff having been seized, however, he was again
+lodged on the officers' shoulders and so conveyed into the courtyard.
+He then said that, being now beyond the privilege of the House, he was
+willing to proceed quietly. A coach was called, and he was taken back
+to the King's Bench Prison.
+
+The indignity thus offered to him was small indeed in comparison with
+the indignity offered to the Parliament of England. In former times
+the slightest encroachment by the Crown, by the Government, or by
+any humbler part of the executive, was fiercely resented; and to this
+resentment some of the greatest and most memorable crises in the long
+fight for English liberty are due. But rarely had there been a
+more flagrant, never a more wanton, infringement of the hardly-won
+privileges of the House of Commons. Had Lord Cochrane been detected
+and seized violently in some out-of-the-way hiding-place, the
+over-zealous servants of the Crown would have had some excuse for
+their conduct. But in appearing publicly in the House, he showed to
+all the world that he was no runaway from justice, that he was willing
+to submit to its honest administration by honest hands, that all he
+sought was a fair hearing and a fair judgment upon his case, and that,
+believing it impossible to obtain that through the elaborate machinery
+of oppression which then went by the name of administration
+of justice, he now only asserted his right, the right of every
+Englishman, and especially the right of a Member of Parliament, to
+appeal from the agents of the law to the makers of the law, to call
+upon the legislators of his country to see whether he had not been
+wrongfully used by the men who, though practically too much their
+masters, were in theory only their servants.
+
+"I did not go to the House of Commons," he said, "to complain about
+losses or sufferings, about fine or imprisonment; or of property, to
+the amount of ten times the fine, of which I had been cheated by this
+malicious prosecution. I did not go to the House to complain of
+the mockery of having been heard in my defence, and answered by a
+reference to the decision from which that defence was an appeal. I did
+not go there to complain of those who expelled me from my profession.
+I did not go to the House to complain _generally_ of the advisers of
+the Crown. But I went there to complain of the conduct of him who has
+indeed the right of recommending to mercy, but whose privilege, as
+a Privy Councillor, of advising the confirmation of his own
+condemnations, and of interposing between the victims of
+legal vengeance and the justice of the throne, is spurious and
+unconstitutional. When it is considered that my intention of going to
+the House of Commons was announced on the day on which my absence from
+the prison was discovered; I say, when it is considered that, as soon
+as it was known that I had left the prison, it was also known that I
+had left it for the express purpose of going to the House of Commons
+to move for an inquiry into the conduct of Lord Ellenborough; when it
+is considered that every engine was set to work to tempt or intimidate
+me from that purpose, to frighten me out of the country or allure me
+back to the custody of the marshal, that assurances were given that
+the doors should be kept open for my admission at any hour of the
+night, and that I should be received with secresy, courtesy, and
+indemnity; and when it is considered that I was afterwards seized in
+the House of Commons, in defiance of the privileges of the House--can
+there be a doubt that the object of that apprehension was less the
+accomplishment of the sentence of the court than the prevention of
+the exposure which I was prepared to make of the injustice of that
+sentence? That recourse should have been had to violence to stifle the
+accusations which I was prepared to bring forward, that terror of the
+truth should have so superseded a wonted reverence for parliamentary
+privileges as to have admitted the intrusion of tipstaves and
+thief-takers into the House of Commons, to seize the person of an
+individual elected to serve as a member of that House, and avowedly
+attendant for that purpose, is extraordinary, though not unnatural."
+
+It must be admitted that the question of breach of privilege was
+somewhat more complicated than Lord Cochrane considered. His opponents
+did not think with him that he was still a member of the House of
+Commons. That membership had been taken from him, formally, though
+wrongfully, by his expulsion on the 5th of July, and he had
+himself recognized the expulsion by accepting re-election from the
+constituents of Westminster on the 16th of the same month. According
+to precedent, however, that re-election could not be perfected until
+the customary oaths had been taken; and, through a trick contrived
+in the clerks' office, he was hindered from taking them before the
+arrival of the marshal and his consequent arrest. Yet there can be no
+doubt that, in the special circumstances of the case, this arrest was
+especially indecorous, and, in the method of effecting it, altogether
+illegal. If he had no right in the House of Commons, he was a common
+trespasser, and ought to have been at once removed by the servants of
+the House, who alone could have power to touch him within the walls.
+To allow him a seat therein, without molestation, until the arrival
+of the servants of the King's Bench Prison, and then to allow those
+servants to enter the House and act upon an authority that could there
+be no authority, was wholly unwarrantable, a gross insult to Lord
+Cochrane, and, to the customs of the House of Commons, an insult yet
+more gross. But to the hardship and the insult alike the House of
+Commons, servile in its devotion to the Government of the day, was
+blind.
+
+A miserable farce ensued. While the House was sitting, a few hours
+after Lord Cochrane's capture, a letter from the Marshal of the King's
+Bench was read by the Speaker, in which his bold act was formally
+reported and apologized for. "I humbly hope," he there said, "that I
+have not committed any breach of privilege by the steps I have taken;
+and that, if I have done wrong, it will be attributed to error in
+judgment, and not to any intention of doing anything that might give
+offence."
+
+The short debate that followed the reading of that letter is very
+noteworthy. Lord Castlereagh spoke first, and dictated the view to
+be taken by all loyal members of the House. "From the nature of the
+arrest and the circumstances attending it, I do not think, sir," he
+said, "that the House is called upon to interfere. I am not aware, as
+the House was not actually sitting, with the mace on the table and the
+Speaker in the chair, when the arrest took place, that any breach of
+privilege has been committed. It must be quite obvious to every man
+that the marshal has not acted wilfully in violation of the privileges
+of the House. No blame can attach to him, since he has submitted
+himself to the judgment of the House of Commons after having done
+that which he considered his duty as a civil officer. Having had Lord
+Cochrane in his custody, from which he escaped, the marshal was bound
+not to pass over any justifiable means of putting him under arrest
+whenever a fair opportunity occurred."
+
+Most of the members thought, with Lord Castlereagh, that this was
+a "fair opportunity." Only one, Mr. Tierney--and he very
+feebly--ventured to express an opposite opinion. "I consider this,"
+he said, "to be the case of a member regularly elected to serve in
+Parliament, and coming down to take his seat. Now, sir, the House is
+regularly adjourned until ten o'clock in the morning; and I recollect
+occasions when the Speaker did take the chair at that hour. Suppose,
+then, a member, about to take his seat, came down here at an early
+hour, with the proper documents in his hand, and desired to be
+instructed in the mode of proceeding, and, while waiting, an officer
+entered, arrested him, and took his person away, would not this be a
+case to call for the interference of the House?" Mr. Tierney admitted
+that he approved of Lord Cochrane's arrest, but feared it might become
+a precedent and be put to the "improper purpose" of sanctioning the
+arrest of members more deserving of consideration.
+
+To please him, and to satisfy the formalities, therefore, the question
+was referred to a committee of privileges. This committee reported, on
+the 23rd of March, "that, under the particular circumstances, it did
+not appear that the privileges of Parliament had been violated, so as
+to call for the interposition of the House;" and the House of Commons
+being satisfied with that opinion, no further attention was paid to
+the subject.
+
+In the meanwhile Lord Cochrane was being punished, with inexcusable
+severity, for his contempt of the authority of Lord Ellenborough and
+Mr. Jones. A member of the House, during the discussion of the 21st of
+March, had said that he had just come from the King's Bench Prison.
+"I found Lord Cochrane," he had averred, "confined there in a strong
+room, fourteen feet square, without windows, fireplace, table, or
+bed. I do not think it can be necessary for the purpose of security
+to confine him in this manner. According to my own feelings, it is a
+place unfit for the noble lord, or for any other person whatsoever."
+
+In this Strong Room, however, Lord Cochrane was detained for more
+than three weeks. It was partly underground, devoid of ventilation or
+necessary warmth, and, according to the testimony of Dr. Buchan, one
+of the physicians who visited him in it, "rendered extremely damp and
+unpleasant by the exudations coming through the wall."
+
+On being taken to this den immediately after his capture, Lord
+Cochrane was informed by Mr. Jones that he would be detained in it for
+a short time only, until the apartments over the lobby of the prison
+were prepared for his reception. That was done in a few days; but no
+intimation of a change was made until the 1st of April, when a message
+to that effect was sent to the prisoner. On the following day he
+received a letter from Mr. Jones informing him that, if he would
+anticipate the payment of the fine of 1000_l._ levied against him, and
+would also pledge himself, and give security for the keeping of the
+promise, to make no further effort to escape, he might be allowed to
+occupy the more comfortable quarters. "It is no new thing," said Lord
+Cochrane, "for a prisoner to escape or to be retaken; but to require
+of any prisoner a bond and securities not to repeat such escape was,
+I think, a proposition without precedent, and such as the marshal knew
+could not be complied with by me without humiliation, and therefore
+could not be proposed by him without insult. Besides, he had my
+assurance that if I were again to quit his custody (which I gave him
+no reason to believe I should attempt, and which, as I observed and
+believe, it was as easy for me to effect from that room as from any
+other part of the prison), I should proceed no further than to the
+House of Commons, and that where he found me before he might find me
+again; I having had no other object in view than that of expressing,
+by some peculiar act, the keen sense which I entertained of _peculiar_
+injustice, and of endeavouring to bring such additional proofs of that
+injustice before the House as were not in my possession when I was
+heard in my defence." Mr. Jones, however, resolved to keep his captive
+in the Strong Room, unless he would promise to resign himself to
+captivity in a less obnoxious part of the prison.
+
+Even for that negative favour the marshal took great credit to himself
+in a document which he issued at the time. "If a humane and kind
+concern for this unfortunate nobleman," he there averred, "had not
+softened the solicitude which I naturally felt for my own security, I
+could have committed him, on my own warrant for the escape, to the new
+gaol in Horsemonger Lane, for the space of a month; and that power
+is still within my jurisdiction. Had I thought proper to exercise it,
+Lord Cochrane would then have been confined in a solitary cell with a
+stone floor, with windows impenetrably barred and without glass; nor
+would it have proved half the size of the Strong Room in the King's
+Bench, which has a boarded floor and glazed lights." That statement
+reasonably stirred the anger of Lord Cochrane. "Though the solitary
+cell in Horsemonger Lane," he answered, "may be half the size of the
+Strong Room, it could not, I apprehend, have been more gloomy, damp,
+filthy, or injurious to health than the last-mentioned dungeon. And
+since Mr. Jones could only have confined me in the former place for
+a month, and did confine me in the latter for twenty-six days, I can
+scarcely see that degree of difference which should entitle him to
+those 'grateful sentiments for his mode of acting on the occasion'
+which, he submits to the public, it is my duty to entertain. The
+'glazed lights' mentioned by Mr. Jones were not put up till I had been
+thirty hours in the place, and I have always understood that I was
+indebted for them to the good offices of Mr. Bennet and Mr. Lambton,
+who happened [as part of a Parliamentary Committee] to be prosecuting
+their inquiry into the state of the prison at the time of my return.
+For these and all other mercies of the said marshal, my gratitude is
+due to their friendship and sense of duty, and to his dread of their
+discoveries and proceedings."
+
+It is clear that nothing but fear of the consequences induced Mr.
+Jones to remove Lord Cochrane from the Strong Room, after twenty-six
+days of confinement therein. On the 12th of April the prisoner issued
+an address to the electors of Westminster, detailing some of the
+hardships to which he was being subjected; and its publication
+immediately roused so much popular interest that the authorities of
+King's Bench Prison deemed it necessary to make at any rate a show of
+amelioration in his treatment. On the 13th, his physician, Dr. Buchan,
+was allowed to visit him, and his report was such that another medical
+man of eminence, Mr. Saumarez, was sent to examine into the state of
+the prisoner's health. Part of Dr. Buchan's certificate has already
+been quoted. The rest was as follows: "This is to certify that I have
+this day visited Lord Cochrane, who is affected with severe pain of
+the breast. His pulse is low, his hands cold, and he has many symptoms
+of a person about to have typhus or putrid fever. These symptoms are,
+in my opinion, produced by the stagnant air of the Strong Room in
+which he is now confined." "I hereby certify," wrote Mr. Saumarez,
+"that I have visited Lord Cochrane, and am of opinion, from the state
+of his health at this time, that it is essentially necessary that he
+should be removed from the room which he now inhabits to one which
+is better ventilated, and in which there is a fireplace. His lordship
+complains of pain in the chest, with difficulty of respiration,
+accompanied with great coldness of the hands; and, from the general
+state of his health, there is great reason to fear that a low typhus
+may come on."
+
+The only result of those medical opinions was a renewal of the
+offer to remove Lord Cochrane to the rooms prepared for him, on the
+conditions previously specified by Mr. Jones. Lord Cochrane answered
+that he would rather die than submit to such an insulting arrangement.
+He published the doctors' certificates, however, on the 15th of April,
+and their effect upon the public was so great that the authorities
+were forced on the following day to take him out of his dungeon. Mr.
+Jones's account of this step is worth quoting. "I again tried," he
+reported, "to induce Lord Cochrane's friends and relations to give me
+any kind of undertaking against another escape. On their refusal, I
+determined myself to become his friend, and, at my own risk, to remove
+him to the rooms which have been already mentioned, and where, I am
+confident, he can have no cause of complaint. These rooms not being
+altogether safe against such a person as Lord Cochrane, should he
+determine to risk another escape, I must look to the laws of my
+country as a safeguard, in the hope that the terrors of them will
+discourage him from attempting a repetition of his offence, and
+prevent him from incurring the penalties of another indictment."
+
+Lord Cochrane never really intended to attempt a second escape. Had it
+been otherwise, the illness induced by his confinement in the Strong
+Room would have restrained him. Being placed in healthier apartments
+on the 16th of April, he quietly remained there for the remainder of
+his term of imprisonment. On the 20th of June he was informed that,
+the term being now at an end, he was at liberty to depart on payment
+of the fine of 1000_l._ levied against him. This he at first refused
+to do, and accordingly he was detained in prison for a fortnight more;
+but at length the entreaties of his friends prevailed. On the 3rd of
+July he tendered to the Marshal of the King's Bench a 1000_l._ note,
+with this memorable endorsement: "My health having suffered by long
+and close confinement, and my oppressors being resolved to deprive
+me of property or life, I submit to robbery to protect myself from
+murder, in the hope that I shall live to bring the delinquents to
+justice." Upon that the prison doors were opened for him, and he was
+able once more to fight for the justice so cruelly withheld from
+him, and to make his innocence entirely clear to all whose selfish
+interests did not force them to be blind to the truth.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV.
+
+LORD COCHRANE'S RETURN TO THE HOUSE OF COMMONS.--HIS SHARE IN THE
+REFUSAL OF THE DUKE OF CUMBERLAND'S MARRIAGE PENSION.--HIS CHARGES
+AGAINST LORD ELLENBOROUGH, AND THEIR REJECTION BY THE HOUSE.--HIS
+POPULARITY.--THE PART TAKEN BY HIM IN PUBLIC MEETINGS FOR THE RELIEF
+OF THE PEOPLE.--THE LONDON TAVERN MEETING.--HIS FURTHER PROSECUTION,
+TRIAL AT GUILDFORD, AND SUBSEQUENT IMPRISONMENT.--THE PAYMENT OF HIS
+FINES BY A PENNY SUBSCRIPTION.--THE CONGRATULATIONS OF HIS WESTMINSTER
+CONSTITUENTS.
+
+[1815-1816.]
+
+
+Released from imprisonment on Monday, the 3rd of July, Lord Cochrane
+resumed his seat in the House of Commons on the evening of the
+same day, just in time to secure the defeat of a measure which was
+especially obnoxious to his Radical friends. The Duke of Cumberland
+having lately married a daughter of the Duke of Mecklenburg-Strelitz,
+it was proposed to augment his income of about 20,000_l._ a year by
+a further pension of 6000_l._ A bill to that effect was brought in by
+Lord Castlereagh, and, after much sullen opposition from independent
+members, allowed a first reading by a majority of seventeen. On the
+second division the majority was reduced to twelve. The bill was
+brought on for the third reading on the 3rd of July, and would have
+been passed through the House of Commons by the Speaker's casting vote
+but for Lord Cochrane's sudden appearance. His vote secured a majority
+against it, and thereby it was finally overthrown. Great, on the
+morrow, were the rejoicings of his supporters. "What a triumph," it
+was said in a friendly newspaper, "is this to innocence! After being
+sentenced to the scandalous and disgraceful punishment of the pillory,
+after being confined in a loathsome dungeon, fined 1000_l._ in money
+to the king, disgracefully removed from that service in which he had
+attained such high honours and rendered to his country such essential
+service, his escutcheon kicked out of Westminster Abbey, his order
+of knighthood taken from him; in short, after having every possible
+indignity which the most malignant imagination could invent heaped
+upon him in every way, his single vote, on the very first day of his
+returning to his parliamentary duties, has been the means of obtaining
+a signal victory over those under whose persecution he had been so
+long suffering."
+
+The one victory upon which Lord Cochrane set his heart, however--the
+reversal of the unjust sentence passed upon him, and the consequent
+restoration of the honours and offices that were now doubly dear to
+him--he was not able to obtain. On the 6th of July, just before the
+prorogation of Parliament, he gave notice that, early in the next
+session, he should move for the appointment of a committee to inquire
+into the conduct of Lord Ellenborough and others towards him during
+the Stock Exchange trial. In arranging for this new effort at
+self-justification, he was partly occupied during the ensuing autumn
+and winter, and the question was brought prominently before the House
+of Commons in the spring of 1816; only to issue, however, in further
+injustice and disappointment.
+
+His purpose from the first was, of course, virtually the impeachment
+of Lord Ellenborough; and that object was yet more apparent from the
+altered shape which the question assumed when introduced in the new
+session. During the recess, Lord Cochrane, with the help of advisers,
+some of whom were more zealous than wise, William Cobbett being the
+chief, had prepared an elaborate series of "charges of partiality,
+misrepresentation, injustice, and oppression against the Lord Chief
+Justice;" and these were formally introduced to the House of Commons
+on the 5th of March. "When I recollect," said Lord Cochrane on that
+occasion, "the imputations cast upon my character, and circulated
+industriously previous to any legal proceedings, the conduct pursued
+at my trial, the verdict obtained, the ineffectual endeavours; to
+procure a revision of my case in the Court of King's Bench, and the
+infamous sentence there pronounced, together with my expulsion from
+this House without being suffered to expose its injustice--when I call
+to mind my dismissal from a service in which I have spent the fairest
+portion of my life, at least without reproach, and my illegal and
+unmerited deprivation of the order of the Bath--it is impossible
+to speak without emotion. I have but one course now left to pursue,
+namely, to show that the charge of the Lord Chief Justice, on which he
+directed the jury to decide, was not only unsupported by, but was
+in direct contradiction to, the evidence on which it professed to
+be founded. This is the best course to pursue both in justice to the
+learned judge and to myself. Either I am unfit to sit in this House,
+or the judge has no right to his place on the bench. I have courted
+investigation in every shape; and I trust that the learned lord will
+not shrink from it or suffer his friends on the opposite side to evade
+the consideration of these charges by 'the previous question.'"
+
+Lord Cochrane thereupon tendered to the House thirteen charges against
+Lord Ellenborough, in which every point of importance in the Stock
+Exchange trial was minutely detailed and discussed; and these charges
+being read, therein occupying nearly three hours, were ordered to be
+printed. A fourteenth charge, bearing upon Lord Ellenborough's conduct
+subsequent to the trial, was introduced on the 29th of March; but
+this, as it included aspersions upon the character of another judge,
+Sir Simon Le Blanc, was objected to and withdrawn. There was further
+discussion on the subject on the 1st and the 29th of April; but not
+much was done until the 30th of April.
+
+On that evening, Lord Cochrane formally moved that his charges against
+Lord Ellenborough should be referred to a Committee of the whole
+House, and that evidence in support of them should be heard at the
+bar. A lengthy discussion then ensued, the most notable speeches
+being made by the Solicitor-General, Sir Francis Burdett, and the
+Attorney-General.
+
+The Solicitor-General of course opposed the motion. "As the House, on
+the one hand," he said, "should jealously watch over the conduct of
+judges, so, on the other, it should protect them when deserving of
+protection, not only as a debt of justice due to the judges, but as
+a debt due to justice herself, in order that the public confidence in
+the purity of the administration of our laws may not be disappointed,
+and that the course of that administration may continue the admiration
+of the world; for, unless the judges are protected in the exercise of
+their functions, the public opinion of the excellence of our laws will
+be inevitably weakened,--and to weaken public opinion is to weaken
+justice herself."
+
+That sort of argument, too frivolous and faulty, it might be supposed,
+to influence any one, had weight with the House of Commons to which it
+was addressed; and the Solicitor-General adduced much more of it.
+To him the spotless character of Lord Ellenborough appeared to be an
+ample defence against Lord Cochrane's charges. "Never," he said, with
+a truthfulness that posterity can appreciate, "never was there an
+individual at the bar or on the bench less liable to the imputation
+of corrupt motives; never was there one more remarkable for
+independence--I will say, sturdy independence--of character, than the
+noble and learned lord. For twelve years he has presided on the bench
+with unsullied honour, displaying a perfect knowledge of the
+law; evincing as much legal knowledge as was ever amassed by any
+individual; and now, in the latter part of his life, when he has
+arrived at the highest dignity to which a man can arrive, by a
+promotion well-earned at the bar, and doubly well-earned at the bench,
+we are told that he has sacrificed all his honours by acting from
+corrupt motives!"
+
+Sir Francis Burdett replied effectively to the speeches of the
+Solicitor-General and others who sided with him, and nobly defended
+his friend. He showed that the proposal to refuse investigation of
+this case because it might weaken the cause of justice, by making the
+conduct of the administrators of justice contemptible, was worse than
+frivolous. "Such language," he averred, "would operate against the
+investigation of any charges whatever against any judge; would indeed
+form a barrier against the exercise of the best privilege of this
+House--the privilege of inquiring into the conduct of courts of
+justice. It would serve equally well to shelter even those judges
+who have been dragged from the bench for their misconduct." He then
+reviewed the incidents of the Stock Exchange trial, and urged that
+Lord Cochrane had good reason for bringing forward his charges. "The
+question for the House to consider is, 'Do these charges, if admitted,
+contain criminal matter for the consideration of the House?' I
+conceive that they do. No doubt the judges who condemned Russell and
+Sidney were, at the time, spoken of as men of high character, who
+could not be supposed to suffer any base motives to influence their
+conduct. Such arguments as those ought to be banished from this House.
+It is our duty to look, with constitutional suspicion on jealousy, on
+the proceedings of the judges; and, when a grave charge is solemnly
+brought forward, justice to the country, as well as to the judge,
+demands an inquiry into it."
+
+That, however, was refused. After a long speech from the
+Attorney-General, and an eloquent reply by Lord Cochrane, the House
+divided on the motion. Eighty-nine members voted against it. Its only
+supporters were Sir Francis Burdett and Lord Cochrane himself. Not
+only did the House refuse to listen to the allegations against Lord
+Ellenborough; in the excess of its devotion to such law and such order
+as the Government of the day appointed, it even resolved that all the
+entries in its record of proceedings which referred to this subject
+should be expunged from the journals. Lord Cochrane made no
+resistance to this further insult thrown upon him. "It gives me great
+satisfaction," he said, in the brief and dignified speech with which
+he closed the discussion, "to think that the vote which has been come
+to has been come to without any of my charges having been disproved.
+Whatever may be done with them now, they will find their way to
+posterity, and posterity will form a different judgment concerning
+them than that which has been adopted by this House. So long as I have
+a seat in this House, however, I will continue to bring them forward,
+year by year and time after time, until I am allowed the opportunity
+of establishing the truth of my allegations."
+
+Other occupations prevented the full realization of that purpose. But
+to the end of his life Lord Cochrane used every occasion of asserting
+his innocence and courting a full investigation of all the incidents
+on which his assertion was based. Posterity, as he truly prophesied,
+has learnt to endorse his judgment; and therefore, in the ensuing
+pages, it will not be necessary to adduce from his letters and actions
+more than occasional illustrations of the temper which animated him
+throughout with reference to this heaviest of all his heavy troubles.
+
+By these troubles, however, even in the time of their greatest
+pressure, he was not overcome; and in the midst of them he found time
+and heart for active labour in the good work of various sorts that was
+always dear to him. He used the advantages of his liberty in striving
+to perfect the invention of improved street lamps and lighting
+material that had occupied him while in prison, and to procure their
+general adoption. His place in Parliament, moreover, all through the
+session of 1816, was employed not only in seeking justice for himself,
+but also in furthering every project advanced for benefiting the
+community and checking the pernicious action of the Government. A
+zealous, honest Whig before, he was now as zealous and as honest
+as ever in all his political conduct. And his devotion to the best
+interests of the people was yet more apparent in his unflagging
+labours, out of Parliament, for the public good. His great abilities,
+rendered all the more prominent by the cruel persecution to which he
+had been and still was subjected, made him a leading champion of the
+people during the turmoil to which misgovernment at home, and the
+distracted state of foreign politics, gave a special stimulus in 1816.
+
+A long list might be made of the great meetings which he attended,
+and took part in, both among his own constituents of Westminster
+and elsewhere, for the consideration of popular grievances and their
+remedies. One such meeting, attended by Henry Brougham and Sir Francis
+Burdett among others, was held in Palace Yard, Westminster, on the
+1st of March, for the purpose of petitioning Parliament against the
+renewal of the property-tax and the maintenance of a standing army in
+time of peace. Lord Cochrane, the hero of the day, on account of "the
+spirit of opposition which he had shown to the infringement of the
+constitution and the grievances of the people," won for himself new
+favour by the boldness with which he denounced the policy of the
+Government, which, boasting that it was ruining the French nation, was
+at the same time bringing misery also upon Englishmen by the excessive
+taxation and the reckless extravagance to which it resorted.
+
+A smaller, but much more momentous meeting assembled at the City
+of London Tavern on the 29th of July, under the auspices of the
+Association for the Relief of the Manufacturing and Labouring Poor.
+Instigated in a spirit of praiseworthy charity by many of the most
+influential persons of the day, it was used by Lord Cochrane for the
+enforcement of the views as to public right and public duty, and the
+mutual relations of the rich and the poor, which were forced upon him
+by his recent troubles, and the relations in which he was at this time
+placed with some over-zealous champions of popular reform, and some
+unreasonable exponents of popular grievances. That his conduct on this
+occasion was extravagant and even factious, he afterwards heartily
+regretted. Yet as a memorable illustration of the power and
+earnestness with which he fought for what seemed to him to be right,
+as well with word as with sword, its details, as reported at the time,
+may be here set forth at length.
+
+    About half-past one o'clock the Duke of York entered and took
+    the chair, supported on his right by the Duke of Kent, and on
+    his left by the Duke of Cambridge. He was accompanied on
+    his entrance by the Archbishop of Canterbury, the Bishop of
+    London, the Duke of Rutland, Lord Manvers, the Chancellor
+    of the Exchequer, Mr. Wilberforce, and other distinguished
+    individuals.
+
+    His Royal Highness the Duke of York immediately
+proceeded to open the business of the day, by observing that the
+present meeting had been called to consider and, as far as possible,
+to alleviate the present distress and sufferings of the labouring
+classes of the community. These distresses were, he feared, too well
+known to all who heard him to require any description; and all he
+had to add to the bare statement of them was the expression of his
+confidence that the liberality which had been so signally manifested
+in the course of foreign distress would not be found wanting when the
+direction of it was to be towards the comfort and relief of our own
+countrymen at home.
+
+THE DUKE OF KENT, after alluding to the exertions of the Committee of
+1812, observed that the immediate object was to raise a fund, in
+the subsequent accumulation and management of which many ulterior
+arrangements might be projected, and from which charity might soon
+emanate in a thousand directions. He doubted not that every county and
+every town would be quick to imitate the example of the metropolis.
+The association of 1812 had at least the merit of producing this
+effect, and had spread through the whole land that spirit of active
+benevolence which he was feebly invoking on this occasion. He trusted
+that it was necessary for him to say but little more to insure the
+adoption of the resolution which he should have the honour to propose.
+He confessed he felt gratified when he saw so great a concourse of
+his countrymen assembled together for such a purpose, and additional
+gratification at seeing by whom they were supported. He was sure,
+then, that he should not plead in vain to the national liberality; but
+that the remedy would be promptly afforded to an evil which he trusted
+would be found but temporary. If they should be so happy as but to
+succeed in discovering new sources of employment to supply the place
+    of those channels which had been suddenly shut up, he should
+    indeed despond if we did not soon restore the country to that
+    same flourishing condition which had long made her the envy of
+    the world. The royal Duke then moved the first resolution,
+    as follows:--"That the transition from a state of extensive
+    warfare to a system of peace has occasioned a stagnation of
+    employment and a revulsion of trade, deeply affecting the
+    situation of many parts of the community, and producing many
+    instances of great local distress."
+
+    The resolution was seconded by Mr. Harman.
+
+    Lord Cochrane offered himself to the attention of the meeting,
+    but was for some time unable to proceed, his voice being lost
+    in the huzzas and hisses which his presence called forth.
+    Silence being at length in some measure obtained, his lordship
+    said he would not have addressed the meeting but that, having
+    received a circular letter from the committee, and feeling
+    the importance of the subject, he would have thought it a
+    dereliction of his duty if he refrained from attending. He
+    rose thus early because the observations he had to submit
+    would not be suitable if made when the other resolutions were
+    put. The first resolution was, in his opinion, founded on
+    a gross fallacy; and this was his reason for saying so. The
+    existing distresses could not be truly ascribed to any sudden
+    transition from war to peace. Could it be pretended that it
+    was peace which had occasioned the fall in the value of all
+    agricultural produce? Or could any man venture to assert that
+    the difficulties and sufferings of the manufacturing classes
+    had any other cause than a prodigious and enormous burthen of
+    taxation? He was much gratified at seeing the royal Dukes so
+    active in promoting a generous and laudable undertaking, and
+    he hoped he should not be understood as treating them with
+    disrespect when he repeated that the resolution was founded
+    on an entire fallacy. But, not to content himself with a mere
+    assertion of his own belief,
+    he had brought official documents to prove the correctness
+    of his statements; and if he should be wrong, he saw the
+    Chancellor of the Exchequer near him, who would have the
+    opportunity of correcting his misrepresentation. This brief
+    statement, he believed, would be quite sufficient to show that
+    the financial situation of the country was such as to render
+    any attempts of that meeting for the purpose of extending
+    general relief utterly ineffectual. The whole revenue of the
+    kingdom was 62,267,450_l._, deducting the property-tax, and
+    the revenue was thus expended. The interest of the national
+    debt, including the interest of unfunded exchequer bills, was
+    upwards of 40,300,000_l._, leaving to support the expenses of
+    Government only about 22,000,000_l._ It was this enormous sum
+    which now hung round our necks--it was this, which unnecessary
+    extravagance had caused to increase from year to year to its
+    present terrible amount, which was the cause of all the
+    evils of the country at this moment. This taxation, and
+    extravagance, for which the country was now suffering, was
+    supported and sanctioned by those who had derived and still
+    derived large emoluments from them. These were truths that
+    the people ought to know; for they were the source of their
+    burthens, and the origin of all the mischief. It was this
+    profuse expenditure of the public money, to say no worse of
+    it, that occasioned the present calamities. It was the lavish
+    expenditure to meet a compliant list of placemen that brought
+    the country to its present state. The deficiency in the
+    revenue occasioned by the enormous interest of the national
+    debt, which ministers would have to supply, would, according
+    to the present disbursements and receipts, amount to
+    11,578,000_l._ unless that expenditure were reduced, every
+    such attempt as they were at present making would, he was
+    convinced, prove abortive: it was a mere topical application
+    while a mortal distemper was raging within. He had taken
+    no notice in his estimate of the charges for sinecures or
+    the bounties on exports and imports: and yet the returns upon
+    which he went, exclusive of these charges, showed a deficit
+    for the ensuing year of 3,500,000_l._ Were those who heard him
+    prepared to make this good? It was, he believed, undeniable
+    that nothing could equalize our revenue with our expenditure,
+    but the putting down entirely the army and navy, or the
+    extinction of one half of the national debt; but when he
+    looked to the actual receipt of the last quarter and found
+    a falling off of 2,400,000_l._, which, with a corresponding
+    decrease in the three succeeding quarters, must create a new
+    deficit of 10,000,000_l._, and, added to the 3,500,000_l._
+    to which he had alluded, would form a sum equal to the whole
+    amount of the boasted sinking-fund, he felt that it was worse
+    than trifling to suppose we could go on upon the present
+    system. Were they prepared to make up this enormous
+    deficiency? [A voice from the crowd cried "Yes."] He was happy
+    to hear it: he supposed it was some fund-holder who answered,
+    and if any class could do so, it was the fund-holders. They
+    alone had the ability, they alone now derived any returns
+    from their property; but even if they should be both able and
+    willing, still it would only remain a positive deficit made
+    good, and no new facility would be derived for alleviating
+    the existing burthens. The burthens and distresses must
+    still remain what they were before. He spoke not now upon
+    conjecture, or loose calculation, he had brought his authority
+    with him. These were the records from which he derived his
+    statements--the official returns of the Treasury; and
+    if false, the Chancellor of the Exchequer was present to
+    contradict them. He was glad, he confessed, to see him, for
+    those who heard him were, no doubt, aware that it was not
+    always in the House of Commons that a minister could discover
+    the genuine sentiments of the people. If, therefore, no other
+    person should move an amendment, he should feel it his duty
+    to propose an omission of that part of the resolution which
+    ascribed the distressed state of the country to the transition
+    from a state of war to a state of peace, and to state the
+    cause to be an enormous debt, and a lavish expenditure. He had
+    come there with the expectation of seeing the Duke of Rutland
+    in the chair; and with some hopes, as he took the lead upon
+    this occasion, that it was his intention to surrender that
+    sinecure of 9,000_l._ a-year which he was now in the habit
+    of putting in his pocket. He still trusted that all who were
+    present and were also holders of sinecures had it in their
+    intention to sacrifice them to their liberality and their
+    justice; and that they did not come there to aid the
+    distresses of their country by paying half-a-crown per cent,
+    out of the hundreds which they took from it. If they did not,
+    all he could say was, that to him their pretended charity was
+    little better than a fraud. Without, however, taking up more
+    of their time, he should move his amendment, with this one
+    additional observation, that it would be a disgrace to an
+    enlightened meeting, and particularly to a meeting which might
+    be considered as comprising an aggregate mass of the property
+    and intellect of the country, to place a fallacy upon the
+    record of their proceedings, and to build all their following
+    resolutions upon an assertion which had no foundation in
+    truth. He concluded by moving the following amendment to the
+    first resolution:--"That the enormous load of the national
+    debt, together with the large military establishment and the
+    profuse expenditure of public money, was the real cause of the
+    present public distress."
+
+    Mr. Wilberforce said he was himself too much of an Englishman,
+    and had been too long engaged in political discussions to feel
+    any surprise that those who felt warmly on such a subject as
+    the present should be anxious to give
+    expression to their sentiments: but he could not help thinking
+    that, upon cool reflection, the noble lord would be of opinion
+    that his own object would be better attained if he confined
+    himself, on this occasion, to the distinct question under
+    consideration. The noble lord said the country was in a
+    crisis, and would they apply a mere topical remedy? but he
+    might ask the noble lord if he would refuse to assuage the
+    pain of a temporary distemper because he had it not in his
+    power at once to cure it radically? To him the existing
+    distress appeared to be a distemper which rather called for
+    immediate alleviation, than for the speculative discussion of
+    its cause. He thought the most charitable and manly course to
+    be pursued--and that which must be most congenial to what
+    he knew to be the noble lord's own charitable and manly
+    disposition--was not to call upon the meeting to give any
+    opinion upon a political question not under consideration,
+    so as to divert them from pursuing it with diligence and
+    confidence, but to postpone to a better opportunity a
+    discussion of this nature, and to unite cordially in the
+    general cause of finding employment and encouragement for our
+    suffering fellow-citizens. If the noble lord would reflect
+    upon the best mode of relieving the distresses of the people,
+    he would find his amendment not likely to have that tendency.
+    Let him reserve all discussion on the question it involved
+    until he could do it without interrupting the stream of
+    charity, and until he could enter upon it under fair and
+    proper circumstances. He (Mr. Wilberforce), in a proper place,
+    would not shrink from meeting the noble lord on that inquiry;
+    he was twice as old in public life as the noble lord could
+    pretend to be, and fully as independent; yet he would not have
+    easily supposed any man, however young in politics, could have
+    started such topics there. For his part, he should be sorry to
+    take advantage of any credit which might be
+    to supposed to belong to him upon such an occasion as this to
+    cast reproaches upon those who were concurring with him in a
+    benevolent design. The meeting must on the present occasion
+    feel how much indebted it stood to the royal personages for
+    their attendance. They had come to listen to a discussion
+    which had for its avowed and direct object the relief of the
+    people, and they were in the room suddenly called upon to lay
+    aside the practical part of their inquiry and to enter upon
+    a distinct pursuit. Was such a course fair towards those
+    illustrious individuals? Was it that which was likely
+    to induce them to listen to proposals for their personal
+    co-operation on occasions of benevolence, if they had no
+    security against the occupation of their time for discussions
+    of a different character? In conclusion, he entreated the
+    noble lord, of whose real disposition to relieve the people
+    of England he had no doubt, and whose motives he could justly
+    appreciate, to withdraw his amendment.
+
+    Lord Cochrane thanked the honourable gentleman for his
+    personal civilities towards him, and said that he would feel
+    no hesitation in withdrawing his amendment if the honourable
+    gentleman would state to the meeting, on his own personal
+    veracity and honour, that he believed that the original
+    resolution contained the true cause of the public distress,
+    and the amendment the false one. If the honourable gentleman
+    would say that--if any respectable man present would say
+    it--he would be satisfied.
+
+    Mr. Cotes said he was entirely unconnected with the noble
+    lord, and had never even had the honour of speaking, to him.
+    He agreed, however, with him in thinking that this was a
+    moment when the eyes of the public ought to be open to their
+    real situation. The amendment harmonized entirely with all
+    the opinions which he had been able to form upon subject. Mr.
+    Wilberforce, to whose humane and benevolent
+    Mr. character he was happy to pay his acknowledgments, had
+    attempted to get rid of the noble lord's amendment by a sort
+    of side-wind; but to his judgment there was no incompatibility
+    between the object of the meeting and the amendment. There was
+    nothing irrelevant in it; it naturally grew out of the course
+    adopted by the chair, and in which a cause of the prevailing
+    distress was distinctly specified. The question was, then,
+    ought their resolutions to go forth to the public with a
+    falsehood upon the face of them? Ought they not to state the
+    true cause, since His Royal Highness by mistake had assigned
+    a fallacious one? Mr. Wilberforce, with his usual ability, but
+    in a manner that still marked its duplicity--he meant the
+    word in no offensive sense--had asked, would he enter into
+    a political discussion when we were called upon to extend
+    relief? He begged to state this was not the true question: it
+    was whether they would found all the future proceedings
+    upon error and misstatement, or upon incontrovertible facts.
+    Another question was, would they be satisfied to patch up the
+    wounds of the country for a short period or seek to remedy
+    the disease in its spring and in its sources before it became
+    still more alarming and incurable? The Duke of Kent said he
+    had offered the resolution as it had been put into his hand;
+    and if he had conceived there had been any mention of a course
+    upon which difference of opinion could exist, he hoped they
+    knew him sufficiently to believe that he should have been
+    incapable of requiring their assent to it. He now, therefore,
+    proposed an omission of all that part of the resolution
+    which had any reference whatever to the cause of the present
+    distress. He knew the noble lord well enough--and he had known
+    him in early life--to be assured that he would agree with him,
+    at least in a declaration as to the fact. Their common object,
+    he believed, was to afford relief and to admit its necessity
+    without assigning
+    either one cause or another. For his own part, it had not been
+    his intention to attend a political discussion. He would never
+    enter the arena of politics with the noble lord; but he begged
+    leave to say, he considered himself as competent to plead
+    the cause of humanity, to advocate the interests of the
+    weather-beaten sufferer, as the noble lord could be. There
+    were, however, other times and other places for men to engage
+    in discussion of party politics, and he therefore implored the
+    noble lord not to distract the attention of the meeting by the
+    introduction of these; and to keep solely in view that they
+    had met as the friends of benevolence, not as the advocates of
+    a party. His Royal Highness then proposed to alter the motion
+    as follows:--
+
+    "Resolved that there do at this moment exist a stagnation
+    of employment and a revulsion of trade, deeply affecting the
+    situation of many parts of the community, and producing many
+    instances of great local distress."
+
+    Lord Cochrane, in reply, stated that he had no wish to excite
+    a difference of opinion on such an occasion, and that, after
+    the alteration in the resolution, nothing gave him more
+    pleasure than the opportunity of withdrawing his amendment;
+    but, in justification of what he had done, it became necessary
+    for him to say that he never would have thought of his
+    amendment if it had not been for the assertion as to the cause
+    of existing distress--he had no doubt in his mind as to the
+    nature of that cause, and he held it but just and honourable
+    that if a cause must be assigned, it should be the true one.
+    After returning thanks to Mr. Wilberforce and the Duke of Kent
+    for their expressions of personal civility, the noble lord
+    consented to withdraw his motion so far as he was personally
+    concerned in it.
+
+    Considerable opposition, however, from various parts of the
+    hall was manifested to this mode of withdrawing the
+    amendment, and a great deal of disturbance took place. At last
+    the resolution, as altered by the Duke of Kent, was put and
+    carried.
+
+    The Duke of Cambridge, in his speech, which followed, returned
+    his warm thanks to the noble lord for the handsome manner in
+    which he had withdrawn his amendment. He moved the following
+    resolution, which was unanimously agreed to:--
+
+    "From the experienced generosity of the British nation it may
+    be confidently expected that those who are able to afford the
+    means of relief to their fellow-subjects will contribute their
+    utmost endeavours to remedy or alleviate the sufferings of
+    those who are particularly distressed."
+
+    The Archbishop of Canterbury moved the following resolution,
+    which was seconded and carried unanimously: "That although it
+    is obviously impossible for any association of individuals to
+    attempt a general relief of difficulties affecting so large a
+    proportion of the public, yet that it has been proved by
+    the experience of this association that most important and
+    extensive benefits may be derived from the co-operation and
+    correspondence of a society in the metropolis encouraging the
+    efforts of those benevolent individuals who may be disposed to
+    associate themselves in the different districts for the relief
+    of their several neighbourhoods."
+
+    The Duke of Rutland afterwards addressed the meeting,
+    and moved that a subscription be immediately opened, and
+    contributions generally solicited for carrying into effect the
+    objects of this association; which was seconded, and agreed
+    to.
+
+    The Earl of Manvers, after stating that he had opposed the
+    amendment of the noble lord (Lord Cochrane) solely from his
+    anxiety to preserve the unanimity of the meeting, as it was
+    only by becoming unanimous they could gain their
+    object, moved: "That subscribers of 100_l._ and upwards be
+    added to the committee of the Association for the Relief of
+    the Manufacturing and Labouring Poor; that the committee have
+    full power to dispose of the funds to be collected, and to
+    name sub-committees for correspondence."
+
+    The motion was seconded by Sir T. Bell, and unanimously
+    carried.
+
+    The Bishop of London proposed a vote of thanks to the Duke of
+    York, which Mr. C. Barclay was about to second, but--
+
+    Lord Cochrane again stepped forward and gained the attention
+    of the meeting. He repeated the explanation of the motives
+    for withdrawing his proposed amendment, adding, that he had no
+    wish again to press that amendment upon the consideration
+    of the meeting. But he could not forbear from observing what
+    would have been the fate of such a proposition, if brought
+    forward in another place, which he need not name. For there,
+    instead of being requested to withdraw the proposition, it
+    would have been met by a direct negative or by 'the previous
+    question,' in support of which, no doubt, a majority of that
+    assembly, miscalled the representatives of the people, would
+    have voted. Yet the manner in which this, a meeting of the
+    people, would have decided, was pretty obvious; and hence it
+    might be inferred how far the people concurred in sentiment
+    and feeling with the House of Commons. That the proposed, or
+    any charitable subscription, must be inadequate to relieve the
+    actual distress of the country was a proposition which could
+    not be disputed, but yet he did not intend to oppose that
+    subscription; on the contrary, he should give it every
+    possible support in his power; and it was, he felt, a
+    consolation to them that there were still some persons in this
+    country who could afford something to relieve the poor; but
+    he was afraid that neither the landowner nor the mercantile
+    interest had the means of
+    doing so; for the former could obtain no rent, and the latter
+    no trade--the only persons, in fact, who were able to assist
+    the poor under present circumstances were the placemen, the
+    sinecurists, and the fund-holders, who must give up at least
+    half of their ill-gotten gains in order to effect the object.
+    With this impression fixed upon his mind, he felt it his duty
+    to propose an additional resolution, that the ministers of
+    the crown, that the Government of the country, who wielded
+    the power of Parliament, were alone competent to remove and
+    to alleviate the national distress. This, indeed, was evident
+    from the statement of our financial situation which he
+    had already made. He had called upon the Chancellor of the
+    Exchequer, who was present, to contradict that statement if
+    he could; but the right honourable gentleman had felt it
+    expedient not to utter one word, as the meeting had witnessed.
+    Yet from that statement it must be obvious, as he had already
+    observed, that the military and naval situation of the country
+    must be abandoned, or at least half the national debt must be
+    extinguished, for the resources of the empire could not endure
+    such burthens. The noble lord concluded with expressing his
+    intention when the present resolutions were got over, to move
+    another, stating the real cause of the present distress,
+    and that the Chancellor of the Exchequer and his majesty's
+    ministers were alone capable of affording serious relief to
+    the present distress.
+
+    Mr. Barclay seconded the motion of the Right Reverend the
+    Bishop of London, to which Lord Cochrane assured the meeting
+    he entertained no objection.
+
+    Great confusion prevailed in the meeting, some crying out
+    for Lord Cochrane's motion, while others were equally loud in
+    testifying their anxiety for the vote of thanks.
+
+    The Duke of Kent then put the motion.
+
+    Lord Cochrane said that his sole object was to have an
+    opportunity of moving his resolution after the present was
+    disposed of.
+
+A person from a distant part of the room exclaimed: "That resolution
+shall not be put, for it is a libel on the Parliament." Several other
+remarks were made, but they were generally unintelligible from the
+violent uproar and confusion that prevailed. Loud cries of "Put Lord
+Cochrane's motion first" were mixed with the cry of "Chair, chair."
+
+The Duke of Kent said that he had attended this meeting with a view
+to assist in promoting an object of charity, and he had no doubt that
+such was the intention of the noble lord (Cochrane). Of this he
+was sure from the noble lord's own declaration, as well as from his
+knowledge of the noble lord's feelings. The noble lord had, indeed,
+himself stated that he had no wish to introduce any political, or to
+press any, measure likely to interfere with the object of the
+meeting. Therefore, he called upon the noble lord, in consistency, in
+politeness and urbanity, not to urge any political principle; and the
+noble lord must be aware that his proposition had a strong political
+tendency. The proposition was indeed such, that the noble lord must be
+aware that it was calculated to injure the subscription, for those who
+were not of the noble lord's opinion in politics were but too likely
+to leave the room if that proposition were pressed to a vote, and thus
+a material object of charity would suffer through a desire to urge a
+declaration of a mere political opinion.
+
+Lord Cochrane disclaimed any wish to provoke political discussion.
+He expressed his desire merely to declare a truth which no man
+could venture to dispute in any popular assembly, in order that
+the Chancellor of the Exchequer, and others present, might have an
+    opportunity of reporting to Government the decided sentiment
+    and real feeling of the people.
+
+    The Archbishop of Canterbury begged leave to call back the
+    attention of the meeting to the motion before it, and which,
+    he had no doubt, would be unanimously adopted. This motion,
+    the most reverend prelate added, was not intended in any
+    degree to interfere with the motion of the noble lord.
+
+    Amid loud cries of "Put Lord Cochrane's motion first, for if
+    the motion of thanks be disposed of, the Duke of York will
+    leave the chair, and the noble lord's motion will not be put
+    at all," the Duke of Kent declared that there could be
+    no intention to get rid of the noble lord's motion by any
+    side-wind.
+
+    The motion of thanks was then passed while Lord Cochrane was
+    engaged in writing his motion, and the Duke of York, having
+    bowed to the meeting, immediately withdrew, amidst loud
+    hissings, and cries of "Shame! shame! a trick! a trick!"
+
+    The Duke of Kent, whose head was turned towards Lord Cochrane,
+    was much surprised and disappointed at discovering the absence
+    of the chairman.
+
+    The general cry was then raised: "The Duke of Kent to the
+    chair."
+
+    His Royal Highness addressed the meeting. Having, he said,
+    pledged himself on proposing the last resolution that there
+    was no intention of getting rid of Lord Cochrane's motion by
+    any side-wind, he felt himself in a very awkward predicament.
+    "But," he added, "I hope that, as liberal Englishmen, you
+    will consider my situation and who I am; and that after my
+    illustrious relatives have retired from the meeting, you
+    will not insist upon my taking the chair for the purpose of
+    pressing the declaration of a political opinion;
+    but that you will commend my motives, and do justice to
+    those feelings which determine the propriety of my immediate
+    departure." His Royal Highness accordingly withdrew.
+
+    The majority of the meeting still remained, calling for the
+    nomination of another chairman, and pressing the adoption of
+    Lord Cochrane's motion; but the noble lord also withdrew, and
+    the meeting separated.
+
+That meeting was memorable. If Lord Cochrane's bearing at it was
+factious, it must be remembered how greatly he had suffered and how
+earnestly he desired to save the people at large from the sufferings
+entailed upon them by the Government which he and they had learnt to
+regard with a common dislike. By exposing what appeared to him and
+many others to be the hypocrisy of seeming philanthropists, and
+showing what he deemed the only real cause and the only real remedy
+of the national distress, he only acted as a brave and honest man, and
+his work was appreciated by the masses in whose interest it was done.
+A thrill of satisfaction ran through the land. During the ensuing
+weeks and months congratulations were heaped upon him from all
+quarters, and from nearly every class of society. If he had lessened
+the resources of the Association for the Belief of the Manufacturing
+and Labouring Poor, he was thanked even for this, since it was
+believed to be a good thing for shallow charity to be stayed, in order
+that the cause of real justice might be promoted.
+
+The thanks were all the heartier because of the fresh persecution to
+which Lord Cochrane was subjected on account of his patriotism. This
+persecution was in the shape of legal proceedings instituted against
+him by the Marshal of the King's Bench Prison for his escape therefrom
+on the 10th of March, 1815. The action had been formally commenced
+almost immediately after the alleged offence, but on technical
+grounds, and perhaps from the consciousness that he was already
+punished enough, it was delayed for more than a year. As the
+previous punishment, however, had not been enough to silence him, the
+Government determined to revive the old charge as a further act of
+vengeance. At the special instigation of Lord Ellenborough, as it
+was averred, the prosecution had been renewed in May, 1816, almost
+immediately after the rejection by the House of Commons of Lord
+Cochrane's charges against the vindictive and unprincipled judge; but
+the time was too far gone for trial to take place during the summer
+term. It was again renewed, and at length successfully, directly after
+Lord Cochrane's fresh exhibition of his hostility to the Government at
+the London Tavern meeting.
+
+The trial was at Guildford, on the 17th of August. Its history and
+issue may best be told in the words of an autobiographical fragment,
+written by Lord Dundonald shortly before his death. "I was accompanied
+to Guildford," he said, "by Sir Francis Burdett and several other
+leading inhabitants of Westminster, whose names are forgotten by me. I
+took neither counsel nor witnesses, having determined to rest my case
+on the point of law that 'no Member of Parliament can be imprisoned,
+either for non-payment of a fine to the king, or for any other cause
+than treason or felony, or refusing to give security to keep the
+peace,' my inference being that as I was illegally imprisoned, I had
+committed no illegality in escaping. I read to the jury a general
+statement, on which they unequivocally expressed their conviction that
+the trial had better not have been instituted, for that the punishment
+already sustained was more than adequate to the offence alleged to
+have been committed. The judge, however, interfered, and told the
+jury that, as I had admitted the escape in my statement, they had no
+alternative but to bring in a verdict of guilty, which was reluctantly
+done, and judgment was deferred.
+
+"After the trial I returned to my house in Hampshire, and not hearing
+anything more of the affair, naturally concluded that, in the face of
+the opinion expressed by the jury, the Government would be ashamed to
+prosecute the matter further. Not liking, however, to trust to their
+mercy, whilst their malevolence might be exercised at an inconvenient
+season, or made to depend upon my political conduct, I directed my
+attorney to inquire whether it was intended to put in execution the
+sentence at Guildford. The reply was that no steps had been taken,
+and the impression was, that Government would be against further
+proceedings, lest they should tend to increase my popularity.
+Considering that this might be a feint to put me off my guard, I went
+to London for the purpose of attending a large political meeting, in
+the conduct of which I participated. Shortly afterwards I received
+a summons to appear at Westminster Hall and receive judgment on the
+verdict; the judgment being that I was condemned to pay a fine of
+100_l._ to the Crown.
+
+"On my refusal to pay the fine, on the 21st of November, I was again
+taken into custody, I alleging that the sentence would amount to
+perpetual imprisonment, for that I would never pay a fine imposed for
+escaping from an illegal detention.
+
+"On my being taken back to prison, however, a meeting of the electors
+of Westminster was held, at which it was determined that the amount
+of the fine should be paid by a penny subscription, no person being
+allowed to subscribe more. This plan was adopted in order that the
+public throughout the kingdom might have an opportunity of manifesting
+their disapprobation of the oppressive way in which I was being
+treated. Though I knew nothing of the intentions of the committee at
+the time, it was expected that the subscription would amount to a
+much larger sum than the fine, and resolved that the surplus should be
+devoted to the re-imbursement of the former fine of 1000_l._ and of the
+expenses to which I had been put at the trial. Receiving-houses were
+accordingly opened in the metropolis and in various other large towns,
+and the amount of the fine of 100_l._ was speedily collected in London
+alone.
+
+"Meanwhile meetings were constantly being held to petition Parliament
+for reform, and at these my name and sufferings formed a prominent
+topic, so that the Government would have been glad to be rid of
+me. After one of these meetings in Spafields, for the purpose of
+requesting Sir Francis Burdett and myself to present a petition to
+Parliament, a serious riot took place in the city of London, in which
+a gentleman was shot by the military. The Government, in alarm lest
+the people should proceed to the King's Bench and liberate me, did me
+the honour to send a company of infantry to guard me, the officers of
+the prison being ordered to admit no strangers whatever. The troops
+were further ordered to continue their attendance till I was released
+from custody.
+
+"The subscription having been completed in pence, sent from all parts
+of the kingdom, my secretary, Mr. Jackson, applied to the Master of
+the Crown Office to receive the amount of the fine in coppers. This
+was refused, as not being a legal tender. The Master, however, in
+token of the suffering to which I had so unworthily been subjected,
+said that, as payment of the fine in such a manner marked the sense of
+the people on my case, he would not oppose himself to the expression
+of public sentiment, but would take 10_l._ of the sum in coppers. This
+was accordingly paid, and the remainder in notes and silver, which
+were given by various tradesmen in exchange for the coppers of the
+people, whose money was thus literally appropriated to the payment of
+the fine.
+
+"Finding, on my liberation, whole chests filled with penny pieces, I
+wrote to the committee, stating that sufficient had been collected.
+The reply was that the subscription should go on till the amount of
+the fine of 1000_l._ was paid in addition. The whole of the amount of
+the fine was thus realized, with something beyond--I do not recollect
+how much--towards my law expenses, which had necessarily been
+excessive. Taking, however, the 1100_l._ paid in pence, this
+alone showed that two million six hundred and forty thousand
+persons--composing a very large portion of the adult population of
+the kingdom--sympathised with me. Not one of my persecutors could have
+elicited such an expression of public sympathy."
+
+The fine being thus paid, Lord Cochrane was released from the King's
+Bench Prison on the 7th of December, after a confinement of sixteen
+days, which was attended by all the wanton severity shown to him
+during his previous incarceration. Having been apprehended on a
+Thursday, he was, on his arrival at the King's Bench, placed in an
+unhealthy room protected by an iron grating. In the evening, having
+complained of such unusual treatment, he was informed that it was
+under the express directions of the Marshal. Next day, being seriously
+unwell, a physician was sent to him, who reported that he was
+suffering from palpitation of the heart and other symptoms of
+dangerous excitement, which made it necessary that he should be
+removed to better quarters. Accordingly, worse quarters were found for
+him, in a damp, dark, and very imperfectly-ventilated room, entirely
+devoid of furniture, in the middle of the building. Stedfastly
+refusing to go there, he was allowed to remain for that night in
+the room, first assigned to him. On Saturday morning, just as he
+was sitting down to breakfast, he was ordered to proceed to his new
+dungeon. Again refusing, his untasted breakfast was forcibly taken
+from him until he consented to eat it in the appointed place. Thither
+he accordingly went, and there he was detained for the fortnight that
+passed before his liberation.
+
+On the 17th of December an enthusiastic meeting of the citizens of
+Westminster was held to congratulate Lord Cochrane upon his release.
+"We, your lordship's constituents," it was stated in an address
+adopted by that meeting, "beg leave, on the present occasion, to
+declare that, after having had long and ample means for inquiry and
+reflection, we remain in the full and entire conviction of the perfect
+innocence of your lordship of every part of the offence laid to your
+charge at the outset of that series of persecutions by which, during
+the last three years of your life, you have been incessantly harassed.
+But, indeed, those persons must have very little knowledge of public
+affairs, and particularly of your distinguished naval and political
+career, who do not clearly perceive that all those persecutions have
+arisen from your public virtues, and who are not well convinced that,
+if you had not served the people by your exposure of the abuses in the
+prize courts, by your endeavours to restore to the right owners
+the immense sums unjustly alienated under the names of Droits of
+Admiralty, by your honest explanation of the causes which prevented
+the naval renown of your country being complete at Basque Roads, and
+by having caused to be produced in Parliament, and published to the
+nation, that memorable account of sinecures, pensions, and grants
+which so usefully enlightened the public, you never would have
+been prosecuted for a pretended fraud on the funds. Your lordship's
+constituents, being thus fully sensible that you have suffered and are
+still suffering solely for their and their country's sake, would deem
+themselves amongst the most ungrateful of mankind were they to neglect
+this occasion to tender you the most solemn assurances of their
+unabated attachment and their most resolute support, and, whilst they
+are endeavouring to discharge their duty towards your lordship, they
+entertain the consoling reflection that the day is not distant when
+you will mainly assist in carrying forward that measure of radical
+parliamentary reform which alone can be a safeguard against all sorts
+of oppressions, and especially oppressions under which your lordship
+has so long and so severely suffered."
+
+To that honourable address an honourable reply was penned by Lord
+Cochrane on the 24th of December, and presented to the electors of
+Westminster at another meeting assembled for the purpose on the 1st of
+January ensuing.
+
+The direct persecution which began with the Stock Exchange trial and
+its antecedents was now at an end, after three years of gross and
+untiring vindictiveness. Indirect persecution was to continue for more
+than thirty years.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V.
+
+THE STATE OF POLITICS IN ENGLAND IN 1817 AND 1818, AND LORD COCHRANE's
+SHARE IN THEM.--HIS WORK AS A RADICAL IN AND OUT OF PARLIAMENT.--HIS
+FUTILE ATTEMPTS TO OBTAIN THE PRIZE MONEY DUE FOR HIS SERVICES
+AT BASQUE ROADS.--THE HOLLY HILL BATTLE.--THE PREPARATIONS FOR HIS
+ENTERPRISE IN SOUTH AMERICA.--HIS LAST SPEECH IN PARLIAMENT.
+
+[1817-1818.]
+
+
+The years 1817 and 1818 were years of great political turmoil. The
+English people, weary of the European wars, which in two-and-twenty
+years had raised the national debt from 230,000,000_l._ to
+860,000,000_l._, thus causing a taxation which amounted, in the average,
+to 25_l._ a year upon every family of five persons, were in no mood to
+be made happy even by the restitution of peace. Partly by necessity,
+partly by the bad management of the Government and its officials, the
+war-burdens were continued, and to the starving multitudes they were
+more burdensome than ever. Angry complaints were uttered openly, and
+repeated again and again with steadily-increasing vehemence, in all
+parts of the country. That the ministers and agents of the Crown were
+grievously at fault was patent to all; and it is not strange that, in
+the excitement and the misery that prevailed, they should be blamed
+even more than was their due. But the men in power did not choose to
+be blamed at all; they denied that any fault attached to them, and
+fiercely reprobated every complaint as sedition, every opponent as a
+lawless and unpatriotic demagogue. Hence the Government and the people
+came to be at deadly feud. Most right was with the people, and their
+bold assertion of that right, albeit sometimes in wrong ways, has
+secured memorable benefits in later times; but power was still with
+the Government, and it was used even more roughly than in former
+years.
+
+That Lord Cochrane, having suffered so much from the vindictive
+persecution of the Tories, should have thrown in his lot with its
+most extreme opponents, is not to be wondered at. During 1817 he was
+intimately associated with the popular party in all its efforts for
+the redress of grievances and in all the assertions of its real and
+fancied rights. In and out of Parliament he was alike active and
+outspoken. The history of his public conduct at this time forms
+no small section of the history of the Radical movement during the
+period. It resulted naturally from the circumstances in which he had
+lately been placed. Energetic in thought and action, a ready writer
+and an able speaker, his recent sufferings helped to place him in the
+foremost rank of patriots, as they were called by friends--demagogues,
+as they were called by enemies. With the exception of Sir Francis
+Burdett, than whom he even went further, the people had, outside their
+own ranks, no sturdier champion.
+
+If there had been any doubt before as to his line of action, there
+could be no doubt after the re-assembling of Parliament in January,
+1817. During the recess, monster meetings had been held in all parts
+of the country to consider the popular troubles and to insist upon
+popular reforms. Lord Cochrane agreed to present to the House of
+Commons many of the petitions that resulted from these meetings, and
+this he did on the 29th of January, the very day of the re-opening of
+Parliament.
+
+In anticipation of this measure, there was a great assembling of
+reform delegates from all parts of England, and of others favourable
+to their purpose, in front of Lord Cochrane's residence at No. 7,
+Palace Yard, Westminster. Shortly before two o'clock Lord Cochrane
+showed himself at the window, and announced that he was now on his
+way to the House, there to watch over the rights and liberties of the
+people, and that he would shortly return and let them know what was
+passing. This he did at four o'clock, part of the interval being
+occupied with a fervid address from Henry Hunt. On his reappearance,
+Lord Cochrane stated that the speech with which the Prince Regent had
+opened Parliament had not disappointed his expectations, for it was
+wholly disappointing to the people. The Regent had complained of the
+disaffection pervading the country, and had announced his intention of
+using all the power given him by the Constitution for its suppression.
+Lord Cochrane expressed his confident hope that the people, having
+the right on their side, would so demean themselves as to give their
+enemies no ground of charge against them; for those enemies desired
+nothing so much as riot and disorder.
+
+Thereupon an immense bundle of petitions was handed him, and he
+himself was placed in a chair, and so conveyed on men's shoulders to
+the door of Westminster Hall, where the crowd dispersed in an orderly
+way.
+
+In the House, before the motion for an address in answer to the Prince
+Regent's speech, Lord Cochrane rose to present a petition, signed by
+more than twenty thousand inhabitants of Bristol, setting forth the
+present distress of the country, the increase of paupers and beggars,
+the grievous lack of employment for industrious persons, and
+the misery that resulted from this state of things. In these
+circumstances, the petitioners urged, it was in vain to pretend to
+relieve the sufferers by giving them soup, while, for the support of
+sinecure placemen, pensioners without number, and an insatiable
+civil list, half their earnings were taken from them by the enormous
+taxation under which the country groaned. After considerable
+opposition, the petition was allowed to lie on the table.
+
+Lord Cochrane then presented a smaller but much more outspoken
+petition from the inhabitants of Quirk, in Yorkshire. "The
+petitioners," it was there urged, "have a full and immovable
+conviction--a conviction which they believe to be universal throughout
+the kingdom--that the House does not, in any constitutional or
+rational sense, represent the nation; that, when the people have
+ceased to be represented, the Constitution is subverted; that taxation
+without representation is a state of slavery; that the scourge
+of taxation without representation has now reached a severity too
+harassing and vexatious, too intolerable and degrading, to be longer
+endured without resistance by all possible means warranted by the
+Constitution; that such a condition of affairs has now been reached
+that contending factions are alike guilty of their country's wrongs,
+alike forgetful of her rights, mocking the public patience with
+repeated, protracted, and disgusting debates on questions of
+refinement in the complicated and abstruse science of taxation, as if
+in such refinement, and not in a reformed representation, as if in a
+consolidated corruption, and not in a renovated Constitution,
+relief were to be found; that thus there are left no human means of
+redressing the people's wrongs or composing their distracted minds,
+or of preventing the subversion of liberty and the establishment of
+despotism, unless by calling the collected wisdom and virtue of the
+community into counsel by the election of a free Parliament; and
+therefore, considering that, through the usurpation of borough
+factions and other causes, the people have been put even out of a
+condition to consent to taxes; and considering also that, until their
+sacred right of election shall be restored, no free Parliament can
+have existence, it is necessary that the House shall, without delay,
+pass a law for putting the aggrieved and much-aroused people in
+possession of their undoubted right to representation co-extensive
+with taxation, to an equal distribution of such representation
+throughout the community, and to Parliaments of a continuance
+according to the Constitution, namely, not exceeding one year."
+
+A long discussion ensued as to whether this petition should be
+accepted by the House or rejected as an insulting libel. Several
+members of the House denounced it. Other members, while objecting to
+its terms, urged its acceptance. Among them the most notable was
+Mr. Brougham. The petition, he said, was rudely worded, and its
+recommendations were such as no wise lover of the English Constitution
+could wholly subscribe to; but it pointed to real grievances and
+recommended improvements which were necessary to the well-being of the
+State, and therefore it ought to be admitted. Mr. Canning was one of
+those who insisted upon its rejection, and this was ultimately done by
+a majority of 87, 48 being in favour of the petition, and 135 against
+it.
+
+Four other petitions presented by Lord Cochrane, being to the same
+effect, were also rejected; and two, more moderate in their language,
+were accepted. Lord Cochrane thus succeeded, at any rate, in forcing
+the House during several hours to take into consideration the troubled
+state of the country, and the pressing need, as it seemed to great
+masses of the people, of thorough parliamentary reform.
+
+"You will see by the 'Debates,'" he wrote next day to a friend, "that
+I presented a number of petitions last night, and had a hard battle to
+fight. Today I am quite indisposed, by reason of the corruption of the
+Honourable House. It is impossible to support a bad cause by honest
+means. God knows where all these base projects will end." That his own
+cause was a good one, and that the means used by him were honest, he
+had no doubt. In the same letter he referred to the opposition offered
+to him, even by some of his own relatives, on account of his conduct.
+"Mr. Cochrane has thought proper to disavow, through the public
+papers, any connection with my politics. The consciousness that I am
+acting as I ought makes that light which I should otherwise feel as a
+heavy clog in following that course which I think honour and justice
+require."
+
+Therefore he persevered in his Herculean task. Having presented and
+spoken upon others in the interval, he presented another monster
+petition to the House on the 5th of February. It was signed, he said,
+by twenty-four thousand inhabitants of London and the neighbourhood.
+It complained of the unbearable weight of taxation and the distresses
+of the country, and of the squandering of the money extracted from the
+pockets of an oppressed and impoverished people to support sinecure
+placemen and pensioners. "It appears to me," he said, "surprising that
+there should be any set of men so cruel and unjust as to wallow in
+wealth at the public expense while poor wretches are starving at every
+corner of the streets." He represented that the petition was drawn
+up in temperate, respectful language,--more temperate, indeed, than
+he should have employed had he dictated its phrases. He urged that the
+people had good cause for complaint as to the way in which Parliament
+neglected their interests, and good ground for asserting that the
+system of parliamentary representation then afforded them was no real
+representation at all. Members entered the House only in pursuit of
+their own selfish ends, and the Government encouraged this state of
+things by fostering a system of wholesale bribery and corruption,
+degrading in itself and fraught with terrible mischief to the
+community. What wonder, then, that the people should pray, as they did
+in this petition, for a thorough reform, and should point to annual
+Parliaments and universal suffrage as the only efficient remedies?
+
+It is needless to recapitulate all the arguments offered again
+and again by Lord Cochrane, with ever fresh-force and cogency, in
+presenting massive petitions to the House, and in introducing into
+the occasional debates on reform with which the House amused itself
+a vigour and practicalness in which few other members cared to
+sympathize. Nor need we enumerate all the meetings, in London and the
+provinces, in which he took prominent part. It is enough to say that
+in Parliament he always spoke with exceeding boldness, and that upon
+the people, notwithstanding the contrary assertions of his detractors,
+he always enjoined, if not conciliation and forbearance, at any rate
+such action as was within the strict letter of the law, and most
+likely, in the end, to obtain the realization of their wishes. On all
+occasions he defended them from the charges of sedition and conspiracy
+brought against them by their opponents, and proved, to all who were
+open to proof, that their objects were patriotic, and were being
+sought in patriotic ways.
+
+Of this, however, the Government did not choose to be convinced.
+Taking advantage of some intemperate speeches of demagogues, making
+much of some violent handbills circulated by police-officers under
+secret instructions, mightily exaggerating a few lawless acts,--as
+when a drunken old sailor summoned the keepers of the Tower of London
+to surrender,--they procured, on the 26th of February, the suspension
+of the Habeas Corpus Act. Therefrom resulted, at any rate, some good.
+The Whigs, who had hitherto mainly supported the Tory Government, were
+now turned against it, and with them the wiser Radicals, like Lord
+Cochrane, sought to effect a coalition. "You will perceive by the
+papers," he said in a letter dated February the 28th, "that I have
+resolved to steer another political course, seeing that the only means
+of averting military despotism from the country is to unite the people
+and the Whigs, so far as they can be induced to co-operate, which they
+must do if they wish to preserve the remainder of the Constitution.
+The 'Times' of yesterday contains the fullest account of the late
+debates on the suspension of the Habeas Corpus Act, and by that report
+you will perceive that the Whigs really made a good stand."
+
+In that temper, Lord Cochrane spoke at a Westminster meeting, held
+on the 11th of March, "to take into consideration the propriety
+of agreeing to an address to His Royal Highness the Prince Regent,
+beseeching that he will, in his well-known solicitude for the freedom
+and happiness of His Majesty's subjects, remove from his royal
+councils those ministers who appear resolved to adopt no effectual
+measures of economy and retrenchment, but, on the contrary, to
+persevere in measures calculated to drive a suffering people to
+despair."
+
+There was some flattery or some mockery, or something of both, in
+that announcement; and both, with much earnest enunciation of popular
+grievances, were in Lord Cochrane's speech on the subject. He said
+that the Regent had as much cause as the people to complain of his
+present ministers, seeing how shamelessly they sought to hide from him
+the real state of the country. It was to be expected, from the early
+habits and character of the Regent, that he would anxiously pursue
+the interests of the nation, if, instead of being in the hands of an
+odious oligarchy, he could act for himself. This, at any rate, Lord
+Cochrane maintained should be urged upon him, for if something were
+not quickly done for the relief of the nation, trade and commerce
+would soon be utterly ruined, and the whole community would share the
+misery that had so long oppressed the lower orders. He again dwelt
+forcibly on the causes of this misery, and again denounced the conduct
+of the ministers and placemen who, while squandering the hardly-earned
+pounds of the people, claimed respect for their exemplary charity
+in doling out a few farthings for "the relief of the poor." In the
+previous year, he showed, Lord Castlereagh, "the bell-wether of the
+House of Commons," and thirteen other persons, had drawn from the
+revenues of the country 309,861_l._, and out of that amount had given
+back, in "sinecure soup," only 1505_l._
+
+On a hundred other occasions, both outside of the House of Commons and
+within its walls, Lord Cochrane continued fearlessly to set forth
+the troubles of the people and the wrong-doing of its governors. In
+Parliament petitions without number were presented, and, amid all
+sorts of contumely, defended by him; and he took a no less active part
+in various important discussions, of which it will suffice, by way of
+illustration, to name the debates of the 3rd, 14th, and 28th of March,
+on the famous Seditious Meetings Bill, and that of the 13th of March
+on the depressed condition of English trade and its causes--a subject
+which was recurred to by Mr. Brougham in his memorable motion of the
+11th of July on the state of the nation.
+
+Six weeks before that, on the 20th of May, Lord Cochrane spoke on
+another famous motion--that made by his friend Sir Francis Burdett
+in favour of parliamentary reform. Once more, he complained that the
+existing House of Commons in no way represented the people, and was
+entirely regardless of its interests. Nothing better, he alleged,
+could be hoped for, without a radical change in the system of
+representation. "But," he continued, "reform we must have, whether we
+will or no. The state of the country is such that things cannot much
+longer be conducted as they now are. There is a general call for
+reform. If the call is not obeyed, thank God the evil will produce
+its own remedy, the mass of corruption will destroy itself, for the
+maggots it engenders will eat it up. The members of this House are the
+maggots of the Constitution. They are the locusts that devour it and
+cause all the evils that are complained of. There is nothing wicked
+which does not emanate from this House. In it originate all knavery,
+perjury, and fraud. You well know all this. You also know that the
+means by which the great majority of the House is returned is one
+great cause of the corruption of the whole people. It has been said,
+'Let the people reform themselves;' but if sums of money are offered
+for seats within these walls, there will always be found men ready to
+receive them. It is impossible to imagine that the profuse expenditure
+of the late war would have taken place, had it not been for a corrupt
+majority devoted to their selfish interests. At least it would have
+had a shorter duration, from being carried on in a more effective
+manner, had it not been conducive to the views of many to prevent its
+speedy termination. Much has been said about the glorious result of
+the war; but has not lavish expenditure loaded us with taxation which
+is impoverishing the people and annihilating commerce? Are not vessels
+seen everywhere with brooms at their mastheads? Are not sailors
+starving? Is not agriculture languishing? Are not our manufactures in
+the most distressed state?"
+
+Lord Cochrane asserted that the real revolutionists of England were
+the ministers and their followers. "I am persuaded that no man without
+doors wishes the subversion of the Constitution; but within it,
+bribery and corruption stand for the Constitution. Mr. Pitt himself
+confessed that no honest man could hold the situation of minister for
+any length of time. There can be no honest minister until measures
+have been taken to purge and purify the House. If this be not done,
+it is in vain to hope for a renewal of successful enterprise in this
+country: the sun of the country is set for ever. It may indeed exist
+as a petty military German despotism, with horsemen parading up and
+down, with large whiskers, with sabres ringing by their horses' sides,
+with fantastically-shaped caps of fantastical colours on their
+heads; but this country cannot thus be made a great military power.
+A previous speaker has instanced juries as one of the benefits of the
+Constitution; but I will affirm, with respect to the manner in which
+juries are chosen under the present system, that justice is much
+better administered, in a more summary manner, with less expense, and
+no chicanery, by the Dey of Algiers. If this country were erected at
+once into a downright, honest, open despotism, the people would be
+gainers. If a judge or despot then proved a rogue, he would at
+once appear in his true character; but now villany can be artfully
+concealed under the verdict of a packed jury. I am satisfied that the
+present system of corruption is more detrimental to the country than a
+despotism."
+
+No other speaker spoke so boldly as Lord Cochrane; but his eloquent
+words were substantially endorsed by many; by Sir Samuel Romilly and
+Mr. Brougham in especial; and on a division, though 265 voted
+against Sir Francis Burdett's motion, it was supported by a
+minority--unusually large for the time--of 77.
+
+Slowly but surely the better principles of government for which
+Lord Cochrane fought so persistently were gaining ground, destined
+ultimately to produce the changes in national temper which made plain
+the duty and expediency of adopting the changes in political systems
+in which the years 1832 and 1867 are epochs. In after years, Lord
+Cochrane himself clearly saw that he had been rash in his advocacy
+of the sweeping reforms which the excited people deemed necessary for
+their welfare in the years of trouble and misgovernment consequent on
+the tedious war-time ending with the battle of Waterloo. But he never
+had cause to regret the honest zeal and the generous sympathy with
+which he strove, though in violent ways, to lessen the weight of the
+popular distresses.
+
+Distresses were not wanting to himself during this period. The weight
+of his former troubles still hung heavily upon him. He could not
+forget the terrible disgrace--none the less terrible because it was
+unmerited--that had befallen him. And in pecuniary ways he was a
+grievous sufferer by them. In losing his naval employment he lost
+the income on which he had counted. His resources were thus seriously
+crippled; and the scientific pursuits, in which he still persevered,
+failed to bring to him the profit that he anticipated.
+
+In one characteristic way--only one among many--the Government
+persecution still clung to him. In the distribution of prize-money
+for the achievement at Basque Roads all the officers and crews of
+Lord Grambier's fleet had been considered entitled to share. To this
+arrangement Lord Cochrane objected. He urged that as the whole triumph
+was due to the _Imp�rieuse_ and the few ships actually engaged with
+her, the reward ought to be limited to them. "I am preparing to
+proceed in the Court of Admiralty on the question of head-money for
+Basque Roads," he wrote on the 5th of November, 1816; "my affidavit
+has reluctantly been admitted, though strenuously opposed, on the
+ground that I was not to be believed on my oath!"
+
+Lord Cochrane's council in this case was Dr. Lushington, afterwards
+the eminent judge of the Admiralty Court. Dr. Lushington showed
+plainly that the greater part of the fleet, having taken no share in
+the action, had no right to head-money, and that therefore all ought
+to be divided among those who actually shared with Lord Cochrane
+the danger and the success of the enterprise. But Sir William Scott
+(afterwards Lord Stowell), the judge at that time, was not disposed
+to sanction this view. Therefore he thwarted it by delays. The case
+having been postponed from November, 1816, was brought up again in the
+first term of 1817. "The judge has again delayed his decision," wrote
+Lord Cochrane on the 28th of February, the day of the announcement,
+"and I believe has done so until next session. He gave a curious
+reason for this, namely, that I took part at the Westminster meeting
+against the suspension of the Habeas Corpus Act!"
+
+At the next session it was again postponed, all the time available
+for its consideration being taken up with a frivolous discussion as to
+Lord Cochrane's right to give evidence. "They have gone the length,"
+wrote his secretary, Mr. Jackson, on the 3rd of May, "of denying Lord
+Cochrane's credibility in a court of justice. They had no other way
+of answering his affidavit, which would have gained his cause in the
+Court of Admiralty, as it proved that the French ships in Basque Roads
+were destroyed by his own exertions in fighting without orders from
+the Admiral. The denial-of Lord Cochrane's competency to give evidence
+has excited a great deal of interest, and the Court of Admiralty was
+quite crowded on Tuesday, when the question came on to be discussed.
+I thought that our counsel had much the best of the argument, and I
+believe the judge, Sir William Scott, thought so too, as he put off
+his sentence to a future day." On the future day the judge admitted as
+much. "We have gained a bit of a victory in the Admiralty Court," said
+the same writer in a letter dated the 9th of June, "the judge having
+been compelled to pronounce in favour of his lordship's right to
+be believed on his oath." The time taken by him to arrive at this
+decision, however, was so long that the case had to be adjourned to
+November term, and thereby Lord Cochrane's enemies so far attained
+their object, that it was impossible for him, in November term, to
+renew the suit.
+
+In the interval he had gone to France, preparatory to a much longer
+and more momentous journey to South America, in anticipation of which
+he was winding up his affairs and realizing his property during and
+after the summer of 1817.
+
+In this settlement of accounts there was at any rate one amusing
+incident. It will be remembered that, on the occasion of his being
+elected Member of Parliament for Honiton in 1806, Lord Cochrane had
+refused to follow the almost universal fashion of bribery, but, after
+the election was over, had thoughtlessly yielded to the proposal
+of his agent that he should entertain his constituents at a public
+supper.[A] This entertainment, either through spite or through wanton
+extravagance, was turned by those to whom the management of it was
+assigned into a great occasion of feasting for all the inhabitants of
+the town; and for defrayment of the expenses thus incurred a claim
+for more than 1200_l._ was afterwards made upon Lord Cochrane. Through
+eleven years he bluntly refused to pay the preposterous demand; but
+his creditors had the law upon their side, and in the spring of 1817
+an order was granted for putting an execution into his house at Holly
+Hill.
+
+[Footnote A: 'The Autobiography of a Seaman,' vol. i. pp. 203, 204.]
+
+Lord Cochrane, however, having resisted the demand thus far,
+determined to resist to the end. For more than six weeks he prevented
+the agents of the law from entering the house. "I still hold out,"
+he said in a letter to his secretary, "though the castle has several
+times been threatened in great force. The trumpeter is now blowing for
+a parley, but no one appears on the ramparts. Explosion-bags are set
+in the lower embrasures, and all the garrison is under arms." In
+the explosion-bags there was nothing more dangerous than powdered
+charcoal; but, supposing they contained gunpowder or some other
+combustible, the sheriff of Hampshire and twenty-five officers were
+held at bay by them, until at length one official, more daring than
+the rest, jumped in at an open window, to find Lord Cochrane sitting
+at breakfast and to be complimented by him upon the wonderful bravery
+which he had shown in coming up to a building defended by charcoal
+dust.
+
+That battle with the sheriff and bailiffs of Hampshire occupied nearly
+the whole of April and May, 1817. In the latter month, if not before,
+Lord Cochrane began to think seriously of proceeding to join in
+battles of a more serious sort in South America, under inducements and
+with issues that will presently be detailed. "His lordship has made up
+his mind to go to South America," wrote his secretary on the 31st of
+May. "Numbers of gentlemen of great respectability are desirous of
+accompanying him, and even Sir Francis Burdett has declared that he
+feels a great temptation to do so; but Lord Cochrane discourages all.
+They think he is going to immolate the Spaniards by his secret plans;
+but he is not going to do anything of the kind, having promised the
+Prince Regent not to divulge or use them otherwise than in the service
+of his country."
+
+With this expedition in view, and purposing to start upon it nearly a
+year sooner than he found himself able to do, Lord Cochrane sold Holly
+Hill and his other property in Hampshire, in July. In August he went
+for a few months to France, partly for the benefit of Lady Cochrane's
+health, partly, as it would seem, in the hope of introducing into
+that country the lamps which he had lately invented, and from which he
+hoped to derive considerable profit.
+
+To this matter, and to his efforts to obtain some share, at any rate,
+of his rights from the English Government, the letters written by
+him from France chiefly refer. But there are in them some notes and
+illustrations of more general interest. "I am quite astonished at the
+state of Boulogne," he wrote thence on the 14th of August. "Neither
+the town nor the heights are fortified; so great was Napoleon's
+confidence in the terror of his name and the knowledge he possessed
+of the stupidity and ignorance of our Government." In a letter from
+Paris, dated the 23rd of August, we read: "Everything is looking much
+more settled than when I was formerly here, and I do really think that
+the Government, from the conciliatory measures wisely adopted, will
+stand their ground against the adherents of Buonaparte. We are to have
+a great rejoicing to-morrow. All Paris will be dancing, fiddling, and
+singing. They are a light-hearted people. I wish I could join in their
+fun. I was hopeful that I should; but the cursed recollection of the
+injustice that has been done to me is never out of my mind; so that
+all my pleasures are blasted, from whatever source they might be
+expected to arise."
+
+That last sentence fairly indicates the state of Lord Cochrane's mind
+during these painful years. Weighed down by troubles heavy enough to
+break the heart of an ordinary man, he fought nobly for the thorough
+justification of his character and for the protection of others from
+such persecution as had befallen him. In both objects, altogether
+praise-worthy in themselves, he may have sometimes been intemperate;
+but ample excuse for far greater intemperance would be found in the
+troubles that oppressed him. "The cursed recollection of the injustice
+that has been done to me is never out of my mind; all my pleasures are
+blasted!"
+
+In the same temper, after a lapse of nine months, about which it is
+only necessary to say that, like their forerunners, they were
+employed in private cares, and, especially after the reassembling of
+Parliament, in zealous action for the public good, he made his last
+speech in the House of Commons on the 2nd of June, 1818. The occasion
+was a debate upon a second motion by Sir Francis Burdett in favour of
+parliamentary reform, more cogent and effective than that of the
+20th of May, 1817, to Lord Cochrane's share in which we have already
+referred. The former speech was wholly of public interest. This has a
+personal significance, very painful and very memorable. It brings to a
+pathetic close the saddest epoch in Lord Cochrane's life--so very full
+of sadness.
+
+"I rise, sir," he said, "to second the motion of my honourable friend.
+In what I have to say, I do not presume to think that I can add to
+the able arguments that have just been uttered; but it is my duty
+distinctly to declare my opinions on the subject. When I recollect all
+the proceedings of this House, I confess that I do not entertain much
+hope of a favourable result to the present motion. To me it seems
+chiefly serviceable as an exhibition of sound principles, and as
+showing the people for what they ought to petition. I shall perhaps be
+told that it is unparliamentary to say there are any representatives
+of the people in this House who have sold themselves to the purposes
+and views of any set of men in power; but the history of the
+degenerate senate of that once free people, the Romans, will serve
+to show how far corruption may make inroads upon public virtue or
+patriotism. The tyranny inflicted on the Roman people, and on mankind
+in general, under the form of acts passed by the Roman senate, will
+ever prove a useful memento to nations which have any freedom to lose.
+It is not for me to prophesy when our case will be like theirs; but
+this I will say, that those who are the slaves of a despotic
+monarch are far less reprehensible for their actions than those who
+voluntarily sell themselves when they have the means of remaining
+free.
+
+"And here," he continued, in sentences broken by his emotions, "as it
+is probably the last time I shall ever have the honour of addressing
+the House on any subject, I am anxious to tell its members what I
+think of their conduct. It is now nearly eleven years since I have
+had the honour of a seat in this House, and since then there have
+been very few measures in which I could agree with the opinions of the
+majority. To say that these measures were contrary to justice would
+not be parliamentary. I will not even go into the inquiry whether
+they tend to the national good or not; but I will merely appeal to the
+feelings of the landholders present, I will appeal to the knowledge
+of those members who are engaged in commerce, and ask them whether the
+acts of the legislative body have not been of a description, during
+the late war, that would, if not for the timely intervention of the
+use of machinery, have sent this nation to total ruin? The country is
+burthened to a degree which, but for this intervention, it would have
+been impossible for the people to bear. The cause of these measures
+having such an effect upon the country has been examined and gone
+into by my honourable colleague (Sir Francis Burdett); they are to
+be traced to that patronage and influence which, a number of powerful
+individuals possess over the nomination of a great proportion of the
+members of this House; a power which, devolving on a few, becomes
+thereby the more liable to be affected by the influence of the Crown;
+and which has in fact been rendered almost entirely subservient to
+that influence. To reform the abuses which arise out of this system
+is the object of my honourable friend's motion. I will not, cannot,
+anticipate the success of the motion; but I will say, as has been
+said before by the great Chatham, the father of Mr. Pitt, that, if the
+House does not reform itself from within, it will be reformed with
+a vengeance from without. The people will take up the subject, and
+a reform will take place which will make many members regret their
+apathy in now refusing that reform which might be rendered efficient
+and permanent. But, unfortunately, in the present formation of the
+House, it appears to me that from within no reform can be expected,
+and for the truth of this I appeal to the experience of the few
+members, less than a hundred, who are now present, nearly six hundred
+being absent; I appeal to their experience to say whether they have
+ever known of any one instance in which a petition of the people for
+reform has been taken into consideration, or any redress afforded in
+consequence of such a petition? This I regret, because I foresee the
+consequence which must necessarily result from it. I do trust and
+hope that before it is too late some measures shall be adopted for
+redressing the grievances of the people; for certain I am that
+unless some measures are taken to stop the feelings which the people
+entertain towards this House and to restore their confidence in it,
+you will one day have ample cause to repent the line of conduct you
+have pursued. The gentlemen who now sit on the benches opposite
+with such triumphant feelings will one day repent their conduct. The
+commotions to which that conduct will inevitably give rise will shake,
+not only this House, but the whole framework of Government and society
+to its foundations. I have been actuated by the wish to prevent this,
+and I have had no other intention.
+
+"I shall not trespass longer on your time," he continued, in a few
+broken sentences, uttered painfully and with agitation that aroused
+much sympathy in the House. "The situation I have held for
+eleven years in this House I owe to the favour of the electors of
+Westminster. The feelings of my heart are gratified by the manner
+in which they have acted towards me. They have rescued me from a
+desperate and wicked conspiracy which has nearly involved me in total
+ruin. I forgive those who have so done; and I hope when they depart to
+their graves they will be equally able to forgive themselves. All
+this is foreign to the subject before the House, but I trust you will
+forgive me. I shall not trespass on your time longer now--perhaps
+never again on any subject. I hope his Majesty's ministers will take
+into their serious consideration what I now say. I do not utter it
+with any feelings of hostility--such feelings have now left me--but
+I trust they will take my warning, and save the country by abandoning
+the present system before it is too late."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI.
+
+THE ANTECEDENTS OF LORD COCHRANE'S EMPLOYMENTS IN AMERICA.--THE WAR
+OF INDEPENDENCE IN THE SPANISH COLONIES.--MEXICO.--VENEZUELA.
+--COLOMBIA.--CHILI.--THE FIRST CHILIAN INSURRECTION.--THE CARRERAS
+AND O'HIGGINS.--THE BATTLE OF BANCAGUA.--O'HIGGINS'S SUCCESSES.--THE
+ESTABLISHMENT OF THE CHILIAN REPUBLIC.--LORD COCHRANE INVITED TO ENTER
+THE CHILIAN SERVICE.
+
+(1810--1817.)
+
+
+To an understanding of Lord Cochrane's share in the South American
+wars of independence a brief recapitulation of their antecedents, and
+of the state of affairs at the time of his first connection with them,
+is necessary.
+
+The Spanish possessions in both North and South America, which had
+reached nearly their full dimensions before the close of the sixteenth
+century, had been retained, with little opposition from without,
+and with still less from within, down to the close of the eighteenth
+century. These possessions, including Mexico and Central America, New
+Granada, Venezuela, Peru, La Plata, and Chili, covered an area larger
+than that of Europe, more than twice as large as that of the present
+United States. Through half a dozen generations they had been governed
+with all the short-sighted tyranny for which the Spanish Government is
+famous; the resources of the countries had been crippled in order that
+each day's greed might be satisfied; and the inhabitants, who, for the
+most part, were the mixed offspring of Spanish and native parents,
+had been kept in abject dependence and in ignorant ferocity. There
+was plenty of internal hatred and strife; but no serious thought of
+winning their liberty and working out their own regeneration seems to
+have existed among the people of the several provinces, until it was
+suggested by the triumphant success of the United States in throwing
+off the stronger but much less oppressive thraldom of Great Britain.
+That success having been achieved, however, it was soon emulated by
+the colonial subjects of Spain.
+
+The first leader of agitation was Francisco Miranda, a Venezuelan
+Creole. He visited England in 1790, and received some encouragement in
+his revolutionary projects from Pitt. He went to France in 1792, and
+there, while waiting some years for fit occasion of prosecuting the
+work on which his heart was set, he helped to fight the battle of the
+revolution against the Bourbons and the worn-out feudalism of which
+they were representatives. During his absence, in 1794, conspiracies
+against Spain arose in Mexico and New Granada, and, these continuing,
+he went in 1794, armed by secret promises of assistance from Pitt, to
+help in fomenting them. They prospered for several years; and in 1806
+Miranda obtained substantial aid from Sir Alexander Cochrane, Lord
+Cochrane's uncle, then the admiral in command of the West India
+station. But in 1806 Pitt died. The Whigs came into power, and with
+their coming occurred a change in the English policy. In 1807, General
+Crawfurd was ordered to throw obstacles in the way of Miranda, then
+heading a formidable insurrection. The result was a temporary check
+to the work of revolution. In 1810 Miranda renewed his enterprise
+in Venezuela, still with poor success; and in the same year a fresh
+revolt was stirred up in Mexico by Miguel Hidalgo, of Costilla, a
+priest of Dolores. Hidalgo's insurrection was foolish in design and
+bloodthirsty in execution. It was continued, in better spirit, but
+with poor success, by Morelos and Rayon, who, sustaining a serious
+defeat in 1815, left the strife to degenerate into a coarse bandit
+struggle, very disastrous to Spain, but hardly beneficial to the cause
+of Mexican independence.
+
+In the meanwhile a more prosperous and worthier contest was being
+waged in South America. Besides the efforts of Miranda in Venezuela,
+which were renewed between 1810 and 1812, when he was taken prisoner
+and sent to Spain, there to die in a dungeon, a separate standard of
+revolt was raised in Quito by Narinno and his friends in 1809. After
+fighting desperately, in guerilla fashion, for five years, Narinno
+was captured and forced to share Miranda's lot. A greater man, the
+greatest hero of South American independence, Simon Bolivar, succeeded
+them.
+
+Bolivar, a native of Caraccas, had passed many years in Europe, when
+in 1810, at the age of twenty-seven, he went to serve under Miranda
+in Venezuela. Miranda's defeat in 1812 compelled him to retire to New
+Granada, but there he did good service. He improved the fighting ways
+and extended the fighting area, and in December, 1814, was appointed
+captain-general of Venezuela and New Granada, soon, however, to be
+driven back and forced to take shelter in Jamaica by the superior
+strength of Morillo, the Spanish general, who arrived with a
+formidable army in 1815. In 1816 Bolivar again showed himself in the
+field at the head of his famous liberating army, which, crossing
+over from Trinidad, and gaining reinforcements at every step, planted
+freedom, such as it was, all along the northern parts of South
+America, in which the new republic of Colombia was founded under his
+presidency, in the neighbouring district of New Granada, and down to
+the La Plata province, where he established the republic of Bolivia,
+so named in his honour. With these patriotic labours he was busied
+upon land, while Lord Cochrane was securing the independence of the
+Spanish colonies by his brave warfare on the sea.
+
+As the cause of liberty progressed in South America, it became
+apparent that it had poor chance of permanence, while the
+revolutionists were unable to cope with the Spaniards in naval
+strife or to wrest from Spain her strongholds on the coast. This was
+especially the case with the maritime provinces of Chili and Peru.
+Peru, held firmly by the army garrisoned in Lima, to which Callao
+served as an almost impregnable port, had been unable to share in the
+contest waged on the other side of the Andes; and Chili, though
+strong enough to declare its independence, was too weak to maintain it
+without foreign aid.
+
+The Chilian struggle began in 1810, when the Spanish captain-general,
+Carrasco, was deposed, and a native government set up under Count de
+la Conquista. By this government the sovereignty of Spain was still
+recognised, although various reforms were adopted which Spain could
+not be expected to endorse. Accordingly, in April, 1811, an attempt
+was made by the Spanish soldiers to overturn the new order of
+things. The result was that, after brief fighting, the revolutionists
+triumphed, and the yoke of Spain was thrown off.
+
+But the independence of Chili, thus easily begun, was not easily
+continued. Three brothers, Jose Miguel, Juan Jose, and Luis Carreras,
+and their sister, styled the Anne Boleyn of Chili, determined to
+pervert the public weal to their own aggrandisement. Winning their way
+into popularity, they overturned the national congress that had been
+established in June, and in December set up a new junta, with Jose
+Miguel Carrera at its head. A dismal period of misrule ensued, which
+encouraged the Spanish generals, Pareja and Sanchez, to attempt the
+reconquest of Chili in 1813. Pareja and Sanchez were successfully
+resisted, and a better man, General Bernardo O'Higgins, the republican
+son of an Irishman who had been Viceroy of Peru, was put at the
+head of affairs. He succeeded to the command of the Chilian army in
+November, 1813, when a fresh attack from the Spaniards was expected.
+At first his good soldiership was successful. The enemy, having come
+almost to the gates of Santiago, was forced to retire in May, 1814;
+and the Chilian cause might have continued to prosper under O'Higgins,
+had not the Carreras contrived, in hopes of reinstating themselves in
+power, to divide the republican interests, and so, while encouraging
+renewed invasion by the Spaniards from Lima, make their resistance
+more difficult. Wisely deeming it right to set aside every other
+consideration than the necessity of saving Chili from the danger
+pressing upon it from without, O'Higgins effected a junction with the
+Carreras, hoping thus to bring the whole force of the republic against
+the royalist army, larger than its predecessors, which was marching
+towards Santiago and Valparaiso. Had his magnanimous proposals been
+properly acted upon, the issue might have been very different. But
+the Carreras, even in the most urgent hour of danger, could not forget
+their private ambitions. Holding aloof with their part of the army,
+they allowed O'Higgins and his force of nine hundred to be defeated
+by four thousand royalists under General Osorio, in the preliminary
+fight which took place at the end of September. They were guilty of
+like treachery during the great battle of the 1st of October. On that
+day the royalists entered Rancagua, the town in which O'Higgins and
+his little band had taken shelter. They were fiercely resisted, and
+the fighting lasted through thirty-six hours. So brave was the conduct
+of the patriots that the Spanish general was, after some hours'
+contest, on the point of retreating. He saw that he would have no
+chance of success, had the Carreras brought up their troops, as
+was expected by both sides of the combatants. But the Carreras,
+short-sighted in their selfishness, and nothing loth that O'Higgins
+should be defeated, still held aloof. Thereupon the Spaniards took
+heart, and made one more desperate effort. With hatchets and swords
+they forced their way, inch by inch and hour by hour, into the centre
+of the town. There, in an open square, O'Higgins, with two hundred
+men--all the remnant of his little army--made a last resistance. When
+only a few dozen of his soldiers were left alive, and when he himself
+was seriously wounded, he determined, not to surrender, but to end the
+battle. The residue of the patriots dashed through the town, cutting
+a road through the astonished crowd of their opponents, and effected
+a retreat in which those opponents, though more than twenty times as
+numerous, durst not pursue them.
+
+That memorable battle of Rancagua caused throughout the American
+continent, and, across the Atlantic, through Europe, a thrill of
+sympathy for the Chilian war of independence. But its immediate
+effects were most disastrous. The Carreras, too selfish to fight
+before, were now too cowardly. They and their followers fled.
+O'Higgins had barely soldiers enough left to serve as a weak escort
+to the fourteen hundred old men, women, and children who crossed the
+Andes with him on foot, to pass two years and a half in voluntary
+exile at Mendoza.
+
+During those two years and a half the Spaniards were masters in
+Santiago, and Chili was once more a Spanish province, in which the
+inhabitants were punished terribly in confiscations, imprisonments,
+and executions for their recent defection. Deliverance, however,
+was at hand. General San Martin, through whom chiefly La Plata had
+achieved its freedom, gave assistance to O'Higgins and the Chilian
+patriots. The main body of the Spanish army, numbering about five
+thousand, had been stationed on the heights of Chacabuco, whence
+Santiago, Valparaiso, and the other leading towns of Chili were
+overawed. On the 12th of February, 1817, San Martin and O'Higgins,
+with a force nearly as large, surprised this garrison, and, with
+excellent strategy and very little loss of life, to the patriots at
+any rate, it was entirely subdued. Santiago was entered in triumph on
+the 14th of February, and a few weeks served for the entire dispersion
+of the royalist forces. The supreme directorship of the renovated
+republic was offered to San Martin. On his declining the honour, it
+was assigned, to the satisfaction of all parties, to O'Higgins.
+
+The new dictator and the wisest of his counsellors, however, were not
+satisfied with the temporary advantage that they had achieved. They
+knew that armies would continue to come down from Peru, the defeat
+of which, even if that could be relied upon, would waste all the
+resources of the republic. They knew, too, that the Spanish war-ships
+which supplied Peru with troops and ammunition from home, passing the
+Chilian coast on their way, would seriously hinder the commerce on
+which the young state had to depend for its development, even if
+they did not destroy that commerce at its starting-point by seizing
+Valparaiso and the other ports. Therefore they resolved to seek
+for efficient help from Europe. With that end Don Jose Alvarez,
+a high-minded patriot, who had done much good service to Chili in
+previous years, was immediately sent to Europe, commissioned to borrow
+money, to build or buy warships, and in all the ways in his power to
+enlist the sympathies of the English people in the republican cause.
+In the last of these projects, at any rate, he succeeded beyond all
+reasonable expectation.
+
+Beaching London in April, 1817, Alvarez was welcomed by many friends
+of South American freedom--Sir Francis Burdett, Sir James Mackintosh,
+Mr. Henry Brougham, and Mr. Edward Ellice among the number. Lord
+Cochrane was just then out of London, fighting his amusing battle with
+the sheriffs and bailiffs of Hampshire; but as soon as that business
+was over he took foremost place among the friends of Don Alvarez and
+the Chilian cause which he represented. With a message to him, indeed,
+Alvarez was specially commissioned. He was invited by the Chilian
+Government to undertake the organization and command of an improved
+naval force, and so, by exercise of the prowess which he had displayed
+in the Mediterranean and elsewhere, to render invaluable service to
+the young republic.
+
+He promptly accepted the invitation, being induced thereto by many
+sufficient reasons. Sick at heart, as we have seen, under the cruel
+treatment to which for so many years he had been subjected by his
+enemies in power, he saw here an opportunity of, at the same
+time, escaping from his persecutors, returning to active work in
+a profession very dear to him, and giving efficient aid to a noble
+enterprise.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII.
+
+LORD COCHRANE'S VOYAGE TO CHILI.--HIS RECEPTION AT VALPARAISO AND
+SANTIAGO.--THE DISORGANIZATION OF THE CHILIAN FLEET.--FIRST SIGNS
+OF DISAFFECTION.--THE NAVAL FORCES OF THE CHILIANS AND THE
+SPANIARDS.--LORD COCHRANE'S FIRST EXPEDITION TO PERU.--HIS ATTACK ON
+CALLAO.--"DRAKE THE DRAGON" AND "COCHRANE THE DEVIL."--LORD COCHRANE'S
+SUCCESSES IN OVERAWING THE SPANIARDS, IN TREASURE-TAKING, AND
+IN ENCOURAGEMENT OF THE PERUVIANS TO JOIN IN THE WAR OF
+INDEPENDENCE.--HIS PLAN FOE ANOTHER ATTACK ON CALLAO.--HIS
+DIFFICULTIES IN EQUIPPING THE EXPEDITION.--THE FAILURE OF
+THE ATTEMPT.--HIS PLAN FOR STORMING VALDIVIA.--ITS SUCCESSFUL
+ACCOMPLISHMENT.
+
+[1818-1820.]
+
+
+Having accepted, in May, 1817, the offer conveyed to him by the
+Chilian Government through Don Jose Alvarez, Lord Cochrane's departure
+from England was delayed for more than a year. This was chiefly on
+account of the war-steamer, the _Rising Star_, which it was arranged
+to build and equip in London under his superintendence. But the work
+proceeded so slowly, in consequence of the difficulty experienced by
+Alvarez in raising the requisite funds, that, at last, Lord Cochrane,
+being urgently needed in South America, where the Spaniards were
+steadily gaining ground, was requested to leave the superintendence
+of the _Rising Star_ in other hands, and to cross the Atlantic without
+her.
+
+Accompanied by Lady Cochrane and his two children, he went first from
+Rye to Boulogne, and there, on the 15th of August, 1818, embarked in
+the _Rose_, a merchantman which had formerly been a warsloop. The long
+voyage was uninteresting until Cape Horn was reached. There, and in
+passing along the rugged coast-line of Tierra del Fuego, Lord Cochrane
+was struck by its wild scenery. He watched the lazy penguins that
+crowded on the rocks, among evergreens that showed brightly amid the
+imposing mass of snow, and caught with hooks the lazier sea-pigeons
+that skimmed the heavy waves and hovered round the bulwarks and got
+entangled among the rigging of the _Rose_. He shot several of the
+huge albatrosses that floated fearlessly over the deck, but was not
+successful in his efforts to catch the fish that were seen coming to
+the surface of the troubled sea. The sea was made so boisterous by
+rain and snow, and such a stiff wind blew from the west, that for two
+or three days the _Rose_ could not double the Cape. She was forced to
+tack towards the south until a favourable gale set in, which carried
+her safely to Valparaiso.
+
+Valparaiso was reached on the 28th of November, after ten weeks passed
+on shipboard. There and at Santiago, the seat of government, to which
+he proceeded as soon as the congratulations of his new friends
+would allow him, Lord Cochrane was heartily welcomed. So profuse and
+prolonged were the entertainments in his favour--splendid dinners,
+at which zealous patriots tendered their hearty compliments, being
+followed by yet more splendid balls, at which handsome women showed
+their gratitude in smiles, and eagerly sought the honour of being led
+by him through the dances which were their chief delight--that he had
+to remind his guests that he had come to Chili not to feast but to
+fight.
+
+There was prompt need of fighting. The Spaniards had a strong land
+force pressing up from the south and threatening to invest Santiago.
+Their formidable fleet swept the seas, and was being organized for an
+attack on Valparaiso. Admiral Blanco Encalada had just returned from
+a cruise in which he had succeeded in capturing, in Talcuanho Bay, a
+fine Spanish fifty-gun frigate, the Maria Isabel; but his fleet
+was ill-ordered and poorly equipped, quite unable, without thorough
+re-organization, to withstand the superior force of the enemy. An
+instance of the bad state of affairs was induced by Lord Cochrane's
+arrival, and seemed likely to cause serious trouble to him and worse
+misfortune to his Chilian employers. One of the republican vessels was
+the _Hecate_, a sloop of eighteen guns which had been sold out of the
+British navy and bought as a speculation by Captains Guise and Spry.
+Having first offered her in vain to the Buenos Ayrean Government,
+they had brought her on to Chili, and there contrived to sell her with
+advantage and to be themselves taken into the Chilian service. They
+and another volunteer, Captain Worcester, a North American, liking
+the ascendancy over Admiral Bianco which their experience had won
+for them, formed a cabal with the object of securing Admiral Blanco's
+continuance in the chief command, or its equal division between him
+and Lord Cochrane. Nothing but the Chilian admiral's disinterested
+patriotism prevented a serious rupture. He steadily withstood all
+temptations to his vanity, and avowed his determination to accept no
+greater honour--if there could be a greater--than that of serving as
+second in command under the brave Englishman who had come to fight
+for the independence of Chili. Thus, though some troubles afterwards
+sprang from the disaffections of Guise, Spry, and Worcester, the
+mischief schemed by them was prevented at starting.
+
+A few days after his arrival Lord Cochrane received his commission as
+"Vice-Admiral of Chili, Admiral, and Commander-in-Chief of the
+Naval Forces of the Republic." His flag was hoisted, on the 22nd
+of December, on board the _Maria Isabel_, now rechristened the
+_O'Higgins_, and fitted out as the principal ship in the small Chilian
+fleet. The other vessels of the fleet were the _San Martin_, formerly
+an Indiaman in the English service, of fifty-six guns; the _Lautaro_,
+also an old Indiaman, of forty-four guns; the _Galvarino_, as the
+_Hecate_ of Captains Cruise and Spry was now styled, of eighteen guns;
+the _Chacabuco_, of twenty guns; the _Aracauno_, of sixteen guns; and
+a sloop of fourteen guns named the _Puyrredon_.
+
+The Spanish fleet, which these seven ships had to withstand, comprised
+fourteen vessels and twenty-seven gunboats. Of the former three were
+frigates, the _Esmeralda_, of forty-four guns, the _Venganza_, of
+forty-two guns, and the _Sebastiana_, of twenty-eight guns; four were
+brigs, the _Maypeu_, of eighteen guns, the _Pezuela_, of twenty-two
+guns, the _Potrilla_, of eighteen guns, and another, whose name is not
+recorded, also of eighteen guns. There was a schooner, name unknown,
+which carried one large gun and twenty culverins. The rest were armed
+merchantmen, the _Resolution_, of thirty-six guns; the _Cleopatra_, of
+twenty-eight guns; the _La Focha_, of twenty guns; the _Guarmey_, of
+eighteen guns; the Fernando, of twenty-six guns, and the San Antonio,
+of eighteen guns. Only ten out of the fourteen, however, were ready
+for sea; and before the whole naval force could be got ready for
+service, it had been partly broken up by Lord Cochrane.
+
+There was delay, also, in getting the Chilian fleet under sail. After
+waiting at Valparaiso as long as he deemed prudent, Lord Cochrane left
+the three smaller vessels to complete their equipment under Admiral
+Blanco's direction, and passed out of port on the 16th of January,
+with the O'Higgins, the San Martin, the Lautaro, and the Chacabuco. He
+had hardly started before a mutiny broke out on board the last-named
+vessel, which compelled him to halt at Coquimbo long enough to try
+and punish the mutineers. Resuming the voyage, he proceeded along the
+Chilian and Peruvian coast as far northward as Callao Bay, where he
+cruised about for some days, awaiting an opportunity of attacking the
+Spanish shipping there collected in considerable force.
+
+While thus waiting he employed his leisure in observations, great and
+small, of the sort and in the way characteristic of him all through
+life. One of his rough notes runs thus:--"Cormorants resort in
+enormous nights, coming in the morning from the northward to Callao
+Bay, and proceeding along shore to the southward, diving in regular
+succession one after another on the fish which, driven at the same
+time from below by shoals of porpoises, seem to have no chance but to
+be devoured under water or scooped up in the large bags pendent from
+the enormous bills of the cormorants." "Prodigious seals," we read in
+another note, "inhabit the rocks, whose grave faces and grey beards
+look more like the human countenance than the faces of most other
+animals. They are very unwieldy in their movements when on shore, but
+most expert in the water. There is a small kind of duck in the bay,
+which, from the clearness of the water, can be seen flying with its
+wings under water in chase of small fry, which it speedily overtakes
+from its prodigious speed."
+
+From note-making of that sort, Lord Cochrane turned to more serious
+business. The batteries of Callao and of San Lorenzo, a little island
+in the bay which helped to form the port, mounted one hundred and
+sixty guns, and more than twice as many were at the command of vessels
+there lying-to. Direct attack of a force so very much superior to
+that of the Chilian fleet seemed out of the question. Therefore
+Lord Cochrane bethought him of a subterfuge. Learning that two North
+American war-ships were expected at Callao, he determined to personate
+them with the _O'Higgins_ and _Lautaro_, and so enter the port under
+alien colours. It was then carnival-time, and on the 21st of February,
+deeming that the Spaniards were more likely to be off their guard, he
+proposed "to make a feint of sending a boat ashore with despatches,
+and in the mean time suddenly to dash at the frigates and cut them
+out." Unfortunately a dense fog set in, which lasted till the 28th,
+and made it impossible for him to effect his purpose before the
+carnival was over. Let the sequel be told in his own words.
+
+"On the 28th, hearing heavy firing and imagining that one of the ships
+was engaged with the enemy, I stood with the flag-ship into the
+bay. The other ships, imagining the same thing, also steered in the
+direction of the firing, when, the fog clearing for a moment, we
+discovered each other, as well as a strange sail near us. This proved
+to be a Spanish gunboat, with a lieutenant and twenty men, who, on
+being made prisoners, informed us that the firing was a salute
+in honour of the Viceroy, who had that morning been on a visit of
+inspection to the batteries and shipping, and was then on board the
+brig-of-war _Pezuela_, which we saw crowding sail in the direction
+of the batteries. The fog, again coming on, suggested to me the
+possibility of a direct attack. Accordingly, still maintaining our
+disguise under American colours, the _O'Higgins_ and _Lautaro_ stood
+towards the batteries, narrowly escaping going ashore in the fog. The
+Viceroy, having no doubt witnessed the capture of the gunboat, had,
+however, provided for our reception, the garrison being at their guns,
+and the crews of the ships-of-war at their quarters. Notwithstanding
+the great odds, I determined to persist in an attack, as our
+withdrawing, without firing a shot, would produce an effect upon the
+minds of the Spaniards the reverse of that intended. I had sufficient
+experience in war to know that moral effect, even if the result of a
+degree of temerity, will not unfrequently supply the place of superior
+force.
+
+"The wind falling light, I did not venture on laying the flag-ship and
+the _Lautaro_ alongside the Spanish frigates, as I at first intended,
+but anchored with springs on our cables, abreast of the shipping,
+which was arranged in a half-moon of two lines, the rear-rank being
+judiciously disposed so as to cover the intervals of the ships in the
+front line. A dead calm succeeded, and we were for two hours exposed
+to a heavy fire from the batteries, in addition to that from the
+two frigates, the brigs _Pezuela_ and _Maypeu_, and seven or eight
+gunboats. Nevertheless the northern angle of one of the principal
+forts was silenced by our fire. As soon as a breeze sprang up, we
+weighed anchor, standing to and fro in front of the batteries,
+and returning their fire, until Captain Guise, who commanded the
+_Lautaro_, being severely wounded, that ship sheered off and never
+again came within range. As, from want of wind, or doubt of the
+result, neither the _San Martin_ nor the _Chacabuco_ had ever got
+within fire, the flag-ship was thus left alone, and I was reluctantly
+compelled to relinquish the attack. I withdrew to the island of San
+Lorenzo, about three miles distant from the forts; the Spaniards,
+though nearly quadruple our numbers, exclusive of their gunboats, not
+venturing to follow us.
+
+"The action having been commenced in a fog, the Spaniards imagined
+that all the Chilian vessels were engaged. They were not a little
+surprised, as it again cleared, to find that their own frigate, the
+quondam _Maria Isabella_, was almost their only opponent. So much were
+they dispirited by this discovery that, as soon as possible after the
+close of the contest, their ships-of-war were dismantled, the topmasts
+and spars being formed into a double boom across the anchorage, so as
+to prevent approach. The Spaniards were also previously unaware of my
+being in command of the Chilian squadron. On becoming acquainted with
+this fact, they bestowed upon me the not very complimentary title of
+'El Diablo,' by which I was afterwards known amongst them."
+
+Two hundred and forty years before, almost to a day, Sir Francis
+Drake--whom, of all English seamen, Lord Cochrane most resembled in
+chivalrous daring and in chivalrous hatred of oppression--had secretly
+led his little _Golden Hind_ into the harbour of Callao, and there
+despoiled a Spanish fleet of seventeen vessels; for which and for his
+other brave achievements he won the nickname of El Dracone. Drake the
+Dragon and Cochrane the Devil were kinsmen in noble hatred, and noble
+punishment, of Spanish wrong-doing.
+
+Retiring to San Lorenzo, after the fight in Callao Bay on the 28th
+of February, Lord Cochrane occupied the island, and from it blockaded
+Callao for five weeks. On the island he found thirty-seven Chilian
+soldiers, whom the Spaniards had made prisoners eight years before.
+"The unhappy men," he said, "had ever since been forced to work in
+chains under the supervision of a military guard--now prisoners in
+turn; their sleeping-place during the whole of this period being a
+filthy shed, in which they were every night chained by one leg to an
+iron bar." Yet worse, as he was informed by the poor fellows whom he
+freed from their misery, was the condition of some Chilian officers
+and seamen imprisoned in Lima, and so cruelly chained that the fetters
+had worn bare their ankles to the bone. He accordingly, under a flag
+of truce, sent to the Spanish Viceroy, Don Joaquim de la Pezuela,
+offering to exchange for these Chilian prisoners a larger number of
+Spaniards captured by himself and others. This proposal was bluntly
+refused by the Viceroy, who took occasion, in his letter, to avow
+his surprise that a British nobleman should come to fight for a
+rebel community "unacknowledged by all the powers of the globe."
+Lord Cochrane replied that "a British nobleman was a free man, and
+therefore had a right to assist any country which was endeavouring to
+re-establish the rights of aggrieved humanity." "I have," he added,
+"adopted the cause of Chili with the same freedom of judgment that I
+previously exercised when refusing the offer of an admiral's rank in
+Spain, made to me not long ago by the Spanish ambassador in London."
+
+Except in blockading Callao and repairing his ships little was done by
+Lord Cochrane during his stay at San Lorenzo. On the 1st of March he
+went into the harbour again and opened a destructive fire upon
+the Spanish gunboats, but as these soon sought shelter under the
+batteries, which the _O'Higgins_ and the _Lautaro_ were not strong
+enough to oppose, the demonstration did not last long. Unsuccessful
+also was an attempt made upon the batteries, with the aid of an
+explosion-vessel, on the 22nd of March. The explosion-vessel, when
+just within musket-range, was struck by a round shot, and foundered,
+thus spoiling the intended enterprise. But other plans fared better.
+
+At the beginning of April, Lord Cochrane left San Lorenzo and
+proceeded to Huacho, a few leagues north of Callao. Its inhabitants
+were for the most part in sympathy with the republican cause, and the
+Spanish garrison fled at almost the first gunshot, leaving a large
+quantity of government property and specie in the hands of the
+assailants. Much other treasure, which proved very serviceable to
+the impoverished Chilian exchequer, was captured by the little fleet
+during a two months' cruise about the coast of Peru, both north and
+south of Callao. Everywhere, too, the Spanish cause was weakened,
+and the natives were encouraged to share in the great work of South
+American rebellion against a tyranny of three centuries' duration. "It
+was my object," said Lord Cochrane, "to make friends of the Peruvian
+people, by adopting towards them a conciliatory course, and by strict
+care that none but Spanish property should be taken. Confidence was
+thus inspired, and the universal dissatisfaction with Spanish rule
+speedily became changed into an earnest desire to be freed from it."
+
+Having cruised about the Peruvian coast during April and May, Lord
+Cochrane returned to Valparaiso on the 16th of June. "The objects of
+the first expedition," he said, "had been fully accomplished, namely,
+to reconnoitre, with a view to future operations, when the squadron
+should be rendered efficient; but more especially to ascertain the
+inclinations of the Peruvians--a point of the first importance to
+Chili, as being obliged to be constantly on the alert for her own
+newly-acquired liberties so long as the Spaniards were in undisturbed
+possession of Peru. To the accomplishment of these objects had been
+superadded the restriction of the Spanish naval force to the
+shelter of the forts, the defeat of their military forces wherever
+encountered, and the capture of no inconsiderable amount of treasure."
+That was work enough to be done by four small ships, ill-manned and
+ill-provisioned, during a five months' absence from Valparaiso; and
+the Chilians were not ungrateful.
+
+Their gratitude, however, was not strong enough to make them zealous
+co-operators in his schemes for their benefit. Lord Cochrane was eager
+to start upon another expedition, in which he hoped for yet greater
+success. But for this were needed preparations which the poverty and
+mismanagement of the Chilian Government made almost impossible. He
+asked for a thousand troops with which to facilitate a second attack
+on Callao. This force, certainly not a large one, was promised, but,
+when he was about to embark, only ninety soldiers were ready, and even
+then a private subscription had to be raised for giving them decent
+clothing instead of the rags in which they appeared. For the assault
+on Callao, also, an ample supply of rockets was required. An engineer
+named Goldsack had gone from England to construct them, and, that
+there might be no stinting in the work, Lord Cochrane offered to
+surrender all his share of prize-money. The offer was refused; but, to
+save money, their manufacture was assigned to some Spanish prisoners,
+who showed their patriotism in making them so badly that, when tried,
+they were found utterly worthless. There were other instances of false
+economy, whereby Lord Cochrane's intended services to his Chilian
+employers were seriously hindered. The vessels were refitted, however,
+and a new one, an American-built corvette, named the _Independencia_,
+of twenty-eight guns, was added to the number.
+
+After nearly three months' stay at Valparaiso, he again set sail on
+the 12th of September, 1819. Admiral Blanco was his second in command,
+and his squadron consisted of the _O'Higgins_, the _San Martin_, the
+_Lautaro_, the _Independencia_, the _Galvarino_, the _Araucano_, and
+the _Puyrredon_, mounting two hundred and twenty guns in all. There
+were also two old vessels, to be used as fireships.
+
+The fleet entered Callao Roads on the 29th of September. On this
+occasion there was no subterfuge. On the 30th Lord Cochrane despatched
+a boat to Callao with a flag of truce, and a challenge to the Viceroy
+to send out his ships--nearly twice as strong as those of Chili in
+guns and men--for a fair fight in the open sea. The challenge was
+bluntly rejected, and an attack on the batteries and the ships in
+harbour was then planned. On the 1st of October, the smaller vessels
+reconnoitred the bay, and there was some fighting, in which the
+_Araucano_ was damaged. Throughout the night of the 2nd, a formidable
+attack was attempted, in which the main reliance was placed in the
+Goldsack rockets; but, in consequence of the treacherous handling
+of the Spanish soldiers who had filled them, they proved worse than
+useless, doing nearly as much injury to the men who fired them as
+to the enemy. Only one gunboat was sunk by the shells from a raft
+commanded by Major Miller, who also did some damage to the forts and
+shipping. On the night of the 4th, Lord Cochrane amused himself, while
+a fireship was being prepared, by causing a burning tar-barrel to be
+drifted with the tide towards the enemy's shipping. It was, in the
+darkness, supposed to be a much more formidable antagonist, and
+volleys of Spanish shot were spent upon it. On the following evening
+a fireship was despatched; but this also was a failure. A sudden calm
+prevented her progress. She was riddled through and through by the
+enemy's guns, and, rapidly gaining water in consequence, had to be
+fired so much too soon that she exploded before getting near enough to
+work any serious mischief among the Spanish shipping.
+
+By these misfortunes Lord Cochrane was altogether disheartened. The
+rockets, on which he had chiefly relied, had proved worthless, and,
+one fireship having been wasted, he did not care to risk the loss of
+the other. He found too that the Spaniards, profiting by the warning
+which he had previously given, had so strengthened their booms that it
+was quite impossible, with the small force at his command, to get at
+them or to reach the port. His store of provisions, also, was nearly
+exhausted, and the fresh supply promised from Chili had not arrived.
+He therefore reluctantly, for the time, abandoned his project for
+taking Callao.
+
+He continued to watch the port for a few weeks, however, hoping for
+some chance opportunity of injuring it; and, in the interval, sent
+three hundred and fifty soldiers and marines, under Lieutenant-Colonel
+Charles and Major Miller, in the _Lautaro_, the _Galvarino_, and the
+remaining fireship, commanded by Captain Guise, to attack Pisco and
+procure from it and the neighbourhood the requisite provisions. This
+was satisfactorily done; but the sickness of many of his men caused
+his further detention at Santa, whither he had gone from Callao. On
+the 21st of November the sick were sent to Valparaiso, in the charge
+of the _San Martin_, the _Independencia_, and the _Araucano_. With the
+remaining ships, the _O'Higgins_, the _Lautaro_, the _Galvarino_, and
+the _Puyrredon_, Lord Cochrane proceeded to the mouth of the River
+Guayaquil. There, on the 28th of the month, he captured two large
+Spanish vessels, one of twenty and the other of sixteen guns, laden
+with timber, and took possession of the village of Puna. At Guayaquil
+there was another delay of a fortnight, owing to a mutiny attempted
+by Captains Guise and Spry, whose treacherous disposition has already
+been mentioned.
+
+Not till the middle of December was he able to escape from the
+troubles brought upon him by others, and to return to work worthy of
+his great name and character. Then, however, sending one of his ships,
+with the prizes, to Valparaiso, and leaving two others to watch
+the Peruvian coast, he started, with only his flag-ship, upon an
+enterprise as brilliant in conception and execution as any in his
+whole eventful history. "The Chilian people," he said, "expected
+impossibilities; and I. had for some time been revolving in my mind
+a plan to achieve one which should gratify them, and allay my own
+wounded feelings. I had now only one ship, so that there were no
+other inclinations to consult; and I felt quite sure of Major Miller's
+concurrence where there was any fighting to be done. My design was,
+with the flag-ship alone, to capture by a _coup de main_ the
+numerous forts and garrison of Valdivia, a fortress previously deemed
+impregnable, and thus to counteract the disappointment which would
+ensue in Chili from our want of success at Callao. The enterprise
+was a desperate one; nevertheless, I was not about to do anything
+desperate, having resolved that, unless I was fully satisfied as to
+its practicability, I would not attempt it. Rashness, though often
+imputed to me, forms no part of my composition. There is a rashness
+without calculation of consequences; but with that calculation
+well-founded, it is no longer rashness. And thus, now that I was
+unfettered by people who did not second my operations as they ought
+to have done, I made up my mind to take Valdivia, if the attempt came
+within the scope of my calculations."
+
+Valdivia was the stronghold and centre of Spanish attack upon Chili
+from the south, just as were Lima and Callao on the north. To reach it
+Lord Cochrane had to sail northwards along the coast of Peru and Chili
+to some distance below Valparaiso. This he did without loss of time,
+to work out an excellent strategy which will be best understood from
+his own report of it.
+
+"The first step," he said, "clearly was to reconnoitre Valdivia. The
+flag-ship arrived on the 18th of January, 1820, under Spanish colours,
+and made a signal for a pilot, who--as the Spaniards mistook the
+_O'Higgins_ for a ship of their own--promptly came off, together with
+a complimentary retinue of an officer and four soldiers, all of whom
+were made prisoners as soon as they came on board. The pilot was
+ordered to take us into the channels leading to the forts, whilst the
+officer and his men, knowing there was little chance of their finding
+their way on shore again, thought it most conducive to their interests
+to supply all the information demanded, the result being increased
+confidence on my part as to the possibility of a successful attack.
+Amongst other information obtained was the expected arrival of the
+Spanish brig _Potrillo_, with money on board for the payment of the
+garrison.
+
+"As we were busily employing ourselves in inspecting the channels, the
+officer commanding the garrison began to suspect that our object might
+not altogether be pacific, a suspicion which was confirmed by the
+detention of his officer. Suddenly a heavy fire was opened upon
+us from the various forts, to which we did not reply, but, our
+reconnoissance being now complete, withdrew beyond its reach. Two days
+were occupied in reconnoitring. On the third day the _Potrillo_ hove
+in sight, and she, being also deceived by our Spanish colours, was
+captured without a shot, twenty thousand dollars and some important
+despatches being found on board."
+
+That first business having been satisfactorily achieved, Lord Cochrane
+proceeded to Concepcion, there to ask and obtain from its Chilian
+governor, General Freire, a force of two hundred and fifty soldiers,
+under Major Beauchef, a French volunteer. In Talcahuano Bay, moreover,
+he found a Chilian schooner, the _Montezuma_, and a Brazilian brig,
+the _Intrepido_. He attached the former to his service, and accepted
+the volunteered aid of the latter. With this augmented but still
+insignificant force, very defective in some important respects, he
+returned to Valdivia. "The flag-ship," he said, "had only two naval
+officers on board, one of these being under arrest for disobedience
+of orders, whilst the other was incapable of performing the duty of
+lieutenant; so that I had to act as admiral, captain and lieutenant,
+taking my turn in the watch--or rather being constantly on the
+watch--as the only available officer was so incompetent."
+
+"We sailed from Talcahuano on the 25th of January," the narrative
+proceeds, "when I communicated my intentions to the military officers,
+who displayed great eagerness in the cause--alone questioning their
+success from motives of prudence. On my explaining to them that, if
+unexpected projects are energetically put in execution, they almost
+invariably succeed in spite of odds, they willingly entered into my
+plans.
+
+"On the night of the 29th, we were off the island of Quiriquina, in
+a dead calm. From excessive fatigue in the execution of subordinate
+duties, I had lain down to rest, leaving the ship in charge of
+the lieutenant, who took advantage of my absence to retire also,
+surrendering the watch to the care of a midshipman, who fell asleep.
+Knowing our dangerous position, I had left strict orders that I was
+to be called the moment a breeze sprang up; but these orders were
+neglected. A sudden wind took the ship unawares, and the midshipman,
+in attempting to bring her round, ran her upon the sharp edge of a
+rock, where she lay beating, suspended, as it were, upon her keel;
+and, had the swell increased, she must inevitably have gone to pieces.
+
+"We were forty miles from the mainland, the brig and schooner being
+both out of sight. The first impulse, both of officers and crew, was
+to abandon the ship, but, as we had six hundred men on board, whilst
+not more than a hundred and fifty could have entered the boats, this
+would have been but a scramble for life. Pointing out to the men that
+those who escaped could only reach the coast of Arauco, where they
+would meet nothing but torture and inevitable death at the hands of
+the Indians, I with some difficulty got them to adopt the alternative
+of attempting to save the ship. The first sounding gave five feet
+of water in the hold, and the pumps were entirely out of order. Our
+carpenter, who was only one by name, was incompetent to repair them;
+but, having myself some skill in carpentry, I took off my coat, and
+by midnight, got them into working order, the water in the meanwhile
+gaining on us, though the whole crew were engaged in baling it out
+with buckets.
+
+"To our great delight, the leak did not increase, upon which I got
+out the stream anchor and commenced heaving off the ship; the officers
+clamoured first to ascertain the extent of the leak; but this I
+expressly forbade, as calculated to damp the energy of the men,
+whilst, as we now gained on the leak, there was no doubt the ship
+would swim as far as Valdivia, which was the chief point to be
+regarded, the capture of the fortress being my object, after which the
+ship might be repaired at leisure. As there was no lack of physical
+force on board, she was at length floated; but the powder magazine
+having been under water, the ammunition of every kind, except a little
+upon deck and in the cartouche-boxes of the troops, was rendered
+unserviceable; though about this I cared little, as it involved the
+necessity of using the bayonet in our anticipated attack; and to
+facing this weapon the Spaniards had, in every case, evinced a rooted
+aversion."
+
+The _O'Higgins_, thus bravely saved from wreck, was soon joined by the
+_Intrepido_ and the _Montezuma_, and these vessels being now most fit
+for action, as many men as possible were transferred to them, and the
+_O'Higgins_ was ordered to stand out to sea, only to be made use of in
+case of need. The _Montezuma_ now became the flag-ship, and with her
+and her consort Lord Cochrane sailed into Valdivia Harbour on the 2nd
+of February.
+
+"The fortifications of Valdivia," he said, "are placed on both sides
+of a channel three quarters of a mile in width, and command the
+entrance, anchorage, and river leading to the town, crossing their
+fire in all directions so effectually that, with proper caution on the
+part of the garrison, no ship could enter without suffering severely,
+while she would be equally exposed at anchor. The principal forts on
+the western shore are placed in the following order:--El Ingles, San
+Carlos, Amargos, Chorocomayo, Alto, and Corral Castle. Those on the
+eastern side are Niebla, directly opposite Amargos, and Piojo; whilst
+on the island of Manzanera is a strong fort mounted with guns of large
+calibre, commanding the whole range of the entrance channel. These
+forts and a few others, fifteen in all, would render the place in the
+hands of a skilful garrison almost impregnable, the shores on
+which they stand being inaccessible by reason of the surf, with the
+exception of a small landing-place at Fort Ingles.
+
+"It was to this landing-place that we first directed our attention,
+anchoring the brig and schooner off the guns of Fort Ingles on the
+afternoon of February the 3rd, amidst a swell which rendered immediate
+disembarkation impracticable. The troops were carefully kept below;
+and, to avert the suspicion of the Spaniards, we had trumped up a
+story of our having just arrived from Cadiz and being in want of a
+pilot. They told us to send a boat for one. To this we replied that
+our boats had been washed away in the passage round Cape Horn.
+Not being quite satisfied, they began to assemble troops at the
+landing-place, firing alarm-guns, and rapidly bringing up the
+garrisons of the western forts to Fort Ingles, but not molesting us.
+
+"Unfortunately for the credit of the story about the loss of the
+boats, which were at the time carefully concealed under the lee of the
+vessels, one drifted astern, so that our object became apparent, and
+the guns of Fort Ingles, under which we lay, forthwith opened upon
+us, the first shots passing through the sides of the _Intrepido_ and
+killing two men, so that it became necessary to land in spite of the
+swell. We had only two launches and a gig. I directed the operation in
+the gig, whilst Major Miller, with forty-four marines, pushed off in
+the first launch, under the fire of the party at the landing-place,
+on to which they soon leaped, driving the Spaniards before them at
+the point of the bayonet. The second launch then pushed off from the
+_Intrepido_, while the other was returning; and in this way, in less
+than an hour, three hundred men had made good their footing on shore.
+
+"The most difficult task, the capture of the forts, was to come. The
+only way in which the first, Fort Ingles, could be approached, was
+by a precipitous path, along which the men could only pass in single
+file, the fort itself being inaccessible except by a ladder, which the
+enemy, after being routed by Major Miller, had drawn up.
+
+"As soon as it was dark, a picked party, under the guidance of one
+of the Spanish prisoners, silently advanced to the attack. This party
+having taken up its position, the main body moved forward, cheering
+and firing in the air, to intimate to the Spaniards that their
+chief reliance was on the bayonet. The enemy, meanwhile, kept up
+an incessant fire of artillery and musketry in the direction of the
+shouts, but without effect, as no aim could be taken in the dark.
+
+"Whilst the patriots were thus noisily advancing, a gallant young
+officer, Ensign Vidal, got under the inland flank of the fort, and,
+with a few men, contrived to tear up some pallisades, by which a
+bridge was made across the ditch. In that way he and his small party
+entered and formed noiselessly under cover of some branches of trees,
+while the garrison, numbering about eight hundred soldiers, were
+directing their whole attention in an opposite direction.
+
+"A volley from Vidal's party convinced the Spaniards that they had
+been taken in flank. Without waiting to ascertain the number of those
+who had outflanked them, they instantly took to flight, filling with a
+like panic a column of three hundred men drawn up behind the fort.
+The Chilians, who were now well up, bayoneted them by dozens as they
+attempted to gain the forts; and when the forts were opened to receive
+them the patriots entered at the same time, and thus drove them from
+fort to fort into the Castle of Corral, together with two hundred more
+who had abandoned some guns advantageously placed on a height at Fort
+Chorocomayo. The Corral was stormed with equal rapidity, a number
+of the enemy escaping in boats to Valdivia, others plunging into the
+forest. Upwards of a hundred fell into our hands, and on the following
+morning the like number were found to have been bayoneted. Our loss
+was seven men killed and nineteen wounded.
+
+"On the 5th, the _Intrepido_ and _Montezuma_, which had been left near
+Fort Ingles, entered the harbour, being fired at in their passage by
+Fort Niebla, on the eastern shore. On their coming to an anchor at the
+Corral, two hundred men were again embarked to attack Forts Niebla,
+Carbonero, and Piojo. The _O'Higgins_ also appeared in sight off the
+mouth of the harbour. The Spaniards thereupon summarily abandoned the
+forts on the eastern side; no doubt judging that, as the western forts
+had been captured without the aid of the frigate, they had, now that
+she had arrived, no chance of successfully defending them.
+
+"On the 6th, the troops were again embarked to pursue the flying
+garrison up the river, when we received a flag of truce, informing us
+that the enemy had abandoned the town, after plundering the private
+houses and magazines, and with the governor, Colonel Montoya, had
+fled in the direction of Chiloe. The booty which fell into our
+hands, exclusive of the value of the forts and public buildings, was
+considerable, Valdivia being the chief military dep�t in the southern
+side of the continent. Amongst the military stores were upwards of 50
+tons of gunpowder, 10,000 cannon-shot, 170,000 musket-cartridges, a
+large quantity of small arms, 128 guns, of which 53 were brass and the
+remainder iron, the ship _Dolores_--afterwards sold at Valparaiso for
+twenty thousand dollars--with public stores sold for the like value,
+and plate, of which General Sanchez had previously stripped the
+churches of Concepcion, valued at sixteen thousand dollars."
+Those prizes compensated over and over again for the loss of the
+_Intrepido_, which grounded in the channel, and the injuries done to
+the _O'Higgins_ on her way to Valdivia.
+
+But the value of Lord Cochrane's capture of this stronghold was not to
+be counted in money. By its daring conception and easy completion
+the Spaniards, besides losing their great southern starting-point for
+attacks on Chili and the other states that were fighting for their
+freedom, lost heart, to a great extent, in their whole South American
+warfare. They saw that their insurgent colonists had now found a
+champion too bold, too cautious, too honest, and too prosperous for
+them any longer to hope that they could succeed in their efforts to
+win back the dependencies which were shaking off the thraldom of three
+centuries.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII.
+
+LORD COCHRANE'S RETURN TO VALPARAISO.--HIS ILL-TREATMENT BY
+THE CHILIAN SENATE.--THE THIRD EXPEDITION TO PERU.--GENERAL SAN
+MARTIN.--THE CAPTURE OF THE "ESMERALDA," AND ITS ISSUE.--LORD
+COCHRANE'S SUBSEQUENT WORK.--SAN MARTIN'S TREACHERY.--HIS
+ASSUMPTION OF THE PROTECTORATE OF PERU.--HIS BASE PROPOSALS TO LORD
+COCHRANE.--LORD COCHRANE'S CONDEMNATION OF THEM.--THE TROUBLES OF THE
+CHILIAN SQUADRON.--LORD COCHRANE'S SEIZURE OF TREASURE AT ANCON,
+AND EMPLOYMENT OF IT IN PAYING HIS OFFICERS AND MEN.--HIS STAY AT
+GUAYAQUIL.--THE ADVANTAGES OF FREE TRADE.--LORD COCHRANE'S
+CRUISE ALONG THE MEXICAN COAST IN SEARCH OF THE REMAINING SPANISH
+FRIGATES.--THEIR ANNEXATION BY PERU.--LORD COCHRANE'S LAST VISIT TO
+CALLAO.
+
+[1820-1822.]
+
+
+Lord Cochrane returned to Valparaiso on the 27th of February, 1820.
+By General O'Higgins, the Supreme Director, and by the populace he was
+enthusiastically received. But Zenteno, the Minister of Marine, and
+other members of the Government, jealous of the fresh renown which he
+had won by his conquest of Valdivia, showed their jealousy in various
+offensive ways.
+
+In anticipation of his failure they had prepared an elaborate charge
+of insubordination, in that he had not come back direct from
+Callao. Now that he had triumphed, they sought at first to have him
+reprimanded for attempting so hazardous an exploit, and afterwards
+to rob him of his due on the ground that his achievement was
+insignificant and valueless. When they were compelled by the voice of
+the people to declare publicly that "the capture of Valdivia was the
+happy result of an admirably-arranged plan and of the most daring
+execution," they refused to award either to him or to his comrades any
+other recompense than was contained in the verbal compliment; and,
+on his refusing to give up his prizes until the seamen had been
+paid their arrears of wages, he was threatened with prosecution for
+detention of the national property.
+
+The threat was impotent, as the people of Chili would not for a moment
+have permitted such an indignity to their champion. But so irritating
+were this and other attempted persecutions to Lord Cochrane that, on
+the 14th of May, he tendered to the Supreme Director his resignation
+of service under the Chilian Government. That proposal was, of course,
+rejected; but with the rejection came a promise of better treatment.
+The seamen were paid in July, and the Valdivian prize-money was
+nominally awarded. Lord Cochrane's share amounted to 67,000 dollars,
+and to this was added a grant of land at Rio Clara. But the money was
+never paid, and the estate was forcibly seized a few years afterwards.
+
+Other annoyances, which need not here be detailed, were offered to
+Lord Cochrane, and thus six months were wasted by Zenteno and his
+associates in the Chilian senate. "The senate," said Lord Cochrane,
+"was an anomaly in state government. It consisted of five members,
+whose functions were to remain only during the first struggles of the
+country for independence; but this body had now assumed a permanent
+right to dictatorial control, whilst there was no appeal from their
+arbitrary conduct, except to themselves. They arrogated the title
+of 'Most Excellent,' whilst the Supreme Director was simply 'His
+Excellency;' his position, though nominally head of the executive,
+being really that of mouthpiece to the senate, which, assuming all
+power, deprived the Executive Government of its legitimate influence,
+so that no armament could be equipped, no public work undertaken,
+no troops raised, and no taxes levied, except by the consent of this
+irresponsible body. For such a clique the plain, simple good sense
+of the Supreme Director was no match. He was led to believe that a
+crooked policy was a necessary evil of government, and, as such a
+policy was adverse to his own nature, he was the more easily induced
+to surrender its administration to others who were free from his
+conscientious principles." Those sentences explain the treatment to
+which, now and afterwards, Lord Cochrane was subjected.
+
+He was allowed, however, to do further excellent service to the nation
+which had already begun to reward him with nothing but ingratitude. As
+soon as the Chilian Government could turn from its spiteful exercise
+to its proper duty of consolidating the independence of the insurgents
+from Spanish dominion, it was resolved to despatch as strong a force
+as could be raised for another and more formidable expedition to
+Peru, whereby at the same time the Peruvians should be freed from the
+tyranny by which they were still oppressed, and the Chilians should be
+rid of the constant danger that they incurred from the presence of a
+Spanish army in Lima, Callao, and other garrisons, ready to bear down
+upon them again and again, as it had often done before. In 1819 Lord
+Cochrane had vainly asked for a suitable land force with which to aid
+his attack upon Callao. It was now resolved to organize a Liberating
+Army, after the fashion of that with which Bolivar had nobly scoured
+the northern districts of South America, and to place it under the
+direction of General San Martin, in co-operation with whom Lord
+Cochrane was to pursue his work as chief admiral of the fleet.
+San Martin had fought worthily in La Plata, and he had earned the
+gratitude of the Chilians by winning back their freedom in conjunction
+with O'Higgins in 1817. Vanity and ambition, however, had since
+unhinged him, and he now proved himself a champion of liberty very
+inferior, both in prowess and in honesty, to Bolivar.
+
+His army, numbering four thousand two hundred men, was collected by
+the 21st of August, and on that day it was embarked at Valparaiso in
+the whole Chilian squadron. Lord Cochrane proposed to go at once to
+Chilca, the nearest point both to Lima and to Callao. San Martin,
+however, decided upon Pisco as a safer landing-place, and there the
+troops were deposited on the 8th of September. For fifty days they
+were detained there, and the fleet was forced to share their idleness,
+capturing only a few passing merchantmen. On the 28th of October they
+were re-embarked, and Lord Cochrane again urged a vigorous attack on
+the capital and its port. Again he was thwarted by San Martin, who
+requested to be landed at Ancon, considerably to the north of Callao,
+and as unsuitable a halting-place as was the southerly town of Pisco.
+Lord Cochrane had to comply; but he bethought him of a plan for
+achieving a great work, in spite of San Martin. Sending the main body
+of his fleet to Ancon with the troops, no the 20th, he retained
+the _O'Higgins_, the _Independencia_, and the _Lautaro_, with the
+professed object of merely blockading Callao at a safe distance.
+"The fact was," he said, "that, annoyed, in common with the whole
+expedition, at this irresolution on the part of General San Martin, I
+determined that the means of Chili, furnished with great difficulty,
+should not be wholly wasted, without some attempt at accomplishing the
+object of the expedition. I accordingly formed a plan of attack with
+the three ships which I had kept back, though, being apprehensive
+that my design would be opposed by General San Martin, I had not
+even mentioned to him my intentions. This design was, to cut out the
+_Esmeralda_ frigate from under the fortifications, and also to get
+possession of another ship, on board of which we had learned that a
+million of dollars was embarked."
+
+The plan was certainly a bold one. The _Esmeralda_, of forty-four
+guns, was the finest Spanish ship in the Pacific Ocean. Now especially
+well armed and manned, in readiness for any work that had to be done,
+she was lying in Callao Harbour, protected by three hundred pieces
+of artillery on shore and by a strong boom with chain moorings,
+by twenty-seven gunboats and several armed block-ships. These
+considerations, however, only induced Lord Cochrane to proceed
+cautiously upon his enterprise. Three days were spent in preparations,
+the purpose of which was known only to himself and to his chief
+officers. On the afternoon of the 5th of November he issued this
+proclamation:--"Marines and seamen,--This night we shall give the
+enemy a mortal blow. To-morrow you will present yourself proudly
+before Callao, and all your comrades will envy your good fortune.
+One hour of courage and resolution is all that is required for you
+to triumph. Remember that you have conquered in Valdivia, and have no
+fear of those who have hitherto fled from you. The value of all the
+vessels captured in Callao will be yours, and the same reward will be
+distributed amongst you as has been offered by the Spaniards in Lima
+to those who should capture any of the Chilian squadron. The moment of
+glory is approaching. I hope that the Chilians will fight as they have
+been accustomed to do, and that the English will act as they have ever
+done at home and abroad."
+
+A request was made for volunteers, and the whole body of seamen and
+marines on board the three ships offered to follow Lord Cochrane
+wherever he might lead. This was more than he wanted. "A hundred
+and sixty seamen and eighty marines," said Lord Cochrane, whose own
+narrative of the sequel will best describe it, "were placed, after
+dark, in fourteen boats alongside the flag-ship, each man, armed with
+cutlass and pistol, being, for distinction's sake, dressed in white,
+with a blue band on the left arm. The Spaniards, I expected, would
+be off their guard, and consider themselves safe from attack for that
+night, since, by way of ruse, the other ships had been sent out of the
+bay under the charge of Captain Foster, as though in pursuit of some
+vessels in the offing.
+
+"At ten o'clock all was in readiness, the boats being formed in two
+divisions, the first commanded by Flag-Captain Crosbie and the second
+by Captain Gruise,--my boat leading. The strictest silence and the
+exclusive use of cutlasses were enjoined; so that, as the oars were
+muffled and the night was dark, the enemy had not the least suspicion
+of the impending attack.
+
+"It was just upon midnight when we neared the small opening left in
+the boom, our plan being well-nigh frustrated by the vigilance of a
+guard-boat upon which my launch had unluckily stumbled. The challenge
+was given, upon which, in an undertone, I threatened the occupants of
+the boat with instant death if they made the least alarm. No reply
+was made to the threat, and in a few minutes our gallant fellows
+were alongside the frigate in line, boarding at several points
+simultaneously. The Spaniards were completely taken by surprise,
+the whole, with the exception of the sentries, being asleep at their
+quarters; and great was the havoc made amongst them by the Chilian
+cutlasses whilst they were recovering themselves. Retreating to the
+forecastle, they there made a gallant stand, and it was not until the
+third charge that the position was carried. The fight was for a short
+time renewed on the quarterdeck, where the Spanish marines fell to
+a man, the rest of the enemy leaping overboard and into the hold to
+escape slaughter.
+
+"On boarding the ship by the main-chains, I was knocked back by the
+sentry's musket, and falling on the tholl-pin of the boat, it entered
+my back near the spine, inflicting a severe injury, which caused me
+many years of subsequent suffering. Immediately regaining my footing,
+I reascended the side, and, when on deck, was shot through the thigh.
+But, binding a handkerchief tightly round the wound, I managed, though
+with great difficulty, to direct the contest to its close.
+
+"The whole affair, from beginning to end, occupied only a quarter of
+an hour, our loss being eleven killed and thirty wounded, whilst that
+of the Spaniards was a hundred and sixty, many of whom fell under
+the cutlasses of the Chilians before they could stand to their arms.
+Greater bravery I never saw displayed than by our gallant fellows.
+Before boarding, the duties of all had been appointed, and a party
+was told off to take possession of the tops. We had not been on deck
+a minute, when I hailed the foretop, and was instantly answered by our
+own men, an equally prompt answer being returned from the frigate's
+main-top. No British man-of-war's crew could have excelled this minute
+attention to orders.
+
+"The uproar speedily alarmed the garrison, who, hastening to their
+guns, opened fire on their own frigate, thus paying us the compliment
+of having taken it; though, even in this case, their own men must
+still have been on board, so that firing on them was a wanton
+proceeding. Several Spaniards were killed or wounded by the shot of
+the fortress. Amongst the wounded was Captain Coig, the commander of
+the _Esmeralda_, who, after he was made prisoner, received a severe
+contusion by a shot from his own party.
+
+"The fire from the fortress was, however, neutralized by a successful
+expedient. There were two foreign ships of war present during the
+contest, the United States frigate _Macedonian_ and the British
+frigate _Hyperion_; and these, as had been previously agreed upon with
+the Spanish authorities in case of a night attack, hoisted peculiar
+lights as signals, to prevent being fired upon. This contingency being
+provided for by us, as soon as the fortress commenced its fire on the
+_Esmeralda_, we also ran up similar lights, so that the garrison did
+not know which vessel to fire at. The _Hyperion_ and _Macedonian_
+were several times struck, while the _Esmeralda_ was comparatively
+untouched. Upon this the neutral vessels cut their cables and moved
+away. Contrary to my orders, Captain Gruise then cut the _Esmeralda's_
+cables also, so that there was nothing to be done but to loose her
+topsails and follow. The fortress thereupon ceased its fire.
+
+"I had distinctly ordered that the cables of the _Esmeralda_ were not
+to be cut, but that after taking her, the force was to capture the
+_Maypeu_, a brig of war previously taken from Chili, and then to
+attack and cut adrift every ship near, there being plenty of time
+before us. I had no doubt that, when the _Esmeralda_ was taken, the
+Spaniards would desert the other ships as fast as their boats would
+permit them, so that the whole might have been either captured or
+burnt. To this end all my previous plans had been arranged; but, on
+my being placed _hors de combat_ by my wounds, Captain Gruise, on whom
+the command of the prize devolved, chose to interpose his own judgment
+and content himself with the _Esmeralda_ alone; the reason assigned
+being that the English had broken into her spirit-room and were
+getting drunk, whilst the Chilians were disorganized by plundering.
+It was a great mistake. If we could capture the _Esmeralda_ with her
+picked and well-appointed crew, there would have been little or no
+difficulty in cutting the other ships adrift in succession. It would
+only have been the rout of Valdivia over again, chasing the enemy,
+without loss, from ship to ship instead of from fort to fort."
+
+Lord Cochrane's exploit, however, though less complete than he had
+intended, was as successful in its issue as it was brilliant in its
+achievement. "This loss of the _Esmeralda_," wrote Captain Basil Hall,
+then commanding a British war-ship in South American waters, "was a
+death-blow to the Spanish naval force in that quarter of the world;
+for, although there were still two Spanish frigates and some smaller
+vessels in the Pacific, they never afterwards ventured to show
+themselves, but left Lord Cochrane undisputed master of the coast."
+The speedy liberation of Peru was its direct consequence, although
+that good work was seriously impaired by the continued and increasing
+misconduct of General San Martin, inducing troubles, of which Lord
+Cochrane received his full share.
+
+In the first burst of his enthusiasm at the intelligence of Lord
+Cochrane's action, San Martin was generous for once. "The importance
+of the service you have rendered to the country, my lord," he wrote on
+the 10th of November, "by the capture of the frigate _Esmeralda_, and
+the brilliant manner in which you conducted the gallant officers and
+seamen under your orders to accomplish that noble enterprise, have
+augmented the gratitude due to your former services by the Government,
+as well as that of all interested in the public welfare and in your
+fame. All those who participated in the risks and glory of the deed
+also deserve well of their countrymen; and I have the satisfaction to
+be the medium of transmitting the sentiments of admiration which such
+transcendent success has excited in the chiefs of the army under my
+command." "It is impossible for me to eulogize in proper language,"
+he also wrote to the Chilian administration, "the daring enterprise
+of the 5th of November, by which Lord Cochrane has decided the
+superiority of our naval forces, augmented the splendour and power of
+Chili, and secured the success of this campaign."
+
+A few days later, however, San Martin wrote in very different terms.
+"Before the General-in-Chief left the Vice-Admiral of the squadron,"
+he said, in a bulletin to the army, "they agreed on the execution of
+a memorable project, sufficient to astonish intrepidity itself, and to
+make the history of the liberating expedition of Peru eternal." "This
+glory," he added, "was reserved for the Liberating Army, whose efforts
+have snatched the victims of tyranny from its hands." Thus impudently
+did he arrogate to himself a share, at any rate, in the initiation of
+a project which Lord Cochrane, knowing that he would oppose it, had
+purposely kept secret from him, and assign the whole merit of its
+completion to the army which his vacillation and incompetence were
+holding in unwelcome inactivity.
+
+Lord Cochrane was too much accustomed to personal injustice, however,
+to be very greatly troubled by that fresh indignity. It was a far
+heavier trouble to him that his first triumph was not allowed to be
+supplemented by prompt completion of the work on which, and not on
+any individual aggrandisement, his heart was set--the establishment of
+Peruvian as well as Chilian freedom.
+
+San Martin, having done nothing hitherto but allow his army to waste
+its strength and squander its resources, first at Pisco and afterwards
+at Ancon, now fixed upon Huacha as another loitering-place. Thither
+Lord Cochrane had to convey it, before he was permitted to resume the
+blockade of Callao. This blockade lasted, though not all the while
+under his personal direction, for eight months.
+
+"Several attempts were now made," said Lord Cochrane, with reference
+to the first few weeks of the blockade, "to entice the remaining
+Spanish naval force from their shelter under the batteries by placing
+the _Esmeralda_ apparently within reach, and the flagship herself in
+situations of some danger. One day I carried her through an intricate
+strait called the Boqueron, in which nothing beyond a fifty-ton
+schooner was ever seen. The Spaniards, expecting every moment to see
+the ship strike, manned their gunboats, ready to attack as soon as she
+was aground; of which there was little danger, for we had found, and
+buoyed off with small bits of wood invisible to the enemy, a channel
+through which a vessel could pass without much difficulty. At another
+time, the Esmeralda being in a more than usually tempting position,
+the Spanish gunboats ventured out in the hope of recapturing her, and
+for an hour maintained a smart fire; but on seeing the _O'Higgins_
+manoeuvring to cut them off, they precipitately retreated."
+
+In ways like those the Spaniards were locked in, and harassed, in
+Callao Bay. Good result came in the steady weakening of the Spanish
+cause. On the 3rd of December, six hundred and fifty soldiers deserted
+to the Chilian army. On the 8th they were followed by forty officers;
+and after that hardly a day passed without some important defections
+to the patriot force.'
+
+Unfortunately, however, there was weakness also among the patriots.
+San Martin, idle himself, determined to profit by the advantages,
+direct and indirect, which Lord Cochrane's prowess had secured and
+was securing. It began to be no secret that, as soon as Peru was
+freed from the Spanish yoke, he proposed to subject it to a military
+despotism of his own. This being resented by Lord Cochrane, who on
+other grounds could have little sympathy or respect for his associate,
+coolness arose between the leaders. Lord Cochrane, anxious to do
+some more important work, if only a few troops might be allowed to
+co-operate with his sailors, was forced to share some of San Martin's
+inactivity. In March, 1821, he offered, if two thousand soldiers were
+assigned to him, to capture Lima; and when this offer was rejected, he
+declared himself willing to undertake the work with half the number of
+men. With difficulty he at last obtained a force of six hundred; and
+by them and the fleet nearly all the subsequent fighting in Peru
+was done. Lord Cochrane did not venture upon a direct assault on the
+capital with so small an army; but he used it vigorously from point to
+point on the coast, between Callao and Arica, and thus compelled the
+capitulation of Lima on the 6th of July.
+
+Again, as heretofore, he was thanked in the first moment of triumph,
+to be slighted at leisure. Lord Cochrane, on entering the city, was
+welcomed as the great deliverer of Peru: the medals distributed on
+the 28th of July--the day on which Peru's independence was
+proclaimed--testified that the honour was due to General San Martin
+and his Liberating Army. That, however, was only part of a policy long
+before devised. "It is now became evident to me," said Lord Cochrane,
+"that the army had been kept inert for the purpose of preserving it
+entire to further the ambitious views of the General, and that, with
+the whole force now at Lima, the inhabitants were completely at the
+mercy of their pretended liberator, but in reality their conqueror."
+
+With that policy, however much he reprobated it, Lord Cochrane wisely
+judged that it was not for him to quarrel. "As the existence of this
+self-constituted authority," he said, "was no less at variance with
+the institutions of the Chilian Republic than with its solemn
+promises to the Peruvians, I hoisted my flag on board the _O'Higgins_,
+determined to adhere solely to the interests of Chili; but not
+interfering in any way with General San Martin's proceedings till they
+interfered with me in my capacity as Commander-in-Chief of the Chilian
+navy." He was not, therefore, in Lima on the 3rd of August, when San
+Martin issued a proclamation declaring himself Protector of Peru, and
+appointing three of his creatures as his Ministers of State. Of the
+way in which he became acquainted of this violent and lawless measure,
+a precise description has been given by an eye-witness, Mr. W.B.
+Stevenson.
+
+"On the following morning, the 4th of August," he says, "Lord
+Cochrane, uninformed of the change which had taken place in the
+title of San Martin, visited the palace, and began to beg the
+General-in-Chief to propose some means for the payment of the seamen
+who had served their time and fulfilled their contract. To this San
+Martin answered that 'he would never pay the Chilian squadron unless
+it was sold to Peru, and then the payment should be considered part of
+the purchase-money.' Lord Cochrane replied that 'by such a transaction
+the squadron of Chili would be transferred to Peru by merely paying
+what was due to the officers and crews for services done to that
+State.' San Martin knit his brows and, turning to his ministers,
+Garcia and Monteagudo, ordered them to retire; to which his lordship
+objected, stating that, 'as he was not master of the Spanish language,
+he wished them to remain as interpreters, being fearful that some
+expression, not rightly understood, might be considered offensive.'
+San Martin now turned round to the Admiral and said, 'Are you aware,
+my lord, that I am Protector of Peru?' 'No,' said his lordship. 'I
+ordered my secretaries to inform you of it,' returned San Martin.
+'That is now unnecessary, for you have personally informed me,' said
+his lordship: 'I hope that the friendship which has existed between
+General San Martin and myself will continue to exist between the
+Protector of Peru and myself.' San Martin then, rubbing his hands,
+said, 'I have only to say that I am Protector of Peru.' The manner
+in which this last sentence was expressed roused the Admiral, who,
+advancing, said, 'Then it becomes me, as senior officer of Chili,
+and consequently the representative of the nation, to request the
+fulfilment of all the promises made to Chili and the squadron; but
+first, and principally, the squadron.' San Martin returned, 'Chili!
+Chili! I will never pay a single real to Chili! As to the squadron,
+you may take it where you please, and go where you choose. A couple
+of schooners are quite enough for me.' On hearing this Garcia left the
+room, and Monteagudo walked to the balcony. San Martin paced the room
+for a short time, and, turning to his lordship, said, 'Forget, my
+lord, what is past.' The Admiral replied, 'I will when I can,' and
+immediately left the palace.[A] "One thing has been omitted in
+the preceding narrative," said Lord Cochrane. "General San Martin,
+following me to the staircase, had the temerity to propose to me
+to follow his example--namely, to break faith with the Chilian
+Government, to which we had both sworn, to abandon the squadron to his
+interests, and to accept the higher grade of First Admiral of Peru.
+I need scarcely say that a proposition so dishonourable was declined;
+when, in a tone of irritation, he declared that 'he would neither give
+the seamen their arrears of pay nor the gratuity he had promised.'"
+
+[Footnote A: W.B. Stevenson, "Twenty Years' Residence in South
+America." 1825.]
+
+Lord Cochrane lost no time in returning to his flagship in Callao
+Roads. Thence, however, on the 7th of August, he wrote a letter to San
+Martin, couched in terms as temperate and persuasive as he could bring
+himself to use. "My dear General," he there said, "I address you
+for the last time under your late designation, being aware that the
+liberty I may take as a friend might not be deemed decorous to you
+under the title of Protector, for I shall not, with a gentleman of
+your understanding, take into account, as a motive for abstaining to
+speak truth, any chance of your resentment. Nay, were I certain that
+such would be the effect of this letter, I would nevertheless perform
+such an act of friendship, in repayment of the support you gave me
+at a time when the basest plots were laid for my dismissal from the
+Chilian service. Permit me to give you the experience of eleven years,
+during which I sat in the first senate in the world, and to say what I
+anticipate on the one hand, and what I fear on the other--nay, what
+I foresee. You have it in your power to be the Napoleon of South
+America; but you have also the power to choose your course, and if the
+first steps are false, the eminence on which you stand will, as though
+from the brink of a precipice, make your fall the more heavy and the
+more certain. The real strength of government is public opinion. What
+would the world say, were the Protector of Peru, as his first act, to
+cancel the bonds of San Martin, even though gratitude may be a private
+and not a public virtue? What would they say, were the Protector to
+refuse to pay the expense of that expedition which placed him in his
+present elevated situation? What would they say, were it promulgated
+to the world that he intended not even to remunerate those employed
+in the navy which contributed to his success?" Much more to the same
+effect Lord Cochrane wrote, urging honesty upon San Martin as the only
+path by which he could win for himself a permanent success, and making
+a special claim upon his honesty in the interests of the seamen and
+naval officers, to whom neither pay nor prize-money had been given
+since their departure from Chili nearly a year before.
+
+It was all in vain. San Martin wrote, on the 9th of August, a
+letter making professions of virtue and acknowledging much personal
+indebtedness to Lord Cochrane and the fleet, but evading the whole
+question at issue. "I am disposed," he said, "to recompense valour
+displayed in the cause of the country. But you know, my lord, that the
+wages of the crews do not come under these circumstances, and that I,
+never having engaged to pay the amount, am not obliged to do so. That
+debt is due from Chili, whose Government engaged the seamen."
+
+Lord Cochrane knew that Chili would decline to pay for work that, if
+intended to be done in its interests, had been perverted from that
+intention; and his crews, also knowing it, became reasonably mutinous.
+After much further correspondence--in which San Martin suggested as
+his only remedy that Lord Cochrane should accept the dishonourable
+proposal made to him, and, becoming himself First Admiral of Peru,
+should induce the fleet to join in the same rebellion against Chili to
+which the army had been brought by its general, and in which Captains
+Guise and Spry, always evil-minded, had already joined--Lord Cochrane
+adopted a bold but altogether justifiable manoeuvre. A large quantity
+of treasure, seized from the Spaniards, having been deposited by San
+Martin at Ancon, he sailed thither, in the middle of September, and
+quietly took possession of it. So much as lawful owners could be
+found for was given up to them. With the residue, amounting to 285,000
+dollars, Lord Cochrane paid off the year's arrears to every officer
+and man in his employ, taking nothing for himself, but reserving the
+small surplus for the pressing exigencies and re-equipment of the
+squadron.
+
+It is unnecessary to detail the angry correspondence that arose out
+of that rough act of justice. Before the money was distributed,
+treacherous offers to restore it and enter into rebellious league with
+San Martin were made to Lord Cochrane; and with these were alternated
+mock-virtuous complaints and bombastic threats. Both bribes and
+threats were treated by him with equal contempt.
+
+"After a lapse of nearly forty years' anxious consideration," he wrote
+in 1858, "I cannot reproach myself with having done any wrong in
+the seizure of the money of the Protectorial Government. General San
+Martin and myself had been in our respective departments deputed to
+liberate Peru from Spain, and to give to the Peruvians the same free
+institutions which Chili herself enjoyed. The first part of our object
+had been fully effected by the achievements and vigilance of the
+squadron; the second part was frustrated by General San Martin
+arrogating to himself despotic power, which set at naught the wishes
+and voice of the people. As 'my fortune in common with his own' was
+only to be secured by acquiescence in the wrong he had done to Chili
+by casting off his allegiance to her, and by upholding him in the
+still greater wrong he was inflicting on Peru, I did not choose to
+sacrifice my self-esteem and professional character by lending myself
+as an instrument to purposes so unworthy. I did all in my power
+to warn General San Martin of the consequences of ambition so
+ill-directed, but the warning was neglected, if not despised. Chili
+trusted to him to defray the expenses of the squadron, when its
+objects, as laid down by the Supreme Director, should be accomplished;
+but, in place of fulfilling the obligation, he permitted the squadron
+to starve, its crews to go in rags, and the ships to be in perpetual
+danger for want of the proper equipment which Chili could not afford
+to give them when they sailed from Valparaiso. The pretence for this
+neglect was want of means, though, at the same time, money to a
+vast amount was sent away from the capital to Ancon. Seeing that no
+intention Existed on the part of the Protector's Government to do
+justice to the Chilian squadron, whilst every effort was made to
+excite discontent among the officers and men with the purpose of
+procuring their transfer to Peru, I seized the public money, satisfied
+the men, and saved the navy to the Chilian Republic, which afterwards
+warmly thanked me for what I had done. Despite the obloquy cast upon
+me by the Protector's Government, there was nothing wrong in the
+course I pursued, if only for the reason that, if the Chilian squadron
+was to be preserved, it was impossible for me to have done otherwise.
+Years of reflection have only produced the conviction that, were I
+again placed in similar circumstances, I should adopt precisely the
+same course."
+
+In spite of his treachery to the Chilian Government, General San
+Martin professed to retain his functions as Commander-in-Chief of the
+Chilian liberating expedition to Peru; and, accordingly, when he found
+it useless to make further efforts, by bribes or threats, to seduce
+Lord Cochrane from his allegiance, he ordered him to return at once to
+Valparaiso. This order Lord Cochrane refused to obey, seeing that the
+work entrusted to him--the entire destruction of the Spanish squadron
+in the Pacific--had not yet been completed.
+
+He determined to complete that work, first going to Guayaquil to
+repair and refit his ships, which San Martin would not allow him to do
+in any Peruvian port. He was thus employed during six weeks following
+the 18th of October, 1821.
+
+On his departure, a complimentary address from the townsmen afforded
+him an opportunity of offering some good advice on a matter in which
+his long and intelligent political experience showed him that they
+were especially at fault. The inhabitants of Guayaquil, like many
+other young communities, sought to increase their revenues and
+strengthen their independence by violent restrictions upon foreign
+commerce and arbitrary support of native monopolists. Lord Cochrane
+eloquently propounded to them the doctrine of free trade. "Let your
+public press," he said, "declare the consequences of monopoly, and
+affix your names to the defence of your enlightened system. Let it
+show, if your province contains eighty thousand inhabitants, and if
+eighty of these are privileged merchants according to the old system,
+that nine hundred and ninety-nine persons out of a thousand must
+suffer because their cotton, coffee, tobacco, timber, and other
+productions, must come into the hands of the monopolist, as the only
+purchaser of what they have to sell, and the only seller of what they
+must necessarily buy; the effect being that he will buy at the lowest
+possible rate and sell at the dearest, so that not only are the nine
+hundred and ninety-nine injured, but the lands will remain waste, the
+manufactories without workmen, and the people will be lazy and poor
+for want of a stimulus, it being a law of nature that no man will
+labour solely for the gain of another. Tell the monopolist that the
+true method of acquiring general riches, political power, and even his
+own private advantage, is to sell his country's produce as high, and
+foreign goods as low, as possible, and that public competition can
+alone accomplish this. Let foreign merchants, who bring capital,
+and those who practise any art or handicraft, be permitted to settle
+freely. Thus a competition will be formed, from which all must reap
+advantage. Then will land and fixed property increase in value. The
+magazines, instead of being the receptacles of filth and crime, will
+be full of the richest foreign and domestic productions; and all will
+be energy and activity, because the reward will be in proportion to
+the labour. Your river will be filled with ships, and the monopolist
+degraded and shamed. You will bless the day in which Omnipotence
+permitted to be rent asunder the veil of obscurity, under which the
+despotism of Spain, the abominable tyranny of the Inquisition, and the
+want of liberty of the press, so long hid the truth from your sight.
+Let your customs' duties be moderate, in order to promote the greatest
+possible consumption of foreign and domestic goods; then smuggling
+will cease and the returns to the treasury increase. Let every man
+do as he pleases as regards his own property, views, and interests;
+because each individual will watch over his own with more zeal than
+senates, ministers, or kings. By your enlarged views set an example
+to the New World; and thus, as Guayaquil is, from its situation,
+the central republic, it will become the centre of the agriculture,
+commerce, and riches of the Pacific."
+
+Lord Cochrane left Guayaquil on the 3rd of December, and cruised
+northwards in search of the _Prueba_ and the _Venganza_, the only two
+remaining Spanish frigates, which had made their escape from Callao
+and gone in the direction of Mexico. He sailed along the Colombian
+and Mexican coasts as far as Acapulco, where he called on the 29th
+of January, 1822, without finding the objects of his search. He there
+learned, on the 2nd of February, from an in-coming merchantman, that
+the frigates had eluded him and were now somewhere to the southwards.
+Upon that he at once retraced his course, and, in spite of a storm
+which nearly wrecked his two best ships, one of them being the
+captured _Esmeralda_, now christened the _Valdivia_, was at Guayaquil
+again on the 13th of March. There, as he expected, from information
+received on the passage, he found the _Venganza._ Both the frigates
+had been compelled, by want of provisions, to run the risk of halting
+at Guayaquil, whither also an envoy from San Martin had arrived,
+instructed to tempt the Guayaquilians into friendship with Peru and
+jealousy of Chili. On the appearance of the Spanish frigates, he had
+persuaded their captains, as the only means of averting the certain
+ruin that Lord Cochrane was planning for them, quietly to surrender to
+the Peruvian Government. In this way Chili was cheated of its prizes,
+although Lord Cochrane's main object, the entire overthrow of the
+Spanish war shipping in the Pacific, was accomplished without further
+use of powder and shot. The _Prueba_ had been sent to Callao, and the
+_Venganza_ was now being refitted at Guayaquil.
+
+Lord Cochrane had now done all that it was possible for him to do in
+fulfilment of the naval mission on which he had quitted Chili a year
+and a half before. Proceeding southward, he anchored in Callao Roads
+from the 25th of April till the 10th of May. San Martin's Government,
+fearing punishment for their misdeeds, prepared to defend Callao. Lord
+Cochrane, however, wrote to say that he had no intention of making
+war upon the Peruvians; that all he asked was adequate payment for
+the services rendered to them by his officers and seamen. In the
+same letter he denounced the new treachery that had been shown with
+reference to the _Venganza_ and the _Prueba_.
+
+The answer to that letter was a visit from San Martin's chief
+minister, who begged Lord Cochrane to recall it, and impudently
+repeated the old offers of service under the Peruvian Government,
+adding that San Martin had written a private letter to the same
+effect. "Tell the Protector from me," said Lord Cochrane, "that if,
+after the conduct he has pursued, he had sent me a private letter, it
+would certainly have been returned unanswered. You may also tell him
+that it is not my wish to injure him, that I neither fear him nor hate
+him, but that I disapprove of his conduct."
+
+Lord Cochrane's brief stay off Callao sufficed to convince him that,
+though the people of Peru were being for the time subjected to a
+tyranny almost equal to that practised by Spain, no one was likely to
+be long in fear of San Martin, as his treacheries and his vices were
+already bringing upon him well-deserved disgrace and punishment. To
+that purport Lord Cochrane wrote to O'Higgins on the 2nd of May. "As
+the attached and sincere friend of your excellency," he said, "I hope
+you will take into your serious consideration the propriety of at once
+fixing the Chilian Government upon a base not to be shaken by the
+fall of the present tyranny in Peru, of which there are not only
+indications, but the result is inevitable--unless, indeed, the
+mischievous counsels of vain and mercenary men can suffice to prop up
+a fabric of the most barbarous political architecture, serving as a
+screen from whence to dart their weapons against the heart of liberty.
+Thank God, my hands are free from the stain of labouring in any such
+work; and having finished all you gave me to do, I may now rest till
+you shall command my further endeavours for the honour and security of
+my adopted land."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX.
+
+LORD COCHRANE'S RETURN TO VALPARAISO.--HIS FURTHER ILL-TREATMENT BY
+THE CHILIAN GOVERNMENT.--HIS RESIGNATION OF CHILIAN EMPLOYMENT, AND
+ACCEPTANCE OF EMPLOYMENT UNDER THE EMPEROR OF BRAZIL.--HIS SUBSEQUENT
+CORRESPONDENCE WITH THE GOVERNMENT OF CHILI.--THE RESULTS OF HIS
+CHILIAN SERVICE.
+
+[1822-1823.]
+
+
+Lord Cochrane returned to Valparaiso on the 3rd of June, 1822, having
+been absent more than twenty months. An enthusiastic welcome awaited
+him. Medals were struck in his honour, and in various ephemeral ways
+the public gratitude was expressed.
+
+It was, however, only ephemeral. There was no substantial recognition
+of his great services. His men were left unpaid, and he himself was
+subjected to further indignities of the sort already described. It is
+not necessary here to give any detailed account of them, or to enter
+into a particular rehearsal of his efforts during the next six months
+to continue his beneficial services to Chili. He had done the great
+service for which he had been invited to South America. In the course
+of about three years he had scoured the Pacific of the Spanish ships,
+which had offered an obstacle too serious for the patriots to overcome
+by any force or wisdom of their own. He had made it possible for
+them to assert their independence of a foreign yoke, and, if their
+patriotism had been genuine enough, to work out internal reforms, by
+which the sometime colonies of Spain in South America might have been
+able to vie in greatness with the sometime colonies of England in the
+northern continent. The benefits which he conferred especially upon
+Chili were shared by all the liberated communities along the whole
+Pacific coastline up to Mexico. But all were alike ungrateful, except
+in fitful words and in sentiments that prompted to no action.
+
+Shortly after his return to Chili, Lord Cochrane went to live upon the
+estates that had been conferred upon him. Soon, however, he was forced
+to go back to Valparaiso, there to look after the interests of the
+officers and crews who had served him and Chili during the previous
+fighting time. His earnest arguments on their behalf were not heeded.
+The poor fellows were left to starve and be perished by the cold of
+a South American winter, against which the pitiful rags in which they
+were clothed afforded no protection. And before long fresh incidents
+arose which made it impossible for him to persevere in fighting their
+battle.
+
+General San Martin, having run his course of petty tyranny in Peru,
+was soon forced to resign his protectorate and seek safety in Chili.
+He reached Valparaiso on the 12th of October, and then Lord Cochrane,
+who had long before seen good reasons for suspecting it, was convinced
+that Zenteno and many other influential men in Chili were in league
+with him. He claimed that San Martin should be tried by court-martial
+for his treasons, known to all the world. Instead of that San Martin
+was loaded with honours, and fresh indignities were heaped upon
+his chief accuser. This monstrous action of the ministers led to a
+revolution, which, if Lord Cochrane had stayed to the end, might have
+proved much to his advantage. But the revolution, headed by General
+Freire, an honest man, had for its object the overthrow of O'Higgins,
+also an honest man, though too weak to withstand the influences
+brought to bear upon him by the bad men by whom he was surrounded.
+Lord Cochrane refused Freire's offers to join in opposition to
+O'Higgins, always, as far as his small powers permitted, his good
+friend. He preferred to abandon Chili, or rather to allow it to
+abandon one who had done for it so much and had received so little in
+return. "The difficulties," he said, in a dignified letter addressed
+to General O'Higgins, still nominally the Supreme Director, in which
+he virtually resigned his appointment as Vice-Admiral of the Republic,
+"the difficulties which I have experienced in accomplishing the naval
+enterprises successfully achieved during the period of my command as
+Admiral of Chili have not been mastered without responsibility such as
+I would scarcely again undertake, not because I would hesitate to make
+any personal sacrifice in a cause of so much interest, but because
+even these favourable results have led to the total alienation of
+the sympathies of meritorious officers--whose co-operation was
+indispensable--in consequence of the conduct of the Government.
+That which has made most impression on their minds has been, not the
+privations they have suffered, nor the withholding of their pay
+and other dues, but the absence of any public acknowledgment by the
+Government of the honours and distinctions promised for their fidelity
+and constancy to Chili; especially at a time when no temptation was
+withheld that could induce them to abandon the cause of Chili for the
+service of the Protector of Peru. Ever since that time, though there
+was no want of means or knowledge of facts on the part of the Chilian
+Government, it has submitted itself to the influence of the agents
+of an individual whose power, having ceased in Peru, has been again
+resumed in Chili. The effect of this on me is so keen that I cannot
+trust myself in words to express my personal feelings. Whatever I
+have recommended or asked for the good of the naval service has been
+scouted or denied, though acquiescence would have placed Chili in
+the first rank of maritime states in this quarter of the globe. My
+requisitions and suggestions were founded on the practice of the first
+naval service in the world--that of England. They have, however, met
+with no consideration, as though their object had been directed to
+my own personal benefit. Until now I have never eaten the bread of
+idleness. I cannot reconcile to my mind a state of inactivity which
+might even now impose upon the Chilian Republic an annual pension for
+past services; especially as an Admiral of Peru is actually in command
+of a portion of the Chilian squadron, whilst other vessels are sent to
+sea without the orders under which they act being communicated to
+me, and are despatched through the instrumentality of the governor of
+Valparaiso [Zenteno]. I mention these circumstances incidentally as
+having confirmed me in the resolution to withdraw myself from Chili
+for a time, asking nothing for myself during my absence; whilst, as
+regards the sums owing to me, I forbear to press for their payment
+till the Government shall be more freed from its difficulties. I have
+complied with all that my public duty demanded, and, if I have
+not been able to accomplish more, the deficiency has arisen from
+circumstances beyond my control. At any rate, having the world still
+before me, I hope to prove that it is not owing to me. I have received
+proposals from Mexico, from Brazil, and from a European state, but
+have not as yet accepted any of these offers. Nevertheless, the habits
+of my life do not permit me to refuse my services to those labouring
+under oppression, as Chili was before the annihilation of the Spanish
+naval force in the Pacific. In this I am prepared to justify whatever
+course I may pursue. In thus taking leave of Chili, I do so with
+sentiments of deep regret that I have not been suffered to be more
+useful to the cause of liberty, and that I am compelled to separate
+myself from individuals with whom I hoped to live for a long period,
+without violating such sentiments of honour as, were they broken,
+would render me odious to myself and despicable in their eyes."
+
+That letter sufficiently explains the reasons which induced Lord
+Cochrane to resign his Chilian command. He had, as he said, received
+invitations to enter the service of Brazil, of Mexico, and of Greece.
+The Mexican offer he declined at once, as acceptance of it would
+involve little of the active work in fighting which, if for a good
+cause, was always attractive to him. Assistance of the Greeks who, a
+year and a half before, had begun to throw off their long servitude to
+Turkey, and who were now fighting desperately for their freedom,
+was an enterprise on which he would gladly have embarked, but
+the invitation from Brazil was more pressing, and he therefore
+conditionally accepted it. "The war in the Pacific," he said, on the
+29th of November, in answer to two letters written on behalf of the
+newly-elected Emperor of Brazil, "having been happily terminated by
+the total destruction of the Spanish naval force, I am, of course,
+free for the crusade of liberty in any other quarter of the globe. I
+confess, however, that I have not hitherto directed my attention
+to the Brazils; considering that the struggle for the liberties of
+Greece, the most oppressed of modern states, afforded the fairest
+opportunity for enterprise and exertion. I have to-day tendered my
+ultimate resignation to the Government of Chili, and am not at this
+moment aware that any material delay will be necessary previous to my
+setting off, by way of Cape Horn, for Rio de Janeiro; it being, in the
+meantime, understood that I hold myself free to decline, as well as
+entitled to accept, the offer which has, through you, been made to me
+by his Imperial Majesty. I only mention this from a desire to preserve
+a consistency of character, should the Government (which I by no means
+anticipate) differ so widely in its nature from those which I have
+been in the habit of supporting as to render the proposed situation
+repugnant to my principles, and so justly expose me to suspicion, and
+render me unworthy the confidence of his Majesty and the nation."
+
+In accordance with the terms of that letter, Lord Cochrane wrote as we
+have seen to the Supreme Director of Chili, not completely resigning
+his employment, but proposing to absent himself for an indefinite
+period. His proposal was at once accepted by the Chilian Government,
+to whom his honesty and his popularity with the people made him
+particularly obnoxious. He thereupon made prompt arrangements for his
+departure. He quitted Valparaiso on the 18th of January, 1823, in a
+vessel chartered for his own use and that of several European officers
+and seamen, who, like him, were tired of Chilian ingratitude, and who
+begged to be employed under him wherever he might serve.
+
+Of the subsequent occurrences in the Western States, for which he had
+done so much, and tried to do so much more than was permitted, it is
+enough to say that Peru, sadly abused by San Martin, and almost won
+back to Spain, was rescued by the valour and wisdom of Bolivar, and
+that Chili, destined to much future trouble through the bad action
+of its false patriots, was temporarily benefited by the successful
+revolution which placed General Freire in the Supreme Directorship.
+
+Lord Cochrane had not been absent three months before a new Minister
+of Marine wrote to inform him of Freire's accession and to solicit his
+return. From this, however, he excused himself, on the grounds that
+he had now entered into engagements with Brazil which he was bound
+to fulfil, and that his past treatment by the Chilian Government
+discouraged him from renewal of relations which had been so full of
+annoyance to him. "On my quitting Chili," he said in his reply, "there
+was no looking to the past without regret, nor to the future without
+despair, for I had learned by experience what were the views and
+motives which guided the counsels of the State. Believe me that
+nothing but a thorough conviction that it was impracticable to
+render the good people of Chili any further service under existing
+circumstances, or to live in tranquillity under such a system, could
+have induced me to remove myself from a country which I had vainly
+hoped would have afforded me that tranquil asylum which, after
+the anxieties I had suffered, I felt needful to my repose. My
+inclinations, too, were decidedly in favour of a residence in Chili,
+from a feeling of the congeniality which subsisted between my own
+habits and the manners and customs of the people, those few only
+excepted who were corrupted by contiguity with the court, or debased
+in their minds and practices by that species of Spanish colonial
+education which inculcates duplicity as the chief qualification of
+statesmen in all their dealings, both with individuals and the
+public. I now speak more particularly of the persons lately in power,
+excepting, however, the Supreme Director, whom I believe to have been
+the dupe of their deceit. Point out to me one engagement that has been
+honourably fulfilled, one military enterprise of which the professed
+object has not been perverted, or one solemn pledge that has not been
+forfeited. Look at my representations on the necessities of the navy,
+and see how they were relieved. Look at my memorial, proposing to
+establish a nursery for seamen by encouraging the coasting trade, and
+compare its principles with the code of Rodriguez, which annihilated
+both. You will see in this, as in all other cases, that whatever I
+recommended, in regard to the promotion of the good of the marine, was
+set at nought, or opposed by measures directly the reverse. Look to
+the orders which I received, and see whether I had more liberty of
+action than a schoolboy in the execution of his task. Sir, that which
+I suffered from anxiety of mind whilst in the Chilian service, I will
+never again endure for any consideration. To organize new crews, to
+navigate ships destitute of sails, cordage, provisions, and stores,
+to secure them in port without anchors and cables, except so far as I
+could supply these essentials by accidental means, were difficulties
+sufficiently harassing; but to live amongst officers and men
+discontented and mutinous on account of arrears of pay and other
+numerous privations, to be compelled to incur the responsibility
+of seizing by force from Peru funds for their payment, in order to
+prevent worse consequences to Chili, and then to be exposed to the
+reproach of one party for such seizure, and the suspicions of
+another that the sums were not duly applied, are all circumstances so
+disagreeable and so disgusting that, until I have certain proof that
+the present ministers are disposed to act in another manner, I cannot
+possibly consent to renew my services where, under such circumstances,
+they would be wholly unavailing to the true interests of the people."
+
+Writing thus to the Minister of Marine, Lord Cochrane wrote also at
+the same time to General Freire, who, as has been said, asked him to
+join his revolutionary movement. "It would give me great pleasure, my
+respected friend, to learn that the change which has been effected in
+the government of Chili proves alike conducive to your happiness and
+to the interests of the State. For my own part, like yourself, I have
+suffered so long and so much that I could not bear the neglect and
+double-dealing of those in power any longer, but adopted other means
+of freeing myself from an unpleasant situation. Not being under
+those imperious obligations which, as a native Chilian, rendered it
+incumbent on you to rescue your country from the mischiefs with which
+it was assailed, I could not accept your offer. My heart was with you
+in the measures you adopted for their removal; and my hand was only
+restrained by a conviction that my interference, as a foreigner, in
+the internal affairs of the State would not only have been improper
+in itself, but would have tended to shake that confidence in my
+undeviating rectitude which it was my ambition that the people of
+Chili should ever justly entertain. Permit me to add my opinion that,
+whoever may possess the supreme authority in Chili, until after the
+present generation, educated as it has been under the Spanish colonial
+yoke, shall have passed away, will have to contend with so much error
+and so many prejudices as to be disappointed in his utmost endeavours
+to pursue steadily the course best calculated to promote the freedom
+and happiness of the people. I admire the middle and lower classes
+of Chili, but I have ever found the senate, the ministers, and the
+convention actuated by the narrowest policy, which led them to adopt
+the worst measures. It is my earnest wish that you may find better men
+to co-operate with you. If so, you may be fortunate and may succeed in
+what you have most at heart, the promotion of your country's good."
+
+For the real welfare of Chili Lord Cochrane was always eager; but in
+the treatment which he himself experienced he had strong proof, both
+during his four years' active service under the republic and in all
+after times, of the difficulties in the way of its advancement.
+Not only was he subjected to the contumely and neglect of which he
+complained in the letters just quoted from: he was also directly
+mulcted to a very large extent in the scanty recompense for his
+services to which he was legally entitled, and indirectly injured to
+a yet larger extent. "I was compelled to quit Chili," he wrote at
+a later date, "without any of the emoluments due to my position as
+Commander-in-Chief of the Navy, or any share of the sums belonging
+to myself and the officers and seamen; which sums, on the faith of
+repayment, had, at my solicitation, been appropriated to the repairs
+and maintenance of the squadron generally, but more especially at
+Guayaquil and Acapulco, when in pursuit of the _Prueba_ and the
+_Venganza_. Neither was any compensation made for the value of stores
+captured and collected by the squadron, whereby its efficiency was
+chiefly maintained during the whole period of the Peruvian blockade.
+The Supreme Director of Chili, recognizing the justice of payment
+being made by the Peruvians for at least the value of the _Esmeralda_,
+the capture of which inflicted the death-blow on Spanish power, sent
+me a bill on the Peruvian Government for 120,000 dollars, which
+was dishonoured, and has never since been paid by any succeeding
+Government. Even the 40,000 dollars stipulated by the authorities
+at Guayaquil as the penalty for giving up the _Venganza_ was never
+liquidated. No compensation for the severe wounds received during the
+capture of the _Esmeralda_ was either offered or received.
+Shortly after my departure for Brazil, the Government forcibly and
+indefensibly resumed the estate at Rio Clara, which had been awarded
+to me and my family in perpetuity, as a remuneration for the capture
+of Valdivia, and my bailiff, who had been left upon it for its
+management and direction, was summarily ejected. Unhappily, this
+ingratitude for services rendered was the least misfortune which my
+devotedness to Chili brought upon me. On my return to England in
+1825, after the termination of my services in Brazil, I found myself
+involved in litigation on account of the seizure of neutral vessels
+by authority of the then unacknowledged Government of Chili. These
+litigations cost me, directly, upwards of 14,000_l._, and, indirectly,
+more than double that amount. Thus, in place of receiving anything for
+my efforts in the cause of Chilian and Peruvian independence, I was a
+loser of upwards of 25,000_l._, this being more than double the
+whole amount I had received as pay whilst in command of the Chilian
+squadron."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X.
+
+THE ANTECEDENTS OF BRAZILIAN INDEPENDENCE.--PEDRO I.'s ACCESSION.--THE
+INTERNAL AND EXTERNAL TROUBLES OF THE NEW EMPIRE.--LORD COCHRANE'S
+INVITATION TO BRAZIL.--HIS ARRIVAL AT RIO DE JANEIRO, AND ACCEPTANCE
+OF BRAZILIAN SERVICE.--HIS FIRST MISFORTUNES.--THE BAD CONDITION OF
+HIS SQUADRON, AND THE CONSEQUENT FAILURE OF HIS FIRST ATTACK ON THE
+PORTUGUESE OFF BAHIA.--HIS PLANS FOR IMPROVING THE FLEET, AND THEIR
+SUCCESS.--HIS NIGHT VISIT TO BAHIA, AND THE CONSEQUENT FLIGHT OF THE
+ENEMY.--LORD COCHRANE'S PURSUIT OF THEM.--HIS VISIT TO MARANHAM,
+AND ANNEXATION OF THAT PROVINCE AND OF PAR�.--HIS RETURN TO RIO DE
+JANEIRO.--THE HONOURS CONFERRED UPON HIM.
+
+[1823.]
+
+
+In 1808, King John VI. of Portugal, driven by Buonaparte from his
+European dominions, took refuge in his great colonial possession of
+Brazil, and the result of his emigration was considerable enlargement
+of the liberties of the Brazilians. Thereby the immense Portuguese
+colony in South America was prevented from following in the
+revolutionary steps of the numerous Spanish provinces adjoining it.
+In Brazil, however, during the ensuing years party faction produced
+nearly as much turmoil as attended the struggle for independence in
+Chili and the other Spanish, colonies. Those Brazilians who were
+still intimately connected with the inhabitants of the mother country
+rallied under Portuguese leaders, and did their utmost to maintain
+the Portuguese supremacy over the colony. Quite as many, on the other
+hand, were eager to take advantage of the new state of things as a
+means of consolidating the freedom of Brazil. Plots and counterplots,
+broils and insurrections, lasted, almost without intermission, until
+1821, when King John returned to Portugal, leaving his son, Don Pedro,
+as lieutenant and regent, to cope with yet greater difficulties. The
+Cortes of Portugal, able to get back their king, desired also to bring
+back Brazil to all its former servitude. So great was the opposition
+thus provoked that the native or true Brazilian party induced Don
+Pedro to throw off allegiance to his father. In October, 1822, the
+independence of the colony was publicly declared, and on the 1st of
+December Don Pedro assumed the title of Emperor of Brazil.
+
+Only the southern part of Brazil, however, acknowledged his authority.
+The northern provinces, including Bahia, Maranham, and Para, were
+ruled by the Portuguese faction and held by Portuguese troops. A
+formidable fleet, moreover, swept the seas, and the independent
+provinces were threatened with speedy subjection to the sway of
+Portugal.
+
+That was the state of affairs in the young empire of Brazil during the
+months in which Lord Cochrane, having destroyed the Spanish fleet
+in the Pacific, was being subjected to the worst ingratitude of his
+Chilian employers. Don Pedro and his advisers, hearing of this, lost
+no time in inviting him to enter the service of the Brazilian nation.
+Equal rank and position to those held by him under Chili were offered
+to him. "Abandonnez vous, milord," wrote the official who conveyed the
+Emperor's message, on the 4th of November, 1822, "� la reconnaisance
+Br�silienne, � la munificence du Prince, � la probit� sans tache de
+l'actuel Gouvernement; on vous fera justice; on ne rabaissera
+d'un seul point la haute consid�ration, rang, grade, caract�re, et
+avantages qui vous sont d�s." In yet stronger terms a second letter
+was written soon afterwards. "Venez, milord; l'honneur vous invite;
+la gloire vous appelle. Venez donner � nos armes navales cet ordre
+merveilleux et discipline incomparable de puissante Albion."
+
+Lord Cochrane, as we have seen, accepted this invitation; not,
+however, without some misgivings, which, in the end, were fully
+justified. Having quitted Valparaiso on the 18th of January, 1823, he
+arrived at Rio de Janeiro on the 13th of March. He had not been there
+a week before he discovered that, while all classes were anxious to
+secure his aid, the Emperor Pedro I. stood almost alone in the desire
+to treat him honourably and in a way worthy of his character and
+reputation. Vague promises were made to him; but, when a statement
+of his position was asked for in writing, very different terms were
+employed. He was only to have the rank of a subordinate admiral, with
+pay of less amount than the Chilian pension that he had resigned. His
+employment was to be temporary and informal, subjecting him to the
+chance of dismissal at any moment. When, however, resenting these
+trickeries, he announced his intention of proceeding at once to
+Europe, and accepting the Greek service offered to him, a different
+tone was adopted. Under the Emperor's signature he was appointed, on
+the 21st of March, First Admiral of the National and Imperial Navy,
+with emoluments equal to those he had received from Chili.
+
+He did not then know, though he was soon to learn it by hard
+experience, how strong, even at the imperial court, was the influence
+of the Portuguese party, and by what meanness and trickery it sought
+to maintain and augment that influence. "Where the Portuguese party
+was really to blame," he afterwards said, "was in this,--that, seeing
+disorder everywhere more or less prevalent, they strained every nerve
+to increase it, hoping to paralyze further attempts at independence by
+exposing whole provinces to the evils of anarchy and confusion. Their
+loyalty also partook more of self-interest than of attachment to the
+supremacy of Portugal; for the commercial classes, which formed the
+real strength of the Portuguese faction, hoped, by preserving the
+authority of the mother country in her distant provinces, to obtain as
+their reward the revival of old trade monopolies which, twelve years
+before, had been thrown open, enabling the English traders--whom
+they cordially hated--to supersede them in their own markets. Being
+a citizen of the rival nation, their aversion to me personally was
+undisguised--the more so, perhaps, that they believed me capable
+of achieving at Bahia, whither the squadron was destined, that
+irreparable injury to their own cause which the imperial troops had
+been unable to effect. Had I, at the time, been aware of the influence
+and latent power of the Portuguese party in the empire, nothing would
+have induced me to accept the command of the Brazilian navy; for to
+contend with faction is more dangerous than to engage an enemy, and a
+contest of intrigue is foreign to my nature and inclination."
+
+Having entered the Brazilian service, however, Lord Cochrane applied
+himself to his work with characteristic energy and success. He hoisted
+his flag on board the _Pedro Primiero_ on the 21st of March, and
+put to sea on the 3rd of April. His squadron consisted of the _Pedro
+Primiero_, a fine and well-appointed ship, rated rather too highly for
+seventy-four guns, commanded by Captain Crosbie; of the _Piranga_, a
+fine frigate, entrusted to Captain Jowett; of the _Maria de Gloria_,
+a showy but comparatively worthless clipper, mounting thirty-two
+small guns, under Captain Beaurepaire; of the _Liberal_, under Captain
+Garca�. He was accompanied by two old vessels, the _Guarani_ and
+the _Real_, to be used as fireships. Two other ships of war, the
+_Nitherohy_, assigned to Captain Taylor, and the _Carolina_, were left
+behind to complete their equipment, and the first of these joined
+the squadron on its way to Bahia, which, being the nearest of the
+disaffected provinces, was the first to be subdued.
+
+The coast of Bahia was reached on the 1st of May, and Lord Cochrane
+was arranging to blockade its capital and port, on the 4th, when the
+Portuguese fleet came out of the harbour. It comprised the _Don Joa�_,
+of seventy-four guns; the _Constituca�_, of fifty; the _Perola_, of
+forty-four; the _Princeza Real_, of twenty-eight; the _Regeneraca�_,
+the _Dez de Fevereiro_, the _San Gaulter_, the _Principe de Brazil_,
+and the _Restauraca�_, of twenty-six each; the _Calypso_ and the
+_Activa_, of twenty-two; the _Audaz_, of twenty; and the _Canceica�_,
+of eight; being one line-of-battle ship, five frigates, five
+corvettes, a brig, and a schooner. Lord Cochrane did not venture with
+his small and as yet untried force to attack the whole squadron, but
+he proceeded to cut off the four rearmost ships. This he did with the
+_Pedro Primiero_, but, to his disgust, the other vessels, heedless
+of his orders, failed to follow him. "Had the rest of the Brazilian
+squadron," he said, "come down in obedience to signals, the ships cut
+off might have been taken or dismantled, as with the flag-ship I
+could have kept the others at bay, and no doubt have crippled all in
+a position to render them assistance. To my astonishment, the signals
+were disregarded, and no efforts were made to second my operations."
+The _Pedro Primiero_, after fighting alone for some time, and during
+that time even doing but little mischief, by reason of the clumsy way
+in which her guns were handled, had to be withdrawn.
+
+At that failure Lord Cochrane was reasonably chagrined. Worse than the
+fact that the Portuguese had escaped uninjured for this once, was the
+knowledge that he could not hope thoroughly to punish them without
+first effecting great reform in the materials at his disposal. On the
+5th of May he wrote to the Government to complain of the miserable
+condition of the ships and crews provided for him by the Brazilian
+Government. "From the defective sailing and manning of the squadron,"
+he said, "it seems to me that the _Pedro Primiero_ is the only one
+that can assail an enemy's ship-of-war, or act in the face of a
+superior force so as not to compromise the interests of the empire and
+the character of the officers commanding. Even this ship, in common
+with the rest, is so ill-equipped as to be much less efficient than
+she otherwise would be. Our cartridges are all unfit for service,
+and I have been obliged to cut up every flag and ensign that could
+be spared to render them serviceable, so as to prevent the men's arms
+being blown off whilst working the guns. The guns are without locks.
+The bed of the mortar which I received on board this ship was crushed
+on the first fire, being entirely rotten. The fuses for the shells are
+formed of such wretched composition that it will not take fire with
+the discharge of the mortar. Even the powder is so bad that six pounds
+will not throw out shells more than a thousand yards. The marines
+understand neither gun exercise, the use of small arms, nor the sword,
+and yet have so high an opinion of themselves that they will not
+assist to wash the decks, or even to clean out their own berths, but
+sit and look on whilst these operations are being performed by seamen.
+I warned the Minister of Marine that every native of Portugal put on
+board the squadron, with the exception of officers of known character,
+would prove prejudicial to the expedition, and yesterday we had clear
+proof of the fact. The Portuguese stationed in the magazine actually
+withheld the powder whilst this ship was in the midst of the enemy,
+and I have since learnt that they did so from feelings of attachment
+to their own countrymen. I enclose two letters, one from the officer
+commanding the _Real_, whose crew were on the point of carrying that
+vessel into the enemy's squadron for the purpose of delivering her
+up. I have also reason to believe that the conduct of the _Liberal_
+yesterday in not bearing down upon the enemy, and not complying with
+the signal which I had made to break the line, was owing to her being
+manned by Portuguese. The _Maria de Gloria_ also has a great number
+of Portuguese, which is the more to be regretted as otherwise her
+superior sailing, with the zeal and activity of her captain, would
+render her an effective vessel. To disclose to you the truth, it
+appears to me that one half of the squadron is necessary to watch over
+the other half. Assuredly this is a system which ought to be put an
+end to without delay."
+
+Other indignant complaints of that sort, which need not here be
+repeated, were reasonably made by Lord Cochrane. The bad equipment
+of his squadron, both in men and in material, had hindered him, at
+starting, from achieving a brilliant success over the enemy, and
+though his subsequent achievements were of unsurpassed brilliance,
+he was to the end seriously hindered by the wilful and accidental
+mismanagement of his employers.
+
+Lord Cochrane lost no time, however, in correcting by his own prudent
+action the evil effects of this mismanagement. Not choosing to run the
+risk of a second failure, and believing that two good ships would be
+more serviceable than any number of bad ones, he took his squadron to
+the Moro San Paulo, where he transferred all the best men and the most
+serviceable fittings to the flag-ship and the _Maria de Gloria_. There
+he left the other vessels to be improved as far as possible, directing
+that instruction should be given in seamanship to all the incompetent
+men who showed any promise of being made efficient, and that several
+small prizes which he had taken on his way from Rio de Janeiro should
+be turned into fireships for future use. With the two refitted ships
+he then went back to Bahia, to watch its whole coast and blockade the
+port.
+
+The wisdom of this course was at once apparent. Several minor captures
+were made; the supplies of Bahia were cut off, and the enemy's
+squadron was locked in the harbour for three weeks. Lord Cochrane went
+to the Moro San Paulo on the 26th, leaving the _Maria de Gloria_ to
+overlook the port, and then the Portuguese fleet ventured out for a
+few days. It dared not show fight, however, and was driven back by the
+flag-ship, which returned on the 2nd of June. "On the 11th of June,"
+said Lord Cochrane, "information was received that the enemy was
+seriously thinking of evacuating the port before the fireships were
+completed. I therefore ordered the _Maria de Gloria_ to water and
+re-victual for three months, so as to be in readiness for anything
+which might occur, as, in case the rumour proved correct, our
+operations might take a different turn to those previous intended.
+The _Piranga_ was also directed to have everything in readiness for
+weighing immediately on the flag-ship appearing off the Moro and
+making signals to that effect. The whole squadron was at the same time
+ordered to re-victual, and to place its surplus articles in a large
+shed constructed of trees and branches felled in the neighbourhood of
+the Moro. Whilst the other ships were thus engaged, I determined to
+increase the panic of the enemy with the flag-ship alone. The position
+of their fleet was about nine miles up the bay, under shelter of
+fortifications, so that an attack by day would have been more perilous
+than prudent. Nevertheless, it appeared practicable to pay them a
+hostile visit on the first dark night, when, if we were unable
+to effect any serious mischief, it would at least be possible
+to ascertain their exact position, and to judge what could be
+accomplished when the fireships were brought to bear upon them.
+
+"Accordingly," the narrative proceeds, "having during the day
+carefully taken bearings at the mouth of the river, on the night
+of the 12th of June, I decided on making the attempt, which might
+possibly result in the destruction of part of the enemy's fleet, in
+consequence of the confused manner in which the ships were
+anchored. As soon as it became dark we proceeded up the river; but,
+unfortunately, when we were within hail of the outermost ship, the
+wind failed, and, the tide soon after turning, our plan of attack was
+rendered abortive. Determined, however, to complete the reconnoisance,
+we threaded our way amongst the outermost vessels. In spite of the
+darkness, the presence of a strange ship under sail was discovered,
+and some beat to quarters, hailing to know what ship it was. The
+reply, 'An English vessel,' satisfied them, however, and so our
+investigation was not molested. The chief object thus accomplished, we
+succeeded in dropping out with the ebb-tide, now rapidly running,
+and were enabled to steady our course stern-foremost with the stream
+anchor adrag, whereby we reached our former position."
+
+That exploit was more daring than Lord Cochrane's modest description
+would imply; and, though the bold hope that it might be possible for
+a single invading ship to conquer the whole Portuguese squadron in its
+moorings was not realized, the effect was all that could be desired.
+The Portuguese Admiral and his chief officers were at a ball in
+Bahia while Lord Cochrane was quietly sailing round and amongst their
+squadron, and the report of this achievement was brought to them in
+the midst of their festivities. "What!" exclaimed the Admiral,
+"Lord Cochrane's line-of-battle ship in the very midst of our fleet!
+Impossible! No large ship can have come up in the dark." When it was
+known that the thing had really been done, and that the construction
+of fireships at the Moro San Paulo was being rapidly proceeded with,
+the Portuguese authorities, both naval and military, considered that
+it would be no longer safe to remain in Bahia Harbour. They were
+seriously inconvenienced, moreover, by the success with which Lord
+Cochrane had blockaded the port and all its approaches. "The means
+of subsistence fail us, and we cannot secure the entrance of any
+provisions," said the Commander-in-Chief, in the proclamation
+intimating that the so-called defenders of the province were
+thinking of abandoning their post. This they did after a fortnight's
+consideration. On the 2nd of July the whole squadron of thirteen
+warvessels and about seventy merchantmen and transports, filled with a
+large body of troops, evacuated the port.
+
+That was a movement with which Lord Cochrane was well pleased. He had
+been in doubt as to the prudence of leading his small fleet into a
+desperate action in the harbour, by which the inexperience of his
+crews might ruin everything, and which might have to be followed
+by fighting on land. But now that the Portuguese, both soldiers and
+sailors, were in the open sea, he could give them chase without much
+risk, as, in the event of their turning round upon him with more
+valour than he gave them credit for, the worst that could happen would
+be his forced abandonment of the pursuit. The valour was not shown.
+No sooner were the Portuguese out of port, with their sails set for
+Maranham, where they hoped to join other ships and troops, and so
+augment their strength, than Lord Cochrane proceeded to follow them
+and dog their progress.
+
+His scheme was a bold one, but as successful as it was bold.
+Attended first by the _Maria de Gloria_ alone, and afterwards by the
+_Carolina_, the _Nitherohy_, and a small merchant brig, the _Colonel
+Allen_, in which he had placed a few guns, he pursued and harassed
+the cumbrous crowd of Portuguese warships, troop-ships, and trading
+vessels, about eighty in all, through fourteen days. The chase,
+indeed, was practically conducted by his flag-ship, the _Pedro
+Primiero_, alone. The other vessels were ordered to look out for any
+of the enemy's fleet that lagged behind or were borne away from the
+main body of the fugitives, either to the right hand or to the left.
+Of these there were plenty, and none were allowed to escape. The
+pursuers had easy work in prize-taking. "I have the honour to inform
+you," wrote Lord Cochrane in a concise despatch to the Brazilian
+Minister of Marine, on the 7th of July, "that half the enemy's army,
+their colours, cannon, ammunition, stores, and baggage have been
+taken. We are still in pursuit, and shall endeavour to intercept the
+remainder of the troops, and shall then look after the ships of war,
+which would have been my first object but that, in pursuing
+this course, the military would have escaped to occasion further
+hostilities against the Brazilian empire."
+
+Most of his prizes and prisoners Lord Cochrane sent into Pernambuco,
+the port then nearest to him, and he despatched two officers to hold
+Bahia for Brazil. With his flag-ship he continued his pursuit of the
+enemy, losing them once during a fog, and, when, he found them,
+being prevented from doing all the mischief which he hoped, as a calm
+enabled them to keep close together and present a front too formidable
+for attack by a single assailant. The Portuguese, however, continued
+their flight as soon as the wind permitted. Lord Cochrane did not
+trouble them much during the day, but each night he swept down on
+them, like a hawk upon its prey, and harassed them with wonderful
+effect. They were chased past Fernando Island, past the Equator, and
+more than half way to Cape Verde. Then, on the 16th of July, Lord
+Cochrane, after a parting broadside, left them to make their way in
+peace to Lisbon, there to tell how, by one daring vessel, thirteen
+ships of war had been ignominiously driven home, accompanied by only
+thirteen out of the seventy vessels that had placed themselves under
+their protection.
+
+Lord Cochrane would have continued the pursuit still farther, had not
+some of the troop-ships contrived to escape; and as he was anxious
+that these should not get into shelter at Maranham, or, if there,
+should not have time to recover their spirits, he deemed it best to
+hasten thither. He reached Maranham before them, and thus found it
+possible to carry through an excellent expedient which he had devised
+on the way.
+
+Maranham, the wealthiest province of the old Brazilian colony, was
+best guarded by the Portuguese, and now served as the centre and
+stronghold of resistance to the authority of the new Emperor. Lord
+Cochrane's plan had for its object nothing less than the annexation of
+the whole province singlehanded and without a blow. With this intent,
+he entered the River Maranham, which served as a harbour to the port
+of the same name, on the 26th of July, with Portuguese colours flying
+from the mast of the _Pedro Primiero_. The authorities, deceived
+thereby, promptly sent a messenger with despatches and congratulations
+on the safe arrival of what was supposed to be a valuable
+reinforcement from Portugal. The messenger was soon undeceived, but
+Lord Cochrane at once made him the agent of a much more elaborate
+and altogether justifiable deception Announcing to him that the swift
+sailing of the _Pedro Primiero_ had brought her first to Maranham, but
+that she was being followed by a formidable squadron, intended for the
+invasion of the province, he sent him back with letters to the same
+effect, addressed to the Portuguese commandant and to the local Junta
+of Maranham. "The naval and military forces under my command," he
+wrote to the former, "leave me no room to doubt the success of
+the enterprise in which I am about to engage, in order to free the
+province of Maranham from foreign domination, and to allow the people
+free choice of government. Of the flight of the Portuguese naval and
+military forces from Bahia you are aware. I have now to inform you of
+the capture of two-thirds of the transports and troops, with all their
+stores and ammunition. I am anxious not to let loose the imperial
+troops of Bahia upon Maranham, exasperated as they are at the injuries
+and cruelties exercised towards themselves and their countrymen, as
+well as by the plunder of the people and churches of Bahia. It is
+for you to decide whether the inhabitants of these countries shall be
+further exasperated by resistance, which appears to me unavailing, and
+alike prejudicial to the best interests of Portugal and Brazil," "The
+forces of his Imperial Majesty," he said to the Junta, "having freed
+the city and province of Bahia from the enemies of independence, I now
+hasten--in conformity with the will of his Majesty that the beautiful
+province of Maranham should be free also--to offer to the oppressed
+inhabitants whatever aid and protection they need against a foreign
+yoke; desiring to accomplish their liberation and to hail them
+as brethren and friends. Should there, however, be any who, from
+self-interested motives, oppose themselves to the deliverance of their
+country, let such be assured that the naval and military forces which
+have driven the Portuguese from the south are again ready to draw the
+sword in the like just cause, and the result cannot be long doubtful."
+
+Those mingled promises and threats took prompt effect. On the
+following day, the 27th of July, after a conditional offer of
+capitulation had been rejected, the members of the Junta, the Bishop
+of Maranham, and other leading persons, went on board the _Pedro
+Primiero_ to tender their submission to the Emperor of Brazil. The
+city and forts were surrendered without reserve, and in less than
+twenty-four hours from Lord Cochrane's first appearance in the river
+the flag of Portugal was replaced by that of Brazil. A great province
+had been added to the dominions of Pedro I. without bloodshed, and
+with no more expenditure of ammunition than was needed for the volleys
+discharged in honour of the triumph.
+
+The liberation of Maranham was publicly celebrated on the 28th of
+July, and on the following day the Portuguese troops embarked for
+Europe, special concessions being made to them by Lord Cochrane, who
+deemed it well that they should be out of the way before the device
+by which he had outwitted them was made known. No resentment was to
+be expected from the civilians, as even those most hearty in their
+adherence to the Portuguese faction in Brazil would not dare to offer
+direct opposition to the sentiments of the majority. But Lord Cochrane
+wisely set himself to conciliate all. "To the inhabitants of the
+city," he said, "I was careful to accord complete liberty, claiming
+in return that perfect order should be preserved and property of all
+kinds respected. The delight of the people was unbounded at being
+freed from a terrible system of exaction and imprisonment which, when
+I entered the river, was being carried on with unrelenting rigour by
+the Portuguese authorities towards all suspected of a leaning to
+the Imperial Government. Instead of retaliating, as would have been
+gratifying to those so recently labouring under oppression, I directed
+oaths to the constitution to be administered, not to Brazilians only,
+but also to all Portuguese who chose to remain and conform to the new
+order of things; a privilege of which many influential persons of that
+nation availed themselves."
+
+With the capture of Maranham alone, however, Lord Cochrane was not
+satisfied. Without a day's delay, he despatched a Portuguese brig
+which he had seized in the river and christened by its name, under
+Captain Grenfell, to follow at Par�, the only important province of
+Brazil still under the Portuguese yoke, the same course which he
+had just adopted with such wonderful success. He himself found it
+necessary to remain at Maranham for more than two months, where he had
+to curb with a strong hand the passions of the liberated inhabitants,
+eager to use their liberty in lawless ways and to retaliate upon the
+Portuguese still resident among them for all the hardships which they
+had hitherto endured.
+
+On the 20th of September, having heard that Captain Grenfell had
+entirely succeeded in his designs on Par�, he started for Rio de
+Janeiro, and there he arrived on the 9th of November. "I immediately
+forwarded to the Minister of Marine," he said, "a recapitulation of
+all transactions since my departure seven months before; namely,--the
+evacuation of Bahia by the Portuguese in consequence of our nocturnal
+visit, connected with the dread of my reputed skill in the use of
+fireships, arising from the affair of Basque Roads; the pursuit of
+their fleet beyond the Equator, and the dispersion of its convoy; the
+capture and disabling of the transports filled with troops intended
+to maintain Portuguese domination on Maranham and Par�; the device
+adopted to obtain the surrender, to the _Pedro Primiero_ alone, of
+the enemy's naval and military forces at Maranham; the capitulation of
+Par�, with the ships of war, to my summons sent by Captain Grenfell;
+the deliverance of the Brazilian patriots whom the Portuguese had
+imprisoned; the declaration of independence by the intermediate
+provinces thus liberated, and their union with the empire; the
+appointment of provisional governments; the embarkation and departure
+of every Portuguese soldier from Brazil; and the enthusiasm with which
+all my measures--though unauthorised and therefore extra-official--had
+been, received by the people of the northern provinces, who, thus
+relieved from the dread of further oppression, had everywhere
+acknowledged and proclaimed his Majesty as constitutional Emperor."
+
+Lord Cochrane's services had, indeed, been, many of them,
+"unauthorised and therefore extra-official." He had been sent out
+merely to recover Bahia; but, besides doing that, he had gained for
+Brazil other territories more than half as large as Europe. For this,
+however, nothing but gratitude could be shown, and the gratitude was,
+for the time at any rate, unalloyed. On the very day of the _Pedro
+Primiero's_ return, the Emperor went on board to offer his thanks in
+person. Further, thanks were voted by the legislature, and tendered by
+all classes of the people.
+
+"Taking into consideration the great services which your excellency
+has just rendered to the nation," wrote the Emperor on the 25th of
+November, "and desiring to give your excellency a public testimonial
+of gratitude for those high and extraordinary services on behalf
+of the generous Brazilian people, who will ever preserve a lively
+remembrance of such illustrious acts, I deem it right to confer upon
+your excellency the title of Marquis of Maranham." The decoration
+of the Imperial Order of the Cruizeiro was also bestowed upon Lord
+Cochrane, and on the 19th of December he was made a Privy Councillor
+of Brazil, the highest honour which it was in the Emperor's power to
+grant. On the same day he also received from the Emperor a charter
+confirming his rank and emoluments as First Admiral of Brazil, "seeing
+how advantageous it would be for the interests of this empire to avail
+itself of the skill of so valuable an officer," and in recognition of
+"the valour, intelligence, and activity by which he had distinguished
+himself in the different services with which he had been entrusted."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI.
+
+THE NATURE OF THE REWARDS BESTOWED ON LORD COCHRANE FOR HIS FIRST
+SERVICES TO BRAZIL.--PEDRO I. AND THE PORTUGUESE FACTION.--LORD
+COCHRANE'S ADVICE TO THE EMPEROR.--THE FRESH TROUBLES BROUGHT UPON HIM
+BY IT.--THE UNJUST TREATMENT ADOPTED TOWARDS HIM AND THE FLEET.--THE
+WITHHOLDING OF PRIZE-MONEY AND PAY.--PERSONAL INDIGNITIES TO LORD
+COCHRANE.--AN AMUSING EPISODE.--LORD COCHRANE'S THREAT OF RESIGNATION,
+AND ITS EFFECT.--SIR JAMES MACKINTOSH'S ALLUSION TO LORD COCHRANE IN
+THE HOUSE OF COMMONS.
+
+[1823-1824.]
+
+
+All the rewards bestowed upon Lord Cochrane for his wonderful
+successes in the northern part of Brazil, except the confirmation of
+his patent as First Admiral, be it noted, were unsubstantial. He had
+for ever crushed the power of Portugal in South America; he had added
+vast provinces to the imperial dominion, and had thus augmented the
+imperial revenues by considerably more than a million dollars a-year,
+besides the great and immediate profits of his prize-taking. And all
+this had been done with a small fleet, poorly equipped and unpaid.
+The ships entrusted to him had been rendered efficient by his own
+ingenuity, unaided by the Government, and with scant addition to his
+resources from the numerous captures made by him. In excess of his
+instructions, and with nothing but cheap compliments and cheaper
+promises to encourage him, he had acquired Maranham and Par�, and all
+the provinces dependent upon them, as well as Bahia. Relying on the
+honour of his employers, he had pledged his own honour, that on their
+returning to Rio de Janeiro, his crews, who were clamouring for
+some part, at any rate, of the wages due to them, should be fully
+recompensed, and he had the reasonable expectation, that, out of
+the abundant wealth that he had gained for Brazil, he himself should
+receive his lawful share of the prize-money gained by his exertions.
+Instead of that he and his subordinates, both officers and men, were
+subjected to an unparalleled course of meanness, trickery, and fraud.
+
+This partly resulted from an unfortunate change in the Government that
+had occurred during his absence. When he left Rio de Janeiro, Pedro
+I.'s chief secretary of state had been Don Jos� Bonifacio de Andrada
+y Silva, a wise and patriotic Brazilian. The Emperor and his minister
+had all along been seriously crippled in fulfilment of their good
+purposes by subordinates of the Portuguese faction, who persistently
+twisted their instructions, when they did not act in direct
+opposition to those instructions, so as to promote their own and their
+countrymen's selfish and unpatriotic objects; but there had been hope
+that the zeal of Pedro and Jos� de Andrada would overcome these evil
+devices, and secure the healthy consolidation of the empire. When Lord
+Cochrane returned, however, he found that the honest minister had
+been deposed, that his party had been ousted, and that the Emperor was
+surrounded by bad counsellors, who, unable to pervert his judgment,
+were strong enough to restrain its action, and who were robbing him,
+one by one, of all his constitutional functions, and doing their
+best to bring Brazil into a state of anarchy, with a view to the
+re-establishment of Portuguese authority in its old or in some new but
+no less obnoxious form. The Emperor, desiring to do well, had hardly
+improved his position, a few days before the _Pedro Primiero's_
+arrival, by violently dissolving the Legislative Assembly, banishing
+some of its members, and threatening to place Rio de Janeiro itself
+under military law.
+
+That was the state of affairs when Lord Cochrane entered the port.
+Only five days afterwards, on the 14th of November, 1823, he wrote a
+bold letter to the Emperor. "My sense of the impropriety of intruding
+myself on the attention of your Imperial Majesty on any subject
+unconnected with the official position with which your Majesty has
+been pleased to honour me," he said, "could only have been overcome by
+an irresistible desire, under existing circumstances, to contribute to
+the service of your Majesty, and the empire. The conduct of the late
+Legislative Assembly, which sought to derogate from the dignity and
+prerogatives of your Majesty, even presuming to require you to divest
+yourself of your crown in their presence--which deprived you of your
+Council of State and denied you a voice in the enactment of laws and
+the formation of the constitution--and which dared to object to your
+exercising the only remaining function of royalty, that of rewarding
+services and conferring honours--could no longer be tolerated; and
+the justice and wisdom of your Imperial Majesty in dissolving such
+an assembly will be duly appreciated by discerning men, and by those
+whose love of good order and their country supersedes their ambition
+or personal interests. There are, however, individuals who will
+wickedly take advantage of the late proceedings to kindle the flames
+of discord, and throw the empire into anarchy and confusion, unless
+timely prevented by the wisdom and energy of your Imperial Majesty.
+The declaration that you will give to your people a practical
+constitution, more free even than that which the late Assembly
+professed an intention to establish, cannot--considering the spirit
+which now pervades South America--have the effect of averting
+impending evils, unless your Imperial Majesty shall be pleased to
+dissipate all doubts by at once declaring--before the news of the
+recent events can be dispersed throughout the provinces, and before
+the discontented members of the late congress can return to their
+constituents--what is the precise nature of that constitution which
+your Imperial Majesty intends to bestow. As no monarch is more happy
+or more truly powerful than the limited monarch of England, surrounded
+by a free people, enriched by that industry which the security of
+property by means of just laws never fails to create, permit me humbly
+and respectfully to suggest, that if your Majesty were to decree that
+the English constitution, in its most perfect practical form--which,
+with slight alteration, and chiefly in name, is also the constitution
+of the United States of North America--shall be the model for the
+government of Brazil under your Imperial Majesty, with power to the
+Constituent Assembly to alter particular parts as local circumstances
+may render advisable, it would excite the sympathy of powerful states
+abroad, and the firm allegiance of the Brazilian people to your
+Majesty's throne. Were your Majesty, by a few brief lines in the
+'Gazette,' to announce your intention so to do, and were you to banish
+all distrust from the public mind by removing from your person for a
+time, and finding employment on honourable missions abroad for, those
+Portuguese individuals of whom the Brazilians are jealous, the purity
+of your Majesty's motives would be secured from the possibility of
+misrepresentation, the factions which disturb the country would be
+silenced or converted, and the feelings of the world, especially those
+of England and North America, would be interested in promoting the
+glory, happiness, and prosperity of your Imperial Majesty."
+
+That advice, in the main adopted by the Emperor, led to a
+reconstruction of the Brazilian Constitution in its present shape, and
+so added another to the many great benefits which Brazil owes to Lord
+Cochrane. But the whole, and especially the last part of it, being
+directly at variance with the plans and interests of the Portuguese
+faction, it won for him much hatred and many personal troubles.
+
+"That I, a foreigner, having nothing to do with national politics," he
+said, "should have counselled his Majesty to banish those who opposed
+him, was not to be borne, and the resentment caused by my recent
+services was increased to bitter enmity for meddling in affairs which,
+it was considered, did not concern me; though I could have had no
+other object than the good of the empire by the establishment of
+a constitution which should give it stability in the estimation of
+European states."
+
+Consequently, in return for the great services he had conferred to
+Brazil, he received, as had been the case in Chili, little but insult
+and injury, the course of insult and injury being hardly stayed
+even during the period in which he was needed to engage in further
+services. The Emperor honestly tried to be generous; but he could not
+rid himself of the Portuguese faction, generally dominant in Brazil,
+and his worthy intentions were thwarted in every possible way. With
+difficulty could he secure for Lord Cochrane the confirmation of his
+patent as First Admiral, which has been already referred to. No great
+resistance was made to his conferment of the empty title of Marquis of
+Maranham, but he was not allowed to make the grant of land which was
+intended to go with the title and enable it to be borne with dignity.
+Prevented from being generous, he was even hindered from exercising
+the barest justice.
+
+The injustice was shown not only to Lord Cochrane, but also to all
+the officers and crews who, serving under him, had enabled Brazil
+to maintain its resistance to the tyranny of Portugal, though not to
+shake off the tyranny of the faction which still had the interests of
+Portugal at heart. It is not necessary to describe in detail the long
+course of ill-usage to which he and his subordinates were exposed.
+Part of that ill-usage will be best and most briefly indicated by
+citing a portion of an eloquent memorial which Lord Cochrane addressed
+to the Imperial Government on the 30th of January, 1825.
+
+The memorial began by enumerating the achievements of the fleet at
+Bahia, Maranham, Par�, and elsewhere. "The imperial squadron," it
+proceeds, "made sail for Rio de Janeiro, in the full expectation of
+reaping a reward for their labours; not only because they had been
+mainly instrumental in rescuing from the hands of the Portuguese,
+and adding to the imperial dominion, one half of the empire; but also
+because their hopes seemed to be firmly grounded, independently of
+such services, on the capture of upwards of one hundred transports and
+merchant vessels, exclusive of ships of war, all of which, they had a
+just right to expect, would, under the existing laws, be adjudged to
+the captors. The whole of them were seized under Portuguese colours,
+with Portuguese registers, manned by Portuguese seamen, having on
+board Portuguese troops and ammunition or Portuguese produce and
+manufacture. On arriving at Rio de Janeiro, there was no feeling but
+one of satisfaction among the officers and seamen, and the Brazilian
+marine might from that moment, without the expense of one milrei to
+the nation, have been rapidly raised to a state of efficiency and
+discipline which had not yet been attained in any marine in South
+America, and which the navies of Portugal and Spain do not possess.
+It could not, however, be long concealed from the knowledge of the
+squadron that political or other reasons had prevented any proceedings
+being had in the adjudication of their prizes; and the extraordinary
+declaration that was made by the Tribunal of Prizes,--'that they were
+not aware that hostilities existed between Brazil and Portugal'--led
+to an inquiry of whom that tribunal was composed. All surprise at
+so extraordinary a declaration then ceased; but other sentiments
+injurious to the imperial service, arose,--those of indignation and
+disgust that the power of withholding their rights should be placed
+in the hands of persons who were natives of that very nation against
+which they were employed in war. His Imperial Majesty, however, having
+signified to this tribunal his pleasure that they should delay no
+longer in proceeding to the adjudication of the captured vessels,
+the result was that, in almost every instance, at the commencement of
+their proceedings, the vessels were condemned, not as lawful prizes to
+the captors, but as droits to the Crown. His Majesty was then pleased
+to desire that the said droits should be granted to the squadron, and
+about one-fifth part of the value of the prizes taken was eventually
+paid under the denomination of a 'grant of the droits of the Crown.'
+But when this decree of his Imperial Majesty was promulgated,
+the tribunal altered their course of proceeding, and, instead of
+condemning to the Crown, did, in almost every remaining instance,
+pronounce the acquittal of the vessels captured, and adjudged them
+to be given up to pretended Brazilian owners, notwithstanding that
+Brazilian property embarked in enemy's vessels was, by the law,
+declared to be forfeited; and that, too, with such indecent
+precipitancy that, in cases where the hull only had been claimed, the
+cargo also was decreed to be given up to the claimants of the hull,
+without any part of it having, at any time, been even pretended to be
+their property. Other ships and cargoes were given up without any form
+of trial, and without any intimation whatever to the captors and their
+agents; and, in most cases, costs and quadruple damages were unjustly
+decreed against the captors, to the amount of 300,000 milreis. That
+the prizes of which the captors were thus fraudulently deprived,
+chiefly under the unlawful and false pretence of their belonging to
+Brazilians, were really the property of Portuguese and well known so
+to be by the said tribunal, has since been fully demonstrated, by
+the arrival in Lisbon of the whole of the vessels liberated by their
+decisions. Thus the charge of a system of wilful injustice, brought
+by the squadron against the Portuguese Tribunal of Prizes at Rio de
+Janeiro, is established beyond the possibility of contradiction."
+
+It was only an aggravation of that injustice that, when Lord Cochrane
+claimed the prompt and equitable adjudication of the prizes, an
+attempt was made to silence him on the 24th of November by a message
+from the Minister of Marine, to the effect that the Emperor would do
+everything in his power for him personally. "His Majesty," answered
+Lord Cochrane, "has already conferred honours upon me quite equal to
+my merits, and the greatest personal favour he can bestow is to urge
+on the speedy adjudication of the prizes, so that the officers and
+seamen may reap the reward decreed by the Emperor's own authority."
+
+A hardship to the fleet even greater than the withholding of its
+prize-money was the withholding of the arrears of pay, which had been
+accumulating ever since the departure from Rio de Janeiro in April. On
+the 27th of November, three months' wages were offered to men to whom
+more than twice the amount was due. This they indignantly refused, and
+all Lord Cochrane's tact was needed to restrain them from open mutiny.
+
+In spite of the Emperor's friendship towards Lord Cochrane, or rather
+in consequence of it, he was in all sorts of ways insulted by the
+ministry, the head of which was now Severiano da Costa. A new ship,
+the _Atulanta_, was on the 27th of December, without reference to him,
+ordered for service at Monte Video. He was on the same day publicly
+described as "Commander of the Naval Forces in the Port of Rio de
+Janeiro," being thus placed on a level with other officers in the
+service of which, by the Emperor's patent, he was First Admiral, and
+no notice was taken of his protest against that insult. On the 24th
+of February he was gazetted as "Commander-in-Chief of all the Naval
+Forces of the Empire during the present war," by which his functions,
+though not now limited in extent, were limited in time. At length,
+reasonably indignant at these and other violations of the contract
+made with him, he offered to resign his command altogether. "If
+I thought that the course pursued towards me was dictated by his
+Imperial Majesty," he wrote to the Minister of Marine on the 20th of
+March, "it would be impossible for me to remain an hour longer in
+his service, and I should feel it my duty, at the earliest possible
+moment, to lay my commission at his feet. If I have not done so
+before, from the treatment which, in common with the navy. I have
+experienced, it has been solely from an anxious desire to promote his
+Majesty's real interests. Indeed, to struggle against prejudices, and
+at the same time against those in power whose prepossessions are at
+variance with the interests of his Majesty and the tranquillity and
+independence of Brazil, is a task to which I am by no means equal.
+I am, therefore, perfectly willing to resign the situation I
+hold, rather than contend against difficulties which appear to me
+insurmountable."[A]
+
+[Footnote A: See Appendix (III).]
+
+That letter was answered with complimentary phrases, and Lord Cochrane
+was induced to continue in the employment from which he could not be
+spared; but there was no diminution of the ill-treatment to which
+he was subjected. One special indignity was attended by some amusing
+incidents. On the 3rd of June, while he was residing on shore, it was
+proposed to search his flag-ship, on the pretext that he had there
+concealed large sums of money which were the property of the nation.
+"Late in the evening," he said, "I received a visit from Madame
+Bonpland, the talented wife of the distinguished French naturalist.
+This lady, who had singular opportunities for becoming acquainted with
+state secrets, came expressly to inform me that my house was at that
+moment surrounded by a guard of soldiers. She further informed me
+that, under the pretence of a review to be held at the opposite side
+of the harbour early in the following morning, preparations had
+been made by the ministers to board the flag-ship, which was to be
+thoroughly overhauled whilst I was detained on shore, and all the
+money found taken possession of. Thanking my friend for her timely
+warning, I clambered over my garden fence, as the only practicable way
+to the stables, selected a horse, and, notwithstanding the lateness
+of the hour, proceeded to San Christoval, the country palace of the
+Emperor, where, on my arrival, I demanded to see his Majesty. The
+request being refused by the gentleman in waiting, in such a way as to
+confirm the statement of Madame Bonpland, I dared him at his peril to
+refuse me admission, adding that the matter on which I had come was
+fraught with grave consequences to his Majesty and the empire. 'But,'
+said he, 'his Majesty has retired to bed long ago.' 'No matter,' I
+replied; 'in bed or not in bed, I demand to see him, in virtue of my
+privilege of access to him at all times, and, if you refuse to concede
+permission, look to the consequences.' His Majesty was not, however,
+asleep, and, the royal chamber being close at hand, he recognized my
+voice in the altercation with the attendant. Hastily coming out of his
+apartments, he asked what could have brought me there at that time of
+night. My reply was that, understanding that the troops ordered for
+review were destined to proceed to the flag-ship in search of supposed
+treasure, I had come to request his Majesty immediately to appoint
+confidential persons to accompany me on board, when the keys of every
+chest in the ship should be placed in their hands and every place
+thrown open to inspection, but that, if any of his anti-Brazilian
+administration ventured to board the ship in perpetration of the
+contemplated insult, they would certainly be regarded as pirates and
+treated as such; adding at the same time, 'Depend upon it, they are
+not more my enemies than the enemies of your Majesty and the empire,
+and an intrusion so unwarrantable the officers and crew are bound
+to resist.' 'Well,' replied his Majesty, 'you seem to be apprised of
+everything; but the plot is not mine, being, as far as I am concerned,
+convinced that no money would be found more than we already know of
+from yourself.' I then entreated his Majesty to take such steps for
+my justification as would be satisfactory to the public. 'There is no
+necessity for any,' he replied. 'But how to dispense with the review
+is the puzzle. I will be ill in the morning; so go home and think
+no more of the matter. I give you my word, your flag shall not be
+outraged.' The Emperor kept his word, and in the night was taken
+suddenly ill. As his Majesty was really beloved by his Brazilian
+subjects, all the native respectability of Rio was early next day on
+its way to the palace to inquire after the royal health, and ordering
+my carriage, I also proceeded to the palace, lest my absence might
+seem singular. On my entering the room,--where the Emperor was in
+the act of explaining the nature of his disease to the anxious
+inquirers,--his Majesty burst into a fit of uncontrollable laughter,
+in which I as heartily joined, the bystanders evidently, from the
+gravity of their countenances, considering that we had both taken
+leave of our senses. The ministers looked astounded, but said nothing.
+His Majesty kept his secret, and I was silent."
+
+That anecdote fairly illustrates the treatment adopted towards Lord
+Cochrane, and the straits to which the Emperor was reduced in his
+efforts to protect him from his enemies in power. The ill-treatment
+both of himself and of the whole fleet continuing, he addressed an
+indignant protest to his Majesty in July. "The time has at length
+arrived," he there said, "when it is impossible to doubt that the
+influence which the Portuguese faction has so long exerted, with the
+view of depriving the officers and seamen of their stipulated rights,
+has succeeded in its object, and has even prevailed against the
+expressed wishes and intentions of your Majesty. The determined
+perseverance in a course so opposed to justice must come to an end.
+The general discontent which prevails in the squadron has rendered
+the situation in which I am placed one of the most embarrassing
+description; for, though a few may be aware that my own cause of
+complaint is equal to theirs, many cannot perceive the consistency
+of my patient continuance in the service with disapprobation of the
+measures pursued. Even the honours which your Majesty has been pleased
+to bestow upon me are deemed by most of the officers, and by the whole
+of the men, who know not the assiduity with which I have persevered in
+earnest but unavailing remonstrance, as a bribe by which I have been
+induced to abandon their interests. Much, therefore, as I prize those
+honours, as the gracious gift of your Imperial Majesty, yet, holding
+in still dearer estimation my character as an officer and a man, I
+cannot hesitate in choosing which to sacrifice when the retention of
+both is evidently incompatible. I can, therefore, no longer delay to
+demonstrate to the squadron and the world that I am no partner in the
+deceptions and oppressions which are practised on the naval service;
+and, as the first and most painful step in the performance of this
+imperious duty, I crave permission, with all humility and respect,
+to return those honours, and lay them at the feet of your Imperial
+Majesty. I should, however, fall short of my duty to those who were
+induced to enter the service by my example or invitation, were I to
+do nothing more than convince them that I had been deceived. It is
+incumbent on me to make every effort to obtain for them the fulfilment
+of engagements for which I made myself responsible. As far as I am
+personally concerned, I could be content to quit the service of your
+Imperial Majesty, either with or without the expectation of obtaining
+compensation at a future period. After effectually fighting the
+battles of freedom and independence on both sides of South America,
+and clearing the two seas of every vessel of war, I could submit to
+return to my native country unrewarded; but I cannot submit to adopt
+any course which shall not redeem my pledge to my brother officers and
+seamen."
+
+That and other arguments contained in the same letter, aided by
+inducements of a different sort, to be presently referred to, had
+partial effect. A small portion of the prize-money and wages due to
+the squadron was issued, and Lord Cochrane remained for another year
+in the service of Brazil. His weary waiting-time at Rio de Janeiro,
+however, extending over nearly nine months, was almost at an end. On
+the 2nd of August he left it, never to return.
+
+While the ingratitude shown to him in Brazil was at its worst it is
+interesting to notice that a few, at any rate, of his own countrymen
+were remembering his past troubles and his present worth. On the 21st
+of June, Sir James Mackintosh, in one of the many speeches in the
+British House of Commons in which he nobly advocated the recognition
+of the independence of the South American states, both as a political
+duty and as a necessary measure in the interests of commerce, made a
+graceful allusion to Lord Cochrane. "I know," he said, "that I am here
+touching on a topic of great delicacy; but I must say that commerce
+has been gallantly protected by that extraordinary man who was once a
+British officer, who once filled a distinguished post in the
+British navy at the brightest period of its annals. I mention this
+circumstance with struggling and mingled emotions--emotions of pride
+that the individual I speak of is a Briton, emotions of regret that
+he is no longer a British officer. Can any one imagine a more gallant
+action than the cutting out of the _Esmeralda_ from Callao? Never
+was there a greater display of judgment, calmness, and enterprising
+British valour than was shown on that memorable occasion. No man ever
+felt a more ardent, a more inextinguishable love of country, a more
+anxious desire to promote its interests and extend its prosperity,
+than the gallant individual to whom I allude. I speak for myself. No
+person is responsible for the opinions which I now utter. But ask,
+what native of this country can help wishing that such a man were
+again amongst us? I hope I shall be excused for saying thus much; but
+I cannot avoid fervently wishing that such advice may be given to
+the Crown by his Majesty's constitutional advisers as will induce his
+Majesty graciously to restore Lord Cochrane to the country which he
+so warmly loves, and to that noble service to the glory of which, I am
+convinced, he willingly would sacrifice every earthly consideration."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII.
+
+THE INSURRECTION IN PERNAMBUCO.--LORD COCHRANE's EXPEDITION TO
+SUPPRESS IT.--THE SUCCESS OF HIS WORK.--HIS STAY AT MARANHAM.--THE
+DISORGANISED STATE OF AFFAIRS IN THAT PROVINCE.--LORD COCHRANE's
+EFFORTS TO RESTORE ORDER AND GOOD GOVERNMENT.--THEIR RESULT IN FURTHER
+TROUBLE TO HIMSELF.--HIS CRUISE IN THE "PIRANGA," AND RETURN TO
+ENGLAND.--THE FRESH INDIGNITIES THERE OFFERED TO HIM.--HIS RETIREMENT
+FROM BRAZILIAN SERVICE.--HIS LETTER TO THE EMPEROR PEDRO I.--THE END
+OF HIS SOUTH AMERICAN EMPLOYMENTS.
+
+[1824-1825.]
+
+
+The political turmoils which Lord Cochrane found to be prevalent
+in Rio de Janeiro, on his return from Maranham, were, as he had
+anticipated, very disastrous to the whole Brazilian empire. The
+unpatriotic action of men in power at head-quarters encouraged yet
+more unpatriotic action in the outlying and newly-acquired provinces.
+Portuguese sympathizers in Pernambuco, in Maranham, and in the
+neighbouring districts, following the policy of the Portuguese faction
+at the centre of government, and acting even more unworthily,
+induced serious trouble; and the trouble was aggravated by the fierce
+opposition which was in many cases offered to them. Before the end of
+1823 information arrived that an insurrection, having for its object
+the establishment in the northern provinces of a government distinct
+from both Brazil and Portugal, had broken out in Pernambuco, and
+nearly every week brought fresh intelligence of the spread of this
+insurrection and of the troubles induced by it. The Emperor Pedro I.
+was eager to send thither the squadron under Lord Cochrane, and so to
+win back the allegiance of the inhabitants; and for this Lord Cochrane
+was no less eager. To the Portuguese partizans, however, whose great
+effort was to weaken the resources of the empire, the news of the
+insurrection was welcome; and perhaps their strongest inducement to
+the long course of injustice detailed in the last chapter was the
+knowledge that by so doing they were most successfully preventing the
+despatch of an armament strong enough to restore order in the northern
+provinces. Herein they prospered. For more than six months the Emperor
+was prevented from suppressing the insurrection, which all through
+that time was extending and becoming more and more formidable. Not
+till July was anything done to satisfy the claims of the seamen for
+payment of their prize-money and the arrears of wages due to them,
+without which they refused to return to their work and render possible
+the equipment and despatch of the squadron; and even then only 200,000
+milreis--less than a tenth of the prize-money that was owing--were
+granted as an instalment of the payment to be made to them.
+
+With that money, however, Lord Cochrane, using his great personal
+influence with the officers and crews, induced them to rejoin the
+fleet. The funds were placed in his hands on the 12th of July, 1824,
+and equitably disbursed by him during the following three weeks. On
+the 2nd of August he set sail in the _Pedro Primiero_ from Rio de
+Janeiro, attended by the _Maranham_ and three transports containing
+twelve hundred soldiers.
+
+Having landed General Lima and the troops at Alagoas on the 16th,
+he arrived off Pernambuco on the 18th. There he found that a strong
+republican Government had been set up under the presidentship of
+Manoel de Carvalho Pais d'Andrade, whose authority, secret or open,
+extended far into the interior and along the adjoining coasts.
+"Knowing that it would take some time for the troops to come up," he
+said, "I determined to try the effect of a threat of bombardment, and
+issued a proclamation remonstrating with the inhabitants on the folly
+of permitting themselves to be deceived by men who lacked the ability
+to execute their schemes; pointing out, moreover, that persistence in
+revolt would involve both the town and its rulers in one common ruin,
+for, if forced to the necessity of bombardment, I would reduce the
+port and city to insignificance. On the other hand, I assured them
+that, if they retraced their steps and rallied round the imperial
+throne, thus aiding to protect it from foreign influence, it would be
+more gratifying to me to act the part of a mediator, and to restore
+Pernambuco to peace, prosperity, and happiness, than to carry out the
+work of destruction which would be my only remaining alternative. In
+another proclamation I called the attention of the inhabitants to the
+distracted state of the Spanish republics on the other side of the
+continent, asking whether it would be wise to risk the benefits of
+orderly government for social and political confusion, and entreating
+them not to compel me to proceed to extremities, as it would become my
+duty to destroy their shipping and block up their port, unless, within
+eight days, the integrity of the empire were acknowledged."
+
+While waiting to see the result of those proclamations Lord Cochrane
+received a message from Carvalho, offering him immediate payment of
+400,000 milreis if he would abandon the imperial cause and go over to
+the republicans. "Frankness is the distinguishing character of free
+men," wrote Carvalho, "but your excellency has not found it in your
+connection with the Imperial Government. Your not having been rewarded
+for the first expedition affords a justifiable inference that you will
+get nothing for the second." That audacious proposal, it need hardly
+be said, was indignantly resented by Lord Cochrane. "If I shall have
+an opportunity of becoming personally known to your excellency," he
+wrote, "I can afford you proof that the opinion you have formed of me
+has had its origin in the misrepresentations of those in power, whose
+purposes I was incapable of serving."
+
+The threats and promises of Lord Cochrane's proclamation did not lead
+to the peaceable surrender of Pernambuco, and at the end of the eight
+days' waiting-time he proceeded to bombard the town. In that, however,
+he was hindered by bad weather, which made it impossible for him to
+enter the shallow water without great risk of shipwreck. He was in
+urgent need, also, of anchors and other fittings. Therefore, after
+a brief show of attack, which frightened the inhabitants, but had no
+other effect, he left the smaller vessels to maintain the blockade,
+and went on the 4th of September in the flag-ship to Bahia, there to
+procure the necessary articles. On his return he found that General
+Lima had marched against Pernambuco on the 11th, and, with the
+assistance of the blockading vessels, made an easy capture of it.
+
+There was plenty of other work, however, to be done. All the
+northern provinces were disaffected, if not in actual revolt, and, in
+compliance with the Emperor's directions, Lord Cochrane proceeded to
+visit their ports and reduce them to order. Some other ships having
+arrived from Rio de Janeiro, he selected the _Piranga_ and two smaller
+vessels for service with the flag-ship, leaving the others at the
+disposal of General Lima, and sailed from Pernambuco on the 10th of
+October.
+
+He reached Cear� on the 18th, and then, by his mere presence,
+compelled the insurgents, who had seized the city, to retire, and
+enabled the well-disposed inhabitants to organize a vigorous scheme of
+self-protection.
+
+A harder task awaited him at Maranham, at which he arrived on the
+9th of November. There the utmost confusion prevailed. The Portuguese
+faction had the supremacy, and there were special causes of animosity
+and misconduct among the members of the opposite party of native
+Brazilians.
+
+"In Maranham," said Lord Cochrane, "as in the other northern provinces
+of the empire, there had been no amelioration whatever in the
+condition of the people, and, without such amelioration, it was absurd
+to place reliance on the hyperbolical professions of devotion to
+the Emperor which were now abundantly avowed by those who, before my
+arrival, had been foremost in promoting and cherishing disturbance.
+The condition of the province, and indeed of all the provinces, was
+in no way better than they had been under the dominion of Portugal,
+though they presented one of the finest fields imaginable for
+improvement. All the old colonial imports and duties remained without
+alteration; the manifold hindrances to commerce and agriculture still
+existed; and arbitrary power was everywhere exercised uncontrolled: so
+that, in place of being benefited by emancipation from the Portuguese
+yoke, the condition of the great mass of the population was literally
+worse than before. To amend this state of things it was necessary
+to begin with the officers of Government, of whose corruption and
+arbitrary conduct complaints, signed by whole communities, were daily
+arriving from every part of the province. To such an extent, indeed,
+wad this misrule carried that neither the lives nor the property of
+the inhabitants were safe."
+
+This state of things Lord Cochrane set himself zealously to remedy;
+and, during his six months' stay at Maranham, he did all that, with
+the bad materials at his disposal and in the harassing circumstances
+of his position, it was possible for him to do. Unable to break down
+the cabals and intrigues, the mutual jealousies and the unworthy
+ambitions that had prevailed previous to his arrival, he held them all
+in check while he was present and secured the observance of law and
+the freedom of all classes of the community.
+
+Thereby, however, he brought upon himself much fresh hatred. The
+governor of the province, being devoted to the Portuguese party and a
+chief cause of the existing troubles, had to be suspended and sent to
+Rio de Janeiro; and though the suspension occurred after orders had
+been despatched by the Emperor for his recall, it afforded an excuse
+to the governor and his friends in office for denunciation of Lord
+Cochrane's conduct, alleged to be greatly in excess of his powers and
+in contempt of the constituted authority. In fact, the same bad policy
+that had embarrassed him before, while he was in Rio de Janeiro,
+continued to embarrass him yet more during his service in Maranham.
+That that service was very helpful to the best interests of Brazil
+no one attempted to deny. The French and English consuls, speaking
+on behalf of all their countrymen resident in the northern provinces,
+overstepped the line of strict neutrality, and entreated him to
+persevere in the measures by which he was making it possible for
+commerce to prosper and the rules of civilized life to be observed.
+The Emperor sent to thank him for his work. "His Majesty," wrote the
+secretary on the 2nd of December, "approves of the First Admiral's
+determination to establish order and obedience in the northern
+provinces, a duty which he has so wisely and judiciously undertaken,
+and in which he must continue until the provinces submit themselves
+to the authorities lately appointed, and enjoy the benefits of the
+paternal government of his Imperial Majesty."
+
+The Emperor, however, was at this time almost powerless. The leaders
+of the Portuguese faction reigned, and by them Lord Cochrane continued
+to be treated with every possible indignity and insult. Not daring
+openly to dismiss him or even to accept the resignation which he
+frequently offered, they determined to wear out his patience, and, if
+possible, to drive him to some act on which they could fasten as
+an excuse for degrading him. They partly succeeded, though the only
+wonder is that Lord Cochrane should have been, for so long a time, as
+patient as he proved. His temper is well shown in the numerous
+letters which he addressed to Pedro I. and the Government during these
+harassing months. "The condescension," he wrote, "with which your
+Imperial Majesty has been pleased to permit me to approach your royal
+person, on matters regarding the public service, and even on those
+more particularly relating to myself, emboldens me to adopt the only
+means in my power, at this distance, of craving that your Majesty will
+be graciously pleased to judge of my conduct in the imperial service
+by the result of my endeavours to promote your Majesty's interests,
+and not by the false reports spread by those who, for reasons best
+known to themselves, desire to alienate your Majesty's mind from me,
+and thus to bring about my removal from your Majesty's service. I
+trust that your Imperial Majesty will please to believe me to be
+sensible that the honours which you have so graciously bestowed upon
+me it is my duty not to tarnish, and that your Majesty will further
+believe that, highly as I prize those honours, I hold the maintenance
+of my reputation in my native country in equal estimation. I
+respectfully crave permission to add that, perceiving it is impossible
+to continue in the service of your Imperial Majesty without at
+all times subjecting my professional character, under the present
+management of the Marine Department, to great risks, I trust your
+Majesty will be graciously pleased to grant me leave to retire
+from your imperial service, in which it appears to me I have now
+accomplished all that can be expected from me, the authority of your
+Imperial Majesty being established throughout the whole extent of
+Brazil."
+
+That request was not granted, or in any way answered; and the
+statement that the whole of Brazil was finally subjected to the
+Emperor's authority proved to be not quite correct. Fresh turmoils
+arose in Par�, and Lord Cochrane had to send thither a small force,
+by which order was restored. He himself found ample employment in
+restraining the factions that could not be suppressed at Maranham.
+
+That was the state of things in the early months of 1825, until
+unlooked-for circumstances arose, by which Lord Cochrane's Brazilian
+employment was brought to a termination in a way that he had not
+anticipated. "The anxiety occasioned by the constant harassing which
+I had undergone, unalleviated by any acknowledgment on the part of the
+Imperial Government of the services which had a second time saved the
+empire from intestine war, anarchy, and revolution," he said, "began
+to make serious inroads on my health; whilst that of the officers and
+men, in consequence of the great heat and pestilential exhalations of
+the climate, and of the double duty which they had to perform afloat
+and ashore, was even less satisfactory. As I saw no advantage in
+longer contending with factious intrigues at Maranham, unsupported and
+neglected as I was by the Administration at Rio de Janeiro, I resolved
+upon a short run into a more bracing northerly atmosphere, which would
+answer the double purpose of restoring our health and of giving us a
+clear offing for our subsequent voyage to the capital.
+
+"Accordingly," the narrative proceeds, "I shifted my flag into the
+_Piranga_, despatched the _Pedro Primiero_ to Rio, and, leaving
+Captain Manson, of the _Cacique_, in charge of the naval department
+at Maranham, put to sea on the 18th of May. On the 21st we crossed
+the Equator, and, meeting with a succession of easterly winds, were
+carried to the northward of the Azores, passing St. Michael's on the
+11th of June. It had been my intention to sail into the latitude of
+the Azores, and then to return to Rio de Janeiro. But, strong gales
+coming on, we made the unpleasant discovery that the frigate's
+main-topmast was sprung, and, when putting her about, the main and
+main-topsail yards were discovered to be unserviceable. For the
+condition of the ship's spars I had depended on others, not deeming
+it necessary to take upon myself such investigation. It was, however,
+possible that we might have patched these up, had not the running
+rigging been as rotten as the masts, and we had no spare cordage on
+board. A still worse disaster was that the salt provisions shipped at
+Maranham were reported bad, mercantile ingenuity having resorted to
+the device of placing good meat at the top and bottom of the barrels,
+whilst the middle, being composed of unsound articles, had tainted
+the whole, thereby rendering it not only unpalatable but positively
+dangerous to health. The good provisions on board being little more
+than sufficient for a week's subsistence, a direct return to Rio de
+Janeiro was out of the question."
+
+It was therefore absolutely necessary to seek some nearer harbour; but
+Lord Cochrane was considerably embarrassed in his choice of a
+port. Portugal was an enemy's country, and Spain, by reason of his
+achievements in Chili and Peru, was no less hostile to him. France had
+not yet recognised the independence of Brazil, and therefore a stay on
+any part of its coast might lead to difficulties. England afforded the
+only safe halting-place, though there Lord Cochrane was uncertain as
+to the way in which, in consequence of the Foreign Enlistment Act,
+he might be received. To England, however, he resolved to go; and,
+sighting its coast on the 25th of June, he anchored at Spithead on
+the following day. Salutes were exchanged with a British ship lying
+in harbour, and in the afternoon he landed at Portsmouth, to be
+enthusiastically welcomed by nearly all classes of his countrymen,
+whose admiration for his personal character and his excellence as a
+naval officer was heightened by the renown of his exploits in South
+America during an absence of six years and a half.
+
+His subsequent relations with Brazil can be briefly told. His
+unavoidable return to England afforded just the excuse which his
+enemies in Brazil had been seeking for ousting him from his command.
+They and the Chevalier Manoel Rodriguez Gameiro Pessoa, the Brazilian
+Envoy in London, who altogether sympathised with them, chose to regard
+this occurrence as an act of desertion. Lord Cochrane lost no time in
+reporting his arrival and requesting to be provided with the necessary
+means for refitting the _Piranga_ and preparing for a speedy return to
+Rio de Janeiro. To expedite matters, he even advanced 2000_l._ out of
+his own property--which was never repaid to him--for this purpose. His
+repeated applications for instructions were either unheeded or only
+answered with insult. He was ordered to return to Brazil at once,
+towards which no assistance was given to him; and at the same time
+his officers and crew were ordered to repudiate his authority and to
+return without him.
+
+Lord Cochrane had no room to doubt that by going back to Brazil he
+should only expose himself to yet worse treatment than that from which
+he had been suffering during nearly two years; but at the same time
+he was resolved to do nothing at variance with his duty to the Emperor
+from whom he had received his commission, and nothing invalidating his
+claims to the recompense which was clearly due to him. At length he
+was relieved from some of his perplexities, after they had lasted more
+than three months. On the 3rd of November, 1825, peace was declared
+between Brazil and Portugal; and thereby his relations with his
+employers were materially altered. The work which he had pledged
+himself to do was completed, and he was justified in resigning his
+command, or at any rate in declining to resume it until the causes of
+his recent troubles were removed.
+
+This he did in a letter addressed to the Emperor Pedro I., from
+London, on the 10th of November. "The gracious condescension which I
+experienced from your Imperial Majesty, from the first moment of my
+arrival in the Brazils, the honorary distinctions which I received
+from your Majesty, and the attention with which you were pleased to
+listen to all my personal representations relating to the promotion
+of the naval power of your empire," he wrote, "have impressed upon
+my mind a high sense of the honour which your Majesty conferred, and
+forbid my entertaining any other sentiments than those of attachment
+to your Majesty and devotion to your true interests. But, whilst I
+express these my unfeigned sentiments towards your Imperial Majesty,
+it is with infinite pain and regret that I recall to my recollection
+the conduct that has been pursued towards the naval service, and to
+myself personally, since the members of the Brazilian administration
+of Jos� Bonifacio de Andrade were superseded by persons devoted to
+the views and interests of Portugal,--views and interests which are
+directly opposed to the adoption of that line of conduct which can
+alone promote and secure the true interests and glory of your Imperial
+Majesty, founded on the tranquillity and happiness of the Brazilian
+people. Without imputing to such ministers as Severiano, Gomez, and
+Barboza disaffection to the person of your Imperial Majesty, it is
+sufficient to know that they are men bigoted to the unenlightened
+opinions of their ancestors of four centuries ago, that they are men
+who, from their limited intercourse with the world, from the paucity
+of the literature of their native language, and from their want of
+all rational instruction in the service of government and political
+economy, have no conception of governing Brazil by any other than the
+same wretched and crooked policy to which the nation had been so long
+subjected in its condition as a colony. Nothing further need be said,
+while we acquit them of treason, to convict them of unfitness to be
+the counsellors of your Imperial Majesty.
+
+"None but such ministers as these could have endeavoured to impress
+upon the mind of your Imperial Majesty that the refugee Portuguese
+from the provinces and many thousands from Europe, collected in Rio
+de Janeiro, were the only true friends and supporters of the imperial
+crown of Brazil. None but such ministers would have endeavoured to
+impress your Imperial Majesty with a belief that the Brazilian people
+were inimical to your person and the imperial crown, merely because
+they were hostile to the system pursued by those ministers. None but
+such ministers would have placed in important offices of trust the
+natives of a nation with which your Imperial Majesty was at war. None
+but such ministers would have endeavoured to induce your Imperial
+Majesty to believe that officers who had abandoned their King and
+native country for their own private interests could be depended on as
+faithful servants to a hostile Government and a foreign land. None but
+such ministers could have induced your Imperial Majesty to place
+in the command of your fortresses, regiments, and ships of war such
+individuals as these. None but such ministers would have attempted to
+excite in the breast of your Imperial Majesty suspicions with respect
+to the fidelity of myself and of those other officers who, by the most
+zealous exertions, had proved our devotion to the best interests
+of your Imperial Majesty and your Brazilian people. None but such
+ministers would have endeavoured by insults and acts of the grossest
+injustice, to drive us from the service of your Imperial Majesty and
+to place Portuguese officers in our stead. And, above all, none but
+such ministers could have suggested to your Imperial Majesty that
+extraordinary proceeding which was projected to take place on the
+night of the 3rd of June, 1824, a proceeding which, had it not been
+averted by a timely discovery and prompt interposition on my part,
+would have tarnished for ever the glory of your Imperial Majesty, and
+which, if it had failed to prove fatal to myself and officers, must
+inevitably have driven us from your imperial service. When placed
+in competition with this plot of these ministers and the false
+insinuations by which they induced your Imperial Majesty to listen to
+their insidious counsel, all their previous intrigues, and those of
+the whole Portuguese faction, to ruin the naval power of Brazil, sink
+into insignificance. But for the advancement of Portuguese interests
+there was nothing too treacherous or malignant for such ministers and
+such men as these to insinuate to your Imperial Majesty, especially
+when they had discovered that it was not possible by their unjust
+conduct to provoke me to abandon the service of Brazil so long as my
+exertions could be useful to secure its independence, which I believed
+to be alike the object of your Imperial Majesty and the interest of
+the Brazilian people.
+
+"If the counsels of such persons should prove fatal to the interests
+of your Imperial Majesty, no one will regret the event more sincerely
+than myself. My only consolation will be the knowledge that your
+Imperial Majesty cannot but be conscious that I, individually, have
+discharged my duty, both in a military and in a private capacity,
+towards your Majesty, whose true interest, I may venture to add, I
+have held in greater regard than my own; for, had I connived at the
+views of the Portuguese faction, even without dereliction of my duty
+as an officer, I might have shared amply in the honours and emoluments
+which such influence has enabled these persons to obtain, instead of
+being deprived, by their means, of even the ordinary rewards of my
+labours in the cause of independence which your Imperial Majesty had
+engaged me to maintain,--which cause I neither have abandoned nor will
+abandon, if ever it should be in my power successfully to renew my
+exertions for the true interests of your Imperial Majesty and those of
+the Brazilian people.
+
+"Meanwhile my office as Commander-in-Chief of your Imperial Majesty's
+Naval Forces having terminated by the conclusion of peace and by the
+decree promulgated on the 28th of February, 1824, I have notified to
+your Imperial Majesty's Envoy, the Chevalier de Gameiro, that I have
+directed my flag to be struck this day. Praying that the war now
+terminated abroad may be accompanied by tranquillity at home, I
+respectfully take leave of your Imperial Majesty."
+
+All Lord Cochrane's subsequent correspondence with Brazil had for its
+object the recovery of the payments due to him and to his officers and
+crews for the great services done by them to the empire. Lord Cochrane
+had saved that empire from being brought back to the position of
+a Portuguese colony, and had enabled it to enter on a career of
+independence. In return for it he was subjected to more than two years
+of galling insult, was deprived of his proper share of the prizes
+taken by him and his squadron, was refused the estate in Maranham
+which the Emperor, more grateful than his ministers, had bestowed upon
+him, and was mulcted of a portion of his pay and of all the pension
+to which he was entitled by imperial decree and the ordinances of the
+Government. His services to Brazil, like his services to Chili, adding
+much to his renown as a disinterested champion of liberty and an
+unrivalled seaman and warrior, brought upon him personally little but
+trouble and misfortune. Only near the end of his life, when a worthy
+Emperor and honest ministers succeeded to power, was any recompence
+accorded to him.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII.
+
+THE GREEK REVOLUTION AND ITS ANTECEDENTS.--THE MODERN GREEKS.--THE
+FRIENDLY SOCIETY.--SULTAN MAHMUD AND ALI PASHA'S REBELLION.--THE
+BEGINNING OF THE GREEK INSURRECTION.--COUNT JOHN CAPODISTRIAS.--PRINCE
+ALEXANDER HYPSILANTES.--THE REVOLUTION IN THE MOREA.--THEODORE
+KOLKOTRONES.--THE REVOLUTION IN THE ISLANDS.--THE GREEK NAVY AND ITS
+CHARACTER.--THE EXCESSES OF THE GREEKS.--THEIR BAD GOVERNMENT.--PRINCE
+ALEXANDER MAVROCORDATOS.--THE PROGRESS OF THE REVOLUTION.--THE
+SPOLIATION OF THE CHIOS.--ENGLISH PHILHELLENES; THOMAS GORDON, FRANK
+ABNEY HASTINGS, LORD BYRON.--THE FIRST GREEK LOAN, AND THE BAD USES
+TO WHICH IT WAS PUT.--REVERSES OF THE GREEKS.--IBRAHIM AND HIS
+SUCCESSES.--MAVROCORDATOS'S LETTER TO LORD COCHRANE.
+
+[1820-1825.]
+
+
+While Lord Cochrane was rendering efficient service to the cause of
+freedom in South America, another war of independence was being waged
+in Europe; and he had hardly been at home a week before solicitations
+pressed upon him from all quarters that he should lend his great name
+and great abilities to this war also. As he consented to do so, and
+almost from the moment of his arrival was intimately connected with
+the Greek Revolution, the previous stages of this memorable episode,
+the incidents that occurred during his absence in Chili and Brazil,
+need to be here reviewed and recapitulated.
+
+The Greek Revolution began openly in 1821. But there had been long
+previous forebodings of it. The dwellers in the land once peopled by
+the noble race which planned and perfected the arts and graces, the
+true refinements and the solid virtues that are the basis of our
+modern civilization, had been for four centuries and more the slaves
+of the Turks. They were hardly Greeks, if by that name is implied
+descent from the inhabitants of classic Greece. With the old stock had
+been blended, from generation to generation, so many foreign elements
+that nearly all trace of the original blood had disappeared, and the
+modern Greeks had nothing but their residence and their language to
+justify them in maintaining the old title. But their slavery was only
+too real. Oppressed by the Ottomans on account of their race and their
+religion, the oppression was none the less in that it induced many of
+them to cast off the last shreds of freedom and deck themselves in the
+coarser, but, to slavish minds, the pleasanter bondage of trickery and
+meanness. During the eighteenth century, many Greeks rose to eminence
+in the Turkish service, and proved harder task-masters to their
+brethren than the Turks themselves generally were. The hope of further
+aggrandisement, however, led them to scheme the overthrow of their
+Ottoman employers, and their projects were greatly aided by the truer,
+albeit short-sighted, patriotism that animated the greater number of
+their kinsmen. They groaned under Turkish thraldom, and yearned to
+be freed from it, in the temper so well described and so worthily
+denounced by Lord Byron in 1811:--
+
+  "And many dream withal the hour is nigh
+  That gives them back their fathers' heritage:
+  For foreign arms and aid they loudly sigh,
+  Nor solely dare encounter hostile rage.
+  Hereditary bondsmen! know ye not
+  Who would be free themselves must strike the blow?
+  By their right arm the conquest must be wrought.
+  Will Gaul or Muscovite redress ye?--No!
+  True, they may lay your proud despoilers low,
+  But not for you will Freedom's altars flame."
+
+The Greeks, all but a few genuine patriots, thought otherwise. They
+sought deliverance at the hands of Gauls and Muscovites; and, as the
+Muscovites had good reason for desiring the overthrow of Turkey, they
+listened to their prayers, and other ties than that of community in
+religion bound the persecuted Greeks to Russia. The Philik� Hetaira,
+or Friendly Society, chief representative of a very general movement,
+was founded at Odessa in 1814. It was a secret society, which speedily
+had ramifications among the Greek Christians in every part of Turkey,
+encouraging them to prepare for insurrection as soon as the Czar
+Alexander I. deemed it expedient to aid them by open invasion of
+Turkey, or as soon as they themselves could take the initiative,
+trusting to Russia to complete the work of revolution. The Friendly
+Society increased its influence and multiplied its visionary schemes
+during many years previous to 1821.
+
+Its strength was augmented by the political condition of Turkey at the
+time. The Sultan Mahmud--a true type of the Ottoman sovereign at
+his worst--had attempted to perfect his power by a long train of
+cruelties, of which murder was the lightest. Defeating his own purpose
+thereby, he aroused the opposition of Mahometan as well as Christian
+subjects, and induced the rebellious schemes of Ali Pasha of Joannina,
+the boldest of his vassals. In Albania Ali ruled with a cruelty that
+was hardly inferior to Mahmud's. Byron tells how his
+
+  "dread command
+  Is lawless law; for with a bloody hand
+  He sways a nation turbulent and told."
+
+The cruelty could be tolerated; but not opposition to Mahmud's
+will. Long and growing jealousy existed between the Sultan and his
+tributary. At length, in 1820, there was an open rupture. Ali was
+denounced as a traitor, and ordered to surrender his pashalik. Instead
+of so doing, he organized his army for prompt rebellion, trusting for
+success partly to the support of the Greeks. Most of the Greeks held
+aloof; but the Suliots, a race of Christian marauders, the fiercest of
+the fierce community of Albanians, sided with him, and for more than a
+year rendered him valuable aid by reason of their hereditary skill in
+lawless warfare. Not till January, 1822, was Ali forced to surrender,
+and then only, perhaps, through the defection of the Suliots.
+
+The Suliots, dissatisfied with Ali's recompense for their services,
+had gone over to the Greeks, who, not caring to serve under Ali in his
+rebellion, had welcomed that rebellion as a Heaven-sent opportunity
+for realising their long-cherished hopes. The Turkish garrisons in
+Greece being half unmanned in order that the strongest possible force
+might be used in subduing Ali, and Turkish government in the peninsula
+being at a standstill, the Greeks found themselves in an excellent
+position for asserting their freedom. Had they been less degraded than
+they were by their long centuries of slavery, or had there been some
+better organization than that which the purposes and the methods of
+the Friendly Society afforded for developing the latent patriotism
+which was honest and wide-spread, they might have achieved a triumph
+worthy of the classic name they bore and the heroic ancestry that they
+claimed.
+
+Unfortunately, the Friendly Society, already degenerated from the
+unworthy aim with which it started, now an elaborate machinery of
+personal ambition, private greed, and local spite, the willing tool of
+Russia, was master of the situation. The mastery, however, was by no
+means thorough. The society had dispossessed all other organizations,
+but had no organization of its own adequate to the working out of
+a successful rebellion. Its machinery was tolerably perfect, but
+efficient motive-power was wanting. Its exchequer was empty; its
+counsels were divided; above all, it had alienated the sympathies of
+the worthiest patriots of Greece. Finding itself suddenly in the
+way of triumph, it was incapable of rightly progressing in that way.
+Obstacles of its own raising, and obstacles raised by others, stood
+in the path, and only a very wise man had the chance of successfully
+removing them.
+
+The wise man did not exist, or was not to be obtained. Perhaps the
+wisest, though, as later history proved, not very wise, was Count John
+Capodistrias, a native of Corfu. Born in 1777, he had gone to Italy to
+study and practise medicine. There also he studied, afterwards to put
+in practice, the effete Machiavellianism then in vogue. In 1803 he
+entered political life as secretary to the lately-founded republic
+of the Ionian Islands. Napoleon's annexation of the Ionian Islands in
+1807 drove him into the service of Russia, and, as Russian agent, he
+advocated, at the Vienna Conference of 1815, the reconstruction of the
+Ionian republic. The partial concession of Great Britain towards that
+project, by which the Ionian Islands were established as a sort of
+commonwealth, dependent upon England, enabled him to live and work
+in Corfu, awaiting the realization of his own patriotic schemes, and
+watching the patriotic movement in Greece. Italian in his education,
+and Russian in his sympathies, he was still an honest Greek, worthier
+and abler than most other influential Greeks. "He had many virtues and
+great abilities," says a competent critic. "His conduct was firm and
+disinterested, his manners simple and dignified. His personal feelings
+were warm, and, as a consequence of this virtue, they were sometimes
+so strong as to warp his judgment. He wanted the equanimity and
+impartiality of mind, and the elevation of soul necessary to make
+a great man."[A] In spite of his defects, he might have done good
+service to the Greek Revolution, had he accepted the offer of its
+leadership, shrewdly tendered to him by the Friendly Society. But this
+he declined, having no liking for the society, and no trust in its
+methods and designs.
+
+[Footnote A: Finlay, "History of the Greek Revolution" (1861), vol.
+ii., p. 196. Mr. Finlay served as a volunteer in Greece under Captain
+Abney Hastings. His work is certainly the best on the subject, though
+we shall have in later pages to differ widely from its strictures on
+Lord Cochrane's motives and action. But our complaints will be less
+against his history than against the two other leading ones--General
+Gordon's "History of the Greek Revolution" (1832), and M. Trikoupes's
+"[Greek: Historia t�s Hell�nik�s Epanastase�s]" (1853-6), which is not
+very much more than a paraphrase of Gordon's work.]
+
+The Friendly Society then sought and found a leader, far inferior
+to Count Capodistrias, in Prince Alexander Hypsilantes, the son of a
+Hospodar of Wallachia who had been deposed in 1806. Hypsilantes had
+been educated in Russia, and had there risen to some rank, high enough
+at any rate to quicken his ambition and vanity, both as a soldier and
+as a courtier. He was not without virtues; but he was utterly unfit
+for the duties imposed upon him as leader of the Greek Revolution.
+Not a Greek himself, his purpose in accepting the office seems to have
+been to make Greece an appendage of the despotic monarchy, which, by
+means of the political crisis, he hoped to establish in Wallachia,
+under Russian protection. With that view, in March 1821, he led the
+first crude army of Greek and other Christian rebels into Moldavia.
+There and in Wallachia he stirred up a brief revolt, attended by
+military blunders and lawless atrocities which soon brought vengeance
+upon himself and made a false beginning of the revolutionary work.
+Moldavia and Wallachia were quickly restored to Turkish rule, and
+Hypsilantes had in June to fly for safety into Austria. But the bad
+example that he set, and the evil influence that he and his promoters
+and followers of the Friendly Society exerted, initiated a false
+policy and encouraged a pernicious course of action, by which the
+cause of the Greeks was injured for years.
+
+The real Greek revolution began in the Morea. There the Friendly
+Society did good work in showing the people that the hour for action
+had come; but its direction of that action was for the most part
+mischievous. The worst Greeks were the leaders, and, under their
+guidance, the play of evil passions--inevitable in all efforts of the
+oppressed to overturn their oppressors--was developed to a grievous
+extent. Turkish blood was first shed on the 25th of March, 1821, and
+within a week the whole of the Morea was in a ferment of rebellion. By
+the 22nd of April, which was Easter Sunday, it is reckoned that from
+ten to fifteen thousand Mahometans had been slaughtered in cold blood,
+and about three thousand Turkish homes destroyed.
+
+The promoters of all that wanton atrocity were the directors of the
+Friendly Society, among whom the Archimandrate Gregorios Dikaios,
+nicknamed Pappa Phlesas, and Petros Mavromichales, or Petro-Bey, were
+the most conspicuous. Its principal agents were the klepht or brigand
+chieftains, best represented by Theodore Kolokotrones.
+
+Born about 1770, of a family devoted to the use of arms in predatory
+ways, Kolokotrones had led a lawless life until 1806, when the Greek
+peasantry called in the assistance of their Turkish rulers in hunting
+down their persecutors of their own race, and when, several of his
+family being slain, he himself had to seek refuge in Zante. There he
+maintained himself, partly by piracy, partly by cattle-dealing.
+In 1810 the English annexation of the Ionian Islands led to his
+employment, first as captain and afterwards as major, in the Greek
+contingent of the British army. He had amassed much wealth, and was
+in the prime of life when, in January, 1821, he returned to his early
+home, to revive his old brigand life under the name of legitimate
+warfare. His thorough knowledge of the country, its passes and its
+strongholds, and his familiarity with the modes of fighting proper to
+them, his handsome person and agreeable deportment, his shrewd wit and
+persuasive oratory, made him one of the most influential agents of
+the Revolution at its commencement, and his influence grew during the
+ensuing years.
+
+The flame of rebellion, having spread through the Morea during the
+early weeks of April, extended rapidly over the adjoining districts of
+the mainland. By the end of June the insurgents were masters of
+nearly all the country now possessed by modern Greece. Their cause
+was heartily espoused by the Suliots of Albania and other
+fellow-Christians in the various Turkish provinces, and their kinsmen
+of the outlying islands were eager to join in the work of national
+regeneration, and to contribute largely to the completion of that work
+by their naval prowess.
+
+It was naval prowess, as our later pages will abundantly show, of
+a very barbarous and undeveloped sort. Besides the two principal
+seaports on the mainland, Tricheri on Mount Pelion and Galaxidhi on
+the Gulf of Corinth, there were famous colonies of Greek seamen in the
+islands of Psara and Kasos, and similar colonies of Albanians in Hydra
+and Spetzas. These and the other islands had long practised irregular
+commerce, and protected that commerce by irregular fighting with the
+Turks. At the first sound of revolution they threw in their lot with
+the insurgents of the mainland, and thus a nondescript navy of some
+four hundred brigs and schooners, of from sixty to four hundred tons'
+burthen, and manned by about twelve thousand sailors, adepts alike
+in trade and piracy, but very unskilled in orderly warfare, and very
+feebly inspired by anything like disinterested patriotism, was ready
+to use and abuse its powers during the ensuing seven years' fight for
+Greek independence.
+
+During the summer of 1821, while the continental Greeks were rushing
+to arms, murdering the Turkish residents among them by thousands, and
+thus bringing down upon themselves, or upon those of their own race
+who, as peasants and burghers, took no important share in actual
+fighting, the murderous vengeance of the Turkish troops sent to
+attempt the suppression of the revolt, these sailors were pursuing an
+easier and more profitable game. The Turkish ports were not warlike,
+and the Turkish trading ships were not prepared for fighting. In May,
+a formidable crowd of vessels left the islands on a cruise, from which
+they soon returned with an immense store of booty. Early in June, the
+best Turkish fleet that could be brought together, consisting of two
+line-of-battle ships, three frigates, and three sloops, went out to
+harass, if not to destroy, the swarm of smaller enemies. Jakomaki
+Tombazes, with thirty-seven of these smaller enemies, set off to meet
+them, and falling in with one of the ships, gave her chase, till, in
+the roads of Eripos, she was attacked on the 8th of June, and, with
+the help of a fireship, destroyed with a loss of nearly four hundred
+men. That victory caused the flight of the other Turkish vessels, and
+was the beginning of much cruel work at sea and with ships, which,
+not often daring to meet in open fight, wrought terrible mischief to
+unprotected ports and islands.
+
+The mischief wrought upon the land was yet more terrible. A seething
+tide of Greek and Moslem blood heaved to and fro, as, during the
+second half of 1821, each party in turn gained temporary ascendency in
+one district after another. Greeks murdered Turks, and Turks murdered
+Greeks, with equal ferocity; or perhaps the ferocity of the Greeks,
+stirred by bad leaders to revenge themselves for all their previous
+sufferings, even surpassed that of the Turks. Of their cruelty a
+glaring instance occurred in their capture of Navarino. The Turkish
+inhabitants having held out as long as a mouthful of food was left
+in the town, were forced to capitulate on the 19th of August. It was
+promised that, upon their surrendering, the Greek vessels were to
+convey them, their wearing apparel, and their household furniture,
+either to Egypt or to Tunis. No sooner were the gates opened than
+a wholesale plunder and slaughter ensued. A Greek ecclesiastic has
+described the scene. "Women wounded with musket-balls and sabre-cuts
+rushed to the sea, seeking to escape, and were deliberately shot.
+Mothers robbed of their clothes, with infants in their arms, plunged
+into the water to conceal themselves from shame, and they were then
+made a mark for inhuman riflemen. Greeks seized infants from their
+mothers' breasts and dashed them against the rocks. Children, three
+and four years old, were hurled, living, into the sea, and left to
+drown. When the massacre was ended, the dead bodies washed ashore, or
+piled on the beach, threatened to cause a pestilence."[A] At the sack
+of Tripolitza, on the 8th of October, about eight thousand Moslems
+were murdered, the last two thousand, chiefly women and children,
+being taken into a neighbouring ravine, there to be slaughtered at
+leisure. Two years afterwards a ghastly heap of bones attested the
+inhuman deed.
+
+[Footnote A: Finlay, vol. i.; p. 263, citing Phrantzes.]
+
+In ways like these the first stage of the Greek Revolution was
+achieved. Before the close of 1821, it appeared to the Greeks
+themselves, to their Moslem enemies, and to their many friends in
+England, France, and other countries, that the triumph was complete.
+Unfortunately, the same bad motives and the same bad methods that had
+so grievously polluted the torrent of patriotism continued to poison
+and disturb the stream which might otherwise have been henceforth
+clear, steady, and health-giving. Greece was free, but, unless another
+and a much harder revolution could be effected in the temper and
+conduct of its own people, unfit to put its freedom to good use or
+even to maintain it. "The rapid success of the Greeks during the first
+few weeks of the revolution," says their ablest historian, "threw the
+management of much civil and financial business into the hands of the
+pro�sti and demogeronts in office. The primates, who already exercised
+great official authority, instantly appropriated that which had been
+hitherto exercised by murdered voivodes and beys. Every primate strove
+to make himself a little independent potentate, and every captain of
+a district assumed the powers of a commander-in-chief. The Revolution,
+before six months had passed, seemed to have peopled Greece with a
+host of little Ali Pashas. When the primate and the captain acted in
+concert, they collected the public revenues; administered the Turkish
+property, which was declared national; enrolled, paid, and provisioned
+as many troops as circumstances required, or as they thought fit;
+named officers; formed a local guard for the primate of the best
+soldiers in the place, who were thus often withdrawn from the public
+service; and organised a local police and a local treasury. This I
+system of local self-government, constituted in a very self-willed
+manner, and relieved from almost all responsibility, was soon
+established as a natural result of the Revolution over all Greece.
+The Sultan's authority having ceased, every primate assumed the
+prerogatives of the Sultan. For a few weeks this state of things was
+unavoidable, and, to an able and honest chief or government, it would
+have facilitated the establishment of a strong central authority; but
+by the vices of Greek society it was perpetuated into an organised
+anarchy. No improvement was made in financial arrangements, or in the
+system of taxation; no measures were adopted for rendering property
+more secure; no attempt was made to create an equitable administration
+of justice; no courts of law were established; and no financial
+accounts were published. Governments were formed, constitutions were
+drawn up, national assemblies met, orators debated, and laws were
+passed according to the political fashion patronised by the liberals
+of the day. But no effort was made to prevent the Government
+being virtually absolute, unless it was by rendering it absolutely
+powerless. The constitutions were framed to remain a dead letter. The
+national assemblies were nothing but conferences of parties, and the
+laws passed were intended to fascinate Western Europe, not to operate
+with effect in Greece."[A]
+
+[Footnote A: Finlay, vol. i., pp. 280, 281.]
+
+The supreme government of Greece had been assumed in June by Prince
+Demetrius Hypsilantes, a worthier man than his brother Alexander, but
+by no means equal to the task he took in hand. At first the brigand
+chiefs and local potentates, not willing to surrender any of the power
+they had acquired, were disposed to render to him nominal submission,
+believing that his name and his Russian influence would be serviceable
+to the cause of Greece. But Hypsilantes showed himself utterly
+incompetent, and it was soon apparent that his sympathies were wholly
+alien to those both of the Greek people and of their military and
+civil leaders. Therefore another master had to be chosen. Kolokotrones
+might have succeeded to the dignity, and he certainly had vigour
+enough of disposition, and enough honesty and dishonesty combined, to
+make the position one of power as well as of dignity. For that very
+reason, however, his comrades and rivals were unwilling to place him
+in it. They desired a president skilful enough to hold the reins of
+government with a very loose hand, yet so as to keep them from getting
+hopelessly entangled--one who should be a smart secretary and adviser,
+without assuming the functions of a director.
+
+Such a man they found in Prince Alexander Mavrocordatos, then about
+thirty-two years old. He was a kinsman of a Hospodar of Wallachia,
+by whom he had in his youth been employed in political matters. After
+that he had resided in France, where he acquired much fresh knowledge,
+and where his popularity helped to quicken sympathy on behalf of
+the Greek Revolution at its first outburst. He had lately come
+to Missolonghi with a ship-load of ammunition and other material,
+procured and brought at his own expense, and soon attained
+considerable influence. Always courteous in his manners, only
+ungenerous in his actions where the interests of others came into
+collision with his own, less strong-willed and less ambitious than
+most of his associates, those associates were hardly jealous of his
+popularity at home, and wholly pleased with his popularity among
+foreigners. It was a clear gain to their cause to have Shelley writing
+his "Hellas," and dedicating the poem to Mavrocordatos, as "a token of
+admiration, sympathy, and friendship."
+
+Mavrocordatos was named President of Greece in the Constitution of
+Epidaurus, chiefly his own workmanship, which was proclaimed on the
+13th of January--New Year's Day, according to the reckoning of the
+Greek Church--1822. It is not necessary here to detail his own acts or
+those of his real or professing subordinates. All we have to do is to
+furnish a general account, and a few characteristic illustrations, of
+the course of events during the Greek Revolution, in explanation of
+the state of parties and of politics at the time of Lord Cochrane's
+advent among them. These events were marked by continuance of the same
+selfish policy, divided interests, class prejudice, and individual
+jealousy that have been already referred to. The mass of the Greek
+people were, as they had been from the first, zealous in their desire
+for freedom, and, having won it, they were not unwilling to use it
+honestly. For their faults their leaders are chiefly to be blamed; and
+in apology for those leaders, it must be remembered that they were an
+assemblage of soldiers who had been schooled in oriental brigandage,
+of priests whose education had been in a corrupt form of Christianity
+made more corrupt by persecution, of merchants who had found it hard
+to trade without trickery, and of seamen who had been taught to
+regard piracy as an honourable vocation. Perhaps we have less cause to
+condemn them for the errors and vices that they exhibited during their
+fight for freedom, than to wonder that those errors and vices were not
+more reprehensible in themselves and disastrous in their issues.
+
+For about six years the fight was maintained without foreign aid, save
+that given by private volunteers and generous champions in Western
+Europe, against a state numerically nearly twenty times as strong as
+the little community of revolutionists. In it, along with much wanton
+cruelty, was displayed much excellent heroism. But the heroism was
+reckless and undisciplined, and therefore often worse than useless.
+
+Memorable instances both of recklessness and of want of discipline
+appeared in the attempts made to wrest Chios from the Turks in 1822.
+The Greek inhabitants of this island, on whom the Turkish yoke pressed
+lightly, had refused to join in the insurgent movement of their
+brethren on the mainland and in the neighbouring islands. But it was
+considered that a little coercion would induce them to share in
+the Revolution and convert their prosperous island into a Greek
+possession. Therefore, in March, a small force of two thousand five
+hundred men crossed the archipelago, took possession of Koutari,
+the principal town, and proceeded to invest the Turkish citadel.
+The Chiots, though perhaps not very willingly, took part in the
+enterprise; but the invading party was quite unequal to the work it
+had undertaken. In April a formidable Turkish squadron arrived, and
+by it Chios was easily recovered, to become the scene of vindictive
+atrocities, which brought all the terrified inhabitants who were
+not slaughtered, or who could not escape, into abject submission.
+Thereupon, on the 10th of May, a Greek fleet of fifty-six vessels was
+despatched by Mavrocordatos to attempt a more thorough capture of the
+island. Its commander was Andreas Miaoulis, a Hydriot merchant, who
+proved himself the best sea-captain among the Greeks. Had Miaoulis
+been able, as he wished, to start sooner and meet the Turkish squadron
+on its way to Chios, a brilliant victory might have resulted, instead
+of one of the saddest catastrophes in the whole Greek war. Being
+deterred therefrom by the vacillation of Mavrocordatos and the
+insubordination of his captains and their crews, he was only able to
+reach the island when it was again in the hands of the enemy, and when
+all was ready for withstanding him. There was useless fighting on the
+31st of May and the two following days. On the 18th of June, Miaoulis
+made another attack; but he was only able to destroy the Turkish
+flag-ship, and nearly all on board, by means of a fire-vessel. His
+fleet was unmanageable, and he had to abandon the enterprise and to
+leave the unfortunate Chiots to endure further punishment for offences
+that were not their own. This punishment was so terrible that, in six
+months, the population of Chios was reduced from one hundred thousand
+to thirty thousand. Twenty thousand managed to escape. Fifty thousand
+were either put to death or sold as slaves in Asia Minor.
+
+That failure of the Greeks at Chios, quickly followed by their
+defeat on land at Petta, greatly disheartened the revolutionists.
+Mavrocordatos virtually resigned his presidentship, and there was
+anarchy in Greece till 1828. Athens, captured from the Turks in June,
+1822, became the centre of jealous rivalry and visionary scheming,
+mismanagement, and government that was worse than no government at
+all. Odysseus, the vilest of the vile men whom the Revolution brought
+to the surface, was its master for some time; and, when he played
+traitor to the Turks, he was succeeded by others hardly better than
+himself.
+
+In spite of some heavy disasters, however, the Greeks were so far
+successful during 1822 that in 1823 they were able to hold their
+newly-acquired territory and to wrest some more fortresses from their
+enemies. The real heroism that they had displayed, moreover--the foul
+cruelties of which they were guilty and the selfish courses which they
+pursued being hardly reported to their friends, and, when reported,
+hardly believed--awakened keen sympathy on their behalf. Shelley and
+Byron, and many others of less note, had sung their virtues and their
+sufferings in noble verse and enlarged upon them in eloquent prose,
+and in England and France, in Switzerland, Germany, and the united
+States, a strong party of Philhellenes was organized to collect money
+and send recruits for their assistance.
+
+The two Philhellenes of greatest note who served in Greece during the
+earlier years of the Revolution were Thomas Gordon and Frank Abney
+Hastings. Gordon, who attained the rank of general in the army of
+independence, had the advantage of a long previous and thorough
+acquaintance with the character of both Turks and Greeks and with the
+languages that they spoke. He watched all the revolutionary movements
+from the beginning, and took part in many of them. In the "History
+of the Greek Revolution," which he published in 1832, he gave such
+a vivid and, in the main, so accurate an account of them that his
+narrative has formed the basis of the more ambitious work of the
+native historian, Mr. Trikoupes. Of the vices and errors of the
+people on whose behalf he fought and wrote he spoke boldly. "Whatever
+national or individual wrong the Greeks may have endured," he said
+in one place, "it is impossible to justify the ferocity of their
+vengeance or to deny that a comparison instituted between them and the
+Ottoman generals, Mehemet Aboulaboud, Omer Vrioni, and the Kehaya Bey
+of Kurshid, would give to the latter the palm of humanity. Humanity,
+however, is a word quite out of place when applied either to them or
+to their opponents." In another page, further denouncing the Greek
+leaders, he wrote: "Panourias was the worst of these local despots,
+whom some writers have elevated into heroes. He was, in fact, an
+ignoble robber, hardened in evil. He enriched himself with the spoils
+of the Mahometans; yet he and his retinue of brigands compelled the
+people to maintain them at free quarters, in idleness and luxury,
+exacting not only bread, meat, wine, and forage, but also sugar and
+coffee. Hence springs the reflection that the Greeks had cause to
+repent their early predilection for the klephts, who were almost all,
+beginning with Kolokotrones, infamous for the sordid perversity of
+their dispositions."[A] Gordon's disinterested and brave efforts to
+bring about a better state of things and to help on the cause of
+real patriotism in Greece were highly praiseworthy; but, as another
+historian has truly said, "he did not possess the activity and
+decision of character necessary to obtain commanding influence in
+council, or to initiate daring measures in the field."[B]
+
+[Footnote A: Gordon, vol. i., pp. 313, 400.]
+
+[Footnote B: Finlay, vol. ii., p. 129.]
+
+Frank Abney Hastings was an abler man. Born in 1794, he was started in
+the naval profession when only eleven years old. Six months after the
+commencement of his midshipman's life he was present, on board the
+_Neptune_, at the battle of Trafalgar, and during the ensuing fourteen
+years he served in nearly every quarter of the globe. His independent
+spirit, however--something akin to Lord Cochrane's--brought him into
+disfavour, and, in 1819, for challenging a superior officer who had
+insulted him, he was dismissed from the British navy. Disheartened and
+disgusted, he resided in France for about three years. At length he
+resolved to go and fight for the Greeks, partly out of sympathy for
+their cause, partly as a relief from the misery of forced idleness,
+partly with the view of developing a plan which he had been devising
+for extending the use of steamships in naval warfare,--to which last
+excellent improvement he greatly contributed. He arrived at Hydra in
+April, 1822, just in time to take part in the fighting off Chios.
+One of his ingenious suggestions, made to Andreas Miaoulis, and its
+reception, have been described by himself. "I proposed to direct a
+fireship and three other vessels upon the frigate, and, when near the
+enemy, to set fire to certain combustibles which should throw out
+a great flame. The enemy would naturally conclude they were all
+fireships. The vessels were then to attach themselves to the frigate,
+fire broadsides, double-shotted, throwing on board the enemy at the
+same time combustible balls which gave a great smoke without flame.
+This would doubtless induce him to believe he was on fire, and give
+a most favourable opportunity for boarding him. However, the admiral
+returned my plan, saying only [Greek: kalo], without asking a single
+question, or wishing me to explain its details; and I observed a kind
+of insolent contempt in his manner. This interview with the admiral
+disgusted me. They place you in a position in which it is impossible
+to render any service, and then they boast of their own superiority,
+and of the uselessness of the Franks, as they call us, in Turkish
+warfare." Miaoulis, however, soon gained wisdom and made good use of
+Captain Hastings, who spent more than 7000_l._--all his patrimony--in
+serving the Greeks. He was almost the only officer in their employ
+who, during the earlier years of the Revolution, succeeded in
+establishing any sort of discipline or good management.
+
+Lord Byron, the most illustrious of all the early Philhellenes, used
+to say, shortly before his death, that with Napier at the head of the
+army and Hastings in command of a fleet the triumph of Greece might
+be insured. Byron was then at Missolonghi, whither he had gone in
+January, 1824, to die in April. Long before, while stirring up the
+sympathy of all lovers of liberty for the cause of regeneration in
+Greece, he had shown that regeneration could be by no means a short or
+easy work, and now he had to report that the real work was hardly
+yet begun--nay, that it seemed almost further off than ever. "Of the
+Greeks," he wrote, "I can't say much good hitherto, and I do not like
+to speak ill of them, though they do of one another."
+
+It was chiefly at Byron's instigation that the first Greek loan was
+contracted, in London, early in 1824. Its proceeds, 300,000_l._, were
+spent partly in unprofitable outlay upon ships, ammunition, and the
+like, of which the people were in no position to make good use, but
+mostly in civil war and in pandering to the greed and vanity of the
+members of the Government and their subordinate officials. "Phanariots
+and doctors in medicine," says an eye-witness, "who, in the month
+of April, 1824, were clad in ragged coats, and who lived on scanty
+rations, threw off that patriotic chrysalis before summer was past,
+and emerged in all the splendour of brigand life, fluttering about in
+rich Albanian habiliments, refulgent with brilliant and unused arms,
+and followed by diminutive pipe-bearers and tall henchmen."[A]
+
+[Footnote A: Finky, vol. ii. p. 39.]
+
+Even the scanty allowance made by the Greek Government out of its
+newly-acquired wealth for fighting purposes was for the most part
+squandered almost as frivolously. One general who drew pay and rations
+for seven hundred soldiers went to fight and die at Sphakteria at
+the head of seventeen armed peasants.[A] And that is only a glaring
+instance of peculations that were all but universal.
+
+[Footnote A: Trikoupes, vol. iii., p. 206.]
+
+That being the degradation to which the leaders of the Greek
+Revolution had sunk, it is not strange that its gains in previous
+years should have begun in 1824 to be followed by heavy losses. The
+Greek people--the peasants and burghers--were still patriots, though
+ill-trained and misdirected. They could defend their own homesteads
+with unsurpassed heroism, and hold their own mountains and valleys
+with fierce persistency. But they were unfit for distant fighting,
+even when their chiefs consented to employ them in it. Sultan Mahmud,
+therefore, who had been profiting by the hard experience of former
+years, and whose strength had been steadily growing while the power
+of the insurgents had been rapidly weakening, entered on a new and
+successful policy. He left the Greeks to waste their energies in their
+own possessions, and resolved to recapture, one after another, the
+outposts and ill-protected islands. For this he took especial care
+in augmenting his navy, and, besides developing his own resources,
+induced his powerful and turbulent vassal, Mohammed Ali, the Pasha of
+Egypt, to equip a formidable fleet and entrust it to his son Ibrahim,
+on whom was conferred the title of Vizier of the Morea.
+
+Even without that aid Mahmud was able to do much in furtherance of his
+purpose. The island of Kasos was easily recovered, and full vengeance
+was wreaked on its Greek inhabitants on the 20th of June. Soon
+afterwards Psara was seized and punished yet more hardly.
+
+On the 19th of July Ibrahim left Alexandria with a naval force which
+swept the southern seas of Greek pirates or privateers. On the 1st
+of September he effected a junction with the Turkish fleet at Budrun.
+Their united strength comprised forty-six ships, frigates, and
+corvettes, and about three hundred transports, large and small. The
+Greek fleet, between seventy and eighty sail, would have been strong
+enough to withstand it under any sort of good management; but good
+management was wanting, and the crews were quite beyond the control of
+their masters. The result was that in a series of small battles during
+the autumn of 1824 the Mahometans were generally successful, and their
+enemies found themselves at the close of the year terribly discomfited
+The little organization previously existing was destroyed, and the
+revolutionists felt that they had no prospect of advantageously
+carrying on their strife at sea without assistance and guidance that
+could not be looked for among themselves.
+
+Their troubles were increased in the following year. In February and
+March, 1825, Ibrahim landed a formidable army in the Morea, and began
+a course of operations in which the land forces and the fleet
+combined to dispossess the Greeks of their chief strongholds. The
+strongly-fortified island of Sphakteria, the portal of Navarino and
+Pylos, was taken on the 8th of May. Pylos capitulated on the 11th,
+and Navarino on the 21st of the same month. Other citadels, one after
+another, were surrendered; and Ibrahim and his army spent the summer
+in scouring the Morea and punishing its inhabitants, with the utmost
+severity, for the lawless brigandage and the devoted patriotism of
+which they had been guilty during the past four years.
+
+The result was altogether disheartening to the Greeks. They saw that
+their condition was indeed desperate. George Konduriottes, a Hydriot
+merchant, an Albanian who could not speak Greek, and who was alike
+unable to govern himself or others, had, in June, 1824, been named
+president of the republic, and since then the rival interests of the
+primates, the priests, and the military leaders had been steadily
+causing the decay of all that was left of patriotism and increase of
+the selfishness that had so long been rampant.
+
+There was one consequence of this degradation, however, which promised
+to be very beneficial. Seeing that their cause was being rapidly
+weakened, and that their hard-fought battle for liberty was in danger
+of speedy and ignominious reversal by their own divisions, by the
+stealthy encroachments of the Ottomans in the north, and by the more
+energetic advances of the Egyptians in the south, the Greeks resolved
+to abandon some of their jealousies and greeds, to look for a saviour
+from without, and, on his coming, to try and submit themselves
+honestly and heartily to his leadership. The issue of that resolution
+was the following letter, written by Mavrocordatos, then Secretary to
+the National Assembly:--
+
+"Milord,--Tandis que vos rares talens �taient consacr�s � procurer le
+bonheur d'un pays s�par� par un espace immense de la Gr�ce, celle-ci
+ne voyait pas sans admiration, sans int�r�t, sans une esp�ce de
+jalousie secr�te m�me, les succ�s brillants qui ont toujours couronn�
+vos nobles efforts, et rendu � l'ind�pendance un des plus beaux, des
+plus riches pays du monde. Votre retour en Angleterre a excit� la plus
+vive joie dans le coeur du citoyen Gr�c et de ses repr�sentans par
+l'espoir flattereur qu'ils commencent � concevoir que, celui qui s'est
+si noblement d�di� � procurer le bonheur d'une nation, ne refusera
+pas d'en faire autant pour celui d'une autre, qui ne lui offre pas
+une carri�re moins brillante et moins digne de lui et par son nom
+historique, et par ses malheurs pass�s et par ses efforts actuels pour
+reconqu�rir sa libert� et son ind�pendance. Les mers qui rappellent
+les victoires des Th�mistocles et des Timon, ne seront pas un th��tre
+indiff�rent pour celui qui sait appr�cier les grands hommes, et un des
+premiers amiraux de notre si�cle ne verra qu' avec plaisir qu'il est
+appell� � renouveler les beaux jours de Salamine et de Mycale � la
+t�te des Miaoulis, des Sachtouris et des Kanaris.
+
+"C'est avec la plus grande satisfaction, milord, que je me vois charg�
+de faire, au nom du Gouvernement, � votre seigneurie, la proposition
+du commandement g�n�ral des forces navales de la Gr�ce. Si votre
+seigneurie est dispos�e � l'accepter, Messieurs les Deput�s
+du Gouvernement Gr�c � Londres ont toute l'autorisation et les
+instructions n�cessaires pour combiner avec elle sur les moyens �
+mettre � sa disposition, afin d'utiliser le plut�t possible
+votre noble d�cision et acc�l�rer l'heureux moment que la Gr�ce
+reconnaissante et enthousiasm�e vous verra combattre pour la cause de
+sa libert�.
+
+"Je profite de cette occasion pour prier votre seigneurie de vouloir
+bien agr�er l'assurance de mon respect et de la plus haute estime avec
+laquelle j'ai l'honneur d'�tre, milord, de votre seigneurie le tr�s
+humble et tr�s ob�issant serviteur,
+
+"A. Mavrocordatos,
+
+"Naples de Romanie,
+
+"Secre-genl d'Etat.
+
+"_le 20 Ao�t_, ----------- 1825 1er 7bre
+
+"A Sa Seigneurie le tr�s Honorable Lord Cochrane, � Londres."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV.
+
+LORD COCHRANE's DISMISSAL FROM BRAZILIAN SERVICE, AND HIS ACCEPTANCE
+OF EMPLOYMENT AS CHIEF ADMIRAL OF THE GREEKS.--THE GREEK COMMITTEE AND
+THE GREEK DEPUTIES IN LONDON--THE TERMS OF LORD COCHRANE's AGREEMENT,
+AND THE CONSEQUENT PREPARATIONS.--HIS VISIT TO SCOTLAND--SIR WALTER
+SCOTT'S VERSES ON LADY COCHRANE.--LORD COCHRANE'S FORCED RETIREMENT TO
+BOULOGNE, AND THENCE TO BRUSSELS.--THE DELAYS IN FITTING OUT THE
+GREEK ARMAMENT.--CAPTAIN HASTINGS, MR. HOBHOUSE, AND SIR FRANCES
+BURDETT.--CAPTAIN HASTINGS'S MEMOIR ON THE GREEK LEADERS AND
+THEIR CHARACTERS.--THE FIRST CONSEQUENCE OF LORD COCHRANE's NEW
+ENTERPRISE.--THE DUKE OF WELLINGTON'S INDIRECT MESSAGE TO LORD
+COCHRANE.--THE GREEK DEPUTIES' PROPOSAL TO LORD COCHRANE AND HIS
+ANSWER.--THE FINAL ARRANGEMENTS FOR HIS DEPARTURE.--THE MESSIAH OF THE
+GREEKS.
+
+[1825-1826.]
+
+
+The letter from Mavrocordatos quoted in the last chapter was only part
+of a series of negotiations that had been long pending. Lord Cochrane,
+as we have seen, had arrived at Portsmouth on the 26th of June, 1825,
+in command of a Brazilian war-ship and still holding office as First
+Admiral of the Empire of Brazil. His intention in visiting England
+had been only to effect the necessary repairs in his ship before going
+back to Rio de Janeiro. He had no sooner arrived, however, than it was
+clear to him, from the vague and insolent language of the Brazilian
+envoy in London, that it was designed by that official, if not by the
+authorities in Rio de Janeiro, to oust him from his command. During
+four months he remained in uncertainty, determined not willingly to
+retire from his Brazilian service, but gradually convinced by the
+increasing insolence of the envoy's treatment of him that it would
+be inexpedient for him hastily to return to Brazil, where, before
+his departure, he had experienced the grossest ingratitude for his
+brilliant achievements and neglect and abuse of all sorts. At length,
+in November, upon learning that his captain and crew had been formally
+instructed to "cast off all subordination" to him, he deemed that he
+had no alternative but to consider himself dismissed from Brazilian
+employment and free to enter upon a new engagement.
+
+That engagement had been urged upon him even while he was in South
+America by his friends in England, who were also devoted friends to
+the cause of Greek independence, and the proposal had been renewed
+very soon after his arrival at Portsmouth. It was so freely talked of
+among all classes of the English public and so openly discussed in the
+newspapers before the middle of August that by it Lord Cochrane's last
+relations with the Brazilian envoy were seriously complicated. "Lord
+Cochrane is looking very well, after eight years of harassing and
+ungrateful service," wrote Sir Francis Burdett on the 20th of August,
+"and, I trust, will be the liberator of Greece. What a glorious
+title!"
+
+It is needless to say that Sir Francis Burdett, always the noble
+and disinterested champion of the oppressed, and the far-seeing and
+fearless advocate of liberty both at home and abroad, was a leading
+member of the Greek Committee in London. This committee was a
+counterpart--though composed of more illustrious members than any of
+the others--of Philhellenic associations that had been organized in
+nearly every capital of Europe and in the chief towns of the United
+States. Everywhere a keen sympathy was aroused on behalf of the
+down-trodden Greeks; and the sympathy only showed itself more
+zealously when it appeared that the Greeks were still burdened with
+the moral degradation of their long centuries of slavery, and needed
+the guidance and support of men more fortunately trained than they
+had been in ways of freedom. Such a man, and foremost among such men,
+always generous, wise, and earnest, was Sir Francis Burdett, Lord
+Cochrane's oldest and best political friend, his readiest adviser
+and stoutest defender all through the weary time of his subjection to
+unmerited disgrace and heartless contumely. Another leading member
+of the Greek Committee was Mr. John Cam Hobhouse, afterwards Lord
+Broughton, Lord Byron's friend and fellow-traveller, now Sir Francis
+Burdett's colleague in the representation of Westminster as successor
+to Lord Cochrane. Another of high note was Mr. Edward Ellice, eminent
+alike as a merchant and as a statesman. Another, no less eminent, was
+Joseph Hume. Another was Mr. (afterwards Sir) John Bowring, secretary
+to the Greek Committee. By them and many others the progress of the
+Greek Revolution was carefully watched and its best interests were
+strenuously advocated, and by all the return of Lord Cochrane to
+England and the prospect of his enlistment in the Philhellenic
+enterprise afforded hearty satisfaction. To them the real liberty of
+Greece was a cherished object; and one and all united in welcoming the
+great promoter of Chilian and Brazilian independence as the liberator
+of Greece.
+
+Other honest friends of Greece were less sanguine, and more disposed
+to urge caution upon Lord Cochrane. "My very dear friend," wrote one
+of them, Dr. William Porter, from Bristol on the 25th of August, "I
+will not suffer you to be longer in England without welcoming you; for
+your health, happiness, and fame are all dear to me. I have followed
+you in your Transatlantic career with deep feelings of anxiety for
+your life, but none for your glory: I know you too well to entertain
+a fear for that. I had hoped that you would repose on your laurels and
+enjoy the evening of life in peace, but am told that you are about to
+launch a thunderbolt against the Grand Seignior on behalf of Greece.
+I wish to see Greece free; but could also wish you to rest from your
+labours. For a sexagenarian to command a fleet in ordinary war is an
+easy task, and even threescore and ten might do it; but fifty years
+are too many to conduct a naval war for a people whose pretensions to
+nautical skill you will find on a thousand occasions to give rise to
+jealousies against you. You will also find that on some important day
+they will withhold their co-operation, in order to rob you of your
+glory. The cause of Greece is, nevertheless, a glorious cause. Our
+remembrance of what their ancestors did at Salamis, at Marathon, at
+Thermopylae, gives an additional interest to all that concerns them.
+But, to say the truth of them, they are a race of tigers, and their
+ancestors were the same. I shall be glad to see them fall upon their
+aigretted keeper and his pashas; but, confound them! I would not
+answer for their destroying the man that would break their fetters and
+set them loose in all the power of recognised freedom."
+
+There was much truth in those opinions, and Lord Cochrane was not
+blind to it. That he, though now in his fiftieth year, was too old
+for any difficult seamanship or daring warfare that came in his way
+he certainly was not inclined to admit; but he was not quite as
+enthusiastic as Sir Francis Burdett and many of his other friends
+regarding the immediate purposes and the ultimate issue of the Greek
+Revolution. He was now as hearty a lover of liberty, and as willing
+to employ all his great experience and his excellent ability in its
+service, as he had been eight years before when he went to aid the
+cause of South American independence. But both in Chili and in Brazil
+he had suffered much himself, and, what was yet more galling to one
+of his generous disposition, had seen how grievously his disinterested
+efforts for the benefit of others had been stultified, by the
+selfishness and imprudence, the meanness and treachery of those whom
+he had done his utmost to direct in a sure and rapid way of freedom.
+He feared, and had good reason for fearing, like disappointments in
+any relations into which he might enter with Greece. Therefore, though
+he readily consented to work for the Hellenic revolutionists, as he
+had worked for the Chilians and Brazilians, he did so with
+something of a forlorn hope, with a fear--which in the end was fully
+justified--that thereby his own troubles might only be augmented, and
+that his philanthropic plans might in great measure be frustrated.
+Coming newly to England, where the real state of affairs in Greece,
+the selfishness of the leaders, the want of discipline among
+the masses, and the consequent weakness and embarrassment to the
+revolutionary cause, were not thoroughly understood, and where this
+understanding was especially difficult for him without previous
+acquaintance even with all the details that were known and apprehended
+by his friends, he yet saw enough to lead him to the belief that
+the work they wished him to do in Greece would be harder and more
+thankless than they supposed.
+
+This must be remembered as an answer to the first of the
+misstatements--misstatements that will have to be controverted
+at every stage of the ensuing narrative--which were carefully
+disseminated, and have been persistently recorded by political
+opponents and jealous rivals of Lord Cochrane. It has been alleged
+that he was induced by mercenary motives, and by them alone, to enter
+the service of the Greeks. His sole inducements were a desire to do
+his best on all occasions towards the punishment of oppressors and
+the relief of the oppressed, and a desire, hardly less strong, to seek
+relief in the naval enterprise that was always very dear to him
+from the oppression under which he himself suffered so heavily.
+The ingratitude that he had lately experienced in Chili and Brazil,
+however, bringing upon him much present embarrassment in lawsuits and
+other troubles, led him to use what was only common prudence in his
+negotiations with the Greek Committee and with the Greek deputies,
+John Orlando and Andreas Luriottis, who were in London at the time,
+and on whom devolved the formal arrangements for employing him and
+providing him with suitable equipments for his work.
+
+These were done with help of a second Greek loan, contracted in London
+in 1825, for 2,000,000_l._ Out of this sum it was agreed that Lord
+Cochrane was to receive 37,000_l._ at starting, and a further sum of
+20,000_l._ on the completion of his services; and that he was to be
+provided with a suitable squadron, for which purpose 150,000_l._ were
+to be expended in the construction of six steamships in England, and a
+like sum on the building and fitting out of two sixty-gun frigates in
+the United States. With the disappointments that he had experienced
+in Chili and Brazil fresh in his mind, he refused to enter on this new
+engagement without a formidable little fleet, manned by English and
+American seamen, and under his exclusive direction; and he further
+stipulated that the entire Greek fleet should be at his sole
+command, and that he should have full power to carry out his views
+independently of the Greek Government.
+
+These arrangements were completed on the 16th of August, except that
+Lord Cochrane, not having yet been actually dismissed by the Brazilian
+envoy, refused formally to pledge himself to his new employers. In
+conjunction with Sir Francis Burdett, Mr. Hobhouse, Mr. Ellice, and
+the Ricardos, as contractors, however, he made all the preliminary
+arrangements, and before the end of August he went for a two months'
+visit to his native county and other parts of Scotland, from which he
+had been absent more than twenty years.
+
+One incident in that visit was noteworthy. On the 3rd of October, Lord
+and Lady Cochrane, being in Edinburgh, went to the theatre, where
+an eager crowd assembled to do them honour. Into the after-piece an
+allusion to South America was specially introduced. Upon that
+the whole audience rose and, turning to the seats occupied by the
+visitors, showed their admiration by plaudits so long and so vehement
+that Lady Cochrane, overpowered by her feelings, burst into tears.
+Thereupon Sir Walter Scott, who was in the theatre, wrote the
+following verses:--
+
+  "I knew thee, lady, by that glorious eye,
+  By that pure brow and those dark locks of thine,
+  I knew thee for a soldier's bride, and high
+  My full heart bounded: for the golden mine
+  Of heavenly thought kindled at sight of thee,
+  Radiant with all the stars of memory.
+
+  "I knew thee, and, albeit, myself unknown,
+  I called on Heaven to bless thee for thy love,
+  The strength, the constancy thou long hast shown,
+  Each selfish aim, each womanish fear above:
+  And, lady, Heaven is with thee; thou art blest,
+  Blest in whatever thy immortal soul loves best.
+
+  "Thy name, ask Brazil, for she knows it well;
+  It is a name a hero gave to thee;
+  In every letter lurks there not a spell,--
+  The mighty spell of immortality?
+  Ye sail together down time's glittering stream;
+  Around your heads two glittering haloes gleam.
+
+  "Even now, as through the air the plaudits rung,
+  I marked the smiles that in her features came;
+  She caught the word that fell from every tongue,
+  And her eye brightened at her Cochrane's name;
+  And brighter yet became her bright eyes' blaze;
+  It was his country, and she felt the praise,--
+
+  "Ay, even as a woman, and his bride, should feel,
+  With all the warmth of an o'erflowing soul:
+  Unshaken she had seen the ensanguined steel,
+  Unshaken she had heard war's thunders roll,
+  But now her noble heart could find relief
+  In tears alone, though not the tears of grief.
+
+  "May the gods guard thee, lady, whereso'er
+  Thou wanderest in thy love and loveliness!
+  For thee may every scene and sky be fair,
+  Each hour instinct with more than happiness!
+  May all thou valuest be good and great,
+  And be thy wishes thy own future fate!"
+
+Those aspirations were very far from realised. Even during his brief
+holiday in Scotland, Lord Cochrane was troubled by the news that Mr.
+Galloway, the engineer to whom had been entrusted the chief work in
+constructing steam-boilers for the Greek vessels, was proceeding very
+slowly with his task. "My conviction is," wrote Mr. Ellice, "that
+Galloway, in undertaking so much, has promised what he can never
+perform, and that it will be Christmas, if not later, before the
+whole work is completed. No engines are to be got either in Glasgow or
+Liverpool. You know I am not sanguine, and the sooner you are here to
+judge for yourself the better. There has been no hesitation about the
+means from the beginning, but money will not produce steam-engines and
+vessels in these times."
+
+In consequence of that letter, Lord Cochrane hurried up to London at
+once, intending personally to superintend and hasten on the work. He
+arrived on the 3rd of November; but only to find that fresh troubles
+were in store for him. He had already been exposed to vexatious
+litigation, arising out of groundless and malicious prosecutions with
+reference to his Brazilian enterprise. He was now informed that a more
+serious prosecution was being initiated. The Foreign Enlistment Act,
+passed shortly after his acceptance of service under the Chilian
+Republic, and at the special instigation of the Spanish Government,
+had made his work in South America an indictable offence; but it was
+supposed that no action would be taken against him now that he had
+returned to England. As soon as it was publicly known, however, that
+he was about to embark in a new enterprise, on behalf of Greece, steps
+were taken to restrain him by means of an indictment on the score of
+his former employment. "There is a most unchristian league against
+us," he wrote to his secretary, "and fearful odds too. To be
+prosecuted at home, and not permitted to go abroad, is the devil. How
+can I be prosecuted for fighting in Brazil for the heir-apparent
+to the throne, who, whilst his father was held in restraint by the
+rebellious Cortes, contended for the legitimate rights of the royal
+House of Braganza, then the ally of England, who had, during the
+contest, by the presence of her consuls and other official agents,
+sanctioned the acts of the Prince Regent of Brazil?"
+
+It soon became clear, however, that the Government had found some
+justification of its conduct, and that active measures were being
+adopted for Lord Cochrane's punishment. He was warned by Mr. Brougham
+that, if he stayed many days longer in England, he would be arrested
+and so prevented not only from facilitating the construction of the
+Greek vessels, but even from going to Greece at all. Therefore, at the
+earnest advice of his friends, he left London for Calais on the 9th
+of November, soon to proceed to Boulogne, where he was joined by his
+family, and where he waited for six weeks, vainly hoping that in
+his absence the contractors and their overseers would see that the
+ship-building was promptly and properly executed.
+
+While at Boulogne, foreseeing the troubles that would ensue from
+these new difficulties, he was half inclined to abandon his Greek
+engagement, and in that temper he wrote to Sir Francis Burdett for
+advice. "I have taken four-and-twenty hours," wrote his good friend
+in answer, on the 18th of November, "to consider your last letter, and
+have not one moment varied in my first opinion as to the propriety
+of your persevering in your glorious career. According to Brougham's
+opinion, you cannot be put in a worse situation,--that is, more in
+peril of Government here,--by continuing foreign service in the Greek
+cause than you already stand in by having served the Emperor of the
+Brazils. In my opinion you will be in a great deal less; for, the
+greater your renown, the less power will your enemies have, whatever
+may be their inclination, to meddle with you. Perhaps they only at
+present desist to look out for a better opportunity, 'reculer pour
+mieux sauter,' like the tiger. I don't mean to accuse them of this
+baseness; but, should it be the case, the less you do the more power
+they will have to injure you, if so inclined. Were they to prosecute
+you for having served the Brazilian Emperor, it would call forth no
+public sympathy, or but slight, in your favour. The case would be
+thought very hard, to be sure; but that would be all. Not so, should
+you triumph in the Greek cause. Transcendent glory would not only
+crown but protect you. No minister would dare to wag a finger--no, nor
+even Crown lawyer a tongue--against you; and, if they did, the feeling
+of the whole English public would surround you with an impenetrable
+shield. Fines would be paid; imprisonment protested and petitioned
+against; in short, I am convinced the nation would be in a flame, and
+you in far less danger of any attempt to your injury than at present.
+This, my dear Lord Cochrane, is my firm conviction."
+
+Encouraged by that letter and other like expressions of opinion from
+his English friends, Lord Cochrane determined to persevere in his
+Greek enterprise, and to reside at Boulogne until the fleet that was
+being prepared for him was ready for service. He had to wait, however,
+very much longer than had been anticipated, and he was unable to wait
+all the time in Boulogne. There also prosecution threatened him. About
+the middle of December he heard that proceedings were about to be
+instituted against him for his detention, while in the Pacific, of a
+French brig named _La Gazelle_, the real inducement thereto being in
+the fact, as it was reported, that the French Government had espoused
+the cause of the Pasha of Egypt, and so was averse to such a plan
+for destroying the Egyptian fleet under Ibrahim as Lord Cochrane
+was concocting. Therefore, he deemed it expedient to quit French
+territory, and accordingly he left Boulogne on the 23rd of December,
+and took up his residence at Brussels, with his family, on the 28th of
+the same month.
+
+Through four weary months and more he was waiting at Brussels,
+harassed by the prosecutions arising out of the lawsuits that have
+been already alluded to, in reference to which he said in one letter,
+"I think I must make up my mind, though it is a hard task, to quit
+England for ever;" harassed even more by the knowledge that the
+building and fitting out of the vessels for his Greek expedition were
+being delayed on frivolous pretexts and for selfish ends, which his
+presence in London, if that had been possible, might, to a great
+extent, have averted. "The welfare of Greece at this moment rests much
+on your lordship," wrote Orlando, the chief deputy in London, "and
+I dare hope that you will hasten her triumph:" yet Orlando and his
+fellows were idling in London, profiting by delays that increased
+their opportunities of peculation, and doing nothing to quicken the
+construction of the fleet. Galloway, the engineer, wrote again and
+again to promise that his work should be done in three weeks,--it was
+always "three weeks hence;" yet he was well informed that Galloway
+was wilfully negligent, though he did not know till afterwards that
+Galloway, having private connections with the Pasha of Egypt, never
+intended to do the work which he was employed to do. Lord Cochrane had
+good friends at home in Sir Francis Burdett, Mr. Hobhouse, and others;
+but they were not competent to take personal supervision of the
+details. He had an experienced deputy in Captain Abney Hastings, who
+had come from Greece some time before, and who was now to return
+as Lord Cochrane's second in command; but Captain Hastings,
+single-handed, could not exert much influence upon the rogues with
+whom he had to deal. "The _Perseverance_," he wrote of the largest of
+the ships, which was to be ready first, on the 10th of December, "may
+perhaps be ready to sail in six weeks--Mr. Galloway has said three
+weeks for the last month; but to his professions I do not, and have
+not for a length of time, paid the slightest attention. I believe he
+does all he can do; all I object against him is that he promises
+more than he can perform, and promises with the determination of not
+performing it. The _Perseverance_ is a fine vessel. Her power of two
+forty-horses will, however, be feeble. I suspect you are not quite
+aware of the delay which will take place." Lord Cochrane soon became
+quite aware of the delay, but was unable to prevent it, and the
+next few months were passed by him in tedious anxiety and ceaseless
+chagrin.
+
+There was one desperate mode of lessening the delay--for Lord Cochrane
+to go out in the _Perseverance_ as soon as it was ready to start,
+leaving the other vessels to follow as soon as they were ready.
+Captain Abney Hastings went to Brussels on purpose to urge him to that
+course, and Mr. Hobhouse also recommended it. "There are two points,"
+he wrote on the 23rd of December, "to which your attention will
+probably be chiefly directed by Captain Hastings. These are, the
+expediency of your going with the _Perseverance_, instead of waiting
+for the other boats, and the propriety of immediately disposing of the
+two frigates in America"--about which frequent reports had arrived,
+showing that their preparation was in even worse hands than was that
+of the London vessels--"to the highest bidder. As to the first, I
+am confident that, although it would have been desirable to have got
+together the whole force in the first instance, yet, as the salvation
+of Greece is a question of time only, and as it will be probably so
+late either as May or June next before the two larger boats can leave
+the river, it would be in every way inexpedient for you to wait until
+you could have the whole armament under your orders. Be assured, your
+presence in Greece would do more than the activity of any man living,
+and, as far as anything can be done in pushing forward the business at
+home, neither time nor pains shall be spared. I wish indeed you could
+have the whole of the boats at once; but Galloway has determined
+otherwise, and we must do the next best thing. Captain Hastings will
+tell you how much may be done even by one steam-vessel, commanded by
+you, and directing the operations of the fire-vessels. On such a
+topic I should not have the presumption to enlarge to you. As to the
+American frigates, it is Mr. Ellice's decided opinion, as well as my
+own, that you should have the money instead of the frigates. First and
+last, the frigates _never will be finished_. The rogues at New York
+demand 60,000_l._ above the 157,000_l._ which they have already received,
+and protest they will not complete their work without the additional
+sum. Now 70,000_l._ in your hands will be better than the _hopes_--and
+they will be nothing but _hopes_--of having the frigates. If you agree
+in this view, perhaps you will be so good as to state it in writing,
+which may remove Mr. Ricardo's objections."
+
+Lord Cochrane was tempted to follow Captain Hastings's and Mr.
+Hobhouse's advice; but he first, as was his wont, sought Sir Francis
+Burdett's opinion; and Sir Francis dissuaded him, for the time, at any
+rate. "I would by no means have you proceed with the first vessel, nor
+at all without adequate means," he wrote on the 15th of January, 1826;
+"for besides thinking of the Greeks, for whom I am, I own, greatly
+interested, I must think, and certainly not with less interest, of
+you, and, I may add, in some degree of myself too; for I am placed
+under much responsibility, and I don't mean to be a party to making
+shipwreck of you and your great naval reputation; nor will I ever
+consent to your going upon a forlorn and desperate attempt--that is,
+without the means necessary for the fair chance of success--in other
+words, adequate means. Although you have worked miracles, we can never
+be justified in expecting them, and still less in requiring them."
+
+Following that sound advice, Lord Cochrane resolved to wait until, at
+any rate, a good part of his fleet was ready. He wrote to that effect,
+and in as good spirits as he could muster, to Mr. Hobhouse, who in
+the answer which he despatched on the 5th of February acknowledged the
+wisdom of the decision. "I am very glad to perceive," he said in that
+answer, "that you have good heart and hope for the great cause.
+I assure you we have been doing all we can to induce the parties
+concerned to second your wishes in every respect; and I now learn from
+Mr. Hastings, who is our sheet anchor, that matters go on pretty well.
+I hope you write every now and then to Galloway, in whose hands is the
+fate of Greece--the worse our luck, for he is the great cause of our
+sad delay."
+
+"You see our House is opened," said Mr. Hobhouse in the same letter.
+"Not a word of Greece in the Speech, and I spoke to Hume and Wilson,
+and begged them not to touch upon the subject. It is much better to
+keep all quiet, in order to prevent angry words from the ministers,
+who, if nothing is said, will, I think, shut their eyes at what we are
+doing. There is a very prevalent notion here that the (Holy) Alliance
+have resolved to recommend something to Turkey in favour of the
+Greeks. Whether this is true or not signifies nothing. The Turks will
+promise anything, and do just what suits them. They have always lost
+in war, for more than a hundred years, and have uniformly gained by
+diplomacy. They will never abandon the hope of reconquering Greece
+until driven out of Europe themselves, which they ought to be. By
+the way, the Greeks really appear to have been doing a little better
+lately; but I still fear these disciplined Arabians. I have written
+a very strong letter to Prince Mavrocordatos, telling them to hold
+out:--no surrender on any terms. I have not mentioned your name; but I
+have stated vaguely that they may expect the promised assistance early
+in the spring. It would indeed be a fine thing if you could commence
+operations during the Rhamadan; but I fear that is impossible. Any
+time, however, will do against the stupid, besotted Turks. Were they
+not led by Frenchmen, even the Greeks would beat them."
+
+Of the leisure forced upon him, Lord Cochrane made good use in
+studying for himself the character of "the stupid, besotted Turks,"
+and the nature of the war that was being waged against them by the
+Greeks; and he asked Mr. Hobhouse to procure for him all the books
+published on the subject or in any way related to it, of which he was
+not already master. "With respect to books," wrote Mr. Hobhouse, in
+reply to this request, "there are very few that are not what you have
+found those you have read to be, namely, romances; but I will take
+care to send out with you such as are the best, together with the
+most useful map that can be got." More than fifty volumes were thus
+collected for Lord Cochrane's use.
+
+From Captain Abney Hastings, moreover, he obtained precise information
+about Greek waters, forts, and armaments, as well as "a list of the
+names of the principal persons in Greece, with their characters." This
+list, as showing the opinions of an intelligent Englishman, based
+on personal knowledge, as to the parties and persons with whom Lord
+Cochrane was soon to deal, is worth quoting entire, especially as it
+was the chief basis of Lord Cochrane's own judgment during this time
+of study and preparation.
+
+
+I. Archontes, or men influential by their riches.
+
+Lazaros Konduriottes.--A Hydriot merchant, the elder of the two
+brothers, who are the most wealthy men in that island, and even in all
+Greece. This one, by intrigue, by distributing his money adroitly
+in Hydra, and keeping in pay the most dissolute and unruly of the
+sailors, and protecting them in the commission of their crimes,
+has acquired almost unlimited power at Hydra. He asserts democracy,
+appealing on all occasions to the people, who are his creatures. The
+other primates hate him, of course. Lazaros has the reputation of
+being clever. He never quits Hydra for an instant, for fear of finding
+himself supplanted on his return.
+
+George Konduriottes.--Brother of the former, and, like him a Hydriot
+merchant; an ignorant weak man; said to be vindictive; espouses the
+party of his brother at Hydra, by which means he has obtained the
+Presidency [of Greece]. He made the land captains his enemies, and had
+not good men enough to form an army of his own, viz., regular troops.
+His penetration went no further than bribing one captain to destroy
+another; which had for effect merely the changing the names of
+chieftains without diminishing the power. I understand he has lately
+retired to Hydra, and takes no active part in affairs.
+
+EMANUEL TOMBAZES.--A Hydriot merchant and captain. There are two
+brothers, at the head of the party opposed to Konduriottes. This
+man was the first who ventured on the voyage from the Black Sea to
+Marseilles in a latteen-rigged vessel. This traffic afterwards gave
+birth to the colossal fortunes in Hydra. These men are the most
+enlightened in Hydra. This one is dignified, energetic, and a good
+sailor. However, he lost in Candia much of the reputation he had
+previously acquired; but with all the errors he committed there, the
+loss of that island is not attributable to him. 'Twould have been
+lost, under similar circumstances, had C�sar commanded there.
+Konduriottes and his adherents hate him, of course, and did all they
+could to paralyze his operations in Crete. All considered, this man is
+more capable of introducing order and regularity into the ships than
+any other Greek.
+
+JAKOMAKI TOMBAZES.--A Hydriot merchant and captain, brother of the
+former. He commanded the fleet the first year of the Revolution, and
+to him is due the introduction of fire-vessels, by which he destroyed
+the first Turkish line-of-battle ship at Mytelene. He is perhaps the
+best-informed Hydriot; but he wants decision, and demands the advice
+of everybody at the moment he should be acting. This man takes little
+part in politics and follows his mercantile pursuits. His hobby-horse
+is ship-building, in which art he is such a proficient as to be
+quite the Seppings of Hydra. As to the rest, he is a very worthy,
+warm-hearted man, but excessively phlegmatic.
+
+MIAOULIS.--A Hydriot merchant and captain, who obtained command of the
+Hydriot fleet after Jakomaki resigned. He is a very dignified,
+worthy old man, possesses personal courage and decision, and is less
+intriguing than any Greek that I know.
+
+SAKTOURES.--A Hydriot captain. He has risen from a sailor, and is
+considered by the Archontes rather in the light of a _parvenu_. He is
+courageous and enterprising, but a bit of a pirate.
+
+BONDOMES, SAMADHOFF, GHIKA, ORLANDO.--Hydriot merchants without
+anything but their money to recommend them.
+
+PEPINOS.--A Hydriot sailor of the clan of Tombazes, who has
+distinguished himself frequently in fireships.
+
+KANARIS.--A Psarian sailor; the most distinguished of the commanders
+of fire-vessels.
+
+BOTAZES.--A Spetziot merchant; the most influential person in his
+island. But the Hydriot merchants possess so much property in Spetziot
+vessels that, in some measure, they rule that island.
+
+PETRO-BEY [or PETROS MAVROMICHALES].--The principal Archonte of Maina;
+was governor of that province under the Turks. A fat, stupid, worthy
+man; is sincere in the cause, in which he has lost two if not three
+sons.
+
+DELIYANNES.--A Moreot Archonte, and one of the most intriguing and
+ambitious; was formerly sworn enemy to Kolokotrones and the captains,
+but, having betrothed his daughter to Kolokotrones's son, they have
+become allies. This man, if not the richest Archonte in the Morea, is
+the one who affected the most pomp in the time of the Turks, and
+he cannot now easily brook his diminished influence. He is reported
+clever and unprincipled.
+
+NOTABAS.--A Moreot Archonte, considered the most ancient of the noble
+families in the Morea; is a well-meaning old blockhead; has a son, a
+good-looking youth, who commanded the Government forces against the
+captains in 1824; is said to be an egregious coward.
+
+LONDOS.--A Moreot Archonte; was much flattered by the Government, but
+afterwards leagued against them. He is a drunkard, and a man of no
+consideration but for his wealth.[A]
+
+[Footnote A: Lord Byron used to describe an evening passed in the
+company of Londos at Vostitza, when both were young men. After supper
+Londos, who had the face and figure of a chimpanzee, sprang upon
+a table, and commenced singing through his nose Rhiga's "Hymn to
+Liberty." A new cadi, passing near the house, inquired the cause of
+the discordant hubbub. A native Mussulman replied, "It is only the
+young primate Londos, who is drunk, and is singing hymns to the new
+franaghia of the Greeks, whom they call 'Eleftheria.'"--Finlay, vol.
+ii., p. 35.]
+
+ZAIMES.--A Moreot Archonte; said to possess considerable talent, and
+he exercises a very considerable influence. His brother was formerly a
+deputy in England.
+
+SISSINES.--A Moreot Archonte; was formerly a doctor at Patras; has
+risen into wealth and consequence since the Revolution; has great
+talent, and is a great rogue.
+
+SOTIRES XARALAMBI.--A Moreot Archonte of influence. I do not know his
+character.
+
+SPELIOTOPOLOS.--A Moreot Archonte, whose name would never have
+been heard by a foreigner, if he had not been made a member of the
+executive body; a stupid old man, possessing little influence of any
+kind.
+
+KOLETTES.--A Romeliot; was formerly doctor to Ali Pasha; possesses
+some talent; has held various situations in the ministry; is detested,
+yet I know not why. I never could ascertain any act of his that
+merited the dislike he has inspired a large party with. I fancy 'tis
+alone attributable to jealousy--the peculiar feature of the Greek
+character. It must nevertheless be acknowledged that he has sometimes
+made himself ridiculous by assuming the sword, for which profession
+he is totally incapacitated by want of courage. He is, however, poor,
+although in employment since the commencement of the Revolution.
+
+THIKOUPES.--An Archonte of Missolonghi; of some importance from the
+English education he has received from Lord Guildford; a worthy man,
+possessed of instruction, but, I think, not genius. He has married
+Mavrocordatos's sister.
+
+
+II. Phanaeiots.
+
+[DEMETRIUS] HYPSILANTES.--Is of a Phanariot family; was a Russian
+officer; although young, is bald and feeble. His appearance and voice
+are much against him. He does not so much want talent as ferocity. He
+possesses personal courage and probity, and may be said to be the only
+honest man that has figured upon the stage of the Revolution. He does
+not favour, but has never openly opposed, the party of the captains.
+He felt he had not the power to do it with success, and therefore
+showed his good sense in refraining. The Archontes, fearing the
+influence he might acquire would destroy theirs, have uniformly
+opposed him, secretly and openly; and they hate one another so
+cordially now that it is impossible they should ever unite.
+
+MAVROCORDATOS.--Of a Phanariot family; came forward under the auspices
+of Hypsilantes, and then tried to supplant him; and to do this he made
+himself the tool of the Hydriots, who, as soon as they had obtained
+all power in their hands, endeavoured to kick down the stepping-stool
+by which they had mounted. Perceiving this, he entered into
+negotiations with the captains, and frightened the Hydriots into an
+acknowledgment of some power for himself. He possesses quickness and
+intrigue; but I doubt if he has solid talent, and it is reported that
+he is particularly careful not to court danger.
+
+
+III. Captains or Land-Chieftains.
+
+KOLOKOTRONES.--A captain of the Morea, and the most powerful one in
+all Greece. He owes this partly to the numerous ramifications of his
+family, partly to his reputation as a hereditary robber, and also
+to the wealth he has amassed in his vocation. He is a fine,
+decided-looking man, and knows perfectly all the localities of the
+country for carrying on mountain warfare, and he knows also, better
+than any other, how to manage the Greek mountaineers. He is, however,
+entirely ignorant of any other species of warfare, and is not
+sufficiently civilized to look forward for any other advantage to
+himself or his country than that of possessing the mountains and
+keeping the Turks at bay. He proposed destroying all the fortresses
+except Nauplia. 'Twas an error of Mavrocordatos to have made this man
+an open enemy to himself and to organization. Had he been allowed to
+have profited by order, he would have espoused it. At present he may
+be considered irreconcilably opposed to order and the Hydriot party.
+
+NIKETAS.--There are two of this name; but the only one that merits
+notice is the Moreot captain, a relation of Kolokrotones. He is
+as ignorant and dirty as the rest of his brethren, but bears the
+reputation of being disinterested and courageous. He is always poor.
+All the chieftains are good bottle-men; but this one excels them so
+much that 'tis confidently asserted he drinks three bottles of rum per
+day.
+
+STAIKOS.--A Moreot captain who took part early with the Hydriot party
+from jealousy of Kolokotrones. When that party gained the ascendency,
+not finding himself sufficiently rewarded, he joined the captains.
+
+MOMGINOS.--A Mainot chieftain, a rival of Petro-Bey; is
+undistinguished, except by his colossal stature and ferocious
+countenance.
+
+GOURA.--A Romeliot captain; was a soldier of Odysseus, and employed
+by him in various assassinations, and thus he rose to preferment and
+supplanted his protector, and at length assassinated him. This man
+possesses courage and extreme ferocity, but is remarkably ignorant.
+In the hands of a similar master, he would have been a perfect Tristan
+l'Hermite. To supplant Odysseus, he was obliged to range himself with
+the Hydriot party.
+
+CONSTANTINE BOTZARES.--A Suliot captain; nephew to the celebrated
+Makrys, who, from all accounts, was a phenomenon among the captains.
+This man bears a good character.
+
+KARA�SKAKES, RANGO, KALTZAS, ZAVELLA, &c. &c.--Romeliot captains; all
+more or less opposed to order, according as they see it suits their
+immediate interest.
+
+That estimate of the Greek heroes--in the main wonderfully
+accurate--was certainly not encouraging to Lord Cochrane. He
+determined, however, to go on with the work he had entered upon, and
+in doing his duty to the Greeks, to try to bring into healthy play the
+real patriotism that was being perverted by such unworthy leaders.
+
+Great benefit was conferred upon the Greeks by his entering into their
+service from its very beginning, in spite of the obstacles which were
+thrown in his way at starting, and which materially damaged all his
+subsequent work on their behalf. No sooner was it known that he was
+coming to aid them with his unsurpassed bravery and his unrivalled
+genius than they took heart and held out against the Turkish and
+Egyptian foes to whom they had just before been inclined to yield.
+And his enlistment in their cause had another effect, of which they
+themselves were ignorant. The mere announcement that he intended to
+fight and win for them, as he had fought and won for Chili, for Peru,
+and for Brazil, while it caused both England and France to do their
+utmost in hindering him from achieving an end which was more thorough
+than they desired, forced both England and France to shake off the
+listlessness with which they had regarded the contest during nearly
+five years, and initiate the temporizing action by which Greece was
+prevented from becoming as great and independent a state as it might
+have been, yet by which a smaller independence was secured for it.
+Hardly had Lord Cochrane consented to serve as admiral of the Greeks
+than the Duke of Wellington was despatched, in the beginning of 1826,
+on a mission to Russia, which issued in the protocol of April, 1826,
+and the treaty of July, 1827--both having for their avowed object the
+pacification of Greece--and in the battle of Navarino, by which that
+pacification was secured.
+
+The Duke of Wellington passed through Brussels, on his way to
+St. Petersburg, in March, 1826. Halting there, he informed the
+hotel-keeper that he could see no one _except Lord Cochrane_, which
+was as distinct an intimation that he desired an interview as,
+in accordance with the rules of etiquette, he could make. The
+hotel-keeper, however, was too dull to take the hint. He did not
+acquaint Lord Cochrane of the indirect message intended for him
+until the Duke of Wellington had proceeded on his journey. Thus was
+prevented a meeting between one of England's greatest soldiers and one
+of her greatest sailors, which could not but have been very memorable
+in itself, and which might have been far more memorable in its
+political consequences.
+
+The meeting was hindered, and, without listening either to the
+personal courtesies or to the diplomatic arguments of the Duke of
+Wellington, Lord Cochrane continued his preparations for active
+service in Greek waters. The details of these preparations and their
+practical execution, as has been shown, he was forced to leave in
+other and less competent hands, and their actual supervision was still
+impossible to him. Gradually the irritating and wasteful obstacles for
+which Mr. Galloway was chiefly responsible induced him to resolve upon
+following the advice tendered in December by Mr. Hobhouse and Captain
+Hastings--that is, to go to Greece with a small portion only of
+the naval armament for which he had stipulated, and which his most
+cautious friends deemed necessary to his enterprise. To this he was
+driven, not only by a desire to do something worthy of his great name,
+and something really helpful to the cause which he had espoused,
+but also by the knowledge that the tedious delays that arose were
+squandering all the money with which he had counted upon rendering his
+work efficient when he could get to Greece.
+
+Of this he received frequent and clear intimation from all his
+friends in London, though from none so emphatically as from the Greek
+deputies, Orlando and Luriottis, who, being themselves grievously to
+blame for their peculations and their bad management, threw all the
+blame upon Mr. Galloway and the other defaulters. Finding that the
+proceeds of the second Greek loan were being rapidly exhausted by
+their own and others' wrong-doing, they were even audacious enough to
+propose to Lord Cochrane that, not abandoning his Greek engagement,
+but rather continuing it under conditions involving much greater risk
+and anxiety than had been anticipated, he should return the 37,000_l._
+which had been handed over to Sir Francis Burdett on his account, and
+take as sole security for his ultimate recompense the two frigates
+half built in America, acknowledged to be of so little value that no
+purchaser could be found for them. "Our only desire." they said,
+"is to rescue the millions of souls that are praying with a thousand
+supplications that they may not fall victims to the despair which is
+only averted by the hope of your lordship's arrival."
+
+To that preposterous request Lord Cochrane made a very temperate
+answer. "I have perused your letter of the 18th," he wrote on the 28th
+of February, "with the utmost attention, and have since considered its
+contents with the most anxious desire to promote the objects you have
+in view in all ways in my power. But I have not been able to convince
+myself that, under existing circumstances, there is any means by which
+Greece can be so readily saved as by steady perseverance in equipping
+the steam-vessels, which are so admirably calculated to cut off the
+enemies' communication with Alexandria and Constantinople, and for
+towing fire-vessels and explosion-vessels by night into ports and
+places where the hostile squadrons anchor on the shores of Greece.
+With steam-vessels constructed for such purposes, and a few gunboats
+carrying heavy cannon, I have no doubt but that the Morea might in a
+few weeks be cleared of the enemy's naval force. I wish I could give
+you, without writing a volume, a clear view of the numerous reasons,
+derived from thirty-five years' experience, which induce me to prefer
+a force that can move in all directions in the obscurity of night
+through narrow channels, in shoal water, and with silence and
+celerity, over a naval armament of the usual kind, though of far
+superior force. You would then perceive with what efficacy the counsel
+of Demosthenes to your countrymen might be carried into effect by
+desultory attacks on the enemy; and, in fact, you would perceive that
+steam-vessels, whenever they shall be brought into war for hostile
+purposes, will prove the most formidable means that ever has been
+employed in naval warfare. Indeed, it is my opinion that twenty-four
+vessels moved by steam (such as the largest constructed for
+your service) could commence at St. Petersburg, and finish at
+Constantinople, the destruction of every ship of war in the European
+ports. I therefore hold that you ought to strain every nerve to get
+the steam-vessels equipped. For on these, next to the valour of
+the Greeks themselves, depends the fate of Greece, and not on large
+unwieldy ships, immovable in calms, and ill-calculated for nocturnal
+operations on the shores of the Morea and adjacent islands. Having
+thus repeated to you my opinions, I have only to add that, if
+you judge you can follow a better course, I release you from the
+engagement you entered into with me, and I am ready to return you the
+37,000_l._ on your receiving as part thereof 72,500 Greek scrip, at
+the price I gave for it on the day following my engagement (under the
+faith of the stipulations then entered into), as a further stimulus
+to my exertion, by casting my property, as well as my life, into the
+scale with Greece. This release I am ready to make at once; but I
+cannot consent to accept as security, for the fruits of seven years'
+toil, vessels manned by Americans, whose pay and provisions I see no
+adequate or regular means of providing. But should the 150,000_l._
+placed at the disposal of the Committee not prove sufficient for the
+objects _I have required_, I will advance the 37,000_l._ for the pay
+and provisions necessary for the steamboats on the security of the
+boats themselves. Thus you have the option of releasing me from
+the service, or of continuing my engagement, although I shall lose
+severely by my temporary acceptance of your offer."
+
+In that letter Lord Cochrane conceded more than ought to have been
+expected of him. In a supplementary letter written on the same day
+he added: "I again assure you that I am ready to do whatever is
+reasonable for the interest of Greece; but it cannot be expected that
+for such interest I ought to sacrifice totally those of my family
+and myself, as would be the case were I to give up both the means I
+possess to obtain justice in South America and my indemnification, on
+so slender a security as that offered to me. Believe me, I should have
+tendered the 37,000_l._, without reference to the Greek scrip I
+had purchased, had it not been evident to me that, under such
+circumstances, the security of your public funds would be dependent
+on chances which I cannot foresee, and over which I should have no
+control."
+
+Thus temperately rebuked, the Greek deputies did not urge their
+proposal any further. They only wrote to promise all possible
+expedition in completing the steam-vessels. Lord Cochrane, however,
+voluntarily acceded to one of their wishes. Hearing that the largest
+of the steamers, the _Perseverance_, was nearly ready for sea, and
+that Mr. Galloway had again solemnly pledged himself to complete the
+others in a short time, he determined not to wait for the whole force,
+but to start at once for the Mediterranean. It had been all along
+decided that the _Perseverance_ should be placed under Captain
+Hastings's command; and it was now arranged that he should take her to
+Greece as soon as she was ready, and that Lord Cochrane should follow
+in a schooner, the _Unicorn_, of 158 tons. It was not intended, of
+course, that with that boat alone he should go all the way to Greece;
+but it was considered--perhaps not very wisely--that if he were
+actually on his way to Greece, the completion of the other five
+steamships would be proceeded with more rapidly; and he agreed that,
+as soon as he was joined in the Mediterranean by the first two of
+these, the _Enterprise_ and the _Irresistible_, he would hasten on
+to the Archipelago, and there make the best of the small force at his
+disposal. Not only was it supposed that Mr. Galloway and the other
+agents would thus be induced to more vigorous action: it was also
+deemed that the effect of this step upon the Hellenic nation would
+be very beneficial. "As soon as the Greek Government know that your
+lordship is on your way to Greece," wrote the London deputies on the
+13th of April, "their courage will be animated, and their confidence
+renewed. We may with truth assert that your lordship is regarded by
+all classes of our countrymen as a Messiah, who is to come to their
+deliverance; and, from the enthusiasm which will prevail amongst the
+people, we may venture to predict that your lordship's valour and
+success at sea will give energy and victory to their arms on land."
+
+With the new arrangements necessitated by this change of plans the
+last two or three weeks of April and the first of May were occupied.
+Lord Cochrane put to sea on the 8th of May. "As a Greek citizen," one
+of the deputies in London, Andreas Luriottis, had written on the
+17th of April, "I cannot refrain from expressing my sincere gratitude
+towards your lordship for the resolution which you have taken to
+depart almost immediately for Greece. This generous determination, at
+a moment when my country is really in want of every assistance, cannot
+be regarded with indifference by my countrymen, who already look upon
+your lordship as a Messiah. Your talents and intrepidity cannot allow
+us for a moment to doubt of success. My countrymen will afford you
+every assistance, and confer on you all the powers necessary for your
+undertaking; although your lordship must be aware that Greece, after
+five years' struggle, cannot be expected to present a very favourable
+aspect to a stranger. Your lordship will, however, find men full of
+devotion and courage--men who have founded, their best hopes on you,
+and from whom, under such a leader, everything may be expected. Your
+lordship's previous exploits encourage me to hope that Greece will not
+be less successful than the Brazils, since the materials she offers
+for cultivation are superior. With patience and perseverance in the
+outset, all difficulties will soon vanish, and the course will be
+direct and unimpeded. The resources of Greece are not to be despised,
+and, if successful, she will find ample means to reward those who will
+have devoted themselves to her service and to the cause of liberty."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV.
+
+LORD COCHRANE'S DEPARTURE FOR GREECE.--HIS VISIT TO LONDON AND
+VOYAGE TO THE MEDITERRANEAN.--HIS STAY AT MESSINA, AND AFTERWARDS
+AT MARSEILLES.--THE DELAYS IN COMPLETING THE STEAMSHIPS, AND THE
+CONSEQUENT INJURY TO THE GREEK CAUSE, AND SERIOUS EMBARRASSMENT
+TO LORD COCHRANE.--HIS CORRESPONDENCE WITH MESSRS. J. AND S.
+RICARDO.--HIS LETTER TO THE GREEK GOVERNMENT.--CHEVALIER EYNARD, AND
+THE CONTINENTAL PHILHELLENES.--LORD COCHRANE'S FINAL DEPARTURE, AND
+ARRIVAL IN GREECE.
+
+[1826-1827.]
+
+
+Lord Cochrane, having passed from Brussels to Flushing, sailed thence
+in the _Unicorn_ on the 8th of May, 1826. Before proceeding to the
+Mediterranean, he determined, in spite of the personal risk he would
+thus be subjected to through the Foreign Enlistment Act, to see for
+himself in what state were the preparations for his enterprise in
+Greece. He accordingly landed at Weymouth, and hurrying up to London,
+spent the greater part of Sunday, the 16th of May, in Mr. Galloway's
+building yard at Greenwich.
+
+He found that the _Perseverance_ was apparently completed, though
+waiting for some finishing touches to be put to her boilers. "The two
+other vessels," he said, "were filled with pieces of the high-pressure
+engines, all unfixed, and scattered about in the engine-room and on
+deck. The boilers were in the small boats, and occupied nearly one
+half of their length, Mr. Galloway having, through inattention or
+otherwise, caused them to be made of the same dimensions as the
+boilers for the great vessels, which, by the by, had been improperly
+increased from sixteen feet, the length determined on, to twenty-three
+feet." The inspection was unsatisfactory; but Mr. Galloway pledged
+himself on his honour that the _Perseverance_ should start in a day or
+two, that the _Enterprise_ and the _Irresistible_ should be completed
+and sent to sea within a fortnight, and that the other three vessels
+should be out of hand in less than a month.
+
+Trusting to that promise, or at any rate hoping that it might be
+fulfilled, and after a parting interview with Sir Francis Burdett, Mr.
+Ellice, and other friends, Lord Cochrane left London on Monday, and
+joined the _Unicorn_, at Dartford, on the 20th of May. It had
+been arranged that he should wait in British waters for the first
+instalment of his little fleet, at any rate. With that object he
+called at Falmouth, and, receiving no satisfactory information there,
+went to make a longer halt in Bantry Bay. At length, hearing that the
+_Perseverance_ had actually started, with Captain Hastings for its
+commander, and that the other two large vessels were on the point of
+leaving the Thames, he left the coast of Ireland on the 12th of June.
+
+He vainly hoped that the vessels would promptly join him in the
+Mediterranean, and that within four or five weeks' time he should
+be at work in Greek waters. The journey, however, was to last nine
+months. The mismanagement and the wilful delays of Mr. Galloway and
+the other contractors and agents continued as before. The urgent
+need of Greece was unsatisfied; the funds collected for promoting her
+deliverance were wantonly perverted; and the looked-for deliverer was
+doomed to nearly a year of further inactivity--hateful to him at all
+times, but now a special source of annoyance, as it involved not
+only idleness to himself, but also serious injury to the cause he had
+espoused.
+
+He passed Oporto on the 18th, Lisbon on the 20th, and Gibraltar on the
+26th of June. He was off Algiers on the 3rd of July, and on the 12th
+he anchored in the harbour of Messina. There, and in the adjoining
+waters, he waited nearly three months, in daily expectation of
+the arrival of his vessels, Messina having been the appointed
+meeting-place. No vessels came, but instead only dismal and
+procrastinating letters. "We deeply lament," wrote Messrs. J. and S.
+Ricardo, the contractors for the Greek loan, in one of them, dated the
+9th of September, "that, after all the exertions which have been used,
+we have not yet been able to despatch the two large steam-vessels.
+Everything has been ready for some time; but Mr. Galloway's failure
+in the engines will now occasion a much longer detention. We leave to
+your brother, who writes by the same opportunity, to explain fully to
+your lordship how all this has arisen, and what measures it has been
+considered expedient to adopt. In the whole of this unfortunate affair
+we have endeavoured to follow your wishes; and our conduct towards Mr.
+Galloway, who has much to answer for, has been chiefly directed by
+his representations." "Galloway is the evil genius that pursues us
+everywhere," wrote the same correspondents on the 25th of September;
+"his presumption is only equalled by his incompetency. Whatever he has
+to do with is miserably deficient. We do not think his misconduct has
+been intentional; but it has proved most fatal to the interests of
+Greece, and of those engaged in her behalf. On your lordship it has
+pressed peculiarly hard; and most sincerely do we lament that an
+undertaking, which promised so fairly in the commencement should
+hitherto have proved unavailing, and that your power of assisting
+this unhappy country should have been rendered nugatory by the want of
+means to put it in effect."
+
+Those letters, and others written before and after, did not reach Lord
+Cochrane till the end of October. In the meanwhile, finding that the
+expected vessels did not arrive at Messina, and that in that place it
+was impossible even for him to receive accurate information as to the
+progress of affairs in London, he called at Malta about the middle
+of September, and thence proceeded to Marseilles, as a convenient
+halting-place, in which he had better chance of hearing how matters
+were proceeding, and from which he could easily go to meet the vessels
+when, if ever, they were ready to join him. He reached Marseilles
+on the 12th of October, and on the same day he forwarded a letter
+to Messrs. Ricardo. "I wrote to you a few days ago," he said, "from
+Malta, and, as the packet sailed with a fair wind, you will receive
+that letter very shortly. You will thereby perceive the distressing
+suspense in which I have been held, and the inconvenience to which
+I have been exposed, by remaining on board this small vessel for a
+period of five months, during all the heat of a Mediterranean summer,
+without exercise or recreation. This situation has been rendered
+the more unpleasant, as I have had no means to inform myself, except
+through the public papers, relative to the concern in which we are now
+engaged. My patience, however, is now worn out, and I have come here
+to learn whether I am to expect the steam-vessels or not,--whether
+the scandalous blunders of Mr. Galloway are to be remedied by
+those concerned, or if an ill-timed parsimony is to doom Greece to
+inevitable destruction; for such will be the consequence, if Ibrahim's
+resources are not cut up before the period at which it is usual for
+him to commence operations. You know my opinions so well, that it is
+unnecessary to repeat them to you. I shall, however, add, that
+the intelligence and plans I have obtained since my arrival in the
+Mediterranean confirm these opinions, and enable me to predict, with
+as much certainty as I ever could do on any enterprise, that if the
+vessels and the means to pay six months' expenses are forwarded, there
+shall not be a Turkish or Egyptian ship in the Archipelago at the
+termination of the winter. It may have been expected that I should
+immediately proceed to Greece in this vessel. I might have done so at
+an earlier period of my life, before I had proved by experience that
+advice is thrown away upon persons in the situation and circumstances
+in which the Greek rulers and their people are unfortunately placed.
+Having made up my mind on this subject, I must entreat you to let me
+know by the earliest possible means what I am to expect in regard to
+the steamships. I see by the 'Globe' of the 2nd of last month that the
+holders of Greek stock were to have a meeting. I conclude they came
+to some resolution, and this resolution I want to know. I wish I could
+give them my eyes to see with--they would then pursue a course which
+would secure their interests. This, however, is impossible; therefore
+they must, like the Greeks, be left to follow their own notions.
+I have, however, no objections to your stating to these gentlemen,
+either publicly or privately, that I pledge my reputation to free
+Greece if they will, by the smallest additional sacrifice that may be
+required, put the stipulated force at my disposal."[A]
+
+[Footnote A: This letter, like some others of this nature, is partly
+written in cypher, the key to which is lost. Its concluding sentences,
+therefore, are not given.]
+
+At Marseilles, Lord Cochrane received information, disheartening
+enough, though more encouraging than was justified by the real state
+of affairs, with reference to his intended fleet. On the 14th of
+October he wrote to explain his position, as he himself understood it,
+to the Greek Government. "By the most fortunate accident," he said, "I
+have met Mr. Hobhouse here, who, from his correspondence with Messrs.
+Ricardo and others in London, enables me to state to you that the two
+large steamboats will be completed on the 28th day of this month, and
+that they will proceed on the following day for the _rendezvous_ which
+I had assigned to them previous to my departure. You may, therefore,
+count on their being in Greece about the 14th of next month. The
+American frigate is said to be completed and on her way, and I feel a
+confident hope that I shall be able here to add a very efficient ship
+of war to the before-mentioned vessels.[A] It is probable," he added,
+"that many idle reports will be circulated here and through the public
+prints, because, under existing circumstances, I find it necessary to
+appear now as a person travelling about for private amusement. I can
+assure you, however, that the hundred and sixty days which I have
+already spent in this small vessel, without ever having my foot on
+shore till the day before yesterday, has been a sacrifice which I
+should not have made for any other cause than that in which I
+am engaged; but I considered it essential to conceal the real
+insignificance of my situation and allow rumours to circulate of
+squadrons collecting in various parts, judging that the effect would
+be to embarrass the operations of the enemy."
+
+[Footnote A: It should here be explained that the building and fitting
+out of the two frigates contracted for in New York, at a cost of
+150,000_l._, having been assigned to persons whose mismanagement was
+as scandalous as that which perplexed the Greek cause in London, one
+of them had been sold, and with the proceeds and some other funds the
+other had been completed and fitted out, more than 200,000_l._ having
+been spent upon her. She reached Greece at the end of 1826, there to
+be known as the _Hellas_.]
+
+That concealment had to be maintained, and the wearisome delays
+continued, for three months more. All the promises of Mr. Galloway and
+all the efforts, real or pretended, of the Greek deputies in London,
+were vain. The completion of the steam-vessels was retarded on all
+sorts of pretexts, and when each little portion of the work was said
+to be done, it was found to be so badly executed that it had to be
+cancelled and the whole thing done afresh. In this way all the residue
+of the loan of 1825 was exhausted, and all for worse than nothing.
+
+Lord Cochrane would never have been able to proceed to Greece at all,
+had the Greek deputies, Orlando and Luriottis, who had contracted for
+his employment, been his only supporters. Fortunately, however, he had
+other and worthier coadjutors. The Greek Committee in Paris did
+much on his behalf, and yet more was done by the Philhellenes of
+Switzerland, with Chevalier Eynard at their head, of whom one zealous
+member, Dr. L.A. Gosse, of Geneva, "well-informed, very zealous, full
+of genuine enthusiasm for the cause of humanity, and an excellent
+physician," as M. Eynard described him, was about to go in person
+to Greece, as administrator of the funds collected by the Swiss
+Committee. Lord Cochrane's disconsolate arrival at Marseilles, and the
+miserable failure of the plans for his enterprise, had not been known
+to M. Eynard and his friends a week, before they set themselves to
+remedy the mischief as far as lay in their power. As a first and
+chief movement they proposed to buy a French corvette, then lying
+in Marseilles Harbour, and fit her out as a stout auxiliary to Lord
+Cochrane's little force expected from London and New York. Lord
+Cochrane, being consulted on the scheme, eagerly acceded to it in a
+letter written on the 25th of October. "As I have yet no certainty,"
+he said, "that the person employed to fit the machinery of the
+steam-vessels will now perform his task better than he has heretofore
+done, I recommend purchasing the corvette, provided that she can be
+purchased for the sum of 200,000 francs, and, if funds are wanting, I
+personally am willing to advance enough to provision the corvette,
+and am ready to proceed in that or any fit vessel. But I am quite
+resolved, without a moral certainty of something following me, not
+to ruin and disgrace the cause by presenting myself in Greece in a
+schooner of two carronades of the smallest calibre."
+
+The corvette was bought and equipped; but in this several weeks
+were employed. In the interval, for a week or two after the 8th of
+December, Lord Cochrane went to Geneva, there to be the guest of
+Chevalier Eynard, to be introduced to Dr. Gosse, and to become
+personally acquainted with many other Philhellenes.
+
+Neither Lord Cochrane nor his friends could quite abandon hope of the
+ultimate completion of the London steam-vessels. They felt, too,
+that with nothing but the new vessel, the American frigate, and the
+_Perseverance_, Lord Cochrane would have very poor provision for his
+undertaking. "I have this moment received a letter from his lordship,"
+wrote M. Eynard to Mr. Hobhouse on the 12th of January, 1827, "wherein
+he appears rather disappointed with respect to the scantiness of the
+forces and the means placed at his disposal. He informs me that he has
+no officers, few sailors; and that, in case the steamers should
+not arrive, he will not feel qualified to encounter the Turkish and
+Egyptian naval forces, as well as the Algerines, who of all are the
+best manned. 'I therefore shall not be able to undertake anything
+of moment,' continues his lordship. 'Thus to stake my character and
+existence would be a mere Quixotic act. I will put to sea, however,
+but still with a heavy heart; yet not until I have with me all
+requisites, and my stores and ammunition be embarked likewise.'
+Discouragement appears throughout his lordship's letter."
+
+The discouragement is not to be wondered at. It is hardly necessary,
+however, to give further illustration of it, or of the troubles
+incident to this long waiting-time. Enough has been said to show Lord
+Cochrane's position in relation to this deplorable state of affairs,
+and to exonerate him from all blame in the matter. That he should have
+been blamed at all is only part of the wanton injustice that attended
+him nearly all through his life. He had consented, in the autumn
+of 1825, to enter the service of the Greeks, on the distinct
+understanding that six English-built steamships should be placed at
+his disposal, and to facilitate the arrangements he did and bore
+far more than could have been expected of him. For the delays and
+disasters that befel those arrangements he was in no way responsible:
+he was only thereby a very great sufferer. But his sufferings would
+have been greater, and he would have been really at fault, had he
+consented to go to Greece without any sort of provision, as a few
+rash friends and many eager enemies desired him to do, and afterwards
+blamed him for not doing.
+
+As it was, he greatly increased his difficulties by at last proceeding
+to Greece with the miserable equipment provided for him. In his little
+schooner, the _Unicorn_, he left Marseilles on the 14th of February,
+1827, and proceeded to St. Tropezy, where the French corvette, the
+_Sauveur_, was being fitted out under the direction of Captain Thomas,
+a brave and energetic officer. Thence he set sail, with the two
+vessels, on the 23rd of February. He reached Poros, and entered
+upon his service in Greek waters, on the 19th of March. "He had been
+wandering about the Mediterranean in a fine English yacht, purchased
+for him out of the proceeds of the loan, in order to accelerate his
+arrival in Greece, ever since the month of June, 1826," says the
+ablest historian of the Greek Revolution.[A] The preceding paragraphs
+will show how much truth is contained in that sarcastic sentence.
+
+[Footnote A: Finlay, vol. ii., p. 137.]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI.
+
+THE PROGRESS OF AFFAIRS IN GREECE.--THE SIEGE OF MISSOLONGHI.--ITS
+FALL.--THE BAD GOVERNMENT AND MISMANAGEMENT OF THE GREEKS.--GENERAL
+PONSONBY'S ACCOUNT OF THEM.--THE EFFECT OF LORD COCHRANE'S PROMISED
+ASSISTANCE.--THE FEARS OF THE TURKS, AS SHOWN IN THEIR CORRESPONDENCE
+WITH MR. CANNING.--THE ARRIVAL OF CAPTAIN HASTINGS IN GREECE, WITH THE
+"KARTERIA."--HIS OPINION OF GREEK CAPTAINS AND SAILORS.--THE FRIGATE
+"HELLAS."--LETTERS TO LORD COCHRANE FROM ADMIRAL MIAOULIS AND THE
+GOVERNING COMMISSION OF GREECE.
+
+[1826-1827.]
+
+
+During the one-and-twenty weary months that elapsed between Lord
+Cochrane's acceptance of service in the Greek War of Independence and
+his actual participation in the work, the Revolution passed through a
+new and disastrous stage. In the summer of 1825, when the invitation
+was sent to him, the disorganisation of the Greeks and the superior
+strength of the Turks, and yet more of their Egyptian and Arabian
+allies under Ibrahim Pasha, were threatening to undo all that had been
+achieved in the previous years. One bold stand had begun to be made,
+in which, throughout nearly a whole year, the Greeks fought with
+unsurpassed heroism, and then the whole struggle for liberty fell into
+the lawless and disordered condition which already had prevailed in
+many districts, and which was then to become universal and to offer
+obstacles too great even for Lord Cochrane's genius to overcome in
+his efforts to revive genuine patriotism and to render thoroughly
+successful the cause that he had espoused.
+
+The last great stand was at Missolonghi. Built on the edge of a marshy
+plain, bounded on the north by the high hills of Zygos and protected
+on the south by shallow lagoons at the mouth of the Gulf of Lepanto,
+and chiefly tenanted by hardy fishermen, this town had been the first
+in Western Greece to take part in the Revolution. Here in June, 1821,
+nearly all the Moslem residents had been slaughtered, the wealthiest
+and most serviceable only being spared to become the slaves of their
+Christian masters. In the last two months of 1822 the Ottomans
+had made a desperate attempt to win back the stronghold; but its
+inhabitants, led by Mavrocordatos, who had lately come to join in the
+work of regeneration, had resolutely beaten off the invaders and taken
+revenge upon the few Turks still resident among them. "The wife of one
+of the Turkish inhabitants of Missolonghi," said an English visitor
+in 1824, "imploring my pity, begged me to allow her to remain under
+my roof, in order to shelter her from the brutality and cruelty of the
+Greeks. They had murdered all her relations. A little girl, nine years
+old, remained to be the only companion of her misery."[A] Missolonghi
+continued to be one of the chief strongholds of independence in
+continental Greece; and, the revolutionists being forced into it by
+the Turks, who scoured the districts north and east of it in 1824 and
+1825, it became in the latter year the main object of attack and the
+scene of most desperate resistance. Here were concentrated the chief
+energies of the Greek warriors and of their Moslem antagonists, and
+here was exhibited the last and most heroic effort of the patriots,
+unaided by foreign champions of note, in their long and hard-fought
+battle for freedom.
+
+[Footnote A: Millingen, "Memoirs on the Affairs of Greece," p. 99.]
+
+Reshid Pasha, the ablest of the Turkish generals, having advanced into
+the neighbourhood of Missolonghi towards the end of April, began to
+besiege it in good earnest, at the head of an army of some seven
+or eight thousand picked followers, on the 7th of May. While he was
+forming his entrenchments and erecting his batteries, the townsmen,
+augmented by a number of fierce Suliots and others, were strengthening
+their defences. They increased their ramparts, and organised a
+garrison of four thousand soldiers and armed peasants, with a thousand
+citizens and boatmen as auxiliaries. At first the tide of fortune was
+with them. The Turks had to defend themselves as best they could from
+numerous sorties, well-planned and well-executed, in May and June; and
+fresh courage came to the Greeks with the intelligence that Admiral
+Miaoulis was on his way to the port, with as powerful a fleet as he
+could muster. While he was being expected, however, on the 10th of
+July, the Turkish Capitan Pasha of Greece arrived with fifty-five
+vessels. Miaoulis, with forty Greek sail, made his appearance on the
+2nd of August. Thus the naval and military forces of both sides were
+brought into formidable opposition.
+
+At first the Greeks triumphed on the sea. In the night of the 3rd of
+August, Miaoulis, finding that Missolonghi was being greatly troubled
+by the blockade established by the Turks, cleverly placed himself to
+windward of the enemy's line, and at daybreak on the 4th he dispersed
+the squadron nearest the shore. At noon the whole Turkish force came
+against him. He met them bravely, but being able to do no more
+than hold his own by the ordinary method of warfare, he sent three
+fireships against them in the afternoon. The Turks did not wait to be
+injured by them. They fled at once, going all the way to Alexandria
+in search of safety. Miaoulis then lost no time in seconding his first
+exploit by another. A detachment of the army of Eastern Greece, under
+the brave generals Kara�skakes and Zavellas, having been sent to
+harass Reshid Pasha's operations, the admiral assisted them in a
+successful piece of strategy. The Turks were, on the 6th of August,
+attacked simultaneously by the ships and by the outlying battalion
+of Greeks, while fifteen hundred of the garrison rushed out upon the
+invaders. Four Turkish batteries were seized, and a great number of
+their defenders were killed and captured; the remainder, after tough
+fighting during three hours and a half, being driven so far back that
+much of the besieging work had to be done over again.
+
+Miaoulis then went in search of the Ottoman fleet, leaving the
+townsmen, who were enabled, by the raising of the blockade, to receive
+fresh supplies of food, ammunition, and men, to continue their
+defence with a good heart. Reshid Pasha vigorously restored his siege
+operations, but, attempting to force his way into the town on the 21st
+of September, was again seriously repulsed. The Turks were allowed,
+and even tempted, to advance to a point which had been skilfully
+undermined by the besieged. The mine was then fired, and a great
+number of Moslems were blown into the air, while their comrades,
+fleeing in disorder, were further injured by a storm of shot from the
+ramparts. A similar device was resorted to, with like success, on the
+13th of October. Reshid had to retire to a safe distance and
+there build winter quarters for his diminished and starving army.
+Kara�skakes and Zavellas entered Missolonghi without hindrance, there
+to concert measures which, had they been promptly adopted, might have
+utterly destroyed the besieging force.
+
+They delayed their plans too long. The Capitan Pasha having in August
+fled in a cowardly way to Alexandria, there effected a junction with
+the Egyptians, and returned to the neighbourhood of Missolonghi in
+the middle of November with a huge fleet of a hundred and thirty-five
+vessels, well supplied with troops and provisions. These he landed at
+Patras on the 18th, just in time to be free from any annoyance that
+might have been occasioned by Miaoulis, who returned to Missolonghi
+on the 28th with a fleet of only thirty-three sail. He had vainly
+attacked a part of the Moslem force on its way, and now, after landing
+some stores at Missolonghi, made several vain attempts to overcome a
+force four times as strong as his own. He soon retired, intending to
+return as promptly as he could collect a large fleet and bring with
+him further supplies of the provisions of which the Missolonghites
+were beginning to be in need.
+
+The need was greater even than he imagined. Not only had the Capitan
+Pasha brought temporary assistance, in men and food, to the besieging
+force. Yet greater assistance soon came in the shape of an Egyptian
+army, led by Ibrahim Pasha himself. An overwhelming power was
+thus organized during the last weeks of 1825, and the defenders of
+Missolonghi were left to succumb to it, almost unaided. Their previous
+successes had induced the Greeks of other districts to believe that
+they could continue their defence alone, and almost the only relief
+obtained by them was from the Zantiots, who had all along been zealous
+in the despatch of money and provisions, and from Miaoulis and the
+small fleet and equipment that he was able to collect from the islands
+of the Archipelago. Miaoulis returned in January, 1826, and did much
+injury to the Turkish and Egyptian vessels. But he could offer no
+hindrance to the action of the Turks and Egyptians upon land. The
+rainy months of December and January, in which no important attack
+could be entered upon, were spent by Ibrahim and his companions in
+preparation for future work. The invaders were now well provided
+with every requisite. The besieged were in want of nearly everything.
+"Invested for ten months," says the contemporary historian,
+"frequently on the verge of starvation, thinned by fatigue, watching,
+and wounds, they had already buried fifteen hundred soldiers. The
+town was in ruins, and they lived amongst the mire and water of their
+ditches, exposed to the inclemency of a rigorous season, without shoes
+and in tattered clothing. As far as their vision stretched over the
+waves they beheld only Turkish flags. The plain was studded with
+Mussulman tents and standards; and the gradual appearance of new
+batteries more skilfully disposed, the field days of the Arabs, and
+the noise of saws and hammers, gave fearful warning. Yet these gallant
+Acarnanians, Etolians, and Epirots never flinched for an instant."[A]
+
+[Footnote A: Gordon, vol. ii., p. 253.]
+
+On the 13th of January, Ibrahim Pasha sent to say that he was willing
+to treat with them for an honourable surrender if they would convey
+their terms by deputies who could speak Albanian, Turkish, and French.
+"We are illiterate, and do not understand so many languages," was
+their blunt reply; "pashas we do not recognize; but we know how to
+handle the sword and gun."[A]
+
+[Footnote A: Ibid.]
+
+Sword and gun were handled with desperate prowess during February and
+March and the early part of April. In April, offers of capitulation
+were renewed by Ibrahim, and more disinterested attempts to avert
+the worst calamity were made by Sir Frederick Adam, the Lord High
+Commissioner of the Ionian Islands. Both proposals were stoutly
+rejected. The Missolonghiotes declared that they would defend their
+town to the last, and trust only in God and in their own strong arms.
+But on the 1st of April the last scanty distribution of public rations
+was exhausted. For three weeks the inhabitants subsisted upon nothing
+but cats, rats, hides, seaweed, and whatever other refuse and vermin
+they could collect. At length, on the 22nd of April, finding it
+impossible to hold out for a day longer, they resolved to evacuate the
+town in a body, and, cutting their way through the enemy, to try to
+join Kara�skakes and his small force, who, hiding among the mountain
+fastnesses, were vainly seeking for some way of assisting them, and to
+whom they now despatched a message, asking them to advance and help to
+clear a passage for their flight.
+
+After sunset four bridges of planks were secretly laid over the outer
+ditch of Missolonghi, and the inhabitants were ordered to prepare to
+leave in two hours. Many--about two thousand--lost heart at last; some
+betaking themselves to the powder stores, there, when all hope was
+over, to end their lives by easier death than the enemy might allow
+them; others, crouching in corners of their homesteads, deeming it
+better to be murdered there than in the open country. The rest obeyed
+the orders of the generals. All the women dressed themselves as men,
+with swords or daggers at their waists. Every child who could hold a
+weapon had one placed in his hand. There was bitter leave-taking, and
+desperate words of encouragement passed from one to another, as the
+patriots were marshalled in the order of their departure;--three
+thousand fighting men to open a passage and four thousand women and
+children to follow;--the whole being divided into three separate
+parties. At length all was ready, and the first party silently passed
+out of the town and advanced to the bridges. To their amazement,
+they no sooner appeared than they were met by volley after volley of
+Turkish fire. A traitor had revealed their plan, and every measure had
+been taken for their destruction. Some rushed on in despite; others
+hurried back, to fall into confusion, which it was hard indeed to
+overcome. They felt, however, that this deadly chance was their only
+chance of life, and they pressed on through the fire, and the swords
+of their foes, and by the sheer heroism of despair forced a passage
+to the mountains. Karaiskakes's aid--apparently through no fault of
+his--was only obtained when the worst dangers had been surmounted or
+succumbed to. Of the nine thousand persons who were in Missolonghi on
+the day of the evacuation, four thousand were killed in the town or on
+the way out of it. Only thirteen hundred men and two hundred women and
+children lived to reach Salona after more than a week of wandering and
+hiding among the mountains.
+
+The long siege of Missolonghi illustrates all the best and some of
+the worst features of the Greek Revolution. In it there was patriotism
+worthy, in its bursts of splendour, of the nation that claimed descent
+from the heroes of Plataea and Thermopylae. But the patriotism was
+often fitful in its working, and oftener wholly wanting. The Greeks
+could not shake off the pernicious influences that sprang, almost
+necessarily, from their long centuries of thraldom. Heroism was
+closely linked with treachery and meanness. The worthiest and most
+disinterested energy was intimately associated with ignorance as to
+the right methods of action, and with wilful action in wrong ways. The
+elements of weakness that had been apparent from the first were more
+and more developed as the painful struggle reached its termination.
+It seems as if, in spite of Reshid Pasha and Ibrahim and their
+fierce armies, it would have been easy for Missolonghi and its
+brave defenders to have been saved. But rival ambitions and
+paltry jealousies divided the leaders of the Revolution. They were
+quarrelling while the power that each one coveted for himself was,
+step by step, being wrested from them all; and when they tried to do
+well their want of discipline often rendered their efforts of small
+avail. No adequate attempt was made to relieve Missolonghi by land,
+and the brave conduct of Miaoulis on the sea was almost neutralized
+by the disorganization of his crews and the selfish policy of the
+islanders who sent him out.
+
+"With respect to the Greek army," wrote General Ponsonby to the Duke
+of Wellington, from Corfu, on the 15th of June, "it is, generally
+speaking, a mob; and a chief can only calculate upon keeping it
+together as long as he has provisions to give it or the prospect of
+plunder without danger. There is nothing to oppose the Egyptian
+army but a mob kept together by the small sums sent by the different
+committees in foreign countries. The Greeks have a great horror of
+the bayonet, which, however, they have never seen near, except at
+Missolonghi. The Suliots, who chiefly formed the garrison of that
+place, are fine men, and certainly fought with great courage. Much
+has been said of naval actions, but there is no truth in any of the
+accounts. The Greeks are better sailors than the Turks, but no action
+has been fought since the beginning of the war, if it is understood by
+action that there is risk and loss on both sides. The Greeks, however,
+have done wonders with their fleet. They have destroyed many large
+ships, and, in the month of February last, with twenty-three brigs,
+they out-manoeuvred the Turkish fleet of sixty sail, and threw
+provisions into Missolonghi. This, though done by seamanship, and not
+fighting, was called a great battle and a great victory. I was
+within two miles of the fleets, and the cannonade for six hours was
+tremendous; but when I spoke to Miaoulis the following morning he told
+me he had not lost a man in his fleet."[A]
+
+[Footnote A: "Despatches of the Duke of Wellington," vol. iii., p.
+338.]
+
+During the summer and winter following the fall of Missolonghi a
+series of small disasters, the aggregate of which was by no means
+small, befel the Greeks. It was the opinion of all parties, and
+admitted even by jealous rivals, that the tottering cause of
+independence was only sustained by the constant and eager expectation
+of the arrival of the powerful fleet which was supposed to be on its
+way to the Archipelago, under the able leadership of Lord Cochrane,
+the world-famous champion of Chilian and Brazilian freedom.
+
+His approach was hardly more a cause of hope to the Greeks than a
+subject of fear to the Turks. No sooner was it publicly known that he
+had espoused the cause of the insurgents than angry complaints were
+made by the Turkish Government to the British ministry, and Mr.
+Canning, then Foreign Secretary, had more than once to avow that the
+authorities in England knew nothing of his movements, and had done all
+that the law rendered possible to restrain him. He had also to promise
+that everything legal should be done to keep him in check on his
+arrival in Greek waters. "We have heard," he wrote in August to his
+cousin, Mr. Stratford Canning, afterwards Lord Stratford de Redcliffe,
+the ambassador at Constantinople, "that Lord Cochrane is gone to
+the Mediterranean; whether it be really so, we know not." He then
+proceeded to define the bearing of English and international law
+in the existing circumstances. "Lord Cochrane may enter the Greek
+service, and continue therein. He may even, as a Greek commander,
+institute (as he did in Brazil) blockades which British officers will
+respect, and exercise the belligerent rights of search on British
+merchant-ships, without exposing himself to any other penalty than
+that which the law will inflict upon him if ever hereafter he shall
+again bring himself within its reach, and be duly convicted of the
+offence for the punishment of which that law was enacted. If, indeed,
+he should do any of such things without a commission he would become a
+pirate, and liable to the summary justice to which, without reference
+to the municipal laws of his country, he would, as an enemy of the
+human race, be liable; and liable just as much from the officers of
+any other country as of his own."[A]
+
+[Footnote A: "Despatches of the Duke of Wellington," vol. iii., pp.
+357, 358.]
+
+While that correspondence was going on, Lord Cochrane, as we have
+seen, was battling with a long series of delays, as irksome to himself
+as they were unfortunate to the Greeks. It was not till the 14th of
+September, about eight months after the time fixed for the arrival of
+his whole fleet, that the first instalment of it, the _Perseverance_,
+which he had sent on as soon as it was completed, with Captain Abney
+Hastings as its commander, entered the harbour of Nauplia. On the 26th
+of October, Captain Hastings wrote a letter, giving curious evidence
+of the estimate formed by him of the Greek character. It was left
+at Nauplia and addressed to "the commander of the first American
+or English vessel that arrives in Greece to join the Greeks." "An
+apprenticeship in Greece tolerably long," he wrote, "has taught me the
+risks to which anybody newly arrived, and possessed of some place and
+power, is exposed. They know me, and they also know that I know them;
+yet they have not ceased, and never will cease, intriguing to get this
+vessel out of my hands and into their own, which would be
+tantamount to ruining her. Knowing all this, I take the liberty
+of leaving this letter, to be delivered to the first officer
+that arrives in Greece in the command of a vessel, to caution
+him not to receive on board his vessel any Greek captain. They
+will endeavour, under various pretences, to introduce themselves on
+board, and when once they have got a footing, they will gradually
+encroach until they feel themselves strong enough to turn out the
+original commander. The presence of such men can only be attended with
+inconvenience, for, if you are obliged to take a certain number of
+Greek sailors, these captains will render subordination among them
+impossible by their own irregularity and bad example. If you want
+seamen, take some from Hydra, Spetzas, Kranidi, or Poros. The Psarians
+may be trusted in very small numbers. Take a few men from one, a few
+from another island, and thus you will be best enabled to establish
+some kind of discipline. Take a good number of marines. Choose them
+from the peasantry and foreign Greeks, and you may make something of
+them. You must see, sir, that, in this my advice to the first officer
+arriving in command of a vessel, I can have no interest any further
+than inasmuch as I wish well to the Greek cause, and therefore do not
+wish to see a force that can be of great service rendered ineffective
+by falling into the hands of people totally incapable and unwilling to
+adopt a single right measure. In Greece there cannot be any military
+operations except such as are carried on by foreigners in their
+service."
+
+That letter was written after Captain Hastings had endured a month's
+annoyance from the trouble brought upon him by the Hydriot officers
+and seamen who tried to oust him from the command of his fine vessel,
+whose name was now changed from the _Perseverance_ to the _Karteria_.
+Unfortunately, his letter, left at Nauplia, did not reach the captain
+of the next reinforcement, the American frigate, which arrived at
+Egina on the 8th of December. "She was one of the finest ships in the
+world," we are told, "carrying sixty-four guns--long 32-pounders on
+the main, and 42-pound carronades on the upper deck--and was filled
+with flour, ammunition, medicines, and marine stores for eighteen
+months' consumption. The Greeks contemplated her with delight, but,
+upon the departure of the American officers and seamen who navigated
+her out, they discovered that she would be more embarrassing than
+useful to them. To manage vessels of such a size was beyond their
+capacity, and the mutual jealousy of the islanders suggested to the
+Government the absurd notion of putting the frigate into commission,
+Hydra, Spetzas, and the Psarian community being desired to send quotas
+of men. This plan was now found to be impracticable. Repeated fights
+occurred on board. The ship was twice in danger of being wrecked at
+Egina, and at Poros she actually drifted ashore, luckily on soft mud.
+She was finally given up to Miaoulis, with a Hydriot crew of his own
+selection."[A]
+
+[Footnote A: Gordon, vol. ii., p. 326.]
+
+This frigate, christened the _Hellas_, came too late to be of much
+service to Admiral Miaoulis, before the arrival of Lord Cochrane. In
+the previous summer and autumn, however, he had been harassing and
+keeping at bay the Turkish and Egyptian fleets--work in which Hastings
+was in time to assist him.
+
+Andreas Miaoulis, one of the least obtrusive, was almost the worthiest
+of all the Greek patriots. During five years he had never ceased to do
+the best that it was possible for him to do with the bad materials
+at his disposal. When the Greek Revolution was at its height, he
+had contributed largely to its success; and in the ensuing years
+of disaster upon land, he had maintained its dignity on the sea by
+offering bold resistance to the great naval power of the combined
+Turkish and Egyptian fleets. No better proof of his patriotism could
+be given than in the zeal with which he surrendered to Lord Cochrane
+the leadership of the fleet which had devolved upon him for so long
+and been so ably conducted by him. "I received four days ago," he
+wrote from Poros on the 23rd of February, 1827, "your amiable
+letter of the 19th of last month, and my great satisfaction at the
+announcement of your approaching arrival in Greece is joined with a
+special pleasure at the honour you do me in associating me with your
+important operations. I shall be happy, my admiral, if, in serving
+you, I can do my duty. I await you with impatience."
+
+Just a month before that, on the 23rd of January, a like letter
+of congratulation was addressed to Lord Cochrane from Egina by the
+Governing Commission of Greece. "The intelligence of your speedy
+coming to Greece," they said, "has awakened the liveliest joy and
+satisfaction, and has already begun to rekindle in the hearts of
+the Greeks that enthusiasm which is the most powerful weapon and the
+surest support of a nation that has devoted itself to the recovery of
+its most sacred rights. The Government of Greece is waiting with
+the utmost impatience for the most zealous defender of the nation's
+liberty. It hopes to see you in its midst as soon as possible after
+your arrival at Hydra, and then to make you acquainted with the actual
+state of Greece, and to furnish you with all the means in its power
+for the achievement of the grand results proposed by your lordship."
+The letter was signed by Andreas Zaimes, as President of
+the Commission, and by seven of its members, among whom were
+Mavromichales, or Petro-Bey, who, with Zaimes and two others,
+represented the Morea, Spiridion Trikoupes, the deputy for Roumelia,
+Zamados from Hydra, Monarchides from Psara, and Demetrakopoulos from
+the islands of the Egean Sea.
+
+By the same body was issued, on the 21st of February, a preliminary
+commission, intended to protect him in case of any opposition being
+raised to his progress by the authorities of other nations. "The
+Governing Commission of Greece," it was written, "makes known that
+Admiral Lord Cochrane is recognised as being in the service of Greece,
+and accordingly has the permission of the Government to hoist the
+Greek flag on all the vessels that are under his command. He has
+power, also, to fight the enemies of Greece to the utmost of his
+power. Therefore the officers of neutral powers, being informed of
+this, are implored, not only to offer no opposition to his movements,
+but also, if necessary, to supply him with any assistance he may
+require, seeing that it is our custom to do the same to all friendly
+nations." Armed with this document, and provided with the necessary
+means by the Philhellenes of England, France, and Switzerland, Lord
+Cochrane proceeded from Marseilles to Greece.
+
+
+
+
+APPENDIX.
+
+I.
+
+(Page 22.)
+
+
+The following "Resum� of the Services of the late Earl of Dundonald,
+none of which have been Requited or Officially Recognized," was
+written by his son, one of the authors of the present work, and
+printed for private circulation in 1861.
+
+1. The destruction of three heavily-armed French corvettes, near the
+mouth of the Garonne, the crew of Lord Cochrane's frigate, _Pallas_,
+being at the time, with the exception of forty men, engaged in cutting
+out the _Tapageuse_, lying under the protection of two batteries
+thirty miles up the river, in which operation they were also
+successful, four ships of war being thus captured or destroyed in a
+single day. For these services Lord Cochrane obtained nothing but
+his share of the _Tapageuse_, sold by auction for a trifling sum,
+the Government refusing to purchase her as a ship of war, though of
+admirable build and construction. Contrary to the usual rule, no ship
+ever taken by Lord Cochrane, throughout his whole career, was ever
+allowed to be bought into the navy. For the corvettes, which Lord
+Cochrane destroyed with so small a crew, he never received reward or
+thanks, the alleged reason being, that, having become wrecks, they
+were not in existence, and therefore could not have value attached
+to them. This decision of the Admiralty was contrary to custom, as
+admitted to the present day. In the late Russian war a gunboat of the
+enemy having been driven on shore and wrecked, compensation is said to
+have been awarded to the officers and crew of the British vessel
+which drove her on shore. The importance of wrecking a gunboat, in
+comparison with the destruction of three fast-sailing ships, which
+were picking up our merchantmen, in all directions, needs no comment.
+
+2. Lord Cochrane's services on the coast of Catalonia, of which Lord
+Collingwood, then commander-in-chief in the Mediterranean, testified
+of his lordship to the Admiralty that by his energy and foresight
+he had, with a single frigate, stopped a French army from occupying
+Eastern Spain. The services by which this was effected were as
+follows:--Preventing the reinforcement of the French garrison in
+Barcelona, by harassing the newly-arrived troops in their march along
+the coast, and organising and assisting the Spanish militia to oppose
+their progress, Lord Cochrane himself capturing one of their forts on
+shore, and taking the garrison prisoners.
+
+On the approach of a powerful French _corps d'arm�e_ towards
+Barcelona, Lord Cochrane blew up the roads along the coast, and taught
+the Spanish peasantry how to do so inland. By blowing up the cliff
+roads, near Mongat, Lord Cochrane interposed an insurmountable
+obstacle between the army and its artillery, capturing and throwing
+into the sea a considerable number of field-pieces, so that the
+operations of the French were rendered nugatory. For these services,
+Lord Cochrane, notwithstanding the strong representations of Lord
+Collingwood to the Board of Admiralty, neither received thanks nor
+reward of any kind; notwithstanding that whilst so engaged, and that
+voluntarily, in successfully accomplishing the work of an army, he
+patriotically gave up all chances of prize money, though easily to be
+obtained by cruising after the enemy's vessels. In place of this, he
+neither searched for nor captured a single prize, whilst engaged
+in harassing the French army on shore, devoting his whole energies
+towards the enterprise which he considered most conducive to the
+interests of his country.
+
+3. Having effected his object, Lord Cochrane sailed for the Gulf
+of Lyons, with the intention of cutting off the enemy's shore
+communications. This he accomplished by destroying their signal
+stations, telegraphs, and shore batteries along nearly the whole
+coast, navigating his frigate with perfect safety throughout this
+proverbially perilous part of the Mediterranean. In order further
+to paralyse the enemy's movements, Lord Cochrane made a practice
+of burning paper near the demolished stations, so as to deceive the
+French into the belief that he had burned their signal books; he
+rightly judging that from this circumstance they might not deem it
+necessary to alter their code of signals. The ruse succeeded, and,
+transmitting the signal books to Lord Collingwood, then watching the
+enemy's preparations in Toulon, the commander-in-chief was thus
+fully apprised, by the enemy's signals, not only of all their naval
+movements, but also of the position and movements of all British
+ships of war on the French coast. Lord Cochrane's single frigate
+thus performed the work of many vessels of observation, and Lord
+Collingwood testified of him to the Admiralty that "his resources
+seemed to have no end." Notwithstanding this testimony from his
+commander-in-chief, Lord Cochrane neither received reward nor thanks
+for the service rendered.
+
+4. On his return to the Spanish coast, Lord Cochrane found the French
+besieging Rosas, the Spaniards maintaining possession of the citadel,
+whilst Fort Trinidad had just been evacuated by the British officer
+who had been co-operating with the Spaniards in the larger fortress.
+Lord Cochrane, believing that if Fort Trinidad were held till
+reinforcements arrived, the French must be compelled to raise the
+siege of Rosas, persuaded the Spanish Governor not to surrender, as he
+was about to do, on its evacuation by the British officer aforesaid,
+and threw himself into the fort with a detachment from the seamen
+and marines of the _Imp�rieuse_, with which frigate he maintained
+uninterrupted communication, in spite of the enemy, who, on
+ascertaining it to be Lord Cochrane who was keeping them at bay,
+redoubled their efforts to capture the fort, the gallant defence of
+which is amongst the most remarkable events of naval warfare. Lord
+Cochrane held Fort Trinidad till, the Spaniards surrendering the
+citadel, he would not allow his men to run further risk in their
+behalf, and withdrew the seamen and marines in safety. For this
+remarkable exploit Lord Cochrane, though himself severely wounded,
+neither received reward nor thanks, except from Lord Collingwood,
+who again, without effect, warmly applauded his gallantry to the
+Admiralty.
+
+5. Immediately on his arrival at Plymouth, on leave of absence in
+consequence of ill health from his extraordinary exertions, Lord
+Cochrane was immediately summoned by the Admiralty to Whitehall,
+and asked for a plan whereby the French fleet in Basque Roads, then
+threatening our West India possessions, might be destroyed at one
+blow; this extraordinary request from a junior captain, after the most
+experienced officers in the navy had pronounced its impracticability,
+forcibly proving the very high opinion entertained by the Admiralty
+of Lord Cochrane's skill and resources. He gave in a plan, and was
+ordered to execute it, which order he reluctantly obeyed, having done
+all in his power to decline an invidious command, for fear of arousing
+the jealousy of officers to whom he was junior in the service. What
+followed is matter of history, and needs not to be recapitulated.
+Yet for the destruction of that powerful armament he neither received
+reward nor thanks from the Admiralty, though rewarded by his sovereign
+with the highest order of the Bath, a distinction which marked his
+Majesty's sense of the important service rendered.
+
+Nine years afterwards head money was awarded to the whole fleet,
+of which only the vessels directed by Lord Cochrane and a few sent
+afterwards, when too late for effective measures, took part in the
+action. The alleged reason of this award was that the _Calcutta_, one
+of the ships driven ashore by Lord Cochrane, did not surrender to him,
+but to ships sent to his assistance. This was not true, though after
+protracted deliberation so ruled by the Admiralty Court, and officers
+now living and present in the action have recently come forward to
+testify to the ship being in Lord Cochrane's possession before the
+arrival of the ships which subsequently came to his assistance. A
+small sum was therefore only awarded to him as a junior captain, in
+common with those who had been spectators only, and this he declined
+to receive. Such was his recompense for a service to the high merit of
+which Napoleon himself afterwards testified in the warmest manner; and
+it may be mentioned as a further testimony that a French Court Martial
+shot Captain Lafont, the commander of the _Calcutta_, because he
+surrendered to a vessel of inferior power, viz., Lord Cochrane's
+frigate, the _Imp�rieuse_ of forty-four guns, the _Calcutta_ carrying
+sixty guns.[A]
+
+[Footnote A: Captain Lafont was shot on board the _Ocean_, on
+September 9, 1809, _for surrendering the Calcutta to a ship of
+inferior force_, thus proving that she surrendered to Lord Cochrane
+alone, though Sir William Scott ruled in opposition to the facts
+adopted by the French Court Martial, which condemned Captain Lafont
+to death for the act. The surrender to Lord Cochrane alone is further
+proved by the additional fact, that the captains of the _Ville de
+Varsovie_ and _Aquilon_, which _did_ surrender to the other ships in
+conjunction with Lord Cochrane's frigate, were not even accused, much
+less punished for so doing.]
+
+The exploits of Lord Cochrane in the _Speedy_ and _Pallas_ are too
+well known in naval history to require recapitulation, and of these
+it may be said that the numerous prizes captured by these vessels
+constituted their own reward. It may here be mentioned in confirmation
+of what has previously been said, that the _Gamo_, a magnificent
+xebeque frigate of thirty-two guns, was not allowed to be bought into
+the navy, but was sold for a small sum to one of the piratical Barbary
+States, notwithstanding that Lord Cochrane had said that if he
+were allowed to have her in place of the _Speedy_, then in a very
+dilapidated condition, he would sweep the Mediterranean of the enemy's
+cruisers and privateers. His capacity so to do may be judged from what
+he effected with the _Speedy_, mounting only fourteen 4-pounders.
+
+With regard to the services previously enumerated, the case is
+different, notwithstanding their national importance in comparison
+with his minor acts, which may be classed as brilliant exploits only.
+But that no reward should have been conferred for doing effectively
+the work of an army, and that without the cost of a shilling to the
+nation beyond the ordinary expenditure of a small frigate, necessary
+to be disbursed whether she performed any effective service or not,
+is a neglect which, unless repaired in the persons of his successors,
+will for ever remain a blot on the British Government. Still more so
+will the worse neglect of not having in any way rewarded him for the
+destruction of the French fleet in Basque Roads, for though only four
+ships were destroyed at the moment, the whole fleet of the enemy was
+so damaged by having been driven on shore from terror of the explosive
+vessel, fired with Lord Cochrane's own hand, that it eventually became
+a wreck; and thus our West India commerce, then the most important
+branch of national export and import, was in a month after Lord
+Cochrane's arrival from the Mediterranean relieved from the panic
+which paralysed it, and restored to its wonted security;--a service
+which can only be estimated by the gloom and panic which had
+previously pervaded the whole country.
+
+Were reference made to the pension list, and note taken of the
+pensions granted to other officers and their successors for services
+which in point of national importance do not admit of comparison with
+those of Lord Cochrane, the present generation would be surprised at
+the national ingratitude manifested towards one, who, in his great
+exploits, had so patriotically sacrificed every consideration
+of private interest to his country's service. His cruise in the
+_Imp�rieuse_, which has no parallel in naval history, procured for
+Lord Cochrane nothing whatever but shattered health from the
+incessant anxiety and exertion he had undergone in the profitless but
+high-minded course he adopted to thwart the French in their attempts
+to establish a permanent footing in Eastern Spain. His exploits in
+Basque Roads procured him nothing but absolute ruin; for, from his
+refusal as a Member of Parliament to acquiesce in a vote of thanks to
+Lord Gambier, even though the same thanks were promised to himself,
+may be dated that active political persecution which commenced by
+depriving him of further naval employment and did not cease till it
+had accomplished his utter ruin, even to striking his name out of the
+_Navy List_.
+
+The animosity of this political partisanship towards one who had
+effected so much for his country is an anomaly even in political
+history. That amended representation of the people in Parliament, for
+which he strove up to 1818, had only fourteen years afterwards become
+the law of the land, and the boast of some who had persecuted Lord
+Cochrane for no offence beyond having been amongst the first to give
+expression to the popular will subsequently adopted by themselves.
+
+The efforts of Lord Cochrane in favour of reforming the abuses of the
+Navy and of Greenwich Hospital, which at that time brought upon him
+the wrath of the Administration, are at this moment seriously engaging
+the attention of parliament, as being of paramount national necessity.
+The doctrine then openly laid down, that no naval officer in
+parliament had a right to interfere with naval administration, has
+long been abrogated, and many of the brightest ornaments of the navy
+are now amongst the foremost to denounce naval abuses in the House of
+Commons. It is, in fact, to them that the country now looks for
+that vigilance which shall preserve the navy in a proper state of
+efficiency. Yet for these very things was Lord Cochrane persecuted,
+though modern Governments, which have been liberal enough to acquiesce
+in popular reforms, of which he was the early advocate, have not been
+liberal enough to make him amends for the wrongs he suffered as one of
+the indefatigable originators of their now-cherished measures. Still
+less have they deemed it inconsistent with the honour of this great
+country to refrain from rewarding him in the ordinary manner for his
+most important services, rendered when others shrank from them, as was
+the case at Basque Roads, where his plans, declined by his seniors in
+the service, were successfully executed by himself under the greatest
+possible discouragement and disadvantage.
+
+But the injustice manifested towards the late Earl of Dundonald did
+not end here. Driven from the service of his own country, and without
+fortune, he was compelled by his necessities to embark in the service
+of foreign states. With his own hand, directed by his own genius,
+which had to supply the place of adequate naval force, he liberated
+Chili, Peru, and Brazil from thraldom, consolidating the rebellious
+provinces of the latter empire on so permanent a basis, that its
+internal peace has never again been disturbed. Yet not one of these
+states has to this day satisfied the stipulated and indisputable
+arrangements by which he was induced to espouse their cause; the
+reason of their breach of contract being distinctly traceable to the
+course pursued towards Lord Dundonald in England. Seeing that the
+British Government paid no attention to the yet more important claims
+he had upon its gratitude, the South American States believed that
+they might with impunity disregard their own stipulations, and the
+dictates of national honour; the chief of one of them having had the
+audacity to tell Lord Cochrane that he would find no sympathy in the
+British Government.
+
+Three of the most distinguished officers in the British service, Sir
+Thomas Hastings, Sir John Burgoyne, and Colonel Colquhoun, have felt
+it their duty, when officially reporting on the efficacy of Lord
+Dundonald's war plans, to give him the highest credit for having kept
+his secret "_under peculiarly trying circumstances_," and from
+pure love of his native country. The "trying circumstances" were
+these,--that he had been driven from the service of that country by
+the machinations of a political faction, which, in the conscientious
+performance of his parliamentary duties, he had offended. Even this
+injury, which blasted his whole life and prospects, did not detract
+one _iota_ from the love of country, which to the day of his death
+was with him a passion; his acute mind well knowing how to draw the
+distinction between his country and those who were sacrificing its
+best interests to their love of power, if not to less worthy purposes.
+Never was praise more honourably given, than in the Ordnance Report
+of the above-named distinguished officers, and never was it more nobly
+deserved.
+
+Another "peculiarly trying circumstance" alluded to by those officers,
+was that, when compelled by actual pecuniary necessity, in consequence
+of the deprivation of his rank and pay, and the demands of increasing
+family, to accept service under a foreign state as his only means of
+subsistence, he lay before the castles of Callao, into which had been
+removed for security the whole wealth of the rich capital of Peru,
+including bullion and plate, estimated at upwards of a million
+sterling, he preserved his war secret, though strongly urged to put
+it in execution. Had he listened to the temptation, in six hours
+the whole of that wealth must have been in his possession. For not
+listening to it, he incurred the enmity of his employers, who urged
+that they were entitled to all his professional skill and knowledge,
+as a part of his bargain with them; and his non-compliance with their
+wishes is doubtless amongst the chief reasons why they have not, to
+this day, satisfied their own offered stipulations for his services.
+Yet, at the very moment when he was displaying this self-sacrificing
+patriotism, lest his country might suffer from his secret being
+divulged, the Government of Great Britain had, at the suggestion of
+the Spanish Government, passed a "Foreign Enlistment Act," with the
+express intention of enveloping him in its meshes.[A]
+
+[Footnote A: On Lord Cochrane's return from Brazil, having occasion
+to go before the Attorney-General, on the subject of a patent, that
+learned functionary rudely asked him, "_Whether he was not afraid to
+appear in his presence?_" Lord Cochrane's reply was, "_No, nor in
+the presence of any man living_." Evidence exists that the
+Attorney-General asked the Ministry if he should prosecute Lord
+Cochrane under the Foreign Enlistment Act, the reply being in the
+negative.]
+
+
+
+
+II.
+
+(Page 23.)
+
+
+As a striking instance of Lord Cochrane's method of exposing naval
+abuses, part of a speech delivered by him in the House of Commons, on
+the 11th of May, 1809, is here copied from his "Autobiography," vol.
+ii. pp. 142-144.
+
+    An admiral, worn out in the service, is superannuated at
+    410_l._. a year, a captain at 210_l._., a clerk of the ticket office
+    retires on 700_l._. a year! The widow of Admiral Sir Andrew
+    Mitchell has one third of the allowance given to the widow of
+    a Commissioner of the Navy.
+
+    I will give the House another instance. Four daughters of the
+    gallant Captain Courtenay have 12l. 10s. each, the daughter of
+    Admiral Sir Andrew Mitchell has 25l., two daughters of Admiral
+    Epworth have 25l. each, the daughter of Admiral Keppel 24l.,
+    the daughter of Captain Mann, who was killed in action, 25l.,
+    four children of Admiral Moriarty 25l. each. That is--thirteen
+    daughters of admirals and captains, several of whose fathers
+    fell in the service of their country, receive from the
+    gratitude of the nation a sum less than Dame Mary Saxton, the
+    widow of a commissioner.
+
+    The pension list is not formed on any comparative rank or
+    merit, length of service, or other rational principle, but
+    appears to me to be dependent on parliamentary influence
+    alone. Lieutenant Ellison, who lost his arm, is allowed 91l.
+    5s., Captain Johnstone, who lost his arm, has only 45l.
+    12s. 6d., Lieutenant Arden, who lost his arm, has 9l.
+    5s., Lieutenant Campbell, who lost his leg, 40_l._., and poor
+    Lieutenant Chambers, who lost both his legs, has only 80_l._.,
+    whilst Sir A.S. Hamond retires on 1500_l._. per annum. The brave
+    Sir Samuel Hood, who lost his arm, has only 500_l._., whilst the
+    late Secretary of the Admiralty retires, in full health, on a
+    pension of 1500_l._. per annum.
+
+To speak less in detail, 32 flag officers, 22 captains, 50
+lieutenants, 180 masters, 36 surgeons, 23 pursers, 91 boatswains, 97
+gunners, 202 carpenters, and 41 cooks, in all 774 persons, cost the
+country 4028l. less than the nett proceeds of the sinecures of Lords
+Arden (20,358_l._), Camden (20,536_l._), and Buckingham (20,693_l._).
+
+All the superannuated admirals, captains, and lieutenants put
+together, have but 1012l. more than Earl Camden's sinecure alone! All
+that is paid to the wounded officers of the whole British navy, and
+to the wives and children of those dead or killed in action, do
+not amount by 214l. to as much as Lord Arden's sinecure alone, viz.
+20,358_l._. What is paid to the mutilated officers themselves is but half
+as much.
+
+Is this justice? Is this the treatment which the officers of the
+navy deserve at the hands of those who call themselves his Majesty's
+Government? Does the country know of this injustice? Will this too be
+defended? If I express myself with warmth I trust in the indulgence
+of the House. I cannot suppress my feelings. Should 31 commissioners,
+commissioners' wives, and clerks have 3899l. more amongst them than
+all the wounded officers of the navy of England?
+
+I find upon examination that the Wellesleys receive from the public
+34,729_l._, a sum equal to 426 pairs of lieutenants' legs, calculated at
+the rate of allowance of Lieutenant Chambers's legs. Calculating
+for the pension of Captain Johnstone's arm, viz. 45l., Lord Arden's
+sinecure is equal to the value of 1022 captains' arms. The Marquis
+of Buckingham's sinecure alone will maintain the whole ordinary
+establishment of the victualling department at Chatham, Dover,
+Gibraltar, Sheerness, Downs, Heligoland, Cork, Malta, Mediterranean,
+Cape of Good Hope, Rio de Janeiro, and leave 5460_l._ in the Treasury.
+Two of these comfortable sinecures would victual the officers and men
+serving in all the ships in ordinary in Great Britain, viz. 117 sail
+of the line, 105 frigates, 27 sloops, and 50 hulks. Three of them
+would maintain the dockyard establishments at Portsmouth and Plymouth.
+The addition of a few more would amount to as much as the whole
+ordinary establishments of the royal dockyards at Chatham, Woolwich,
+Deptford, and Sheerness; whilst the sinecures and offices executed
+wholly by deputy would more than maintain the ordinary establishment
+of all the royal dockyards in the kingdom.
+
+Even Mr. Ponsonby, who lately made so pathetic an appeal to the good
+sense of the people of England against those whom he was pleased to
+term demagogues, actually receives, for having been thirteen months in
+office, a sum equal to nine admirals who have spent their lives in
+the service of their country; three times as much as all the pensions
+given to all the daughters and children of all the admirals,
+captains, lieutenants, and other officers who have died in indigent
+circumstances, or who have been killed in the service.
+
+
+
+
+III.
+
+(Page 258.)
+
+
+The following letter, too long to be quoted in the body of the work,
+but too important to be omitted, was addressed by Lord Cochrane to
+the Brazilian Secretary of State. It gives memorable evidence of
+the treatment to which he was subjected by the Portuguese faction in
+Brazil.
+
+
+Rio de Janeiro, May 3rd, 1824.
+
+MOST EXCELLENT SIR,
+
+I have received the honour of your excellency's reply to my letter
+of the 30th of March, and as I am thereby taught that the subjects on
+which I wrote are not now considered so intimately connected with your
+excellency's department as they were by your immediate predecessor,
+nor even so far relevant as to justify a direct communication to your
+excellency, I should feel it my duty to avoid troubling you farther
+on those subjects, were it not that you at the same time have freely
+expressed such opinions with respect to my conduct and motives as
+justice to myself requires me to controvert and refute.
+
+With regard to your excellency's assurance that it has ever been
+the intention of his Imperial Majesty and Council to act favourably
+towards me, I can in return assure your excellency that I have never
+doubted the just and benign intention of his Imperial Majesty himself,
+neither have I doubted that a part of his Privy Council has thought
+well of my services; and if I have imagined that a majority has been
+prejudiced against me, I have formed that conclusion merely from the
+effects which I have seen and experienced, and not from any undue
+prepossession against particular individuals, whether Brazilian or
+Portuguese. But when your excellency adds that those transactions
+between the late minister and myself, which, owing to their having
+been conducted verbally, have been ill-understood, have invariably
+been decided in a manner favourable to me, I confess myself at a loss
+to understand your excellency's meaning, not having any recollection
+of such favourable decisions, and therefore not feeling myself
+competent either to admit or deny unless in the first place your
+excellency shall be pleased to descend to particulars. I do indeed
+recollect that the late ministers, professing to have the authority of
+his Imperial Majesty, and which, from the personal countenance I
+have experienced from that august personage, I am sure they did not
+clandestinely assume, proffered to me the command of the imperial
+squadron, with every privilege, emolument, and advantage which
+I possessed in the command of the navy of Chili; and this, your
+excellency is desired to observe, was not a verbal transaction, but
+a written one, and therefore not liable to any of those
+misunderstandings to which verbal transactions, as your excellency
+observes, are naturally subject. Now, in Chili my commission was that
+of commander-in-chief of the squadron, without limitation as to time
+or any other restriction. My command, of course, was only to cease by
+my own voluntary resignation, or by sentence of court-martial, or by
+death, or other uncontrollable event. And accordingly the appointment
+which I accepted in the service of his Imperial Majesty, and in virtue
+of which I sailed in command of the expedition to Bahia, was that of
+commander-in-chief of the whole squadron, without limitation as to
+time or otherwise; and this, too, your excellency will be pleased
+to observe, was not a verbal transaction, but a solemn engagement
+in writing, bearing date the 26th day of March, 1823, and now in my
+possession. I had also the assurance in writing of the Minister of
+Marine, that the formalities of engrossment and registration of
+such appointment were only deferred from want of time, and should be
+executed immediately after my return.
+
+And now I most respectfully put it home to your excellency whether
+these engagements have or have not been fully confirmed and complied
+with under the present administration. I ask your excellency whether
+the patent which I received, bearing date the 25th November, 1823,
+did not contain a clause of limitation by which I might at any time be
+dismissed from the service under any pretence or without any pretence
+whatever--without even the form of a hearing in my own defence. Then
+again I ask your excellency whether my office as commander-in-chief of
+the squadron was not reduced for a period of three months--as appears
+by every official communication of the Minister of Marine to me during
+that period--to the command only of the vessels of war anchored
+in this port?[A] and further on this subject I ask your excellency
+whether after my repeated remonstrances against this injurious
+limitation of my stipulated authority, it was not pretended by the
+decree published in the Gazette of the 28th February, that I was then
+for the first time, as a mark of special favour, elevated to the rank
+of commander-in-chief of the squadron, and that too during the period
+only of the existing war: although nothing less than the chief command
+had been offered to me at the first, without any restriction as to
+time, and although it was only in that capacity I had consented to
+enter into the service, and under a written appointment as such I had
+then been in the service nearly twelve months. And then I ask your
+excellency whether the limitation introduced into the patent of the
+25th of November last, in violation of the original agreement, and
+confirmed and defined by the decree published on the 28th of February
+following; to which may be added the communication which I received
+from your excellency, excluding me from taking the oath, and becoming
+a party to the constitution, the 149th article of which provides for
+the protection of officers until lawfully deprived by sentence of
+court-martial; I say that I respectfully ask your excellency whether
+these proceedings were not well adapted for the purpose of casting me
+off with the utmost facility at the earliest moment that convenience
+might dictate; either with or without the admission of those claims
+for the future to which past services are usually considered entitled,
+as might best suit the inclination of those with whom my dismissal
+might originate. And is it not most probable that their inclination
+would run counter to those claims, especially when it is considered
+that my letter of the 6th of March to the Minister of Marine, in which
+I made the inquiry whether my right to half-pay would be recognized
+on the termination of the war, has never been answered, although my
+application for a reply has been repeated?[B] If then the explicit
+engagements in writing between the late minister of his Imperial
+Majesty and myself have, as I have shown, been set aside by the
+present ministry and council, and other arrangements far less
+favourable to me, and destructive of the lawful security of my present
+and future rights, have without my consent been substituted in their
+stead, where, I entreat your excellency, am I to look for those
+favourable constructions of "ill-understood verbal transactions,"
+which your excellency requires me to accept as a proof that the
+intentions of the present ministry and council, in respect to me, have
+ever been of the most favourable and obliging nature?
+
+[Footnote A: This was resorted to, in order to prevent Lord Cochrane
+from stationing the cruisers to annoy the enemy, to deprive him of
+any interest in future captures, and prevent his opposition to the
+unlawful restoration of enemy's property.]
+
+[Footnote B: An answer was at last given, a few days before Lord
+Cochrane's assistance was called for to put down the revolution
+at Pernambuco; and _half_ of the originally-granted _half-pay_ was
+decreed when he should return, after the termination of hostilities,
+to his native country.]
+
+I would beg permission, too, to inquire how it happened that
+portarias[A] from the Minister of Marine, charging me unjustly from
+time to time with neglecting to obey the command of his Imperial
+Majesty, were constantly made public, while my answers in refutation
+were always suppressed. And why, when I remonstrated against this
+injustice, was I answered that the same course should be persisted
+in, and that I had no alternative but to acquiesce, or to descend to
+a newspaper controversy by publishing my exculpations myself? Is it
+possible not to perceive that the _ex parte_ publication of
+these accusatory portarias was intended to lower me in the public
+estimation, and to prepare the way for the exercise of that power of
+summary dismissal which was so unfairly acquired by the means above
+described?
+
+[Footnote A: Official communications.]
+
+On the subject of the prizes your excellency is pleased to state: "Les
+difficult�s survenues dans le jugement des prizes ont eu des motifs si
+connus et positifs qu'il est assez doloureux de les voir attribuir �
+la mauvaise volont� du Conseil de S.M.I." To this I reply that I know
+of no just cause for the delay which has arisen in the decision of the
+prizes, and consequently I have a right to impute blame for that delay
+to those who have the power to cause it or remove it. If the majority
+of the voices in council had been for a prompt condemnation to the
+captors of the prizes taken from the Portuguese nation, is
+it possible that individuals of that nation would be suffered
+to continue to be the judges of those prizes after an experience
+of many months has demonstrated either their determination
+to do nothing, or nothing favourable to the captors? The
+repugnance of Portuguese judges to condemn property captured from
+their fellow-countrymen, as a reward to those who have engaged in
+hostilities against Portugal, is natural enough, and is the only
+well-known and positive cause of the delay with which I am acquainted;
+but it is not such a cause for delay as ought to have been permitted
+to operate by the ministers and council of his Imperial Majesty, who
+are bound in honour and duty to act with fidelity towards those who
+have been engaged as auxiliaries in the attainment and maintenance of
+the independence of the empire. I did, however, inform your excellency
+that I had heard it stated that another difficulty had arisen in the
+apprehension that this Government might be under the necessity of
+eventually restoring the prizes to the original Portuguese owners as
+a condition of peace. But this, your excellency assures me, proves
+nothing but that I am a listener to "rapporteurs," whom I ought
+to drive from my presence. Unfortunately, however, for this bold
+explanation of your excellency, the individual whom I heard make the
+observation was no other than his excellency the present Minister of
+Marine, Francisco Villala Barboza. If your excellency considers that
+gentleman in the light of a "rapporteur," or talebearer, it is not for
+me to object; but the imputation of being a listener to or encourager
+of talebearers, so rashly advanced by your excellency against me,
+is without foundation in truth. It may be necessary for ministers
+of state to have their eavesdroppers and informers, but mine is a
+straightforward course, which needs no such precautions. And if there
+be any who volunteer information or advice, I can appreciate the value
+of it, and the motives of those who offer it. Those who know me much
+better than your excellency does, will admit that I am in the habit of
+thinking for myself, and not apt to act on the suggestions of others,
+especially if officiously tendered.
+
+As to the successive appointment and removal of incompetent auditors
+of marine, for which your excellency gives credit to the council,
+I can only say that the benefit of such repeated changes is by no
+means apparent. And to revert again to the difficulty of decision, for
+which your excellency intimates there is sufficient cause, I beg leave
+to ask your excellency what just reason can exist for not condemning
+these prizes to the captors. Can it be denied that the orders
+under which I sailed for the blockade of Bahia authorized me to act
+hostilely against the ships and property of the crown and subjects of
+Portugal? Can it be denied that war was regularly declared between
+the two nations? Was it not even promulgated under the sanction of his
+Imperial Majesty in a document giving to privateers certain privileges
+which it is admitted were possessed by the ships of war in the making
+and sale of captures? And yet did not the Prize Tribunal (consisting
+chiefly, as I before observed, of Portuguese), on the return of the
+squadron, eight months afterwards, pretend to be ignorant whether his
+Imperial Majesty was at war or at peace with the kingdom of Portugal?
+And did they not under that pretence avoid proceeding to adjudication?
+Was not this pretence a false one, or is it one of those well-founded
+causes of difficulty to which your excellency alludes? Can it be
+denied that the squadron sailed and acted in the full expectation,
+grounded on the assurance and engagements of the Government, that all
+captures made under the flag of the enemy, whether ships of war or
+merchant vessels, were to be prize to the captors? and yet when
+the prize judges were at length under the necessity of commencing
+proceedings, did they not endeavour to set aside the claims of the
+captors by the monstrous pretence that they had no interest in their
+captures when made within the distance of two leagues from the shore?
+Will your excellency contend that this was a good and sufficient
+reason? Was it founded in common sense, or on any rational precedent,
+or indeed any precedent whatever? Was it either honest to the squadron
+or faithful to the country? Was it not calculated to prevent the
+squadron from ever again assailing an invading enemy, or again
+expelling him from the shores of the empire? Then, in the next place,
+did not these most extraordinary judges pretend that at least all
+vessels taken in ports and harbours should be condemned as droits to
+the crown, and not as prize to the captors? Was not this another most
+pernicious attempt to deprive the imperial squadron not only of its
+reward for the past but of any adequate motive for the risk of
+future enterprise? And in effect, were not these successive pretences
+calculated to operate as invitations to invasions? Did they not tend
+to encourage the enemy to resume his occupation of the port of Bahia,
+and generally to renew his aggressions against the independence of
+the empire on her shores and in her ports without the probability
+of resistance by the squadrons of his Imperial Majesty? And have not
+these same judges actually condemned almost every prize as a droit
+to the crown, thereby doing as much as in them lay to defraud the
+squadron and to damp its zeal and destroy its energies? Nay, have
+not the auditors of marine actually issued decrees pronouncing the
+captures made at Maranh�o to have been illegal, alleging that they
+were seized under the Brazilian flag, although in truth the flag
+of the enemy was flying at the time both in the forts and ships;
+declaring me a violator of the law of nations and law of the land;
+accusing me of having been guilty of an insult to the Emperor and
+the empire, and decreeing costs and damages against me under these
+infamous pretences? Can your excellency perceive either justice or
+decency in these decrees? Do they in any degree breathe the spirit of
+gratitude for the union of so important a province to the empire, or
+are they at all in accordance with the distinguished approbation which
+his Imperial Majesty himself has evinced of my services at Maranh�o?
+
+Can it be unknown to your excellency that the late ministers, acting
+doubtless under the sanction of his Imperial Majesty, and assuredly
+under the guidance of common sense, held out that the value of ships
+of war taken from the enemy was to be the reward of the enterprise of
+the captors? And yet are we not now told that a law exists decreeing
+all captured men-of-war to the crown, and so rendering the engagements
+of the late ministers illegal and nugatory? Can anything be more
+contrary to justice, to good faith, to common sense, or to sound
+policy? Was it ever expected by any government employing foreign
+seamen in a war in which they can have no personal rights at stake,
+that those seamen will incur the risk of attacking a superior, or even
+an equal, force, without prospect of other reward than their ordinary
+pay? Is it not notorious that even in England it is found essential,
+or at least highly advantageous, to reward the officers and seamen,
+though fighting their own battles, not only with the full value of
+captured vessels of war, but even with additional premiums; and was
+it ever doubted that such liberal policy has mainly contributed to the
+surpassing magnitude of the naval power of that little island, and her
+consequent greatness as a nation?
+
+Can your excellency deny that the delay, the neglect, and the conduct
+generally of the prize judges, have been the cause of an immense
+diminution in the value of the captures? Have not the consequences
+been a wanton and shameful waste of property by decay and plunder?
+Can your excellency really believe in the existence of a good and
+sufficient motive for consigning such property to destruction, rather
+than at once awarding it to the captors in recompense for their
+services to the empire? Is it not true that all control over the sales
+and cargoes of the vessels, most of which are without invoices, have
+been taken from the captors and their agents and placed in the hands
+of individuals over whom they have no authority or influence, and from
+whom they can have no security of receiving a just account? And can
+it be doubted that the gracious intentions of his Imperial Majesty, as
+announced by himself, of rewarding the captors with the value of
+the prizes, are in the utmost danger of being defeated by such
+proceedings?
+
+Since the 12th day of February, when his Imperial Majesty was
+graciously pleased to signify his pleasure in his own handwriting that
+the prizes, though condemned to the crown, should be paid for to
+the captors, and that valuators should be appointed to estimate the
+amount, is it not true that nothing whatever, up to the date of my
+former letter to your excellency, had been done by his ministers
+and council in furtherance of such his gracious intentions? On the
+contrary, is it not notorious that, since the announcement of the
+imperial intention, numerous vessels and cargoes have been arbitrarily
+disposed of by authority of the auditors of marine, by being delivered
+to pretended owners and others without legal adjudication, and even
+without the decency of acquainting the captors or their agents that
+the property had been so transferred? And has not the whole cost
+of litigation, watching and guarding the vessels and cargoes, been
+entirely at the expense of the captors, notwithstanding the disposal
+of the property and the receipt of the proceeds by the agents of
+Government and others?
+
+So little hope of justice has been presented by the proceedings of the
+Prize Tribunal, that it has appeared quite useless to label the stores
+found in the naval and military arsenals of Maranh�o, or the 66,000
+dollars in the chests of the Treasury and Custom House, with double
+that sum in bills, all of which was left for the use of the province,
+or permitted to be disbursed to satisfy the clamorous troops of Ceara
+and Pianhy. Has any remuneration been offered to the navy for these
+sacrifices, of which ministers were duly informed by my official
+despatches? or has any recompense been awarded for the Portuguese brig
+and schooner of war, both completely stored and equipped, which were
+surrendered at Maranh�o, and which have ever since been employed in
+the naval service? To a proportion of all this I should have been
+entitled in Chili, as well as in the English service; and why, I ask,
+must I here be contented to be deprived of every hope of these the
+fruits of my labours? In addition to the prize vessels delivered to
+claimants without trial, have not the ministers appropriated others
+_to the uses of the state without valuation or recompense_?[A]
+
+[Footnote A: This conduct was afterwards more flagrantly exemplified
+on the arrival of the new and noble prize frigate _Imperatrice_, the
+equipment whereof had cost the captors 12,000 milreas, which sum has
+never been returned.]
+
+In short, is it not true that though more than a year has elapsed
+since the sailing of the imperial squadron under my command, and
+nearly half a year since its return, after succeeding in expelling the
+naval and military forces of the enemy from Bahia, and liberating the
+northern provinces, and uniting them to the empire; I say is it not
+true that not one shilling of prize money has yet been distributed
+to the squadron, and that no prospect is even now apparent of any
+distribution being speedily made? Is it not true that the only
+substantial reward of the officers and seamen of the squadron for the
+important services they have rendered has hitherto been nothing
+more than their mere pittance of ordinary pay; and even that in
+many instances vexatiously delayed and miserably curtailed? And with
+respect to myself individually, is it not notorious that I necessarily
+consume my whole pay in my current expenses; that my official rank
+cannot be upheld with less, and that it is wholly inadequate to the
+due support of the dignity of those high honours which his Imperial
+Majesty has been graciously pleased to confer?
+
+Under all these circumstances, it is in vain that I endeavour to
+make that discovery which your excellency assures me requires only
+a moment's reflection: "Au reste" (your excellency says), "que V'e.
+Ex'ce. r�fl�chisse un moment, celle trouver� que le Gouvernement de
+S.M.I. simplement et uniquement pour faire plaisir � V'e. Ex'ce. �
+s'est attir� une enorm� responsabilit� dans les engagemens pris
+avec V'e. Ex'ce." It is not one moment only nor one hour that I have
+reflected on these words, but without making the promised discovery,
+or any probable guess at your excellency's meaning. I would therefore
+entreat your excellency to tell me what it is that the Government
+has engaged to do. All that I know is they have engaged to pay me a
+certain sum per annum as commander-in-chief of the squadron; and this
+engagement, I admit, they have so far fulfilled. But the amount is
+little more than is received by the commander-in-chief of an English
+squadron; and is it not found in that service, and in every regular
+or established naval service, that for one officer qualified for any
+considerable command there are probably ten that are not qualified;
+though all have necessarily been reared and paid at the national
+expense? Whereas, in this case, so far from your having been at the
+expense of money in order to procure a few that are effective, you
+obtained at once, without any previous cost whatever, the services
+of myself and the officers that accompanied me, all of whom were
+experienced and efficient. Now, the united amount of the salaries you
+are engaged to pay to myself and the officers whom I brought with
+me does not exceed 25,000 dollars a year. To speak of this as an
+"enormous responsibility" as an empire, requires more than a "moment's
+reflection" to be clearly understood. The Government did, however,
+engage to pay to myself and my brother officers and seamen the value
+of our captures from the enemy, pursuant to the practice of all
+maritime belligerents, but this engagement has not hitherto been
+fulfilled. If, however, your excellency admits the responsibility of
+the Government to fulfil this engagement also, I am still equally at
+a loss to conceive in what sense that responsibility can be considered
+enormous, inasmuch as these prizes were not the property of the state,
+nor of individuals belonging to this nation, but were the property of
+Portugal, with whom this nation was and is engaged in lawful war.
+The payment, therefore, of the value of these prizes to the captors,
+supposing even the full value to be paid, does not in effect take
+one penny out of the national treasury, or out of the pocket of any
+Brazilian. If it be false--and your excellency appears to scout the
+idea--that any danger exists of having to pay twice for these prizes;
+if there really is no danger of being compelled to purchase peace
+with a defeated enemy by restoring them their forfeited property--it
+follows that the responsibility of the Government in fulfilling its
+engagement with the captors is so far from being enormous, that it is
+literally nothing. How the fulfilment of a lawful engagement by the
+simple act of paying over to the squadron the value of its prizes
+taken in time of war from the foreign enemies of the state (such
+payment occasioning no expense, and no loss to the state itself) can
+be attended with an enormous responsibility, I am utterly unable to
+comprehend. So far as the engagements of the Government with me,
+or with the captors in general of the Portuguese prizes, are of
+a pecuniary nature, they appear to me to lay no great weight of
+responsibility on the herculean shoulders of this vast empire. And it
+is only in a pecuniary sense that I can conceive it to be possible for
+your excellency to have thought of complaining of the responsibility
+attending the fulfilment of the engagements of the Government with me.
+
+It is no less difficult to comprehend how this supposed enormous
+responsibility has been incurred, "simplement et uniquement pour faire
+plaisir" to me; and it is still more difficult to comprehend how it
+happens that your excellency, "after all that you have heard and seen"
+(apr�s ce que j'ai entendu et vu), should be at a loss to know in what
+manner I am to be contented (je ne saurais pas dequelle mani�re on
+puisse vous contenter). If, indeed, your excellency imagines that I
+ought to be contented with honorary distinctions alone, however highly
+I may prize them as the free gift of his Imperial Majesty; if
+your excellency is of opinion that I ought with "remercimens et
+satisfaction" to put up with those honours in lieu of those stipulated
+substantial rewards, which even those very honours render more
+necessary; if your excellency thinks that I ought, like the dog in the
+fable, to resign the substance for a grasp at the shadow; if this is
+all that your excellency knows on the subject of giving me content, it
+is then very true that your excellency does not know in what manner it
+is to be done. But if, "after all that your excellency has heard and
+seen," you would be pleased to render yourself conversant with those
+written engagements under which I was induced to enter into the
+service, all that your excellency and the rest of the ministers and
+council of his Imperial Majesty would then have to do in order
+to content me to the full, would be to desist from evading the
+performance of those engagements, and to cause them at once to
+be fully and honourably fulfilled. And I do believe that my
+"Correspondance Officielle une fais rendue publique, en faira foi;"
+for I am not conscious that I have ever called on the Government to
+incur one farthing of expense on my account beyond the fulfilment of
+their written engagements, which were the same as those which I had
+with Chili, which were formed precisely on the practice of England.
+There was, indeed, a verbal and conditional engagement with the late
+ministers that certain losses which I might incur in consequence of
+leaving the service of Chili should be made good;[A] and the question
+as to the obligation of fulfilling that engagement I submitted (in
+my letter of the 6th of March to the Minister of Marine) to the
+consideration of their successors. It will be fortunate for me if this
+should prove to be one of those "ill-understood verbal transactions"
+which your excellency assures me the present ministers and council
+always decide in my favour. I shall not in that case be backward to
+receive the benefit of the decision with "thanks and satisfaction;"
+but I am willing to resign it rather than it should add an
+overwhelming weight to that "enormous responsibility" which your
+excellency complains has already been incurred with a view to
+my contentment. I repeat that I have never asked for more than I
+possessed in Chili, or than any officer of the same rank is entitled
+to in England; though British officers have heretofore received in the
+service of Portugal double the amount of their English pay; and though
+the burning climate of Brazil is injurious to health, while those
+of Chili and Portugal are salubrious. Your excellency, therefore, is
+perfectly welcome to publish the whole of my official correspondence,
+because instead of proving, as your excellency asserts, the great
+difficulty of contenting me, it would go far to prove the much greater
+difficulty of inducing those with whom I have to do to take any one
+step for that purpose.
+
+[Footnote A: As the Brazilian Government had obtained possession of a
+new corvette, named the _Maria de Gloria_, which cost the Government
+of Chili 90,000 dollars, without reimbursing to that State one single
+farthing; and by the said act had deprived Lord Cochrane of the
+benefit he would have derived, as commander-in-chief, from the
+services of that ship in the Pacific, the non-fulfilment of this
+engagement seems the more unjust.]
+
+I confess, however, that in order to content me effectually it is
+necessary to fulfil not only all written engagements with myself
+individually, but generally with all the officers and seamen with
+whom, while I hold the command, I consider myself identified; and the
+more particularly because, in my own firm reliance on the good faith
+of the Government, I did in some sort become responsible for that good
+faith to my brother officers and seamen. But with whom, I put it to
+your excellency, has good faith been kept? Is it not notorious that
+previous to the departure of the expedition to Bahia, declarations
+were made to the seamen in writing by the late Minister of Marine,
+through my medium, and in printed proclamations, that their dues
+should be paid with all possible regularity, and all their arrears
+discharged immediately on their return? And is not your excellency
+aware that specific contracts were entered into by the accredited
+agent of his Imperial Majesty in England, with a number of officers
+and seamen, who, in consequence, were induced to quit their native
+country and enter into the employ of his Imperial Majesty? Can it be
+denied that these declarations and contracts, written and printed,
+were known to, and are actually in the possession of the ministers, or
+in the hands of the officers of the pay department, and yet is it not
+true that they were neglected to be fulfilled for a period of upwards
+of three months after the return of the _Pedro Primiero_; and was
+not the tardy fulfilment which at length took place procured by my
+incessant representations and remonstrances?
+
+Permit me also to ask whether the good effects of prompt payment
+were not illustrated on the arrival of the frigates _Nitherohy_ and
+_Caroline_, which happened just at the period I had succeeded in
+procuring payment to be made. Was it not in consequence of immediate
+payment that the greater part of the English crew of the _Nitherohy_
+remained quietly on board, and are now actually engaged on an
+important service to his Imperial Majesty? And, on the other hand, is
+it not equally true that the English seamen of the _Pedro Primiero_
+were so disheartened and disgusted with the long delay which in their
+case had occurred, and the manifest bad faith which had been evinced,
+that by far the greater part of them actually abandoned the ship?
+And generally, is it not true that the violations of promise, the
+obstructions of justice, and the arbitrary acts of severity, have
+produced dissatisfaction and irritation in the minds of the officers
+and seamen, and done infinite prejudice to the service of his Imperial
+Majesty and to the interests and prospects of the empire?
+
+Can it be denied that the treatment to which the officers are exposed
+is in the highest degree cruel and unjust? Have they not in many
+instances been confined in a fortress or prison-ship without being
+told who is their accuser or what is the accusation? And are they not
+kept for many months at a time in that cruel state of suspense
+and restraint without the means or opportunity of justification or
+defence? Have not some of them while incarcerated in the fortress of
+the Island of Cobras been deprived of their pay for a great length of
+time, and even denied the provisions necessary for their subsistence?
+And if, after all, they are brought to trial, are not their judges
+composed of the natives of a nation with whom they are at war? Is it
+possible that English, or other foreign officers in the service,
+can be satisfied with such a system? Can your excellency entertain a
+doubt, that open accusation, prompt trial, unsuspected justice, and
+speedy punishment, if merited, are essential to the good government of
+a naval service? Nay, is it possible that your excellency should not
+know that the system of government in the naval service of Portugal is
+the most wretched in the world, and consequently the last that ought
+to have been adopted for the naval service of Brazil?
+
+And here I would respectfully ask your excellency whether you know of
+any one thing recommended by me for the benefit of the naval service
+being complied with? Have the laws been revised to adapt them to the
+better government of the service? Has a corps of marine artillery
+been formed and taught their duty? Have young gentlemen intended for
+officers been sent on board to learn their profession? Have young men
+been enlisted and sent on board to be bred up as seamen? Or has
+any encouragement been given to the employment of Brazilians in the
+commerce of the coast?[A]
+
+[Footnote A: It was the policy of Portugal to navigate the
+coasting-trade of Brazil by slaves; and that of Spain to allow none
+but Indians to exercise the trade of fishermen on the shores of their
+South American colonies.]
+
+With regard to those difficulties, delays, and other impediments of
+which I have complained as existing in the arsenal and other offices,
+and which your excellency supposes me to have represented as being
+caused, or at least tolerated, by the minister, and which you are
+pleased to characterise as "tout a fait imaginaires, et n'ayant
+d'outr� source que l'ambition sordide de quelque intrigant," I shall
+not now enter into them again at any length, as much that I have
+already written tends to refute your excellency's notions on the
+subject. That such abuses do really exist I have proved beyond the
+power of contradiction; and that they are at least tolerated by
+those--whoever they may be--who possess without exercising the means
+of preventing, does not require the ingenuity of an "intrigant" to
+discover, as the fact is self-evident. I cannot, therefore, admit that
+either my complaints or suspicions are "tout a fait imaginaires,"
+or that they are "des petitesses," as your excellency is pleased
+contemptuously to term them; but whatever they are, they originate in
+my own observation, without any assistance from the spectacles of
+an "intrigant," with which I am so gratuitously accommodated by your
+excellency.
+
+In still further proof, however, of the real existence of the evils
+in question, I may just observe that since the return of the _Pedro
+Primiero_, that ship has been kept in constant disorder by the delay
+in commencing and the idle and negligent mode of executing even the
+trifling alterations in the channels, which were necessary to enable
+the rigging to be set up, and which, after the lapse of upwards of
+five months, is now scarcely finished, though it might have been
+accomplished in forty-eight hours. Even the time of caulking was
+spun out to a period nearly as long as was occupied last year in the
+accomplishment of that thorough repair which the ship then underwent;
+and the painting is far from being completed after sixteen or eighteen
+days' labour, though a British ship of war is usually painted in a
+day. Even my own cabin is in such a state that when I am on board
+I have no place to sit down in. All these things may appear to your
+excellency as "des petitesses," or even "tout a fait imaginaires,"
+but to me they appear matters of a serious nature, injurious and
+disgraceful to the service.
+
+I may not, perhaps, succeed in convincing your excellency, but I have
+the satisfaction of being inwardly conscious that, independent of my
+natural desire to obtain justice for myself and for all the officers
+and men of the squadron, no small part of my anxiety for the
+fulfilment of the engagements of the Government proceeds from a desire
+to see the navy of his Imperial Majesty rendered efficient; which it
+can never be unless the same good faith is observed with the officers
+and men as is kept between the Government and navy of England, and
+unless indeed many other important considerations are attended to,
+which appear to have hitherto escaped the regard of the Imperial
+Government. Why, for instance, is there that indifference in regard
+to the clothing of the men? What but discontent, debasement, and
+enervation, can be the effects of that ragged and almost naked
+condition in which they have so long been suffered to remain,
+notwithstanding the numerous applications that have been made for the
+necessary clothing? I would also inquire the reason that officers and
+men, strangers to each other, and destitute of attachment and mutual
+confidence, are hastily shipped together in vessels of war going on
+active service, when better arrangements might easily be made. What
+can be expected from the vessels of war just gone out, in case they
+should meet with any serious opposition, but disgrace to those by whom
+they were so imperfectly and improperly equipped?
+
+If this communication were not already too long, or if, after the
+letter I have received from your excellency, it were possible for me
+to continue my representations in the hope of redress, I could add to
+the list of those causes of complaint which I have already pointed out
+many particulars which none but those who are blindly attached to that
+wretched system which has been so injurious to the marine and kingdom
+of Portugal could consider either trifling or imaginary. But as my
+present object has been chiefly to repel those imputations in which
+your excellency has so freely indulged, and believing that I have
+fully succeeded in that object, and have shown clearly that your
+excellency has unjustly and untruly accused me of encouraging
+talebearers, making unfounded complaints, and of being of a nature so
+avaricious as never to be satisfied--which latter, by-the-by, is
+an extraordinary accusation to prefer against me--a man whom your
+excellency must know has not hitherto been benefited, after being
+more than a year in the service, to the amount of one shilling for the
+important services he has rendered, but who, on the contrary, as
+he can show by his accounts, has necessarily expended more in his
+official situation than he has received in the service; so that the
+"remercimens" and the "satisfaction," which your excellency accuses
+him of being deficient in, can scarcely yet be due, unless it is
+proper to be satisfied and grateful too for less than nothing--having,
+I say, fully repelled and refuted these unjust accusations, I shall
+avoid troubling your excellency with any further detail. But I repeat
+that your excellency has my free consent to cause the whole of my
+official correspondence to be published; for in all that I have
+advanced with respect to the violations of contracts, and on the
+subject of the unsatisfied claims of the squadron, and relative to
+the ill-usage of officers under arrest, and to the misconduct of the
+judges of prizes, and of those who have the management of the civil
+department of the marine,[A] and in all matters whatever in question
+between the Government of Brazil and myself, I am confident I may
+safely rely on the decision of the public. And if, at the same time,
+your excellency can give a satisfactory explanation of the motives of
+that line of conduct on the part of the ministers and council, which,
+without such explanation, would have the appearance of originating in
+bad faith, the publication would be doubly beneficial by placing the
+conduct and character of all parties in a proper point of view.
+
+[Footnote A: Also Portuguese.]
+
+    I have the honour to be, Most excellent sir, Your respectful
+    and most obedient Servant, COCHRANE AND MARANHAM.
+
+    His Excellency, Jo�o Sereriano Maciele da Costa, Secretary of
+    State for the Home Department, &c., &c., &c.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+END OF VOL. I.
+
+
+LONDON: PRINTED BY WILLIAM CLOWES AND SONS, STAMFORD STREET AND
+CHARING CROSS.
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Life of Thomas, Lord Cochrane,
+Tenth Earl of Dundonald, G.C.B., Admiral of the Red, Rear-Admiral of the Fleet, Etc., Etc., by Thomas Cochrane, Earl of Dundonald
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diff --git a/old/old/13351.txt b/old/old/13351.txt
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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Life of Thomas, Lord Cochrane, Tenth
+Earl of Dundonald, G.C.B., Admiral of the Red, Rear-Admiral of the Fleet, Etc., Etc., by Thomas Cochrane, Earl of Dundonald
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: The Life of Thomas, Lord Cochrane, Tenth Earl of Dundonald, G.C.B., Admiral of the Red, Rear-Admiral of the Fleet, Etc., Etc.
+
+Author: Thomas Cochrane, Earl of Dundonald
+
+Release Date: September 2, 2004 [EBook #13351]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE LIFE OF THOMAS, LORD COCHRANE ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Ted Garvin, Daniel Watkins and PG Distributed Proofreaders
+
+
+
+
+THE LIFE OF
+
+THOMAS, LORD COCHRANE, TENTH EARL OF DUNDONALD, G.C.B., ADMIRAL OF THE
+RED, REAR-ADMIRAL OF THE FLEET, ETC., ETC.,
+
+COMPLETING "THE AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF A SEAMAN."
+
+BY
+
+THOMAS, ELEVENTH EARL OF DUNDONALD, AND H.R. FOX BOURNE, AUTHOR OF
+"ENGLISH SEAMEN UNDER THE TUDORS," ETC. ETC.
+
+IN TWO VOLUMES. VOL. I.
+
+  Published 1869.
+
+  TO MISS ANGELA BURDETT COUTTS,
+  WHOSE HONOURED FATHER
+  WAS THE FIRMEST AND MOST CONSTANT FRIEND AND SUPPORTER
+  OF MY FATHER,
+  DURING A CAREER DEVOTED TO THE WELFARE OF HIS COUNTRY
+  AND THE HONOUR OF HIS PROFESSION,
+  AND WHOM IT IS MY HAPPINESS AND PRIVILEGE TO CALL MY FRIEND,
+  THIS WORK IS DEDICATED,
+  WITH ALL RESPECT AND REGARD,
+  BY
+  HER ATTACHED AND FAITHFUL SERVANT,
+
+  DUNDONALD.
+
+
+PREFACE.
+
+
+In these Volumes is recounted the public life of my late father from
+the period to which the narrative was brought down by himself in his
+unfinished "Autobiography of a Seaman." The completion of that work
+was prevented by his death, which occurred almost immediately after
+the publication of the Second Volume, eight years and a half ago.
+I had hoped to supplement it sooner; but in this hope I have been
+thwarted.
+
+My father's papers were, at the time of his death, in the hands of
+a gentleman who had assisted him in the preparation of his
+"Autobiography," and to this gentleman was entrusted the completion
+of the work. Illness and other occupations, however, interfered, and,
+after a lapse of about two years, he died, leaving the papers, of
+which no use had been made by him, to fall into the possession of
+others. Only after long delay and considerable trouble and expense was
+I able to recover them and realize my long-cherished purpose.
+
+Further delay in the publication of this book has arisen from my
+having been compelled, as my father's executor, to make three long and
+laborious journeys to Brazil, which have engrossed much time.
+
+At length, however, I find myself able to pay the debt which I
+owe both to my father's memory and to the public, by whom the
+"Autobiography of a Seaman" was read with so much interest. At the
+beginning of last year I placed all the necessary documents in the
+hands of my friend, Mr. H.R. Fox Bourne, asking him to handle them
+with the same zeal of research and impartiality of judgment which he
+has shown in his already published works. I have also furnished
+him with my own reminiscences of so much of my father's life as was
+personally known to me; and he has availed himself of all the help
+that could be obtained from other sources of information, both private
+and public. He has written the book to the best of his ability, and I
+have done my utmost to help him in making it as complete and accurate
+as possible. We hope that the late Earl of Dundonald's life and
+character have been all the better delineated in that the work has
+grown out of the personal knowledge of his son and the unbiassed
+judgment of a stranger.
+
+A long time having elapsed since the publication of the "Autobiography
+of a Seaman," it has been thought well to give a brief recapitulation
+of its story in an opening chapter.
+
+The four following chapters recount my father's history during the
+five years following the cruel Stock Exchange trial, the subject last
+treated of in the "Autobiography." It is not strange that the
+harsh treatment to which he was subjected should have led him into
+opposition, in which there was some violence, which he afterwards
+condemned, against the Government of the day. But, if there were
+circumstances to be regretted in this portion of his career, it shows
+almost more plainly than any other with what strength of philanthropy
+he sought to aid the poor and the oppressed.
+
+His occupations as Chief Admiral, first of Chili and afterwards
+of Brazil, were described by himself in two volumes, entitled, "A
+Narrative of Services in Chili, Peru, and Brazil." Therefore, the
+seven chapters of the present work which describe these episodes
+have been made as concise as possible. Only the most memorable
+circumstances have been dwelt upon, and the details introduced have
+been drawn to some extent from documents not included in the volumes
+referred to.
+
+There was no reason for abridgment in treating of my father's
+connection with Greece. In the service of that country he was less
+able to achieve beneficial results than in Chili and Brazil; but
+as, on that ground, he has been frequently traduced by critics and
+historians, it seemed especially important to show how his successes
+were greater than these critics and historians have represented, and
+how his failures sprang from the faults of others and from misfortunes
+by which he was the chief sufferer. The documents left by him,
+moreover, afford abundant material for illustrating an eventful period
+in modern history. The chapters referring to Greece and Greek affairs,
+accordingly, enter with especial fullness into the circumstances
+of Lord Dundonald's life at this time, and his connection with
+contemporary politics.
+
+Eight other chapters recount all that was of most public interest in
+the thirty years of my father's life after his return from Greece.
+Except during a brief period of active service in his profession,
+when he had command of the British squadron in North American and West
+Indian waters, those thirty years were chiefly spent in efforts--by
+scientific research, by mechanical experiment, and by persevering
+argument--to increase the naval power of his country, and in efforts
+no less zealous to secure for himself that full reversal of the
+wrongful sentence passed upon him in a former generation, which
+could only be attained by public restitution of the official rank and
+national honours of which he had been deprived.
+
+This restitution was begun by his Majesty King William IV., and
+completed by our present most gracious Queen and the Prince Consort.
+By the kindnesses which he received from these illustrious persons,
+my father's later years were cheered; and I can never cease to be
+profoundly grateful to my Sovereign, and her revered husband, for the
+personal interest with which they listened to my prayer immediately
+after his death. Through their gracious influence, the same banner of
+the Bath that had been taken from him nearly fifty years before, was
+restored to its place in Westminster Abbey, and allowed to float
+over his remains at their time of burial. Thus the last stain upon my
+father's memory was wiped out.
+
+DUNDONALD. London, May 24th, 1869.
+
+
+CONTENTS OF THE FIRST VOLUME.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+CHAPTER I.
+
+[1775-1814.]
+
+Introduction.--Lord Cochrane's Ancestry.--His First Occupations in
+the Navy.--His Cruise in the _Speedy_ and Capture of the _Gamo_.--His
+Exploits in the _Pallas_.--The beginning of his Parliamentary
+Life.--His two Elections as Member for Honiton.--His Election for
+Westminster.--Further Seamanship.--The Basque Roads Affair.--The
+Court-Martial on Lord Gambier, and its injurious effects on Lord
+Cochrane's Naval Career.--His Parliamentary Occupations.--His Visit to
+Malta and its Issues.--The Antecedents and Consequences of the Stock
+Exchange Trial - 1
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II.
+
+[1814.]
+
+
+The Issue of the Stock Exchange Trial.--Lord Cochrane's Committal to
+the King's Bench Prison.--The Debate upon his Case in the House of
+Commons, and his Speech on that Occasion.--His Expulsion from the
+House, and Re-election as Member for Westminster.--The Withdrawal of
+his Sentence to the Pillory.--The Removal of his Insignia as a Knight
+of the Bath - 35
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III.
+
+[1814-1815.]
+
+
+Lord Cochrane's Bearing in the King's Bench Prison.--His Street
+Lamps.--His Escape, and the Motives for it.--His Capture in the House
+of Commons, and subsequent Treatment.--His Confinement in the Strong
+Room of the King's Bench Prison.--His Release - 48
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV.
+
+[1815-1816.]
+
+
+Lord Cochrane's Return to the House of Commons.--His Share in the
+Refusal of the Duke of Cumberland's Marriage Pension.--His Charges
+against Lord Ellenborough, and their Rejection by the House.--His
+Popularity.--The Part taken by him in Public Meetings for the Relief
+of the People.--The London Tavern Meeting.--His further Prosecution,
+Trial at Guildford, and subsequent Imprisonment.--The Payment of his
+Fines by a Penny Subscription.--The Congratulations of his Westminster
+Constituents - 74
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V.
+
+[1817-1818.]
+
+
+The State of Politics in England in 1817 and 1818, and Lord Cochrane's
+Share in them.--His Work as a Radical in and out of Parliament.--His
+futile Efforts to obtain the Prize Money due for his Services at
+Basque Roads.--The Holly Hill Siege.--The Preparations for his
+Enterprise in South America.--His last Speech in Parliament - 109
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI.
+
+[1810-1817.]
+
+
+The Antecedents of Lord Cochrane's Employments in South
+America.--The War of Independence in the Spanish
+Colonies.--Mexico.--Venezuela.--Colombia.--Chili.--The first
+Chilian Insurrection.--The Carreras and O'Higgins.--The Battle of
+Rancagua.--O'Higgins's Successes.--The Establishment of the Chilian
+Republic.--Lord Cochrane invited to enter the Chilian Service - 137
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII.
+
+[1818-1820.]
+
+
+Lord Cochrane's Voyage to Chili.--His Reception at Valparaiso and
+Santiago.--The Disorganization of the Chilian Fleet.--First Signs
+of Disaffection.--The Naval Forces of the Chilians and the
+Spaniards.--Lord Cochrane's first Expedition to Peru.--His Attack on
+Callao.--"Drake the Dragon" and "Cochrane the Devil."--Lord Cochrane's
+Successes in Overawing the Spaniards, in Treasure-taking, and
+in Encouragement of the Peruvians to join in the War of
+Independence.--His Plan for another Attack on Callao.--His
+Difficulties in Equipping the Expedition.--The Failure of
+the Attempt.--His Plan for Storming Valdivia.--Its Successful
+Accomplishment - 148
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII.
+
+[1820-1822.]
+
+
+Lord Cochrane's Return to Valparaiso.--His Relations with the Chilian
+Senate.--The third Expedition to Peru.--General San Martin.--The
+Capture of the _Esmeralda_, and its Issue.--Lord Cochrane's subsequent
+Work.--San Martin's Treachery.--His Assumption of the Protectorate
+of Peru.--His Base Proposals to Lord Cochrane.--Lord Cochrane's
+Condemnation of them.--The Troubles of the Chilian Squadron.--Lord
+Cochrane's Seizure of Treasure at Ancon, and Employment of it in
+Paying his Officers and Men.--His Stay at Guayaquil.--The Advantages
+of Free Trade.--Lord Cochrane's Cruise along the Mexican Coast
+in Search of the remaining Spanish Frigates.--Their Annexation by
+Peru.--Lord Cochrane's last Visit to Callao - 177
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX.
+
+[1822-1823.]
+
+
+Lord Cochrane's Return to Valparaiso,--The Conduct of the Chilian
+Government towards him.--His Resignation of Chilian Employment, and
+Acceptance of Employment under the Emperor of Brazil.--His subsequent
+Correspondence with the Government of Chili.--The Results of his
+Chilian Service. - 208
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X.
+
+[1823.]
+
+
+The Antecedents of Brazilian Independence.--Pedro I.'s Accession.--The
+Internal and External Troubles of the New Empire.--Lord Cochrane's
+Invitation to Brazil.--His Arrival at Rio de Janeiro, and Acceptance
+of Brazilian Service.--His first Occupations.--The bad condition of
+the Squadron, and the consequent Failure of his first Attack on the
+Portuguese off Bahia.--His Plans for Improving the Fleet, and their
+Success.--His Night Visit to Bahia, and the consequent Flight of the
+Enemy.--Lord Cochrane's Pursuit of them.--His Visit to Maranham,
+and Annexation of that Province and of Para.--His Return to Rio de
+Janeiro.--The Honours conferred upon him. - 223
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI
+
+[1823-1824.]
+
+
+The Nature of the Rewards bestowed on Lord Cochrane for his first
+Services to Brazil.--Pedro I. and the Portuguese Faction.--Lord
+Cochrane's Advice to the Emperor.--The Troubles brought upon him by
+it.--The Conduct of the Government towards him and the Fleet.--The
+withholding of Prize-money and Pay.--Personal Indignities to Lord
+Cochrane.--An Amusing Episode.--Lord Cochrane's Threat of Resignation,
+and its Effect.--Sir James Mackintosh's Allusion to him in the House
+of Commons - 246
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII.
+
+[1824-1825.]
+
+The Insurrection in Pernambuco.--Lord Cochrane's Expedition to
+suppress it.--The Success of his Work.--His Stay at Maranham.--The
+Disorganized State of Affairs in that Province.--Lord Cochrane's
+efforts to restore Order and good Government.--Their result in further
+Trouble to himself.--His Cruise in the _Piranga_, and Return to
+England.--His Treatment there.--His Retirement from Brazilian
+Service.--His Letter to the Emperor Pedro I.--The End of his South
+American Employments - 266
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII.
+
+[1820-1825.]
+
+The Greek Revolution and its Antecedents.--The Modern Greeks.--The
+Friendly Society.--Sultan Mahmud and Ali Pasha's Rebellion.--The
+Beginning of the Greek Insurrection.--Count John Capodistrias.--Prince
+Alexander Hypsilantes.--The Revolution in the Morca.--Theodore
+Kolokotrones.--The Revolution in the Islands.--The Greek Navy and its
+Character.--The Excesses of the Greeks.--Their bad Government.--Prince
+Alexander Mavrocordatos.--The Progress of the Revolution.--The
+Spoliation of Chios.--English Philhellenes; Thomas Gordon, Frank Abney
+Hastings, Lord Byron.--The first Greek Loan, and the bad uses to
+which it was put.--Reverses of the Greeks.--Ibrahim and his
+Successes.--Mavrocordatos's Letter to Lord Cochrane - 286
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV.
+
+[1825-1826.]
+
+Lord Cochrane's Dismissal from Brazilian Service, and his Acceptance
+of Employment as Chief Admiral of the Greeks.--The Greek Committee and
+the Greek Deputies in London.--The Terms of Lord Cochrane's Agreement,
+and the consequent Preparations.--His Visit to Scotland.--Sir Walter
+Scott's Verses on Lady Cochrane.--Lord Cochrane's forced Retirement to
+Boulogne, and thence to Brussels.--The Delays in fitting out the
+Greek Armament.--Captain Hastings, Mr. Hobhouse, and Sir Francis
+Burdett.--Captain Hastings's Memoir on the Greek Leaders and
+their Characters.--The first Consequences of Lord Cochrane's new
+Enterprise.--The Duke of Wellington's Message to Lord Cochrane.--The
+Greek Deputies' Proposal to Lord Cochrane and his Answer.--The Final
+Arrangements for his Departure.--The Messiah of the Greeks. - 318
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV.
+
+[1826-1827.]
+
+
+Lord Cochrane's Departure for Greece.--His Visit to London and
+Voyage to the Mediterranean.--His Stay at Messina, and afterwards
+at Marseilles.--The Delays in Completing the Steamships, and the
+consequent Injury to the Greek Cause, and serious Embarrassment
+to Lord Cochrane.--His Correspondence with Messrs. J. and S.
+Ricardo.--His Letter to the Greek Government.--Chevalier Eynard, and
+the Continental Philhellenes.--Lord Cochrane's Final Departure and
+Arrival in Greece. - 355
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI.
+
+[1826-1827.]
+
+
+The Progress of Affairs in Greece.--The Siege of Missolonghi.--Its
+Fall.--The Bad Government and Mismanagement of the Greeks.--General
+Ponsonby's Account of them.--The Effect of Lord Cochrane's Promised
+Assistance.--The Fears of the Turks, as shown in their Correspondence
+with Mr. Canning.--The Arrival of Captain Hastings in Greece, with the
+_Karteria_.--His Opinion of Greek Captains and Sailors.--The Frigate
+_Hellas_,--Letters to Lord Cochrane from Admiral Miaoulis and the
+Governing Commission of Greece. - 368
+
+
+
+
+APPENDIX.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+I. (Page 22.)--"Resume of the Services of the late Earl of Dundonald,
+none of which have been Requited or Officially Recognised," by Thomas,
+Eleventh Earl of Dundonald. - 389
+
+II. (Page 23.)--Part of a Speech delivered by Lord Cochrane in the
+House of Commons, on the 11th of May, 1809, on Naval Abuses. - 397
+
+III. (Page 258.)--A Letter written by Lord Cochrane to the Secretary
+of State of Brazil on the 3rd of May, 1824. - 400
+
+
+
+
+THE LIFE
+
+OF
+
+THOMAS, TENTH EARL OF DUNDONALD.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I.
+
+INTRODUCTION.--LORD COCHRANE'S ANCESTRY.--HIS FIRST OCCUPATIONS IN
+THE NAVY.--HIS CRUISE IN THE "SPEEDY" AND CAPTURE OF THE "GAMO."--HIS
+EXPLOITS IN THE "PALLAS."--THE BEGINNING OF HIS PARLIAMENTARY
+LIFE.--HIS TWO ELECTIONS AS MEMBER FOR HONITON.--HIS ELECTION FOR
+WESTMINSTER.--FURTHER SEAMANSHIP.--THE BASQUE ROADS AFFAIR.--THE
+COURT-MARTIAL ON LORD GAMBIER, AND ITS INJURIOUS EFFECTS ON LORD
+COCHRANE'S NAVAL CAREER.--HIS PARLIAMENTARY OCCUPATIONS.--HIS VISIT TO
+MALTA AND ITS ISSUES.--THE ANTECEDENTS AND CONSEQUENCES OF THE STOCK
+EXCHANGE TRIAL.
+
+[1775-1814.]
+
+
+Thomas, Loud Cochrane, tenth Earl of Dundonald, was born at Annsfield,
+in Lanark, on the 14th of December, 1775, and died in London on the
+31st of October, 1860. Shortly before his death he wrote two volumes,
+styled "The Autobiography of a Seaman," which set forth his history
+down to 1814, the fortieth year of his age. To those volumes the
+present work, recounting his career during the ensuing six-and-forty
+years, is intended to serve as a sequel. Before entering upon the
+later narrative, however, it will be necessary briefly to recapitulate
+the incidents that have been already detailed.
+
+
+The Earl of Dundonald was descended from a long line of knights and
+barons, chiefly resident in Renfrew and Ayr, many of whom were men
+of mark in Scottish history during the thirteenth and following
+centuries. Robert Cochran was the especial favourite and foremost
+counsellor of James III., who made him Earl of Mar; but the favours
+heaped upon him, and perhaps a certain arrogance in the use of those
+favours, led to so much opposition from his peers and rivals that he
+was assassinated by them in 1480.[A]
+
+[Footnote A: Pinkerton, the historian, gives some curious details,
+illustrating not only Robert Cochran's character, but also the
+condition of government and society in Scotland four centuries ago.
+"The Scottish army," he says, "amounting to about fifty thousand, had
+crowded to the royal banner at Burrough Muir, near Edinburgh, whence
+they marched to Soutray and to Lauder, at which place they encamped
+between the church and the village. Cochran, Earl of Mar, conducted
+the artillery. On the morning after their arrival at Lauder, the peers
+assembled in a secret council, in the church, and deliberated upon
+their designs of revenge.... Cochran, ignorant of their designs, left
+the royal presence to proceed to the council. The earl was attended by
+three hundred men, armed with light battle-axes, and distinguished
+by his livery of white with black fillets. He was clothed in a riding
+cloak of black velvet, and wore a large chain of gold around his
+neck; his horn of the chase, or of battle, was adorned with gold
+and precious stones, and his helmet, overlaid with the same valuable
+metal, was borne before him. Approaching the door of the church,
+he commanded an attendant to knock with authority; and Sir Robert
+Douglas, of Lochleven, who guarded the passage, inquiring the name,
+was answered, 'Tis I, the Earl of Mar.' Cochran and some of his
+friends were admitted. Angus advanced to him, and pulling the gold
+chain from his neck, said, 'A rope will become thee better,' while
+Douglas of Lochleven seized his hunting-horn, declaring that he had
+been too long a hunter of mischief. Rather astonished than alarmed,
+Cochran said, 'My lords, is it jest or earnest?' To which it was
+replied, 'It is good earnest, and so thou shalt find it; for thou
+and thy accomplices have too long abused our prince's favour. But no
+longer expect such advantage, for thou and thy followers shall now
+reap the deserved reward.' Having secured Mar, the lords despatched
+some men-at-arms to the king's pavilion, conducted by two or three
+moderate leaders, who amused James, while their followers seized the
+favourites. Sir William Roger and others were instantly hanged over
+the bridge at Lauder. Cochran was now brought out, his hands bound
+with a rope, and thus conducted to the bridge, and hanged above his
+fellows."] Later scions of the family prospered, and in 1641, Sir
+William Cochrane was raised to the peerage, as Lord Cochrane of
+Cowden, by Charles I. For his adherence to the royal cause this
+nobleman was fined 5000_l._ by the Long Parliament in 1654; and, in
+recompense for his loyalty, he was made first Earl of Dundonald by
+Charles II. in 1669. His successors were faithful to the Stuarts, and
+thereby they suffered heavily. Archibald, the ninth Earl, inheriting a
+patrimony much reduced by the loyalty and zeal of his ancestors, spent
+it all in the scientific pursuits to which he devoted himself, and
+in which he was the friendly rival of Watt, Priestley, Cavendish, and
+other leading chemists and mechanicians of two or three generations
+ago. His eldest son, heir to little more than a famous name and a
+chivalrous and enterprising disposition, had to fight his own way in
+the world.
+
+
+Lord Cochrane--as the subject of these memoirs was styled in courtesy
+until his accession to the peerage in 1831--was intended by his father
+for the army, in which he received a captain's commission. But his
+own predilections were in favour of a seaman's life, and accordingly,
+after brief schooling, he joined the _Hind_, as a midshipman, in June,
+1793, when he was nearly eighteen years of age.
+
+During the next seven years he learnt his craft in various ships
+and seas, being helped in many ways by his uncle, the Hon. Alexander
+Cochrane, but profiting most by his own ready wit and hearty love
+of his profession. Having been promoted to the rank of lieutenant in
+1794, he was made commander of the _Speedy_ early in 1800. This little
+sloop, not larger than a coasting brig, but crowded with eighty-four
+men and six officers, seemed to be intended only for playing at war.
+Her whole armament consisted of fourteen 4-pounders. When her new
+commander tried to add to these a couple of 12-pounders, the deck
+proved too small and the timbers too weak for them, and they had to be
+returned. So Lilliputian was his cabin, that, to shave himself, Lord
+Cochrane was obliged to thrust his head out of the skylight and make a
+dressing-table of the quarter-deck.
+
+Yet the _Speedy_, ably commanded, was quite large enough to be of
+good service. Cruising in her along the Spanish coast, Lord Cochrane
+succeeded in capturing many gunboats and merchantmen, and the enemy
+soon learnt to regard her with especial dread. On one memorable
+occasion, the 6th of May, 1801, he fell in with the _Gamo_, a Spanish
+frigate furnished with six times as many men as were in the _Speedy_
+and with seven times her weight of shot. Lord Cochrane, boldly
+advancing, locked his little craft in the enemy's rigging. It was, in
+miniature, a contest as unequal as that by which Sir Francis Drake and
+his fellows overcame the Great Armada of Spain in 1588, and with like
+result. The heavy shot of the _Gamo_ riddled the _Speedy's_ sails,
+but, passing overhead, did no mischief to her hulk or her men. During
+an hour there was desperate fighting with small arms, and twice
+the Spaniards tried in vain to board their sturdy little foe. Lord
+Cochrane then determined to meet them on their own deck, and the
+daring project was facilitated by one of the smart expedients in which
+he was never wanting. Before going into action, "knowing," as he said,
+"that the final struggle would be a desperate one, and calculating
+on the superstitious wonder which forms an element in the Spanish
+character," he had ordered his crew to blacken their faces; and, "what
+with this and the excitement of combat, more ferocious-looking objects
+could scarcely be imagined." With these men following him he promptly
+gained the frigate's deck, and then their strong arms and hideous
+faces soon frightened the Spaniards into submission.
+
+The senior officer of the _Gamo_ asked for a certificate of his
+bravery, and received one testifying that he had conducted himself
+"like a true Spaniard." To Spain, of course, this was no sarcasm,
+and on the strength of the document its holder soon obtained further
+promotion.
+
+That achievement, which cost only three men's lives, led to
+consequences greater than could have been expected. Lord Cochrane,
+after three months' waiting, received the rank of post captain. But
+his desire that the services of Lieutenant Parker, his second in
+command, should also be recompensed led to a correspondence with Earl
+St. Vincent which turned him from a jealous superior into a bitter
+enemy. In reply to Lord Cochrane's recommendation, Earl St. Vincent
+alleged that "it was unusual to promote two officers for such a
+service,--besides which the small number of men killed on board the
+_Speedy_ did not warrant the application." Lord Cochrane answered,
+with incautious honesty, that "his lordship's reasons for not
+promoting Lieutenant Parker, because there were only three men killed
+on board the _Speedy_, were in opposition to his lordship's own
+promotion to an earldom, as well as that of his flag-captain to
+knighthood, and his other officers to increased rank and honours; for
+that, in the battle from which his lordship derived his title there
+was only one man killed on board his own flagship." That was language
+too plain to be forgiven.
+
+In July, 1801, the _Speedy_ was captured by three French
+line-of-battle ships, whose senior in command, Captain Palliere,
+declined to accept the sword of an officer "who had," as he said,
+"for so many hours struggled against impossibility," and asked Lord
+Cochrane, though a prisoner, still to wear it. He, however, was
+refused employment as commander of another ship. Thereupon, with
+characteristic energy, he devoted his forced leisure from professional
+pursuits to a year of student life at Edinburgh, where, in 1802, Lord
+Palmerston was his class-fellow under Professor Dugald Stewart.
+
+This occupation, however, was disturbed by the renewal of war with
+France in 1803. Lord Cochrane, though with difficulty, then obtained
+permission to return to active service, the _Arab_, one of the
+craziest little ships in the navy, being assigned to him. On his
+representing that she was too rotten for use off the French coast, he
+was ordered to employ her in cruising in the North Sea and protecting
+the fisheries north-east of the Orkneys, "where," as he said, "no
+vessel fished, and consequently there were no fisheries to protect."
+This ignominious work lasted for a year. It was brought to a close
+in December, 1804, soon after the appointment of Lord Melville, in
+succession to Earl St. Vincent, as First Lord of the Admiralty.
+
+By him Lord Cochrane was transferred from the _Arab_ to the _Pallas_,
+a new and smart frigate of thirty-two guns, and allowed to use her in
+a famous cruise of prize-taking among the Azores and off the coast
+of Portugal. This was followed in 1806 by farther work in the same
+frigate, the closing portion of which was especially memorable. Being
+off the Basque Roads at the end of April he fixed his attention upon a
+frigate, the _Minerve_, and three brigs, forming an important part of
+the French squadron in the Mediterranean. After three weeks' waiting,
+on the 14th of May, he saw the frigate and the brigs approaching him,
+and promptly prepared to attack them. He was not deterred by knowing
+that the _Minerve_ alone, carrying forty guns, was far stronger than
+the _Pallas_, which had also to withstand the force of the three
+brigs, each with sixteen guns, and to be prepared for the fire of the
+batteries on the Isle d'Aix. "This morning, when close to Isle d'Aix,
+reconnoitring the French squadron," he wrote concisely to his admiral,
+"it gave me great joy to find our late opponent, the black frigate,
+and her companions, the three brigs, getting under sail. We formed
+high expectations that the long wished-for opportunity was at last
+arrived. The _Pallas_ remained under topsails by the wind to await
+them. At half-past eleven a smart point-blank firing commenced on both
+sides, which was severely felt by the enemy. The main topsail-yard
+of one of the brigs was cut through, and the frigate lost her
+after-sails. The batteries on I'lsle d'Aix opened on the _Pallas_, and
+a cannonade continued, interrupted on our part only by the necessity
+we were under to make various tacks to avoid the shoals, till one
+o'clock, when our endeavour to gain the wind of the enemy and get
+between him and the batteries proved successful. An effectual distance
+was now chosen. A few broadsides were poured in. The enemy's fire
+slackened. I ordered ours to cease, and directed Mr. Sutherland, the
+master, to run the frigate on board, with intention effectually to
+prevent her retreat. The enemy's side thrust our guns back into the
+ports. The whole were then discharged. The effect and crash were
+dreadful. Their decks were deserted. Three pistol-shots were the
+unequal return. With confidence I say that the frigate would have
+been lost to France, had not the unequal collision torn away our
+fore-topmast, jib-boom, fore and maintop-sails, spritsail-yards,
+bumpkin, cathead, chainplates, fore-rigging, foresail, and bower
+anchor, with which last I intended to hook on; but all proved
+insufficient. She would yet have been lost to France, had not the
+French admiral, seeing his frigate's foreyard gone, her rigging
+ruined, and the danger she was in, sent two others to her assistance.
+The _Pallas_ being a wreck, we came out with what sail could be set,
+and his Majesty's sloop the _Kingfisher_ afterwards took us in tow."
+The exploit was none the less valiant in that it was partly a failure.
+
+The waiting-times before and after that cruise were occupied by Lord
+Cochrane with brief commencement of parliamentary life. Long before
+this time Lord Cochrane had resolved on entering the House of Commons,
+in order to expose the naval abuses which were then rife, and which he
+had never been deterred, by consideration of his own interests, from
+boldly denouncing. He stood for Honiton in 1805, and was defeated
+through his refusal to vie with his opponent in the art of bribery. He
+contrived, however, to profit by corruption while he punished it.
+As soon as the election was over, he gave ten guineas to each of the
+constituents who had freely voted for him. The consequence of this was
+his triumphant return at the new election, which took place in July,
+1806. When his supporters asked for like payment to that made in the
+previous instance, it was bluntly refused. "The former gift," said
+Lord Cochrane, "was for your disinterested conduct in not taking the
+bribe of five pounds from the agents of my opponent. For me now to pay
+you would be a violation of my principles."
+
+A short cruise in the Basque Roads prevented Lord Cochrane from
+occupying in the House of Commons the seat thus won, and in April,
+1807, very soon after his return, Parliament was again dissolved. He
+then resolved to stand for Westminster, with Sir Francis Burdett for
+his associate. Both were returned, and Lord Cochrane held his seat for
+eleven years. In 1807, however, he had only time to bring forward two
+motions respecting sinecures and naval abuses, which issued in violent
+but unproductive discussion, when he received orders to join the fleet
+in the Mediterranean as captain of the _Imperieuse_. Naval employment
+was grudgingly accorded to him; but it was thought wiser to give him
+work abroad than to suffer under his free speech at home.
+
+This employment was marked by many brilliant deeds, which procured
+for him, on his surrendering his command of the _Imperieuse_ after
+eighteen months' duration, the reproach of having spent more sails,
+stores, gunpowder, and shot than had been used by any other captain in
+the service.
+
+The most brilliant deed of all, one of the most brilliant deeds in
+the whole naval history of England, was his well-known exploit in the
+Basque Roads on the 11th, 12th, and 13th of April, 1809. Much against
+his will, he was persuaded by Lord Mulgrave, at that time First
+Lord of the Admiralty, to bear the responsibility of attacking and
+attempting to destroy the French squadron by means of fireships
+and explosion-vessels. The project was opposed by Lord Gambier, the
+Admiral of the Fleet, as being at once "hazardous, if not desperate,"
+and "a horrible and anti-Christian mode of warfare;" and consequently
+he gave no hearty co-operation. On Lord Cochrane devolved the whole
+duty of preparing for and executing the project. His own words will
+best tell the story.
+
+"On the 11th of April," he said, "it blew hard, with a high sea. As
+all preparations were complete, I did not consider the state of
+the weather a justifiable impediment to the attack; so that, after
+nightfall, the officers who volunteered to command the fireships were
+assembled on board the _Caledonia_, and supplied with instructions
+according to the plan previously laid down by myself. The _Imperieuse_
+had proceeded to the edge of the Boyart Shoal, close to which she
+anchored with an explosion-vessel made fast to her stern, it being my
+intention, after firing the one of which I was about to take charge,
+to return to her for the other, to be employed as circumstances might
+require. At a short distance from the _Imperieuse_ were anchored
+the frigates _Aigle_, _Unicorn_, and _Pallas_, for the purpose of
+receiving the crews of the fireships on their return, as well as to
+support the boats of the fleet assembled alongside the _Caesar_, to
+assist the fireships. The boats of the fleet were not, however, for
+some reason or other made use of at all.
+
+"Having myself embarked on board the largest explosion-vessel,
+accompanied by Lieut. Bissel and a volunteer crew of four men only,
+we led the way to the attack. The night was dark, and, as the wind was
+fair, though blowing hard, we soon neared the estimated position
+of the advanced French ships, for it was too dark to discern them.
+Judging our distance, therefore, as well as we could, with regard to
+the time the fuse was calculated to burn, the crew of four men entered
+the gig, under the direction of Lieut. Bissel, whilst I kindled the
+portfires, and then, descending into the boat, urged the men to pull
+for their lives, which they did with a will, though, as wind and sea
+were strong against us, without making the expected progress.
+
+"To our consternation, the fuses, which had been constructed to burn
+fifteen minutes, lasted little more than half that time, when the
+vessel blew up, filling the air with shells, grenades, and rockets;
+whilst the downward and lateral force of the explosion raised
+a solitary mountain of water, from the breaking of which in all
+directions our little boat narrowly escaped being swamped. The
+explosion-vessel did her work well, the effect constituting one of the
+grandest artificial spectacles imaginable. For a moment, the sky was
+red with the lurid glare arising from the simultaneous ignition of
+fifteen hundred barrels of powder. On this gigantic flash subsiding,
+the air seemed alive with shells, grenades, rockets, and masses of
+timber, the wreck of the shattered vessel. The sea was convulsed as
+by an earthquake, rising, as has been said, in a huge wave, on whose
+crest our boat was lifted like a cork, and as suddenly dropped into
+a vast trough, out of which as it closed upon us with the rush of a
+whirlpool, none expected to emerge. In a few minutes nothing but
+a heavy rolling sea had to be encountered, all having again become
+silence and darkness."
+
+In spite of its bursting too soon, the explosion-vessel did excellent
+work. The strong boom, composed of large spars bound by heavy chains,
+and firmly anchored at various points in its length of more than a
+mile, which was supposed to constitute an impassable barrier between
+the English ships that were outside and the French ships locked behind
+it, was broken in several parts. The enemy's ships were thoroughly
+disorganised by the sudden and appalling occurrence of the explosion.
+In their alarm and confusion, many of them fired into one another,
+and all might have been easily destroyed had the first success of the
+explosion-vessel been properly followed up. Unfortunately, however, on
+returning to the _Imperieuse_, Lord Cochrane found that there had been
+gross mismanagement of the fireships, which, according to his plans,
+were to have been despatched against various sections of the French
+fleet while it was too confused to protect itself. One of them, fired
+at the wrong time and sent in a wrong direction, nearly destroyed
+the _Imperieuse_ and caused the wasting of a second explosion-vessel,
+which was meant to be held in reserve. The others, if not as
+mischievous in their effects, were almost as useless. "Of all the
+fire-ships, upwards of twenty in number," said Lord Cochrane, "only
+four reached the enemy's position, and not one did any damage. The
+_Imperieuse_ lay three miles from the enemy, so that the one which was
+near setting fire to her became useless at the outset; whilst several
+others were kindled a mile and a half to the windward of this, or four
+miles and a half from the enemy. Of the remainder, many were at once
+rendered harmless from being brought to on the wrong tack. Six passed
+a mile to windward of the French fleet, and one grounded on Oleron."
+
+Though the full success of Lord Cochrane's scheme was thus prevented,
+however, the work done by it was considerable. "As the fireships began
+to light up the roads," he said, "we could observe the enemy's fleet
+in great confusion. Without doubt, taking every fireship for an
+explosion-vessel, and being deceived as to their distance, not only
+did the French make no effort to divert them from their course, but
+some of their ships cut their cables and were seen drifting away
+broadside on to the wind and tide, whilst others made sail, as the
+only alternative to escape from what they evidently considered certain
+destruction. At daylight on the morning of the 12th, not a spar of the
+boom was anywhere visible, and, with the exception of the _Foudroyant_
+and _Cassard_, the whole of the enemy's vessels were helplessly
+aground. The flag-ship, _L'Ocean_, a three-decker, drawing the most
+water, lay outermost on the north-west edge of the Palles Shoal,
+nearest the deep water, where she was most exposed to attack; whilst
+all, by the fall of the tide, were lying on their bilge, with
+their bottoms completely exposed to shot, and therefore beyond the
+possibility of resistance."
+
+The French fleet had not been destroyed; yet it was so paralysed by
+the shock that its utter defeat seemed easy to Lord Cochrane. To the
+mast of the _Imperieuse_, between six o'clock in the morning of the
+12th and one in the afternoon, he hoisted signal after signal, urging
+Lord Gambier, who was with the main body of the fleet about fourteen
+miles off, to make an attack. Failing in all these, and growing
+desperate in his zeal, especially as every hour of delay was enabling
+the French to recover themselves and rendering success less sure, he
+suffered his single frigate to drift towards the enemy. "I did not
+venture to make sail," wrote Lord Cochrane, in his very modest account
+of this daring exploit, "lest the movement might be seen from the
+flag-ship, and a signal of recall should defeat my purpose of making
+an attack with the _Imperieuse_; my object being to compel the
+Commander-in-Chief to send vessels to our assistance. We drifted by
+the wind and tide slowly past the fortifications on Isle d'Aix; but,
+though they fired at us with every gun that could be brought to bear,
+the distance was too great to inflict damage. Proceeding thus till
+1.30 p.m., we then suddenly made sail after the nearest of the enemy's
+vessels escaping. In order to divert our attention from the vessels
+we were pursuing, these having thrown their guns overboard, the
+_Calcutta_, a store-ship carrying fifty-six guns, which was still
+aground, broadside on, began firing at us. Before proceeding further,
+it became therefore necessary to attack her, and at 1.50 we shortened
+sail and returned the fire. At 2.0 the _Imperieuse_ came to an anchor
+in five fathoms, and, veering to half a cable, kept fast the spring,
+firing upon the _Calcutta_ with our broadside, and at the same time
+upon the _Aquillon_ and _Ville de Varsovie_, two line-of-battle ships,
+each of seventy-four guns, with our forecastle and bow guns, both
+these ships being aground stern on, in an opposite direction. After
+some time we had the satisfaction of observing several ships sent
+to our assistance, namely, the _Emerald_, the _Unicorn_, the
+_Indefatigable_, the _Valiant_, the _Revenge_, the _Pallas_, and the
+_Aigle_. On seeing this, the captain and the crew of the _Calcutta_
+abandoned their vessel, of which the boats of the _Imperieuse_ took
+possession before the vessels sent to our assistance came down." Soon
+after the arrival of the new ships, the two other vessels were also
+forced to surrender.
+
+Most of the ships sent to his assistance returned to Lord Grambier on
+the 13th. Lord Cochrane, seeing that it would be easy for him to do
+much further mischief, made ready for the work on the morrow. But from
+this he was prevented by the inexcusable conduct of Lord Gambier, who,
+having discountenanced the attempt with the fireships, now not
+only refused to take part in the victory which his comrade had made
+possible, but also hindered its achievement by him.
+
+Lord Cochrane had already overstepped the strict duty of a
+subordinate, though acting only as became an English sailor. The
+fireships with which he had been ordered to ruin the enemy's fleet had
+partly failed through the error of others. "It was then," he said, "a
+question with me whether I should disappoint the expectations of my
+country, be set down as a charlatan by the Admiralty, whose hopes had
+been raised by my plan, and have my future prospects destroyed, or
+force on an action which some had induced an easy Commander-in-Chief
+to believe impracticable." He did force on some fighting, which
+was altogether disastrous to the enemy, and rich in tokens of his
+unflinching heroism; but it was in violation of repeated orders,
+dubiously worded, from Lord Grambier, and, when at last an order was
+issued in terms too distinct to allow of any further evasion, he had
+no alternative but to abandon the enterprise. He was at once sent
+back to England, to be rewarded with much popular favour, and with a
+knighthood of the Order of the Bath, conferred by George III., but to
+become the victim of an official persecution, which, embittering his
+whole life, lasted almost to its close.
+
+It must be admitted that this persecution was in great measure
+provoked by Lord Cochrane's own fearless conduct. He was reasonably
+aggrieved at the effort made by the Admiralty authorities to attribute
+to Lord Gambier, who had taken no part at all in the achievements in
+Basque Roads, all the merit of their success. To use his own caustic
+but accurate words, "The only victory gained by Lord Gambier in Basque
+Roads was that of bringing his ships to anchor there, whilst the
+enemy's ships were quietly heaving off from the banks on which they
+had been driven nine miles distant from the fleet." When for this
+proceeding it was determined to honour Lord Gambier with the thanks
+of Parliament, Lord Cochrane, as member for Westminster, announced his
+intention of opposing the motion. As a bribe to silence he was offered
+an important command by Lord Mulgrave, and it was proposed that his
+name should be included in the vote of thanks. The bribe being
+refused and the opposition persisted in, Lord Gambier demanded a
+court-martial, in which, as he alleged, to controvert the insinuations
+thrown out against him by Lord Cochrane.
+
+The history of this court-martial, its antecedents and its
+consequences, furnishes an episode almost unique in the annals
+of official injustice. As a preparation for it, Lord Gambier, in
+obedience to orders from the Admiralty, supplemented his first account
+of the victory by another of entirely different tenour. In the first,
+written on the spot, he had avowed that he could not speak highly
+enough of Lord Cochrane's vigour and gallantry in approaching the
+enemy,--conduct, he said, "which could not be exceeded by any feat of
+valour hitherto achieved by the British Navy." In the record, written
+four weeks later and in London, he altogether ignored Lord Cochrane's
+services, and transferred the entire merit to himself.
+
+The whole conduct of the court-martial was in keeping with that
+prelude. No effort was spared in stifling all the evidence on Lord
+Cochrane's side, and in adducing false testimony against him. Logbooks
+and witnesses alike were tampered with. In support of his scheme for
+annihilating the whole French fleet, Lord Cochrane produced in court
+a chart showing the relative position of the various points in Aix
+Roads, and of the overhanging fort which was to protect the French
+ships. This chart, left lying upon the table, was tacitly accepted by
+the authorities of the Admiralty as a trustworthy document, and
+duly preserved among the official records. But at the time the court
+refused to receive it in evidence, and adopted instead two falsified
+charts, in which, by the introduction of imaginary shoals and the
+narrowing of the channel to Aix Roads from two miles to one, the
+success of the scheme appeared impossible. Although this gross
+deception was more than suspected, both then and afterwards, by Lord
+Cochrane, his repeated applications to the Admiralty for permission to
+inspect the documents were steadily refused. It was not till more than
+fifty years after the period of the court-martial that he was able to
+prove the scandalous fraud.[A]
+
+[Footnote A: Readers of "The Autobiography of a Seaman" need not be
+reminded of the copious and convincing evidence of the way in which he
+was treated by this court-martial that was adduced by Lord Dundonald
+in that work.]
+
+The result of the court-martial was, of course, such as from the first
+had been intended. Lord Grambier was acquitted, and unlimited blame
+was, by inference, thrown upon Lord Cochrane. The coveted vote
+of thanks was promptly obtained from the House of Commons; Lord
+Cochrane's proposal that the minutes of the court-martial be first
+investigated being, through ministerial influence, summarily rejected.
+
+These proceedings determined the course which men in power were to
+adopt, and fixed Lord Cochrane's future. It was a future to be made up
+of cruel disregard and of revengeful persecution.[A]
+
+[Footnote A: See Appendix (I.).]
+
+Soon after the close of the trial, the brave seaman applied to the
+Admiralty for permission to rejoin his old frigate, the _Imperieuse_,
+and accompanied his application with a bold plan for attacking the
+French fleet in the Scheldt. He received an insulting answer to the
+effect that, if he would be ready to quit the country in a week, and
+then to occupy a position subordinate to that which he had formerly
+held, his services would be accepted. On his replying that his
+great desire to be employed in his profession made him willing to
+do anything, and that all he wished for was a little longer time for
+preparation, no further communication was vouchsafed to him. He was
+quietly superseded in the command of the _Imperieuse_, and received no
+other ship.
+
+Out of this ill-treatment, however, resulted some benefit to the
+nation. Lord Cochrane employed much of his forced leisure, during the
+next few years, in exposing abuses that were then over-abundant, and
+in strenuously advocating reform. In Parliament, voting always with
+his friend Sir Francis Burdett and the Radical party, he limited
+his exertions to naval matters, and such as were within his own
+experience. Herein there was plenty to occupy him, and much that it is
+now amusing to look back upon.[A]
+
+[Footnote A: See Appendix (II.).]
+
+One scandalous grievance led to a memorable episode in his life. The
+many prizes taken by him in the Mediterranean, which, according to
+rule, had been sent to the Maltese Admiralty Court for condemnation,
+had been encumbered with such preposterous charges that, instead of
+realizing anything by his captures, he was made out to be largely
+in debt to the Court. The principal agent of this Court was a Mr.
+Jackson, who illegally held office as at the same time marshal and
+proctor. "The consequence was," said Lord Cochrane, "that every
+prize placed in his hands as proctor had to pass through his hands
+as marshal; whilst as proctor it was further in his power to consult
+himself as marshal as often as he pleased, and to any extent he
+pleased. The amount of self-consultation may be imagined." As proctor
+he charged for visiting himself, and as marshal he charged for
+receiving visits from himself. As marshal he was paid for instructing
+himself, and as proctor he was paid for listening to his own
+instructions. Ten shillings and twopence three farthings was the
+customary charge for an oath to the effect that he had served a
+monition on himself. Of the sheets composing the bill for services of
+these sorts presented to him, Lord Cochrane formed a roll which, when
+unfolded and exhibited in Parliament, stretched from the Speaker's
+table to the bar of the House.
+
+Not content, however, with laughing at the official robberies
+committed upon him, he determined, early in 1811, to proceed to Malta
+and personally investigate the matter. Reaching Valetta long before he
+was expected, he immediately presented himself at the court-house,
+and asked for a copy of the table of fees authorized by the Crown,
+and which, according to directions, ought to have been placed
+conspicuously in the public room. The existence of such a document
+being denied, he proceeded to hunt for it himself, and, after long and
+careful search, found it concealed in an out-of-the-way corner of
+the building. Having taken possession of it, he was carrying off the
+prize, which he intended to exhibit in the House of Commons, in token
+of the extent to which he and others had been defrauded, when he
+was arrested for contempt of court. He protested that the arrest was
+illegal, seeing that, as the court had not been sitting, no insult
+could have been offered to it. The plea was not accepted, and he
+was sent to gaol. No ground for punishment, however, could be found
+against him; and, after refusing to help the authorities out of their
+embarrassment by going at large on bail, and insisting on a proper
+exculpation or nothing at all, he let himself out of window by means
+of a rope. A gig was waiting for him, by which he was enabled to
+overtake the packet-boat that had quitted Malta shortly before,
+to return to London, and to present the document seized by him to
+Parliament a month before the official report of his escapade reached
+home.[A]
+
+[Footnote A: This letter from the Duke of Kent to Lord Cochrane will
+help to show that, even after the time of his Admiralty persecution,
+he was not without friends and admirers in high quarters:--"Kensington
+Palace, 7th July, 1812. My dear Lord,--I trust the acquaintance I
+have the satisfaction to possess with your lordship, and the long
+and intimate friendship subsisting between myself and your brother,
+Lieut.-Colonel Basil Cochrane, will warrant my intruding upon you for
+the purpose of seconding the wishes expressed by a young naval protege
+of mine, and I cannot help adding my earnest request that when your
+distinguished zeal and talents in your profession are again called
+into action by Government, you will kindly oblige me by taking
+Lieutenant Edgar under your wing and protection; he is a fine young
+man, and I think would not disgrace the wardroom of your lordship's
+ship. I remain, with my sincere regard, my dear lord, yours
+faithfully, EDWARD.
+
+"_The Right Honourable Lord Cochrane_."]
+
+An imprisonment of very different character occurred after an interval
+of nearly three years. This was in consequence of the famous Stock
+Exchange trial, the episode last treated of by the Earl of Dundonald
+in his Autobiography, and not quite recounted to the end before death
+stayed his hand.
+
+From 1809 to 1813, Lord Cochrane was allowed to take no active part in
+the work of his profession. But at the close of the latter year, his
+uncle, Sir Alexander Cochrane, having been selected for the command
+of the fleet on the North American station, appointed him his
+flag-captain--an appointment resting only with the Commander-in-Chief,
+and one with which the Government could not interfere. It was always
+Lord Cochrane's belief that the implacable enmity of his foes in the
+Admiralty Office--determined to prevent by irregular means, since no
+regular course was open to them, his return to naval work--helped
+to bring about the cruel persecution by which his whole life was
+embittered. But it must be admitted that the dishonesty of one of his
+own kinsmen--about which a chivalrous sense of honour caused him to be
+reticent during nearly fifty years--conduced to this result.
+
+The chief agent of the fraud practised upon him was a foreigner, named
+De Berenger. This man, clever and unscrupulous, had been associated
+with Mr. Cochrane Johnstone, an uncle of Lord Cochrane's, in certain
+stock-jobbing transactions. In that or in some other way he became
+known to Lord Cochrane and to his other uncle, Sir Alexander Cochrane;
+and, being a smart chemist and pyrotechnist, it was proposed that he
+should accompany Lord Cochrane to North America, and assist him in the
+trial of his recently-discovered method of attacking forts and fleets
+in a secret and irresistible manner. With that object--of course
+clandestine--Sir Alexander Cochrane sought the permission of the
+Admiralty to employ De Berenger as a teacher of sharp-shooting, in
+which he was a well-known adept. This was not granted, and near the
+end of 1813, Sir Alexander set sail for Halifax, leaving Lord Cochrane
+to follow in the _Tonnant_, in charge of a convoy, and in getting
+the _Tonnant_ ready for sea his lordship was busy during January and
+February, 1814. In the former month De Berenger sought him out and
+earnestly requested that, his official appointment being refused, he
+might be taken on board in a private capacity and allowed to rely
+upon the success of his work for recompense. Lord Cochrane declined
+to employ him without some sort of sanction from the Admiralty, and
+De Berenger left him with the avowed intention of doing his utmost to
+procure this sanction.
+
+He was otherwise occupied. Being in urgent need of money, with which
+to evade the grasp of his numerous creditors, he returned to his
+stock-jobbing pursuits--if indeed he had not been engaging in them
+all along; using his proposal for employment under Lord Cochrane as a
+blind or as a secondary resource. Instead of furthering his efforts to
+obtain this employment, he contrived a plan for causing a sudden rise
+in the funds, and thereby securing a large profit to himself and his
+accomplices. On the 20th of February he presented himself at the Ship
+Hotel at Dover, disguised as a foreigner and calling himself Colonel
+De Bourg, professing that he brought intelligence from France to
+the effect that Buonaparte had been killed by the Cossacks, that the
+allied armies were in full march towards Paris, and that a speedy
+cessation of the war was certain. Thence he hurried up to London and
+was traced to have gone, on the following morning, to Lord Cochrane's
+house. The ostensible object of that visit was to renew his
+application for employment on board the _Tonnant_. The real object
+was, by means of a trick, to get possession of a hat and cloak, with
+which to disguise himself afresh, and thus try to elude the pursuit
+of agents of the Stock Exchange, who would soon seek to punish him for
+his fraud. The disguise was given to him in all innocence, and might
+have been successful, had not Lord Cochrane, on finding how grossly
+he had been deceived, volunteered to assist in punishing the culprit.
+Leaving the _Tonnant_, in which he was about to start from Chatham, he
+returned to London, and gave full information as to his share in the
+transaction, with the view of furthering the cause of justice and
+clearing himself from all blame.
+
+That was prevented by as wanton a prosecution and as malicious a
+perverting of the forms of justice and the principles of equity as the
+annals of English law, not often abused even in a much less degree,
+can show. The straightforward evidence furnished by him was made
+the handle to an elaborate machinery of falsehood and perjury for
+effecting his own ruin. The solicitor who had managed the cause of the
+Admiralty at the court-martial on Lord Gambier, and therein proved his
+skill, was entrusted with the ugly work. By him an elaborate case for
+prosecution was trumped up, and Lord Cochrane, hindered from sailing
+to North America in the _Tonnant_, and hindered from obtaining any
+other employment in his country's service during four-and-thirty
+years, was, on the 8th of June, placed in the prisoner's dock at the
+Court of King's Bench on a charge of conspiring with his uncle, Mr.
+Cochrane Johnstone, with De Berenger, and with some other persons,
+to defraud the Stock Exchange. Lord Ellenborough, who presided at the
+trial, delivered a charge which was even more virulent and more marked
+by political spite than was his wont, and the too compliant jury
+brought in a verdict of "guilty." Lord Cochrane vainly sought for a
+new trial, and vainly adduced abundant proof of his innocence. The
+chance of justice that is every Englishman's right was denied to him.
+He was sentenced to an hour's detention in the pillory at the entrance
+of the Royal Exchange, to a year's imprisonment in the King's Bench
+Prison, and to a fine of a thousand pounds.
+
+The first part of the sentence was not insisted upon, as Sir Francis
+Burdett, Lord Cochrane's noble-hearted colleague as member for
+Westminster, avowed his intention of standing also in the pillory, if
+his friend was subjected to that indignity, and of thus encouraging
+the storm of popular indignation, that, without any such
+encouragement, would probably have led to consequences which
+the Government, already hated by all Englishmen who loved their
+birthright, dared not brook. But the unworthy vengeance of his
+persecutors was amply satisfied in other ways. He had already suffered
+more than most men. "Neglect," he said, "I was accustomed to. But when
+an alleged offence was laid to my charge, in which, on the honour of
+a man now on the brink of the grave, I had not the slightest
+participation, and from which I never benefited, nor thought to
+benefit one farthing, and when this allegation was, by political
+rancour and legal chicanery, consummated in an unmerited conviction
+and an outrageous sentence, my heart for the first time sank within
+me, as conscious of a blow, the effect of which it has required all my
+energies to sustain."
+
+It is needless now to say anything in proof of Lord Cochrane's
+innocence of the charge brought against him. The world has long since
+reversed the verdict passed at Lord Ellenborough's dictation. That
+an officer and a gentleman of Lord Cochrane's reputation should have
+demeaned himself by becoming a party to the fraud of which he was
+accused, is, to say the least, improbable. That, if he had been guilty
+of that fraud, he should not have availed himself of the only benefit
+that could be derived from it by investing in the stocks when they
+were low and selling out during the brief time of their artificial
+value, is far more improbable. That, when the fraud was perpetrated,
+and its chief instrument was undiscovered, he should have left the
+_Tonnant_ in order to expose him, instead of taking him away from
+England, and so almost ensuring the preservation of the secret, is
+utterly impossible.
+
+His only faults were too great faith in his own innocence and a too
+chivalrous desire to protect, or rather to abstain from injuring, his
+unworthy kinsman. "I must be here distinctly understood," it was said
+by Lord Brougham, in his "Historic Sketches of British Statesmen," "to
+deny the accuracy of the opinion which Lord Ellenborough appears to
+have formed in this case, and deeply to lament the verdict of
+'guilty' which the jury returned after three hours' consultation
+and hesitation. If Lord Cochrane was at all aware of his uncle Mr.
+Cochrane Johnstone's proceedings, it was the whole extent of his
+privity to the fact. Having been one of the counsel engaged in the
+cause, I can speak with some confidence respecting it, and I take upon
+me to assert that Lord Cochrane's conviction was mainly owing to the
+extreme repugnance which he felt to giving up his uncle, or taking
+those precautions for his own safety which would have operated against
+that near relation. Even when he, the real criminal, had confessed his
+guilt by taking to flight, and the other defendants were brought up
+for judgment, we, the counsel, could not persuade Lord Cochrane to
+shake himself loose from the contamination by abandoning him."
+
+Part of a letter addressed to the Earl of Dundonald in 1859, on the
+anniversary of his eighty-fourth birthday, and shortly after the
+publication of the first volume of his "Autobiography of a Seaman," by
+the daughter of the man whose wrong-doing had conduced so terribly
+to his misfortunes, may here be fitly quoted:--"You are still active,
+still in health," says the writer, "and you have just given to the
+world a striking proof of the vigour of your mind and intellect. Many
+years I cannot wish for you; but may you live to finish your book,
+and, if it please God, may you and I have a peaceful death-bed. We
+have both suffered much mental anguish, though in various degrees; for
+yours was indeed the hardest lot that an honourable man can be called
+on to bear. Oh, my dear cousin, let me say once more, whilst we are
+still here, how, ever since that miserable time, I have felt that you
+suffered for my poor father's fault--how agonizing that conviction
+was--how thankful I am that _tardy justice_ was done you. May God
+return you fourfold for your generous though misplaced confidence in
+him, and for all your subsequent forbearance!"
+
+Another extract from a letter, from one out of a multitude of tributes
+to the Earl of Dundonald's honourable bearing, which were tendered
+after his death, shall close this introductory chapter. "Five years
+after the trial of Lord Cochrane," wrote Sir Fitzroy Kelly, now Lord
+Chief Baron, on the 17th of December, 1860, "I began to study for the
+bar, and very soon became acquainted with and interested in his case,
+and I have thought of it much and long during more than forty years;
+and I am profoundly convinced that, had he been defended singly and
+separately from the others accused, or had he at the last moment,
+before judgment was pronounced, applied, with competent legal advice
+and assistance, for a new trial, he would have been unhesitatingly and
+honourably acquitted. We cannot blot out this dark page from our legal
+and judicial history."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II.
+
+THE ISSUE OF THE STOCK EXCHANGE TRIAL.--LORD COCHRANE'S COMMITTAL TO
+THE KING'S BENCH PRISON.--THE DEBATE UPON HIS CASE IN THE HOUSE OF
+COMMONS, AND HIS SPEECH ON THAT OCCASION.--HIS EXPULSION FROM THE
+HOUSE, AND RE-ELECTION AS MEMBER FOR WESTMINSTER.--THE WITHDRAWAL OF
+HIS SENTENCE TO THE PILLORY.--THE REMOVAL OF HIS INSIGNIA AS A KNIGHT
+OF THE BATH.
+
+[1814.]
+
+
+The famous and infamous Stock Exchange trial occupied the 8th and 9th
+of June, 1814; but the sentence was deferred until the 21st of the
+same month, in consequence of Lord Cochrane's demand for a new trial.
+That demand was not complied with, in spite of the production
+of overwhelming evidence to justify it; and the victim of Lord
+Ellenborough and the tyrannical Government of the day was at once
+conveyed to the King's Bench Prison. No time was lost in heaping upon
+him all the indignities which, in accordance with precedent and in
+excess of all precedent, might supplement his degradation.
+
+The first was a notice of motion which would result in his expulsion
+from the House of Commons. Lord Cochrane promptly availed himself of
+the opening thus afforded for a public avowal of his innocence. To
+the Hon. Charles Abbot, then Speaker of the House, he wrote from his
+prison on the 23rd of June. "Sir," runs the letter, "I respectfully
+entreat you to communicate to the Honourable House of Commons my
+earnest desire and prayer that no question arising out of the late
+convictions in the Court of King's Bench may be agitated without
+affording me timely notice and full opportunity of attending in my
+place for the justification of my character. From the House of Commons
+I hope to obtain that justice of which too implicit reliance on the
+consciousness of my innocence, and circumstances over which I had no
+control, have hitherto deprived me. The painful situation in which I
+am placed is known to the House, and I trust that I shall be enabled
+to demonstrate that a more injured man has never sought redress
+from those to whose justice I now appeal for the preservation of my
+character and existence."
+
+In compliance with that request, and with parliamentary rules, Lord
+Cochrane was conveyed from the King's Bench Prison to the House of
+Commons, and allowed to read a carefully-prepared statement of his
+case, on the 5th of July, the day fixed for investigation of the
+subject. From this statement it is not necessary to cite the clear
+and conclusive recapitulation of the evidence adduced at the trial, or
+refused admission therein because it was too convincing, in proof of
+Lord Cochrane's innocence; but room must be found for some passages
+illustrating the independent temper of the speaker and the perversions
+of justice to which he fell a victim.
+
+"I am not here, sir," he said, "to bespeak compassion or to pave the
+way to pardon. Both ideas are alike repugnant to my feelings. That the
+public in general have felt indignation at the sentence that has been
+passed upon me does honour to their hearts, and tends still to make
+my country dear to me, in spite of what I have suffered from the
+malignity of persons in power. But, sir, I am not here to complain of
+the hardship of my case or about the cruelty of judges, who, for
+an act which was never till now ever known or thought to be a legal
+offence, have laid upon me a sentence more heavy than they have
+ever yet laid upon persons clearly convicted of the most horrid
+of crimes--crimes of which nature herself cries aloud against the
+commission. If, therefore, it was my object to complain of the cruelty
+of my judges, I should bid the public look into the calendar, and see
+if they could find a punishment like that inflicted on me; inflicted
+by these same judges on any one of these unnatural wretches. It is
+not, however, my business to complain of the cruelty of this sentence.
+I am here to assert, for the third time, my innocence in the most
+unqualified and solemn manner; I am here to expose the unfairness of
+the proceedings against me previous to the trial, at the trial,
+and subsequent to it; I am here to expose the long train of artful
+villainies which have been practised against me hitherto with so much
+success.
+
+"I am persuaded, sir, that the House will easily perceive, and every
+honourable man, I am sure, participate in my feelings, that the
+fine, the imprisonment, the pillory--even that pillory to which I am
+condemned--are nothing, that they weigh not as a feather, when put
+in the balance against my desire to show that I have been unjustly
+condemned. Therefore, sir, I trust that the House will give a fair and
+impartial hearing to what I have to say respecting the conduct of
+my enemies, to expose which conduct is a duty which I owe to my
+constituents, and to my country, not less than to myself.
+
+"In the first place, sir, I here, in the presence of this House, and
+with the eyes of the country fixed upon me, most solemnly declare that
+I am wholly innocent of the crime which has been laid to my
+charge, and for which I have been condemned to the most infamous of
+punishments. Having repeated this assertion of my innocence, I next
+proceed to complain of the means that have been made use of to effect
+my destruction. And first, sir, was it ever before known in this or in
+any other country, that the prosecutor should form a sort of court of
+his own erection, call witnesses before it of his own choosing, and,
+under offers of great rewards, take minutes of the evidence of such
+witnesses, and publish those minutes to the world under the forms and
+appearances of a judicial proceeding? Was it ever before known, that
+steps like these were taken previous to an indictment,--previous to
+the bringing of an intended victim into a court of justice? Was there
+ever before known so regular, so systematic a scheme for exciting
+suspicion against a man, and for implanting an immovable prejudice
+against him in the minds of a whole nation, previous to the preferring
+a Bill of Indictment, in order that the grand jury, be it composed
+of whomsoever it might, should be predisposed to find the bill? I ask
+you, sir, and I ask the House, whether it was ever before known, that
+means like these were resorted to, previous to a man's being legally
+accused? But, sir, what must the world think, when they see some of
+those to whom the welfare and the honour of the nation are committed
+covertly co-operating with a Committee of the Stock Exchange, and
+becoming their associates in so nefarious a scheme? Nevertheless, sir,
+this fact is now notorious to the whole world. I must confess I was
+not prepared to believe the thing possible."
+
+Thereupon followed a detailed examination of the charges brought
+against Lord Cochrane, and of the way in which those charges were
+handled, special complaint being made concerning the malicious bearing
+of Lord Ellenborough. "It must be in the recollection of the House,"
+said Lord Cochrane, "as it is in that of the public, that he urged,
+that he compelled, the counsel to enter upon my defence _after
+midnight_, at the end of fifteen hours from the commencement of the
+trial, when that counsel declared himself quite exhausted, and when
+the jury, who were to decide, were in a state of such weariness as to
+render attention to what was said totally impossible. The speeches
+of the counsel being ended, the judge, at _half-past three in the
+morning_, adjourned the court till ten; thus separating the evidence
+from the argument, and reserving his own strength, and the strength
+of my adversaries' advocates, for the close; giving to both the great
+advantage of time to consider the reply, and to insert and arrange
+arguments to meet those which had been urged in my defence."
+
+All his treatment by Lord Ellenborough, as Lord Cochrane urged, was of
+that sort, or worse. "Of all tyrannies, sir," he said, "the worst
+is that which exercises its vengeance under the guise of judicial
+proceedings, and especially if a jury make part of the means by which
+its base purposes are effected. The man who is flung into prison, or
+sent to the scaffold, at the nod of an avowed despotism, has at least
+the consolation to know that his sufferings bring down upon that
+despotism the execration of mankind; but he who is entrapped
+and entangled in the meshes of a crafty and corrupt system of
+jurisprudence; who is pursued imperceptibly by a law with leaden
+feet and iron jaws; who is not put upon his trial till the ear of the
+public has been poisoned, and its heart steeled against him,--falls,
+at last, without being cheered with a hope of seeing his tyrants
+execrated even by the warmest of his friends. In their principle, the
+ancient and settled laws of England are excellent; but of late years,
+so many injurious and fatal alterations in the law have taken place,
+that any man who ventures to meddle with public affairs, and to oppose
+persons in power, is sure and certain, sooner or later, to suffer in
+some way or other.
+
+"Sir, the punishment which the malice of my enemies has procured to be
+inflicted on me is not, in my mind, worth a moment's reflection. The
+judge supposed, apparently, that the sentence of the pillory would
+disgrace and mortify me. I can assure him, and I now solemnly assure
+this House, my constituents, and my country, that I would rather stand
+in my own name, in the pillory, every day of my life, under such a
+sentence, than I would sit upon the bench in the name and with the
+real character of Lord Ellenborough for one single hour.
+
+"Something has been said, sir, in this House, as I have heard, about
+an application for a mitigation of my sentence, in a certain quarter,
+where, it is observed, that mercy never failed to flow; but I can
+assure the House that an application for pardon, extorted from me, is
+one of the things which even a partial judge and a packed jury have
+not the power to accomplish. No, sir; I will seek for, and I look for,
+pardon _nowhere_, for _I have committed no crime_. I have sought for,
+I still seek for, and I confidently expect JUSTICE; not, however, at
+the hands of those by whose machinations I have been brought to
+what they regard as my ruin, but at the hands of my enlightened and
+virtuous constituents, to whose exertions the nation owes that there
+is still a voice to cry out against that haughty and inexorable
+tyranny which commands silence to all but parasites and hypocrites."
+
+Thus ended Lord Cochrane's written argument. It was followed by, a few
+words spoken on the spur of the moment: "Having so long occupied
+its time, I will not trouble the House longer than to implore it to
+investigate the circumstances of my case. I think I have stated enough
+to induce it to call for the minutes of the trial. All I wish is an
+inquiry. Many important facts yet remain to be considered, and I
+trust that the House will not come to a decision with its eyes shut.
+I entreat, I implore investigation. It is true that a sentence of a
+court of law has been pronounced against me; but that punishment is
+nothing, and will to me seem nothing, in comparison with what it is in
+the power of the House to inflict. I have already suffered much;
+but if after a deliberate and a fair investigation the House shall
+determine that I am guilty, then let me be deserted and abandoned by
+the world. I shall submit without repining to any the most dreadful
+penalty that the House can assign. I solemnly declare before Almighty
+God that I am ignorant of the whole transaction. Into the hearts of
+men we cannot penetrate; we cannot dive into their inmost thoughts;
+but my heart I lay open, and my most secret thoughts I disclose to
+the House. I entreat the strictest scrutiny and a patient hearing. I
+implore it at your hands, as an act of justice, and once more I call
+upon my Maker, upon Almighty God, to bear witness that I am innocent.
+He knows my heart, He knows all its secrets, and He knows that I am
+innocent."
+
+An animated debate followed upon that eloquent address. Viscount
+Castlereagh complained that Lord Cochrane, instead of defending
+himself, had only libelled Lord Ellenborough and the noblest
+institutions of the land. Other speakers expressed similar opinions;
+but others testified to the consistent character of Lord Cochrane,
+rendering it impossible that he should be guilty of the offence
+with which he was charged; and others again confessed that, having
+previously had doubts in the matter, those doubts had been removed by
+the high-minded tone and the powerful arguments of his defence. But in
+the end the House adopted the view set forth by Lord Castlereagh; that
+its duty was simply to accept the verdict of the Court of the King's
+Bench, and, according to precedent, to expel the member declared
+guilty by that court, without daring to revive the question of his
+guilt or innocence; and that it would be better for an innocent man
+thus to suffer, than for the House to assail "the bulwarks of English
+liberty," by turning itself into a Star Chamber, or an Inquisition,
+and attempting to interfere with "the regular administration of
+justice." The proposal that Lord Cochrane's case should be referred to
+a Select Committee was rejected without a division. The motion that he
+should be expelled from the House was carried by a hundred and forty
+members, against forty-four dissentients.
+
+That new act of injustice, however, though it added much to Lord
+Cochrane's suffering, brought him no fresh disgrace. It only led
+to his triumphant re-election as member for Westminster, under
+circumstances that were reasonably consoling to him. His seat having
+been taken from him on the 5th of July, a great meeting of the
+electors, attended by five thousand people, was held on the 11th.
+It was there unanimously resolved that Lord Cochrane was perfectly
+innocent of the Stock Exchange fraud, that he was a fit and proper
+person to represent the City of Westminster in Parliament, and that
+his re-election should be secured without any expense to him. Richard
+Brinsley Sheridan, his stout opponent at the previous election, who
+was now urged to oppose him again, honourably refused to do so; and
+therefore the election passed without a contest. But contest would
+only have added to its glory; unless, indeed, the people, over-zealous
+in their expression of sympathy for their representative, had been
+provoked thereby to violent exhibition of their temper. Even without
+such provocation the turmoil of the re-election day, the 16th of July,
+was great; angry crowds assembled in the streets, and menacing words
+against the Government and its myrmidons were loudly uttered. The
+wisdom of Sir Francis Burdett and other leaders of the popular party,
+however, prevented anything worse than angry speech.
+
+"Amongst all the occurrences of my life," said Lord Cochrane,
+writing from the King's Bench Prison to thank the electors for their
+confidence in him, "I can call to memory no one which has produced so
+great a degree of exultation in my breast as this, that, after all the
+machinations of corruption have been able to effect against me, the
+citizens of Westminster have, with unanimous voice, pronounced me
+worthy of continuing to be one of their representatives in Parliament.
+With regard to the case, the agitation of which has been the cause
+of this most gratifying result, I am in no apprehension as to the
+opinions and feelings of the world, and especially of the people
+of England, who, though they may be occasionally misled, are never
+deliberately cruel or unjust. Only let it be said of me: 'The Stock
+Exchange has accused; Lord Ellenborough has charged for guilty; the
+special jury have found that guilt; the Court have sentenced to the
+pillory; the House of Commons have expelled; and the Citizens of
+Westminster have re-elected,'--only let this be the record placed
+against my name, and I shall be proud to stand in the calendar of
+criminals all the days of my life."
+
+The worst part of the sentence passed upon Lord Cochrane, as has been
+already said, was not carried out. The 10th of August had been fixed
+as the day on which he was to stand in the pillory for an hour in
+front of the Royal Exchange. But the danger of a disturbance among the
+people, and of fierce opposition in the House of Commons hindered the
+perpetration of this indignity. Some sentences of a letter addressed
+to Lord Ebrington, deprecating his motion in Parliament for a
+remission of this part of the sentence, are too characteristic,
+however, to be left unquoted. "I did not expect," said Lord Cochrane,
+"to be treated by your lordship as an object of mercy, on the grounds
+of past services, or severity of sentence. I cannot allow myself to be
+indebted to that tenderness of disposition which has led your lordship
+to form an erroneous estimate of the amount of punishment due to the
+crimes of which I have been accused; nor can I for a moment consent
+that any past services of mine should be prostituted to the purpose of
+protecting me from any part of the vengeance of the laws against which
+I, if at all, have grossly offended. If I am guilty, I richly merit
+the whole of the sentence that has been passed upon me. If innocent,
+one penalty cannot be inflicted with more justice than another."
+
+If the degradation of the pillory was remitted, another degradation
+quite as painful to Lord Cochrane was substituted for it. His name
+having, on the 25th of June, been struck off the list of naval
+officers in the Admiralty, the Knights Companions of the Bath promptly
+held a chapter to consider the propriety of expelling him from their
+ranks. That was soon done, and no time was lost in making the insult
+as thorough as possible. At one o'clock in the morning of the 11th
+of August, the Bath King at Arms repaired to King Henry the Seventh's
+Chapel in Westminster Abbey, and there, under a warrant signed by Lord
+Sidmouth, the Secretary of State, removed the banner of Lord Cochrane,
+which was suspended between those of Lord Beresford and Sir Brent
+Spencer. His arms were next unscrewed, and his helmet, sword, and
+other insignia were taken down from the stall. The banner was then
+kicked out of the chapel and down the steps by the official, eager to
+omit no possible indignity. It was an indignity unparalleled since the
+establishment of the order in 1725.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III.
+
+LORD COCHRANE'S BEARING IN THE KING'S BENCH PRISON--HIS STREET
+LAMPS.--HIS ESCAPE, AND THE MOTIVES FOR IT.--HIS CAPTURE IN THE HOUSE
+OF COMMONS, AND SUBSEQUENT TREATMENT.--HIS CONFINEMENT IN THE STRONG
+ROOM OF THE KING'S BENCH PRISON.--HIS RELEASE.
+
+[1814-1815.]
+
+
+During the first period of his imprisonment Lord Cochrane was not
+treated with more than usual severity. Two rooms in the King's Bench
+State House were provided for him, in which, of course, all the
+expenses of his maintenance devolved upon himself. He was led
+to understand that, if he chose to ask for it, he might have the
+privilege of "the rules," which would have allowed him, on certain
+conditions, a range of about half-a-mile round the prison. But he
+did not choose to ask. Rather, he said, than seek any favour from
+the Government, he would lie in a dungeon all through the term of his
+unjust imprisonment. Throughout that period he resolutely avowed his
+perfect innocence, to friends and foes alike; and the consciousness
+of his innocence helped him to bear up under a degradation that, to
+a nature as sensitive and chivalrous as his, was doubly bitter. Good
+friends, like Sir Francis Burdett, came to cheer him in his solitude,
+and over-zealous, yet honest, friends, like William Cobbett, came to
+take counsel with him as to ways of keeping alive and quickening the
+popular indignation which, without any stimulants from headstrong
+demagogues, was strong enough on his behalf.
+
+The tedium of his captivity was further relieved by his devotion to
+those scientific and mechanical pursuits which, all through life,
+yielded employment very solacing to himself, and very profitable to
+the world. While in the King's Bench Prison he was especially occupied
+in completing a plan for lighting the public streets by means of a
+lamp invented by him, in which the main principle was the introduction
+of a steady current of fresh air into the globes, whereby all the oil
+was fairly burnt, and a brilliant light was always maintained. In this
+way lamps much cheaper than those previously in use were found to have
+a far greater illuminating power. Early in October, 1814, the lamps
+in St. Ann's parish, Westminster, numbering eight hundred in all, were
+taken down and replaced by four hundred constructed on Lord Cochrane's
+plan; and even political opponents spoke in acknowledgment of the
+excellent result of the change. Had it not been for the introduction
+of gas, the superiority of these new lamps must soon have compelled
+their adoption all over London. It is curious that the discovery of
+the illuminating power of gas--undoubtedly due to his father--should
+have superseded one of Lord Cochrane's most promising inventions as
+soon as it had been brought to recognized perfection.
+
+In such pursuits nine months of the unjust imprisonment were passed.
+"Lord Cochrane has hitherto borne all his hardships with great
+fortitude," wrote one of his most intimate friends on the 10th of
+November, "and, if there are any more in store for him, I hope he will
+continue to be cheerful and courageous." "His lordship always hopes
+for the best, and is never afraid of the worst," said the same
+authority on the 9th of December, "and therefore he is in good
+spirits."
+
+This fearless disposition led, in March, 1815, to a bold step, which
+some of Lord Cochrane's best friends deprecated. Knowing that he
+was unjustly imprisoned, he conceived that, since his re-election
+as member for Westminster, the imprisonment was illegal as well as
+unjust, in that it was contrary to the privilege of Parliament. The
+law provides that "no Member of Parliament can be imprisoned either
+for non-payment of a fine to the King, or for any other cause than
+treason, felony, or refusing to give security for the peace." It
+may be questioned whether, in the presence of this law, his first
+imprisonment, even under the sentence of the Court of King's Bench,
+was legal. But having been imprisoned, and having been expelled from
+the House of Commons, it is clear that his subsequent re-election
+could not interfere with the fulfilment, of the sentence passed
+against him, especially as he had not been able to make good his title
+to membership by taking the prescribed oaths and claiming a seat in
+the House. He, however--acting as it would seem under the advice of
+William Cobbett and other unsafe counsellors--thought otherwise,
+and considered that he was only vindicating a high constitutional
+principle, against the exercise of despotic power by the Government,
+in making his escape from the King's Bench Prison. "I did not quit
+these walls," he said in a letter addressed to the electors
+of Westminster, on the 12th of April, "to escape from personal
+oppression, but, at the hazard of my life, to assert that right to
+liberty which, as a member of the community, I have never forfeited,
+and that right, which I received from you, to attack in its very den
+the corruption which threatens to annihilate the liberties of us all.
+I did not quit them to fly from the justice of my country, but to
+expose the wickedness, fraud, and hypocrisy of those who elude that
+justice by committing their enormities under the colour of its name.
+I did not quit them from the childish motive of impatience under
+suffering. I stayed long enough to evince that I could endure
+restraint as a pain, but not as a penalty. I stayed long enough to be
+certain that my persecutors were conscious of their injustice, and to
+feel that my submission to their unmerited inflictions was losing the
+dignity of resignation, and sinking into the ignominious endurance of
+an insult."
+
+The escape was effected on the 6th of March, and by the same means
+which had proved successful in Lord Cochrane's retreat from the
+gaol at Malta, just four years before. His rooms in the King's Bench
+Prison, being on the upper storey of the building known as the
+State House, were nearly as high as the wall which formed the prison
+boundary, and the windows were only a few feet distant from it.
+The possibility of escape by this way, however, had never been
+contemplated, and therefore the windows were unprotected by bars.
+Accordingly Lord Cochrane, having been supplied, from time to time, by
+the same servant who had aided him at Malta, with a quantity of small
+strong rope, managed, soon after midnight, and while the watchman
+going his rounds was in a distant part of the prison, to get out of
+window and climb on to the roof of the building. Thence he threw a
+running noose over the iron spikes placed on the wall, and, exercising
+the agility that he had acquired during his seaman's occupations,
+easily gained the summit--to be somewhat discomfited by having to sit
+upon the iron spikes while he fastened his rope to one of them and
+prepared, with its help, to slip down to the pavement on the outer
+side of the wall. The rope was not strong enough, however, to bear his
+weight; it snapped when he was some twenty-five feet from the ground,
+and caused him to fall with his back upon the stone pavement. There he
+lay, in an almost unconscious state, for a considerable time. But no
+passer-by observed him; and before daylight he was able to crawl to
+the house of an old nurse of his eldest son's, who gladly afforded him
+concealment.
+
+Long concealment was not intended by him. "If it had not been," he
+said, "for the commotion excited by that obnoxious, injurious, and
+arbitrary measure, the Corn Bill, which began to evince itself on
+the day of my departure from prison, I should have lost no time in
+proceeding to the House of Commons; but, conjecturing that the spirit
+of disturbance might derive some encouragement from my unexpected
+appearance at that time, and having no inclination to promote tumult,
+I resolved to defer my appearance at the House, and, if possible,
+to conceal my departure from the prison, until the order of the
+metropolis should be restored."
+
+To the same effect was a letter addressed by Lord Cochrane to the
+Speaker of the House of Commons on the 9th of March. "I respectfully
+request," he said therein, "that you will state to the honourable
+the House of Commons, that I should immediately and personally
+have communicated to them my departure from the custody of Lord
+Ellenborough, by whom I have been long most unjustly detained; but I
+judged it better to endeavour to conceal my absence, and to defer my
+appearance in the House until the public agitation excited by the Corn
+Bill should subside. And I have further to request that you will also
+communicate to the House that it is my intention, on an early day, to
+present myself for the purpose of taking my seat and moving an inquiry
+into the conduct of Lord Ellenborough."
+
+On the day of that letter's delivery, the 10th of March--also famous
+as the day on which Buonaparte's escape from Elba was published in
+England--Lord Cochrane's gaolers discovered that he was no longer
+in his prison. Immediately a hue and cry was raised. This notice was
+issued: "Escaped from the King's Bench Prison, on Monday the 6th day
+of March, instant, Lord Cochrane. He is about five feet eleven inches
+in height,[A] thin and narrow-chested, with sandy hair and full eyes,
+red whiskers and eyebrows. Whoever will apprehend and secure Lord
+Cochrane in any of His Majesty's gaols in the kingdom shall have a
+reward of three hundred guineas from William Jones, Marshal of the
+King's Bench."
+
+[Footnote A: He was really about six feet two inches in height, and
+broad in proportion.]
+
+Great search was made in consequence of that notice, and Lord
+Cochrane's disappearance was an eleven days' wonder. Every newspaper
+had each day a new statement as to his whereabouts. Some declared that
+he had gone mad, and, as a madman's freak, was hiding himself in some
+corner of the prison; others that he was lodging at an apothecary's
+shop in London. According to one report, he had been seen at Hastings,
+according to another, at Farnham, and according to another, in Jersey;
+while others declared that he had been discovered in France and
+elsewhere on the Continent.
+
+None of the thousands whom political spite or the hope of reward set
+in search of him thought of looking for him in his real resting-place.
+"As soon as I had written to the Speaker," he said, "I went into
+Hampshire, where I remained eleven days, and till within one day of my
+appearance in the House of Commons. During that period I was occupied
+in regulating my affairs in that county, and in riding about the
+county, as was well known to the people of the neighbourhood, none of
+whom were base enough to be seduced by a bribe to deliver an injured
+man into the hands of his oppressors."
+
+At his own house, known as Holly Hill, in the south of Hampshire, Lord
+Cochrane remained quietly, though with no attempt to hide himself,
+until the 20th of March. He then, in fulfilment of his original
+purpose, returned to London, and on the following day entered the
+House of Commons at about two o'clock in the afternoon. Very great
+was the astonishment among the officials in attendance caused by his
+appearance, "dressed," according to one of the newspaper reports, "in
+his usual costume, grey pantaloons, frogged great-coat, &c.;" and by
+some of them the intelligence of his arrival was promptly communicated
+to the Marshal of the King's Bench. In the meanwhile, considering
+himself safe within the precincts of the House at any rate, he
+proceeded to occupy his customary seat. To that it was objected that,
+until he had taken the oaths and complied with the prescribed forms
+consequent on his re-election, he had no right within the building.
+He answered that he was willing to do this, and, to see that all was
+according to rule, went at once to the clerks' office. There it was
+pretended that the writ of his re-election had not yet been received,
+and that it must first be procured from the Crown Office, in Chancery
+Lane. Awaiting the return of the messenger, ostensibly despatched for
+this purpose, he again entered the House, and there he was found, at a
+few minutes before four, by Mr. Jones, the marshal, who, on receiving
+the information sent to him, had hurried up, with a Bow Street runner
+and some tipstaves. The runner, walking up to Lord Cochrane and
+touching him on the shoulder, bluntly claimed him as his prisoner.
+Lord Cochrane asked by what authority he dared to arrest a Member of
+Parliament in the House of Commons. "My lord," answered the man, "my
+authority is the public proclamation of the Marshal of the King's
+Bench Prison, offering a reward for your apprehension." Lord Cochrane
+declared that he neither acknowledged, nor would yield to, any
+such authority, that he was there to resume his seat as one of the
+representatives of the City of Westminster, and that any who dared to
+touch him would do so at their peril. Two tipstaves thereupon rudely
+seized him by the arms. He again cautioned them that the Marshal of
+the King's Bench had no authority within those walls, and that their
+conduct was altogether illegal. The answer was that he had better
+go quietly; his reply that he would not go at all. Other officers,
+however, came up. After a short struggle, he was overpowered, and, on
+his refusing to walk, he was carried out of the House on the shoulders
+of the tipstaves and constables.
+
+There was a halt, however, in this disgraceful march. The Bow Street
+runner expressed a fear that Lord Cochrane had firearms concealed
+under his clothes, and he was accordingly taken into one of the
+committee-rooms to be searched. Nothing more dangerous was found about
+him than a packet of snuff. "If I had thought of that before," said
+Lord Cochrane, not quite wisely, "you should have had it in your
+eyes!" On this incident was founded a foolish story, to be told next
+day, amid a score of exaggerations and falsehoods, in the Government
+newspapers. "Being asked why he had provided himself with such a
+quantity of snuff," we there read, "he said he had bought a canister
+for the purpose of throwing it in the eyes of those who might attempt
+to secure him, unless the opposing force should be too strong for
+resistance, observing that he had found the use of a similar weapon
+when he was in the Bay of Rosas, as he had thrown a mixture of lime,
+sand, &c., upon the Frenchmen who attempted to board his ship, and
+found it effectual." Another zealous organ of the Government added
+that he had also provided himself with a bottle of vitriol, to be used
+in the same way.
+
+Had a penknife been found in his pocket, perhaps the Marshal of the
+King's Bench, the Bow Street runner, the tipstaves, and the constables
+would all have fled, deeming that the possession of so deadly an
+instrument made the retention of their captive too dangerous a thing
+to be attempted. The snuff having been seized, however, he was again
+lodged on the officers' shoulders and so conveyed into the courtyard.
+He then said that, being now beyond the privilege of the House, he was
+willing to proceed quietly. A coach was called, and he was taken back
+to the King's Bench Prison.
+
+The indignity thus offered to him was small indeed in comparison with
+the indignity offered to the Parliament of England. In former times
+the slightest encroachment by the Crown, by the Government, or by
+any humbler part of the executive, was fiercely resented; and to this
+resentment some of the greatest and most memorable crises in the long
+fight for English liberty are due. But rarely had there been a
+more flagrant, never a more wanton, infringement of the hardly-won
+privileges of the House of Commons. Had Lord Cochrane been detected
+and seized violently in some out-of-the-way hiding-place, the
+over-zealous servants of the Crown would have had some excuse for
+their conduct. But in appearing publicly in the House, he showed to
+all the world that he was no runaway from justice, that he was willing
+to submit to its honest administration by honest hands, that all he
+sought was a fair hearing and a fair judgment upon his case, and that,
+believing it impossible to obtain that through the elaborate machinery
+of oppression which then went by the name of administration
+of justice, he now only asserted his right, the right of every
+Englishman, and especially the right of a Member of Parliament, to
+appeal from the agents of the law to the makers of the law, to call
+upon the legislators of his country to see whether he had not been
+wrongfully used by the men who, though practically too much their
+masters, were in theory only their servants.
+
+"I did not go to the House of Commons," he said, "to complain about
+losses or sufferings, about fine or imprisonment; or of property, to
+the amount of ten times the fine, of which I had been cheated by this
+malicious prosecution. I did not go to the House to complain of
+the mockery of having been heard in my defence, and answered by a
+reference to the decision from which that defence was an appeal. I did
+not go there to complain of those who expelled me from my profession.
+I did not go to the House to complain _generally_ of the advisers of
+the Crown. But I went there to complain of the conduct of him who has
+indeed the right of recommending to mercy, but whose privilege, as
+a Privy Councillor, of advising the confirmation of his own
+condemnations, and of interposing between the victims of
+legal vengeance and the justice of the throne, is spurious and
+unconstitutional. When it is considered that my intention of going to
+the House of Commons was announced on the day on which my absence from
+the prison was discovered; I say, when it is considered that, as soon
+as it was known that I had left the prison, it was also known that I
+had left it for the express purpose of going to the House of Commons
+to move for an inquiry into the conduct of Lord Ellenborough; when it
+is considered that every engine was set to work to tempt or intimidate
+me from that purpose, to frighten me out of the country or allure me
+back to the custody of the marshal, that assurances were given that
+the doors should be kept open for my admission at any hour of the
+night, and that I should be received with secresy, courtesy, and
+indemnity; and when it is considered that I was afterwards seized in
+the House of Commons, in defiance of the privileges of the House--can
+there be a doubt that the object of that apprehension was less the
+accomplishment of the sentence of the court than the prevention of
+the exposure which I was prepared to make of the injustice of that
+sentence? That recourse should have been had to violence to stifle the
+accusations which I was prepared to bring forward, that terror of the
+truth should have so superseded a wonted reverence for parliamentary
+privileges as to have admitted the intrusion of tipstaves and
+thief-takers into the House of Commons, to seize the person of an
+individual elected to serve as a member of that House, and avowedly
+attendant for that purpose, is extraordinary, though not unnatural."
+
+It must be admitted that the question of breach of privilege was
+somewhat more complicated than Lord Cochrane considered. His opponents
+did not think with him that he was still a member of the House of
+Commons. That membership had been taken from him, formally, though
+wrongfully, by his expulsion on the 5th of July, and he had
+himself recognized the expulsion by accepting re-election from the
+constituents of Westminster on the 16th of the same month. According
+to precedent, however, that re-election could not be perfected until
+the customary oaths had been taken; and, through a trick contrived
+in the clerks' office, he was hindered from taking them before the
+arrival of the marshal and his consequent arrest. Yet there can be no
+doubt that, in the special circumstances of the case, this arrest was
+especially indecorous, and, in the method of effecting it, altogether
+illegal. If he had no right in the House of Commons, he was a common
+trespasser, and ought to have been at once removed by the servants of
+the House, who alone could have power to touch him within the walls.
+To allow him a seat therein, without molestation, until the arrival
+of the servants of the King's Bench Prison, and then to allow those
+servants to enter the House and act upon an authority that could there
+be no authority, was wholly unwarrantable, a gross insult to Lord
+Cochrane, and, to the customs of the House of Commons, an insult yet
+more gross. But to the hardship and the insult alike the House of
+Commons, servile in its devotion to the Government of the day, was
+blind.
+
+A miserable farce ensued. While the House was sitting, a few hours
+after Lord Cochrane's capture, a letter from the Marshal of the King's
+Bench was read by the Speaker, in which his bold act was formally
+reported and apologized for. "I humbly hope," he there said, "that I
+have not committed any breach of privilege by the steps I have taken;
+and that, if I have done wrong, it will be attributed to error in
+judgment, and not to any intention of doing anything that might give
+offence."
+
+The short debate that followed the reading of that letter is very
+noteworthy. Lord Castlereagh spoke first, and dictated the view to
+be taken by all loyal members of the House. "From the nature of the
+arrest and the circumstances attending it, I do not think, sir," he
+said, "that the House is called upon to interfere. I am not aware, as
+the House was not actually sitting, with the mace on the table and the
+Speaker in the chair, when the arrest took place, that any breach of
+privilege has been committed. It must be quite obvious to every man
+that the marshal has not acted wilfully in violation of the privileges
+of the House. No blame can attach to him, since he has submitted
+himself to the judgment of the House of Commons after having done
+that which he considered his duty as a civil officer. Having had Lord
+Cochrane in his custody, from which he escaped, the marshal was bound
+not to pass over any justifiable means of putting him under arrest
+whenever a fair opportunity occurred."
+
+Most of the members thought, with Lord Castlereagh, that this was
+a "fair opportunity." Only one, Mr. Tierney--and he very
+feebly--ventured to express an opposite opinion. "I consider this,"
+he said, "to be the case of a member regularly elected to serve in
+Parliament, and coming down to take his seat. Now, sir, the House is
+regularly adjourned until ten o'clock in the morning; and I recollect
+occasions when the Speaker did take the chair at that hour. Suppose,
+then, a member, about to take his seat, came down here at an early
+hour, with the proper documents in his hand, and desired to be
+instructed in the mode of proceeding, and, while waiting, an officer
+entered, arrested him, and took his person away, would not this be a
+case to call for the interference of the House?" Mr. Tierney admitted
+that he approved of Lord Cochrane's arrest, but feared it might become
+a precedent and be put to the "improper purpose" of sanctioning the
+arrest of members more deserving of consideration.
+
+To please him, and to satisfy the formalities, therefore, the question
+was referred to a committee of privileges. This committee reported, on
+the 23rd of March, "that, under the particular circumstances, it did
+not appear that the privileges of Parliament had been violated, so as
+to call for the interposition of the House;" and the House of Commons
+being satisfied with that opinion, no further attention was paid to
+the subject.
+
+In the meanwhile Lord Cochrane was being punished, with inexcusable
+severity, for his contempt of the authority of Lord Ellenborough and
+Mr. Jones. A member of the House, during the discussion of the 21st of
+March, had said that he had just come from the King's Bench Prison.
+"I found Lord Cochrane," he had averred, "confined there in a strong
+room, fourteen feet square, without windows, fireplace, table, or
+bed. I do not think it can be necessary for the purpose of security
+to confine him in this manner. According to my own feelings, it is a
+place unfit for the noble lord, or for any other person whatsoever."
+
+In this Strong Room, however, Lord Cochrane was detained for more
+than three weeks. It was partly underground, devoid of ventilation or
+necessary warmth, and, according to the testimony of Dr. Buchan, one
+of the physicians who visited him in it, "rendered extremely damp and
+unpleasant by the exudations coming through the wall."
+
+On being taken to this den immediately after his capture, Lord
+Cochrane was informed by Mr. Jones that he would be detained in it for
+a short time only, until the apartments over the lobby of the prison
+were prepared for his reception. That was done in a few days; but no
+intimation of a change was made until the 1st of April, when a message
+to that effect was sent to the prisoner. On the following day he
+received a letter from Mr. Jones informing him that, if he would
+anticipate the payment of the fine of 1000_l._ levied against him, and
+would also pledge himself, and give security for the keeping of the
+promise, to make no further effort to escape, he might be allowed to
+occupy the more comfortable quarters. "It is no new thing," said Lord
+Cochrane, "for a prisoner to escape or to be retaken; but to require
+of any prisoner a bond and securities not to repeat such escape was,
+I think, a proposition without precedent, and such as the marshal knew
+could not be complied with by me without humiliation, and therefore
+could not be proposed by him without insult. Besides, he had my
+assurance that if I were again to quit his custody (which I gave him
+no reason to believe I should attempt, and which, as I observed and
+believe, it was as easy for me to effect from that room as from any
+other part of the prison), I should proceed no further than to the
+House of Commons, and that where he found me before he might find me
+again; I having had no other object in view than that of expressing,
+by some peculiar act, the keen sense which I entertained of _peculiar_
+injustice, and of endeavouring to bring such additional proofs of that
+injustice before the House as were not in my possession when I was
+heard in my defence." Mr. Jones, however, resolved to keep his captive
+in the Strong Room, unless he would promise to resign himself to
+captivity in a less obnoxious part of the prison.
+
+Even for that negative favour the marshal took great credit to himself
+in a document which he issued at the time. "If a humane and kind
+concern for this unfortunate nobleman," he there averred, "had not
+softened the solicitude which I naturally felt for my own security, I
+could have committed him, on my own warrant for the escape, to the new
+gaol in Horsemonger Lane, for the space of a month; and that power
+is still within my jurisdiction. Had I thought proper to exercise it,
+Lord Cochrane would then have been confined in a solitary cell with a
+stone floor, with windows impenetrably barred and without glass; nor
+would it have proved half the size of the Strong Room in the King's
+Bench, which has a boarded floor and glazed lights." That statement
+reasonably stirred the anger of Lord Cochrane. "Though the solitary
+cell in Horsemonger Lane," he answered, "may be half the size of the
+Strong Room, it could not, I apprehend, have been more gloomy, damp,
+filthy, or injurious to health than the last-mentioned dungeon. And
+since Mr. Jones could only have confined me in the former place for
+a month, and did confine me in the latter for twenty-six days, I can
+scarcely see that degree of difference which should entitle him to
+those 'grateful sentiments for his mode of acting on the occasion'
+which, he submits to the public, it is my duty to entertain. The
+'glazed lights' mentioned by Mr. Jones were not put up till I had been
+thirty hours in the place, and I have always understood that I was
+indebted for them to the good offices of Mr. Bennet and Mr. Lambton,
+who happened [as part of a Parliamentary Committee] to be prosecuting
+their inquiry into the state of the prison at the time of my return.
+For these and all other mercies of the said marshal, my gratitude is
+due to their friendship and sense of duty, and to his dread of their
+discoveries and proceedings."
+
+It is clear that nothing but fear of the consequences induced Mr.
+Jones to remove Lord Cochrane from the Strong Room, after twenty-six
+days of confinement therein. On the 12th of April the prisoner issued
+an address to the electors of Westminster, detailing some of the
+hardships to which he was being subjected; and its publication
+immediately roused so much popular interest that the authorities of
+King's Bench Prison deemed it necessary to make at any rate a show of
+amelioration in his treatment. On the 13th, his physician, Dr. Buchan,
+was allowed to visit him, and his report was such that another medical
+man of eminence, Mr. Saumarez, was sent to examine into the state of
+the prisoner's health. Part of Dr. Buchan's certificate has already
+been quoted. The rest was as follows: "This is to certify that I have
+this day visited Lord Cochrane, who is affected with severe pain of
+the breast. His pulse is low, his hands cold, and he has many symptoms
+of a person about to have typhus or putrid fever. These symptoms are,
+in my opinion, produced by the stagnant air of the Strong Room in
+which he is now confined." "I hereby certify," wrote Mr. Saumarez,
+"that I have visited Lord Cochrane, and am of opinion, from the state
+of his health at this time, that it is essentially necessary that he
+should be removed from the room which he now inhabits to one which
+is better ventilated, and in which there is a fireplace. His lordship
+complains of pain in the chest, with difficulty of respiration,
+accompanied with great coldness of the hands; and, from the general
+state of his health, there is great reason to fear that a low typhus
+may come on."
+
+The only result of those medical opinions was a renewal of the
+offer to remove Lord Cochrane to the rooms prepared for him, on the
+conditions previously specified by Mr. Jones. Lord Cochrane answered
+that he would rather die than submit to such an insulting arrangement.
+He published the doctors' certificates, however, on the 15th of April,
+and their effect upon the public was so great that the authorities
+were forced on the following day to take him out of his dungeon. Mr.
+Jones's account of this step is worth quoting. "I again tried," he
+reported, "to induce Lord Cochrane's friends and relations to give me
+any kind of undertaking against another escape. On their refusal, I
+determined myself to become his friend, and, at my own risk, to remove
+him to the rooms which have been already mentioned, and where, I am
+confident, he can have no cause of complaint. These rooms not being
+altogether safe against such a person as Lord Cochrane, should he
+determine to risk another escape, I must look to the laws of my
+country as a safeguard, in the hope that the terrors of them will
+discourage him from attempting a repetition of his offence, and
+prevent him from incurring the penalties of another indictment."
+
+Lord Cochrane never really intended to attempt a second escape. Had it
+been otherwise, the illness induced by his confinement in the Strong
+Room would have restrained him. Being placed in healthier apartments
+on the 16th of April, he quietly remained there for the remainder of
+his term of imprisonment. On the 20th of June he was informed that,
+the term being now at an end, he was at liberty to depart on payment
+of the fine of 1000_l._ levied against him. This he at first refused
+to do, and accordingly he was detained in prison for a fortnight more;
+but at length the entreaties of his friends prevailed. On the 3rd of
+July he tendered to the Marshal of the King's Bench a 1000_l._ note,
+with this memorable endorsement: "My health having suffered by long
+and close confinement, and my oppressors being resolved to deprive
+me of property or life, I submit to robbery to protect myself from
+murder, in the hope that I shall live to bring the delinquents to
+justice." Upon that the prison doors were opened for him, and he was
+able once more to fight for the justice so cruelly withheld from
+him, and to make his innocence entirely clear to all whose selfish
+interests did not force them to be blind to the truth.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV.
+
+LORD COCHRANE'S RETURN TO THE HOUSE OF COMMONS.--HIS SHARE IN THE
+REFUSAL OF THE DUKE OF CUMBERLAND'S MARRIAGE PENSION.--HIS CHARGES
+AGAINST LORD ELLENBOROUGH, AND THEIR REJECTION BY THE HOUSE.--HIS
+POPULARITY.--THE PART TAKEN BY HIM IN PUBLIC MEETINGS FOR THE RELIEF
+OF THE PEOPLE.--THE LONDON TAVERN MEETING.--HIS FURTHER PROSECUTION,
+TRIAL AT GUILDFORD, AND SUBSEQUENT IMPRISONMENT.--THE PAYMENT OF HIS
+FINES BY A PENNY SUBSCRIPTION.--THE CONGRATULATIONS OF HIS WESTMINSTER
+CONSTITUENTS.
+
+[1815-1816.]
+
+
+Released from imprisonment on Monday, the 3rd of July, Lord Cochrane
+resumed his seat in the House of Commons on the evening of the
+same day, just in time to secure the defeat of a measure which was
+especially obnoxious to his Radical friends. The Duke of Cumberland
+having lately married a daughter of the Duke of Mecklenburg-Strelitz,
+it was proposed to augment his income of about 20,000_l._ a year by
+a further pension of 6000_l._ A bill to that effect was brought in by
+Lord Castlereagh, and, after much sullen opposition from independent
+members, allowed a first reading by a majority of seventeen. On the
+second division the majority was reduced to twelve. The bill was
+brought on for the third reading on the 3rd of July, and would have
+been passed through the House of Commons by the Speaker's casting vote
+but for Lord Cochrane's sudden appearance. His vote secured a majority
+against it, and thereby it was finally overthrown. Great, on the
+morrow, were the rejoicings of his supporters. "What a triumph," it
+was said in a friendly newspaper, "is this to innocence! After being
+sentenced to the scandalous and disgraceful punishment of the pillory,
+after being confined in a loathsome dungeon, fined 1000_l._ in money
+to the king, disgracefully removed from that service in which he had
+attained such high honours and rendered to his country such essential
+service, his escutcheon kicked out of Westminster Abbey, his order
+of knighthood taken from him; in short, after having every possible
+indignity which the most malignant imagination could invent heaped
+upon him in every way, his single vote, on the very first day of his
+returning to his parliamentary duties, has been the means of obtaining
+a signal victory over those under whose persecution he had been so
+long suffering."
+
+The one victory upon which Lord Cochrane set his heart, however--the
+reversal of the unjust sentence passed upon him, and the consequent
+restoration of the honours and offices that were now doubly dear to
+him--he was not able to obtain. On the 6th of July, just before the
+prorogation of Parliament, he gave notice that, early in the next
+session, he should move for the appointment of a committee to inquire
+into the conduct of Lord Ellenborough and others towards him during
+the Stock Exchange trial. In arranging for this new effort at
+self-justification, he was partly occupied during the ensuing autumn
+and winter, and the question was brought prominently before the House
+of Commons in the spring of 1816; only to issue, however, in further
+injustice and disappointment.
+
+His purpose from the first was, of course, virtually the impeachment
+of Lord Ellenborough; and that object was yet more apparent from the
+altered shape which the question assumed when introduced in the new
+session. During the recess, Lord Cochrane, with the help of advisers,
+some of whom were more zealous than wise, William Cobbett being the
+chief, had prepared an elaborate series of "charges of partiality,
+misrepresentation, injustice, and oppression against the Lord Chief
+Justice;" and these were formally introduced to the House of Commons
+on the 5th of March. "When I recollect," said Lord Cochrane on that
+occasion, "the imputations cast upon my character, and circulated
+industriously previous to any legal proceedings, the conduct pursued
+at my trial, the verdict obtained, the ineffectual endeavours; to
+procure a revision of my case in the Court of King's Bench, and the
+infamous sentence there pronounced, together with my expulsion from
+this House without being suffered to expose its injustice--when I call
+to mind my dismissal from a service in which I have spent the fairest
+portion of my life, at least without reproach, and my illegal and
+unmerited deprivation of the order of the Bath--it is impossible
+to speak without emotion. I have but one course now left to pursue,
+namely, to show that the charge of the Lord Chief Justice, on which he
+directed the jury to decide, was not only unsupported by, but was
+in direct contradiction to, the evidence on which it professed to
+be founded. This is the best course to pursue both in justice to the
+learned judge and to myself. Either I am unfit to sit in this House,
+or the judge has no right to his place on the bench. I have courted
+investigation in every shape; and I trust that the learned lord will
+not shrink from it or suffer his friends on the opposite side to evade
+the consideration of these charges by 'the previous question.'"
+
+Lord Cochrane thereupon tendered to the House thirteen charges against
+Lord Ellenborough, in which every point of importance in the Stock
+Exchange trial was minutely detailed and discussed; and these charges
+being read, therein occupying nearly three hours, were ordered to be
+printed. A fourteenth charge, bearing upon Lord Ellenborough's conduct
+subsequent to the trial, was introduced on the 29th of March; but
+this, as it included aspersions upon the character of another judge,
+Sir Simon Le Blanc, was objected to and withdrawn. There was further
+discussion on the subject on the 1st and the 29th of April; but not
+much was done until the 30th of April.
+
+On that evening, Lord Cochrane formally moved that his charges against
+Lord Ellenborough should be referred to a Committee of the whole
+House, and that evidence in support of them should be heard at the
+bar. A lengthy discussion then ensued, the most notable speeches
+being made by the Solicitor-General, Sir Francis Burdett, and the
+Attorney-General.
+
+The Solicitor-General of course opposed the motion. "As the House, on
+the one hand," he said, "should jealously watch over the conduct of
+judges, so, on the other, it should protect them when deserving of
+protection, not only as a debt of justice due to the judges, but as
+a debt due to justice herself, in order that the public confidence in
+the purity of the administration of our laws may not be disappointed,
+and that the course of that administration may continue the admiration
+of the world; for, unless the judges are protected in the exercise of
+their functions, the public opinion of the excellence of our laws will
+be inevitably weakened,--and to weaken public opinion is to weaken
+justice herself."
+
+That sort of argument, too frivolous and faulty, it might be supposed,
+to influence any one, had weight with the House of Commons to which it
+was addressed; and the Solicitor-General adduced much more of it.
+To him the spotless character of Lord Ellenborough appeared to be an
+ample defence against Lord Cochrane's charges. "Never," he said, with
+a truthfulness that posterity can appreciate, "never was there an
+individual at the bar or on the bench less liable to the imputation
+of corrupt motives; never was there one more remarkable for
+independence--I will say, sturdy independence--of character, than the
+noble and learned lord. For twelve years he has presided on the bench
+with unsullied honour, displaying a perfect knowledge of the
+law; evincing as much legal knowledge as was ever amassed by any
+individual; and now, in the latter part of his life, when he has
+arrived at the highest dignity to which a man can arrive, by a
+promotion well-earned at the bar, and doubly well-earned at the bench,
+we are told that he has sacrificed all his honours by acting from
+corrupt motives!"
+
+Sir Francis Burdett replied effectively to the speeches of the
+Solicitor-General and others who sided with him, and nobly defended
+his friend. He showed that the proposal to refuse investigation of
+this case because it might weaken the cause of justice, by making the
+conduct of the administrators of justice contemptible, was worse than
+frivolous. "Such language," he averred, "would operate against the
+investigation of any charges whatever against any judge; would indeed
+form a barrier against the exercise of the best privilege of this
+House--the privilege of inquiring into the conduct of courts of
+justice. It would serve equally well to shelter even those judges
+who have been dragged from the bench for their misconduct." He then
+reviewed the incidents of the Stock Exchange trial, and urged that
+Lord Cochrane had good reason for bringing forward his charges. "The
+question for the House to consider is, 'Do these charges, if admitted,
+contain criminal matter for the consideration of the House?' I
+conceive that they do. No doubt the judges who condemned Russell and
+Sidney were, at the time, spoken of as men of high character, who
+could not be supposed to suffer any base motives to influence their
+conduct. Such arguments as those ought to be banished from this House.
+It is our duty to look, with constitutional suspicion on jealousy, on
+the proceedings of the judges; and, when a grave charge is solemnly
+brought forward, justice to the country, as well as to the judge,
+demands an inquiry into it."
+
+That, however, was refused. After a long speech from the
+Attorney-General, and an eloquent reply by Lord Cochrane, the House
+divided on the motion. Eighty-nine members voted against it. Its only
+supporters were Sir Francis Burdett and Lord Cochrane himself. Not
+only did the House refuse to listen to the allegations against Lord
+Ellenborough; in the excess of its devotion to such law and such order
+as the Government of the day appointed, it even resolved that all the
+entries in its record of proceedings which referred to this subject
+should be expunged from the journals. Lord Cochrane made no
+resistance to this further insult thrown upon him. "It gives me great
+satisfaction," he said, in the brief and dignified speech with which
+he closed the discussion, "to think that the vote which has been come
+to has been come to without any of my charges having been disproved.
+Whatever may be done with them now, they will find their way to
+posterity, and posterity will form a different judgment concerning
+them than that which has been adopted by this House. So long as I have
+a seat in this House, however, I will continue to bring them forward,
+year by year and time after time, until I am allowed the opportunity
+of establishing the truth of my allegations."
+
+Other occupations prevented the full realization of that purpose. But
+to the end of his life Lord Cochrane used every occasion of asserting
+his innocence and courting a full investigation of all the incidents
+on which his assertion was based. Posterity, as he truly prophesied,
+has learnt to endorse his judgment; and therefore, in the ensuing
+pages, it will not be necessary to adduce from his letters and actions
+more than occasional illustrations of the temper which animated him
+throughout with reference to this heaviest of all his heavy troubles.
+
+By these troubles, however, even in the time of their greatest
+pressure, he was not overcome; and in the midst of them he found time
+and heart for active labour in the good work of various sorts that was
+always dear to him. He used the advantages of his liberty in striving
+to perfect the invention of improved street lamps and lighting
+material that had occupied him while in prison, and to procure their
+general adoption. His place in Parliament, moreover, all through the
+session of 1816, was employed not only in seeking justice for himself,
+but also in furthering every project advanced for benefiting the
+community and checking the pernicious action of the Government. A
+zealous, honest Whig before, he was now as zealous and as honest
+as ever in all his political conduct. And his devotion to the best
+interests of the people was yet more apparent in his unflagging
+labours, out of Parliament, for the public good. His great abilities,
+rendered all the more prominent by the cruel persecution to which he
+had been and still was subjected, made him a leading champion of the
+people during the turmoil to which misgovernment at home, and the
+distracted state of foreign politics, gave a special stimulus in 1816.
+
+A long list might be made of the great meetings which he attended,
+and took part in, both among his own constituents of Westminster
+and elsewhere, for the consideration of popular grievances and their
+remedies. One such meeting, attended by Henry Brougham and Sir Francis
+Burdett among others, was held in Palace Yard, Westminster, on the
+1st of March, for the purpose of petitioning Parliament against the
+renewal of the property-tax and the maintenance of a standing army in
+time of peace. Lord Cochrane, the hero of the day, on account of "the
+spirit of opposition which he had shown to the infringement of the
+constitution and the grievances of the people," won for himself new
+favour by the boldness with which he denounced the policy of the
+Government, which, boasting that it was ruining the French nation, was
+at the same time bringing misery also upon Englishmen by the excessive
+taxation and the reckless extravagance to which it resorted.
+
+A smaller, but much more momentous meeting assembled at the City
+of London Tavern on the 29th of July, under the auspices of the
+Association for the Relief of the Manufacturing and Labouring Poor.
+Instigated in a spirit of praiseworthy charity by many of the most
+influential persons of the day, it was used by Lord Cochrane for the
+enforcement of the views as to public right and public duty, and the
+mutual relations of the rich and the poor, which were forced upon him
+by his recent troubles, and the relations in which he was at this time
+placed with some over-zealous champions of popular reform, and some
+unreasonable exponents of popular grievances. That his conduct on this
+occasion was extravagant and even factious, he afterwards heartily
+regretted. Yet as a memorable illustration of the power and
+earnestness with which he fought for what seemed to him to be right,
+as well with word as with sword, its details, as reported at the time,
+may be here set forth at length.
+
+    About half-past one o'clock the Duke of York entered and took
+    the chair, supported on his right by the Duke of Kent, and on
+    his left by the Duke of Cambridge. He was accompanied on
+    his entrance by the Archbishop of Canterbury, the Bishop of
+    London, the Duke of Rutland, Lord Manvers, the Chancellor
+    of the Exchequer, Mr. Wilberforce, and other distinguished
+    individuals.
+
+    His Royal Highness the Duke of York immediately
+proceeded to open the business of the day, by observing that the
+present meeting had been called to consider and, as far as possible,
+to alleviate the present distress and sufferings of the labouring
+classes of the community. These distresses were, he feared, too well
+known to all who heard him to require any description; and all he
+had to add to the bare statement of them was the expression of his
+confidence that the liberality which had been so signally manifested
+in the course of foreign distress would not be found wanting when the
+direction of it was to be towards the comfort and relief of our own
+countrymen at home.
+
+THE DUKE OF KENT, after alluding to the exertions of the Committee of
+1812, observed that the immediate object was to raise a fund, in
+the subsequent accumulation and management of which many ulterior
+arrangements might be projected, and from which charity might soon
+emanate in a thousand directions. He doubted not that every county and
+every town would be quick to imitate the example of the metropolis.
+The association of 1812 had at least the merit of producing this
+effect, and had spread through the whole land that spirit of active
+benevolence which he was feebly invoking on this occasion. He trusted
+that it was necessary for him to say but little more to insure the
+adoption of the resolution which he should have the honour to propose.
+He confessed he felt gratified when he saw so great a concourse of
+his countrymen assembled together for such a purpose, and additional
+gratification at seeing by whom they were supported. He was sure,
+then, that he should not plead in vain to the national liberality; but
+that the remedy would be promptly afforded to an evil which he trusted
+would be found but temporary. If they should be so happy as but to
+succeed in discovering new sources of employment to supply the place
+    of those channels which had been suddenly shut up, he should
+    indeed despond if we did not soon restore the country to that
+    same flourishing condition which had long made her the envy of
+    the world. The royal Duke then moved the first resolution,
+    as follows:--"That the transition from a state of extensive
+    warfare to a system of peace has occasioned a stagnation of
+    employment and a revulsion of trade, deeply affecting the
+    situation of many parts of the community, and producing many
+    instances of great local distress."
+
+    The resolution was seconded by Mr. Harman.
+
+    Lord Cochrane offered himself to the attention of the meeting,
+    but was for some time unable to proceed, his voice being lost
+    in the huzzas and hisses which his presence called forth.
+    Silence being at length in some measure obtained, his lordship
+    said he would not have addressed the meeting but that, having
+    received a circular letter from the committee, and feeling
+    the importance of the subject, he would have thought it a
+    dereliction of his duty if he refrained from attending. He
+    rose thus early because the observations he had to submit
+    would not be suitable if made when the other resolutions were
+    put. The first resolution was, in his opinion, founded on
+    a gross fallacy; and this was his reason for saying so. The
+    existing distresses could not be truly ascribed to any sudden
+    transition from war to peace. Could it be pretended that it
+    was peace which had occasioned the fall in the value of all
+    agricultural produce? Or could any man venture to assert that
+    the difficulties and sufferings of the manufacturing classes
+    had any other cause than a prodigious and enormous burthen of
+    taxation? He was much gratified at seeing the royal Dukes so
+    active in promoting a generous and laudable undertaking, and
+    he hoped he should not be understood as treating them with
+    disrespect when he repeated that the resolution was founded
+    on an entire fallacy. But, not to content himself with a mere
+    assertion of his own belief,
+    he had brought official documents to prove the correctness
+    of his statements; and if he should be wrong, he saw the
+    Chancellor of the Exchequer near him, who would have the
+    opportunity of correcting his misrepresentation. This brief
+    statement, he believed, would be quite sufficient to show that
+    the financial situation of the country was such as to render
+    any attempts of that meeting for the purpose of extending
+    general relief utterly ineffectual. The whole revenue of the
+    kingdom was 62,267,450_l._, deducting the property-tax, and
+    the revenue was thus expended. The interest of the national
+    debt, including the interest of unfunded exchequer bills, was
+    upwards of 40,300,000_l._, leaving to support the expenses of
+    Government only about 22,000,000_l._ It was this enormous sum
+    which now hung round our necks--it was this, which unnecessary
+    extravagance had caused to increase from year to year to its
+    present terrible amount, which was the cause of all the
+    evils of the country at this moment. This taxation, and
+    extravagance, for which the country was now suffering, was
+    supported and sanctioned by those who had derived and still
+    derived large emoluments from them. These were truths that
+    the people ought to know; for they were the source of their
+    burthens, and the origin of all the mischief. It was this
+    profuse expenditure of the public money, to say no worse of
+    it, that occasioned the present calamities. It was the lavish
+    expenditure to meet a compliant list of placemen that brought
+    the country to its present state. The deficiency in the
+    revenue occasioned by the enormous interest of the national
+    debt, which ministers would have to supply, would, according
+    to the present disbursements and receipts, amount to
+    11,578,000_l._ unless that expenditure were reduced, every
+    such attempt as they were at present making would, he was
+    convinced, prove abortive: it was a mere topical application
+    while a mortal distemper was raging within. He had taken
+    no notice in his estimate of the charges for sinecures or
+    the bounties on exports and imports: and yet the returns upon
+    which he went, exclusive of these charges, showed a deficit
+    for the ensuing year of 3,500,000_l._ Were those who heard him
+    prepared to make this good? It was, he believed, undeniable
+    that nothing could equalize our revenue with our expenditure,
+    but the putting down entirely the army and navy, or the
+    extinction of one half of the national debt; but when he
+    looked to the actual receipt of the last quarter and found
+    a falling off of 2,400,000_l._, which, with a corresponding
+    decrease in the three succeeding quarters, must create a new
+    deficit of 10,000,000_l._, and, added to the 3,500,000_l._
+    to which he had alluded, would form a sum equal to the whole
+    amount of the boasted sinking-fund, he felt that it was worse
+    than trifling to suppose we could go on upon the present
+    system. Were they prepared to make up this enormous
+    deficiency? [A voice from the crowd cried "Yes."] He was happy
+    to hear it: he supposed it was some fund-holder who answered,
+    and if any class could do so, it was the fund-holders. They
+    alone had the ability, they alone now derived any returns
+    from their property; but even if they should be both able and
+    willing, still it would only remain a positive deficit made
+    good, and no new facility would be derived for alleviating
+    the existing burthens. The burthens and distresses must
+    still remain what they were before. He spoke not now upon
+    conjecture, or loose calculation, he had brought his authority
+    with him. These were the records from which he derived his
+    statements--the official returns of the Treasury; and
+    if false, the Chancellor of the Exchequer was present to
+    contradict them. He was glad, he confessed, to see him, for
+    those who heard him were, no doubt, aware that it was not
+    always in the House of Commons that a minister could discover
+    the genuine sentiments of the people. If, therefore, no other
+    person should move an amendment, he should feel it his duty
+    to propose an omission of that part of the resolution which
+    ascribed the distressed state of the country to the transition
+    from a state of war to a state of peace, and to state the
+    cause to be an enormous debt, and a lavish expenditure. He had
+    come there with the expectation of seeing the Duke of Rutland
+    in the chair; and with some hopes, as he took the lead upon
+    this occasion, that it was his intention to surrender that
+    sinecure of 9,000_l._ a-year which he was now in the habit
+    of putting in his pocket. He still trusted that all who were
+    present and were also holders of sinecures had it in their
+    intention to sacrifice them to their liberality and their
+    justice; and that they did not come there to aid the
+    distresses of their country by paying half-a-crown per cent,
+    out of the hundreds which they took from it. If they did not,
+    all he could say was, that to him their pretended charity was
+    little better than a fraud. Without, however, taking up more
+    of their time, he should move his amendment, with this one
+    additional observation, that it would be a disgrace to an
+    enlightened meeting, and particularly to a meeting which might
+    be considered as comprising an aggregate mass of the property
+    and intellect of the country, to place a fallacy upon the
+    record of their proceedings, and to build all their following
+    resolutions upon an assertion which had no foundation in
+    truth. He concluded by moving the following amendment to the
+    first resolution:--"That the enormous load of the national
+    debt, together with the large military establishment and the
+    profuse expenditure of public money, was the real cause of the
+    present public distress."
+
+    Mr. Wilberforce said he was himself too much of an Englishman,
+    and had been too long engaged in political discussions to feel
+    any surprise that those who felt warmly on such a subject as
+    the present should be anxious to give
+    expression to their sentiments: but he could not help thinking
+    that, upon cool reflection, the noble lord would be of opinion
+    that his own object would be better attained if he confined
+    himself, on this occasion, to the distinct question under
+    consideration. The noble lord said the country was in a
+    crisis, and would they apply a mere topical remedy? but he
+    might ask the noble lord if he would refuse to assuage the
+    pain of a temporary distemper because he had it not in his
+    power at once to cure it radically? To him the existing
+    distress appeared to be a distemper which rather called for
+    immediate alleviation, than for the speculative discussion of
+    its cause. He thought the most charitable and manly course to
+    be pursued--and that which must be most congenial to what
+    he knew to be the noble lord's own charitable and manly
+    disposition--was not to call upon the meeting to give any
+    opinion upon a political question not under consideration,
+    so as to divert them from pursuing it with diligence and
+    confidence, but to postpone to a better opportunity a
+    discussion of this nature, and to unite cordially in the
+    general cause of finding employment and encouragement for our
+    suffering fellow-citizens. If the noble lord would reflect
+    upon the best mode of relieving the distresses of the people,
+    he would find his amendment not likely to have that tendency.
+    Let him reserve all discussion on the question it involved
+    until he could do it without interrupting the stream of
+    charity, and until he could enter upon it under fair and
+    proper circumstances. He (Mr. Wilberforce), in a proper place,
+    would not shrink from meeting the noble lord on that inquiry;
+    he was twice as old in public life as the noble lord could
+    pretend to be, and fully as independent; yet he would not have
+    easily supposed any man, however young in politics, could have
+    started such topics there. For his part, he should be sorry to
+    take advantage of any credit which might be
+    to supposed to belong to him upon such an occasion as this to
+    cast reproaches upon those who were concurring with him in a
+    benevolent design. The meeting must on the present occasion
+    feel how much indebted it stood to the royal personages for
+    their attendance. They had come to listen to a discussion
+    which had for its avowed and direct object the relief of the
+    people, and they were in the room suddenly called upon to lay
+    aside the practical part of their inquiry and to enter upon
+    a distinct pursuit. Was such a course fair towards those
+    illustrious individuals? Was it that which was likely
+    to induce them to listen to proposals for their personal
+    co-operation on occasions of benevolence, if they had no
+    security against the occupation of their time for discussions
+    of a different character? In conclusion, he entreated the
+    noble lord, of whose real disposition to relieve the people
+    of England he had no doubt, and whose motives he could justly
+    appreciate, to withdraw his amendment.
+
+    Lord Cochrane thanked the honourable gentleman for his
+    personal civilities towards him, and said that he would feel
+    no hesitation in withdrawing his amendment if the honourable
+    gentleman would state to the meeting, on his own personal
+    veracity and honour, that he believed that the original
+    resolution contained the true cause of the public distress,
+    and the amendment the false one. If the honourable gentleman
+    would say that--if any respectable man present would say
+    it--he would be satisfied.
+
+    Mr. Cotes said he was entirely unconnected with the noble
+    lord, and had never even had the honour of speaking, to him.
+    He agreed, however, with him in thinking that this was a
+    moment when the eyes of the public ought to be open to their
+    real situation. The amendment harmonized entirely with all
+    the opinions which he had been able to form upon subject. Mr.
+    Wilberforce, to whose humane and benevolent
+    Mr. character he was happy to pay his acknowledgments, had
+    attempted to get rid of the noble lord's amendment by a sort
+    of side-wind; but to his judgment there was no incompatibility
+    between the object of the meeting and the amendment. There was
+    nothing irrelevant in it; it naturally grew out of the course
+    adopted by the chair, and in which a cause of the prevailing
+    distress was distinctly specified. The question was, then,
+    ought their resolutions to go forth to the public with a
+    falsehood upon the face of them? Ought they not to state the
+    true cause, since His Royal Highness by mistake had assigned
+    a fallacious one? Mr. Wilberforce, with his usual ability, but
+    in a manner that still marked its duplicity--he meant the
+    word in no offensive sense--had asked, would he enter into
+    a political discussion when we were called upon to extend
+    relief? He begged to state this was not the true question: it
+    was whether they would found all the future proceedings
+    upon error and misstatement, or upon incontrovertible facts.
+    Another question was, would they be satisfied to patch up the
+    wounds of the country for a short period or seek to remedy
+    the disease in its spring and in its sources before it became
+    still more alarming and incurable? The Duke of Kent said he
+    had offered the resolution as it had been put into his hand;
+    and if he had conceived there had been any mention of a course
+    upon which difference of opinion could exist, he hoped they
+    knew him sufficiently to believe that he should have been
+    incapable of requiring their assent to it. He now, therefore,
+    proposed an omission of all that part of the resolution
+    which had any reference whatever to the cause of the present
+    distress. He knew the noble lord well enough--and he had known
+    him in early life--to be assured that he would agree with him,
+    at least in a declaration as to the fact. Their common object,
+    he believed, was to afford relief and to admit its necessity
+    without assigning
+    either one cause or another. For his own part, it had not been
+    his intention to attend a political discussion. He would never
+    enter the arena of politics with the noble lord; but he begged
+    leave to say, he considered himself as competent to plead
+    the cause of humanity, to advocate the interests of the
+    weather-beaten sufferer, as the noble lord could be. There
+    were, however, other times and other places for men to engage
+    in discussion of party politics, and he therefore implored the
+    noble lord not to distract the attention of the meeting by the
+    introduction of these; and to keep solely in view that they
+    had met as the friends of benevolence, not as the advocates of
+    a party. His Royal Highness then proposed to alter the motion
+    as follows:--
+
+    "Resolved that there do at this moment exist a stagnation
+    of employment and a revulsion of trade, deeply affecting the
+    situation of many parts of the community, and producing many
+    instances of great local distress."
+
+    Lord Cochrane, in reply, stated that he had no wish to excite
+    a difference of opinion on such an occasion, and that, after
+    the alteration in the resolution, nothing gave him more
+    pleasure than the opportunity of withdrawing his amendment;
+    but, in justification of what he had done, it became necessary
+    for him to say that he never would have thought of his
+    amendment if it had not been for the assertion as to the cause
+    of existing distress--he had no doubt in his mind as to the
+    nature of that cause, and he held it but just and honourable
+    that if a cause must be assigned, it should be the true one.
+    After returning thanks to Mr. Wilberforce and the Duke of Kent
+    for their expressions of personal civility, the noble lord
+    consented to withdraw his motion so far as he was personally
+    concerned in it.
+
+    Considerable opposition, however, from various parts of the
+    hall was manifested to this mode of withdrawing the
+    amendment, and a great deal of disturbance took place. At last
+    the resolution, as altered by the Duke of Kent, was put and
+    carried.
+
+    The Duke of Cambridge, in his speech, which followed, returned
+    his warm thanks to the noble lord for the handsome manner in
+    which he had withdrawn his amendment. He moved the following
+    resolution, which was unanimously agreed to:--
+
+    "From the experienced generosity of the British nation it may
+    be confidently expected that those who are able to afford the
+    means of relief to their fellow-subjects will contribute their
+    utmost endeavours to remedy or alleviate the sufferings of
+    those who are particularly distressed."
+
+    The Archbishop of Canterbury moved the following resolution,
+    which was seconded and carried unanimously: "That although it
+    is obviously impossible for any association of individuals to
+    attempt a general relief of difficulties affecting so large a
+    proportion of the public, yet that it has been proved by
+    the experience of this association that most important and
+    extensive benefits may be derived from the co-operation and
+    correspondence of a society in the metropolis encouraging the
+    efforts of those benevolent individuals who may be disposed to
+    associate themselves in the different districts for the relief
+    of their several neighbourhoods."
+
+    The Duke of Rutland afterwards addressed the meeting,
+    and moved that a subscription be immediately opened, and
+    contributions generally solicited for carrying into effect the
+    objects of this association; which was seconded, and agreed
+    to.
+
+    The Earl of Manvers, after stating that he had opposed the
+    amendment of the noble lord (Lord Cochrane) solely from his
+    anxiety to preserve the unanimity of the meeting, as it was
+    only by becoming unanimous they could gain their
+    object, moved: "That subscribers of 100_l._ and upwards be
+    added to the committee of the Association for the Relief of
+    the Manufacturing and Labouring Poor; that the committee have
+    full power to dispose of the funds to be collected, and to
+    name sub-committees for correspondence."
+
+    The motion was seconded by Sir T. Bell, and unanimously
+    carried.
+
+    The Bishop of London proposed a vote of thanks to the Duke of
+    York, which Mr. C. Barclay was about to second, but--
+
+    Lord Cochrane again stepped forward and gained the attention
+    of the meeting. He repeated the explanation of the motives
+    for withdrawing his proposed amendment, adding, that he had no
+    wish again to press that amendment upon the consideration
+    of the meeting. But he could not forbear from observing what
+    would have been the fate of such a proposition, if brought
+    forward in another place, which he need not name. For there,
+    instead of being requested to withdraw the proposition, it
+    would have been met by a direct negative or by 'the previous
+    question,' in support of which, no doubt, a majority of that
+    assembly, miscalled the representatives of the people, would
+    have voted. Yet the manner in which this, a meeting of the
+    people, would have decided, was pretty obvious; and hence it
+    might be inferred how far the people concurred in sentiment
+    and feeling with the House of Commons. That the proposed, or
+    any charitable subscription, must be inadequate to relieve the
+    actual distress of the country was a proposition which could
+    not be disputed, but yet he did not intend to oppose that
+    subscription; on the contrary, he should give it every
+    possible support in his power; and it was, he felt, a
+    consolation to them that there were still some persons in this
+    country who could afford something to relieve the poor; but
+    he was afraid that neither the landowner nor the mercantile
+    interest had the means of
+    doing so; for the former could obtain no rent, and the latter
+    no trade--the only persons, in fact, who were able to assist
+    the poor under present circumstances were the placemen, the
+    sinecurists, and the fund-holders, who must give up at least
+    half of their ill-gotten gains in order to effect the object.
+    With this impression fixed upon his mind, he felt it his duty
+    to propose an additional resolution, that the ministers of
+    the crown, that the Government of the country, who wielded
+    the power of Parliament, were alone competent to remove and
+    to alleviate the national distress. This, indeed, was evident
+    from the statement of our financial situation which he
+    had already made. He had called upon the Chancellor of the
+    Exchequer, who was present, to contradict that statement if
+    he could; but the right honourable gentleman had felt it
+    expedient not to utter one word, as the meeting had witnessed.
+    Yet from that statement it must be obvious, as he had already
+    observed, that the military and naval situation of the country
+    must be abandoned, or at least half the national debt must be
+    extinguished, for the resources of the empire could not endure
+    such burthens. The noble lord concluded with expressing his
+    intention when the present resolutions were got over, to move
+    another, stating the real cause of the present distress,
+    and that the Chancellor of the Exchequer and his majesty's
+    ministers were alone capable of affording serious relief to
+    the present distress.
+
+    Mr. Barclay seconded the motion of the Right Reverend the
+    Bishop of London, to which Lord Cochrane assured the meeting
+    he entertained no objection.
+
+    Great confusion prevailed in the meeting, some crying out
+    for Lord Cochrane's motion, while others were equally loud in
+    testifying their anxiety for the vote of thanks.
+
+    The Duke of Kent then put the motion.
+
+    Lord Cochrane said that his sole object was to have an
+    opportunity of moving his resolution after the present was
+    disposed of.
+
+A person from a distant part of the room exclaimed: "That resolution
+shall not be put, for it is a libel on the Parliament." Several other
+remarks were made, but they were generally unintelligible from the
+violent uproar and confusion that prevailed. Loud cries of "Put Lord
+Cochrane's motion first" were mixed with the cry of "Chair, chair."
+
+The Duke of Kent said that he had attended this meeting with a view
+to assist in promoting an object of charity, and he had no doubt that
+such was the intention of the noble lord (Cochrane). Of this he
+was sure from the noble lord's own declaration, as well as from his
+knowledge of the noble lord's feelings. The noble lord had, indeed,
+himself stated that he had no wish to introduce any political, or to
+press any, measure likely to interfere with the object of the
+meeting. Therefore, he called upon the noble lord, in consistency, in
+politeness and urbanity, not to urge any political principle; and the
+noble lord must be aware that his proposition had a strong political
+tendency. The proposition was indeed such, that the noble lord must be
+aware that it was calculated to injure the subscription, for those who
+were not of the noble lord's opinion in politics were but too likely
+to leave the room if that proposition were pressed to a vote, and thus
+a material object of charity would suffer through a desire to urge a
+declaration of a mere political opinion.
+
+Lord Cochrane disclaimed any wish to provoke political discussion.
+He expressed his desire merely to declare a truth which no man
+could venture to dispute in any popular assembly, in order that
+the Chancellor of the Exchequer, and others present, might have an
+    opportunity of reporting to Government the decided sentiment
+    and real feeling of the people.
+
+    The Archbishop of Canterbury begged leave to call back the
+    attention of the meeting to the motion before it, and which,
+    he had no doubt, would be unanimously adopted. This motion,
+    the most reverend prelate added, was not intended in any
+    degree to interfere with the motion of the noble lord.
+
+    Amid loud cries of "Put Lord Cochrane's motion first, for if
+    the motion of thanks be disposed of, the Duke of York will
+    leave the chair, and the noble lord's motion will not be put
+    at all," the Duke of Kent declared that there could be
+    no intention to get rid of the noble lord's motion by any
+    side-wind.
+
+    The motion of thanks was then passed while Lord Cochrane was
+    engaged in writing his motion, and the Duke of York, having
+    bowed to the meeting, immediately withdrew, amidst loud
+    hissings, and cries of "Shame! shame! a trick! a trick!"
+
+    The Duke of Kent, whose head was turned towards Lord Cochrane,
+    was much surprised and disappointed at discovering the absence
+    of the chairman.
+
+    The general cry was then raised: "The Duke of Kent to the
+    chair."
+
+    His Royal Highness addressed the meeting. Having, he said,
+    pledged himself on proposing the last resolution that there
+    was no intention of getting rid of Lord Cochrane's motion by
+    any side-wind, he felt himself in a very awkward predicament.
+    "But," he added, "I hope that, as liberal Englishmen, you
+    will consider my situation and who I am; and that after my
+    illustrious relatives have retired from the meeting, you
+    will not insist upon my taking the chair for the purpose of
+    pressing the declaration of a political opinion;
+    but that you will commend my motives, and do justice to
+    those feelings which determine the propriety of my immediate
+    departure." His Royal Highness accordingly withdrew.
+
+    The majority of the meeting still remained, calling for the
+    nomination of another chairman, and pressing the adoption of
+    Lord Cochrane's motion; but the noble lord also withdrew, and
+    the meeting separated.
+
+That meeting was memorable. If Lord Cochrane's bearing at it was
+factious, it must be remembered how greatly he had suffered and how
+earnestly he desired to save the people at large from the sufferings
+entailed upon them by the Government which he and they had learnt to
+regard with a common dislike. By exposing what appeared to him and
+many others to be the hypocrisy of seeming philanthropists, and
+showing what he deemed the only real cause and the only real remedy
+of the national distress, he only acted as a brave and honest man, and
+his work was appreciated by the masses in whose interest it was done.
+A thrill of satisfaction ran through the land. During the ensuing
+weeks and months congratulations were heaped upon him from all
+quarters, and from nearly every class of society. If he had lessened
+the resources of the Association for the Belief of the Manufacturing
+and Labouring Poor, he was thanked even for this, since it was
+believed to be a good thing for shallow charity to be stayed, in order
+that the cause of real justice might be promoted.
+
+The thanks were all the heartier because of the fresh persecution to
+which Lord Cochrane was subjected on account of his patriotism. This
+persecution was in the shape of legal proceedings instituted against
+him by the Marshal of the King's Bench Prison for his escape therefrom
+on the 10th of March, 1815. The action had been formally commenced
+almost immediately after the alleged offence, but on technical
+grounds, and perhaps from the consciousness that he was already
+punished enough, it was delayed for more than a year. As the
+previous punishment, however, had not been enough to silence him, the
+Government determined to revive the old charge as a further act of
+vengeance. At the special instigation of Lord Ellenborough, as it
+was averred, the prosecution had been renewed in May, 1816, almost
+immediately after the rejection by the House of Commons of Lord
+Cochrane's charges against the vindictive and unprincipled judge; but
+the time was too far gone for trial to take place during the summer
+term. It was again renewed, and at length successfully, directly after
+Lord Cochrane's fresh exhibition of his hostility to the Government at
+the London Tavern meeting.
+
+The trial was at Guildford, on the 17th of August. Its history and
+issue may best be told in the words of an autobiographical fragment,
+written by Lord Dundonald shortly before his death. "I was accompanied
+to Guildford," he said, "by Sir Francis Burdett and several other
+leading inhabitants of Westminster, whose names are forgotten by me. I
+took neither counsel nor witnesses, having determined to rest my case
+on the point of law that 'no Member of Parliament can be imprisoned,
+either for non-payment of a fine to the king, or for any other cause
+than treason or felony, or refusing to give security to keep the
+peace,' my inference being that as I was illegally imprisoned, I had
+committed no illegality in escaping. I read to the jury a general
+statement, on which they unequivocally expressed their conviction that
+the trial had better not have been instituted, for that the punishment
+already sustained was more than adequate to the offence alleged to
+have been committed. The judge, however, interfered, and told the
+jury that, as I had admitted the escape in my statement, they had no
+alternative but to bring in a verdict of guilty, which was reluctantly
+done, and judgment was deferred.
+
+"After the trial I returned to my house in Hampshire, and not hearing
+anything more of the affair, naturally concluded that, in the face of
+the opinion expressed by the jury, the Government would be ashamed to
+prosecute the matter further. Not liking, however, to trust to their
+mercy, whilst their malevolence might be exercised at an inconvenient
+season, or made to depend upon my political conduct, I directed my
+attorney to inquire whether it was intended to put in execution the
+sentence at Guildford. The reply was that no steps had been taken,
+and the impression was, that Government would be against further
+proceedings, lest they should tend to increase my popularity.
+Considering that this might be a feint to put me off my guard, I went
+to London for the purpose of attending a large political meeting, in
+the conduct of which I participated. Shortly afterwards I received
+a summons to appear at Westminster Hall and receive judgment on the
+verdict; the judgment being that I was condemned to pay a fine of
+100_l._ to the Crown.
+
+"On my refusal to pay the fine, on the 21st of November, I was again
+taken into custody, I alleging that the sentence would amount to
+perpetual imprisonment, for that I would never pay a fine imposed for
+escaping from an illegal detention.
+
+"On my being taken back to prison, however, a meeting of the electors
+of Westminster was held, at which it was determined that the amount
+of the fine should be paid by a penny subscription, no person being
+allowed to subscribe more. This plan was adopted in order that the
+public throughout the kingdom might have an opportunity of manifesting
+their disapprobation of the oppressive way in which I was being
+treated. Though I knew nothing of the intentions of the committee at
+the time, it was expected that the subscription would amount to a
+much larger sum than the fine, and resolved that the surplus should be
+devoted to the re-imbursement of the former fine of 1000_l._ and of the
+expenses to which I had been put at the trial. Receiving-houses were
+accordingly opened in the metropolis and in various other large towns,
+and the amount of the fine of 100_l._ was speedily collected in London
+alone.
+
+"Meanwhile meetings were constantly being held to petition Parliament
+for reform, and at these my name and sufferings formed a prominent
+topic, so that the Government would have been glad to be rid of
+me. After one of these meetings in Spafields, for the purpose of
+requesting Sir Francis Burdett and myself to present a petition to
+Parliament, a serious riot took place in the city of London, in which
+a gentleman was shot by the military. The Government, in alarm lest
+the people should proceed to the King's Bench and liberate me, did me
+the honour to send a company of infantry to guard me, the officers of
+the prison being ordered to admit no strangers whatever. The troops
+were further ordered to continue their attendance till I was released
+from custody.
+
+"The subscription having been completed in pence, sent from all parts
+of the kingdom, my secretary, Mr. Jackson, applied to the Master of
+the Crown Office to receive the amount of the fine in coppers. This
+was refused, as not being a legal tender. The Master, however, in
+token of the suffering to which I had so unworthily been subjected,
+said that, as payment of the fine in such a manner marked the sense of
+the people on my case, he would not oppose himself to the expression
+of public sentiment, but would take 10_l._ of the sum in coppers. This
+was accordingly paid, and the remainder in notes and silver, which
+were given by various tradesmen in exchange for the coppers of the
+people, whose money was thus literally appropriated to the payment of
+the fine.
+
+"Finding, on my liberation, whole chests filled with penny pieces, I
+wrote to the committee, stating that sufficient had been collected.
+The reply was that the subscription should go on till the amount of
+the fine of 1000_l._ was paid in addition. The whole of the amount of
+the fine was thus realized, with something beyond--I do not recollect
+how much--towards my law expenses, which had necessarily been
+excessive. Taking, however, the 1100_l._ paid in pence, this
+alone showed that two million six hundred and forty thousand
+persons--composing a very large portion of the adult population of
+the kingdom--sympathised with me. Not one of my persecutors could have
+elicited such an expression of public sympathy."
+
+The fine being thus paid, Lord Cochrane was released from the King's
+Bench Prison on the 7th of December, after a confinement of sixteen
+days, which was attended by all the wanton severity shown to him
+during his previous incarceration. Having been apprehended on a
+Thursday, he was, on his arrival at the King's Bench, placed in an
+unhealthy room protected by an iron grating. In the evening, having
+complained of such unusual treatment, he was informed that it was
+under the express directions of the Marshal. Next day, being seriously
+unwell, a physician was sent to him, who reported that he was
+suffering from palpitation of the heart and other symptoms of
+dangerous excitement, which made it necessary that he should be
+removed to better quarters. Accordingly, worse quarters were found for
+him, in a damp, dark, and very imperfectly-ventilated room, entirely
+devoid of furniture, in the middle of the building. Stedfastly
+refusing to go there, he was allowed to remain for that night in
+the room, first assigned to him. On Saturday morning, just as he
+was sitting down to breakfast, he was ordered to proceed to his new
+dungeon. Again refusing, his untasted breakfast was forcibly taken
+from him until he consented to eat it in the appointed place. Thither
+he accordingly went, and there he was detained for the fortnight that
+passed before his liberation.
+
+On the 17th of December an enthusiastic meeting of the citizens of
+Westminster was held to congratulate Lord Cochrane upon his release.
+"We, your lordship's constituents," it was stated in an address
+adopted by that meeting, "beg leave, on the present occasion, to
+declare that, after having had long and ample means for inquiry and
+reflection, we remain in the full and entire conviction of the perfect
+innocence of your lordship of every part of the offence laid to your
+charge at the outset of that series of persecutions by which, during
+the last three years of your life, you have been incessantly harassed.
+But, indeed, those persons must have very little knowledge of public
+affairs, and particularly of your distinguished naval and political
+career, who do not clearly perceive that all those persecutions have
+arisen from your public virtues, and who are not well convinced that,
+if you had not served the people by your exposure of the abuses in the
+prize courts, by your endeavours to restore to the right owners
+the immense sums unjustly alienated under the names of Droits of
+Admiralty, by your honest explanation of the causes which prevented
+the naval renown of your country being complete at Basque Roads, and
+by having caused to be produced in Parliament, and published to the
+nation, that memorable account of sinecures, pensions, and grants
+which so usefully enlightened the public, you never would have
+been prosecuted for a pretended fraud on the funds. Your lordship's
+constituents, being thus fully sensible that you have suffered and are
+still suffering solely for their and their country's sake, would deem
+themselves amongst the most ungrateful of mankind were they to neglect
+this occasion to tender you the most solemn assurances of their
+unabated attachment and their most resolute support, and, whilst they
+are endeavouring to discharge their duty towards your lordship, they
+entertain the consoling reflection that the day is not distant when
+you will mainly assist in carrying forward that measure of radical
+parliamentary reform which alone can be a safeguard against all sorts
+of oppressions, and especially oppressions under which your lordship
+has so long and so severely suffered."
+
+To that honourable address an honourable reply was penned by Lord
+Cochrane on the 24th of December, and presented to the electors of
+Westminster at another meeting assembled for the purpose on the 1st of
+January ensuing.
+
+The direct persecution which began with the Stock Exchange trial and
+its antecedents was now at an end, after three years of gross and
+untiring vindictiveness. Indirect persecution was to continue for more
+than thirty years.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V.
+
+THE STATE OF POLITICS IN ENGLAND IN 1817 AND 1818, AND LORD COCHRANE's
+SHARE IN THEM.--HIS WORK AS A RADICAL IN AND OUT OF PARLIAMENT.--HIS
+FUTILE ATTEMPTS TO OBTAIN THE PRIZE MONEY DUE FOR HIS SERVICES
+AT BASQUE ROADS.--THE HOLLY HILL BATTLE.--THE PREPARATIONS FOR HIS
+ENTERPRISE IN SOUTH AMERICA.--HIS LAST SPEECH IN PARLIAMENT.
+
+[1817-1818.]
+
+
+The years 1817 and 1818 were years of great political turmoil. The
+English people, weary of the European wars, which in two-and-twenty
+years had raised the national debt from 230,000,000_l._ to
+860,000,000_l._, thus causing a taxation which amounted, in the average,
+to 25_l._ a year upon every family of five persons, were in no mood to
+be made happy even by the restitution of peace. Partly by necessity,
+partly by the bad management of the Government and its officials, the
+war-burdens were continued, and to the starving multitudes they were
+more burdensome than ever. Angry complaints were uttered openly, and
+repeated again and again with steadily-increasing vehemence, in all
+parts of the country. That the ministers and agents of the Crown were
+grievously at fault was patent to all; and it is not strange that, in
+the excitement and the misery that prevailed, they should be blamed
+even more than was their due. But the men in power did not choose to
+be blamed at all; they denied that any fault attached to them, and
+fiercely reprobated every complaint as sedition, every opponent as a
+lawless and unpatriotic demagogue. Hence the Government and the people
+came to be at deadly feud. Most right was with the people, and their
+bold assertion of that right, albeit sometimes in wrong ways, has
+secured memorable benefits in later times; but power was still with
+the Government, and it was used even more roughly than in former
+years.
+
+That Lord Cochrane, having suffered so much from the vindictive
+persecution of the Tories, should have thrown in his lot with its
+most extreme opponents, is not to be wondered at. During 1817 he was
+intimately associated with the popular party in all its efforts for
+the redress of grievances and in all the assertions of its real and
+fancied rights. In and out of Parliament he was alike active and
+outspoken. The history of his public conduct at this time forms
+no small section of the history of the Radical movement during the
+period. It resulted naturally from the circumstances in which he had
+lately been placed. Energetic in thought and action, a ready writer
+and an able speaker, his recent sufferings helped to place him in the
+foremost rank of patriots, as they were called by friends--demagogues,
+as they were called by enemies. With the exception of Sir Francis
+Burdett, than whom he even went further, the people had, outside their
+own ranks, no sturdier champion.
+
+If there had been any doubt before as to his line of action, there
+could be no doubt after the re-assembling of Parliament in January,
+1817. During the recess, monster meetings had been held in all parts
+of the country to consider the popular troubles and to insist upon
+popular reforms. Lord Cochrane agreed to present to the House of
+Commons many of the petitions that resulted from these meetings, and
+this he did on the 29th of January, the very day of the re-opening of
+Parliament.
+
+In anticipation of this measure, there was a great assembling of
+reform delegates from all parts of England, and of others favourable
+to their purpose, in front of Lord Cochrane's residence at No. 7,
+Palace Yard, Westminster. Shortly before two o'clock Lord Cochrane
+showed himself at the window, and announced that he was now on his
+way to the House, there to watch over the rights and liberties of the
+people, and that he would shortly return and let them know what was
+passing. This he did at four o'clock, part of the interval being
+occupied with a fervid address from Henry Hunt. On his reappearance,
+Lord Cochrane stated that the speech with which the Prince Regent had
+opened Parliament had not disappointed his expectations, for it was
+wholly disappointing to the people. The Regent had complained of the
+disaffection pervading the country, and had announced his intention of
+using all the power given him by the Constitution for its suppression.
+Lord Cochrane expressed his confident hope that the people, having
+the right on their side, would so demean themselves as to give their
+enemies no ground of charge against them; for those enemies desired
+nothing so much as riot and disorder.
+
+Thereupon an immense bundle of petitions was handed him, and he
+himself was placed in a chair, and so conveyed on men's shoulders to
+the door of Westminster Hall, where the crowd dispersed in an orderly
+way.
+
+In the House, before the motion for an address in answer to the Prince
+Regent's speech, Lord Cochrane rose to present a petition, signed by
+more than twenty thousand inhabitants of Bristol, setting forth the
+present distress of the country, the increase of paupers and beggars,
+the grievous lack of employment for industrious persons, and
+the misery that resulted from this state of things. In these
+circumstances, the petitioners urged, it was in vain to pretend to
+relieve the sufferers by giving them soup, while, for the support of
+sinecure placemen, pensioners without number, and an insatiable
+civil list, half their earnings were taken from them by the enormous
+taxation under which the country groaned. After considerable
+opposition, the petition was allowed to lie on the table.
+
+Lord Cochrane then presented a smaller but much more outspoken
+petition from the inhabitants of Quirk, in Yorkshire. "The
+petitioners," it was there urged, "have a full and immovable
+conviction--a conviction which they believe to be universal throughout
+the kingdom--that the House does not, in any constitutional or
+rational sense, represent the nation; that, when the people have
+ceased to be represented, the Constitution is subverted; that taxation
+without representation is a state of slavery; that the scourge
+of taxation without representation has now reached a severity too
+harassing and vexatious, too intolerable and degrading, to be longer
+endured without resistance by all possible means warranted by the
+Constitution; that such a condition of affairs has now been reached
+that contending factions are alike guilty of their country's wrongs,
+alike forgetful of her rights, mocking the public patience with
+repeated, protracted, and disgusting debates on questions of
+refinement in the complicated and abstruse science of taxation, as if
+in such refinement, and not in a reformed representation, as if in a
+consolidated corruption, and not in a renovated Constitution,
+relief were to be found; that thus there are left no human means of
+redressing the people's wrongs or composing their distracted minds,
+or of preventing the subversion of liberty and the establishment of
+despotism, unless by calling the collected wisdom and virtue of the
+community into counsel by the election of a free Parliament; and
+therefore, considering that, through the usurpation of borough
+factions and other causes, the people have been put even out of a
+condition to consent to taxes; and considering also that, until their
+sacred right of election shall be restored, no free Parliament can
+have existence, it is necessary that the House shall, without delay,
+pass a law for putting the aggrieved and much-aroused people in
+possession of their undoubted right to representation co-extensive
+with taxation, to an equal distribution of such representation
+throughout the community, and to Parliaments of a continuance
+according to the Constitution, namely, not exceeding one year."
+
+A long discussion ensued as to whether this petition should be
+accepted by the House or rejected as an insulting libel. Several
+members of the House denounced it. Other members, while objecting to
+its terms, urged its acceptance. Among them the most notable was
+Mr. Brougham. The petition, he said, was rudely worded, and its
+recommendations were such as no wise lover of the English Constitution
+could wholly subscribe to; but it pointed to real grievances and
+recommended improvements which were necessary to the well-being of the
+State, and therefore it ought to be admitted. Mr. Canning was one of
+those who insisted upon its rejection, and this was ultimately done by
+a majority of 87, 48 being in favour of the petition, and 135 against
+it.
+
+Four other petitions presented by Lord Cochrane, being to the same
+effect, were also rejected; and two, more moderate in their language,
+were accepted. Lord Cochrane thus succeeded, at any rate, in forcing
+the House during several hours to take into consideration the troubled
+state of the country, and the pressing need, as it seemed to great
+masses of the people, of thorough parliamentary reform.
+
+"You will see by the 'Debates,'" he wrote next day to a friend, "that
+I presented a number of petitions last night, and had a hard battle to
+fight. Today I am quite indisposed, by reason of the corruption of the
+Honourable House. It is impossible to support a bad cause by honest
+means. God knows where all these base projects will end." That his own
+cause was a good one, and that the means used by him were honest, he
+had no doubt. In the same letter he referred to the opposition offered
+to him, even by some of his own relatives, on account of his conduct.
+"Mr. Cochrane has thought proper to disavow, through the public
+papers, any connection with my politics. The consciousness that I am
+acting as I ought makes that light which I should otherwise feel as a
+heavy clog in following that course which I think honour and justice
+require."
+
+Therefore he persevered in his Herculean task. Having presented and
+spoken upon others in the interval, he presented another monster
+petition to the House on the 5th of February. It was signed, he said,
+by twenty-four thousand inhabitants of London and the neighbourhood.
+It complained of the unbearable weight of taxation and the distresses
+of the country, and of the squandering of the money extracted from the
+pockets of an oppressed and impoverished people to support sinecure
+placemen and pensioners. "It appears to me," he said, "surprising that
+there should be any set of men so cruel and unjust as to wallow in
+wealth at the public expense while poor wretches are starving at every
+corner of the streets." He represented that the petition was drawn
+up in temperate, respectful language,--more temperate, indeed, than
+he should have employed had he dictated its phrases. He urged that the
+people had good cause for complaint as to the way in which Parliament
+neglected their interests, and good ground for asserting that the
+system of parliamentary representation then afforded them was no real
+representation at all. Members entered the House only in pursuit of
+their own selfish ends, and the Government encouraged this state of
+things by fostering a system of wholesale bribery and corruption,
+degrading in itself and fraught with terrible mischief to the
+community. What wonder, then, that the people should pray, as they did
+in this petition, for a thorough reform, and should point to annual
+Parliaments and universal suffrage as the only efficient remedies?
+
+It is needless to recapitulate all the arguments offered again
+and again by Lord Cochrane, with ever fresh-force and cogency, in
+presenting massive petitions to the House, and in introducing into
+the occasional debates on reform with which the House amused itself
+a vigour and practicalness in which few other members cared to
+sympathize. Nor need we enumerate all the meetings, in London and the
+provinces, in which he took prominent part. It is enough to say that
+in Parliament he always spoke with exceeding boldness, and that upon
+the people, notwithstanding the contrary assertions of his detractors,
+he always enjoined, if not conciliation and forbearance, at any rate
+such action as was within the strict letter of the law, and most
+likely, in the end, to obtain the realization of their wishes. On all
+occasions he defended them from the charges of sedition and conspiracy
+brought against them by their opponents, and proved, to all who were
+open to proof, that their objects were patriotic, and were being
+sought in patriotic ways.
+
+Of this, however, the Government did not choose to be convinced.
+Taking advantage of some intemperate speeches of demagogues, making
+much of some violent handbills circulated by police-officers under
+secret instructions, mightily exaggerating a few lawless acts,--as
+when a drunken old sailor summoned the keepers of the Tower of London
+to surrender,--they procured, on the 26th of February, the suspension
+of the Habeas Corpus Act. Therefrom resulted, at any rate, some good.
+The Whigs, who had hitherto mainly supported the Tory Government, were
+now turned against it, and with them the wiser Radicals, like Lord
+Cochrane, sought to effect a coalition. "You will perceive by the
+papers," he said in a letter dated February the 28th, "that I have
+resolved to steer another political course, seeing that the only means
+of averting military despotism from the country is to unite the people
+and the Whigs, so far as they can be induced to co-operate, which they
+must do if they wish to preserve the remainder of the Constitution.
+The 'Times' of yesterday contains the fullest account of the late
+debates on the suspension of the Habeas Corpus Act, and by that report
+you will perceive that the Whigs really made a good stand."
+
+In that temper, Lord Cochrane spoke at a Westminster meeting, held
+on the 11th of March, "to take into consideration the propriety
+of agreeing to an address to His Royal Highness the Prince Regent,
+beseeching that he will, in his well-known solicitude for the freedom
+and happiness of His Majesty's subjects, remove from his royal
+councils those ministers who appear resolved to adopt no effectual
+measures of economy and retrenchment, but, on the contrary, to
+persevere in measures calculated to drive a suffering people to
+despair."
+
+There was some flattery or some mockery, or something of both, in
+that announcement; and both, with much earnest enunciation of popular
+grievances, were in Lord Cochrane's speech on the subject. He said
+that the Regent had as much cause as the people to complain of his
+present ministers, seeing how shamelessly they sought to hide from him
+the real state of the country. It was to be expected, from the early
+habits and character of the Regent, that he would anxiously pursue
+the interests of the nation, if, instead of being in the hands of an
+odious oligarchy, he could act for himself. This, at any rate, Lord
+Cochrane maintained should be urged upon him, for if something were
+not quickly done for the relief of the nation, trade and commerce
+would soon be utterly ruined, and the whole community would share the
+misery that had so long oppressed the lower orders. He again dwelt
+forcibly on the causes of this misery, and again denounced the conduct
+of the ministers and placemen who, while squandering the hardly-earned
+pounds of the people, claimed respect for their exemplary charity
+in doling out a few farthings for "the relief of the poor." In the
+previous year, he showed, Lord Castlereagh, "the bell-wether of the
+House of Commons," and thirteen other persons, had drawn from the
+revenues of the country 309,861_l._, and out of that amount had given
+back, in "sinecure soup," only 1505_l._
+
+On a hundred other occasions, both outside of the House of Commons and
+within its walls, Lord Cochrane continued fearlessly to set forth
+the troubles of the people and the wrong-doing of its governors. In
+Parliament petitions without number were presented, and, amid all
+sorts of contumely, defended by him; and he took a no less active part
+in various important discussions, of which it will suffice, by way of
+illustration, to name the debates of the 3rd, 14th, and 28th of March,
+on the famous Seditious Meetings Bill, and that of the 13th of March
+on the depressed condition of English trade and its causes--a subject
+which was recurred to by Mr. Brougham in his memorable motion of the
+11th of July on the state of the nation.
+
+Six weeks before that, on the 20th of May, Lord Cochrane spoke on
+another famous motion--that made by his friend Sir Francis Burdett
+in favour of parliamentary reform. Once more, he complained that the
+existing House of Commons in no way represented the people, and was
+entirely regardless of its interests. Nothing better, he alleged,
+could be hoped for, without a radical change in the system of
+representation. "But," he continued, "reform we must have, whether we
+will or no. The state of the country is such that things cannot much
+longer be conducted as they now are. There is a general call for
+reform. If the call is not obeyed, thank God the evil will produce
+its own remedy, the mass of corruption will destroy itself, for the
+maggots it engenders will eat it up. The members of this House are the
+maggots of the Constitution. They are the locusts that devour it and
+cause all the evils that are complained of. There is nothing wicked
+which does not emanate from this House. In it originate all knavery,
+perjury, and fraud. You well know all this. You also know that the
+means by which the great majority of the House is returned is one
+great cause of the corruption of the whole people. It has been said,
+'Let the people reform themselves;' but if sums of money are offered
+for seats within these walls, there will always be found men ready to
+receive them. It is impossible to imagine that the profuse expenditure
+of the late war would have taken place, had it not been for a corrupt
+majority devoted to their selfish interests. At least it would have
+had a shorter duration, from being carried on in a more effective
+manner, had it not been conducive to the views of many to prevent its
+speedy termination. Much has been said about the glorious result of
+the war; but has not lavish expenditure loaded us with taxation which
+is impoverishing the people and annihilating commerce? Are not vessels
+seen everywhere with brooms at their mastheads? Are not sailors
+starving? Is not agriculture languishing? Are not our manufactures in
+the most distressed state?"
+
+Lord Cochrane asserted that the real revolutionists of England were
+the ministers and their followers. "I am persuaded that no man without
+doors wishes the subversion of the Constitution; but within it,
+bribery and corruption stand for the Constitution. Mr. Pitt himself
+confessed that no honest man could hold the situation of minister for
+any length of time. There can be no honest minister until measures
+have been taken to purge and purify the House. If this be not done,
+it is in vain to hope for a renewal of successful enterprise in this
+country: the sun of the country is set for ever. It may indeed exist
+as a petty military German despotism, with horsemen parading up and
+down, with large whiskers, with sabres ringing by their horses' sides,
+with fantastically-shaped caps of fantastical colours on their
+heads; but this country cannot thus be made a great military power.
+A previous speaker has instanced juries as one of the benefits of the
+Constitution; but I will affirm, with respect to the manner in which
+juries are chosen under the present system, that justice is much
+better administered, in a more summary manner, with less expense, and
+no chicanery, by the Dey of Algiers. If this country were erected at
+once into a downright, honest, open despotism, the people would be
+gainers. If a judge or despot then proved a rogue, he would at
+once appear in his true character; but now villany can be artfully
+concealed under the verdict of a packed jury. I am satisfied that the
+present system of corruption is more detrimental to the country than a
+despotism."
+
+No other speaker spoke so boldly as Lord Cochrane; but his eloquent
+words were substantially endorsed by many; by Sir Samuel Romilly and
+Mr. Brougham in especial; and on a division, though 265 voted
+against Sir Francis Burdett's motion, it was supported by a
+minority--unusually large for the time--of 77.
+
+Slowly but surely the better principles of government for which
+Lord Cochrane fought so persistently were gaining ground, destined
+ultimately to produce the changes in national temper which made plain
+the duty and expediency of adopting the changes in political systems
+in which the years 1832 and 1867 are epochs. In after years, Lord
+Cochrane himself clearly saw that he had been rash in his advocacy
+of the sweeping reforms which the excited people deemed necessary for
+their welfare in the years of trouble and misgovernment consequent on
+the tedious war-time ending with the battle of Waterloo. But he never
+had cause to regret the honest zeal and the generous sympathy with
+which he strove, though in violent ways, to lessen the weight of the
+popular distresses.
+
+Distresses were not wanting to himself during this period. The weight
+of his former troubles still hung heavily upon him. He could not
+forget the terrible disgrace--none the less terrible because it was
+unmerited--that had befallen him. And in pecuniary ways he was a
+grievous sufferer by them. In losing his naval employment he lost
+the income on which he had counted. His resources were thus seriously
+crippled; and the scientific pursuits, in which he still persevered,
+failed to bring to him the profit that he anticipated.
+
+In one characteristic way--only one among many--the Government
+persecution still clung to him. In the distribution of prize-money
+for the achievement at Basque Roads all the officers and crews of
+Lord Grambier's fleet had been considered entitled to share. To this
+arrangement Lord Cochrane objected. He urged that as the whole triumph
+was due to the _Imperieuse_ and the few ships actually engaged with
+her, the reward ought to be limited to them. "I am preparing to
+proceed in the Court of Admiralty on the question of head-money for
+Basque Roads," he wrote on the 5th of November, 1816; "my affidavit
+has reluctantly been admitted, though strenuously opposed, on the
+ground that I was not to be believed on my oath!"
+
+Lord Cochrane's council in this case was Dr. Lushington, afterwards
+the eminent judge of the Admiralty Court. Dr. Lushington showed
+plainly that the greater part of the fleet, having taken no share in
+the action, had no right to head-money, and that therefore all ought
+to be divided among those who actually shared with Lord Cochrane
+the danger and the success of the enterprise. But Sir William Scott
+(afterwards Lord Stowell), the judge at that time, was not disposed
+to sanction this view. Therefore he thwarted it by delays. The case
+having been postponed from November, 1816, was brought up again in the
+first term of 1817. "The judge has again delayed his decision," wrote
+Lord Cochrane on the 28th of February, the day of the announcement,
+"and I believe has done so until next session. He gave a curious
+reason for this, namely, that I took part at the Westminster meeting
+against the suspension of the Habeas Corpus Act!"
+
+At the next session it was again postponed, all the time available
+for its consideration being taken up with a frivolous discussion as to
+Lord Cochrane's right to give evidence. "They have gone the length,"
+wrote his secretary, Mr. Jackson, on the 3rd of May, "of denying Lord
+Cochrane's credibility in a court of justice. They had no other way
+of answering his affidavit, which would have gained his cause in the
+Court of Admiralty, as it proved that the French ships in Basque Roads
+were destroyed by his own exertions in fighting without orders from
+the Admiral. The denial-of Lord Cochrane's competency to give evidence
+has excited a great deal of interest, and the Court of Admiralty was
+quite crowded on Tuesday, when the question came on to be discussed.
+I thought that our counsel had much the best of the argument, and I
+believe the judge, Sir William Scott, thought so too, as he put off
+his sentence to a future day." On the future day the judge admitted as
+much. "We have gained a bit of a victory in the Admiralty Court," said
+the same writer in a letter dated the 9th of June, "the judge having
+been compelled to pronounce in favour of his lordship's right to
+be believed on his oath." The time taken by him to arrive at this
+decision, however, was so long that the case had to be adjourned to
+November term, and thereby Lord Cochrane's enemies so far attained
+their object, that it was impossible for him, in November term, to
+renew the suit.
+
+In the interval he had gone to France, preparatory to a much longer
+and more momentous journey to South America, in anticipation of which
+he was winding up his affairs and realizing his property during and
+after the summer of 1817.
+
+In this settlement of accounts there was at any rate one amusing
+incident. It will be remembered that, on the occasion of his being
+elected Member of Parliament for Honiton in 1806, Lord Cochrane had
+refused to follow the almost universal fashion of bribery, but, after
+the election was over, had thoughtlessly yielded to the proposal
+of his agent that he should entertain his constituents at a public
+supper.[A] This entertainment, either through spite or through wanton
+extravagance, was turned by those to whom the management of it was
+assigned into a great occasion of feasting for all the inhabitants of
+the town; and for defrayment of the expenses thus incurred a claim
+for more than 1200_l._ was afterwards made upon Lord Cochrane. Through
+eleven years he bluntly refused to pay the preposterous demand; but
+his creditors had the law upon their side, and in the spring of 1817
+an order was granted for putting an execution into his house at Holly
+Hill.
+
+[Footnote A: 'The Autobiography of a Seaman,' vol. i. pp. 203, 204.]
+
+Lord Cochrane, however, having resisted the demand thus far,
+determined to resist to the end. For more than six weeks he prevented
+the agents of the law from entering the house. "I still hold out,"
+he said in a letter to his secretary, "though the castle has several
+times been threatened in great force. The trumpeter is now blowing for
+a parley, but no one appears on the ramparts. Explosion-bags are set
+in the lower embrasures, and all the garrison is under arms." In
+the explosion-bags there was nothing more dangerous than powdered
+charcoal; but, supposing they contained gunpowder or some other
+combustible, the sheriff of Hampshire and twenty-five officers were
+held at bay by them, until at length one official, more daring than
+the rest, jumped in at an open window, to find Lord Cochrane sitting
+at breakfast and to be complimented by him upon the wonderful bravery
+which he had shown in coming up to a building defended by charcoal
+dust.
+
+That battle with the sheriff and bailiffs of Hampshire occupied nearly
+the whole of April and May, 1817. In the latter month, if not before,
+Lord Cochrane began to think seriously of proceeding to join in
+battles of a more serious sort in South America, under inducements and
+with issues that will presently be detailed. "His lordship has made up
+his mind to go to South America," wrote his secretary on the 31st of
+May. "Numbers of gentlemen of great respectability are desirous of
+accompanying him, and even Sir Francis Burdett has declared that he
+feels a great temptation to do so; but Lord Cochrane discourages all.
+They think he is going to immolate the Spaniards by his secret plans;
+but he is not going to do anything of the kind, having promised the
+Prince Regent not to divulge or use them otherwise than in the service
+of his country."
+
+With this expedition in view, and purposing to start upon it nearly a
+year sooner than he found himself able to do, Lord Cochrane sold Holly
+Hill and his other property in Hampshire, in July. In August he went
+for a few months to France, partly for the benefit of Lady Cochrane's
+health, partly, as it would seem, in the hope of introducing into
+that country the lamps which he had lately invented, and from which he
+hoped to derive considerable profit.
+
+To this matter, and to his efforts to obtain some share, at any rate,
+of his rights from the English Government, the letters written by
+him from France chiefly refer. But there are in them some notes and
+illustrations of more general interest. "I am quite astonished at the
+state of Boulogne," he wrote thence on the 14th of August. "Neither
+the town nor the heights are fortified; so great was Napoleon's
+confidence in the terror of his name and the knowledge he possessed
+of the stupidity and ignorance of our Government." In a letter from
+Paris, dated the 23rd of August, we read: "Everything is looking much
+more settled than when I was formerly here, and I do really think that
+the Government, from the conciliatory measures wisely adopted, will
+stand their ground against the adherents of Buonaparte. We are to have
+a great rejoicing to-morrow. All Paris will be dancing, fiddling, and
+singing. They are a light-hearted people. I wish I could join in their
+fun. I was hopeful that I should; but the cursed recollection of the
+injustice that has been done to me is never out of my mind; so that
+all my pleasures are blasted, from whatever source they might be
+expected to arise."
+
+That last sentence fairly indicates the state of Lord Cochrane's mind
+during these painful years. Weighed down by troubles heavy enough to
+break the heart of an ordinary man, he fought nobly for the thorough
+justification of his character and for the protection of others from
+such persecution as had befallen him. In both objects, altogether
+praise-worthy in themselves, he may have sometimes been intemperate;
+but ample excuse for far greater intemperance would be found in the
+troubles that oppressed him. "The cursed recollection of the injustice
+that has been done to me is never out of my mind; all my pleasures are
+blasted!"
+
+In the same temper, after a lapse of nine months, about which it is
+only necessary to say that, like their forerunners, they were
+employed in private cares, and, especially after the reassembling of
+Parliament, in zealous action for the public good, he made his last
+speech in the House of Commons on the 2nd of June, 1818. The occasion
+was a debate upon a second motion by Sir Francis Burdett in favour of
+parliamentary reform, more cogent and effective than that of the
+20th of May, 1817, to Lord Cochrane's share in which we have already
+referred. The former speech was wholly of public interest. This has a
+personal significance, very painful and very memorable. It brings to a
+pathetic close the saddest epoch in Lord Cochrane's life--so very full
+of sadness.
+
+"I rise, sir," he said, "to second the motion of my honourable friend.
+In what I have to say, I do not presume to think that I can add to
+the able arguments that have just been uttered; but it is my duty
+distinctly to declare my opinions on the subject. When I recollect all
+the proceedings of this House, I confess that I do not entertain much
+hope of a favourable result to the present motion. To me it seems
+chiefly serviceable as an exhibition of sound principles, and as
+showing the people for what they ought to petition. I shall perhaps be
+told that it is unparliamentary to say there are any representatives
+of the people in this House who have sold themselves to the purposes
+and views of any set of men in power; but the history of the
+degenerate senate of that once free people, the Romans, will serve
+to show how far corruption may make inroads upon public virtue or
+patriotism. The tyranny inflicted on the Roman people, and on mankind
+in general, under the form of acts passed by the Roman senate, will
+ever prove a useful memento to nations which have any freedom to lose.
+It is not for me to prophesy when our case will be like theirs; but
+this I will say, that those who are the slaves of a despotic
+monarch are far less reprehensible for their actions than those who
+voluntarily sell themselves when they have the means of remaining
+free.
+
+"And here," he continued, in sentences broken by his emotions, "as it
+is probably the last time I shall ever have the honour of addressing
+the House on any subject, I am anxious to tell its members what I
+think of their conduct. It is now nearly eleven years since I have
+had the honour of a seat in this House, and since then there have
+been very few measures in which I could agree with the opinions of the
+majority. To say that these measures were contrary to justice would
+not be parliamentary. I will not even go into the inquiry whether
+they tend to the national good or not; but I will merely appeal to the
+feelings of the landholders present, I will appeal to the knowledge
+of those members who are engaged in commerce, and ask them whether the
+acts of the legislative body have not been of a description, during
+the late war, that would, if not for the timely intervention of the
+use of machinery, have sent this nation to total ruin? The country is
+burthened to a degree which, but for this intervention, it would have
+been impossible for the people to bear. The cause of these measures
+having such an effect upon the country has been examined and gone
+into by my honourable colleague (Sir Francis Burdett); they are to
+be traced to that patronage and influence which, a number of powerful
+individuals possess over the nomination of a great proportion of the
+members of this House; a power which, devolving on a few, becomes
+thereby the more liable to be affected by the influence of the Crown;
+and which has in fact been rendered almost entirely subservient to
+that influence. To reform the abuses which arise out of this system
+is the object of my honourable friend's motion. I will not, cannot,
+anticipate the success of the motion; but I will say, as has been
+said before by the great Chatham, the father of Mr. Pitt, that, if the
+House does not reform itself from within, it will be reformed with
+a vengeance from without. The people will take up the subject, and
+a reform will take place which will make many members regret their
+apathy in now refusing that reform which might be rendered efficient
+and permanent. But, unfortunately, in the present formation of the
+House, it appears to me that from within no reform can be expected,
+and for the truth of this I appeal to the experience of the few
+members, less than a hundred, who are now present, nearly six hundred
+being absent; I appeal to their experience to say whether they have
+ever known of any one instance in which a petition of the people for
+reform has been taken into consideration, or any redress afforded in
+consequence of such a petition? This I regret, because I foresee the
+consequence which must necessarily result from it. I do trust and
+hope that before it is too late some measures shall be adopted for
+redressing the grievances of the people; for certain I am that
+unless some measures are taken to stop the feelings which the people
+entertain towards this House and to restore their confidence in it,
+you will one day have ample cause to repent the line of conduct you
+have pursued. The gentlemen who now sit on the benches opposite
+with such triumphant feelings will one day repent their conduct. The
+commotions to which that conduct will inevitably give rise will shake,
+not only this House, but the whole framework of Government and society
+to its foundations. I have been actuated by the wish to prevent this,
+and I have had no other intention.
+
+"I shall not trespass longer on your time," he continued, in a few
+broken sentences, uttered painfully and with agitation that aroused
+much sympathy in the House. "The situation I have held for
+eleven years in this House I owe to the favour of the electors of
+Westminster. The feelings of my heart are gratified by the manner
+in which they have acted towards me. They have rescued me from a
+desperate and wicked conspiracy which has nearly involved me in total
+ruin. I forgive those who have so done; and I hope when they depart to
+their graves they will be equally able to forgive themselves. All
+this is foreign to the subject before the House, but I trust you will
+forgive me. I shall not trespass on your time longer now--perhaps
+never again on any subject. I hope his Majesty's ministers will take
+into their serious consideration what I now say. I do not utter it
+with any feelings of hostility--such feelings have now left me--but
+I trust they will take my warning, and save the country by abandoning
+the present system before it is too late."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI.
+
+THE ANTECEDENTS OF LORD COCHRANE'S EMPLOYMENTS IN AMERICA.--THE WAR
+OF INDEPENDENCE IN THE SPANISH COLONIES.--MEXICO.--VENEZUELA.
+--COLOMBIA.--CHILI.--THE FIRST CHILIAN INSURRECTION.--THE CARRERAS
+AND O'HIGGINS.--THE BATTLE OF BANCAGUA.--O'HIGGINS'S SUCCESSES.--THE
+ESTABLISHMENT OF THE CHILIAN REPUBLIC.--LORD COCHRANE INVITED TO ENTER
+THE CHILIAN SERVICE.
+
+(1810--1817.)
+
+
+To an understanding of Lord Cochrane's share in the South American
+wars of independence a brief recapitulation of their antecedents, and
+of the state of affairs at the time of his first connection with them,
+is necessary.
+
+The Spanish possessions in both North and South America, which had
+reached nearly their full dimensions before the close of the sixteenth
+century, had been retained, with little opposition from without,
+and with still less from within, down to the close of the eighteenth
+century. These possessions, including Mexico and Central America, New
+Granada, Venezuela, Peru, La Plata, and Chili, covered an area larger
+than that of Europe, more than twice as large as that of the present
+United States. Through half a dozen generations they had been governed
+with all the short-sighted tyranny for which the Spanish Government is
+famous; the resources of the countries had been crippled in order that
+each day's greed might be satisfied; and the inhabitants, who, for the
+most part, were the mixed offspring of Spanish and native parents,
+had been kept in abject dependence and in ignorant ferocity. There
+was plenty of internal hatred and strife; but no serious thought of
+winning their liberty and working out their own regeneration seems to
+have existed among the people of the several provinces, until it was
+suggested by the triumphant success of the United States in throwing
+off the stronger but much less oppressive thraldom of Great Britain.
+That success having been achieved, however, it was soon emulated by
+the colonial subjects of Spain.
+
+The first leader of agitation was Francisco Miranda, a Venezuelan
+Creole. He visited England in 1790, and received some encouragement in
+his revolutionary projects from Pitt. He went to France in 1792, and
+there, while waiting some years for fit occasion of prosecuting the
+work on which his heart was set, he helped to fight the battle of the
+revolution against the Bourbons and the worn-out feudalism of which
+they were representatives. During his absence, in 1794, conspiracies
+against Spain arose in Mexico and New Granada, and, these continuing,
+he went in 1794, armed by secret promises of assistance from Pitt, to
+help in fomenting them. They prospered for several years; and in 1806
+Miranda obtained substantial aid from Sir Alexander Cochrane, Lord
+Cochrane's uncle, then the admiral in command of the West India
+station. But in 1806 Pitt died. The Whigs came into power, and with
+their coming occurred a change in the English policy. In 1807, General
+Crawfurd was ordered to throw obstacles in the way of Miranda, then
+heading a formidable insurrection. The result was a temporary check
+to the work of revolution. In 1810 Miranda renewed his enterprise
+in Venezuela, still with poor success; and in the same year a fresh
+revolt was stirred up in Mexico by Miguel Hidalgo, of Costilla, a
+priest of Dolores. Hidalgo's insurrection was foolish in design and
+bloodthirsty in execution. It was continued, in better spirit, but
+with poor success, by Morelos and Rayon, who, sustaining a serious
+defeat in 1815, left the strife to degenerate into a coarse bandit
+struggle, very disastrous to Spain, but hardly beneficial to the cause
+of Mexican independence.
+
+In the meanwhile a more prosperous and worthier contest was being
+waged in South America. Besides the efforts of Miranda in Venezuela,
+which were renewed between 1810 and 1812, when he was taken prisoner
+and sent to Spain, there to die in a dungeon, a separate standard of
+revolt was raised in Quito by Narinno and his friends in 1809. After
+fighting desperately, in guerilla fashion, for five years, Narinno
+was captured and forced to share Miranda's lot. A greater man, the
+greatest hero of South American independence, Simon Bolivar, succeeded
+them.
+
+Bolivar, a native of Caraccas, had passed many years in Europe, when
+in 1810, at the age of twenty-seven, he went to serve under Miranda
+in Venezuela. Miranda's defeat in 1812 compelled him to retire to New
+Granada, but there he did good service. He improved the fighting ways
+and extended the fighting area, and in December, 1814, was appointed
+captain-general of Venezuela and New Granada, soon, however, to be
+driven back and forced to take shelter in Jamaica by the superior
+strength of Morillo, the Spanish general, who arrived with a
+formidable army in 1815. In 1816 Bolivar again showed himself in the
+field at the head of his famous liberating army, which, crossing
+over from Trinidad, and gaining reinforcements at every step, planted
+freedom, such as it was, all along the northern parts of South
+America, in which the new republic of Colombia was founded under his
+presidency, in the neighbouring district of New Granada, and down to
+the La Plata province, where he established the republic of Bolivia,
+so named in his honour. With these patriotic labours he was busied
+upon land, while Lord Cochrane was securing the independence of the
+Spanish colonies by his brave warfare on the sea.
+
+As the cause of liberty progressed in South America, it became
+apparent that it had poor chance of permanence, while the
+revolutionists were unable to cope with the Spaniards in naval
+strife or to wrest from Spain her strongholds on the coast. This was
+especially the case with the maritime provinces of Chili and Peru.
+Peru, held firmly by the army garrisoned in Lima, to which Callao
+served as an almost impregnable port, had been unable to share in the
+contest waged on the other side of the Andes; and Chili, though
+strong enough to declare its independence, was too weak to maintain it
+without foreign aid.
+
+The Chilian struggle began in 1810, when the Spanish captain-general,
+Carrasco, was deposed, and a native government set up under Count de
+la Conquista. By this government the sovereignty of Spain was still
+recognised, although various reforms were adopted which Spain could
+not be expected to endorse. Accordingly, in April, 1811, an attempt
+was made by the Spanish soldiers to overturn the new order of
+things. The result was that, after brief fighting, the revolutionists
+triumphed, and the yoke of Spain was thrown off.
+
+But the independence of Chili, thus easily begun, was not easily
+continued. Three brothers, Jose Miguel, Juan Jose, and Luis Carreras,
+and their sister, styled the Anne Boleyn of Chili, determined to
+pervert the public weal to their own aggrandisement. Winning their way
+into popularity, they overturned the national congress that had been
+established in June, and in December set up a new junta, with Jose
+Miguel Carrera at its head. A dismal period of misrule ensued, which
+encouraged the Spanish generals, Pareja and Sanchez, to attempt the
+reconquest of Chili in 1813. Pareja and Sanchez were successfully
+resisted, and a better man, General Bernardo O'Higgins, the republican
+son of an Irishman who had been Viceroy of Peru, was put at the
+head of affairs. He succeeded to the command of the Chilian army in
+November, 1813, when a fresh attack from the Spaniards was expected.
+At first his good soldiership was successful. The enemy, having come
+almost to the gates of Santiago, was forced to retire in May, 1814;
+and the Chilian cause might have continued to prosper under O'Higgins,
+had not the Carreras contrived, in hopes of reinstating themselves in
+power, to divide the republican interests, and so, while encouraging
+renewed invasion by the Spaniards from Lima, make their resistance
+more difficult. Wisely deeming it right to set aside every other
+consideration than the necessity of saving Chili from the danger
+pressing upon it from without, O'Higgins effected a junction with the
+Carreras, hoping thus to bring the whole force of the republic against
+the royalist army, larger than its predecessors, which was marching
+towards Santiago and Valparaiso. Had his magnanimous proposals been
+properly acted upon, the issue might have been very different. But
+the Carreras, even in the most urgent hour of danger, could not forget
+their private ambitions. Holding aloof with their part of the army,
+they allowed O'Higgins and his force of nine hundred to be defeated
+by four thousand royalists under General Osorio, in the preliminary
+fight which took place at the end of September. They were guilty of
+like treachery during the great battle of the 1st of October. On that
+day the royalists entered Rancagua, the town in which O'Higgins and
+his little band had taken shelter. They were fiercely resisted, and
+the fighting lasted through thirty-six hours. So brave was the conduct
+of the patriots that the Spanish general was, after some hours'
+contest, on the point of retreating. He saw that he would have no
+chance of success, had the Carreras brought up their troops, as
+was expected by both sides of the combatants. But the Carreras,
+short-sighted in their selfishness, and nothing loth that O'Higgins
+should be defeated, still held aloof. Thereupon the Spaniards took
+heart, and made one more desperate effort. With hatchets and swords
+they forced their way, inch by inch and hour by hour, into the centre
+of the town. There, in an open square, O'Higgins, with two hundred
+men--all the remnant of his little army--made a last resistance. When
+only a few dozen of his soldiers were left alive, and when he himself
+was seriously wounded, he determined, not to surrender, but to end the
+battle. The residue of the patriots dashed through the town, cutting
+a road through the astonished crowd of their opponents, and effected
+a retreat in which those opponents, though more than twenty times as
+numerous, durst not pursue them.
+
+That memorable battle of Rancagua caused throughout the American
+continent, and, across the Atlantic, through Europe, a thrill of
+sympathy for the Chilian war of independence. But its immediate
+effects were most disastrous. The Carreras, too selfish to fight
+before, were now too cowardly. They and their followers fled.
+O'Higgins had barely soldiers enough left to serve as a weak escort
+to the fourteen hundred old men, women, and children who crossed the
+Andes with him on foot, to pass two years and a half in voluntary
+exile at Mendoza.
+
+During those two years and a half the Spaniards were masters in
+Santiago, and Chili was once more a Spanish province, in which the
+inhabitants were punished terribly in confiscations, imprisonments,
+and executions for their recent defection. Deliverance, however,
+was at hand. General San Martin, through whom chiefly La Plata had
+achieved its freedom, gave assistance to O'Higgins and the Chilian
+patriots. The main body of the Spanish army, numbering about five
+thousand, had been stationed on the heights of Chacabuco, whence
+Santiago, Valparaiso, and the other leading towns of Chili were
+overawed. On the 12th of February, 1817, San Martin and O'Higgins,
+with a force nearly as large, surprised this garrison, and, with
+excellent strategy and very little loss of life, to the patriots at
+any rate, it was entirely subdued. Santiago was entered in triumph on
+the 14th of February, and a few weeks served for the entire dispersion
+of the royalist forces. The supreme directorship of the renovated
+republic was offered to San Martin. On his declining the honour, it
+was assigned, to the satisfaction of all parties, to O'Higgins.
+
+The new dictator and the wisest of his counsellors, however, were not
+satisfied with the temporary advantage that they had achieved. They
+knew that armies would continue to come down from Peru, the defeat
+of which, even if that could be relied upon, would waste all the
+resources of the republic. They knew, too, that the Spanish war-ships
+which supplied Peru with troops and ammunition from home, passing the
+Chilian coast on their way, would seriously hinder the commerce on
+which the young state had to depend for its development, even if
+they did not destroy that commerce at its starting-point by seizing
+Valparaiso and the other ports. Therefore they resolved to seek
+for efficient help from Europe. With that end Don Jose Alvarez,
+a high-minded patriot, who had done much good service to Chili in
+previous years, was immediately sent to Europe, commissioned to borrow
+money, to build or buy warships, and in all the ways in his power to
+enlist the sympathies of the English people in the republican cause.
+In the last of these projects, at any rate, he succeeded beyond all
+reasonable expectation.
+
+Beaching London in April, 1817, Alvarez was welcomed by many friends
+of South American freedom--Sir Francis Burdett, Sir James Mackintosh,
+Mr. Henry Brougham, and Mr. Edward Ellice among the number. Lord
+Cochrane was just then out of London, fighting his amusing battle with
+the sheriffs and bailiffs of Hampshire; but as soon as that business
+was over he took foremost place among the friends of Don Alvarez and
+the Chilian cause which he represented. With a message to him, indeed,
+Alvarez was specially commissioned. He was invited by the Chilian
+Government to undertake the organization and command of an improved
+naval force, and so, by exercise of the prowess which he had displayed
+in the Mediterranean and elsewhere, to render invaluable service to
+the young republic.
+
+He promptly accepted the invitation, being induced thereto by many
+sufficient reasons. Sick at heart, as we have seen, under the cruel
+treatment to which for so many years he had been subjected by his
+enemies in power, he saw here an opportunity of, at the same
+time, escaping from his persecutors, returning to active work in
+a profession very dear to him, and giving efficient aid to a noble
+enterprise.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII.
+
+LORD COCHRANE'S VOYAGE TO CHILI.--HIS RECEPTION AT VALPARAISO AND
+SANTIAGO.--THE DISORGANIZATION OF THE CHILIAN FLEET.--FIRST SIGNS
+OF DISAFFECTION.--THE NAVAL FORCES OF THE CHILIANS AND THE
+SPANIARDS.--LORD COCHRANE'S FIRST EXPEDITION TO PERU.--HIS ATTACK ON
+CALLAO.--"DRAKE THE DRAGON" AND "COCHRANE THE DEVIL."--LORD COCHRANE'S
+SUCCESSES IN OVERAWING THE SPANIARDS, IN TREASURE-TAKING, AND
+IN ENCOURAGEMENT OF THE PERUVIANS TO JOIN IN THE WAR OF
+INDEPENDENCE.--HIS PLAN FOE ANOTHER ATTACK ON CALLAO.--HIS
+DIFFICULTIES IN EQUIPPING THE EXPEDITION.--THE FAILURE OF
+THE ATTEMPT.--HIS PLAN FOR STORMING VALDIVIA.--ITS SUCCESSFUL
+ACCOMPLISHMENT.
+
+[1818-1820.]
+
+
+Having accepted, in May, 1817, the offer conveyed to him by the
+Chilian Government through Don Jose Alvarez, Lord Cochrane's departure
+from England was delayed for more than a year. This was chiefly on
+account of the war-steamer, the _Rising Star_, which it was arranged
+to build and equip in London under his superintendence. But the work
+proceeded so slowly, in consequence of the difficulty experienced by
+Alvarez in raising the requisite funds, that, at last, Lord Cochrane,
+being urgently needed in South America, where the Spaniards were
+steadily gaining ground, was requested to leave the superintendence
+of the _Rising Star_ in other hands, and to cross the Atlantic without
+her.
+
+Accompanied by Lady Cochrane and his two children, he went first from
+Rye to Boulogne, and there, on the 15th of August, 1818, embarked in
+the _Rose_, a merchantman which had formerly been a warsloop. The long
+voyage was uninteresting until Cape Horn was reached. There, and in
+passing along the rugged coast-line of Tierra del Fuego, Lord Cochrane
+was struck by its wild scenery. He watched the lazy penguins that
+crowded on the rocks, among evergreens that showed brightly amid the
+imposing mass of snow, and caught with hooks the lazier sea-pigeons
+that skimmed the heavy waves and hovered round the bulwarks and got
+entangled among the rigging of the _Rose_. He shot several of the
+huge albatrosses that floated fearlessly over the deck, but was not
+successful in his efforts to catch the fish that were seen coming to
+the surface of the troubled sea. The sea was made so boisterous by
+rain and snow, and such a stiff wind blew from the west, that for two
+or three days the _Rose_ could not double the Cape. She was forced to
+tack towards the south until a favourable gale set in, which carried
+her safely to Valparaiso.
+
+Valparaiso was reached on the 28th of November, after ten weeks passed
+on shipboard. There and at Santiago, the seat of government, to which
+he proceeded as soon as the congratulations of his new friends
+would allow him, Lord Cochrane was heartily welcomed. So profuse and
+prolonged were the entertainments in his favour--splendid dinners,
+at which zealous patriots tendered their hearty compliments, being
+followed by yet more splendid balls, at which handsome women showed
+their gratitude in smiles, and eagerly sought the honour of being led
+by him through the dances which were their chief delight--that he had
+to remind his guests that he had come to Chili not to feast but to
+fight.
+
+There was prompt need of fighting. The Spaniards had a strong land
+force pressing up from the south and threatening to invest Santiago.
+Their formidable fleet swept the seas, and was being organized for an
+attack on Valparaiso. Admiral Blanco Encalada had just returned from
+a cruise in which he had succeeded in capturing, in Talcuanho Bay, a
+fine Spanish fifty-gun frigate, the Maria Isabel; but his fleet
+was ill-ordered and poorly equipped, quite unable, without thorough
+re-organization, to withstand the superior force of the enemy. An
+instance of the bad state of affairs was induced by Lord Cochrane's
+arrival, and seemed likely to cause serious trouble to him and worse
+misfortune to his Chilian employers. One of the republican vessels was
+the _Hecate_, a sloop of eighteen guns which had been sold out of the
+British navy and bought as a speculation by Captains Guise and Spry.
+Having first offered her in vain to the Buenos Ayrean Government,
+they had brought her on to Chili, and there contrived to sell her with
+advantage and to be themselves taken into the Chilian service. They
+and another volunteer, Captain Worcester, a North American, liking
+the ascendancy over Admiral Bianco which their experience had won
+for them, formed a cabal with the object of securing Admiral Blanco's
+continuance in the chief command, or its equal division between him
+and Lord Cochrane. Nothing but the Chilian admiral's disinterested
+patriotism prevented a serious rupture. He steadily withstood all
+temptations to his vanity, and avowed his determination to accept no
+greater honour--if there could be a greater--than that of serving as
+second in command under the brave Englishman who had come to fight
+for the independence of Chili. Thus, though some troubles afterwards
+sprang from the disaffections of Guise, Spry, and Worcester, the
+mischief schemed by them was prevented at starting.
+
+A few days after his arrival Lord Cochrane received his commission as
+"Vice-Admiral of Chili, Admiral, and Commander-in-Chief of the
+Naval Forces of the Republic." His flag was hoisted, on the 22nd
+of December, on board the _Maria Isabel_, now rechristened the
+_O'Higgins_, and fitted out as the principal ship in the small Chilian
+fleet. The other vessels of the fleet were the _San Martin_, formerly
+an Indiaman in the English service, of fifty-six guns; the _Lautaro_,
+also an old Indiaman, of forty-four guns; the _Galvarino_, as the
+_Hecate_ of Captains Cruise and Spry was now styled, of eighteen guns;
+the _Chacabuco_, of twenty guns; the _Aracauno_, of sixteen guns; and
+a sloop of fourteen guns named the _Puyrredon_.
+
+The Spanish fleet, which these seven ships had to withstand, comprised
+fourteen vessels and twenty-seven gunboats. Of the former three were
+frigates, the _Esmeralda_, of forty-four guns, the _Venganza_, of
+forty-two guns, and the _Sebastiana_, of twenty-eight guns; four were
+brigs, the _Maypeu_, of eighteen guns, the _Pezuela_, of twenty-two
+guns, the _Potrilla_, of eighteen guns, and another, whose name is not
+recorded, also of eighteen guns. There was a schooner, name unknown,
+which carried one large gun and twenty culverins. The rest were armed
+merchantmen, the _Resolution_, of thirty-six guns; the _Cleopatra_, of
+twenty-eight guns; the _La Focha_, of twenty guns; the _Guarmey_, of
+eighteen guns; the Fernando, of twenty-six guns, and the San Antonio,
+of eighteen guns. Only ten out of the fourteen, however, were ready
+for sea; and before the whole naval force could be got ready for
+service, it had been partly broken up by Lord Cochrane.
+
+There was delay, also, in getting the Chilian fleet under sail. After
+waiting at Valparaiso as long as he deemed prudent, Lord Cochrane left
+the three smaller vessels to complete their equipment under Admiral
+Blanco's direction, and passed out of port on the 16th of January,
+with the O'Higgins, the San Martin, the Lautaro, and the Chacabuco. He
+had hardly started before a mutiny broke out on board the last-named
+vessel, which compelled him to halt at Coquimbo long enough to try
+and punish the mutineers. Resuming the voyage, he proceeded along the
+Chilian and Peruvian coast as far northward as Callao Bay, where he
+cruised about for some days, awaiting an opportunity of attacking the
+Spanish shipping there collected in considerable force.
+
+While thus waiting he employed his leisure in observations, great and
+small, of the sort and in the way characteristic of him all through
+life. One of his rough notes runs thus:--"Cormorants resort in
+enormous nights, coming in the morning from the northward to Callao
+Bay, and proceeding along shore to the southward, diving in regular
+succession one after another on the fish which, driven at the same
+time from below by shoals of porpoises, seem to have no chance but to
+be devoured under water or scooped up in the large bags pendent from
+the enormous bills of the cormorants." "Prodigious seals," we read in
+another note, "inhabit the rocks, whose grave faces and grey beards
+look more like the human countenance than the faces of most other
+animals. They are very unwieldy in their movements when on shore, but
+most expert in the water. There is a small kind of duck in the bay,
+which, from the clearness of the water, can be seen flying with its
+wings under water in chase of small fry, which it speedily overtakes
+from its prodigious speed."
+
+From note-making of that sort, Lord Cochrane turned to more serious
+business. The batteries of Callao and of San Lorenzo, a little island
+in the bay which helped to form the port, mounted one hundred and
+sixty guns, and more than twice as many were at the command of vessels
+there lying-to. Direct attack of a force so very much superior to
+that of the Chilian fleet seemed out of the question. Therefore
+Lord Cochrane bethought him of a subterfuge. Learning that two North
+American war-ships were expected at Callao, he determined to personate
+them with the _O'Higgins_ and _Lautaro_, and so enter the port under
+alien colours. It was then carnival-time, and on the 21st of February,
+deeming that the Spaniards were more likely to be off their guard, he
+proposed "to make a feint of sending a boat ashore with despatches,
+and in the mean time suddenly to dash at the frigates and cut them
+out." Unfortunately a dense fog set in, which lasted till the 28th,
+and made it impossible for him to effect his purpose before the
+carnival was over. Let the sequel be told in his own words.
+
+"On the 28th, hearing heavy firing and imagining that one of the ships
+was engaged with the enemy, I stood with the flag-ship into the
+bay. The other ships, imagining the same thing, also steered in the
+direction of the firing, when, the fog clearing for a moment, we
+discovered each other, as well as a strange sail near us. This proved
+to be a Spanish gunboat, with a lieutenant and twenty men, who, on
+being made prisoners, informed us that the firing was a salute
+in honour of the Viceroy, who had that morning been on a visit of
+inspection to the batteries and shipping, and was then on board the
+brig-of-war _Pezuela_, which we saw crowding sail in the direction
+of the batteries. The fog, again coming on, suggested to me the
+possibility of a direct attack. Accordingly, still maintaining our
+disguise under American colours, the _O'Higgins_ and _Lautaro_ stood
+towards the batteries, narrowly escaping going ashore in the fog. The
+Viceroy, having no doubt witnessed the capture of the gunboat, had,
+however, provided for our reception, the garrison being at their guns,
+and the crews of the ships-of-war at their quarters. Notwithstanding
+the great odds, I determined to persist in an attack, as our
+withdrawing, without firing a shot, would produce an effect upon the
+minds of the Spaniards the reverse of that intended. I had sufficient
+experience in war to know that moral effect, even if the result of a
+degree of temerity, will not unfrequently supply the place of superior
+force.
+
+"The wind falling light, I did not venture on laying the flag-ship and
+the _Lautaro_ alongside the Spanish frigates, as I at first intended,
+but anchored with springs on our cables, abreast of the shipping,
+which was arranged in a half-moon of two lines, the rear-rank being
+judiciously disposed so as to cover the intervals of the ships in the
+front line. A dead calm succeeded, and we were for two hours exposed
+to a heavy fire from the batteries, in addition to that from the
+two frigates, the brigs _Pezuela_ and _Maypeu_, and seven or eight
+gunboats. Nevertheless the northern angle of one of the principal
+forts was silenced by our fire. As soon as a breeze sprang up, we
+weighed anchor, standing to and fro in front of the batteries,
+and returning their fire, until Captain Guise, who commanded the
+_Lautaro_, being severely wounded, that ship sheered off and never
+again came within range. As, from want of wind, or doubt of the
+result, neither the _San Martin_ nor the _Chacabuco_ had ever got
+within fire, the flag-ship was thus left alone, and I was reluctantly
+compelled to relinquish the attack. I withdrew to the island of San
+Lorenzo, about three miles distant from the forts; the Spaniards,
+though nearly quadruple our numbers, exclusive of their gunboats, not
+venturing to follow us.
+
+"The action having been commenced in a fog, the Spaniards imagined
+that all the Chilian vessels were engaged. They were not a little
+surprised, as it again cleared, to find that their own frigate, the
+quondam _Maria Isabella_, was almost their only opponent. So much were
+they dispirited by this discovery that, as soon as possible after the
+close of the contest, their ships-of-war were dismantled, the topmasts
+and spars being formed into a double boom across the anchorage, so as
+to prevent approach. The Spaniards were also previously unaware of my
+being in command of the Chilian squadron. On becoming acquainted with
+this fact, they bestowed upon me the not very complimentary title of
+'El Diablo,' by which I was afterwards known amongst them."
+
+Two hundred and forty years before, almost to a day, Sir Francis
+Drake--whom, of all English seamen, Lord Cochrane most resembled in
+chivalrous daring and in chivalrous hatred of oppression--had secretly
+led his little _Golden Hind_ into the harbour of Callao, and there
+despoiled a Spanish fleet of seventeen vessels; for which and for his
+other brave achievements he won the nickname of El Dracone. Drake the
+Dragon and Cochrane the Devil were kinsmen in noble hatred, and noble
+punishment, of Spanish wrong-doing.
+
+Retiring to San Lorenzo, after the fight in Callao Bay on the 28th
+of February, Lord Cochrane occupied the island, and from it blockaded
+Callao for five weeks. On the island he found thirty-seven Chilian
+soldiers, whom the Spaniards had made prisoners eight years before.
+"The unhappy men," he said, "had ever since been forced to work in
+chains under the supervision of a military guard--now prisoners in
+turn; their sleeping-place during the whole of this period being a
+filthy shed, in which they were every night chained by one leg to an
+iron bar." Yet worse, as he was informed by the poor fellows whom he
+freed from their misery, was the condition of some Chilian officers
+and seamen imprisoned in Lima, and so cruelly chained that the fetters
+had worn bare their ankles to the bone. He accordingly, under a flag
+of truce, sent to the Spanish Viceroy, Don Joaquim de la Pezuela,
+offering to exchange for these Chilian prisoners a larger number of
+Spaniards captured by himself and others. This proposal was bluntly
+refused by the Viceroy, who took occasion, in his letter, to avow
+his surprise that a British nobleman should come to fight for a
+rebel community "unacknowledged by all the powers of the globe."
+Lord Cochrane replied that "a British nobleman was a free man, and
+therefore had a right to assist any country which was endeavouring to
+re-establish the rights of aggrieved humanity." "I have," he added,
+"adopted the cause of Chili with the same freedom of judgment that I
+previously exercised when refusing the offer of an admiral's rank in
+Spain, made to me not long ago by the Spanish ambassador in London."
+
+Except in blockading Callao and repairing his ships little was done by
+Lord Cochrane during his stay at San Lorenzo. On the 1st of March he
+went into the harbour again and opened a destructive fire upon
+the Spanish gunboats, but as these soon sought shelter under the
+batteries, which the _O'Higgins_ and the _Lautaro_ were not strong
+enough to oppose, the demonstration did not last long. Unsuccessful
+also was an attempt made upon the batteries, with the aid of an
+explosion-vessel, on the 22nd of March. The explosion-vessel, when
+just within musket-range, was struck by a round shot, and foundered,
+thus spoiling the intended enterprise. But other plans fared better.
+
+At the beginning of April, Lord Cochrane left San Lorenzo and
+proceeded to Huacho, a few leagues north of Callao. Its inhabitants
+were for the most part in sympathy with the republican cause, and the
+Spanish garrison fled at almost the first gunshot, leaving a large
+quantity of government property and specie in the hands of the
+assailants. Much other treasure, which proved very serviceable to
+the impoverished Chilian exchequer, was captured by the little fleet
+during a two months' cruise about the coast of Peru, both north and
+south of Callao. Everywhere, too, the Spanish cause was weakened,
+and the natives were encouraged to share in the great work of South
+American rebellion against a tyranny of three centuries' duration. "It
+was my object," said Lord Cochrane, "to make friends of the Peruvian
+people, by adopting towards them a conciliatory course, and by strict
+care that none but Spanish property should be taken. Confidence was
+thus inspired, and the universal dissatisfaction with Spanish rule
+speedily became changed into an earnest desire to be freed from it."
+
+Having cruised about the Peruvian coast during April and May, Lord
+Cochrane returned to Valparaiso on the 16th of June. "The objects of
+the first expedition," he said, "had been fully accomplished, namely,
+to reconnoitre, with a view to future operations, when the squadron
+should be rendered efficient; but more especially to ascertain the
+inclinations of the Peruvians--a point of the first importance to
+Chili, as being obliged to be constantly on the alert for her own
+newly-acquired liberties so long as the Spaniards were in undisturbed
+possession of Peru. To the accomplishment of these objects had been
+superadded the restriction of the Spanish naval force to the
+shelter of the forts, the defeat of their military forces wherever
+encountered, and the capture of no inconsiderable amount of treasure."
+That was work enough to be done by four small ships, ill-manned and
+ill-provisioned, during a five months' absence from Valparaiso; and
+the Chilians were not ungrateful.
+
+Their gratitude, however, was not strong enough to make them zealous
+co-operators in his schemes for their benefit. Lord Cochrane was eager
+to start upon another expedition, in which he hoped for yet greater
+success. But for this were needed preparations which the poverty and
+mismanagement of the Chilian Government made almost impossible. He
+asked for a thousand troops with which to facilitate a second attack
+on Callao. This force, certainly not a large one, was promised, but,
+when he was about to embark, only ninety soldiers were ready, and even
+then a private subscription had to be raised for giving them decent
+clothing instead of the rags in which they appeared. For the assault
+on Callao, also, an ample supply of rockets was required. An engineer
+named Goldsack had gone from England to construct them, and, that
+there might be no stinting in the work, Lord Cochrane offered to
+surrender all his share of prize-money. The offer was refused; but, to
+save money, their manufacture was assigned to some Spanish prisoners,
+who showed their patriotism in making them so badly that, when tried,
+they were found utterly worthless. There were other instances of false
+economy, whereby Lord Cochrane's intended services to his Chilian
+employers were seriously hindered. The vessels were refitted, however,
+and a new one, an American-built corvette, named the _Independencia_,
+of twenty-eight guns, was added to the number.
+
+After nearly three months' stay at Valparaiso, he again set sail on
+the 12th of September, 1819. Admiral Blanco was his second in command,
+and his squadron consisted of the _O'Higgins_, the _San Martin_, the
+_Lautaro_, the _Independencia_, the _Galvarino_, the _Araucano_, and
+the _Puyrredon_, mounting two hundred and twenty guns in all. There
+were also two old vessels, to be used as fireships.
+
+The fleet entered Callao Roads on the 29th of September. On this
+occasion there was no subterfuge. On the 30th Lord Cochrane despatched
+a boat to Callao with a flag of truce, and a challenge to the Viceroy
+to send out his ships--nearly twice as strong as those of Chili in
+guns and men--for a fair fight in the open sea. The challenge was
+bluntly rejected, and an attack on the batteries and the ships in
+harbour was then planned. On the 1st of October, the smaller vessels
+reconnoitred the bay, and there was some fighting, in which the
+_Araucano_ was damaged. Throughout the night of the 2nd, a formidable
+attack was attempted, in which the main reliance was placed in the
+Goldsack rockets; but, in consequence of the treacherous handling
+of the Spanish soldiers who had filled them, they proved worse than
+useless, doing nearly as much injury to the men who fired them as
+to the enemy. Only one gunboat was sunk by the shells from a raft
+commanded by Major Miller, who also did some damage to the forts and
+shipping. On the night of the 4th, Lord Cochrane amused himself, while
+a fireship was being prepared, by causing a burning tar-barrel to be
+drifted with the tide towards the enemy's shipping. It was, in the
+darkness, supposed to be a much more formidable antagonist, and
+volleys of Spanish shot were spent upon it. On the following evening
+a fireship was despatched; but this also was a failure. A sudden calm
+prevented her progress. She was riddled through and through by the
+enemy's guns, and, rapidly gaining water in consequence, had to be
+fired so much too soon that she exploded before getting near enough to
+work any serious mischief among the Spanish shipping.
+
+By these misfortunes Lord Cochrane was altogether disheartened. The
+rockets, on which he had chiefly relied, had proved worthless, and,
+one fireship having been wasted, he did not care to risk the loss of
+the other. He found too that the Spaniards, profiting by the warning
+which he had previously given, had so strengthened their booms that it
+was quite impossible, with the small force at his command, to get at
+them or to reach the port. His store of provisions, also, was nearly
+exhausted, and the fresh supply promised from Chili had not arrived.
+He therefore reluctantly, for the time, abandoned his project for
+taking Callao.
+
+He continued to watch the port for a few weeks, however, hoping for
+some chance opportunity of injuring it; and, in the interval, sent
+three hundred and fifty soldiers and marines, under Lieutenant-Colonel
+Charles and Major Miller, in the _Lautaro_, the _Galvarino_, and the
+remaining fireship, commanded by Captain Guise, to attack Pisco and
+procure from it and the neighbourhood the requisite provisions. This
+was satisfactorily done; but the sickness of many of his men caused
+his further detention at Santa, whither he had gone from Callao. On
+the 21st of November the sick were sent to Valparaiso, in the charge
+of the _San Martin_, the _Independencia_, and the _Araucano_. With the
+remaining ships, the _O'Higgins_, the _Lautaro_, the _Galvarino_, and
+the _Puyrredon_, Lord Cochrane proceeded to the mouth of the River
+Guayaquil. There, on the 28th of the month, he captured two large
+Spanish vessels, one of twenty and the other of sixteen guns, laden
+with timber, and took possession of the village of Puna. At Guayaquil
+there was another delay of a fortnight, owing to a mutiny attempted
+by Captains Guise and Spry, whose treacherous disposition has already
+been mentioned.
+
+Not till the middle of December was he able to escape from the
+troubles brought upon him by others, and to return to work worthy of
+his great name and character. Then, however, sending one of his ships,
+with the prizes, to Valparaiso, and leaving two others to watch
+the Peruvian coast, he started, with only his flag-ship, upon an
+enterprise as brilliant in conception and execution as any in his
+whole eventful history. "The Chilian people," he said, "expected
+impossibilities; and I. had for some time been revolving in my mind
+a plan to achieve one which should gratify them, and allay my own
+wounded feelings. I had now only one ship, so that there were no
+other inclinations to consult; and I felt quite sure of Major Miller's
+concurrence where there was any fighting to be done. My design was,
+with the flag-ship alone, to capture by a _coup de main_ the
+numerous forts and garrison of Valdivia, a fortress previously deemed
+impregnable, and thus to counteract the disappointment which would
+ensue in Chili from our want of success at Callao. The enterprise
+was a desperate one; nevertheless, I was not about to do anything
+desperate, having resolved that, unless I was fully satisfied as to
+its practicability, I would not attempt it. Rashness, though often
+imputed to me, forms no part of my composition. There is a rashness
+without calculation of consequences; but with that calculation
+well-founded, it is no longer rashness. And thus, now that I was
+unfettered by people who did not second my operations as they ought
+to have done, I made up my mind to take Valdivia, if the attempt came
+within the scope of my calculations."
+
+Valdivia was the stronghold and centre of Spanish attack upon Chili
+from the south, just as were Lima and Callao on the north. To reach it
+Lord Cochrane had to sail northwards along the coast of Peru and Chili
+to some distance below Valparaiso. This he did without loss of time,
+to work out an excellent strategy which will be best understood from
+his own report of it.
+
+"The first step," he said, "clearly was to reconnoitre Valdivia. The
+flag-ship arrived on the 18th of January, 1820, under Spanish colours,
+and made a signal for a pilot, who--as the Spaniards mistook the
+_O'Higgins_ for a ship of their own--promptly came off, together with
+a complimentary retinue of an officer and four soldiers, all of whom
+were made prisoners as soon as they came on board. The pilot was
+ordered to take us into the channels leading to the forts, whilst the
+officer and his men, knowing there was little chance of their finding
+their way on shore again, thought it most conducive to their interests
+to supply all the information demanded, the result being increased
+confidence on my part as to the possibility of a successful attack.
+Amongst other information obtained was the expected arrival of the
+Spanish brig _Potrillo_, with money on board for the payment of the
+garrison.
+
+"As we were busily employing ourselves in inspecting the channels, the
+officer commanding the garrison began to suspect that our object might
+not altogether be pacific, a suspicion which was confirmed by the
+detention of his officer. Suddenly a heavy fire was opened upon
+us from the various forts, to which we did not reply, but, our
+reconnoissance being now complete, withdrew beyond its reach. Two days
+were occupied in reconnoitring. On the third day the _Potrillo_ hove
+in sight, and she, being also deceived by our Spanish colours, was
+captured without a shot, twenty thousand dollars and some important
+despatches being found on board."
+
+That first business having been satisfactorily achieved, Lord Cochrane
+proceeded to Concepcion, there to ask and obtain from its Chilian
+governor, General Freire, a force of two hundred and fifty soldiers,
+under Major Beauchef, a French volunteer. In Talcahuano Bay, moreover,
+he found a Chilian schooner, the _Montezuma_, and a Brazilian brig,
+the _Intrepido_. He attached the former to his service, and accepted
+the volunteered aid of the latter. With this augmented but still
+insignificant force, very defective in some important respects, he
+returned to Valdivia. "The flag-ship," he said, "had only two naval
+officers on board, one of these being under arrest for disobedience
+of orders, whilst the other was incapable of performing the duty of
+lieutenant; so that I had to act as admiral, captain and lieutenant,
+taking my turn in the watch--or rather being constantly on the
+watch--as the only available officer was so incompetent."
+
+"We sailed from Talcahuano on the 25th of January," the narrative
+proceeds, "when I communicated my intentions to the military officers,
+who displayed great eagerness in the cause--alone questioning their
+success from motives of prudence. On my explaining to them that, if
+unexpected projects are energetically put in execution, they almost
+invariably succeed in spite of odds, they willingly entered into my
+plans.
+
+"On the night of the 29th, we were off the island of Quiriquina, in
+a dead calm. From excessive fatigue in the execution of subordinate
+duties, I had lain down to rest, leaving the ship in charge of
+the lieutenant, who took advantage of my absence to retire also,
+surrendering the watch to the care of a midshipman, who fell asleep.
+Knowing our dangerous position, I had left strict orders that I was
+to be called the moment a breeze sprang up; but these orders were
+neglected. A sudden wind took the ship unawares, and the midshipman,
+in attempting to bring her round, ran her upon the sharp edge of a
+rock, where she lay beating, suspended, as it were, upon her keel;
+and, had the swell increased, she must inevitably have gone to pieces.
+
+"We were forty miles from the mainland, the brig and schooner being
+both out of sight. The first impulse, both of officers and crew, was
+to abandon the ship, but, as we had six hundred men on board, whilst
+not more than a hundred and fifty could have entered the boats, this
+would have been but a scramble for life. Pointing out to the men that
+those who escaped could only reach the coast of Arauco, where they
+would meet nothing but torture and inevitable death at the hands of
+the Indians, I with some difficulty got them to adopt the alternative
+of attempting to save the ship. The first sounding gave five feet
+of water in the hold, and the pumps were entirely out of order. Our
+carpenter, who was only one by name, was incompetent to repair them;
+but, having myself some skill in carpentry, I took off my coat, and
+by midnight, got them into working order, the water in the meanwhile
+gaining on us, though the whole crew were engaged in baling it out
+with buckets.
+
+"To our great delight, the leak did not increase, upon which I got
+out the stream anchor and commenced heaving off the ship; the officers
+clamoured first to ascertain the extent of the leak; but this I
+expressly forbade, as calculated to damp the energy of the men,
+whilst, as we now gained on the leak, there was no doubt the ship
+would swim as far as Valdivia, which was the chief point to be
+regarded, the capture of the fortress being my object, after which the
+ship might be repaired at leisure. As there was no lack of physical
+force on board, she was at length floated; but the powder magazine
+having been under water, the ammunition of every kind, except a little
+upon deck and in the cartouche-boxes of the troops, was rendered
+unserviceable; though about this I cared little, as it involved the
+necessity of using the bayonet in our anticipated attack; and to
+facing this weapon the Spaniards had, in every case, evinced a rooted
+aversion."
+
+The _O'Higgins_, thus bravely saved from wreck, was soon joined by the
+_Intrepido_ and the _Montezuma_, and these vessels being now most fit
+for action, as many men as possible were transferred to them, and the
+_O'Higgins_ was ordered to stand out to sea, only to be made use of in
+case of need. The _Montezuma_ now became the flag-ship, and with her
+and her consort Lord Cochrane sailed into Valdivia Harbour on the 2nd
+of February.
+
+"The fortifications of Valdivia," he said, "are placed on both sides
+of a channel three quarters of a mile in width, and command the
+entrance, anchorage, and river leading to the town, crossing their
+fire in all directions so effectually that, with proper caution on the
+part of the garrison, no ship could enter without suffering severely,
+while she would be equally exposed at anchor. The principal forts on
+the western shore are placed in the following order:--El Ingles, San
+Carlos, Amargos, Chorocomayo, Alto, and Corral Castle. Those on the
+eastern side are Niebla, directly opposite Amargos, and Piojo; whilst
+on the island of Manzanera is a strong fort mounted with guns of large
+calibre, commanding the whole range of the entrance channel. These
+forts and a few others, fifteen in all, would render the place in the
+hands of a skilful garrison almost impregnable, the shores on
+which they stand being inaccessible by reason of the surf, with the
+exception of a small landing-place at Fort Ingles.
+
+"It was to this landing-place that we first directed our attention,
+anchoring the brig and schooner off the guns of Fort Ingles on the
+afternoon of February the 3rd, amidst a swell which rendered immediate
+disembarkation impracticable. The troops were carefully kept below;
+and, to avert the suspicion of the Spaniards, we had trumped up a
+story of our having just arrived from Cadiz and being in want of a
+pilot. They told us to send a boat for one. To this we replied that
+our boats had been washed away in the passage round Cape Horn.
+Not being quite satisfied, they began to assemble troops at the
+landing-place, firing alarm-guns, and rapidly bringing up the
+garrisons of the western forts to Fort Ingles, but not molesting us.
+
+"Unfortunately for the credit of the story about the loss of the
+boats, which were at the time carefully concealed under the lee of the
+vessels, one drifted astern, so that our object became apparent, and
+the guns of Fort Ingles, under which we lay, forthwith opened upon
+us, the first shots passing through the sides of the _Intrepido_ and
+killing two men, so that it became necessary to land in spite of the
+swell. We had only two launches and a gig. I directed the operation in
+the gig, whilst Major Miller, with forty-four marines, pushed off in
+the first launch, under the fire of the party at the landing-place,
+on to which they soon leaped, driving the Spaniards before them at
+the point of the bayonet. The second launch then pushed off from the
+_Intrepido_, while the other was returning; and in this way, in less
+than an hour, three hundred men had made good their footing on shore.
+
+"The most difficult task, the capture of the forts, was to come. The
+only way in which the first, Fort Ingles, could be approached, was
+by a precipitous path, along which the men could only pass in single
+file, the fort itself being inaccessible except by a ladder, which the
+enemy, after being routed by Major Miller, had drawn up.
+
+"As soon as it was dark, a picked party, under the guidance of one
+of the Spanish prisoners, silently advanced to the attack. This party
+having taken up its position, the main body moved forward, cheering
+and firing in the air, to intimate to the Spaniards that their
+chief reliance was on the bayonet. The enemy, meanwhile, kept up
+an incessant fire of artillery and musketry in the direction of the
+shouts, but without effect, as no aim could be taken in the dark.
+
+"Whilst the patriots were thus noisily advancing, a gallant young
+officer, Ensign Vidal, got under the inland flank of the fort, and,
+with a few men, contrived to tear up some pallisades, by which a
+bridge was made across the ditch. In that way he and his small party
+entered and formed noiselessly under cover of some branches of trees,
+while the garrison, numbering about eight hundred soldiers, were
+directing their whole attention in an opposite direction.
+
+"A volley from Vidal's party convinced the Spaniards that they had
+been taken in flank. Without waiting to ascertain the number of those
+who had outflanked them, they instantly took to flight, filling with a
+like panic a column of three hundred men drawn up behind the fort.
+The Chilians, who were now well up, bayoneted them by dozens as they
+attempted to gain the forts; and when the forts were opened to receive
+them the patriots entered at the same time, and thus drove them from
+fort to fort into the Castle of Corral, together with two hundred more
+who had abandoned some guns advantageously placed on a height at Fort
+Chorocomayo. The Corral was stormed with equal rapidity, a number
+of the enemy escaping in boats to Valdivia, others plunging into the
+forest. Upwards of a hundred fell into our hands, and on the following
+morning the like number were found to have been bayoneted. Our loss
+was seven men killed and nineteen wounded.
+
+"On the 5th, the _Intrepido_ and _Montezuma_, which had been left near
+Fort Ingles, entered the harbour, being fired at in their passage by
+Fort Niebla, on the eastern shore. On their coming to an anchor at the
+Corral, two hundred men were again embarked to attack Forts Niebla,
+Carbonero, and Piojo. The _O'Higgins_ also appeared in sight off the
+mouth of the harbour. The Spaniards thereupon summarily abandoned the
+forts on the eastern side; no doubt judging that, as the western forts
+had been captured without the aid of the frigate, they had, now that
+she had arrived, no chance of successfully defending them.
+
+"On the 6th, the troops were again embarked to pursue the flying
+garrison up the river, when we received a flag of truce, informing us
+that the enemy had abandoned the town, after plundering the private
+houses and magazines, and with the governor, Colonel Montoya, had
+fled in the direction of Chiloe. The booty which fell into our
+hands, exclusive of the value of the forts and public buildings, was
+considerable, Valdivia being the chief military depot in the southern
+side of the continent. Amongst the military stores were upwards of 50
+tons of gunpowder, 10,000 cannon-shot, 170,000 musket-cartridges, a
+large quantity of small arms, 128 guns, of which 53 were brass and the
+remainder iron, the ship _Dolores_--afterwards sold at Valparaiso for
+twenty thousand dollars--with public stores sold for the like value,
+and plate, of which General Sanchez had previously stripped the
+churches of Concepcion, valued at sixteen thousand dollars."
+Those prizes compensated over and over again for the loss of the
+_Intrepido_, which grounded in the channel, and the injuries done to
+the _O'Higgins_ on her way to Valdivia.
+
+But the value of Lord Cochrane's capture of this stronghold was not to
+be counted in money. By its daring conception and easy completion
+the Spaniards, besides losing their great southern starting-point for
+attacks on Chili and the other states that were fighting for their
+freedom, lost heart, to a great extent, in their whole South American
+warfare. They saw that their insurgent colonists had now found a
+champion too bold, too cautious, too honest, and too prosperous for
+them any longer to hope that they could succeed in their efforts to
+win back the dependencies which were shaking off the thraldom of three
+centuries.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII.
+
+LORD COCHRANE'S RETURN TO VALPARAISO.--HIS ILL-TREATMENT BY
+THE CHILIAN SENATE.--THE THIRD EXPEDITION TO PERU.--GENERAL SAN
+MARTIN.--THE CAPTURE OF THE "ESMERALDA," AND ITS ISSUE.--LORD
+COCHRANE'S SUBSEQUENT WORK.--SAN MARTIN'S TREACHERY.--HIS
+ASSUMPTION OF THE PROTECTORATE OF PERU.--HIS BASE PROPOSALS TO LORD
+COCHRANE.--LORD COCHRANE'S CONDEMNATION OF THEM.--THE TROUBLES OF THE
+CHILIAN SQUADRON.--LORD COCHRANE'S SEIZURE OF TREASURE AT ANCON,
+AND EMPLOYMENT OF IT IN PAYING HIS OFFICERS AND MEN.--HIS STAY AT
+GUAYAQUIL.--THE ADVANTAGES OF FREE TRADE.--LORD COCHRANE'S
+CRUISE ALONG THE MEXICAN COAST IN SEARCH OF THE REMAINING SPANISH
+FRIGATES.--THEIR ANNEXATION BY PERU.--LORD COCHRANE'S LAST VISIT TO
+CALLAO.
+
+[1820-1822.]
+
+
+Lord Cochrane returned to Valparaiso on the 27th of February, 1820.
+By General O'Higgins, the Supreme Director, and by the populace he was
+enthusiastically received. But Zenteno, the Minister of Marine, and
+other members of the Government, jealous of the fresh renown which he
+had won by his conquest of Valdivia, showed their jealousy in various
+offensive ways.
+
+In anticipation of his failure they had prepared an elaborate charge
+of insubordination, in that he had not come back direct from
+Callao. Now that he had triumphed, they sought at first to have him
+reprimanded for attempting so hazardous an exploit, and afterwards
+to rob him of his due on the ground that his achievement was
+insignificant and valueless. When they were compelled by the voice of
+the people to declare publicly that "the capture of Valdivia was the
+happy result of an admirably-arranged plan and of the most daring
+execution," they refused to award either to him or to his comrades any
+other recompense than was contained in the verbal compliment; and,
+on his refusing to give up his prizes until the seamen had been
+paid their arrears of wages, he was threatened with prosecution for
+detention of the national property.
+
+The threat was impotent, as the people of Chili would not for a moment
+have permitted such an indignity to their champion. But so irritating
+were this and other attempted persecutions to Lord Cochrane that, on
+the 14th of May, he tendered to the Supreme Director his resignation
+of service under the Chilian Government. That proposal was, of course,
+rejected; but with the rejection came a promise of better treatment.
+The seamen were paid in July, and the Valdivian prize-money was
+nominally awarded. Lord Cochrane's share amounted to 67,000 dollars,
+and to this was added a grant of land at Rio Clara. But the money was
+never paid, and the estate was forcibly seized a few years afterwards.
+
+Other annoyances, which need not here be detailed, were offered to
+Lord Cochrane, and thus six months were wasted by Zenteno and his
+associates in the Chilian senate. "The senate," said Lord Cochrane,
+"was an anomaly in state government. It consisted of five members,
+whose functions were to remain only during the first struggles of the
+country for independence; but this body had now assumed a permanent
+right to dictatorial control, whilst there was no appeal from their
+arbitrary conduct, except to themselves. They arrogated the title
+of 'Most Excellent,' whilst the Supreme Director was simply 'His
+Excellency;' his position, though nominally head of the executive,
+being really that of mouthpiece to the senate, which, assuming all
+power, deprived the Executive Government of its legitimate influence,
+so that no armament could be equipped, no public work undertaken,
+no troops raised, and no taxes levied, except by the consent of this
+irresponsible body. For such a clique the plain, simple good sense
+of the Supreme Director was no match. He was led to believe that a
+crooked policy was a necessary evil of government, and, as such a
+policy was adverse to his own nature, he was the more easily induced
+to surrender its administration to others who were free from his
+conscientious principles." Those sentences explain the treatment to
+which, now and afterwards, Lord Cochrane was subjected.
+
+He was allowed, however, to do further excellent service to the nation
+which had already begun to reward him with nothing but ingratitude. As
+soon as the Chilian Government could turn from its spiteful exercise
+to its proper duty of consolidating the independence of the insurgents
+from Spanish dominion, it was resolved to despatch as strong a force
+as could be raised for another and more formidable expedition to
+Peru, whereby at the same time the Peruvians should be freed from the
+tyranny by which they were still oppressed, and the Chilians should be
+rid of the constant danger that they incurred from the presence of a
+Spanish army in Lima, Callao, and other garrisons, ready to bear down
+upon them again and again, as it had often done before. In 1819 Lord
+Cochrane had vainly asked for a suitable land force with which to aid
+his attack upon Callao. It was now resolved to organize a Liberating
+Army, after the fashion of that with which Bolivar had nobly scoured
+the northern districts of South America, and to place it under the
+direction of General San Martin, in co-operation with whom Lord
+Cochrane was to pursue his work as chief admiral of the fleet.
+San Martin had fought worthily in La Plata, and he had earned the
+gratitude of the Chilians by winning back their freedom in conjunction
+with O'Higgins in 1817. Vanity and ambition, however, had since
+unhinged him, and he now proved himself a champion of liberty very
+inferior, both in prowess and in honesty, to Bolivar.
+
+His army, numbering four thousand two hundred men, was collected by
+the 21st of August, and on that day it was embarked at Valparaiso in
+the whole Chilian squadron. Lord Cochrane proposed to go at once to
+Chilca, the nearest point both to Lima and to Callao. San Martin,
+however, decided upon Pisco as a safer landing-place, and there the
+troops were deposited on the 8th of September. For fifty days they
+were detained there, and the fleet was forced to share their idleness,
+capturing only a few passing merchantmen. On the 28th of October they
+were re-embarked, and Lord Cochrane again urged a vigorous attack on
+the capital and its port. Again he was thwarted by San Martin, who
+requested to be landed at Ancon, considerably to the north of Callao,
+and as unsuitable a halting-place as was the southerly town of Pisco.
+Lord Cochrane had to comply; but he bethought him of a plan for
+achieving a great work, in spite of San Martin. Sending the main body
+of his fleet to Ancon with the troops, no the 20th, he retained
+the _O'Higgins_, the _Independencia_, and the _Lautaro_, with the
+professed object of merely blockading Callao at a safe distance.
+"The fact was," he said, "that, annoyed, in common with the whole
+expedition, at this irresolution on the part of General San Martin, I
+determined that the means of Chili, furnished with great difficulty,
+should not be wholly wasted, without some attempt at accomplishing the
+object of the expedition. I accordingly formed a plan of attack with
+the three ships which I had kept back, though, being apprehensive
+that my design would be opposed by General San Martin, I had not
+even mentioned to him my intentions. This design was, to cut out the
+_Esmeralda_ frigate from under the fortifications, and also to get
+possession of another ship, on board of which we had learned that a
+million of dollars was embarked."
+
+The plan was certainly a bold one. The _Esmeralda_, of forty-four
+guns, was the finest Spanish ship in the Pacific Ocean. Now especially
+well armed and manned, in readiness for any work that had to be done,
+she was lying in Callao Harbour, protected by three hundred pieces
+of artillery on shore and by a strong boom with chain moorings,
+by twenty-seven gunboats and several armed block-ships. These
+considerations, however, only induced Lord Cochrane to proceed
+cautiously upon his enterprise. Three days were spent in preparations,
+the purpose of which was known only to himself and to his chief
+officers. On the afternoon of the 5th of November he issued this
+proclamation:--"Marines and seamen,--This night we shall give the
+enemy a mortal blow. To-morrow you will present yourself proudly
+before Callao, and all your comrades will envy your good fortune.
+One hour of courage and resolution is all that is required for you
+to triumph. Remember that you have conquered in Valdivia, and have no
+fear of those who have hitherto fled from you. The value of all the
+vessels captured in Callao will be yours, and the same reward will be
+distributed amongst you as has been offered by the Spaniards in Lima
+to those who should capture any of the Chilian squadron. The moment of
+glory is approaching. I hope that the Chilians will fight as they have
+been accustomed to do, and that the English will act as they have ever
+done at home and abroad."
+
+A request was made for volunteers, and the whole body of seamen and
+marines on board the three ships offered to follow Lord Cochrane
+wherever he might lead. This was more than he wanted. "A hundred
+and sixty seamen and eighty marines," said Lord Cochrane, whose own
+narrative of the sequel will best describe it, "were placed, after
+dark, in fourteen boats alongside the flag-ship, each man, armed with
+cutlass and pistol, being, for distinction's sake, dressed in white,
+with a blue band on the left arm. The Spaniards, I expected, would
+be off their guard, and consider themselves safe from attack for that
+night, since, by way of ruse, the other ships had been sent out of the
+bay under the charge of Captain Foster, as though in pursuit of some
+vessels in the offing.
+
+"At ten o'clock all was in readiness, the boats being formed in two
+divisions, the first commanded by Flag-Captain Crosbie and the second
+by Captain Gruise,--my boat leading. The strictest silence and the
+exclusive use of cutlasses were enjoined; so that, as the oars were
+muffled and the night was dark, the enemy had not the least suspicion
+of the impending attack.
+
+"It was just upon midnight when we neared the small opening left in
+the boom, our plan being well-nigh frustrated by the vigilance of a
+guard-boat upon which my launch had unluckily stumbled. The challenge
+was given, upon which, in an undertone, I threatened the occupants of
+the boat with instant death if they made the least alarm. No reply
+was made to the threat, and in a few minutes our gallant fellows
+were alongside the frigate in line, boarding at several points
+simultaneously. The Spaniards were completely taken by surprise,
+the whole, with the exception of the sentries, being asleep at their
+quarters; and great was the havoc made amongst them by the Chilian
+cutlasses whilst they were recovering themselves. Retreating to the
+forecastle, they there made a gallant stand, and it was not until the
+third charge that the position was carried. The fight was for a short
+time renewed on the quarterdeck, where the Spanish marines fell to
+a man, the rest of the enemy leaping overboard and into the hold to
+escape slaughter.
+
+"On boarding the ship by the main-chains, I was knocked back by the
+sentry's musket, and falling on the tholl-pin of the boat, it entered
+my back near the spine, inflicting a severe injury, which caused me
+many years of subsequent suffering. Immediately regaining my footing,
+I reascended the side, and, when on deck, was shot through the thigh.
+But, binding a handkerchief tightly round the wound, I managed, though
+with great difficulty, to direct the contest to its close.
+
+"The whole affair, from beginning to end, occupied only a quarter of
+an hour, our loss being eleven killed and thirty wounded, whilst that
+of the Spaniards was a hundred and sixty, many of whom fell under
+the cutlasses of the Chilians before they could stand to their arms.
+Greater bravery I never saw displayed than by our gallant fellows.
+Before boarding, the duties of all had been appointed, and a party
+was told off to take possession of the tops. We had not been on deck
+a minute, when I hailed the foretop, and was instantly answered by our
+own men, an equally prompt answer being returned from the frigate's
+main-top. No British man-of-war's crew could have excelled this minute
+attention to orders.
+
+"The uproar speedily alarmed the garrison, who, hastening to their
+guns, opened fire on their own frigate, thus paying us the compliment
+of having taken it; though, even in this case, their own men must
+still have been on board, so that firing on them was a wanton
+proceeding. Several Spaniards were killed or wounded by the shot of
+the fortress. Amongst the wounded was Captain Coig, the commander of
+the _Esmeralda_, who, after he was made prisoner, received a severe
+contusion by a shot from his own party.
+
+"The fire from the fortress was, however, neutralized by a successful
+expedient. There were two foreign ships of war present during the
+contest, the United States frigate _Macedonian_ and the British
+frigate _Hyperion_; and these, as had been previously agreed upon with
+the Spanish authorities in case of a night attack, hoisted peculiar
+lights as signals, to prevent being fired upon. This contingency being
+provided for by us, as soon as the fortress commenced its fire on the
+_Esmeralda_, we also ran up similar lights, so that the garrison did
+not know which vessel to fire at. The _Hyperion_ and _Macedonian_
+were several times struck, while the _Esmeralda_ was comparatively
+untouched. Upon this the neutral vessels cut their cables and moved
+away. Contrary to my orders, Captain Gruise then cut the _Esmeralda's_
+cables also, so that there was nothing to be done but to loose her
+topsails and follow. The fortress thereupon ceased its fire.
+
+"I had distinctly ordered that the cables of the _Esmeralda_ were not
+to be cut, but that after taking her, the force was to capture the
+_Maypeu_, a brig of war previously taken from Chili, and then to
+attack and cut adrift every ship near, there being plenty of time
+before us. I had no doubt that, when the _Esmeralda_ was taken, the
+Spaniards would desert the other ships as fast as their boats would
+permit them, so that the whole might have been either captured or
+burnt. To this end all my previous plans had been arranged; but, on
+my being placed _hors de combat_ by my wounds, Captain Gruise, on whom
+the command of the prize devolved, chose to interpose his own judgment
+and content himself with the _Esmeralda_ alone; the reason assigned
+being that the English had broken into her spirit-room and were
+getting drunk, whilst the Chilians were disorganized by plundering.
+It was a great mistake. If we could capture the _Esmeralda_ with her
+picked and well-appointed crew, there would have been little or no
+difficulty in cutting the other ships adrift in succession. It would
+only have been the rout of Valdivia over again, chasing the enemy,
+without loss, from ship to ship instead of from fort to fort."
+
+Lord Cochrane's exploit, however, though less complete than he had
+intended, was as successful in its issue as it was brilliant in its
+achievement. "This loss of the _Esmeralda_," wrote Captain Basil Hall,
+then commanding a British war-ship in South American waters, "was a
+death-blow to the Spanish naval force in that quarter of the world;
+for, although there were still two Spanish frigates and some smaller
+vessels in the Pacific, they never afterwards ventured to show
+themselves, but left Lord Cochrane undisputed master of the coast."
+The speedy liberation of Peru was its direct consequence, although
+that good work was seriously impaired by the continued and increasing
+misconduct of General San Martin, inducing troubles, of which Lord
+Cochrane received his full share.
+
+In the first burst of his enthusiasm at the intelligence of Lord
+Cochrane's action, San Martin was generous for once. "The importance
+of the service you have rendered to the country, my lord," he wrote on
+the 10th of November, "by the capture of the frigate _Esmeralda_, and
+the brilliant manner in which you conducted the gallant officers and
+seamen under your orders to accomplish that noble enterprise, have
+augmented the gratitude due to your former services by the Government,
+as well as that of all interested in the public welfare and in your
+fame. All those who participated in the risks and glory of the deed
+also deserve well of their countrymen; and I have the satisfaction to
+be the medium of transmitting the sentiments of admiration which such
+transcendent success has excited in the chiefs of the army under my
+command." "It is impossible for me to eulogize in proper language,"
+he also wrote to the Chilian administration, "the daring enterprise
+of the 5th of November, by which Lord Cochrane has decided the
+superiority of our naval forces, augmented the splendour and power of
+Chili, and secured the success of this campaign."
+
+A few days later, however, San Martin wrote in very different terms.
+"Before the General-in-Chief left the Vice-Admiral of the squadron,"
+he said, in a bulletin to the army, "they agreed on the execution of
+a memorable project, sufficient to astonish intrepidity itself, and to
+make the history of the liberating expedition of Peru eternal." "This
+glory," he added, "was reserved for the Liberating Army, whose efforts
+have snatched the victims of tyranny from its hands." Thus impudently
+did he arrogate to himself a share, at any rate, in the initiation of
+a project which Lord Cochrane, knowing that he would oppose it, had
+purposely kept secret from him, and assign the whole merit of its
+completion to the army which his vacillation and incompetence were
+holding in unwelcome inactivity.
+
+Lord Cochrane was too much accustomed to personal injustice, however,
+to be very greatly troubled by that fresh indignity. It was a far
+heavier trouble to him that his first triumph was not allowed to be
+supplemented by prompt completion of the work on which, and not on
+any individual aggrandisement, his heart was set--the establishment of
+Peruvian as well as Chilian freedom.
+
+San Martin, having done nothing hitherto but allow his army to waste
+its strength and squander its resources, first at Pisco and afterwards
+at Ancon, now fixed upon Huacha as another loitering-place. Thither
+Lord Cochrane had to convey it, before he was permitted to resume the
+blockade of Callao. This blockade lasted, though not all the while
+under his personal direction, for eight months.
+
+"Several attempts were now made," said Lord Cochrane, with reference
+to the first few weeks of the blockade, "to entice the remaining
+Spanish naval force from their shelter under the batteries by placing
+the _Esmeralda_ apparently within reach, and the flagship herself in
+situations of some danger. One day I carried her through an intricate
+strait called the Boqueron, in which nothing beyond a fifty-ton
+schooner was ever seen. The Spaniards, expecting every moment to see
+the ship strike, manned their gunboats, ready to attack as soon as she
+was aground; of which there was little danger, for we had found, and
+buoyed off with small bits of wood invisible to the enemy, a channel
+through which a vessel could pass without much difficulty. At another
+time, the Esmeralda being in a more than usually tempting position,
+the Spanish gunboats ventured out in the hope of recapturing her, and
+for an hour maintained a smart fire; but on seeing the _O'Higgins_
+manoeuvring to cut them off, they precipitately retreated."
+
+In ways like those the Spaniards were locked in, and harassed, in
+Callao Bay. Good result came in the steady weakening of the Spanish
+cause. On the 3rd of December, six hundred and fifty soldiers deserted
+to the Chilian army. On the 8th they were followed by forty officers;
+and after that hardly a day passed without some important defections
+to the patriot force.'
+
+Unfortunately, however, there was weakness also among the patriots.
+San Martin, idle himself, determined to profit by the advantages,
+direct and indirect, which Lord Cochrane's prowess had secured and
+was securing. It began to be no secret that, as soon as Peru was
+freed from the Spanish yoke, he proposed to subject it to a military
+despotism of his own. This being resented by Lord Cochrane, who on
+other grounds could have little sympathy or respect for his associate,
+coolness arose between the leaders. Lord Cochrane, anxious to do
+some more important work, if only a few troops might be allowed to
+co-operate with his sailors, was forced to share some of San Martin's
+inactivity. In March, 1821, he offered, if two thousand soldiers were
+assigned to him, to capture Lima; and when this offer was rejected, he
+declared himself willing to undertake the work with half the number of
+men. With difficulty he at last obtained a force of six hundred; and
+by them and the fleet nearly all the subsequent fighting in Peru
+was done. Lord Cochrane did not venture upon a direct assault on the
+capital with so small an army; but he used it vigorously from point to
+point on the coast, between Callao and Arica, and thus compelled the
+capitulation of Lima on the 6th of July.
+
+Again, as heretofore, he was thanked in the first moment of triumph,
+to be slighted at leisure. Lord Cochrane, on entering the city, was
+welcomed as the great deliverer of Peru: the medals distributed on
+the 28th of July--the day on which Peru's independence was
+proclaimed--testified that the honour was due to General San Martin
+and his Liberating Army. That, however, was only part of a policy long
+before devised. "It is now became evident to me," said Lord Cochrane,
+"that the army had been kept inert for the purpose of preserving it
+entire to further the ambitious views of the General, and that, with
+the whole force now at Lima, the inhabitants were completely at the
+mercy of their pretended liberator, but in reality their conqueror."
+
+With that policy, however much he reprobated it, Lord Cochrane wisely
+judged that it was not for him to quarrel. "As the existence of this
+self-constituted authority," he said, "was no less at variance with
+the institutions of the Chilian Republic than with its solemn
+promises to the Peruvians, I hoisted my flag on board the _O'Higgins_,
+determined to adhere solely to the interests of Chili; but not
+interfering in any way with General San Martin's proceedings till they
+interfered with me in my capacity as Commander-in-Chief of the Chilian
+navy." He was not, therefore, in Lima on the 3rd of August, when San
+Martin issued a proclamation declaring himself Protector of Peru, and
+appointing three of his creatures as his Ministers of State. Of the
+way in which he became acquainted of this violent and lawless measure,
+a precise description has been given by an eye-witness, Mr. W.B.
+Stevenson.
+
+"On the following morning, the 4th of August," he says, "Lord
+Cochrane, uninformed of the change which had taken place in the
+title of San Martin, visited the palace, and began to beg the
+General-in-Chief to propose some means for the payment of the seamen
+who had served their time and fulfilled their contract. To this San
+Martin answered that 'he would never pay the Chilian squadron unless
+it was sold to Peru, and then the payment should be considered part of
+the purchase-money.' Lord Cochrane replied that 'by such a transaction
+the squadron of Chili would be transferred to Peru by merely paying
+what was due to the officers and crews for services done to that
+State.' San Martin knit his brows and, turning to his ministers,
+Garcia and Monteagudo, ordered them to retire; to which his lordship
+objected, stating that, 'as he was not master of the Spanish language,
+he wished them to remain as interpreters, being fearful that some
+expression, not rightly understood, might be considered offensive.'
+San Martin now turned round to the Admiral and said, 'Are you aware,
+my lord, that I am Protector of Peru?' 'No,' said his lordship. 'I
+ordered my secretaries to inform you of it,' returned San Martin.
+'That is now unnecessary, for you have personally informed me,' said
+his lordship: 'I hope that the friendship which has existed between
+General San Martin and myself will continue to exist between the
+Protector of Peru and myself.' San Martin then, rubbing his hands,
+said, 'I have only to say that I am Protector of Peru.' The manner
+in which this last sentence was expressed roused the Admiral, who,
+advancing, said, 'Then it becomes me, as senior officer of Chili,
+and consequently the representative of the nation, to request the
+fulfilment of all the promises made to Chili and the squadron; but
+first, and principally, the squadron.' San Martin returned, 'Chili!
+Chili! I will never pay a single real to Chili! As to the squadron,
+you may take it where you please, and go where you choose. A couple
+of schooners are quite enough for me.' On hearing this Garcia left the
+room, and Monteagudo walked to the balcony. San Martin paced the room
+for a short time, and, turning to his lordship, said, 'Forget, my
+lord, what is past.' The Admiral replied, 'I will when I can,' and
+immediately left the palace.[A] "One thing has been omitted in
+the preceding narrative," said Lord Cochrane. "General San Martin,
+following me to the staircase, had the temerity to propose to me
+to follow his example--namely, to break faith with the Chilian
+Government, to which we had both sworn, to abandon the squadron to his
+interests, and to accept the higher grade of First Admiral of Peru.
+I need scarcely say that a proposition so dishonourable was declined;
+when, in a tone of irritation, he declared that 'he would neither give
+the seamen their arrears of pay nor the gratuity he had promised.'"
+
+[Footnote A: W.B. Stevenson, "Twenty Years' Residence in South
+America." 1825.]
+
+Lord Cochrane lost no time in returning to his flagship in Callao
+Roads. Thence, however, on the 7th of August, he wrote a letter to San
+Martin, couched in terms as temperate and persuasive as he could bring
+himself to use. "My dear General," he there said, "I address you
+for the last time under your late designation, being aware that the
+liberty I may take as a friend might not be deemed decorous to you
+under the title of Protector, for I shall not, with a gentleman of
+your understanding, take into account, as a motive for abstaining to
+speak truth, any chance of your resentment. Nay, were I certain that
+such would be the effect of this letter, I would nevertheless perform
+such an act of friendship, in repayment of the support you gave me
+at a time when the basest plots were laid for my dismissal from the
+Chilian service. Permit me to give you the experience of eleven years,
+during which I sat in the first senate in the world, and to say what I
+anticipate on the one hand, and what I fear on the other--nay, what
+I foresee. You have it in your power to be the Napoleon of South
+America; but you have also the power to choose your course, and if the
+first steps are false, the eminence on which you stand will, as though
+from the brink of a precipice, make your fall the more heavy and the
+more certain. The real strength of government is public opinion. What
+would the world say, were the Protector of Peru, as his first act, to
+cancel the bonds of San Martin, even though gratitude may be a private
+and not a public virtue? What would they say, were the Protector to
+refuse to pay the expense of that expedition which placed him in his
+present elevated situation? What would they say, were it promulgated
+to the world that he intended not even to remunerate those employed
+in the navy which contributed to his success?" Much more to the same
+effect Lord Cochrane wrote, urging honesty upon San Martin as the only
+path by which he could win for himself a permanent success, and making
+a special claim upon his honesty in the interests of the seamen and
+naval officers, to whom neither pay nor prize-money had been given
+since their departure from Chili nearly a year before.
+
+It was all in vain. San Martin wrote, on the 9th of August, a
+letter making professions of virtue and acknowledging much personal
+indebtedness to Lord Cochrane and the fleet, but evading the whole
+question at issue. "I am disposed," he said, "to recompense valour
+displayed in the cause of the country. But you know, my lord, that the
+wages of the crews do not come under these circumstances, and that I,
+never having engaged to pay the amount, am not obliged to do so. That
+debt is due from Chili, whose Government engaged the seamen."
+
+Lord Cochrane knew that Chili would decline to pay for work that, if
+intended to be done in its interests, had been perverted from that
+intention; and his crews, also knowing it, became reasonably mutinous.
+After much further correspondence--in which San Martin suggested as
+his only remedy that Lord Cochrane should accept the dishonourable
+proposal made to him, and, becoming himself First Admiral of Peru,
+should induce the fleet to join in the same rebellion against Chili to
+which the army had been brought by its general, and in which Captains
+Guise and Spry, always evil-minded, had already joined--Lord Cochrane
+adopted a bold but altogether justifiable manoeuvre. A large quantity
+of treasure, seized from the Spaniards, having been deposited by San
+Martin at Ancon, he sailed thither, in the middle of September, and
+quietly took possession of it. So much as lawful owners could be
+found for was given up to them. With the residue, amounting to 285,000
+dollars, Lord Cochrane paid off the year's arrears to every officer
+and man in his employ, taking nothing for himself, but reserving the
+small surplus for the pressing exigencies and re-equipment of the
+squadron.
+
+It is unnecessary to detail the angry correspondence that arose out
+of that rough act of justice. Before the money was distributed,
+treacherous offers to restore it and enter into rebellious league with
+San Martin were made to Lord Cochrane; and with these were alternated
+mock-virtuous complaints and bombastic threats. Both bribes and
+threats were treated by him with equal contempt.
+
+"After a lapse of nearly forty years' anxious consideration," he wrote
+in 1858, "I cannot reproach myself with having done any wrong in
+the seizure of the money of the Protectorial Government. General San
+Martin and myself had been in our respective departments deputed to
+liberate Peru from Spain, and to give to the Peruvians the same free
+institutions which Chili herself enjoyed. The first part of our object
+had been fully effected by the achievements and vigilance of the
+squadron; the second part was frustrated by General San Martin
+arrogating to himself despotic power, which set at naught the wishes
+and voice of the people. As 'my fortune in common with his own' was
+only to be secured by acquiescence in the wrong he had done to Chili
+by casting off his allegiance to her, and by upholding him in the
+still greater wrong he was inflicting on Peru, I did not choose to
+sacrifice my self-esteem and professional character by lending myself
+as an instrument to purposes so unworthy. I did all in my power
+to warn General San Martin of the consequences of ambition so
+ill-directed, but the warning was neglected, if not despised. Chili
+trusted to him to defray the expenses of the squadron, when its
+objects, as laid down by the Supreme Director, should be accomplished;
+but, in place of fulfilling the obligation, he permitted the squadron
+to starve, its crews to go in rags, and the ships to be in perpetual
+danger for want of the proper equipment which Chili could not afford
+to give them when they sailed from Valparaiso. The pretence for this
+neglect was want of means, though, at the same time, money to a
+vast amount was sent away from the capital to Ancon. Seeing that no
+intention Existed on the part of the Protector's Government to do
+justice to the Chilian squadron, whilst every effort was made to
+excite discontent among the officers and men with the purpose of
+procuring their transfer to Peru, I seized the public money, satisfied
+the men, and saved the navy to the Chilian Republic, which afterwards
+warmly thanked me for what I had done. Despite the obloquy cast upon
+me by the Protector's Government, there was nothing wrong in the
+course I pursued, if only for the reason that, if the Chilian squadron
+was to be preserved, it was impossible for me to have done otherwise.
+Years of reflection have only produced the conviction that, were I
+again placed in similar circumstances, I should adopt precisely the
+same course."
+
+In spite of his treachery to the Chilian Government, General San
+Martin professed to retain his functions as Commander-in-Chief of the
+Chilian liberating expedition to Peru; and, accordingly, when he found
+it useless to make further efforts, by bribes or threats, to seduce
+Lord Cochrane from his allegiance, he ordered him to return at once to
+Valparaiso. This order Lord Cochrane refused to obey, seeing that the
+work entrusted to him--the entire destruction of the Spanish squadron
+in the Pacific--had not yet been completed.
+
+He determined to complete that work, first going to Guayaquil to
+repair and refit his ships, which San Martin would not allow him to do
+in any Peruvian port. He was thus employed during six weeks following
+the 18th of October, 1821.
+
+On his departure, a complimentary address from the townsmen afforded
+him an opportunity of offering some good advice on a matter in which
+his long and intelligent political experience showed him that they
+were especially at fault. The inhabitants of Guayaquil, like many
+other young communities, sought to increase their revenues and
+strengthen their independence by violent restrictions upon foreign
+commerce and arbitrary support of native monopolists. Lord Cochrane
+eloquently propounded to them the doctrine of free trade. "Let your
+public press," he said, "declare the consequences of monopoly, and
+affix your names to the defence of your enlightened system. Let it
+show, if your province contains eighty thousand inhabitants, and if
+eighty of these are privileged merchants according to the old system,
+that nine hundred and ninety-nine persons out of a thousand must
+suffer because their cotton, coffee, tobacco, timber, and other
+productions, must come into the hands of the monopolist, as the only
+purchaser of what they have to sell, and the only seller of what they
+must necessarily buy; the effect being that he will buy at the lowest
+possible rate and sell at the dearest, so that not only are the nine
+hundred and ninety-nine injured, but the lands will remain waste, the
+manufactories without workmen, and the people will be lazy and poor
+for want of a stimulus, it being a law of nature that no man will
+labour solely for the gain of another. Tell the monopolist that the
+true method of acquiring general riches, political power, and even his
+own private advantage, is to sell his country's produce as high, and
+foreign goods as low, as possible, and that public competition can
+alone accomplish this. Let foreign merchants, who bring capital,
+and those who practise any art or handicraft, be permitted to settle
+freely. Thus a competition will be formed, from which all must reap
+advantage. Then will land and fixed property increase in value. The
+magazines, instead of being the receptacles of filth and crime, will
+be full of the richest foreign and domestic productions; and all will
+be energy and activity, because the reward will be in proportion to
+the labour. Your river will be filled with ships, and the monopolist
+degraded and shamed. You will bless the day in which Omnipotence
+permitted to be rent asunder the veil of obscurity, under which the
+despotism of Spain, the abominable tyranny of the Inquisition, and the
+want of liberty of the press, so long hid the truth from your sight.
+Let your customs' duties be moderate, in order to promote the greatest
+possible consumption of foreign and domestic goods; then smuggling
+will cease and the returns to the treasury increase. Let every man
+do as he pleases as regards his own property, views, and interests;
+because each individual will watch over his own with more zeal than
+senates, ministers, or kings. By your enlarged views set an example
+to the New World; and thus, as Guayaquil is, from its situation,
+the central republic, it will become the centre of the agriculture,
+commerce, and riches of the Pacific."
+
+Lord Cochrane left Guayaquil on the 3rd of December, and cruised
+northwards in search of the _Prueba_ and the _Venganza_, the only two
+remaining Spanish frigates, which had made their escape from Callao
+and gone in the direction of Mexico. He sailed along the Colombian
+and Mexican coasts as far as Acapulco, where he called on the 29th
+of January, 1822, without finding the objects of his search. He there
+learned, on the 2nd of February, from an in-coming merchantman, that
+the frigates had eluded him and were now somewhere to the southwards.
+Upon that he at once retraced his course, and, in spite of a storm
+which nearly wrecked his two best ships, one of them being the
+captured _Esmeralda_, now christened the _Valdivia_, was at Guayaquil
+again on the 13th of March. There, as he expected, from information
+received on the passage, he found the _Venganza._ Both the frigates
+had been compelled, by want of provisions, to run the risk of halting
+at Guayaquil, whither also an envoy from San Martin had arrived,
+instructed to tempt the Guayaquilians into friendship with Peru and
+jealousy of Chili. On the appearance of the Spanish frigates, he had
+persuaded their captains, as the only means of averting the certain
+ruin that Lord Cochrane was planning for them, quietly to surrender to
+the Peruvian Government. In this way Chili was cheated of its prizes,
+although Lord Cochrane's main object, the entire overthrow of the
+Spanish war shipping in the Pacific, was accomplished without further
+use of powder and shot. The _Prueba_ had been sent to Callao, and the
+_Venganza_ was now being refitted at Guayaquil.
+
+Lord Cochrane had now done all that it was possible for him to do in
+fulfilment of the naval mission on which he had quitted Chili a year
+and a half before. Proceeding southward, he anchored in Callao Roads
+from the 25th of April till the 10th of May. San Martin's Government,
+fearing punishment for their misdeeds, prepared to defend Callao. Lord
+Cochrane, however, wrote to say that he had no intention of making
+war upon the Peruvians; that all he asked was adequate payment for
+the services rendered to them by his officers and seamen. In the
+same letter he denounced the new treachery that had been shown with
+reference to the _Venganza_ and the _Prueba_.
+
+The answer to that letter was a visit from San Martin's chief
+minister, who begged Lord Cochrane to recall it, and impudently
+repeated the old offers of service under the Peruvian Government,
+adding that San Martin had written a private letter to the same
+effect. "Tell the Protector from me," said Lord Cochrane, "that if,
+after the conduct he has pursued, he had sent me a private letter, it
+would certainly have been returned unanswered. You may also tell him
+that it is not my wish to injure him, that I neither fear him nor hate
+him, but that I disapprove of his conduct."
+
+Lord Cochrane's brief stay off Callao sufficed to convince him that,
+though the people of Peru were being for the time subjected to a
+tyranny almost equal to that practised by Spain, no one was likely to
+be long in fear of San Martin, as his treacheries and his vices were
+already bringing upon him well-deserved disgrace and punishment. To
+that purport Lord Cochrane wrote to O'Higgins on the 2nd of May. "As
+the attached and sincere friend of your excellency," he said, "I hope
+you will take into your serious consideration the propriety of at once
+fixing the Chilian Government upon a base not to be shaken by the
+fall of the present tyranny in Peru, of which there are not only
+indications, but the result is inevitable--unless, indeed, the
+mischievous counsels of vain and mercenary men can suffice to prop up
+a fabric of the most barbarous political architecture, serving as a
+screen from whence to dart their weapons against the heart of liberty.
+Thank God, my hands are free from the stain of labouring in any such
+work; and having finished all you gave me to do, I may now rest till
+you shall command my further endeavours for the honour and security of
+my adopted land."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX.
+
+LORD COCHRANE'S RETURN TO VALPARAISO.--HIS FURTHER ILL-TREATMENT BY
+THE CHILIAN GOVERNMENT.--HIS RESIGNATION OF CHILIAN EMPLOYMENT, AND
+ACCEPTANCE OF EMPLOYMENT UNDER THE EMPEROR OF BRAZIL.--HIS SUBSEQUENT
+CORRESPONDENCE WITH THE GOVERNMENT OF CHILI.--THE RESULTS OF HIS
+CHILIAN SERVICE.
+
+[1822-1823.]
+
+
+Lord Cochrane returned to Valparaiso on the 3rd of June, 1822, having
+been absent more than twenty months. An enthusiastic welcome awaited
+him. Medals were struck in his honour, and in various ephemeral ways
+the public gratitude was expressed.
+
+It was, however, only ephemeral. There was no substantial recognition
+of his great services. His men were left unpaid, and he himself was
+subjected to further indignities of the sort already described. It is
+not necessary here to give any detailed account of them, or to enter
+into a particular rehearsal of his efforts during the next six months
+to continue his beneficial services to Chili. He had done the great
+service for which he had been invited to South America. In the course
+of about three years he had scoured the Pacific of the Spanish ships,
+which had offered an obstacle too serious for the patriots to overcome
+by any force or wisdom of their own. He had made it possible for
+them to assert their independence of a foreign yoke, and, if their
+patriotism had been genuine enough, to work out internal reforms, by
+which the sometime colonies of Spain in South America might have been
+able to vie in greatness with the sometime colonies of England in the
+northern continent. The benefits which he conferred especially upon
+Chili were shared by all the liberated communities along the whole
+Pacific coastline up to Mexico. But all were alike ungrateful, except
+in fitful words and in sentiments that prompted to no action.
+
+Shortly after his return to Chili, Lord Cochrane went to live upon the
+estates that had been conferred upon him. Soon, however, he was forced
+to go back to Valparaiso, there to look after the interests of the
+officers and crews who had served him and Chili during the previous
+fighting time. His earnest arguments on their behalf were not heeded.
+The poor fellows were left to starve and be perished by the cold of
+a South American winter, against which the pitiful rags in which they
+were clothed afforded no protection. And before long fresh incidents
+arose which made it impossible for him to persevere in fighting their
+battle.
+
+General San Martin, having run his course of petty tyranny in Peru,
+was soon forced to resign his protectorate and seek safety in Chili.
+He reached Valparaiso on the 12th of October, and then Lord Cochrane,
+who had long before seen good reasons for suspecting it, was convinced
+that Zenteno and many other influential men in Chili were in league
+with him. He claimed that San Martin should be tried by court-martial
+for his treasons, known to all the world. Instead of that San Martin
+was loaded with honours, and fresh indignities were heaped upon
+his chief accuser. This monstrous action of the ministers led to a
+revolution, which, if Lord Cochrane had stayed to the end, might have
+proved much to his advantage. But the revolution, headed by General
+Freire, an honest man, had for its object the overthrow of O'Higgins,
+also an honest man, though too weak to withstand the influences
+brought to bear upon him by the bad men by whom he was surrounded.
+Lord Cochrane refused Freire's offers to join in opposition to
+O'Higgins, always, as far as his small powers permitted, his good
+friend. He preferred to abandon Chili, or rather to allow it to
+abandon one who had done for it so much and had received so little in
+return. "The difficulties," he said, in a dignified letter addressed
+to General O'Higgins, still nominally the Supreme Director, in which
+he virtually resigned his appointment as Vice-Admiral of the Republic,
+"the difficulties which I have experienced in accomplishing the naval
+enterprises successfully achieved during the period of my command as
+Admiral of Chili have not been mastered without responsibility such as
+I would scarcely again undertake, not because I would hesitate to make
+any personal sacrifice in a cause of so much interest, but because
+even these favourable results have led to the total alienation of
+the sympathies of meritorious officers--whose co-operation was
+indispensable--in consequence of the conduct of the Government.
+That which has made most impression on their minds has been, not the
+privations they have suffered, nor the withholding of their pay
+and other dues, but the absence of any public acknowledgment by the
+Government of the honours and distinctions promised for their fidelity
+and constancy to Chili; especially at a time when no temptation was
+withheld that could induce them to abandon the cause of Chili for the
+service of the Protector of Peru. Ever since that time, though there
+was no want of means or knowledge of facts on the part of the Chilian
+Government, it has submitted itself to the influence of the agents
+of an individual whose power, having ceased in Peru, has been again
+resumed in Chili. The effect of this on me is so keen that I cannot
+trust myself in words to express my personal feelings. Whatever I
+have recommended or asked for the good of the naval service has been
+scouted or denied, though acquiescence would have placed Chili in
+the first rank of maritime states in this quarter of the globe. My
+requisitions and suggestions were founded on the practice of the first
+naval service in the world--that of England. They have, however, met
+with no consideration, as though their object had been directed to
+my own personal benefit. Until now I have never eaten the bread of
+idleness. I cannot reconcile to my mind a state of inactivity which
+might even now impose upon the Chilian Republic an annual pension for
+past services; especially as an Admiral of Peru is actually in command
+of a portion of the Chilian squadron, whilst other vessels are sent to
+sea without the orders under which they act being communicated to
+me, and are despatched through the instrumentality of the governor of
+Valparaiso [Zenteno]. I mention these circumstances incidentally as
+having confirmed me in the resolution to withdraw myself from Chili
+for a time, asking nothing for myself during my absence; whilst, as
+regards the sums owing to me, I forbear to press for their payment
+till the Government shall be more freed from its difficulties. I have
+complied with all that my public duty demanded, and, if I have
+not been able to accomplish more, the deficiency has arisen from
+circumstances beyond my control. At any rate, having the world still
+before me, I hope to prove that it is not owing to me. I have received
+proposals from Mexico, from Brazil, and from a European state, but
+have not as yet accepted any of these offers. Nevertheless, the habits
+of my life do not permit me to refuse my services to those labouring
+under oppression, as Chili was before the annihilation of the Spanish
+naval force in the Pacific. In this I am prepared to justify whatever
+course I may pursue. In thus taking leave of Chili, I do so with
+sentiments of deep regret that I have not been suffered to be more
+useful to the cause of liberty, and that I am compelled to separate
+myself from individuals with whom I hoped to live for a long period,
+without violating such sentiments of honour as, were they broken,
+would render me odious to myself and despicable in their eyes."
+
+That letter sufficiently explains the reasons which induced Lord
+Cochrane to resign his Chilian command. He had, as he said, received
+invitations to enter the service of Brazil, of Mexico, and of Greece.
+The Mexican offer he declined at once, as acceptance of it would
+involve little of the active work in fighting which, if for a good
+cause, was always attractive to him. Assistance of the Greeks who, a
+year and a half before, had begun to throw off their long servitude to
+Turkey, and who were now fighting desperately for their freedom,
+was an enterprise on which he would gladly have embarked, but
+the invitation from Brazil was more pressing, and he therefore
+conditionally accepted it. "The war in the Pacific," he said, on the
+29th of November, in answer to two letters written on behalf of the
+newly-elected Emperor of Brazil, "having been happily terminated by
+the total destruction of the Spanish naval force, I am, of course,
+free for the crusade of liberty in any other quarter of the globe. I
+confess, however, that I have not hitherto directed my attention
+to the Brazils; considering that the struggle for the liberties of
+Greece, the most oppressed of modern states, afforded the fairest
+opportunity for enterprise and exertion. I have to-day tendered my
+ultimate resignation to the Government of Chili, and am not at this
+moment aware that any material delay will be necessary previous to my
+setting off, by way of Cape Horn, for Rio de Janeiro; it being, in the
+meantime, understood that I hold myself free to decline, as well as
+entitled to accept, the offer which has, through you, been made to me
+by his Imperial Majesty. I only mention this from a desire to preserve
+a consistency of character, should the Government (which I by no means
+anticipate) differ so widely in its nature from those which I have
+been in the habit of supporting as to render the proposed situation
+repugnant to my principles, and so justly expose me to suspicion, and
+render me unworthy the confidence of his Majesty and the nation."
+
+In accordance with the terms of that letter, Lord Cochrane wrote as we
+have seen to the Supreme Director of Chili, not completely resigning
+his employment, but proposing to absent himself for an indefinite
+period. His proposal was at once accepted by the Chilian Government,
+to whom his honesty and his popularity with the people made him
+particularly obnoxious. He thereupon made prompt arrangements for his
+departure. He quitted Valparaiso on the 18th of January, 1823, in a
+vessel chartered for his own use and that of several European officers
+and seamen, who, like him, were tired of Chilian ingratitude, and who
+begged to be employed under him wherever he might serve.
+
+Of the subsequent occurrences in the Western States, for which he had
+done so much, and tried to do so much more than was permitted, it is
+enough to say that Peru, sadly abused by San Martin, and almost won
+back to Spain, was rescued by the valour and wisdom of Bolivar, and
+that Chili, destined to much future trouble through the bad action
+of its false patriots, was temporarily benefited by the successful
+revolution which placed General Freire in the Supreme Directorship.
+
+Lord Cochrane had not been absent three months before a new Minister
+of Marine wrote to inform him of Freire's accession and to solicit his
+return. From this, however, he excused himself, on the grounds that
+he had now entered into engagements with Brazil which he was bound
+to fulfil, and that his past treatment by the Chilian Government
+discouraged him from renewal of relations which had been so full of
+annoyance to him. "On my quitting Chili," he said in his reply, "there
+was no looking to the past without regret, nor to the future without
+despair, for I had learned by experience what were the views and
+motives which guided the counsels of the State. Believe me that
+nothing but a thorough conviction that it was impracticable to
+render the good people of Chili any further service under existing
+circumstances, or to live in tranquillity under such a system, could
+have induced me to remove myself from a country which I had vainly
+hoped would have afforded me that tranquil asylum which, after
+the anxieties I had suffered, I felt needful to my repose. My
+inclinations, too, were decidedly in favour of a residence in Chili,
+from a feeling of the congeniality which subsisted between my own
+habits and the manners and customs of the people, those few only
+excepted who were corrupted by contiguity with the court, or debased
+in their minds and practices by that species of Spanish colonial
+education which inculcates duplicity as the chief qualification of
+statesmen in all their dealings, both with individuals and the
+public. I now speak more particularly of the persons lately in power,
+excepting, however, the Supreme Director, whom I believe to have been
+the dupe of their deceit. Point out to me one engagement that has been
+honourably fulfilled, one military enterprise of which the professed
+object has not been perverted, or one solemn pledge that has not been
+forfeited. Look at my representations on the necessities of the navy,
+and see how they were relieved. Look at my memorial, proposing to
+establish a nursery for seamen by encouraging the coasting trade, and
+compare its principles with the code of Rodriguez, which annihilated
+both. You will see in this, as in all other cases, that whatever I
+recommended, in regard to the promotion of the good of the marine, was
+set at nought, or opposed by measures directly the reverse. Look to
+the orders which I received, and see whether I had more liberty of
+action than a schoolboy in the execution of his task. Sir, that which
+I suffered from anxiety of mind whilst in the Chilian service, I will
+never again endure for any consideration. To organize new crews, to
+navigate ships destitute of sails, cordage, provisions, and stores,
+to secure them in port without anchors and cables, except so far as I
+could supply these essentials by accidental means, were difficulties
+sufficiently harassing; but to live amongst officers and men
+discontented and mutinous on account of arrears of pay and other
+numerous privations, to be compelled to incur the responsibility
+of seizing by force from Peru funds for their payment, in order to
+prevent worse consequences to Chili, and then to be exposed to the
+reproach of one party for such seizure, and the suspicions of
+another that the sums were not duly applied, are all circumstances so
+disagreeable and so disgusting that, until I have certain proof that
+the present ministers are disposed to act in another manner, I cannot
+possibly consent to renew my services where, under such circumstances,
+they would be wholly unavailing to the true interests of the people."
+
+Writing thus to the Minister of Marine, Lord Cochrane wrote also at
+the same time to General Freire, who, as has been said, asked him to
+join his revolutionary movement. "It would give me great pleasure, my
+respected friend, to learn that the change which has been effected in
+the government of Chili proves alike conducive to your happiness and
+to the interests of the State. For my own part, like yourself, I have
+suffered so long and so much that I could not bear the neglect and
+double-dealing of those in power any longer, but adopted other means
+of freeing myself from an unpleasant situation. Not being under
+those imperious obligations which, as a native Chilian, rendered it
+incumbent on you to rescue your country from the mischiefs with which
+it was assailed, I could not accept your offer. My heart was with you
+in the measures you adopted for their removal; and my hand was only
+restrained by a conviction that my interference, as a foreigner, in
+the internal affairs of the State would not only have been improper
+in itself, but would have tended to shake that confidence in my
+undeviating rectitude which it was my ambition that the people of
+Chili should ever justly entertain. Permit me to add my opinion that,
+whoever may possess the supreme authority in Chili, until after the
+present generation, educated as it has been under the Spanish colonial
+yoke, shall have passed away, will have to contend with so much error
+and so many prejudices as to be disappointed in his utmost endeavours
+to pursue steadily the course best calculated to promote the freedom
+and happiness of the people. I admire the middle and lower classes
+of Chili, but I have ever found the senate, the ministers, and the
+convention actuated by the narrowest policy, which led them to adopt
+the worst measures. It is my earnest wish that you may find better men
+to co-operate with you. If so, you may be fortunate and may succeed in
+what you have most at heart, the promotion of your country's good."
+
+For the real welfare of Chili Lord Cochrane was always eager; but in
+the treatment which he himself experienced he had strong proof, both
+during his four years' active service under the republic and in all
+after times, of the difficulties in the way of its advancement.
+Not only was he subjected to the contumely and neglect of which he
+complained in the letters just quoted from: he was also directly
+mulcted to a very large extent in the scanty recompense for his
+services to which he was legally entitled, and indirectly injured to
+a yet larger extent. "I was compelled to quit Chili," he wrote at
+a later date, "without any of the emoluments due to my position as
+Commander-in-Chief of the Navy, or any share of the sums belonging
+to myself and the officers and seamen; which sums, on the faith of
+repayment, had, at my solicitation, been appropriated to the repairs
+and maintenance of the squadron generally, but more especially at
+Guayaquil and Acapulco, when in pursuit of the _Prueba_ and the
+_Venganza_. Neither was any compensation made for the value of stores
+captured and collected by the squadron, whereby its efficiency was
+chiefly maintained during the whole period of the Peruvian blockade.
+The Supreme Director of Chili, recognizing the justice of payment
+being made by the Peruvians for at least the value of the _Esmeralda_,
+the capture of which inflicted the death-blow on Spanish power, sent
+me a bill on the Peruvian Government for 120,000 dollars, which
+was dishonoured, and has never since been paid by any succeeding
+Government. Even the 40,000 dollars stipulated by the authorities
+at Guayaquil as the penalty for giving up the _Venganza_ was never
+liquidated. No compensation for the severe wounds received during the
+capture of the _Esmeralda_ was either offered or received.
+Shortly after my departure for Brazil, the Government forcibly and
+indefensibly resumed the estate at Rio Clara, which had been awarded
+to me and my family in perpetuity, as a remuneration for the capture
+of Valdivia, and my bailiff, who had been left upon it for its
+management and direction, was summarily ejected. Unhappily, this
+ingratitude for services rendered was the least misfortune which my
+devotedness to Chili brought upon me. On my return to England in
+1825, after the termination of my services in Brazil, I found myself
+involved in litigation on account of the seizure of neutral vessels
+by authority of the then unacknowledged Government of Chili. These
+litigations cost me, directly, upwards of 14,000_l._, and, indirectly,
+more than double that amount. Thus, in place of receiving anything for
+my efforts in the cause of Chilian and Peruvian independence, I was a
+loser of upwards of 25,000_l._, this being more than double the
+whole amount I had received as pay whilst in command of the Chilian
+squadron."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X.
+
+THE ANTECEDENTS OF BRAZILIAN INDEPENDENCE.--PEDRO I.'s ACCESSION.--THE
+INTERNAL AND EXTERNAL TROUBLES OF THE NEW EMPIRE.--LORD COCHRANE'S
+INVITATION TO BRAZIL.--HIS ARRIVAL AT RIO DE JANEIRO, AND ACCEPTANCE
+OF BRAZILIAN SERVICE.--HIS FIRST MISFORTUNES.--THE BAD CONDITION OF
+HIS SQUADRON, AND THE CONSEQUENT FAILURE OF HIS FIRST ATTACK ON THE
+PORTUGUESE OFF BAHIA.--HIS PLANS FOR IMPROVING THE FLEET, AND THEIR
+SUCCESS.--HIS NIGHT VISIT TO BAHIA, AND THE CONSEQUENT FLIGHT OF THE
+ENEMY.--LORD COCHRANE'S PURSUIT OF THEM.--HIS VISIT TO MARANHAM,
+AND ANNEXATION OF THAT PROVINCE AND OF PARA.--HIS RETURN TO RIO DE
+JANEIRO.--THE HONOURS CONFERRED UPON HIM.
+
+[1823.]
+
+
+In 1808, King John VI. of Portugal, driven by Buonaparte from his
+European dominions, took refuge in his great colonial possession of
+Brazil, and the result of his emigration was considerable enlargement
+of the liberties of the Brazilians. Thereby the immense Portuguese
+colony in South America was prevented from following in the
+revolutionary steps of the numerous Spanish provinces adjoining it.
+In Brazil, however, during the ensuing years party faction produced
+nearly as much turmoil as attended the struggle for independence in
+Chili and the other Spanish, colonies. Those Brazilians who were
+still intimately connected with the inhabitants of the mother country
+rallied under Portuguese leaders, and did their utmost to maintain
+the Portuguese supremacy over the colony. Quite as many, on the other
+hand, were eager to take advantage of the new state of things as a
+means of consolidating the freedom of Brazil. Plots and counterplots,
+broils and insurrections, lasted, almost without intermission, until
+1821, when King John returned to Portugal, leaving his son, Don Pedro,
+as lieutenant and regent, to cope with yet greater difficulties. The
+Cortes of Portugal, able to get back their king, desired also to bring
+back Brazil to all its former servitude. So great was the opposition
+thus provoked that the native or true Brazilian party induced Don
+Pedro to throw off allegiance to his father. In October, 1822, the
+independence of the colony was publicly declared, and on the 1st of
+December Don Pedro assumed the title of Emperor of Brazil.
+
+Only the southern part of Brazil, however, acknowledged his authority.
+The northern provinces, including Bahia, Maranham, and Para, were
+ruled by the Portuguese faction and held by Portuguese troops. A
+formidable fleet, moreover, swept the seas, and the independent
+provinces were threatened with speedy subjection to the sway of
+Portugal.
+
+That was the state of affairs in the young empire of Brazil during the
+months in which Lord Cochrane, having destroyed the Spanish fleet
+in the Pacific, was being subjected to the worst ingratitude of his
+Chilian employers. Don Pedro and his advisers, hearing of this, lost
+no time in inviting him to enter the service of the Brazilian nation.
+Equal rank and position to those held by him under Chili were offered
+to him. "Abandonnez vous, milord," wrote the official who conveyed the
+Emperor's message, on the 4th of November, 1822, "a la reconnaisance
+Bresilienne, a la munificence du Prince, a la probite sans tache de
+l'actuel Gouvernement; on vous fera justice; on ne rabaissera
+d'un seul point la haute consideration, rang, grade, caractere, et
+avantages qui vous sont dus." In yet stronger terms a second letter
+was written soon afterwards. "Venez, milord; l'honneur vous invite;
+la gloire vous appelle. Venez donner a nos armes navales cet ordre
+merveilleux et discipline incomparable de puissante Albion."
+
+Lord Cochrane, as we have seen, accepted this invitation; not,
+however, without some misgivings, which, in the end, were fully
+justified. Having quitted Valparaiso on the 18th of January, 1823, he
+arrived at Rio de Janeiro on the 13th of March. He had not been there
+a week before he discovered that, while all classes were anxious to
+secure his aid, the Emperor Pedro I. stood almost alone in the desire
+to treat him honourably and in a way worthy of his character and
+reputation. Vague promises were made to him; but, when a statement
+of his position was asked for in writing, very different terms were
+employed. He was only to have the rank of a subordinate admiral, with
+pay of less amount than the Chilian pension that he had resigned. His
+employment was to be temporary and informal, subjecting him to the
+chance of dismissal at any moment. When, however, resenting these
+trickeries, he announced his intention of proceeding at once to
+Europe, and accepting the Greek service offered to him, a different
+tone was adopted. Under the Emperor's signature he was appointed, on
+the 21st of March, First Admiral of the National and Imperial Navy,
+with emoluments equal to those he had received from Chili.
+
+He did not then know, though he was soon to learn it by hard
+experience, how strong, even at the imperial court, was the influence
+of the Portuguese party, and by what meanness and trickery it sought
+to maintain and augment that influence. "Where the Portuguese party
+was really to blame," he afterwards said, "was in this,--that, seeing
+disorder everywhere more or less prevalent, they strained every nerve
+to increase it, hoping to paralyze further attempts at independence by
+exposing whole provinces to the evils of anarchy and confusion. Their
+loyalty also partook more of self-interest than of attachment to the
+supremacy of Portugal; for the commercial classes, which formed the
+real strength of the Portuguese faction, hoped, by preserving the
+authority of the mother country in her distant provinces, to obtain as
+their reward the revival of old trade monopolies which, twelve years
+before, had been thrown open, enabling the English traders--whom
+they cordially hated--to supersede them in their own markets. Being
+a citizen of the rival nation, their aversion to me personally was
+undisguised--the more so, perhaps, that they believed me capable
+of achieving at Bahia, whither the squadron was destined, that
+irreparable injury to their own cause which the imperial troops had
+been unable to effect. Had I, at the time, been aware of the influence
+and latent power of the Portuguese party in the empire, nothing would
+have induced me to accept the command of the Brazilian navy; for to
+contend with faction is more dangerous than to engage an enemy, and a
+contest of intrigue is foreign to my nature and inclination."
+
+Having entered the Brazilian service, however, Lord Cochrane applied
+himself to his work with characteristic energy and success. He hoisted
+his flag on board the _Pedro Primiero_ on the 21st of March, and
+put to sea on the 3rd of April. His squadron consisted of the _Pedro
+Primiero_, a fine and well-appointed ship, rated rather too highly for
+seventy-four guns, commanded by Captain Crosbie; of the _Piranga_, a
+fine frigate, entrusted to Captain Jowett; of the _Maria de Gloria_,
+a showy but comparatively worthless clipper, mounting thirty-two
+small guns, under Captain Beaurepaire; of the _Liberal_, under Captain
+Garcao. He was accompanied by two old vessels, the _Guarani_ and
+the _Real_, to be used as fireships. Two other ships of war, the
+_Nitherohy_, assigned to Captain Taylor, and the _Carolina_, were left
+behind to complete their equipment, and the first of these joined
+the squadron on its way to Bahia, which, being the nearest of the
+disaffected provinces, was the first to be subdued.
+
+The coast of Bahia was reached on the 1st of May, and Lord Cochrane
+was arranging to blockade its capital and port, on the 4th, when the
+Portuguese fleet came out of the harbour. It comprised the _Don Joao_,
+of seventy-four guns; the _Constitucao_, of fifty; the _Perola_, of
+forty-four; the _Princeza Real_, of twenty-eight; the _Regeneracao_,
+the _Dez de Fevereiro_, the _San Gaulter_, the _Principe de Brazil_,
+and the _Restauracao_, of twenty-six each; the _Calypso_ and the
+_Activa_, of twenty-two; the _Audaz_, of twenty; and the _Canceicao_,
+of eight; being one line-of-battle ship, five frigates, five
+corvettes, a brig, and a schooner. Lord Cochrane did not venture with
+his small and as yet untried force to attack the whole squadron, but
+he proceeded to cut off the four rearmost ships. This he did with the
+_Pedro Primiero_, but, to his disgust, the other vessels, heedless
+of his orders, failed to follow him. "Had the rest of the Brazilian
+squadron," he said, "come down in obedience to signals, the ships cut
+off might have been taken or dismantled, as with the flag-ship I
+could have kept the others at bay, and no doubt have crippled all in
+a position to render them assistance. To my astonishment, the signals
+were disregarded, and no efforts were made to second my operations."
+The _Pedro Primiero_, after fighting alone for some time, and during
+that time even doing but little mischief, by reason of the clumsy way
+in which her guns were handled, had to be withdrawn.
+
+At that failure Lord Cochrane was reasonably chagrined. Worse than the
+fact that the Portuguese had escaped uninjured for this once, was the
+knowledge that he could not hope thoroughly to punish them without
+first effecting great reform in the materials at his disposal. On the
+5th of May he wrote to the Government to complain of the miserable
+condition of the ships and crews provided for him by the Brazilian
+Government. "From the defective sailing and manning of the squadron,"
+he said, "it seems to me that the _Pedro Primiero_ is the only one
+that can assail an enemy's ship-of-war, or act in the face of a
+superior force so as not to compromise the interests of the empire and
+the character of the officers commanding. Even this ship, in common
+with the rest, is so ill-equipped as to be much less efficient than
+she otherwise would be. Our cartridges are all unfit for service,
+and I have been obliged to cut up every flag and ensign that could
+be spared to render them serviceable, so as to prevent the men's arms
+being blown off whilst working the guns. The guns are without locks.
+The bed of the mortar which I received on board this ship was crushed
+on the first fire, being entirely rotten. The fuses for the shells are
+formed of such wretched composition that it will not take fire with
+the discharge of the mortar. Even the powder is so bad that six pounds
+will not throw out shells more than a thousand yards. The marines
+understand neither gun exercise, the use of small arms, nor the sword,
+and yet have so high an opinion of themselves that they will not
+assist to wash the decks, or even to clean out their own berths, but
+sit and look on whilst these operations are being performed by seamen.
+I warned the Minister of Marine that every native of Portugal put on
+board the squadron, with the exception of officers of known character,
+would prove prejudicial to the expedition, and yesterday we had clear
+proof of the fact. The Portuguese stationed in the magazine actually
+withheld the powder whilst this ship was in the midst of the enemy,
+and I have since learnt that they did so from feelings of attachment
+to their own countrymen. I enclose two letters, one from the officer
+commanding the _Real_, whose crew were on the point of carrying that
+vessel into the enemy's squadron for the purpose of delivering her
+up. I have also reason to believe that the conduct of the _Liberal_
+yesterday in not bearing down upon the enemy, and not complying with
+the signal which I had made to break the line, was owing to her being
+manned by Portuguese. The _Maria de Gloria_ also has a great number
+of Portuguese, which is the more to be regretted as otherwise her
+superior sailing, with the zeal and activity of her captain, would
+render her an effective vessel. To disclose to you the truth, it
+appears to me that one half of the squadron is necessary to watch over
+the other half. Assuredly this is a system which ought to be put an
+end to without delay."
+
+Other indignant complaints of that sort, which need not here be
+repeated, were reasonably made by Lord Cochrane. The bad equipment
+of his squadron, both in men and in material, had hindered him, at
+starting, from achieving a brilliant success over the enemy, and
+though his subsequent achievements were of unsurpassed brilliance,
+he was to the end seriously hindered by the wilful and accidental
+mismanagement of his employers.
+
+Lord Cochrane lost no time, however, in correcting by his own prudent
+action the evil effects of this mismanagement. Not choosing to run the
+risk of a second failure, and believing that two good ships would be
+more serviceable than any number of bad ones, he took his squadron to
+the Moro San Paulo, where he transferred all the best men and the most
+serviceable fittings to the flag-ship and the _Maria de Gloria_. There
+he left the other vessels to be improved as far as possible, directing
+that instruction should be given in seamanship to all the incompetent
+men who showed any promise of being made efficient, and that several
+small prizes which he had taken on his way from Rio de Janeiro should
+be turned into fireships for future use. With the two refitted ships
+he then went back to Bahia, to watch its whole coast and blockade the
+port.
+
+The wisdom of this course was at once apparent. Several minor captures
+were made; the supplies of Bahia were cut off, and the enemy's
+squadron was locked in the harbour for three weeks. Lord Cochrane went
+to the Moro San Paulo on the 26th, leaving the _Maria de Gloria_ to
+overlook the port, and then the Portuguese fleet ventured out for a
+few days. It dared not show fight, however, and was driven back by the
+flag-ship, which returned on the 2nd of June. "On the 11th of June,"
+said Lord Cochrane, "information was received that the enemy was
+seriously thinking of evacuating the port before the fireships were
+completed. I therefore ordered the _Maria de Gloria_ to water and
+re-victual for three months, so as to be in readiness for anything
+which might occur, as, in case the rumour proved correct, our
+operations might take a different turn to those previous intended.
+The _Piranga_ was also directed to have everything in readiness for
+weighing immediately on the flag-ship appearing off the Moro and
+making signals to that effect. The whole squadron was at the same time
+ordered to re-victual, and to place its surplus articles in a large
+shed constructed of trees and branches felled in the neighbourhood of
+the Moro. Whilst the other ships were thus engaged, I determined to
+increase the panic of the enemy with the flag-ship alone. The position
+of their fleet was about nine miles up the bay, under shelter of
+fortifications, so that an attack by day would have been more perilous
+than prudent. Nevertheless, it appeared practicable to pay them a
+hostile visit on the first dark night, when, if we were unable
+to effect any serious mischief, it would at least be possible
+to ascertain their exact position, and to judge what could be
+accomplished when the fireships were brought to bear upon them.
+
+"Accordingly," the narrative proceeds, "having during the day
+carefully taken bearings at the mouth of the river, on the night
+of the 12th of June, I decided on making the attempt, which might
+possibly result in the destruction of part of the enemy's fleet, in
+consequence of the confused manner in which the ships were
+anchored. As soon as it became dark we proceeded up the river; but,
+unfortunately, when we were within hail of the outermost ship, the
+wind failed, and, the tide soon after turning, our plan of attack was
+rendered abortive. Determined, however, to complete the reconnoisance,
+we threaded our way amongst the outermost vessels. In spite of the
+darkness, the presence of a strange ship under sail was discovered,
+and some beat to quarters, hailing to know what ship it was. The
+reply, 'An English vessel,' satisfied them, however, and so our
+investigation was not molested. The chief object thus accomplished, we
+succeeded in dropping out with the ebb-tide, now rapidly running,
+and were enabled to steady our course stern-foremost with the stream
+anchor adrag, whereby we reached our former position."
+
+That exploit was more daring than Lord Cochrane's modest description
+would imply; and, though the bold hope that it might be possible for
+a single invading ship to conquer the whole Portuguese squadron in its
+moorings was not realized, the effect was all that could be desired.
+The Portuguese Admiral and his chief officers were at a ball in
+Bahia while Lord Cochrane was quietly sailing round and amongst their
+squadron, and the report of this achievement was brought to them in
+the midst of their festivities. "What!" exclaimed the Admiral,
+"Lord Cochrane's line-of-battle ship in the very midst of our fleet!
+Impossible! No large ship can have come up in the dark." When it was
+known that the thing had really been done, and that the construction
+of fireships at the Moro San Paulo was being rapidly proceeded with,
+the Portuguese authorities, both naval and military, considered that
+it would be no longer safe to remain in Bahia Harbour. They were
+seriously inconvenienced, moreover, by the success with which Lord
+Cochrane had blockaded the port and all its approaches. "The means
+of subsistence fail us, and we cannot secure the entrance of any
+provisions," said the Commander-in-Chief, in the proclamation
+intimating that the so-called defenders of the province were
+thinking of abandoning their post. This they did after a fortnight's
+consideration. On the 2nd of July the whole squadron of thirteen
+warvessels and about seventy merchantmen and transports, filled with a
+large body of troops, evacuated the port.
+
+That was a movement with which Lord Cochrane was well pleased. He had
+been in doubt as to the prudence of leading his small fleet into a
+desperate action in the harbour, by which the inexperience of his
+crews might ruin everything, and which might have to be followed
+by fighting on land. But now that the Portuguese, both soldiers and
+sailors, were in the open sea, he could give them chase without much
+risk, as, in the event of their turning round upon him with more
+valour than he gave them credit for, the worst that could happen would
+be his forced abandonment of the pursuit. The valour was not shown.
+No sooner were the Portuguese out of port, with their sails set for
+Maranham, where they hoped to join other ships and troops, and so
+augment their strength, than Lord Cochrane proceeded to follow them
+and dog their progress.
+
+His scheme was a bold one, but as successful as it was bold.
+Attended first by the _Maria de Gloria_ alone, and afterwards by the
+_Carolina_, the _Nitherohy_, and a small merchant brig, the _Colonel
+Allen_, in which he had placed a few guns, he pursued and harassed
+the cumbrous crowd of Portuguese warships, troop-ships, and trading
+vessels, about eighty in all, through fourteen days. The chase,
+indeed, was practically conducted by his flag-ship, the _Pedro
+Primiero_, alone. The other vessels were ordered to look out for any
+of the enemy's fleet that lagged behind or were borne away from the
+main body of the fugitives, either to the right hand or to the left.
+Of these there were plenty, and none were allowed to escape. The
+pursuers had easy work in prize-taking. "I have the honour to inform
+you," wrote Lord Cochrane in a concise despatch to the Brazilian
+Minister of Marine, on the 7th of July, "that half the enemy's army,
+their colours, cannon, ammunition, stores, and baggage have been
+taken. We are still in pursuit, and shall endeavour to intercept the
+remainder of the troops, and shall then look after the ships of war,
+which would have been my first object but that, in pursuing
+this course, the military would have escaped to occasion further
+hostilities against the Brazilian empire."
+
+Most of his prizes and prisoners Lord Cochrane sent into Pernambuco,
+the port then nearest to him, and he despatched two officers to hold
+Bahia for Brazil. With his flag-ship he continued his pursuit of the
+enemy, losing them once during a fog, and, when, he found them,
+being prevented from doing all the mischief which he hoped, as a calm
+enabled them to keep close together and present a front too formidable
+for attack by a single assailant. The Portuguese, however, continued
+their flight as soon as the wind permitted. Lord Cochrane did not
+trouble them much during the day, but each night he swept down on
+them, like a hawk upon its prey, and harassed them with wonderful
+effect. They were chased past Fernando Island, past the Equator, and
+more than half way to Cape Verde. Then, on the 16th of July, Lord
+Cochrane, after a parting broadside, left them to make their way in
+peace to Lisbon, there to tell how, by one daring vessel, thirteen
+ships of war had been ignominiously driven home, accompanied by only
+thirteen out of the seventy vessels that had placed themselves under
+their protection.
+
+Lord Cochrane would have continued the pursuit still farther, had not
+some of the troop-ships contrived to escape; and as he was anxious
+that these should not get into shelter at Maranham, or, if there,
+should not have time to recover their spirits, he deemed it best to
+hasten thither. He reached Maranham before them, and thus found it
+possible to carry through an excellent expedient which he had devised
+on the way.
+
+Maranham, the wealthiest province of the old Brazilian colony, was
+best guarded by the Portuguese, and now served as the centre and
+stronghold of resistance to the authority of the new Emperor. Lord
+Cochrane's plan had for its object nothing less than the annexation of
+the whole province singlehanded and without a blow. With this intent,
+he entered the River Maranham, which served as a harbour to the port
+of the same name, on the 26th of July, with Portuguese colours flying
+from the mast of the _Pedro Primiero_. The authorities, deceived
+thereby, promptly sent a messenger with despatches and congratulations
+on the safe arrival of what was supposed to be a valuable
+reinforcement from Portugal. The messenger was soon undeceived, but
+Lord Cochrane at once made him the agent of a much more elaborate
+and altogether justifiable deception Announcing to him that the swift
+sailing of the _Pedro Primiero_ had brought her first to Maranham, but
+that she was being followed by a formidable squadron, intended for the
+invasion of the province, he sent him back with letters to the same
+effect, addressed to the Portuguese commandant and to the local Junta
+of Maranham. "The naval and military forces under my command," he
+wrote to the former, "leave me no room to doubt the success of
+the enterprise in which I am about to engage, in order to free the
+province of Maranham from foreign domination, and to allow the people
+free choice of government. Of the flight of the Portuguese naval and
+military forces from Bahia you are aware. I have now to inform you of
+the capture of two-thirds of the transports and troops, with all their
+stores and ammunition. I am anxious not to let loose the imperial
+troops of Bahia upon Maranham, exasperated as they are at the injuries
+and cruelties exercised towards themselves and their countrymen, as
+well as by the plunder of the people and churches of Bahia. It is
+for you to decide whether the inhabitants of these countries shall be
+further exasperated by resistance, which appears to me unavailing, and
+alike prejudicial to the best interests of Portugal and Brazil," "The
+forces of his Imperial Majesty," he said to the Junta, "having freed
+the city and province of Bahia from the enemies of independence, I now
+hasten--in conformity with the will of his Majesty that the beautiful
+province of Maranham should be free also--to offer to the oppressed
+inhabitants whatever aid and protection they need against a foreign
+yoke; desiring to accomplish their liberation and to hail them
+as brethren and friends. Should there, however, be any who, from
+self-interested motives, oppose themselves to the deliverance of their
+country, let such be assured that the naval and military forces which
+have driven the Portuguese from the south are again ready to draw the
+sword in the like just cause, and the result cannot be long doubtful."
+
+Those mingled promises and threats took prompt effect. On the
+following day, the 27th of July, after a conditional offer of
+capitulation had been rejected, the members of the Junta, the Bishop
+of Maranham, and other leading persons, went on board the _Pedro
+Primiero_ to tender their submission to the Emperor of Brazil. The
+city and forts were surrendered without reserve, and in less than
+twenty-four hours from Lord Cochrane's first appearance in the river
+the flag of Portugal was replaced by that of Brazil. A great province
+had been added to the dominions of Pedro I. without bloodshed, and
+with no more expenditure of ammunition than was needed for the volleys
+discharged in honour of the triumph.
+
+The liberation of Maranham was publicly celebrated on the 28th of
+July, and on the following day the Portuguese troops embarked for
+Europe, special concessions being made to them by Lord Cochrane, who
+deemed it well that they should be out of the way before the device
+by which he had outwitted them was made known. No resentment was to
+be expected from the civilians, as even those most hearty in their
+adherence to the Portuguese faction in Brazil would not dare to offer
+direct opposition to the sentiments of the majority. But Lord Cochrane
+wisely set himself to conciliate all. "To the inhabitants of the
+city," he said, "I was careful to accord complete liberty, claiming
+in return that perfect order should be preserved and property of all
+kinds respected. The delight of the people was unbounded at being
+freed from a terrible system of exaction and imprisonment which, when
+I entered the river, was being carried on with unrelenting rigour by
+the Portuguese authorities towards all suspected of a leaning to
+the Imperial Government. Instead of retaliating, as would have been
+gratifying to those so recently labouring under oppression, I directed
+oaths to the constitution to be administered, not to Brazilians only,
+but also to all Portuguese who chose to remain and conform to the new
+order of things; a privilege of which many influential persons of that
+nation availed themselves."
+
+With the capture of Maranham alone, however, Lord Cochrane was not
+satisfied. Without a day's delay, he despatched a Portuguese brig
+which he had seized in the river and christened by its name, under
+Captain Grenfell, to follow at Para, the only important province of
+Brazil still under the Portuguese yoke, the same course which he
+had just adopted with such wonderful success. He himself found it
+necessary to remain at Maranham for more than two months, where he had
+to curb with a strong hand the passions of the liberated inhabitants,
+eager to use their liberty in lawless ways and to retaliate upon the
+Portuguese still resident among them for all the hardships which they
+had hitherto endured.
+
+On the 20th of September, having heard that Captain Grenfell had
+entirely succeeded in his designs on Para, he started for Rio de
+Janeiro, and there he arrived on the 9th of November. "I immediately
+forwarded to the Minister of Marine," he said, "a recapitulation of
+all transactions since my departure seven months before; namely,--the
+evacuation of Bahia by the Portuguese in consequence of our nocturnal
+visit, connected with the dread of my reputed skill in the use of
+fireships, arising from the affair of Basque Roads; the pursuit of
+their fleet beyond the Equator, and the dispersion of its convoy; the
+capture and disabling of the transports filled with troops intended
+to maintain Portuguese domination on Maranham and Para; the device
+adopted to obtain the surrender, to the _Pedro Primiero_ alone, of
+the enemy's naval and military forces at Maranham; the capitulation of
+Para, with the ships of war, to my summons sent by Captain Grenfell;
+the deliverance of the Brazilian patriots whom the Portuguese had
+imprisoned; the declaration of independence by the intermediate
+provinces thus liberated, and their union with the empire; the
+appointment of provisional governments; the embarkation and departure
+of every Portuguese soldier from Brazil; and the enthusiasm with which
+all my measures--though unauthorised and therefore extra-official--had
+been, received by the people of the northern provinces, who, thus
+relieved from the dread of further oppression, had everywhere
+acknowledged and proclaimed his Majesty as constitutional Emperor."
+
+Lord Cochrane's services had, indeed, been, many of them,
+"unauthorised and therefore extra-official." He had been sent out
+merely to recover Bahia; but, besides doing that, he had gained for
+Brazil other territories more than half as large as Europe. For this,
+however, nothing but gratitude could be shown, and the gratitude was,
+for the time at any rate, unalloyed. On the very day of the _Pedro
+Primiero's_ return, the Emperor went on board to offer his thanks in
+person. Further, thanks were voted by the legislature, and tendered by
+all classes of the people.
+
+"Taking into consideration the great services which your excellency
+has just rendered to the nation," wrote the Emperor on the 25th of
+November, "and desiring to give your excellency a public testimonial
+of gratitude for those high and extraordinary services on behalf
+of the generous Brazilian people, who will ever preserve a lively
+remembrance of such illustrious acts, I deem it right to confer upon
+your excellency the title of Marquis of Maranham." The decoration
+of the Imperial Order of the Cruizeiro was also bestowed upon Lord
+Cochrane, and on the 19th of December he was made a Privy Councillor
+of Brazil, the highest honour which it was in the Emperor's power to
+grant. On the same day he also received from the Emperor a charter
+confirming his rank and emoluments as First Admiral of Brazil, "seeing
+how advantageous it would be for the interests of this empire to avail
+itself of the skill of so valuable an officer," and in recognition of
+"the valour, intelligence, and activity by which he had distinguished
+himself in the different services with which he had been entrusted."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI.
+
+THE NATURE OF THE REWARDS BESTOWED ON LORD COCHRANE FOR HIS FIRST
+SERVICES TO BRAZIL.--PEDRO I. AND THE PORTUGUESE FACTION.--LORD
+COCHRANE'S ADVICE TO THE EMPEROR.--THE FRESH TROUBLES BROUGHT UPON HIM
+BY IT.--THE UNJUST TREATMENT ADOPTED TOWARDS HIM AND THE FLEET.--THE
+WITHHOLDING OF PRIZE-MONEY AND PAY.--PERSONAL INDIGNITIES TO LORD
+COCHRANE.--AN AMUSING EPISODE.--LORD COCHRANE'S THREAT OF RESIGNATION,
+AND ITS EFFECT.--SIR JAMES MACKINTOSH'S ALLUSION TO LORD COCHRANE IN
+THE HOUSE OF COMMONS.
+
+[1823-1824.]
+
+
+All the rewards bestowed upon Lord Cochrane for his wonderful
+successes in the northern part of Brazil, except the confirmation of
+his patent as First Admiral, be it noted, were unsubstantial. He had
+for ever crushed the power of Portugal in South America; he had added
+vast provinces to the imperial dominion, and had thus augmented the
+imperial revenues by considerably more than a million dollars a-year,
+besides the great and immediate profits of his prize-taking. And all
+this had been done with a small fleet, poorly equipped and unpaid.
+The ships entrusted to him had been rendered efficient by his own
+ingenuity, unaided by the Government, and with scant addition to his
+resources from the numerous captures made by him. In excess of his
+instructions, and with nothing but cheap compliments and cheaper
+promises to encourage him, he had acquired Maranham and Para, and all
+the provinces dependent upon them, as well as Bahia. Relying on the
+honour of his employers, he had pledged his own honour, that on their
+returning to Rio de Janeiro, his crews, who were clamouring for
+some part, at any rate, of the wages due to them, should be fully
+recompensed, and he had the reasonable expectation, that, out of
+the abundant wealth that he had gained for Brazil, he himself should
+receive his lawful share of the prize-money gained by his exertions.
+Instead of that he and his subordinates, both officers and men, were
+subjected to an unparalleled course of meanness, trickery, and fraud.
+
+This partly resulted from an unfortunate change in the Government that
+had occurred during his absence. When he left Rio de Janeiro, Pedro
+I.'s chief secretary of state had been Don Jose Bonifacio de Andrada
+y Silva, a wise and patriotic Brazilian. The Emperor and his minister
+had all along been seriously crippled in fulfilment of their good
+purposes by subordinates of the Portuguese faction, who persistently
+twisted their instructions, when they did not act in direct
+opposition to those instructions, so as to promote their own and their
+countrymen's selfish and unpatriotic objects; but there had been hope
+that the zeal of Pedro and Jose de Andrada would overcome these evil
+devices, and secure the healthy consolidation of the empire. When Lord
+Cochrane returned, however, he found that the honest minister had
+been deposed, that his party had been ousted, and that the Emperor was
+surrounded by bad counsellors, who, unable to pervert his judgment,
+were strong enough to restrain its action, and who were robbing him,
+one by one, of all his constitutional functions, and doing their
+best to bring Brazil into a state of anarchy, with a view to the
+re-establishment of Portuguese authority in its old or in some new but
+no less obnoxious form. The Emperor, desiring to do well, had hardly
+improved his position, a few days before the _Pedro Primiero's_
+arrival, by violently dissolving the Legislative Assembly, banishing
+some of its members, and threatening to place Rio de Janeiro itself
+under military law.
+
+That was the state of affairs when Lord Cochrane entered the port.
+Only five days afterwards, on the 14th of November, 1823, he wrote a
+bold letter to the Emperor. "My sense of the impropriety of intruding
+myself on the attention of your Imperial Majesty on any subject
+unconnected with the official position with which your Majesty has
+been pleased to honour me," he said, "could only have been overcome by
+an irresistible desire, under existing circumstances, to contribute to
+the service of your Majesty, and the empire. The conduct of the late
+Legislative Assembly, which sought to derogate from the dignity and
+prerogatives of your Majesty, even presuming to require you to divest
+yourself of your crown in their presence--which deprived you of your
+Council of State and denied you a voice in the enactment of laws and
+the formation of the constitution--and which dared to object to your
+exercising the only remaining function of royalty, that of rewarding
+services and conferring honours--could no longer be tolerated; and
+the justice and wisdom of your Imperial Majesty in dissolving such
+an assembly will be duly appreciated by discerning men, and by those
+whose love of good order and their country supersedes their ambition
+or personal interests. There are, however, individuals who will
+wickedly take advantage of the late proceedings to kindle the flames
+of discord, and throw the empire into anarchy and confusion, unless
+timely prevented by the wisdom and energy of your Imperial Majesty.
+The declaration that you will give to your people a practical
+constitution, more free even than that which the late Assembly
+professed an intention to establish, cannot--considering the spirit
+which now pervades South America--have the effect of averting
+impending evils, unless your Imperial Majesty shall be pleased to
+dissipate all doubts by at once declaring--before the news of the
+recent events can be dispersed throughout the provinces, and before
+the discontented members of the late congress can return to their
+constituents--what is the precise nature of that constitution which
+your Imperial Majesty intends to bestow. As no monarch is more happy
+or more truly powerful than the limited monarch of England, surrounded
+by a free people, enriched by that industry which the security of
+property by means of just laws never fails to create, permit me humbly
+and respectfully to suggest, that if your Majesty were to decree that
+the English constitution, in its most perfect practical form--which,
+with slight alteration, and chiefly in name, is also the constitution
+of the United States of North America--shall be the model for the
+government of Brazil under your Imperial Majesty, with power to the
+Constituent Assembly to alter particular parts as local circumstances
+may render advisable, it would excite the sympathy of powerful states
+abroad, and the firm allegiance of the Brazilian people to your
+Majesty's throne. Were your Majesty, by a few brief lines in the
+'Gazette,' to announce your intention so to do, and were you to banish
+all distrust from the public mind by removing from your person for a
+time, and finding employment on honourable missions abroad for, those
+Portuguese individuals of whom the Brazilians are jealous, the purity
+of your Majesty's motives would be secured from the possibility of
+misrepresentation, the factions which disturb the country would be
+silenced or converted, and the feelings of the world, especially those
+of England and North America, would be interested in promoting the
+glory, happiness, and prosperity of your Imperial Majesty."
+
+That advice, in the main adopted by the Emperor, led to a
+reconstruction of the Brazilian Constitution in its present shape, and
+so added another to the many great benefits which Brazil owes to Lord
+Cochrane. But the whole, and especially the last part of it, being
+directly at variance with the plans and interests of the Portuguese
+faction, it won for him much hatred and many personal troubles.
+
+"That I, a foreigner, having nothing to do with national politics," he
+said, "should have counselled his Majesty to banish those who opposed
+him, was not to be borne, and the resentment caused by my recent
+services was increased to bitter enmity for meddling in affairs which,
+it was considered, did not concern me; though I could have had no
+other object than the good of the empire by the establishment of
+a constitution which should give it stability in the estimation of
+European states."
+
+Consequently, in return for the great services he had conferred to
+Brazil, he received, as had been the case in Chili, little but insult
+and injury, the course of insult and injury being hardly stayed
+even during the period in which he was needed to engage in further
+services. The Emperor honestly tried to be generous; but he could not
+rid himself of the Portuguese faction, generally dominant in Brazil,
+and his worthy intentions were thwarted in every possible way. With
+difficulty could he secure for Lord Cochrane the confirmation of his
+patent as First Admiral, which has been already referred to. No great
+resistance was made to his conferment of the empty title of Marquis of
+Maranham, but he was not allowed to make the grant of land which was
+intended to go with the title and enable it to be borne with dignity.
+Prevented from being generous, he was even hindered from exercising
+the barest justice.
+
+The injustice was shown not only to Lord Cochrane, but also to all
+the officers and crews who, serving under him, had enabled Brazil
+to maintain its resistance to the tyranny of Portugal, though not to
+shake off the tyranny of the faction which still had the interests of
+Portugal at heart. It is not necessary to describe in detail the long
+course of ill-usage to which he and his subordinates were exposed.
+Part of that ill-usage will be best and most briefly indicated by
+citing a portion of an eloquent memorial which Lord Cochrane addressed
+to the Imperial Government on the 30th of January, 1825.
+
+The memorial began by enumerating the achievements of the fleet at
+Bahia, Maranham, Para, and elsewhere. "The imperial squadron," it
+proceeds, "made sail for Rio de Janeiro, in the full expectation of
+reaping a reward for their labours; not only because they had been
+mainly instrumental in rescuing from the hands of the Portuguese,
+and adding to the imperial dominion, one half of the empire; but also
+because their hopes seemed to be firmly grounded, independently of
+such services, on the capture of upwards of one hundred transports and
+merchant vessels, exclusive of ships of war, all of which, they had a
+just right to expect, would, under the existing laws, be adjudged to
+the captors. The whole of them were seized under Portuguese colours,
+with Portuguese registers, manned by Portuguese seamen, having on
+board Portuguese troops and ammunition or Portuguese produce and
+manufacture. On arriving at Rio de Janeiro, there was no feeling but
+one of satisfaction among the officers and seamen, and the Brazilian
+marine might from that moment, without the expense of one milrei to
+the nation, have been rapidly raised to a state of efficiency and
+discipline which had not yet been attained in any marine in South
+America, and which the navies of Portugal and Spain do not possess.
+It could not, however, be long concealed from the knowledge of the
+squadron that political or other reasons had prevented any proceedings
+being had in the adjudication of their prizes; and the extraordinary
+declaration that was made by the Tribunal of Prizes,--'that they were
+not aware that hostilities existed between Brazil and Portugal'--led
+to an inquiry of whom that tribunal was composed. All surprise at
+so extraordinary a declaration then ceased; but other sentiments
+injurious to the imperial service, arose,--those of indignation and
+disgust that the power of withholding their rights should be placed
+in the hands of persons who were natives of that very nation against
+which they were employed in war. His Imperial Majesty, however, having
+signified to this tribunal his pleasure that they should delay no
+longer in proceeding to the adjudication of the captured vessels,
+the result was that, in almost every instance, at the commencement of
+their proceedings, the vessels were condemned, not as lawful prizes to
+the captors, but as droits to the Crown. His Majesty was then pleased
+to desire that the said droits should be granted to the squadron, and
+about one-fifth part of the value of the prizes taken was eventually
+paid under the denomination of a 'grant of the droits of the Crown.'
+But when this decree of his Imperial Majesty was promulgated,
+the tribunal altered their course of proceeding, and, instead of
+condemning to the Crown, did, in almost every remaining instance,
+pronounce the acquittal of the vessels captured, and adjudged them
+to be given up to pretended Brazilian owners, notwithstanding that
+Brazilian property embarked in enemy's vessels was, by the law,
+declared to be forfeited; and that, too, with such indecent
+precipitancy that, in cases where the hull only had been claimed, the
+cargo also was decreed to be given up to the claimants of the hull,
+without any part of it having, at any time, been even pretended to be
+their property. Other ships and cargoes were given up without any form
+of trial, and without any intimation whatever to the captors and their
+agents; and, in most cases, costs and quadruple damages were unjustly
+decreed against the captors, to the amount of 300,000 milreis. That
+the prizes of which the captors were thus fraudulently deprived,
+chiefly under the unlawful and false pretence of their belonging to
+Brazilians, were really the property of Portuguese and well known so
+to be by the said tribunal, has since been fully demonstrated, by
+the arrival in Lisbon of the whole of the vessels liberated by their
+decisions. Thus the charge of a system of wilful injustice, brought
+by the squadron against the Portuguese Tribunal of Prizes at Rio de
+Janeiro, is established beyond the possibility of contradiction."
+
+It was only an aggravation of that injustice that, when Lord Cochrane
+claimed the prompt and equitable adjudication of the prizes, an
+attempt was made to silence him on the 24th of November by a message
+from the Minister of Marine, to the effect that the Emperor would do
+everything in his power for him personally. "His Majesty," answered
+Lord Cochrane, "has already conferred honours upon me quite equal to
+my merits, and the greatest personal favour he can bestow is to urge
+on the speedy adjudication of the prizes, so that the officers and
+seamen may reap the reward decreed by the Emperor's own authority."
+
+A hardship to the fleet even greater than the withholding of its
+prize-money was the withholding of the arrears of pay, which had been
+accumulating ever since the departure from Rio de Janeiro in April. On
+the 27th of November, three months' wages were offered to men to whom
+more than twice the amount was due. This they indignantly refused, and
+all Lord Cochrane's tact was needed to restrain them from open mutiny.
+
+In spite of the Emperor's friendship towards Lord Cochrane, or rather
+in consequence of it, he was in all sorts of ways insulted by the
+ministry, the head of which was now Severiano da Costa. A new ship,
+the _Atulanta_, was on the 27th of December, without reference to him,
+ordered for service at Monte Video. He was on the same day publicly
+described as "Commander of the Naval Forces in the Port of Rio de
+Janeiro," being thus placed on a level with other officers in the
+service of which, by the Emperor's patent, he was First Admiral, and
+no notice was taken of his protest against that insult. On the 24th
+of February he was gazetted as "Commander-in-Chief of all the Naval
+Forces of the Empire during the present war," by which his functions,
+though not now limited in extent, were limited in time. At length,
+reasonably indignant at these and other violations of the contract
+made with him, he offered to resign his command altogether. "If
+I thought that the course pursued towards me was dictated by his
+Imperial Majesty," he wrote to the Minister of Marine on the 20th of
+March, "it would be impossible for me to remain an hour longer in
+his service, and I should feel it my duty, at the earliest possible
+moment, to lay my commission at his feet. If I have not done so
+before, from the treatment which, in common with the navy. I have
+experienced, it has been solely from an anxious desire to promote his
+Majesty's real interests. Indeed, to struggle against prejudices, and
+at the same time against those in power whose prepossessions are at
+variance with the interests of his Majesty and the tranquillity and
+independence of Brazil, is a task to which I am by no means equal.
+I am, therefore, perfectly willing to resign the situation I
+hold, rather than contend against difficulties which appear to me
+insurmountable."[A]
+
+[Footnote A: See Appendix (III).]
+
+That letter was answered with complimentary phrases, and Lord Cochrane
+was induced to continue in the employment from which he could not be
+spared; but there was no diminution of the ill-treatment to which
+he was subjected. One special indignity was attended by some amusing
+incidents. On the 3rd of June, while he was residing on shore, it was
+proposed to search his flag-ship, on the pretext that he had there
+concealed large sums of money which were the property of the nation.
+"Late in the evening," he said, "I received a visit from Madame
+Bonpland, the talented wife of the distinguished French naturalist.
+This lady, who had singular opportunities for becoming acquainted with
+state secrets, came expressly to inform me that my house was at that
+moment surrounded by a guard of soldiers. She further informed me
+that, under the pretence of a review to be held at the opposite side
+of the harbour early in the following morning, preparations had
+been made by the ministers to board the flag-ship, which was to be
+thoroughly overhauled whilst I was detained on shore, and all the
+money found taken possession of. Thanking my friend for her timely
+warning, I clambered over my garden fence, as the only practicable way
+to the stables, selected a horse, and, notwithstanding the lateness
+of the hour, proceeded to San Christoval, the country palace of the
+Emperor, where, on my arrival, I demanded to see his Majesty. The
+request being refused by the gentleman in waiting, in such a way as to
+confirm the statement of Madame Bonpland, I dared him at his peril to
+refuse me admission, adding that the matter on which I had come was
+fraught with grave consequences to his Majesty and the empire. 'But,'
+said he, 'his Majesty has retired to bed long ago.' 'No matter,' I
+replied; 'in bed or not in bed, I demand to see him, in virtue of my
+privilege of access to him at all times, and, if you refuse to concede
+permission, look to the consequences.' His Majesty was not, however,
+asleep, and, the royal chamber being close at hand, he recognized my
+voice in the altercation with the attendant. Hastily coming out of his
+apartments, he asked what could have brought me there at that time of
+night. My reply was that, understanding that the troops ordered for
+review were destined to proceed to the flag-ship in search of supposed
+treasure, I had come to request his Majesty immediately to appoint
+confidential persons to accompany me on board, when the keys of every
+chest in the ship should be placed in their hands and every place
+thrown open to inspection, but that, if any of his anti-Brazilian
+administration ventured to board the ship in perpetration of the
+contemplated insult, they would certainly be regarded as pirates and
+treated as such; adding at the same time, 'Depend upon it, they are
+not more my enemies than the enemies of your Majesty and the empire,
+and an intrusion so unwarrantable the officers and crew are bound
+to resist.' 'Well,' replied his Majesty, 'you seem to be apprised of
+everything; but the plot is not mine, being, as far as I am concerned,
+convinced that no money would be found more than we already know of
+from yourself.' I then entreated his Majesty to take such steps for
+my justification as would be satisfactory to the public. 'There is no
+necessity for any,' he replied. 'But how to dispense with the review
+is the puzzle. I will be ill in the morning; so go home and think
+no more of the matter. I give you my word, your flag shall not be
+outraged.' The Emperor kept his word, and in the night was taken
+suddenly ill. As his Majesty was really beloved by his Brazilian
+subjects, all the native respectability of Rio was early next day on
+its way to the palace to inquire after the royal health, and ordering
+my carriage, I also proceeded to the palace, lest my absence might
+seem singular. On my entering the room,--where the Emperor was in
+the act of explaining the nature of his disease to the anxious
+inquirers,--his Majesty burst into a fit of uncontrollable laughter,
+in which I as heartily joined, the bystanders evidently, from the
+gravity of their countenances, considering that we had both taken
+leave of our senses. The ministers looked astounded, but said nothing.
+His Majesty kept his secret, and I was silent."
+
+That anecdote fairly illustrates the treatment adopted towards Lord
+Cochrane, and the straits to which the Emperor was reduced in his
+efforts to protect him from his enemies in power. The ill-treatment
+both of himself and of the whole fleet continuing, he addressed an
+indignant protest to his Majesty in July. "The time has at length
+arrived," he there said, "when it is impossible to doubt that the
+influence which the Portuguese faction has so long exerted, with the
+view of depriving the officers and seamen of their stipulated rights,
+has succeeded in its object, and has even prevailed against the
+expressed wishes and intentions of your Majesty. The determined
+perseverance in a course so opposed to justice must come to an end.
+The general discontent which prevails in the squadron has rendered
+the situation in which I am placed one of the most embarrassing
+description; for, though a few may be aware that my own cause of
+complaint is equal to theirs, many cannot perceive the consistency
+of my patient continuance in the service with disapprobation of the
+measures pursued. Even the honours which your Majesty has been pleased
+to bestow upon me are deemed by most of the officers, and by the whole
+of the men, who know not the assiduity with which I have persevered in
+earnest but unavailing remonstrance, as a bribe by which I have been
+induced to abandon their interests. Much, therefore, as I prize those
+honours, as the gracious gift of your Imperial Majesty, yet, holding
+in still dearer estimation my character as an officer and a man, I
+cannot hesitate in choosing which to sacrifice when the retention of
+both is evidently incompatible. I can, therefore, no longer delay to
+demonstrate to the squadron and the world that I am no partner in the
+deceptions and oppressions which are practised on the naval service;
+and, as the first and most painful step in the performance of this
+imperious duty, I crave permission, with all humility and respect,
+to return those honours, and lay them at the feet of your Imperial
+Majesty. I should, however, fall short of my duty to those who were
+induced to enter the service by my example or invitation, were I to
+do nothing more than convince them that I had been deceived. It is
+incumbent on me to make every effort to obtain for them the fulfilment
+of engagements for which I made myself responsible. As far as I am
+personally concerned, I could be content to quit the service of your
+Imperial Majesty, either with or without the expectation of obtaining
+compensation at a future period. After effectually fighting the
+battles of freedom and independence on both sides of South America,
+and clearing the two seas of every vessel of war, I could submit to
+return to my native country unrewarded; but I cannot submit to adopt
+any course which shall not redeem my pledge to my brother officers and
+seamen."
+
+That and other arguments contained in the same letter, aided by
+inducements of a different sort, to be presently referred to, had
+partial effect. A small portion of the prize-money and wages due to
+the squadron was issued, and Lord Cochrane remained for another year
+in the service of Brazil. His weary waiting-time at Rio de Janeiro,
+however, extending over nearly nine months, was almost at an end. On
+the 2nd of August he left it, never to return.
+
+While the ingratitude shown to him in Brazil was at its worst it is
+interesting to notice that a few, at any rate, of his own countrymen
+were remembering his past troubles and his present worth. On the 21st
+of June, Sir James Mackintosh, in one of the many speeches in the
+British House of Commons in which he nobly advocated the recognition
+of the independence of the South American states, both as a political
+duty and as a necessary measure in the interests of commerce, made a
+graceful allusion to Lord Cochrane. "I know," he said, "that I am here
+touching on a topic of great delicacy; but I must say that commerce
+has been gallantly protected by that extraordinary man who was once a
+British officer, who once filled a distinguished post in the
+British navy at the brightest period of its annals. I mention this
+circumstance with struggling and mingled emotions--emotions of pride
+that the individual I speak of is a Briton, emotions of regret that
+he is no longer a British officer. Can any one imagine a more gallant
+action than the cutting out of the _Esmeralda_ from Callao? Never
+was there a greater display of judgment, calmness, and enterprising
+British valour than was shown on that memorable occasion. No man ever
+felt a more ardent, a more inextinguishable love of country, a more
+anxious desire to promote its interests and extend its prosperity,
+than the gallant individual to whom I allude. I speak for myself. No
+person is responsible for the opinions which I now utter. But ask,
+what native of this country can help wishing that such a man were
+again amongst us? I hope I shall be excused for saying thus much; but
+I cannot avoid fervently wishing that such advice may be given to
+the Crown by his Majesty's constitutional advisers as will induce his
+Majesty graciously to restore Lord Cochrane to the country which he
+so warmly loves, and to that noble service to the glory of which, I am
+convinced, he willingly would sacrifice every earthly consideration."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII.
+
+THE INSURRECTION IN PERNAMBUCO.--LORD COCHRANE's EXPEDITION TO
+SUPPRESS IT.--THE SUCCESS OF HIS WORK.--HIS STAY AT MARANHAM.--THE
+DISORGANISED STATE OF AFFAIRS IN THAT PROVINCE.--LORD COCHRANE's
+EFFORTS TO RESTORE ORDER AND GOOD GOVERNMENT.--THEIR RESULT IN FURTHER
+TROUBLE TO HIMSELF.--HIS CRUISE IN THE "PIRANGA," AND RETURN TO
+ENGLAND.--THE FRESH INDIGNITIES THERE OFFERED TO HIM.--HIS RETIREMENT
+FROM BRAZILIAN SERVICE.--HIS LETTER TO THE EMPEROR PEDRO I.--THE END
+OF HIS SOUTH AMERICAN EMPLOYMENTS.
+
+[1824-1825.]
+
+
+The political turmoils which Lord Cochrane found to be prevalent
+in Rio de Janeiro, on his return from Maranham, were, as he had
+anticipated, very disastrous to the whole Brazilian empire. The
+unpatriotic action of men in power at head-quarters encouraged yet
+more unpatriotic action in the outlying and newly-acquired provinces.
+Portuguese sympathizers in Pernambuco, in Maranham, and in the
+neighbouring districts, following the policy of the Portuguese faction
+at the centre of government, and acting even more unworthily,
+induced serious trouble; and the trouble was aggravated by the fierce
+opposition which was in many cases offered to them. Before the end of
+1823 information arrived that an insurrection, having for its object
+the establishment in the northern provinces of a government distinct
+from both Brazil and Portugal, had broken out in Pernambuco, and
+nearly every week brought fresh intelligence of the spread of this
+insurrection and of the troubles induced by it. The Emperor Pedro I.
+was eager to send thither the squadron under Lord Cochrane, and so to
+win back the allegiance of the inhabitants; and for this Lord Cochrane
+was no less eager. To the Portuguese partizans, however, whose great
+effort was to weaken the resources of the empire, the news of the
+insurrection was welcome; and perhaps their strongest inducement to
+the long course of injustice detailed in the last chapter was the
+knowledge that by so doing they were most successfully preventing the
+despatch of an armament strong enough to restore order in the northern
+provinces. Herein they prospered. For more than six months the Emperor
+was prevented from suppressing the insurrection, which all through
+that time was extending and becoming more and more formidable. Not
+till July was anything done to satisfy the claims of the seamen for
+payment of their prize-money and the arrears of wages due to them,
+without which they refused to return to their work and render possible
+the equipment and despatch of the squadron; and even then only 200,000
+milreis--less than a tenth of the prize-money that was owing--were
+granted as an instalment of the payment to be made to them.
+
+With that money, however, Lord Cochrane, using his great personal
+influence with the officers and crews, induced them to rejoin the
+fleet. The funds were placed in his hands on the 12th of July, 1824,
+and equitably disbursed by him during the following three weeks. On
+the 2nd of August he set sail in the _Pedro Primiero_ from Rio de
+Janeiro, attended by the _Maranham_ and three transports containing
+twelve hundred soldiers.
+
+Having landed General Lima and the troops at Alagoas on the 16th,
+he arrived off Pernambuco on the 18th. There he found that a strong
+republican Government had been set up under the presidentship of
+Manoel de Carvalho Pais d'Andrade, whose authority, secret or open,
+extended far into the interior and along the adjoining coasts.
+"Knowing that it would take some time for the troops to come up," he
+said, "I determined to try the effect of a threat of bombardment, and
+issued a proclamation remonstrating with the inhabitants on the folly
+of permitting themselves to be deceived by men who lacked the ability
+to execute their schemes; pointing out, moreover, that persistence in
+revolt would involve both the town and its rulers in one common ruin,
+for, if forced to the necessity of bombardment, I would reduce the
+port and city to insignificance. On the other hand, I assured them
+that, if they retraced their steps and rallied round the imperial
+throne, thus aiding to protect it from foreign influence, it would be
+more gratifying to me to act the part of a mediator, and to restore
+Pernambuco to peace, prosperity, and happiness, than to carry out the
+work of destruction which would be my only remaining alternative. In
+another proclamation I called the attention of the inhabitants to the
+distracted state of the Spanish republics on the other side of the
+continent, asking whether it would be wise to risk the benefits of
+orderly government for social and political confusion, and entreating
+them not to compel me to proceed to extremities, as it would become my
+duty to destroy their shipping and block up their port, unless, within
+eight days, the integrity of the empire were acknowledged."
+
+While waiting to see the result of those proclamations Lord Cochrane
+received a message from Carvalho, offering him immediate payment of
+400,000 milreis if he would abandon the imperial cause and go over to
+the republicans. "Frankness is the distinguishing character of free
+men," wrote Carvalho, "but your excellency has not found it in your
+connection with the Imperial Government. Your not having been rewarded
+for the first expedition affords a justifiable inference that you will
+get nothing for the second." That audacious proposal, it need hardly
+be said, was indignantly resented by Lord Cochrane. "If I shall have
+an opportunity of becoming personally known to your excellency," he
+wrote, "I can afford you proof that the opinion you have formed of me
+has had its origin in the misrepresentations of those in power, whose
+purposes I was incapable of serving."
+
+The threats and promises of Lord Cochrane's proclamation did not lead
+to the peaceable surrender of Pernambuco, and at the end of the eight
+days' waiting-time he proceeded to bombard the town. In that, however,
+he was hindered by bad weather, which made it impossible for him to
+enter the shallow water without great risk of shipwreck. He was in
+urgent need, also, of anchors and other fittings. Therefore, after
+a brief show of attack, which frightened the inhabitants, but had no
+other effect, he left the smaller vessels to maintain the blockade,
+and went on the 4th of September in the flag-ship to Bahia, there to
+procure the necessary articles. On his return he found that General
+Lima had marched against Pernambuco on the 11th, and, with the
+assistance of the blockading vessels, made an easy capture of it.
+
+There was plenty of other work, however, to be done. All the
+northern provinces were disaffected, if not in actual revolt, and, in
+compliance with the Emperor's directions, Lord Cochrane proceeded to
+visit their ports and reduce them to order. Some other ships having
+arrived from Rio de Janeiro, he selected the _Piranga_ and two smaller
+vessels for service with the flag-ship, leaving the others at the
+disposal of General Lima, and sailed from Pernambuco on the 10th of
+October.
+
+He reached Ceara on the 18th, and then, by his mere presence,
+compelled the insurgents, who had seized the city, to retire, and
+enabled the well-disposed inhabitants to organize a vigorous scheme of
+self-protection.
+
+A harder task awaited him at Maranham, at which he arrived on the
+9th of November. There the utmost confusion prevailed. The Portuguese
+faction had the supremacy, and there were special causes of animosity
+and misconduct among the members of the opposite party of native
+Brazilians.
+
+"In Maranham," said Lord Cochrane, "as in the other northern provinces
+of the empire, there had been no amelioration whatever in the
+condition of the people, and, without such amelioration, it was absurd
+to place reliance on the hyperbolical professions of devotion to
+the Emperor which were now abundantly avowed by those who, before my
+arrival, had been foremost in promoting and cherishing disturbance.
+The condition of the province, and indeed of all the provinces, was
+in no way better than they had been under the dominion of Portugal,
+though they presented one of the finest fields imaginable for
+improvement. All the old colonial imports and duties remained without
+alteration; the manifold hindrances to commerce and agriculture still
+existed; and arbitrary power was everywhere exercised uncontrolled: so
+that, in place of being benefited by emancipation from the Portuguese
+yoke, the condition of the great mass of the population was literally
+worse than before. To amend this state of things it was necessary
+to begin with the officers of Government, of whose corruption and
+arbitrary conduct complaints, signed by whole communities, were daily
+arriving from every part of the province. To such an extent, indeed,
+wad this misrule carried that neither the lives nor the property of
+the inhabitants were safe."
+
+This state of things Lord Cochrane set himself zealously to remedy;
+and, during his six months' stay at Maranham, he did all that, with
+the bad materials at his disposal and in the harassing circumstances
+of his position, it was possible for him to do. Unable to break down
+the cabals and intrigues, the mutual jealousies and the unworthy
+ambitions that had prevailed previous to his arrival, he held them all
+in check while he was present and secured the observance of law and
+the freedom of all classes of the community.
+
+Thereby, however, he brought upon himself much fresh hatred. The
+governor of the province, being devoted to the Portuguese party and a
+chief cause of the existing troubles, had to be suspended and sent to
+Rio de Janeiro; and though the suspension occurred after orders had
+been despatched by the Emperor for his recall, it afforded an excuse
+to the governor and his friends in office for denunciation of Lord
+Cochrane's conduct, alleged to be greatly in excess of his powers and
+in contempt of the constituted authority. In fact, the same bad policy
+that had embarrassed him before, while he was in Rio de Janeiro,
+continued to embarrass him yet more during his service in Maranham.
+That that service was very helpful to the best interests of Brazil
+no one attempted to deny. The French and English consuls, speaking
+on behalf of all their countrymen resident in the northern provinces,
+overstepped the line of strict neutrality, and entreated him to
+persevere in the measures by which he was making it possible for
+commerce to prosper and the rules of civilized life to be observed.
+The Emperor sent to thank him for his work. "His Majesty," wrote the
+secretary on the 2nd of December, "approves of the First Admiral's
+determination to establish order and obedience in the northern
+provinces, a duty which he has so wisely and judiciously undertaken,
+and in which he must continue until the provinces submit themselves
+to the authorities lately appointed, and enjoy the benefits of the
+paternal government of his Imperial Majesty."
+
+The Emperor, however, was at this time almost powerless. The leaders
+of the Portuguese faction reigned, and by them Lord Cochrane continued
+to be treated with every possible indignity and insult. Not daring
+openly to dismiss him or even to accept the resignation which he
+frequently offered, they determined to wear out his patience, and, if
+possible, to drive him to some act on which they could fasten as
+an excuse for degrading him. They partly succeeded, though the only
+wonder is that Lord Cochrane should have been, for so long a time, as
+patient as he proved. His temper is well shown in the numerous
+letters which he addressed to Pedro I. and the Government during these
+harassing months. "The condescension," he wrote, "with which your
+Imperial Majesty has been pleased to permit me to approach your royal
+person, on matters regarding the public service, and even on those
+more particularly relating to myself, emboldens me to adopt the only
+means in my power, at this distance, of craving that your Majesty will
+be graciously pleased to judge of my conduct in the imperial service
+by the result of my endeavours to promote your Majesty's interests,
+and not by the false reports spread by those who, for reasons best
+known to themselves, desire to alienate your Majesty's mind from me,
+and thus to bring about my removal from your Majesty's service. I
+trust that your Imperial Majesty will please to believe me to be
+sensible that the honours which you have so graciously bestowed upon
+me it is my duty not to tarnish, and that your Majesty will further
+believe that, highly as I prize those honours, I hold the maintenance
+of my reputation in my native country in equal estimation. I
+respectfully crave permission to add that, perceiving it is impossible
+to continue in the service of your Imperial Majesty without at
+all times subjecting my professional character, under the present
+management of the Marine Department, to great risks, I trust your
+Majesty will be graciously pleased to grant me leave to retire
+from your imperial service, in which it appears to me I have now
+accomplished all that can be expected from me, the authority of your
+Imperial Majesty being established throughout the whole extent of
+Brazil."
+
+That request was not granted, or in any way answered; and the
+statement that the whole of Brazil was finally subjected to the
+Emperor's authority proved to be not quite correct. Fresh turmoils
+arose in Para, and Lord Cochrane had to send thither a small force,
+by which order was restored. He himself found ample employment in
+restraining the factions that could not be suppressed at Maranham.
+
+That was the state of things in the early months of 1825, until
+unlooked-for circumstances arose, by which Lord Cochrane's Brazilian
+employment was brought to a termination in a way that he had not
+anticipated. "The anxiety occasioned by the constant harassing which
+I had undergone, unalleviated by any acknowledgment on the part of the
+Imperial Government of the services which had a second time saved the
+empire from intestine war, anarchy, and revolution," he said, "began
+to make serious inroads on my health; whilst that of the officers and
+men, in consequence of the great heat and pestilential exhalations of
+the climate, and of the double duty which they had to perform afloat
+and ashore, was even less satisfactory. As I saw no advantage in
+longer contending with factious intrigues at Maranham, unsupported and
+neglected as I was by the Administration at Rio de Janeiro, I resolved
+upon a short run into a more bracing northerly atmosphere, which would
+answer the double purpose of restoring our health and of giving us a
+clear offing for our subsequent voyage to the capital.
+
+"Accordingly," the narrative proceeds, "I shifted my flag into the
+_Piranga_, despatched the _Pedro Primiero_ to Rio, and, leaving
+Captain Manson, of the _Cacique_, in charge of the naval department
+at Maranham, put to sea on the 18th of May. On the 21st we crossed
+the Equator, and, meeting with a succession of easterly winds, were
+carried to the northward of the Azores, passing St. Michael's on the
+11th of June. It had been my intention to sail into the latitude of
+the Azores, and then to return to Rio de Janeiro. But, strong gales
+coming on, we made the unpleasant discovery that the frigate's
+main-topmast was sprung, and, when putting her about, the main and
+main-topsail yards were discovered to be unserviceable. For the
+condition of the ship's spars I had depended on others, not deeming
+it necessary to take upon myself such investigation. It was, however,
+possible that we might have patched these up, had not the running
+rigging been as rotten as the masts, and we had no spare cordage on
+board. A still worse disaster was that the salt provisions shipped at
+Maranham were reported bad, mercantile ingenuity having resorted to
+the device of placing good meat at the top and bottom of the barrels,
+whilst the middle, being composed of unsound articles, had tainted
+the whole, thereby rendering it not only unpalatable but positively
+dangerous to health. The good provisions on board being little more
+than sufficient for a week's subsistence, a direct return to Rio de
+Janeiro was out of the question."
+
+It was therefore absolutely necessary to seek some nearer harbour; but
+Lord Cochrane was considerably embarrassed in his choice of a
+port. Portugal was an enemy's country, and Spain, by reason of his
+achievements in Chili and Peru, was no less hostile to him. France had
+not yet recognised the independence of Brazil, and therefore a stay on
+any part of its coast might lead to difficulties. England afforded the
+only safe halting-place, though there Lord Cochrane was uncertain as
+to the way in which, in consequence of the Foreign Enlistment Act,
+he might be received. To England, however, he resolved to go; and,
+sighting its coast on the 25th of June, he anchored at Spithead on
+the following day. Salutes were exchanged with a British ship lying
+in harbour, and in the afternoon he landed at Portsmouth, to be
+enthusiastically welcomed by nearly all classes of his countrymen,
+whose admiration for his personal character and his excellence as a
+naval officer was heightened by the renown of his exploits in South
+America during an absence of six years and a half.
+
+His subsequent relations with Brazil can be briefly told. His
+unavoidable return to England afforded just the excuse which his
+enemies in Brazil had been seeking for ousting him from his command.
+They and the Chevalier Manoel Rodriguez Gameiro Pessoa, the Brazilian
+Envoy in London, who altogether sympathised with them, chose to regard
+this occurrence as an act of desertion. Lord Cochrane lost no time in
+reporting his arrival and requesting to be provided with the necessary
+means for refitting the _Piranga_ and preparing for a speedy return to
+Rio de Janeiro. To expedite matters, he even advanced 2000_l._ out of
+his own property--which was never repaid to him--for this purpose. His
+repeated applications for instructions were either unheeded or only
+answered with insult. He was ordered to return to Brazil at once,
+towards which no assistance was given to him; and at the same time
+his officers and crew were ordered to repudiate his authority and to
+return without him.
+
+Lord Cochrane had no room to doubt that by going back to Brazil he
+should only expose himself to yet worse treatment than that from which
+he had been suffering during nearly two years; but at the same time
+he was resolved to do nothing at variance with his duty to the Emperor
+from whom he had received his commission, and nothing invalidating his
+claims to the recompense which was clearly due to him. At length he
+was relieved from some of his perplexities, after they had lasted more
+than three months. On the 3rd of November, 1825, peace was declared
+between Brazil and Portugal; and thereby his relations with his
+employers were materially altered. The work which he had pledged
+himself to do was completed, and he was justified in resigning his
+command, or at any rate in declining to resume it until the causes of
+his recent troubles were removed.
+
+This he did in a letter addressed to the Emperor Pedro I., from
+London, on the 10th of November. "The gracious condescension which I
+experienced from your Imperial Majesty, from the first moment of my
+arrival in the Brazils, the honorary distinctions which I received
+from your Majesty, and the attention with which you were pleased to
+listen to all my personal representations relating to the promotion
+of the naval power of your empire," he wrote, "have impressed upon
+my mind a high sense of the honour which your Majesty conferred, and
+forbid my entertaining any other sentiments than those of attachment
+to your Majesty and devotion to your true interests. But, whilst I
+express these my unfeigned sentiments towards your Imperial Majesty,
+it is with infinite pain and regret that I recall to my recollection
+the conduct that has been pursued towards the naval service, and to
+myself personally, since the members of the Brazilian administration
+of Jose Bonifacio de Andrade were superseded by persons devoted to
+the views and interests of Portugal,--views and interests which are
+directly opposed to the adoption of that line of conduct which can
+alone promote and secure the true interests and glory of your Imperial
+Majesty, founded on the tranquillity and happiness of the Brazilian
+people. Without imputing to such ministers as Severiano, Gomez, and
+Barboza disaffection to the person of your Imperial Majesty, it is
+sufficient to know that they are men bigoted to the unenlightened
+opinions of their ancestors of four centuries ago, that they are men
+who, from their limited intercourse with the world, from the paucity
+of the literature of their native language, and from their want of
+all rational instruction in the service of government and political
+economy, have no conception of governing Brazil by any other than the
+same wretched and crooked policy to which the nation had been so long
+subjected in its condition as a colony. Nothing further need be said,
+while we acquit them of treason, to convict them of unfitness to be
+the counsellors of your Imperial Majesty.
+
+"None but such ministers as these could have endeavoured to impress
+upon the mind of your Imperial Majesty that the refugee Portuguese
+from the provinces and many thousands from Europe, collected in Rio
+de Janeiro, were the only true friends and supporters of the imperial
+crown of Brazil. None but such ministers would have endeavoured to
+impress your Imperial Majesty with a belief that the Brazilian people
+were inimical to your person and the imperial crown, merely because
+they were hostile to the system pursued by those ministers. None but
+such ministers would have placed in important offices of trust the
+natives of a nation with which your Imperial Majesty was at war. None
+but such ministers would have endeavoured to induce your Imperial
+Majesty to believe that officers who had abandoned their King and
+native country for their own private interests could be depended on as
+faithful servants to a hostile Government and a foreign land. None but
+such ministers could have induced your Imperial Majesty to place
+in the command of your fortresses, regiments, and ships of war such
+individuals as these. None but such ministers would have attempted to
+excite in the breast of your Imperial Majesty suspicions with respect
+to the fidelity of myself and of those other officers who, by the most
+zealous exertions, had proved our devotion to the best interests
+of your Imperial Majesty and your Brazilian people. None but such
+ministers would have endeavoured by insults and acts of the grossest
+injustice, to drive us from the service of your Imperial Majesty and
+to place Portuguese officers in our stead. And, above all, none but
+such ministers could have suggested to your Imperial Majesty that
+extraordinary proceeding which was projected to take place on the
+night of the 3rd of June, 1824, a proceeding which, had it not been
+averted by a timely discovery and prompt interposition on my part,
+would have tarnished for ever the glory of your Imperial Majesty, and
+which, if it had failed to prove fatal to myself and officers, must
+inevitably have driven us from your imperial service. When placed
+in competition with this plot of these ministers and the false
+insinuations by which they induced your Imperial Majesty to listen to
+their insidious counsel, all their previous intrigues, and those of
+the whole Portuguese faction, to ruin the naval power of Brazil, sink
+into insignificance. But for the advancement of Portuguese interests
+there was nothing too treacherous or malignant for such ministers and
+such men as these to insinuate to your Imperial Majesty, especially
+when they had discovered that it was not possible by their unjust
+conduct to provoke me to abandon the service of Brazil so long as my
+exertions could be useful to secure its independence, which I believed
+to be alike the object of your Imperial Majesty and the interest of
+the Brazilian people.
+
+"If the counsels of such persons should prove fatal to the interests
+of your Imperial Majesty, no one will regret the event more sincerely
+than myself. My only consolation will be the knowledge that your
+Imperial Majesty cannot but be conscious that I, individually, have
+discharged my duty, both in a military and in a private capacity,
+towards your Majesty, whose true interest, I may venture to add, I
+have held in greater regard than my own; for, had I connived at the
+views of the Portuguese faction, even without dereliction of my duty
+as an officer, I might have shared amply in the honours and emoluments
+which such influence has enabled these persons to obtain, instead of
+being deprived, by their means, of even the ordinary rewards of my
+labours in the cause of independence which your Imperial Majesty had
+engaged me to maintain,--which cause I neither have abandoned nor will
+abandon, if ever it should be in my power successfully to renew my
+exertions for the true interests of your Imperial Majesty and those of
+the Brazilian people.
+
+"Meanwhile my office as Commander-in-Chief of your Imperial Majesty's
+Naval Forces having terminated by the conclusion of peace and by the
+decree promulgated on the 28th of February, 1824, I have notified to
+your Imperial Majesty's Envoy, the Chevalier de Gameiro, that I have
+directed my flag to be struck this day. Praying that the war now
+terminated abroad may be accompanied by tranquillity at home, I
+respectfully take leave of your Imperial Majesty."
+
+All Lord Cochrane's subsequent correspondence with Brazil had for its
+object the recovery of the payments due to him and to his officers and
+crews for the great services done by them to the empire. Lord Cochrane
+had saved that empire from being brought back to the position of
+a Portuguese colony, and had enabled it to enter on a career of
+independence. In return for it he was subjected to more than two years
+of galling insult, was deprived of his proper share of the prizes
+taken by him and his squadron, was refused the estate in Maranham
+which the Emperor, more grateful than his ministers, had bestowed upon
+him, and was mulcted of a portion of his pay and of all the pension
+to which he was entitled by imperial decree and the ordinances of the
+Government. His services to Brazil, like his services to Chili, adding
+much to his renown as a disinterested champion of liberty and an
+unrivalled seaman and warrior, brought upon him personally little but
+trouble and misfortune. Only near the end of his life, when a worthy
+Emperor and honest ministers succeeded to power, was any recompence
+accorded to him.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII.
+
+THE GREEK REVOLUTION AND ITS ANTECEDENTS.--THE MODERN GREEKS.--THE
+FRIENDLY SOCIETY.--SULTAN MAHMUD AND ALI PASHA'S REBELLION.--THE
+BEGINNING OF THE GREEK INSURRECTION.--COUNT JOHN CAPODISTRIAS.--PRINCE
+ALEXANDER HYPSILANTES.--THE REVOLUTION IN THE MOREA.--THEODORE
+KOLKOTRONES.--THE REVOLUTION IN THE ISLANDS.--THE GREEK NAVY AND ITS
+CHARACTER.--THE EXCESSES OF THE GREEKS.--THEIR BAD GOVERNMENT.--PRINCE
+ALEXANDER MAVROCORDATOS.--THE PROGRESS OF THE REVOLUTION.--THE
+SPOLIATION OF THE CHIOS.--ENGLISH PHILHELLENES; THOMAS GORDON, FRANK
+ABNEY HASTINGS, LORD BYRON.--THE FIRST GREEK LOAN, AND THE BAD USES
+TO WHICH IT WAS PUT.--REVERSES OF THE GREEKS.--IBRAHIM AND HIS
+SUCCESSES.--MAVROCORDATOS'S LETTER TO LORD COCHRANE.
+
+[1820-1825.]
+
+
+While Lord Cochrane was rendering efficient service to the cause of
+freedom in South America, another war of independence was being waged
+in Europe; and he had hardly been at home a week before solicitations
+pressed upon him from all quarters that he should lend his great name
+and great abilities to this war also. As he consented to do so, and
+almost from the moment of his arrival was intimately connected with
+the Greek Revolution, the previous stages of this memorable episode,
+the incidents that occurred during his absence in Chili and Brazil,
+need to be here reviewed and recapitulated.
+
+The Greek Revolution began openly in 1821. But there had been long
+previous forebodings of it. The dwellers in the land once peopled by
+the noble race which planned and perfected the arts and graces, the
+true refinements and the solid virtues that are the basis of our
+modern civilization, had been for four centuries and more the slaves
+of the Turks. They were hardly Greeks, if by that name is implied
+descent from the inhabitants of classic Greece. With the old stock had
+been blended, from generation to generation, so many foreign elements
+that nearly all trace of the original blood had disappeared, and the
+modern Greeks had nothing but their residence and their language to
+justify them in maintaining the old title. But their slavery was only
+too real. Oppressed by the Ottomans on account of their race and their
+religion, the oppression was none the less in that it induced many of
+them to cast off the last shreds of freedom and deck themselves in the
+coarser, but, to slavish minds, the pleasanter bondage of trickery and
+meanness. During the eighteenth century, many Greeks rose to eminence
+in the Turkish service, and proved harder task-masters to their
+brethren than the Turks themselves generally were. The hope of further
+aggrandisement, however, led them to scheme the overthrow of their
+Ottoman employers, and their projects were greatly aided by the truer,
+albeit short-sighted, patriotism that animated the greater number of
+their kinsmen. They groaned under Turkish thraldom, and yearned to
+be freed from it, in the temper so well described and so worthily
+denounced by Lord Byron in 1811:--
+
+  "And many dream withal the hour is nigh
+  That gives them back their fathers' heritage:
+  For foreign arms and aid they loudly sigh,
+  Nor solely dare encounter hostile rage.
+  Hereditary bondsmen! know ye not
+  Who would be free themselves must strike the blow?
+  By their right arm the conquest must be wrought.
+  Will Gaul or Muscovite redress ye?--No!
+  True, they may lay your proud despoilers low,
+  But not for you will Freedom's altars flame."
+
+The Greeks, all but a few genuine patriots, thought otherwise. They
+sought deliverance at the hands of Gauls and Muscovites; and, as the
+Muscovites had good reason for desiring the overthrow of Turkey, they
+listened to their prayers, and other ties than that of community in
+religion bound the persecuted Greeks to Russia. The Philike Hetaira,
+or Friendly Society, chief representative of a very general movement,
+was founded at Odessa in 1814. It was a secret society, which speedily
+had ramifications among the Greek Christians in every part of Turkey,
+encouraging them to prepare for insurrection as soon as the Czar
+Alexander I. deemed it expedient to aid them by open invasion of
+Turkey, or as soon as they themselves could take the initiative,
+trusting to Russia to complete the work of revolution. The Friendly
+Society increased its influence and multiplied its visionary schemes
+during many years previous to 1821.
+
+Its strength was augmented by the political condition of Turkey at the
+time. The Sultan Mahmud--a true type of the Ottoman sovereign at
+his worst--had attempted to perfect his power by a long train of
+cruelties, of which murder was the lightest. Defeating his own purpose
+thereby, he aroused the opposition of Mahometan as well as Christian
+subjects, and induced the rebellious schemes of Ali Pasha of Joannina,
+the boldest of his vassals. In Albania Ali ruled with a cruelty that
+was hardly inferior to Mahmud's. Byron tells how his
+
+  "dread command
+  Is lawless law; for with a bloody hand
+  He sways a nation turbulent and told."
+
+The cruelty could be tolerated; but not opposition to Mahmud's
+will. Long and growing jealousy existed between the Sultan and his
+tributary. At length, in 1820, there was an open rupture. Ali was
+denounced as a traitor, and ordered to surrender his pashalik. Instead
+of so doing, he organized his army for prompt rebellion, trusting for
+success partly to the support of the Greeks. Most of the Greeks held
+aloof; but the Suliots, a race of Christian marauders, the fiercest of
+the fierce community of Albanians, sided with him, and for more than a
+year rendered him valuable aid by reason of their hereditary skill in
+lawless warfare. Not till January, 1822, was Ali forced to surrender,
+and then only, perhaps, through the defection of the Suliots.
+
+The Suliots, dissatisfied with Ali's recompense for their services,
+had gone over to the Greeks, who, not caring to serve under Ali in his
+rebellion, had welcomed that rebellion as a Heaven-sent opportunity
+for realising their long-cherished hopes. The Turkish garrisons in
+Greece being half unmanned in order that the strongest possible force
+might be used in subduing Ali, and Turkish government in the peninsula
+being at a standstill, the Greeks found themselves in an excellent
+position for asserting their freedom. Had they been less degraded than
+they were by their long centuries of slavery, or had there been some
+better organization than that which the purposes and the methods of
+the Friendly Society afforded for developing the latent patriotism
+which was honest and wide-spread, they might have achieved a triumph
+worthy of the classic name they bore and the heroic ancestry that they
+claimed.
+
+Unfortunately, the Friendly Society, already degenerated from the
+unworthy aim with which it started, now an elaborate machinery of
+personal ambition, private greed, and local spite, the willing tool of
+Russia, was master of the situation. The mastery, however, was by no
+means thorough. The society had dispossessed all other organizations,
+but had no organization of its own adequate to the working out of
+a successful rebellion. Its machinery was tolerably perfect, but
+efficient motive-power was wanting. Its exchequer was empty; its
+counsels were divided; above all, it had alienated the sympathies of
+the worthiest patriots of Greece. Finding itself suddenly in the
+way of triumph, it was incapable of rightly progressing in that way.
+Obstacles of its own raising, and obstacles raised by others, stood
+in the path, and only a very wise man had the chance of successfully
+removing them.
+
+The wise man did not exist, or was not to be obtained. Perhaps the
+wisest, though, as later history proved, not very wise, was Count John
+Capodistrias, a native of Corfu. Born in 1777, he had gone to Italy to
+study and practise medicine. There also he studied, afterwards to put
+in practice, the effete Machiavellianism then in vogue. In 1803 he
+entered political life as secretary to the lately-founded republic
+of the Ionian Islands. Napoleon's annexation of the Ionian Islands in
+1807 drove him into the service of Russia, and, as Russian agent, he
+advocated, at the Vienna Conference of 1815, the reconstruction of the
+Ionian republic. The partial concession of Great Britain towards that
+project, by which the Ionian Islands were established as a sort of
+commonwealth, dependent upon England, enabled him to live and work
+in Corfu, awaiting the realization of his own patriotic schemes, and
+watching the patriotic movement in Greece. Italian in his education,
+and Russian in his sympathies, he was still an honest Greek, worthier
+and abler than most other influential Greeks. "He had many virtues and
+great abilities," says a competent critic. "His conduct was firm and
+disinterested, his manners simple and dignified. His personal feelings
+were warm, and, as a consequence of this virtue, they were sometimes
+so strong as to warp his judgment. He wanted the equanimity and
+impartiality of mind, and the elevation of soul necessary to make
+a great man."[A] In spite of his defects, he might have done good
+service to the Greek Revolution, had he accepted the offer of its
+leadership, shrewdly tendered to him by the Friendly Society. But this
+he declined, having no liking for the society, and no trust in its
+methods and designs.
+
+[Footnote A: Finlay, "History of the Greek Revolution" (1861), vol.
+ii., p. 196. Mr. Finlay served as a volunteer in Greece under Captain
+Abney Hastings. His work is certainly the best on the subject, though
+we shall have in later pages to differ widely from its strictures on
+Lord Cochrane's motives and action. But our complaints will be less
+against his history than against the two other leading ones--General
+Gordon's "History of the Greek Revolution" (1832), and M. Trikoupes's
+"[Greek: Historia tes Hellenikes Epanastaseos]" (1853-6), which is not
+very much more than a paraphrase of Gordon's work.]
+
+The Friendly Society then sought and found a leader, far inferior
+to Count Capodistrias, in Prince Alexander Hypsilantes, the son of a
+Hospodar of Wallachia who had been deposed in 1806. Hypsilantes had
+been educated in Russia, and had there risen to some rank, high enough
+at any rate to quicken his ambition and vanity, both as a soldier and
+as a courtier. He was not without virtues; but he was utterly unfit
+for the duties imposed upon him as leader of the Greek Revolution.
+Not a Greek himself, his purpose in accepting the office seems to have
+been to make Greece an appendage of the despotic monarchy, which, by
+means of the political crisis, he hoped to establish in Wallachia,
+under Russian protection. With that view, in March 1821, he led the
+first crude army of Greek and other Christian rebels into Moldavia.
+There and in Wallachia he stirred up a brief revolt, attended by
+military blunders and lawless atrocities which soon brought vengeance
+upon himself and made a false beginning of the revolutionary work.
+Moldavia and Wallachia were quickly restored to Turkish rule, and
+Hypsilantes had in June to fly for safety into Austria. But the bad
+example that he set, and the evil influence that he and his promoters
+and followers of the Friendly Society exerted, initiated a false
+policy and encouraged a pernicious course of action, by which the
+cause of the Greeks was injured for years.
+
+The real Greek revolution began in the Morea. There the Friendly
+Society did good work in showing the people that the hour for action
+had come; but its direction of that action was for the most part
+mischievous. The worst Greeks were the leaders, and, under their
+guidance, the play of evil passions--inevitable in all efforts of the
+oppressed to overturn their oppressors--was developed to a grievous
+extent. Turkish blood was first shed on the 25th of March, 1821, and
+within a week the whole of the Morea was in a ferment of rebellion. By
+the 22nd of April, which was Easter Sunday, it is reckoned that from
+ten to fifteen thousand Mahometans had been slaughtered in cold blood,
+and about three thousand Turkish homes destroyed.
+
+The promoters of all that wanton atrocity were the directors of the
+Friendly Society, among whom the Archimandrate Gregorios Dikaios,
+nicknamed Pappa Phlesas, and Petros Mavromichales, or Petro-Bey, were
+the most conspicuous. Its principal agents were the klepht or brigand
+chieftains, best represented by Theodore Kolokotrones.
+
+Born about 1770, of a family devoted to the use of arms in predatory
+ways, Kolokotrones had led a lawless life until 1806, when the Greek
+peasantry called in the assistance of their Turkish rulers in hunting
+down their persecutors of their own race, and when, several of his
+family being slain, he himself had to seek refuge in Zante. There he
+maintained himself, partly by piracy, partly by cattle-dealing.
+In 1810 the English annexation of the Ionian Islands led to his
+employment, first as captain and afterwards as major, in the Greek
+contingent of the British army. He had amassed much wealth, and was
+in the prime of life when, in January, 1821, he returned to his early
+home, to revive his old brigand life under the name of legitimate
+warfare. His thorough knowledge of the country, its passes and its
+strongholds, and his familiarity with the modes of fighting proper to
+them, his handsome person and agreeable deportment, his shrewd wit and
+persuasive oratory, made him one of the most influential agents of
+the Revolution at its commencement, and his influence grew during the
+ensuing years.
+
+The flame of rebellion, having spread through the Morea during the
+early weeks of April, extended rapidly over the adjoining districts of
+the mainland. By the end of June the insurgents were masters of
+nearly all the country now possessed by modern Greece. Their cause
+was heartily espoused by the Suliots of Albania and other
+fellow-Christians in the various Turkish provinces, and their kinsmen
+of the outlying islands were eager to join in the work of national
+regeneration, and to contribute largely to the completion of that work
+by their naval prowess.
+
+It was naval prowess, as our later pages will abundantly show, of
+a very barbarous and undeveloped sort. Besides the two principal
+seaports on the mainland, Tricheri on Mount Pelion and Galaxidhi on
+the Gulf of Corinth, there were famous colonies of Greek seamen in the
+islands of Psara and Kasos, and similar colonies of Albanians in Hydra
+and Spetzas. These and the other islands had long practised irregular
+commerce, and protected that commerce by irregular fighting with the
+Turks. At the first sound of revolution they threw in their lot with
+the insurgents of the mainland, and thus a nondescript navy of some
+four hundred brigs and schooners, of from sixty to four hundred tons'
+burthen, and manned by about twelve thousand sailors, adepts alike
+in trade and piracy, but very unskilled in orderly warfare, and very
+feebly inspired by anything like disinterested patriotism, was ready
+to use and abuse its powers during the ensuing seven years' fight for
+Greek independence.
+
+During the summer of 1821, while the continental Greeks were rushing
+to arms, murdering the Turkish residents among them by thousands, and
+thus bringing down upon themselves, or upon those of their own race
+who, as peasants and burghers, took no important share in actual
+fighting, the murderous vengeance of the Turkish troops sent to
+attempt the suppression of the revolt, these sailors were pursuing an
+easier and more profitable game. The Turkish ports were not warlike,
+and the Turkish trading ships were not prepared for fighting. In May,
+a formidable crowd of vessels left the islands on a cruise, from which
+they soon returned with an immense store of booty. Early in June, the
+best Turkish fleet that could be brought together, consisting of two
+line-of-battle ships, three frigates, and three sloops, went out to
+harass, if not to destroy, the swarm of smaller enemies. Jakomaki
+Tombazes, with thirty-seven of these smaller enemies, set off to meet
+them, and falling in with one of the ships, gave her chase, till, in
+the roads of Eripos, she was attacked on the 8th of June, and, with
+the help of a fireship, destroyed with a loss of nearly four hundred
+men. That victory caused the flight of the other Turkish vessels, and
+was the beginning of much cruel work at sea and with ships, which,
+not often daring to meet in open fight, wrought terrible mischief to
+unprotected ports and islands.
+
+The mischief wrought upon the land was yet more terrible. A seething
+tide of Greek and Moslem blood heaved to and fro, as, during the
+second half of 1821, each party in turn gained temporary ascendency in
+one district after another. Greeks murdered Turks, and Turks murdered
+Greeks, with equal ferocity; or perhaps the ferocity of the Greeks,
+stirred by bad leaders to revenge themselves for all their previous
+sufferings, even surpassed that of the Turks. Of their cruelty a
+glaring instance occurred in their capture of Navarino. The Turkish
+inhabitants having held out as long as a mouthful of food was left
+in the town, were forced to capitulate on the 19th of August. It was
+promised that, upon their surrendering, the Greek vessels were to
+convey them, their wearing apparel, and their household furniture,
+either to Egypt or to Tunis. No sooner were the gates opened than
+a wholesale plunder and slaughter ensued. A Greek ecclesiastic has
+described the scene. "Women wounded with musket-balls and sabre-cuts
+rushed to the sea, seeking to escape, and were deliberately shot.
+Mothers robbed of their clothes, with infants in their arms, plunged
+into the water to conceal themselves from shame, and they were then
+made a mark for inhuman riflemen. Greeks seized infants from their
+mothers' breasts and dashed them against the rocks. Children, three
+and four years old, were hurled, living, into the sea, and left to
+drown. When the massacre was ended, the dead bodies washed ashore, or
+piled on the beach, threatened to cause a pestilence."[A] At the sack
+of Tripolitza, on the 8th of October, about eight thousand Moslems
+were murdered, the last two thousand, chiefly women and children,
+being taken into a neighbouring ravine, there to be slaughtered at
+leisure. Two years afterwards a ghastly heap of bones attested the
+inhuman deed.
+
+[Footnote A: Finlay, vol. i.; p. 263, citing Phrantzes.]
+
+In ways like these the first stage of the Greek Revolution was
+achieved. Before the close of 1821, it appeared to the Greeks
+themselves, to their Moslem enemies, and to their many friends in
+England, France, and other countries, that the triumph was complete.
+Unfortunately, the same bad motives and the same bad methods that had
+so grievously polluted the torrent of patriotism continued to poison
+and disturb the stream which might otherwise have been henceforth
+clear, steady, and health-giving. Greece was free, but, unless another
+and a much harder revolution could be effected in the temper and
+conduct of its own people, unfit to put its freedom to good use or
+even to maintain it. "The rapid success of the Greeks during the first
+few weeks of the revolution," says their ablest historian, "threw the
+management of much civil and financial business into the hands of the
+proesti and demogeronts in office. The primates, who already exercised
+great official authority, instantly appropriated that which had been
+hitherto exercised by murdered voivodes and beys. Every primate strove
+to make himself a little independent potentate, and every captain of
+a district assumed the powers of a commander-in-chief. The Revolution,
+before six months had passed, seemed to have peopled Greece with a
+host of little Ali Pashas. When the primate and the captain acted in
+concert, they collected the public revenues; administered the Turkish
+property, which was declared national; enrolled, paid, and provisioned
+as many troops as circumstances required, or as they thought fit;
+named officers; formed a local guard for the primate of the best
+soldiers in the place, who were thus often withdrawn from the public
+service; and organised a local police and a local treasury. This I
+system of local self-government, constituted in a very self-willed
+manner, and relieved from almost all responsibility, was soon
+established as a natural result of the Revolution over all Greece.
+The Sultan's authority having ceased, every primate assumed the
+prerogatives of the Sultan. For a few weeks this state of things was
+unavoidable, and, to an able and honest chief or government, it would
+have facilitated the establishment of a strong central authority; but
+by the vices of Greek society it was perpetuated into an organised
+anarchy. No improvement was made in financial arrangements, or in the
+system of taxation; no measures were adopted for rendering property
+more secure; no attempt was made to create an equitable administration
+of justice; no courts of law were established; and no financial
+accounts were published. Governments were formed, constitutions were
+drawn up, national assemblies met, orators debated, and laws were
+passed according to the political fashion patronised by the liberals
+of the day. But no effort was made to prevent the Government
+being virtually absolute, unless it was by rendering it absolutely
+powerless. The constitutions were framed to remain a dead letter. The
+national assemblies were nothing but conferences of parties, and the
+laws passed were intended to fascinate Western Europe, not to operate
+with effect in Greece."[A]
+
+[Footnote A: Finlay, vol. i., pp. 280, 281.]
+
+The supreme government of Greece had been assumed in June by Prince
+Demetrius Hypsilantes, a worthier man than his brother Alexander, but
+by no means equal to the task he took in hand. At first the brigand
+chiefs and local potentates, not willing to surrender any of the power
+they had acquired, were disposed to render to him nominal submission,
+believing that his name and his Russian influence would be serviceable
+to the cause of Greece. But Hypsilantes showed himself utterly
+incompetent, and it was soon apparent that his sympathies were wholly
+alien to those both of the Greek people and of their military and
+civil leaders. Therefore another master had to be chosen. Kolokotrones
+might have succeeded to the dignity, and he certainly had vigour
+enough of disposition, and enough honesty and dishonesty combined, to
+make the position one of power as well as of dignity. For that very
+reason, however, his comrades and rivals were unwilling to place him
+in it. They desired a president skilful enough to hold the reins of
+government with a very loose hand, yet so as to keep them from getting
+hopelessly entangled--one who should be a smart secretary and adviser,
+without assuming the functions of a director.
+
+Such a man they found in Prince Alexander Mavrocordatos, then about
+thirty-two years old. He was a kinsman of a Hospodar of Wallachia,
+by whom he had in his youth been employed in political matters. After
+that he had resided in France, where he acquired much fresh knowledge,
+and where his popularity helped to quicken sympathy on behalf of
+the Greek Revolution at its first outburst. He had lately come
+to Missolonghi with a ship-load of ammunition and other material,
+procured and brought at his own expense, and soon attained
+considerable influence. Always courteous in his manners, only
+ungenerous in his actions where the interests of others came into
+collision with his own, less strong-willed and less ambitious than
+most of his associates, those associates were hardly jealous of his
+popularity at home, and wholly pleased with his popularity among
+foreigners. It was a clear gain to their cause to have Shelley writing
+his "Hellas," and dedicating the poem to Mavrocordatos, as "a token of
+admiration, sympathy, and friendship."
+
+Mavrocordatos was named President of Greece in the Constitution of
+Epidaurus, chiefly his own workmanship, which was proclaimed on the
+13th of January--New Year's Day, according to the reckoning of the
+Greek Church--1822. It is not necessary here to detail his own acts or
+those of his real or professing subordinates. All we have to do is to
+furnish a general account, and a few characteristic illustrations, of
+the course of events during the Greek Revolution, in explanation of
+the state of parties and of politics at the time of Lord Cochrane's
+advent among them. These events were marked by continuance of the same
+selfish policy, divided interests, class prejudice, and individual
+jealousy that have been already referred to. The mass of the Greek
+people were, as they had been from the first, zealous in their desire
+for freedom, and, having won it, they were not unwilling to use it
+honestly. For their faults their leaders are chiefly to be blamed; and
+in apology for those leaders, it must be remembered that they were an
+assemblage of soldiers who had been schooled in oriental brigandage,
+of priests whose education had been in a corrupt form of Christianity
+made more corrupt by persecution, of merchants who had found it hard
+to trade without trickery, and of seamen who had been taught to
+regard piracy as an honourable vocation. Perhaps we have less cause to
+condemn them for the errors and vices that they exhibited during their
+fight for freedom, than to wonder that those errors and vices were not
+more reprehensible in themselves and disastrous in their issues.
+
+For about six years the fight was maintained without foreign aid, save
+that given by private volunteers and generous champions in Western
+Europe, against a state numerically nearly twenty times as strong as
+the little community of revolutionists. In it, along with much wanton
+cruelty, was displayed much excellent heroism. But the heroism was
+reckless and undisciplined, and therefore often worse than useless.
+
+Memorable instances both of recklessness and of want of discipline
+appeared in the attempts made to wrest Chios from the Turks in 1822.
+The Greek inhabitants of this island, on whom the Turkish yoke pressed
+lightly, had refused to join in the insurgent movement of their
+brethren on the mainland and in the neighbouring islands. But it was
+considered that a little coercion would induce them to share in
+the Revolution and convert their prosperous island into a Greek
+possession. Therefore, in March, a small force of two thousand five
+hundred men crossed the archipelago, took possession of Koutari,
+the principal town, and proceeded to invest the Turkish citadel.
+The Chiots, though perhaps not very willingly, took part in the
+enterprise; but the invading party was quite unequal to the work it
+had undertaken. In April a formidable Turkish squadron arrived, and
+by it Chios was easily recovered, to become the scene of vindictive
+atrocities, which brought all the terrified inhabitants who were
+not slaughtered, or who could not escape, into abject submission.
+Thereupon, on the 10th of May, a Greek fleet of fifty-six vessels was
+despatched by Mavrocordatos to attempt a more thorough capture of the
+island. Its commander was Andreas Miaoulis, a Hydriot merchant, who
+proved himself the best sea-captain among the Greeks. Had Miaoulis
+been able, as he wished, to start sooner and meet the Turkish squadron
+on its way to Chios, a brilliant victory might have resulted, instead
+of one of the saddest catastrophes in the whole Greek war. Being
+deterred therefrom by the vacillation of Mavrocordatos and the
+insubordination of his captains and their crews, he was only able to
+reach the island when it was again in the hands of the enemy, and when
+all was ready for withstanding him. There was useless fighting on the
+31st of May and the two following days. On the 18th of June, Miaoulis
+made another attack; but he was only able to destroy the Turkish
+flag-ship, and nearly all on board, by means of a fire-vessel. His
+fleet was unmanageable, and he had to abandon the enterprise and to
+leave the unfortunate Chiots to endure further punishment for offences
+that were not their own. This punishment was so terrible that, in six
+months, the population of Chios was reduced from one hundred thousand
+to thirty thousand. Twenty thousand managed to escape. Fifty thousand
+were either put to death or sold as slaves in Asia Minor.
+
+That failure of the Greeks at Chios, quickly followed by their
+defeat on land at Petta, greatly disheartened the revolutionists.
+Mavrocordatos virtually resigned his presidentship, and there was
+anarchy in Greece till 1828. Athens, captured from the Turks in June,
+1822, became the centre of jealous rivalry and visionary scheming,
+mismanagement, and government that was worse than no government at
+all. Odysseus, the vilest of the vile men whom the Revolution brought
+to the surface, was its master for some time; and, when he played
+traitor to the Turks, he was succeeded by others hardly better than
+himself.
+
+In spite of some heavy disasters, however, the Greeks were so far
+successful during 1822 that in 1823 they were able to hold their
+newly-acquired territory and to wrest some more fortresses from their
+enemies. The real heroism that they had displayed, moreover--the foul
+cruelties of which they were guilty and the selfish courses which they
+pursued being hardly reported to their friends, and, when reported,
+hardly believed--awakened keen sympathy on their behalf. Shelley and
+Byron, and many others of less note, had sung their virtues and their
+sufferings in noble verse and enlarged upon them in eloquent prose,
+and in England and France, in Switzerland, Germany, and the united
+States, a strong party of Philhellenes was organized to collect money
+and send recruits for their assistance.
+
+The two Philhellenes of greatest note who served in Greece during the
+earlier years of the Revolution were Thomas Gordon and Frank Abney
+Hastings. Gordon, who attained the rank of general in the army of
+independence, had the advantage of a long previous and thorough
+acquaintance with the character of both Turks and Greeks and with the
+languages that they spoke. He watched all the revolutionary movements
+from the beginning, and took part in many of them. In the "History
+of the Greek Revolution," which he published in 1832, he gave such
+a vivid and, in the main, so accurate an account of them that his
+narrative has formed the basis of the more ambitious work of the
+native historian, Mr. Trikoupes. Of the vices and errors of the
+people on whose behalf he fought and wrote he spoke boldly. "Whatever
+national or individual wrong the Greeks may have endured," he said
+in one place, "it is impossible to justify the ferocity of their
+vengeance or to deny that a comparison instituted between them and the
+Ottoman generals, Mehemet Aboulaboud, Omer Vrioni, and the Kehaya Bey
+of Kurshid, would give to the latter the palm of humanity. Humanity,
+however, is a word quite out of place when applied either to them or
+to their opponents." In another page, further denouncing the Greek
+leaders, he wrote: "Panourias was the worst of these local despots,
+whom some writers have elevated into heroes. He was, in fact, an
+ignoble robber, hardened in evil. He enriched himself with the spoils
+of the Mahometans; yet he and his retinue of brigands compelled the
+people to maintain them at free quarters, in idleness and luxury,
+exacting not only bread, meat, wine, and forage, but also sugar and
+coffee. Hence springs the reflection that the Greeks had cause to
+repent their early predilection for the klephts, who were almost all,
+beginning with Kolokotrones, infamous for the sordid perversity of
+their dispositions."[A] Gordon's disinterested and brave efforts to
+bring about a better state of things and to help on the cause of
+real patriotism in Greece were highly praiseworthy; but, as another
+historian has truly said, "he did not possess the activity and
+decision of character necessary to obtain commanding influence in
+council, or to initiate daring measures in the field."[B]
+
+[Footnote A: Gordon, vol. i., pp. 313, 400.]
+
+[Footnote B: Finlay, vol. ii., p. 129.]
+
+Frank Abney Hastings was an abler man. Born in 1794, he was started in
+the naval profession when only eleven years old. Six months after the
+commencement of his midshipman's life he was present, on board the
+_Neptune_, at the battle of Trafalgar, and during the ensuing fourteen
+years he served in nearly every quarter of the globe. His independent
+spirit, however--something akin to Lord Cochrane's--brought him into
+disfavour, and, in 1819, for challenging a superior officer who had
+insulted him, he was dismissed from the British navy. Disheartened and
+disgusted, he resided in France for about three years. At length he
+resolved to go and fight for the Greeks, partly out of sympathy for
+their cause, partly as a relief from the misery of forced idleness,
+partly with the view of developing a plan which he had been devising
+for extending the use of steamships in naval warfare,--to which last
+excellent improvement he greatly contributed. He arrived at Hydra in
+April, 1822, just in time to take part in the fighting off Chios.
+One of his ingenious suggestions, made to Andreas Miaoulis, and its
+reception, have been described by himself. "I proposed to direct a
+fireship and three other vessels upon the frigate, and, when near the
+enemy, to set fire to certain combustibles which should throw out
+a great flame. The enemy would naturally conclude they were all
+fireships. The vessels were then to attach themselves to the frigate,
+fire broadsides, double-shotted, throwing on board the enemy at the
+same time combustible balls which gave a great smoke without flame.
+This would doubtless induce him to believe he was on fire, and give
+a most favourable opportunity for boarding him. However, the admiral
+returned my plan, saying only [Greek: kalo], without asking a single
+question, or wishing me to explain its details; and I observed a kind
+of insolent contempt in his manner. This interview with the admiral
+disgusted me. They place you in a position in which it is impossible
+to render any service, and then they boast of their own superiority,
+and of the uselessness of the Franks, as they call us, in Turkish
+warfare." Miaoulis, however, soon gained wisdom and made good use of
+Captain Hastings, who spent more than 7000_l._--all his patrimony--in
+serving the Greeks. He was almost the only officer in their employ
+who, during the earlier years of the Revolution, succeeded in
+establishing any sort of discipline or good management.
+
+Lord Byron, the most illustrious of all the early Philhellenes, used
+to say, shortly before his death, that with Napier at the head of the
+army and Hastings in command of a fleet the triumph of Greece might
+be insured. Byron was then at Missolonghi, whither he had gone in
+January, 1824, to die in April. Long before, while stirring up the
+sympathy of all lovers of liberty for the cause of regeneration in
+Greece, he had shown that regeneration could be by no means a short or
+easy work, and now he had to report that the real work was hardly
+yet begun--nay, that it seemed almost further off than ever. "Of the
+Greeks," he wrote, "I can't say much good hitherto, and I do not like
+to speak ill of them, though they do of one another."
+
+It was chiefly at Byron's instigation that the first Greek loan was
+contracted, in London, early in 1824. Its proceeds, 300,000_l._, were
+spent partly in unprofitable outlay upon ships, ammunition, and the
+like, of which the people were in no position to make good use, but
+mostly in civil war and in pandering to the greed and vanity of the
+members of the Government and their subordinate officials. "Phanariots
+and doctors in medicine," says an eye-witness, "who, in the month
+of April, 1824, were clad in ragged coats, and who lived on scanty
+rations, threw off that patriotic chrysalis before summer was past,
+and emerged in all the splendour of brigand life, fluttering about in
+rich Albanian habiliments, refulgent with brilliant and unused arms,
+and followed by diminutive pipe-bearers and tall henchmen."[A]
+
+[Footnote A: Finky, vol. ii. p. 39.]
+
+Even the scanty allowance made by the Greek Government out of its
+newly-acquired wealth for fighting purposes was for the most part
+squandered almost as frivolously. One general who drew pay and rations
+for seven hundred soldiers went to fight and die at Sphakteria at
+the head of seventeen armed peasants.[A] And that is only a glaring
+instance of peculations that were all but universal.
+
+[Footnote A: Trikoupes, vol. iii., p. 206.]
+
+That being the degradation to which the leaders of the Greek
+Revolution had sunk, it is not strange that its gains in previous
+years should have begun in 1824 to be followed by heavy losses. The
+Greek people--the peasants and burghers--were still patriots, though
+ill-trained and misdirected. They could defend their own homesteads
+with unsurpassed heroism, and hold their own mountains and valleys
+with fierce persistency. But they were unfit for distant fighting,
+even when their chiefs consented to employ them in it. Sultan Mahmud,
+therefore, who had been profiting by the hard experience of former
+years, and whose strength had been steadily growing while the power
+of the insurgents had been rapidly weakening, entered on a new and
+successful policy. He left the Greeks to waste their energies in their
+own possessions, and resolved to recapture, one after another, the
+outposts and ill-protected islands. For this he took especial care
+in augmenting his navy, and, besides developing his own resources,
+induced his powerful and turbulent vassal, Mohammed Ali, the Pasha of
+Egypt, to equip a formidable fleet and entrust it to his son Ibrahim,
+on whom was conferred the title of Vizier of the Morea.
+
+Even without that aid Mahmud was able to do much in furtherance of his
+purpose. The island of Kasos was easily recovered, and full vengeance
+was wreaked on its Greek inhabitants on the 20th of June. Soon
+afterwards Psara was seized and punished yet more hardly.
+
+On the 19th of July Ibrahim left Alexandria with a naval force which
+swept the southern seas of Greek pirates or privateers. On the 1st
+of September he effected a junction with the Turkish fleet at Budrun.
+Their united strength comprised forty-six ships, frigates, and
+corvettes, and about three hundred transports, large and small. The
+Greek fleet, between seventy and eighty sail, would have been strong
+enough to withstand it under any sort of good management; but good
+management was wanting, and the crews were quite beyond the control of
+their masters. The result was that in a series of small battles during
+the autumn of 1824 the Mahometans were generally successful, and their
+enemies found themselves at the close of the year terribly discomfited
+The little organization previously existing was destroyed, and the
+revolutionists felt that they had no prospect of advantageously
+carrying on their strife at sea without assistance and guidance that
+could not be looked for among themselves.
+
+Their troubles were increased in the following year. In February and
+March, 1825, Ibrahim landed a formidable army in the Morea, and began
+a course of operations in which the land forces and the fleet
+combined to dispossess the Greeks of their chief strongholds. The
+strongly-fortified island of Sphakteria, the portal of Navarino and
+Pylos, was taken on the 8th of May. Pylos capitulated on the 11th,
+and Navarino on the 21st of the same month. Other citadels, one after
+another, were surrendered; and Ibrahim and his army spent the summer
+in scouring the Morea and punishing its inhabitants, with the utmost
+severity, for the lawless brigandage and the devoted patriotism of
+which they had been guilty during the past four years.
+
+The result was altogether disheartening to the Greeks. They saw that
+their condition was indeed desperate. George Konduriottes, a Hydriot
+merchant, an Albanian who could not speak Greek, and who was alike
+unable to govern himself or others, had, in June, 1824, been named
+president of the republic, and since then the rival interests of the
+primates, the priests, and the military leaders had been steadily
+causing the decay of all that was left of patriotism and increase of
+the selfishness that had so long been rampant.
+
+There was one consequence of this degradation, however, which promised
+to be very beneficial. Seeing that their cause was being rapidly
+weakened, and that their hard-fought battle for liberty was in danger
+of speedy and ignominious reversal by their own divisions, by the
+stealthy encroachments of the Ottomans in the north, and by the more
+energetic advances of the Egyptians in the south, the Greeks resolved
+to abandon some of their jealousies and greeds, to look for a saviour
+from without, and, on his coming, to try and submit themselves
+honestly and heartily to his leadership. The issue of that resolution
+was the following letter, written by Mavrocordatos, then Secretary to
+the National Assembly:--
+
+"Milord,--Tandis que vos rares talens etaient consacres a procurer le
+bonheur d'un pays separe par un espace immense de la Grece, celle-ci
+ne voyait pas sans admiration, sans interet, sans une espece de
+jalousie secrete meme, les succes brillants qui ont toujours couronne
+vos nobles efforts, et rendu a l'independance un des plus beaux, des
+plus riches pays du monde. Votre retour en Angleterre a excite la plus
+vive joie dans le coeur du citoyen Grec et de ses representans par
+l'espoir flattereur qu'ils commencent a concevoir que, celui qui s'est
+si noblement dedie a procurer le bonheur d'une nation, ne refusera
+pas d'en faire autant pour celui d'une autre, qui ne lui offre pas
+une carriere moins brillante et moins digne de lui et par son nom
+historique, et par ses malheurs passes et par ses efforts actuels pour
+reconquerir sa liberte et son independance. Les mers qui rappellent
+les victoires des Themistocles et des Timon, ne seront pas un theatre
+indifferent pour celui qui sait apprecier les grands hommes, et un des
+premiers amiraux de notre siecle ne verra qu' avec plaisir qu'il est
+appelle a renouveler les beaux jours de Salamine et de Mycale a la
+tete des Miaoulis, des Sachtouris et des Kanaris.
+
+"C'est avec la plus grande satisfaction, milord, que je me vois charge
+de faire, au nom du Gouvernement, a votre seigneurie, la proposition
+du commandement general des forces navales de la Grece. Si votre
+seigneurie est disposee a l'accepter, Messieurs les Deputes
+du Gouvernement Grec a Londres ont toute l'autorisation et les
+instructions necessaires pour combiner avec elle sur les moyens a
+mettre a sa disposition, afin d'utiliser le plutot possible
+votre noble decision et accelerer l'heureux moment que la Grece
+reconnaissante et enthousiasmee vous verra combattre pour la cause de
+sa liberte.
+
+"Je profite de cette occasion pour prier votre seigneurie de vouloir
+bien agreer l'assurance de mon respect et de la plus haute estime avec
+laquelle j'ai l'honneur d'etre, milord, de votre seigneurie le tres
+humble et tres obeissant serviteur,
+
+"A. Mavrocordatos,
+
+"Naples de Romanie,
+
+"Secre-genl d'Etat.
+
+"_le 20 Aout_, ----------- 1825 1er 7bre
+
+"A Sa Seigneurie le tres Honorable Lord Cochrane, a Londres."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV.
+
+LORD COCHRANE's DISMISSAL FROM BRAZILIAN SERVICE, AND HIS ACCEPTANCE
+OF EMPLOYMENT AS CHIEF ADMIRAL OF THE GREEKS.--THE GREEK COMMITTEE AND
+THE GREEK DEPUTIES IN LONDON--THE TERMS OF LORD COCHRANE's AGREEMENT,
+AND THE CONSEQUENT PREPARATIONS.--HIS VISIT TO SCOTLAND--SIR WALTER
+SCOTT'S VERSES ON LADY COCHRANE.--LORD COCHRANE'S FORCED RETIREMENT TO
+BOULOGNE, AND THENCE TO BRUSSELS.--THE DELAYS IN FITTING OUT THE
+GREEK ARMAMENT.--CAPTAIN HASTINGS, MR. HOBHOUSE, AND SIR FRANCES
+BURDETT.--CAPTAIN HASTINGS'S MEMOIR ON THE GREEK LEADERS AND
+THEIR CHARACTERS.--THE FIRST CONSEQUENCE OF LORD COCHRANE's NEW
+ENTERPRISE.--THE DUKE OF WELLINGTON'S INDIRECT MESSAGE TO LORD
+COCHRANE.--THE GREEK DEPUTIES' PROPOSAL TO LORD COCHRANE AND HIS
+ANSWER.--THE FINAL ARRANGEMENTS FOR HIS DEPARTURE.--THE MESSIAH OF THE
+GREEKS.
+
+[1825-1826.]
+
+
+The letter from Mavrocordatos quoted in the last chapter was only part
+of a series of negotiations that had been long pending. Lord Cochrane,
+as we have seen, had arrived at Portsmouth on the 26th of June, 1825,
+in command of a Brazilian war-ship and still holding office as First
+Admiral of the Empire of Brazil. His intention in visiting England
+had been only to effect the necessary repairs in his ship before going
+back to Rio de Janeiro. He had no sooner arrived, however, than it was
+clear to him, from the vague and insolent language of the Brazilian
+envoy in London, that it was designed by that official, if not by the
+authorities in Rio de Janeiro, to oust him from his command. During
+four months he remained in uncertainty, determined not willingly to
+retire from his Brazilian service, but gradually convinced by the
+increasing insolence of the envoy's treatment of him that it would
+be inexpedient for him hastily to return to Brazil, where, before
+his departure, he had experienced the grossest ingratitude for his
+brilliant achievements and neglect and abuse of all sorts. At length,
+in November, upon learning that his captain and crew had been formally
+instructed to "cast off all subordination" to him, he deemed that he
+had no alternative but to consider himself dismissed from Brazilian
+employment and free to enter upon a new engagement.
+
+That engagement had been urged upon him even while he was in South
+America by his friends in England, who were also devoted friends to
+the cause of Greek independence, and the proposal had been renewed
+very soon after his arrival at Portsmouth. It was so freely talked of
+among all classes of the English public and so openly discussed in the
+newspapers before the middle of August that by it Lord Cochrane's last
+relations with the Brazilian envoy were seriously complicated. "Lord
+Cochrane is looking very well, after eight years of harassing and
+ungrateful service," wrote Sir Francis Burdett on the 20th of August,
+"and, I trust, will be the liberator of Greece. What a glorious
+title!"
+
+It is needless to say that Sir Francis Burdett, always the noble
+and disinterested champion of the oppressed, and the far-seeing and
+fearless advocate of liberty both at home and abroad, was a leading
+member of the Greek Committee in London. This committee was a
+counterpart--though composed of more illustrious members than any of
+the others--of Philhellenic associations that had been organized in
+nearly every capital of Europe and in the chief towns of the United
+States. Everywhere a keen sympathy was aroused on behalf of the
+down-trodden Greeks; and the sympathy only showed itself more
+zealously when it appeared that the Greeks were still burdened with
+the moral degradation of their long centuries of slavery, and needed
+the guidance and support of men more fortunately trained than they
+had been in ways of freedom. Such a man, and foremost among such men,
+always generous, wise, and earnest, was Sir Francis Burdett, Lord
+Cochrane's oldest and best political friend, his readiest adviser
+and stoutest defender all through the weary time of his subjection to
+unmerited disgrace and heartless contumely. Another leading member
+of the Greek Committee was Mr. John Cam Hobhouse, afterwards Lord
+Broughton, Lord Byron's friend and fellow-traveller, now Sir Francis
+Burdett's colleague in the representation of Westminster as successor
+to Lord Cochrane. Another of high note was Mr. Edward Ellice, eminent
+alike as a merchant and as a statesman. Another, no less eminent, was
+Joseph Hume. Another was Mr. (afterwards Sir) John Bowring, secretary
+to the Greek Committee. By them and many others the progress of the
+Greek Revolution was carefully watched and its best interests were
+strenuously advocated, and by all the return of Lord Cochrane to
+England and the prospect of his enlistment in the Philhellenic
+enterprise afforded hearty satisfaction. To them the real liberty of
+Greece was a cherished object; and one and all united in welcoming the
+great promoter of Chilian and Brazilian independence as the liberator
+of Greece.
+
+Other honest friends of Greece were less sanguine, and more disposed
+to urge caution upon Lord Cochrane. "My very dear friend," wrote one
+of them, Dr. William Porter, from Bristol on the 25th of August, "I
+will not suffer you to be longer in England without welcoming you; for
+your health, happiness, and fame are all dear to me. I have followed
+you in your Transatlantic career with deep feelings of anxiety for
+your life, but none for your glory: I know you too well to entertain
+a fear for that. I had hoped that you would repose on your laurels and
+enjoy the evening of life in peace, but am told that you are about to
+launch a thunderbolt against the Grand Seignior on behalf of Greece.
+I wish to see Greece free; but could also wish you to rest from your
+labours. For a sexagenarian to command a fleet in ordinary war is an
+easy task, and even threescore and ten might do it; but fifty years
+are too many to conduct a naval war for a people whose pretensions to
+nautical skill you will find on a thousand occasions to give rise to
+jealousies against you. You will also find that on some important day
+they will withhold their co-operation, in order to rob you of your
+glory. The cause of Greece is, nevertheless, a glorious cause. Our
+remembrance of what their ancestors did at Salamis, at Marathon, at
+Thermopylae, gives an additional interest to all that concerns them.
+But, to say the truth of them, they are a race of tigers, and their
+ancestors were the same. I shall be glad to see them fall upon their
+aigretted keeper and his pashas; but, confound them! I would not
+answer for their destroying the man that would break their fetters and
+set them loose in all the power of recognised freedom."
+
+There was much truth in those opinions, and Lord Cochrane was not
+blind to it. That he, though now in his fiftieth year, was too old
+for any difficult seamanship or daring warfare that came in his way
+he certainly was not inclined to admit; but he was not quite as
+enthusiastic as Sir Francis Burdett and many of his other friends
+regarding the immediate purposes and the ultimate issue of the Greek
+Revolution. He was now as hearty a lover of liberty, and as willing
+to employ all his great experience and his excellent ability in its
+service, as he had been eight years before when he went to aid the
+cause of South American independence. But both in Chili and in Brazil
+he had suffered much himself, and, what was yet more galling to one
+of his generous disposition, had seen how grievously his disinterested
+efforts for the benefit of others had been stultified, by the
+selfishness and imprudence, the meanness and treachery of those whom
+he had done his utmost to direct in a sure and rapid way of freedom.
+He feared, and had good reason for fearing, like disappointments in
+any relations into which he might enter with Greece. Therefore, though
+he readily consented to work for the Hellenic revolutionists, as he
+had worked for the Chilians and Brazilians, he did so with
+something of a forlorn hope, with a fear--which in the end was fully
+justified--that thereby his own troubles might only be augmented, and
+that his philanthropic plans might in great measure be frustrated.
+Coming newly to England, where the real state of affairs in Greece,
+the selfishness of the leaders, the want of discipline among
+the masses, and the consequent weakness and embarrassment to the
+revolutionary cause, were not thoroughly understood, and where this
+understanding was especially difficult for him without previous
+acquaintance even with all the details that were known and apprehended
+by his friends, he yet saw enough to lead him to the belief that
+the work they wished him to do in Greece would be harder and more
+thankless than they supposed.
+
+This must be remembered as an answer to the first of the
+misstatements--misstatements that will have to be controverted
+at every stage of the ensuing narrative--which were carefully
+disseminated, and have been persistently recorded by political
+opponents and jealous rivals of Lord Cochrane. It has been alleged
+that he was induced by mercenary motives, and by them alone, to enter
+the service of the Greeks. His sole inducements were a desire to do
+his best on all occasions towards the punishment of oppressors and
+the relief of the oppressed, and a desire, hardly less strong, to seek
+relief in the naval enterprise that was always very dear to him
+from the oppression under which he himself suffered so heavily.
+The ingratitude that he had lately experienced in Chili and Brazil,
+however, bringing upon him much present embarrassment in lawsuits and
+other troubles, led him to use what was only common prudence in his
+negotiations with the Greek Committee and with the Greek deputies,
+John Orlando and Andreas Luriottis, who were in London at the time,
+and on whom devolved the formal arrangements for employing him and
+providing him with suitable equipments for his work.
+
+These were done with help of a second Greek loan, contracted in London
+in 1825, for 2,000,000_l._ Out of this sum it was agreed that Lord
+Cochrane was to receive 37,000_l._ at starting, and a further sum of
+20,000_l._ on the completion of his services; and that he was to be
+provided with a suitable squadron, for which purpose 150,000_l._ were
+to be expended in the construction of six steamships in England, and a
+like sum on the building and fitting out of two sixty-gun frigates in
+the United States. With the disappointments that he had experienced
+in Chili and Brazil fresh in his mind, he refused to enter on this new
+engagement without a formidable little fleet, manned by English and
+American seamen, and under his exclusive direction; and he further
+stipulated that the entire Greek fleet should be at his sole
+command, and that he should have full power to carry out his views
+independently of the Greek Government.
+
+These arrangements were completed on the 16th of August, except that
+Lord Cochrane, not having yet been actually dismissed by the Brazilian
+envoy, refused formally to pledge himself to his new employers. In
+conjunction with Sir Francis Burdett, Mr. Hobhouse, Mr. Ellice, and
+the Ricardos, as contractors, however, he made all the preliminary
+arrangements, and before the end of August he went for a two months'
+visit to his native county and other parts of Scotland, from which he
+had been absent more than twenty years.
+
+One incident in that visit was noteworthy. On the 3rd of October, Lord
+and Lady Cochrane, being in Edinburgh, went to the theatre, where
+an eager crowd assembled to do them honour. Into the after-piece an
+allusion to South America was specially introduced. Upon that
+the whole audience rose and, turning to the seats occupied by the
+visitors, showed their admiration by plaudits so long and so vehement
+that Lady Cochrane, overpowered by her feelings, burst into tears.
+Thereupon Sir Walter Scott, who was in the theatre, wrote the
+following verses:--
+
+  "I knew thee, lady, by that glorious eye,
+  By that pure brow and those dark locks of thine,
+  I knew thee for a soldier's bride, and high
+  My full heart bounded: for the golden mine
+  Of heavenly thought kindled at sight of thee,
+  Radiant with all the stars of memory.
+
+  "I knew thee, and, albeit, myself unknown,
+  I called on Heaven to bless thee for thy love,
+  The strength, the constancy thou long hast shown,
+  Each selfish aim, each womanish fear above:
+  And, lady, Heaven is with thee; thou art blest,
+  Blest in whatever thy immortal soul loves best.
+
+  "Thy name, ask Brazil, for she knows it well;
+  It is a name a hero gave to thee;
+  In every letter lurks there not a spell,--
+  The mighty spell of immortality?
+  Ye sail together down time's glittering stream;
+  Around your heads two glittering haloes gleam.
+
+  "Even now, as through the air the plaudits rung,
+  I marked the smiles that in her features came;
+  She caught the word that fell from every tongue,
+  And her eye brightened at her Cochrane's name;
+  And brighter yet became her bright eyes' blaze;
+  It was his country, and she felt the praise,--
+
+  "Ay, even as a woman, and his bride, should feel,
+  With all the warmth of an o'erflowing soul:
+  Unshaken she had seen the ensanguined steel,
+  Unshaken she had heard war's thunders roll,
+  But now her noble heart could find relief
+  In tears alone, though not the tears of grief.
+
+  "May the gods guard thee, lady, whereso'er
+  Thou wanderest in thy love and loveliness!
+  For thee may every scene and sky be fair,
+  Each hour instinct with more than happiness!
+  May all thou valuest be good and great,
+  And be thy wishes thy own future fate!"
+
+Those aspirations were very far from realised. Even during his brief
+holiday in Scotland, Lord Cochrane was troubled by the news that Mr.
+Galloway, the engineer to whom had been entrusted the chief work in
+constructing steam-boilers for the Greek vessels, was proceeding very
+slowly with his task. "My conviction is," wrote Mr. Ellice, "that
+Galloway, in undertaking so much, has promised what he can never
+perform, and that it will be Christmas, if not later, before the
+whole work is completed. No engines are to be got either in Glasgow or
+Liverpool. You know I am not sanguine, and the sooner you are here to
+judge for yourself the better. There has been no hesitation about the
+means from the beginning, but money will not produce steam-engines and
+vessels in these times."
+
+In consequence of that letter, Lord Cochrane hurried up to London at
+once, intending personally to superintend and hasten on the work. He
+arrived on the 3rd of November; but only to find that fresh troubles
+were in store for him. He had already been exposed to vexatious
+litigation, arising out of groundless and malicious prosecutions with
+reference to his Brazilian enterprise. He was now informed that a more
+serious prosecution was being initiated. The Foreign Enlistment Act,
+passed shortly after his acceptance of service under the Chilian
+Republic, and at the special instigation of the Spanish Government,
+had made his work in South America an indictable offence; but it was
+supposed that no action would be taken against him now that he had
+returned to England. As soon as it was publicly known, however, that
+he was about to embark in a new enterprise, on behalf of Greece, steps
+were taken to restrain him by means of an indictment on the score of
+his former employment. "There is a most unchristian league against
+us," he wrote to his secretary, "and fearful odds too. To be
+prosecuted at home, and not permitted to go abroad, is the devil. How
+can I be prosecuted for fighting in Brazil for the heir-apparent
+to the throne, who, whilst his father was held in restraint by the
+rebellious Cortes, contended for the legitimate rights of the royal
+House of Braganza, then the ally of England, who had, during the
+contest, by the presence of her consuls and other official agents,
+sanctioned the acts of the Prince Regent of Brazil?"
+
+It soon became clear, however, that the Government had found some
+justification of its conduct, and that active measures were being
+adopted for Lord Cochrane's punishment. He was warned by Mr. Brougham
+that, if he stayed many days longer in England, he would be arrested
+and so prevented not only from facilitating the construction of the
+Greek vessels, but even from going to Greece at all. Therefore, at the
+earnest advice of his friends, he left London for Calais on the 9th
+of November, soon to proceed to Boulogne, where he was joined by his
+family, and where he waited for six weeks, vainly hoping that in
+his absence the contractors and their overseers would see that the
+ship-building was promptly and properly executed.
+
+While at Boulogne, foreseeing the troubles that would ensue from
+these new difficulties, he was half inclined to abandon his Greek
+engagement, and in that temper he wrote to Sir Francis Burdett for
+advice. "I have taken four-and-twenty hours," wrote his good friend
+in answer, on the 18th of November, "to consider your last letter, and
+have not one moment varied in my first opinion as to the propriety
+of your persevering in your glorious career. According to Brougham's
+opinion, you cannot be put in a worse situation,--that is, more in
+peril of Government here,--by continuing foreign service in the Greek
+cause than you already stand in by having served the Emperor of the
+Brazils. In my opinion you will be in a great deal less; for, the
+greater your renown, the less power will your enemies have, whatever
+may be their inclination, to meddle with you. Perhaps they only at
+present desist to look out for a better opportunity, 'reculer pour
+mieux sauter,' like the tiger. I don't mean to accuse them of this
+baseness; but, should it be the case, the less you do the more power
+they will have to injure you, if so inclined. Were they to prosecute
+you for having served the Brazilian Emperor, it would call forth no
+public sympathy, or but slight, in your favour. The case would be
+thought very hard, to be sure; but that would be all. Not so, should
+you triumph in the Greek cause. Transcendent glory would not only
+crown but protect you. No minister would dare to wag a finger--no, nor
+even Crown lawyer a tongue--against you; and, if they did, the feeling
+of the whole English public would surround you with an impenetrable
+shield. Fines would be paid; imprisonment protested and petitioned
+against; in short, I am convinced the nation would be in a flame, and
+you in far less danger of any attempt to your injury than at present.
+This, my dear Lord Cochrane, is my firm conviction."
+
+Encouraged by that letter and other like expressions of opinion from
+his English friends, Lord Cochrane determined to persevere in his
+Greek enterprise, and to reside at Boulogne until the fleet that was
+being prepared for him was ready for service. He had to wait, however,
+very much longer than had been anticipated, and he was unable to wait
+all the time in Boulogne. There also prosecution threatened him. About
+the middle of December he heard that proceedings were about to be
+instituted against him for his detention, while in the Pacific, of a
+French brig named _La Gazelle_, the real inducement thereto being in
+the fact, as it was reported, that the French Government had espoused
+the cause of the Pasha of Egypt, and so was averse to such a plan
+for destroying the Egyptian fleet under Ibrahim as Lord Cochrane
+was concocting. Therefore, he deemed it expedient to quit French
+territory, and accordingly he left Boulogne on the 23rd of December,
+and took up his residence at Brussels, with his family, on the 28th of
+the same month.
+
+Through four weary months and more he was waiting at Brussels,
+harassed by the prosecutions arising out of the lawsuits that have
+been already alluded to, in reference to which he said in one letter,
+"I think I must make up my mind, though it is a hard task, to quit
+England for ever;" harassed even more by the knowledge that the
+building and fitting out of the vessels for his Greek expedition were
+being delayed on frivolous pretexts and for selfish ends, which his
+presence in London, if that had been possible, might, to a great
+extent, have averted. "The welfare of Greece at this moment rests much
+on your lordship," wrote Orlando, the chief deputy in London, "and
+I dare hope that you will hasten her triumph:" yet Orlando and his
+fellows were idling in London, profiting by delays that increased
+their opportunities of peculation, and doing nothing to quicken the
+construction of the fleet. Galloway, the engineer, wrote again and
+again to promise that his work should be done in three weeks,--it was
+always "three weeks hence;" yet he was well informed that Galloway
+was wilfully negligent, though he did not know till afterwards that
+Galloway, having private connections with the Pasha of Egypt, never
+intended to do the work which he was employed to do. Lord Cochrane had
+good friends at home in Sir Francis Burdett, Mr. Hobhouse, and others;
+but they were not competent to take personal supervision of the
+details. He had an experienced deputy in Captain Abney Hastings, who
+had come from Greece some time before, and who was now to return
+as Lord Cochrane's second in command; but Captain Hastings,
+single-handed, could not exert much influence upon the rogues with
+whom he had to deal. "The _Perseverance_," he wrote of the largest of
+the ships, which was to be ready first, on the 10th of December, "may
+perhaps be ready to sail in six weeks--Mr. Galloway has said three
+weeks for the last month; but to his professions I do not, and have
+not for a length of time, paid the slightest attention. I believe he
+does all he can do; all I object against him is that he promises
+more than he can perform, and promises with the determination of not
+performing it. The _Perseverance_ is a fine vessel. Her power of two
+forty-horses will, however, be feeble. I suspect you are not quite
+aware of the delay which will take place." Lord Cochrane soon became
+quite aware of the delay, but was unable to prevent it, and the
+next few months were passed by him in tedious anxiety and ceaseless
+chagrin.
+
+There was one desperate mode of lessening the delay--for Lord Cochrane
+to go out in the _Perseverance_ as soon as it was ready to start,
+leaving the other vessels to follow as soon as they were ready.
+Captain Abney Hastings went to Brussels on purpose to urge him to that
+course, and Mr. Hobhouse also recommended it. "There are two points,"
+he wrote on the 23rd of December, "to which your attention will
+probably be chiefly directed by Captain Hastings. These are, the
+expediency of your going with the _Perseverance_, instead of waiting
+for the other boats, and the propriety of immediately disposing of the
+two frigates in America"--about which frequent reports had arrived,
+showing that their preparation was in even worse hands than was that
+of the London vessels--"to the highest bidder. As to the first, I
+am confident that, although it would have been desirable to have got
+together the whole force in the first instance, yet, as the salvation
+of Greece is a question of time only, and as it will be probably so
+late either as May or June next before the two larger boats can leave
+the river, it would be in every way inexpedient for you to wait until
+you could have the whole armament under your orders. Be assured, your
+presence in Greece would do more than the activity of any man living,
+and, as far as anything can be done in pushing forward the business at
+home, neither time nor pains shall be spared. I wish indeed you could
+have the whole of the boats at once; but Galloway has determined
+otherwise, and we must do the next best thing. Captain Hastings will
+tell you how much may be done even by one steam-vessel, commanded by
+you, and directing the operations of the fire-vessels. On such a
+topic I should not have the presumption to enlarge to you. As to the
+American frigates, it is Mr. Ellice's decided opinion, as well as my
+own, that you should have the money instead of the frigates. First and
+last, the frigates _never will be finished_. The rogues at New York
+demand 60,000_l._ above the 157,000_l._ which they have already received,
+and protest they will not complete their work without the additional
+sum. Now 70,000_l._ in your hands will be better than the _hopes_--and
+they will be nothing but _hopes_--of having the frigates. If you agree
+in this view, perhaps you will be so good as to state it in writing,
+which may remove Mr. Ricardo's objections."
+
+Lord Cochrane was tempted to follow Captain Hastings's and Mr.
+Hobhouse's advice; but he first, as was his wont, sought Sir Francis
+Burdett's opinion; and Sir Francis dissuaded him, for the time, at any
+rate. "I would by no means have you proceed with the first vessel, nor
+at all without adequate means," he wrote on the 15th of January, 1826;
+"for besides thinking of the Greeks, for whom I am, I own, greatly
+interested, I must think, and certainly not with less interest, of
+you, and, I may add, in some degree of myself too; for I am placed
+under much responsibility, and I don't mean to be a party to making
+shipwreck of you and your great naval reputation; nor will I ever
+consent to your going upon a forlorn and desperate attempt--that is,
+without the means necessary for the fair chance of success--in other
+words, adequate means. Although you have worked miracles, we can never
+be justified in expecting them, and still less in requiring them."
+
+Following that sound advice, Lord Cochrane resolved to wait until, at
+any rate, a good part of his fleet was ready. He wrote to that effect,
+and in as good spirits as he could muster, to Mr. Hobhouse, who in
+the answer which he despatched on the 5th of February acknowledged the
+wisdom of the decision. "I am very glad to perceive," he said in that
+answer, "that you have good heart and hope for the great cause.
+I assure you we have been doing all we can to induce the parties
+concerned to second your wishes in every respect; and I now learn from
+Mr. Hastings, who is our sheet anchor, that matters go on pretty well.
+I hope you write every now and then to Galloway, in whose hands is the
+fate of Greece--the worse our luck, for he is the great cause of our
+sad delay."
+
+"You see our House is opened," said Mr. Hobhouse in the same letter.
+"Not a word of Greece in the Speech, and I spoke to Hume and Wilson,
+and begged them not to touch upon the subject. It is much better to
+keep all quiet, in order to prevent angry words from the ministers,
+who, if nothing is said, will, I think, shut their eyes at what we are
+doing. There is a very prevalent notion here that the (Holy) Alliance
+have resolved to recommend something to Turkey in favour of the
+Greeks. Whether this is true or not signifies nothing. The Turks will
+promise anything, and do just what suits them. They have always lost
+in war, for more than a hundred years, and have uniformly gained by
+diplomacy. They will never abandon the hope of reconquering Greece
+until driven out of Europe themselves, which they ought to be. By
+the way, the Greeks really appear to have been doing a little better
+lately; but I still fear these disciplined Arabians. I have written
+a very strong letter to Prince Mavrocordatos, telling them to hold
+out:--no surrender on any terms. I have not mentioned your name; but I
+have stated vaguely that they may expect the promised assistance early
+in the spring. It would indeed be a fine thing if you could commence
+operations during the Rhamadan; but I fear that is impossible. Any
+time, however, will do against the stupid, besotted Turks. Were they
+not led by Frenchmen, even the Greeks would beat them."
+
+Of the leisure forced upon him, Lord Cochrane made good use in
+studying for himself the character of "the stupid, besotted Turks,"
+and the nature of the war that was being waged against them by the
+Greeks; and he asked Mr. Hobhouse to procure for him all the books
+published on the subject or in any way related to it, of which he was
+not already master. "With respect to books," wrote Mr. Hobhouse, in
+reply to this request, "there are very few that are not what you have
+found those you have read to be, namely, romances; but I will take
+care to send out with you such as are the best, together with the
+most useful map that can be got." More than fifty volumes were thus
+collected for Lord Cochrane's use.
+
+From Captain Abney Hastings, moreover, he obtained precise information
+about Greek waters, forts, and armaments, as well as "a list of the
+names of the principal persons in Greece, with their characters." This
+list, as showing the opinions of an intelligent Englishman, based
+on personal knowledge, as to the parties and persons with whom Lord
+Cochrane was soon to deal, is worth quoting entire, especially as it
+was the chief basis of Lord Cochrane's own judgment during this time
+of study and preparation.
+
+
+I. Archontes, or men influential by their riches.
+
+Lazaros Konduriottes.--A Hydriot merchant, the elder of the two
+brothers, who are the most wealthy men in that island, and even in all
+Greece. This one, by intrigue, by distributing his money adroitly
+in Hydra, and keeping in pay the most dissolute and unruly of the
+sailors, and protecting them in the commission of their crimes,
+has acquired almost unlimited power at Hydra. He asserts democracy,
+appealing on all occasions to the people, who are his creatures. The
+other primates hate him, of course. Lazaros has the reputation of
+being clever. He never quits Hydra for an instant, for fear of finding
+himself supplanted on his return.
+
+George Konduriottes.--Brother of the former, and, like him a Hydriot
+merchant; an ignorant weak man; said to be vindictive; espouses the
+party of his brother at Hydra, by which means he has obtained the
+Presidency [of Greece]. He made the land captains his enemies, and had
+not good men enough to form an army of his own, viz., regular troops.
+His penetration went no further than bribing one captain to destroy
+another; which had for effect merely the changing the names of
+chieftains without diminishing the power. I understand he has lately
+retired to Hydra, and takes no active part in affairs.
+
+EMANUEL TOMBAZES.--A Hydriot merchant and captain. There are two
+brothers, at the head of the party opposed to Konduriottes. This
+man was the first who ventured on the voyage from the Black Sea to
+Marseilles in a latteen-rigged vessel. This traffic afterwards gave
+birth to the colossal fortunes in Hydra. These men are the most
+enlightened in Hydra. This one is dignified, energetic, and a good
+sailor. However, he lost in Candia much of the reputation he had
+previously acquired; but with all the errors he committed there, the
+loss of that island is not attributable to him. 'Twould have been
+lost, under similar circumstances, had Caesar commanded there.
+Konduriottes and his adherents hate him, of course, and did all they
+could to paralyze his operations in Crete. All considered, this man is
+more capable of introducing order and regularity into the ships than
+any other Greek.
+
+JAKOMAKI TOMBAZES.--A Hydriot merchant and captain, brother of the
+former. He commanded the fleet the first year of the Revolution, and
+to him is due the introduction of fire-vessels, by which he destroyed
+the first Turkish line-of-battle ship at Mytelene. He is perhaps the
+best-informed Hydriot; but he wants decision, and demands the advice
+of everybody at the moment he should be acting. This man takes little
+part in politics and follows his mercantile pursuits. His hobby-horse
+is ship-building, in which art he is such a proficient as to be
+quite the Seppings of Hydra. As to the rest, he is a very worthy,
+warm-hearted man, but excessively phlegmatic.
+
+MIAOULIS.--A Hydriot merchant and captain, who obtained command of the
+Hydriot fleet after Jakomaki resigned. He is a very dignified,
+worthy old man, possesses personal courage and decision, and is less
+intriguing than any Greek that I know.
+
+SAKTOURES.--A Hydriot captain. He has risen from a sailor, and is
+considered by the Archontes rather in the light of a _parvenu_. He is
+courageous and enterprising, but a bit of a pirate.
+
+BONDOMES, SAMADHOFF, GHIKA, ORLANDO.--Hydriot merchants without
+anything but their money to recommend them.
+
+PEPINOS.--A Hydriot sailor of the clan of Tombazes, who has
+distinguished himself frequently in fireships.
+
+KANARIS.--A Psarian sailor; the most distinguished of the commanders
+of fire-vessels.
+
+BOTAZES.--A Spetziot merchant; the most influential person in his
+island. But the Hydriot merchants possess so much property in Spetziot
+vessels that, in some measure, they rule that island.
+
+PETRO-BEY [or PETROS MAVROMICHALES].--The principal Archonte of Maina;
+was governor of that province under the Turks. A fat, stupid, worthy
+man; is sincere in the cause, in which he has lost two if not three
+sons.
+
+DELIYANNES.--A Moreot Archonte, and one of the most intriguing and
+ambitious; was formerly sworn enemy to Kolokotrones and the captains,
+but, having betrothed his daughter to Kolokotrones's son, they have
+become allies. This man, if not the richest Archonte in the Morea, is
+the one who affected the most pomp in the time of the Turks, and
+he cannot now easily brook his diminished influence. He is reported
+clever and unprincipled.
+
+NOTABAS.--A Moreot Archonte, considered the most ancient of the noble
+families in the Morea; is a well-meaning old blockhead; has a son, a
+good-looking youth, who commanded the Government forces against the
+captains in 1824; is said to be an egregious coward.
+
+LONDOS.--A Moreot Archonte; was much flattered by the Government, but
+afterwards leagued against them. He is a drunkard, and a man of no
+consideration but for his wealth.[A]
+
+[Footnote A: Lord Byron used to describe an evening passed in the
+company of Londos at Vostitza, when both were young men. After supper
+Londos, who had the face and figure of a chimpanzee, sprang upon
+a table, and commenced singing through his nose Rhiga's "Hymn to
+Liberty." A new cadi, passing near the house, inquired the cause of
+the discordant hubbub. A native Mussulman replied, "It is only the
+young primate Londos, who is drunk, and is singing hymns to the new
+franaghia of the Greeks, whom they call 'Eleftheria.'"--Finlay, vol.
+ii., p. 35.]
+
+ZAIMES.--A Moreot Archonte; said to possess considerable talent, and
+he exercises a very considerable influence. His brother was formerly a
+deputy in England.
+
+SISSINES.--A Moreot Archonte; was formerly a doctor at Patras; has
+risen into wealth and consequence since the Revolution; has great
+talent, and is a great rogue.
+
+SOTIRES XARALAMBI.--A Moreot Archonte of influence. I do not know his
+character.
+
+SPELIOTOPOLOS.--A Moreot Archonte, whose name would never have
+been heard by a foreigner, if he had not been made a member of the
+executive body; a stupid old man, possessing little influence of any
+kind.
+
+KOLETTES.--A Romeliot; was formerly doctor to Ali Pasha; possesses
+some talent; has held various situations in the ministry; is detested,
+yet I know not why. I never could ascertain any act of his that
+merited the dislike he has inspired a large party with. I fancy 'tis
+alone attributable to jealousy--the peculiar feature of the Greek
+character. It must nevertheless be acknowledged that he has sometimes
+made himself ridiculous by assuming the sword, for which profession
+he is totally incapacitated by want of courage. He is, however, poor,
+although in employment since the commencement of the Revolution.
+
+THIKOUPES.--An Archonte of Missolonghi; of some importance from the
+English education he has received from Lord Guildford; a worthy man,
+possessed of instruction, but, I think, not genius. He has married
+Mavrocordatos's sister.
+
+
+II. Phanaeiots.
+
+[DEMETRIUS] HYPSILANTES.--Is of a Phanariot family; was a Russian
+officer; although young, is bald and feeble. His appearance and voice
+are much against him. He does not so much want talent as ferocity. He
+possesses personal courage and probity, and may be said to be the only
+honest man that has figured upon the stage of the Revolution. He does
+not favour, but has never openly opposed, the party of the captains.
+He felt he had not the power to do it with success, and therefore
+showed his good sense in refraining. The Archontes, fearing the
+influence he might acquire would destroy theirs, have uniformly
+opposed him, secretly and openly; and they hate one another so
+cordially now that it is impossible they should ever unite.
+
+MAVROCORDATOS.--Of a Phanariot family; came forward under the auspices
+of Hypsilantes, and then tried to supplant him; and to do this he made
+himself the tool of the Hydriots, who, as soon as they had obtained
+all power in their hands, endeavoured to kick down the stepping-stool
+by which they had mounted. Perceiving this, he entered into
+negotiations with the captains, and frightened the Hydriots into an
+acknowledgment of some power for himself. He possesses quickness and
+intrigue; but I doubt if he has solid talent, and it is reported that
+he is particularly careful not to court danger.
+
+
+III. Captains or Land-Chieftains.
+
+KOLOKOTRONES.--A captain of the Morea, and the most powerful one in
+all Greece. He owes this partly to the numerous ramifications of his
+family, partly to his reputation as a hereditary robber, and also
+to the wealth he has amassed in his vocation. He is a fine,
+decided-looking man, and knows perfectly all the localities of the
+country for carrying on mountain warfare, and he knows also, better
+than any other, how to manage the Greek mountaineers. He is, however,
+entirely ignorant of any other species of warfare, and is not
+sufficiently civilized to look forward for any other advantage to
+himself or his country than that of possessing the mountains and
+keeping the Turks at bay. He proposed destroying all the fortresses
+except Nauplia. 'Twas an error of Mavrocordatos to have made this man
+an open enemy to himself and to organization. Had he been allowed to
+have profited by order, he would have espoused it. At present he may
+be considered irreconcilably opposed to order and the Hydriot party.
+
+NIKETAS.--There are two of this name; but the only one that merits
+notice is the Moreot captain, a relation of Kolokrotones. He is
+as ignorant and dirty as the rest of his brethren, but bears the
+reputation of being disinterested and courageous. He is always poor.
+All the chieftains are good bottle-men; but this one excels them so
+much that 'tis confidently asserted he drinks three bottles of rum per
+day.
+
+STAIKOS.--A Moreot captain who took part early with the Hydriot party
+from jealousy of Kolokotrones. When that party gained the ascendency,
+not finding himself sufficiently rewarded, he joined the captains.
+
+MOMGINOS.--A Mainot chieftain, a rival of Petro-Bey; is
+undistinguished, except by his colossal stature and ferocious
+countenance.
+
+GOURA.--A Romeliot captain; was a soldier of Odysseus, and employed
+by him in various assassinations, and thus he rose to preferment and
+supplanted his protector, and at length assassinated him. This man
+possesses courage and extreme ferocity, but is remarkably ignorant.
+In the hands of a similar master, he would have been a perfect Tristan
+l'Hermite. To supplant Odysseus, he was obliged to range himself with
+the Hydriot party.
+
+CONSTANTINE BOTZARES.--A Suliot captain; nephew to the celebrated
+Makrys, who, from all accounts, was a phenomenon among the captains.
+This man bears a good character.
+
+KARAISKAKES, RANGO, KALTZAS, ZAVELLA, &c. &c.--Romeliot captains; all
+more or less opposed to order, according as they see it suits their
+immediate interest.
+
+That estimate of the Greek heroes--in the main wonderfully
+accurate--was certainly not encouraging to Lord Cochrane. He
+determined, however, to go on with the work he had entered upon, and
+in doing his duty to the Greeks, to try to bring into healthy play the
+real patriotism that was being perverted by such unworthy leaders.
+
+Great benefit was conferred upon the Greeks by his entering into their
+service from its very beginning, in spite of the obstacles which were
+thrown in his way at starting, and which materially damaged all his
+subsequent work on their behalf. No sooner was it known that he was
+coming to aid them with his unsurpassed bravery and his unrivalled
+genius than they took heart and held out against the Turkish and
+Egyptian foes to whom they had just before been inclined to yield.
+And his enlistment in their cause had another effect, of which they
+themselves were ignorant. The mere announcement that he intended to
+fight and win for them, as he had fought and won for Chili, for Peru,
+and for Brazil, while it caused both England and France to do their
+utmost in hindering him from achieving an end which was more thorough
+than they desired, forced both England and France to shake off the
+listlessness with which they had regarded the contest during nearly
+five years, and initiate the temporizing action by which Greece was
+prevented from becoming as great and independent a state as it might
+have been, yet by which a smaller independence was secured for it.
+Hardly had Lord Cochrane consented to serve as admiral of the Greeks
+than the Duke of Wellington was despatched, in the beginning of 1826,
+on a mission to Russia, which issued in the protocol of April, 1826,
+and the treaty of July, 1827--both having for their avowed object the
+pacification of Greece--and in the battle of Navarino, by which that
+pacification was secured.
+
+The Duke of Wellington passed through Brussels, on his way to
+St. Petersburg, in March, 1826. Halting there, he informed the
+hotel-keeper that he could see no one _except Lord Cochrane_, which
+was as distinct an intimation that he desired an interview as,
+in accordance with the rules of etiquette, he could make. The
+hotel-keeper, however, was too dull to take the hint. He did not
+acquaint Lord Cochrane of the indirect message intended for him
+until the Duke of Wellington had proceeded on his journey. Thus was
+prevented a meeting between one of England's greatest soldiers and one
+of her greatest sailors, which could not but have been very memorable
+in itself, and which might have been far more memorable in its
+political consequences.
+
+The meeting was hindered, and, without listening either to the
+personal courtesies or to the diplomatic arguments of the Duke of
+Wellington, Lord Cochrane continued his preparations for active
+service in Greek waters. The details of these preparations and their
+practical execution, as has been shown, he was forced to leave in
+other and less competent hands, and their actual supervision was still
+impossible to him. Gradually the irritating and wasteful obstacles for
+which Mr. Galloway was chiefly responsible induced him to resolve upon
+following the advice tendered in December by Mr. Hobhouse and Captain
+Hastings--that is, to go to Greece with a small portion only of
+the naval armament for which he had stipulated, and which his most
+cautious friends deemed necessary to his enterprise. To this he was
+driven, not only by a desire to do something worthy of his great name,
+and something really helpful to the cause which he had espoused,
+but also by the knowledge that the tedious delays that arose were
+squandering all the money with which he had counted upon rendering his
+work efficient when he could get to Greece.
+
+Of this he received frequent and clear intimation from all his
+friends in London, though from none so emphatically as from the Greek
+deputies, Orlando and Luriottis, who, being themselves grievously to
+blame for their peculations and their bad management, threw all the
+blame upon Mr. Galloway and the other defaulters. Finding that the
+proceeds of the second Greek loan were being rapidly exhausted by
+their own and others' wrong-doing, they were even audacious enough to
+propose to Lord Cochrane that, not abandoning his Greek engagement,
+but rather continuing it under conditions involving much greater risk
+and anxiety than had been anticipated, he should return the 37,000_l._
+which had been handed over to Sir Francis Burdett on his account, and
+take as sole security for his ultimate recompense the two frigates
+half built in America, acknowledged to be of so little value that no
+purchaser could be found for them. "Our only desire." they said,
+"is to rescue the millions of souls that are praying with a thousand
+supplications that they may not fall victims to the despair which is
+only averted by the hope of your lordship's arrival."
+
+To that preposterous request Lord Cochrane made a very temperate
+answer. "I have perused your letter of the 18th," he wrote on the 28th
+of February, "with the utmost attention, and have since considered its
+contents with the most anxious desire to promote the objects you have
+in view in all ways in my power. But I have not been able to convince
+myself that, under existing circumstances, there is any means by which
+Greece can be so readily saved as by steady perseverance in equipping
+the steam-vessels, which are so admirably calculated to cut off the
+enemies' communication with Alexandria and Constantinople, and for
+towing fire-vessels and explosion-vessels by night into ports and
+places where the hostile squadrons anchor on the shores of Greece.
+With steam-vessels constructed for such purposes, and a few gunboats
+carrying heavy cannon, I have no doubt but that the Morea might in a
+few weeks be cleared of the enemy's naval force. I wish I could give
+you, without writing a volume, a clear view of the numerous reasons,
+derived from thirty-five years' experience, which induce me to prefer
+a force that can move in all directions in the obscurity of night
+through narrow channels, in shoal water, and with silence and
+celerity, over a naval armament of the usual kind, though of far
+superior force. You would then perceive with what efficacy the counsel
+of Demosthenes to your countrymen might be carried into effect by
+desultory attacks on the enemy; and, in fact, you would perceive that
+steam-vessels, whenever they shall be brought into war for hostile
+purposes, will prove the most formidable means that ever has been
+employed in naval warfare. Indeed, it is my opinion that twenty-four
+vessels moved by steam (such as the largest constructed for
+your service) could commence at St. Petersburg, and finish at
+Constantinople, the destruction of every ship of war in the European
+ports. I therefore hold that you ought to strain every nerve to get
+the steam-vessels equipped. For on these, next to the valour of
+the Greeks themselves, depends the fate of Greece, and not on large
+unwieldy ships, immovable in calms, and ill-calculated for nocturnal
+operations on the shores of the Morea and adjacent islands. Having
+thus repeated to you my opinions, I have only to add that, if
+you judge you can follow a better course, I release you from the
+engagement you entered into with me, and I am ready to return you the
+37,000_l._ on your receiving as part thereof 72,500 Greek scrip, at
+the price I gave for it on the day following my engagement (under the
+faith of the stipulations then entered into), as a further stimulus
+to my exertion, by casting my property, as well as my life, into the
+scale with Greece. This release I am ready to make at once; but I
+cannot consent to accept as security, for the fruits of seven years'
+toil, vessels manned by Americans, whose pay and provisions I see no
+adequate or regular means of providing. But should the 150,000_l._
+placed at the disposal of the Committee not prove sufficient for the
+objects _I have required_, I will advance the 37,000_l._ for the pay
+and provisions necessary for the steamboats on the security of the
+boats themselves. Thus you have the option of releasing me from
+the service, or of continuing my engagement, although I shall lose
+severely by my temporary acceptance of your offer."
+
+In that letter Lord Cochrane conceded more than ought to have been
+expected of him. In a supplementary letter written on the same day
+he added: "I again assure you that I am ready to do whatever is
+reasonable for the interest of Greece; but it cannot be expected that
+for such interest I ought to sacrifice totally those of my family
+and myself, as would be the case were I to give up both the means I
+possess to obtain justice in South America and my indemnification, on
+so slender a security as that offered to me. Believe me, I should have
+tendered the 37,000_l._, without reference to the Greek scrip I
+had purchased, had it not been evident to me that, under such
+circumstances, the security of your public funds would be dependent
+on chances which I cannot foresee, and over which I should have no
+control."
+
+Thus temperately rebuked, the Greek deputies did not urge their
+proposal any further. They only wrote to promise all possible
+expedition in completing the steam-vessels. Lord Cochrane, however,
+voluntarily acceded to one of their wishes. Hearing that the largest
+of the steamers, the _Perseverance_, was nearly ready for sea, and
+that Mr. Galloway had again solemnly pledged himself to complete the
+others in a short time, he determined not to wait for the whole force,
+but to start at once for the Mediterranean. It had been all along
+decided that the _Perseverance_ should be placed under Captain
+Hastings's command; and it was now arranged that he should take her to
+Greece as soon as she was ready, and that Lord Cochrane should follow
+in a schooner, the _Unicorn_, of 158 tons. It was not intended, of
+course, that with that boat alone he should go all the way to Greece;
+but it was considered--perhaps not very wisely--that if he were
+actually on his way to Greece, the completion of the other five
+steamships would be proceeded with more rapidly; and he agreed that,
+as soon as he was joined in the Mediterranean by the first two of
+these, the _Enterprise_ and the _Irresistible_, he would hasten on
+to the Archipelago, and there make the best of the small force at his
+disposal. Not only was it supposed that Mr. Galloway and the other
+agents would thus be induced to more vigorous action: it was also
+deemed that the effect of this step upon the Hellenic nation would
+be very beneficial. "As soon as the Greek Government know that your
+lordship is on your way to Greece," wrote the London deputies on the
+13th of April, "their courage will be animated, and their confidence
+renewed. We may with truth assert that your lordship is regarded by
+all classes of our countrymen as a Messiah, who is to come to their
+deliverance; and, from the enthusiasm which will prevail amongst the
+people, we may venture to predict that your lordship's valour and
+success at sea will give energy and victory to their arms on land."
+
+With the new arrangements necessitated by this change of plans the
+last two or three weeks of April and the first of May were occupied.
+Lord Cochrane put to sea on the 8th of May. "As a Greek citizen," one
+of the deputies in London, Andreas Luriottis, had written on the
+17th of April, "I cannot refrain from expressing my sincere gratitude
+towards your lordship for the resolution which you have taken to
+depart almost immediately for Greece. This generous determination, at
+a moment when my country is really in want of every assistance, cannot
+be regarded with indifference by my countrymen, who already look upon
+your lordship as a Messiah. Your talents and intrepidity cannot allow
+us for a moment to doubt of success. My countrymen will afford you
+every assistance, and confer on you all the powers necessary for your
+undertaking; although your lordship must be aware that Greece, after
+five years' struggle, cannot be expected to present a very favourable
+aspect to a stranger. Your lordship will, however, find men full of
+devotion and courage--men who have founded, their best hopes on you,
+and from whom, under such a leader, everything may be expected. Your
+lordship's previous exploits encourage me to hope that Greece will not
+be less successful than the Brazils, since the materials she offers
+for cultivation are superior. With patience and perseverance in the
+outset, all difficulties will soon vanish, and the course will be
+direct and unimpeded. The resources of Greece are not to be despised,
+and, if successful, she will find ample means to reward those who will
+have devoted themselves to her service and to the cause of liberty."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV.
+
+LORD COCHRANE'S DEPARTURE FOR GREECE.--HIS VISIT TO LONDON AND
+VOYAGE TO THE MEDITERRANEAN.--HIS STAY AT MESSINA, AND AFTERWARDS
+AT MARSEILLES.--THE DELAYS IN COMPLETING THE STEAMSHIPS, AND THE
+CONSEQUENT INJURY TO THE GREEK CAUSE, AND SERIOUS EMBARRASSMENT
+TO LORD COCHRANE.--HIS CORRESPONDENCE WITH MESSRS. J. AND S.
+RICARDO.--HIS LETTER TO THE GREEK GOVERNMENT.--CHEVALIER EYNARD, AND
+THE CONTINENTAL PHILHELLENES.--LORD COCHRANE'S FINAL DEPARTURE, AND
+ARRIVAL IN GREECE.
+
+[1826-1827.]
+
+
+Lord Cochrane, having passed from Brussels to Flushing, sailed thence
+in the _Unicorn_ on the 8th of May, 1826. Before proceeding to the
+Mediterranean, he determined, in spite of the personal risk he would
+thus be subjected to through the Foreign Enlistment Act, to see for
+himself in what state were the preparations for his enterprise in
+Greece. He accordingly landed at Weymouth, and hurrying up to London,
+spent the greater part of Sunday, the 16th of May, in Mr. Galloway's
+building yard at Greenwich.
+
+He found that the _Perseverance_ was apparently completed, though
+waiting for some finishing touches to be put to her boilers. "The two
+other vessels," he said, "were filled with pieces of the high-pressure
+engines, all unfixed, and scattered about in the engine-room and on
+deck. The boilers were in the small boats, and occupied nearly one
+half of their length, Mr. Galloway having, through inattention or
+otherwise, caused them to be made of the same dimensions as the
+boilers for the great vessels, which, by the by, had been improperly
+increased from sixteen feet, the length determined on, to twenty-three
+feet." The inspection was unsatisfactory; but Mr. Galloway pledged
+himself on his honour that the _Perseverance_ should start in a day or
+two, that the _Enterprise_ and the _Irresistible_ should be completed
+and sent to sea within a fortnight, and that the other three vessels
+should be out of hand in less than a month.
+
+Trusting to that promise, or at any rate hoping that it might be
+fulfilled, and after a parting interview with Sir Francis Burdett, Mr.
+Ellice, and other friends, Lord Cochrane left London on Monday, and
+joined the _Unicorn_, at Dartford, on the 20th of May. It had
+been arranged that he should wait in British waters for the first
+instalment of his little fleet, at any rate. With that object he
+called at Falmouth, and, receiving no satisfactory information there,
+went to make a longer halt in Bantry Bay. At length, hearing that the
+_Perseverance_ had actually started, with Captain Hastings for its
+commander, and that the other two large vessels were on the point of
+leaving the Thames, he left the coast of Ireland on the 12th of June.
+
+He vainly hoped that the vessels would promptly join him in the
+Mediterranean, and that within four or five weeks' time he should
+be at work in Greek waters. The journey, however, was to last nine
+months. The mismanagement and the wilful delays of Mr. Galloway and
+the other contractors and agents continued as before. The urgent
+need of Greece was unsatisfied; the funds collected for promoting her
+deliverance were wantonly perverted; and the looked-for deliverer was
+doomed to nearly a year of further inactivity--hateful to him at all
+times, but now a special source of annoyance, as it involved not
+only idleness to himself, but also serious injury to the cause he had
+espoused.
+
+He passed Oporto on the 18th, Lisbon on the 20th, and Gibraltar on the
+26th of June. He was off Algiers on the 3rd of July, and on the 12th
+he anchored in the harbour of Messina. There, and in the adjoining
+waters, he waited nearly three months, in daily expectation of
+the arrival of his vessels, Messina having been the appointed
+meeting-place. No vessels came, but instead only dismal and
+procrastinating letters. "We deeply lament," wrote Messrs. J. and S.
+Ricardo, the contractors for the Greek loan, in one of them, dated the
+9th of September, "that, after all the exertions which have been used,
+we have not yet been able to despatch the two large steam-vessels.
+Everything has been ready for some time; but Mr. Galloway's failure
+in the engines will now occasion a much longer detention. We leave to
+your brother, who writes by the same opportunity, to explain fully to
+your lordship how all this has arisen, and what measures it has been
+considered expedient to adopt. In the whole of this unfortunate affair
+we have endeavoured to follow your wishes; and our conduct towards Mr.
+Galloway, who has much to answer for, has been chiefly directed by
+his representations." "Galloway is the evil genius that pursues us
+everywhere," wrote the same correspondents on the 25th of September;
+"his presumption is only equalled by his incompetency. Whatever he has
+to do with is miserably deficient. We do not think his misconduct has
+been intentional; but it has proved most fatal to the interests of
+Greece, and of those engaged in her behalf. On your lordship it has
+pressed peculiarly hard; and most sincerely do we lament that an
+undertaking, which promised so fairly in the commencement should
+hitherto have proved unavailing, and that your power of assisting
+this unhappy country should have been rendered nugatory by the want of
+means to put it in effect."
+
+Those letters, and others written before and after, did not reach Lord
+Cochrane till the end of October. In the meanwhile, finding that the
+expected vessels did not arrive at Messina, and that in that place it
+was impossible even for him to receive accurate information as to the
+progress of affairs in London, he called at Malta about the middle
+of September, and thence proceeded to Marseilles, as a convenient
+halting-place, in which he had better chance of hearing how matters
+were proceeding, and from which he could easily go to meet the vessels
+when, if ever, they were ready to join him. He reached Marseilles
+on the 12th of October, and on the same day he forwarded a letter
+to Messrs. Ricardo. "I wrote to you a few days ago," he said, "from
+Malta, and, as the packet sailed with a fair wind, you will receive
+that letter very shortly. You will thereby perceive the distressing
+suspense in which I have been held, and the inconvenience to which
+I have been exposed, by remaining on board this small vessel for a
+period of five months, during all the heat of a Mediterranean summer,
+without exercise or recreation. This situation has been rendered
+the more unpleasant, as I have had no means to inform myself, except
+through the public papers, relative to the concern in which we are now
+engaged. My patience, however, is now worn out, and I have come here
+to learn whether I am to expect the steam-vessels or not,--whether
+the scandalous blunders of Mr. Galloway are to be remedied by
+those concerned, or if an ill-timed parsimony is to doom Greece to
+inevitable destruction; for such will be the consequence, if Ibrahim's
+resources are not cut up before the period at which it is usual for
+him to commence operations. You know my opinions so well, that it is
+unnecessary to repeat them to you. I shall, however, add, that
+the intelligence and plans I have obtained since my arrival in the
+Mediterranean confirm these opinions, and enable me to predict, with
+as much certainty as I ever could do on any enterprise, that if the
+vessels and the means to pay six months' expenses are forwarded, there
+shall not be a Turkish or Egyptian ship in the Archipelago at the
+termination of the winter. It may have been expected that I should
+immediately proceed to Greece in this vessel. I might have done so at
+an earlier period of my life, before I had proved by experience that
+advice is thrown away upon persons in the situation and circumstances
+in which the Greek rulers and their people are unfortunately placed.
+Having made up my mind on this subject, I must entreat you to let me
+know by the earliest possible means what I am to expect in regard to
+the steamships. I see by the 'Globe' of the 2nd of last month that the
+holders of Greek stock were to have a meeting. I conclude they came
+to some resolution, and this resolution I want to know. I wish I could
+give them my eyes to see with--they would then pursue a course which
+would secure their interests. This, however, is impossible; therefore
+they must, like the Greeks, be left to follow their own notions.
+I have, however, no objections to your stating to these gentlemen,
+either publicly or privately, that I pledge my reputation to free
+Greece if they will, by the smallest additional sacrifice that may be
+required, put the stipulated force at my disposal."[A]
+
+[Footnote A: This letter, like some others of this nature, is partly
+written in cypher, the key to which is lost. Its concluding sentences,
+therefore, are not given.]
+
+At Marseilles, Lord Cochrane received information, disheartening
+enough, though more encouraging than was justified by the real state
+of affairs, with reference to his intended fleet. On the 14th of
+October he wrote to explain his position, as he himself understood it,
+to the Greek Government. "By the most fortunate accident," he said, "I
+have met Mr. Hobhouse here, who, from his correspondence with Messrs.
+Ricardo and others in London, enables me to state to you that the two
+large steamboats will be completed on the 28th day of this month, and
+that they will proceed on the following day for the _rendezvous_ which
+I had assigned to them previous to my departure. You may, therefore,
+count on their being in Greece about the 14th of next month. The
+American frigate is said to be completed and on her way, and I feel a
+confident hope that I shall be able here to add a very efficient ship
+of war to the before-mentioned vessels.[A] It is probable," he added,
+"that many idle reports will be circulated here and through the public
+prints, because, under existing circumstances, I find it necessary to
+appear now as a person travelling about for private amusement. I can
+assure you, however, that the hundred and sixty days which I have
+already spent in this small vessel, without ever having my foot on
+shore till the day before yesterday, has been a sacrifice which I
+should not have made for any other cause than that in which I
+am engaged; but I considered it essential to conceal the real
+insignificance of my situation and allow rumours to circulate of
+squadrons collecting in various parts, judging that the effect would
+be to embarrass the operations of the enemy."
+
+[Footnote A: It should here be explained that the building and fitting
+out of the two frigates contracted for in New York, at a cost of
+150,000_l._, having been assigned to persons whose mismanagement was
+as scandalous as that which perplexed the Greek cause in London, one
+of them had been sold, and with the proceeds and some other funds the
+other had been completed and fitted out, more than 200,000_l._ having
+been spent upon her. She reached Greece at the end of 1826, there to
+be known as the _Hellas_.]
+
+That concealment had to be maintained, and the wearisome delays
+continued, for three months more. All the promises of Mr. Galloway and
+all the efforts, real or pretended, of the Greek deputies in London,
+were vain. The completion of the steam-vessels was retarded on all
+sorts of pretexts, and when each little portion of the work was said
+to be done, it was found to be so badly executed that it had to be
+cancelled and the whole thing done afresh. In this way all the residue
+of the loan of 1825 was exhausted, and all for worse than nothing.
+
+Lord Cochrane would never have been able to proceed to Greece at all,
+had the Greek deputies, Orlando and Luriottis, who had contracted for
+his employment, been his only supporters. Fortunately, however, he had
+other and worthier coadjutors. The Greek Committee in Paris did
+much on his behalf, and yet more was done by the Philhellenes of
+Switzerland, with Chevalier Eynard at their head, of whom one zealous
+member, Dr. L.A. Gosse, of Geneva, "well-informed, very zealous, full
+of genuine enthusiasm for the cause of humanity, and an excellent
+physician," as M. Eynard described him, was about to go in person
+to Greece, as administrator of the funds collected by the Swiss
+Committee. Lord Cochrane's disconsolate arrival at Marseilles, and the
+miserable failure of the plans for his enterprise, had not been known
+to M. Eynard and his friends a week, before they set themselves to
+remedy the mischief as far as lay in their power. As a first and
+chief movement they proposed to buy a French corvette, then lying
+in Marseilles Harbour, and fit her out as a stout auxiliary to Lord
+Cochrane's little force expected from London and New York. Lord
+Cochrane, being consulted on the scheme, eagerly acceded to it in a
+letter written on the 25th of October. "As I have yet no certainty,"
+he said, "that the person employed to fit the machinery of the
+steam-vessels will now perform his task better than he has heretofore
+done, I recommend purchasing the corvette, provided that she can be
+purchased for the sum of 200,000 francs, and, if funds are wanting, I
+personally am willing to advance enough to provision the corvette,
+and am ready to proceed in that or any fit vessel. But I am quite
+resolved, without a moral certainty of something following me, not
+to ruin and disgrace the cause by presenting myself in Greece in a
+schooner of two carronades of the smallest calibre."
+
+The corvette was bought and equipped; but in this several weeks
+were employed. In the interval, for a week or two after the 8th of
+December, Lord Cochrane went to Geneva, there to be the guest of
+Chevalier Eynard, to be introduced to Dr. Gosse, and to become
+personally acquainted with many other Philhellenes.
+
+Neither Lord Cochrane nor his friends could quite abandon hope of the
+ultimate completion of the London steam-vessels. They felt, too,
+that with nothing but the new vessel, the American frigate, and the
+_Perseverance_, Lord Cochrane would have very poor provision for his
+undertaking. "I have this moment received a letter from his lordship,"
+wrote M. Eynard to Mr. Hobhouse on the 12th of January, 1827, "wherein
+he appears rather disappointed with respect to the scantiness of the
+forces and the means placed at his disposal. He informs me that he has
+no officers, few sailors; and that, in case the steamers should
+not arrive, he will not feel qualified to encounter the Turkish and
+Egyptian naval forces, as well as the Algerines, who of all are the
+best manned. 'I therefore shall not be able to undertake anything
+of moment,' continues his lordship. 'Thus to stake my character and
+existence would be a mere Quixotic act. I will put to sea, however,
+but still with a heavy heart; yet not until I have with me all
+requisites, and my stores and ammunition be embarked likewise.'
+Discouragement appears throughout his lordship's letter."
+
+The discouragement is not to be wondered at. It is hardly necessary,
+however, to give further illustration of it, or of the troubles
+incident to this long waiting-time. Enough has been said to show Lord
+Cochrane's position in relation to this deplorable state of affairs,
+and to exonerate him from all blame in the matter. That he should have
+been blamed at all is only part of the wanton injustice that attended
+him nearly all through his life. He had consented, in the autumn
+of 1825, to enter the service of the Greeks, on the distinct
+understanding that six English-built steamships should be placed at
+his disposal, and to facilitate the arrangements he did and bore
+far more than could have been expected of him. For the delays and
+disasters that befel those arrangements he was in no way responsible:
+he was only thereby a very great sufferer. But his sufferings would
+have been greater, and he would have been really at fault, had he
+consented to go to Greece without any sort of provision, as a few
+rash friends and many eager enemies desired him to do, and afterwards
+blamed him for not doing.
+
+As it was, he greatly increased his difficulties by at last proceeding
+to Greece with the miserable equipment provided for him. In his little
+schooner, the _Unicorn_, he left Marseilles on the 14th of February,
+1827, and proceeded to St. Tropezy, where the French corvette, the
+_Sauveur_, was being fitted out under the direction of Captain Thomas,
+a brave and energetic officer. Thence he set sail, with the two
+vessels, on the 23rd of February. He reached Poros, and entered
+upon his service in Greek waters, on the 19th of March. "He had been
+wandering about the Mediterranean in a fine English yacht, purchased
+for him out of the proceeds of the loan, in order to accelerate his
+arrival in Greece, ever since the month of June, 1826," says the
+ablest historian of the Greek Revolution.[A] The preceding paragraphs
+will show how much truth is contained in that sarcastic sentence.
+
+[Footnote A: Finlay, vol. ii., p. 137.]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI.
+
+THE PROGRESS OF AFFAIRS IN GREECE.--THE SIEGE OF MISSOLONGHI.--ITS
+FALL.--THE BAD GOVERNMENT AND MISMANAGEMENT OF THE GREEKS.--GENERAL
+PONSONBY'S ACCOUNT OF THEM.--THE EFFECT OF LORD COCHRANE'S PROMISED
+ASSISTANCE.--THE FEARS OF THE TURKS, AS SHOWN IN THEIR CORRESPONDENCE
+WITH MR. CANNING.--THE ARRIVAL OF CAPTAIN HASTINGS IN GREECE, WITH THE
+"KARTERIA."--HIS OPINION OF GREEK CAPTAINS AND SAILORS.--THE FRIGATE
+"HELLAS."--LETTERS TO LORD COCHRANE FROM ADMIRAL MIAOULIS AND THE
+GOVERNING COMMISSION OF GREECE.
+
+[1826-1827.]
+
+
+During the one-and-twenty weary months that elapsed between Lord
+Cochrane's acceptance of service in the Greek War of Independence and
+his actual participation in the work, the Revolution passed through a
+new and disastrous stage. In the summer of 1825, when the invitation
+was sent to him, the disorganisation of the Greeks and the superior
+strength of the Turks, and yet more of their Egyptian and Arabian
+allies under Ibrahim Pasha, were threatening to undo all that had been
+achieved in the previous years. One bold stand had begun to be made,
+in which, throughout nearly a whole year, the Greeks fought with
+unsurpassed heroism, and then the whole struggle for liberty fell into
+the lawless and disordered condition which already had prevailed in
+many districts, and which was then to become universal and to offer
+obstacles too great even for Lord Cochrane's genius to overcome in
+his efforts to revive genuine patriotism and to render thoroughly
+successful the cause that he had espoused.
+
+The last great stand was at Missolonghi. Built on the edge of a marshy
+plain, bounded on the north by the high hills of Zygos and protected
+on the south by shallow lagoons at the mouth of the Gulf of Lepanto,
+and chiefly tenanted by hardy fishermen, this town had been the first
+in Western Greece to take part in the Revolution. Here in June, 1821,
+nearly all the Moslem residents had been slaughtered, the wealthiest
+and most serviceable only being spared to become the slaves of their
+Christian masters. In the last two months of 1822 the Ottomans
+had made a desperate attempt to win back the stronghold; but its
+inhabitants, led by Mavrocordatos, who had lately come to join in the
+work of regeneration, had resolutely beaten off the invaders and taken
+revenge upon the few Turks still resident among them. "The wife of one
+of the Turkish inhabitants of Missolonghi," said an English visitor
+in 1824, "imploring my pity, begged me to allow her to remain under
+my roof, in order to shelter her from the brutality and cruelty of the
+Greeks. They had murdered all her relations. A little girl, nine years
+old, remained to be the only companion of her misery."[A] Missolonghi
+continued to be one of the chief strongholds of independence in
+continental Greece; and, the revolutionists being forced into it by
+the Turks, who scoured the districts north and east of it in 1824 and
+1825, it became in the latter year the main object of attack and the
+scene of most desperate resistance. Here were concentrated the chief
+energies of the Greek warriors and of their Moslem antagonists, and
+here was exhibited the last and most heroic effort of the patriots,
+unaided by foreign champions of note, in their long and hard-fought
+battle for freedom.
+
+[Footnote A: Millingen, "Memoirs on the Affairs of Greece," p. 99.]
+
+Reshid Pasha, the ablest of the Turkish generals, having advanced into
+the neighbourhood of Missolonghi towards the end of April, began to
+besiege it in good earnest, at the head of an army of some seven
+or eight thousand picked followers, on the 7th of May. While he was
+forming his entrenchments and erecting his batteries, the townsmen,
+augmented by a number of fierce Suliots and others, were strengthening
+their defences. They increased their ramparts, and organised a
+garrison of four thousand soldiers and armed peasants, with a thousand
+citizens and boatmen as auxiliaries. At first the tide of fortune was
+with them. The Turks had to defend themselves as best they could from
+numerous sorties, well-planned and well-executed, in May and June; and
+fresh courage came to the Greeks with the intelligence that Admiral
+Miaoulis was on his way to the port, with as powerful a fleet as he
+could muster. While he was being expected, however, on the 10th of
+July, the Turkish Capitan Pasha of Greece arrived with fifty-five
+vessels. Miaoulis, with forty Greek sail, made his appearance on the
+2nd of August. Thus the naval and military forces of both sides were
+brought into formidable opposition.
+
+At first the Greeks triumphed on the sea. In the night of the 3rd of
+August, Miaoulis, finding that Missolonghi was being greatly troubled
+by the blockade established by the Turks, cleverly placed himself to
+windward of the enemy's line, and at daybreak on the 4th he dispersed
+the squadron nearest the shore. At noon the whole Turkish force came
+against him. He met them bravely, but being able to do no more
+than hold his own by the ordinary method of warfare, he sent three
+fireships against them in the afternoon. The Turks did not wait to be
+injured by them. They fled at once, going all the way to Alexandria
+in search of safety. Miaoulis then lost no time in seconding his first
+exploit by another. A detachment of the army of Eastern Greece, under
+the brave generals Karaiskakes and Zavellas, having been sent to
+harass Reshid Pasha's operations, the admiral assisted them in a
+successful piece of strategy. The Turks were, on the 6th of August,
+attacked simultaneously by the ships and by the outlying battalion
+of Greeks, while fifteen hundred of the garrison rushed out upon the
+invaders. Four Turkish batteries were seized, and a great number of
+their defenders were killed and captured; the remainder, after tough
+fighting during three hours and a half, being driven so far back that
+much of the besieging work had to be done over again.
+
+Miaoulis then went in search of the Ottoman fleet, leaving the
+townsmen, who were enabled, by the raising of the blockade, to receive
+fresh supplies of food, ammunition, and men, to continue their
+defence with a good heart. Reshid Pasha vigorously restored his siege
+operations, but, attempting to force his way into the town on the 21st
+of September, was again seriously repulsed. The Turks were allowed,
+and even tempted, to advance to a point which had been skilfully
+undermined by the besieged. The mine was then fired, and a great
+number of Moslems were blown into the air, while their comrades,
+fleeing in disorder, were further injured by a storm of shot from the
+ramparts. A similar device was resorted to, with like success, on the
+13th of October. Reshid had to retire to a safe distance and
+there build winter quarters for his diminished and starving army.
+Karaiskakes and Zavellas entered Missolonghi without hindrance, there
+to concert measures which, had they been promptly adopted, might have
+utterly destroyed the besieging force.
+
+They delayed their plans too long. The Capitan Pasha having in August
+fled in a cowardly way to Alexandria, there effected a junction with
+the Egyptians, and returned to the neighbourhood of Missolonghi in
+the middle of November with a huge fleet of a hundred and thirty-five
+vessels, well supplied with troops and provisions. These he landed at
+Patras on the 18th, just in time to be free from any annoyance that
+might have been occasioned by Miaoulis, who returned to Missolonghi
+on the 28th with a fleet of only thirty-three sail. He had vainly
+attacked a part of the Moslem force on its way, and now, after landing
+some stores at Missolonghi, made several vain attempts to overcome a
+force four times as strong as his own. He soon retired, intending to
+return as promptly as he could collect a large fleet and bring with
+him further supplies of the provisions of which the Missolonghites
+were beginning to be in need.
+
+The need was greater even than he imagined. Not only had the Capitan
+Pasha brought temporary assistance, in men and food, to the besieging
+force. Yet greater assistance soon came in the shape of an Egyptian
+army, led by Ibrahim Pasha himself. An overwhelming power was
+thus organized during the last weeks of 1825, and the defenders of
+Missolonghi were left to succumb to it, almost unaided. Their previous
+successes had induced the Greeks of other districts to believe that
+they could continue their defence alone, and almost the only relief
+obtained by them was from the Zantiots, who had all along been zealous
+in the despatch of money and provisions, and from Miaoulis and the
+small fleet and equipment that he was able to collect from the islands
+of the Archipelago. Miaoulis returned in January, 1826, and did much
+injury to the Turkish and Egyptian vessels. But he could offer no
+hindrance to the action of the Turks and Egyptians upon land. The
+rainy months of December and January, in which no important attack
+could be entered upon, were spent by Ibrahim and his companions in
+preparation for future work. The invaders were now well provided
+with every requisite. The besieged were in want of nearly everything.
+"Invested for ten months," says the contemporary historian,
+"frequently on the verge of starvation, thinned by fatigue, watching,
+and wounds, they had already buried fifteen hundred soldiers. The
+town was in ruins, and they lived amongst the mire and water of their
+ditches, exposed to the inclemency of a rigorous season, without shoes
+and in tattered clothing. As far as their vision stretched over the
+waves they beheld only Turkish flags. The plain was studded with
+Mussulman tents and standards; and the gradual appearance of new
+batteries more skilfully disposed, the field days of the Arabs, and
+the noise of saws and hammers, gave fearful warning. Yet these gallant
+Acarnanians, Etolians, and Epirots never flinched for an instant."[A]
+
+[Footnote A: Gordon, vol. ii., p. 253.]
+
+On the 13th of January, Ibrahim Pasha sent to say that he was willing
+to treat with them for an honourable surrender if they would convey
+their terms by deputies who could speak Albanian, Turkish, and French.
+"We are illiterate, and do not understand so many languages," was
+their blunt reply; "pashas we do not recognize; but we know how to
+handle the sword and gun."[A]
+
+[Footnote A: Ibid.]
+
+Sword and gun were handled with desperate prowess during February and
+March and the early part of April. In April, offers of capitulation
+were renewed by Ibrahim, and more disinterested attempts to avert
+the worst calamity were made by Sir Frederick Adam, the Lord High
+Commissioner of the Ionian Islands. Both proposals were stoutly
+rejected. The Missolonghiotes declared that they would defend their
+town to the last, and trust only in God and in their own strong arms.
+But on the 1st of April the last scanty distribution of public rations
+was exhausted. For three weeks the inhabitants subsisted upon nothing
+but cats, rats, hides, seaweed, and whatever other refuse and vermin
+they could collect. At length, on the 22nd of April, finding it
+impossible to hold out for a day longer, they resolved to evacuate the
+town in a body, and, cutting their way through the enemy, to try to
+join Karaiskakes and his small force, who, hiding among the mountain
+fastnesses, were vainly seeking for some way of assisting them, and to
+whom they now despatched a message, asking them to advance and help to
+clear a passage for their flight.
+
+After sunset four bridges of planks were secretly laid over the outer
+ditch of Missolonghi, and the inhabitants were ordered to prepare to
+leave in two hours. Many--about two thousand--lost heart at last; some
+betaking themselves to the powder stores, there, when all hope was
+over, to end their lives by easier death than the enemy might allow
+them; others, crouching in corners of their homesteads, deeming it
+better to be murdered there than in the open country. The rest obeyed
+the orders of the generals. All the women dressed themselves as men,
+with swords or daggers at their waists. Every child who could hold a
+weapon had one placed in his hand. There was bitter leave-taking, and
+desperate words of encouragement passed from one to another, as the
+patriots were marshalled in the order of their departure;--three
+thousand fighting men to open a passage and four thousand women and
+children to follow;--the whole being divided into three separate
+parties. At length all was ready, and the first party silently passed
+out of the town and advanced to the bridges. To their amazement,
+they no sooner appeared than they were met by volley after volley of
+Turkish fire. A traitor had revealed their plan, and every measure had
+been taken for their destruction. Some rushed on in despite; others
+hurried back, to fall into confusion, which it was hard indeed to
+overcome. They felt, however, that this deadly chance was their only
+chance of life, and they pressed on through the fire, and the swords
+of their foes, and by the sheer heroism of despair forced a passage
+to the mountains. Karaiskakes's aid--apparently through no fault of
+his--was only obtained when the worst dangers had been surmounted or
+succumbed to. Of the nine thousand persons who were in Missolonghi on
+the day of the evacuation, four thousand were killed in the town or on
+the way out of it. Only thirteen hundred men and two hundred women and
+children lived to reach Salona after more than a week of wandering and
+hiding among the mountains.
+
+The long siege of Missolonghi illustrates all the best and some of
+the worst features of the Greek Revolution. In it there was patriotism
+worthy, in its bursts of splendour, of the nation that claimed descent
+from the heroes of Plataea and Thermopylae. But the patriotism was
+often fitful in its working, and oftener wholly wanting. The Greeks
+could not shake off the pernicious influences that sprang, almost
+necessarily, from their long centuries of thraldom. Heroism was
+closely linked with treachery and meanness. The worthiest and most
+disinterested energy was intimately associated with ignorance as to
+the right methods of action, and with wilful action in wrong ways. The
+elements of weakness that had been apparent from the first were more
+and more developed as the painful struggle reached its termination.
+It seems as if, in spite of Reshid Pasha and Ibrahim and their
+fierce armies, it would have been easy for Missolonghi and its
+brave defenders to have been saved. But rival ambitions and
+paltry jealousies divided the leaders of the Revolution. They were
+quarrelling while the power that each one coveted for himself was,
+step by step, being wrested from them all; and when they tried to do
+well their want of discipline often rendered their efforts of small
+avail. No adequate attempt was made to relieve Missolonghi by land,
+and the brave conduct of Miaoulis on the sea was almost neutralized
+by the disorganization of his crews and the selfish policy of the
+islanders who sent him out.
+
+"With respect to the Greek army," wrote General Ponsonby to the Duke
+of Wellington, from Corfu, on the 15th of June, "it is, generally
+speaking, a mob; and a chief can only calculate upon keeping it
+together as long as he has provisions to give it or the prospect of
+plunder without danger. There is nothing to oppose the Egyptian
+army but a mob kept together by the small sums sent by the different
+committees in foreign countries. The Greeks have a great horror of
+the bayonet, which, however, they have never seen near, except at
+Missolonghi. The Suliots, who chiefly formed the garrison of that
+place, are fine men, and certainly fought with great courage. Much
+has been said of naval actions, but there is no truth in any of the
+accounts. The Greeks are better sailors than the Turks, but no action
+has been fought since the beginning of the war, if it is understood by
+action that there is risk and loss on both sides. The Greeks, however,
+have done wonders with their fleet. They have destroyed many large
+ships, and, in the month of February last, with twenty-three brigs,
+they out-manoeuvred the Turkish fleet of sixty sail, and threw
+provisions into Missolonghi. This, though done by seamanship, and not
+fighting, was called a great battle and a great victory. I was
+within two miles of the fleets, and the cannonade for six hours was
+tremendous; but when I spoke to Miaoulis the following morning he told
+me he had not lost a man in his fleet."[A]
+
+[Footnote A: "Despatches of the Duke of Wellington," vol. iii., p.
+338.]
+
+During the summer and winter following the fall of Missolonghi a
+series of small disasters, the aggregate of which was by no means
+small, befel the Greeks. It was the opinion of all parties, and
+admitted even by jealous rivals, that the tottering cause of
+independence was only sustained by the constant and eager expectation
+of the arrival of the powerful fleet which was supposed to be on its
+way to the Archipelago, under the able leadership of Lord Cochrane,
+the world-famous champion of Chilian and Brazilian freedom.
+
+His approach was hardly more a cause of hope to the Greeks than a
+subject of fear to the Turks. No sooner was it publicly known that he
+had espoused the cause of the insurgents than angry complaints were
+made by the Turkish Government to the British ministry, and Mr.
+Canning, then Foreign Secretary, had more than once to avow that the
+authorities in England knew nothing of his movements, and had done all
+that the law rendered possible to restrain him. He had also to promise
+that everything legal should be done to keep him in check on his
+arrival in Greek waters. "We have heard," he wrote in August to his
+cousin, Mr. Stratford Canning, afterwards Lord Stratford de Redcliffe,
+the ambassador at Constantinople, "that Lord Cochrane is gone to
+the Mediterranean; whether it be really so, we know not." He then
+proceeded to define the bearing of English and international law
+in the existing circumstances. "Lord Cochrane may enter the Greek
+service, and continue therein. He may even, as a Greek commander,
+institute (as he did in Brazil) blockades which British officers will
+respect, and exercise the belligerent rights of search on British
+merchant-ships, without exposing himself to any other penalty than
+that which the law will inflict upon him if ever hereafter he shall
+again bring himself within its reach, and be duly convicted of the
+offence for the punishment of which that law was enacted. If, indeed,
+he should do any of such things without a commission he would become a
+pirate, and liable to the summary justice to which, without reference
+to the municipal laws of his country, he would, as an enemy of the
+human race, be liable; and liable just as much from the officers of
+any other country as of his own."[A]
+
+[Footnote A: "Despatches of the Duke of Wellington," vol. iii., pp.
+357, 358.]
+
+While that correspondence was going on, Lord Cochrane, as we have
+seen, was battling with a long series of delays, as irksome to himself
+as they were unfortunate to the Greeks. It was not till the 14th of
+September, about eight months after the time fixed for the arrival of
+his whole fleet, that the first instalment of it, the _Perseverance_,
+which he had sent on as soon as it was completed, with Captain Abney
+Hastings as its commander, entered the harbour of Nauplia. On the 26th
+of October, Captain Hastings wrote a letter, giving curious evidence
+of the estimate formed by him of the Greek character. It was left
+at Nauplia and addressed to "the commander of the first American
+or English vessel that arrives in Greece to join the Greeks." "An
+apprenticeship in Greece tolerably long," he wrote, "has taught me the
+risks to which anybody newly arrived, and possessed of some place and
+power, is exposed. They know me, and they also know that I know them;
+yet they have not ceased, and never will cease, intriguing to get this
+vessel out of my hands and into their own, which would be
+tantamount to ruining her. Knowing all this, I take the liberty
+of leaving this letter, to be delivered to the first officer
+that arrives in Greece in the command of a vessel, to caution
+him not to receive on board his vessel any Greek captain. They
+will endeavour, under various pretences, to introduce themselves on
+board, and when once they have got a footing, they will gradually
+encroach until they feel themselves strong enough to turn out the
+original commander. The presence of such men can only be attended with
+inconvenience, for, if you are obliged to take a certain number of
+Greek sailors, these captains will render subordination among them
+impossible by their own irregularity and bad example. If you want
+seamen, take some from Hydra, Spetzas, Kranidi, or Poros. The Psarians
+may be trusted in very small numbers. Take a few men from one, a few
+from another island, and thus you will be best enabled to establish
+some kind of discipline. Take a good number of marines. Choose them
+from the peasantry and foreign Greeks, and you may make something of
+them. You must see, sir, that, in this my advice to the first officer
+arriving in command of a vessel, I can have no interest any further
+than inasmuch as I wish well to the Greek cause, and therefore do not
+wish to see a force that can be of great service rendered ineffective
+by falling into the hands of people totally incapable and unwilling to
+adopt a single right measure. In Greece there cannot be any military
+operations except such as are carried on by foreigners in their
+service."
+
+That letter was written after Captain Hastings had endured a month's
+annoyance from the trouble brought upon him by the Hydriot officers
+and seamen who tried to oust him from the command of his fine vessel,
+whose name was now changed from the _Perseverance_ to the _Karteria_.
+Unfortunately, his letter, left at Nauplia, did not reach the captain
+of the next reinforcement, the American frigate, which arrived at
+Egina on the 8th of December. "She was one of the finest ships in the
+world," we are told, "carrying sixty-four guns--long 32-pounders on
+the main, and 42-pound carronades on the upper deck--and was filled
+with flour, ammunition, medicines, and marine stores for eighteen
+months' consumption. The Greeks contemplated her with delight, but,
+upon the departure of the American officers and seamen who navigated
+her out, they discovered that she would be more embarrassing than
+useful to them. To manage vessels of such a size was beyond their
+capacity, and the mutual jealousy of the islanders suggested to the
+Government the absurd notion of putting the frigate into commission,
+Hydra, Spetzas, and the Psarian community being desired to send quotas
+of men. This plan was now found to be impracticable. Repeated fights
+occurred on board. The ship was twice in danger of being wrecked at
+Egina, and at Poros she actually drifted ashore, luckily on soft mud.
+She was finally given up to Miaoulis, with a Hydriot crew of his own
+selection."[A]
+
+[Footnote A: Gordon, vol. ii., p. 326.]
+
+This frigate, christened the _Hellas_, came too late to be of much
+service to Admiral Miaoulis, before the arrival of Lord Cochrane. In
+the previous summer and autumn, however, he had been harassing and
+keeping at bay the Turkish and Egyptian fleets--work in which Hastings
+was in time to assist him.
+
+Andreas Miaoulis, one of the least obtrusive, was almost the worthiest
+of all the Greek patriots. During five years he had never ceased to do
+the best that it was possible for him to do with the bad materials
+at his disposal. When the Greek Revolution was at its height, he
+had contributed largely to its success; and in the ensuing years
+of disaster upon land, he had maintained its dignity on the sea by
+offering bold resistance to the great naval power of the combined
+Turkish and Egyptian fleets. No better proof of his patriotism could
+be given than in the zeal with which he surrendered to Lord Cochrane
+the leadership of the fleet which had devolved upon him for so long
+and been so ably conducted by him. "I received four days ago," he
+wrote from Poros on the 23rd of February, 1827, "your amiable
+letter of the 19th of last month, and my great satisfaction at the
+announcement of your approaching arrival in Greece is joined with a
+special pleasure at the honour you do me in associating me with your
+important operations. I shall be happy, my admiral, if, in serving
+you, I can do my duty. I await you with impatience."
+
+Just a month before that, on the 23rd of January, a like letter
+of congratulation was addressed to Lord Cochrane from Egina by the
+Governing Commission of Greece. "The intelligence of your speedy
+coming to Greece," they said, "has awakened the liveliest joy and
+satisfaction, and has already begun to rekindle in the hearts of
+the Greeks that enthusiasm which is the most powerful weapon and the
+surest support of a nation that has devoted itself to the recovery of
+its most sacred rights. The Government of Greece is waiting with
+the utmost impatience for the most zealous defender of the nation's
+liberty. It hopes to see you in its midst as soon as possible after
+your arrival at Hydra, and then to make you acquainted with the actual
+state of Greece, and to furnish you with all the means in its power
+for the achievement of the grand results proposed by your lordship."
+The letter was signed by Andreas Zaimes, as President of
+the Commission, and by seven of its members, among whom were
+Mavromichales, or Petro-Bey, who, with Zaimes and two others,
+represented the Morea, Spiridion Trikoupes, the deputy for Roumelia,
+Zamados from Hydra, Monarchides from Psara, and Demetrakopoulos from
+the islands of the Egean Sea.
+
+By the same body was issued, on the 21st of February, a preliminary
+commission, intended to protect him in case of any opposition being
+raised to his progress by the authorities of other nations. "The
+Governing Commission of Greece," it was written, "makes known that
+Admiral Lord Cochrane is recognised as being in the service of Greece,
+and accordingly has the permission of the Government to hoist the
+Greek flag on all the vessels that are under his command. He has
+power, also, to fight the enemies of Greece to the utmost of his
+power. Therefore the officers of neutral powers, being informed of
+this, are implored, not only to offer no opposition to his movements,
+but also, if necessary, to supply him with any assistance he may
+require, seeing that it is our custom to do the same to all friendly
+nations." Armed with this document, and provided with the necessary
+means by the Philhellenes of England, France, and Switzerland, Lord
+Cochrane proceeded from Marseilles to Greece.
+
+
+
+
+APPENDIX.
+
+I.
+
+(Page 22.)
+
+
+The following "Resume of the Services of the late Earl of Dundonald,
+none of which have been Requited or Officially Recognized," was
+written by his son, one of the authors of the present work, and
+printed for private circulation in 1861.
+
+1. The destruction of three heavily-armed French corvettes, near the
+mouth of the Garonne, the crew of Lord Cochrane's frigate, _Pallas_,
+being at the time, with the exception of forty men, engaged in cutting
+out the _Tapageuse_, lying under the protection of two batteries
+thirty miles up the river, in which operation they were also
+successful, four ships of war being thus captured or destroyed in a
+single day. For these services Lord Cochrane obtained nothing but
+his share of the _Tapageuse_, sold by auction for a trifling sum,
+the Government refusing to purchase her as a ship of war, though of
+admirable build and construction. Contrary to the usual rule, no ship
+ever taken by Lord Cochrane, throughout his whole career, was ever
+allowed to be bought into the navy. For the corvettes, which Lord
+Cochrane destroyed with so small a crew, he never received reward or
+thanks, the alleged reason being, that, having become wrecks, they
+were not in existence, and therefore could not have value attached
+to them. This decision of the Admiralty was contrary to custom, as
+admitted to the present day. In the late Russian war a gunboat of the
+enemy having been driven on shore and wrecked, compensation is said to
+have been awarded to the officers and crew of the British vessel
+which drove her on shore. The importance of wrecking a gunboat, in
+comparison with the destruction of three fast-sailing ships, which
+were picking up our merchantmen, in all directions, needs no comment.
+
+2. Lord Cochrane's services on the coast of Catalonia, of which Lord
+Collingwood, then commander-in-chief in the Mediterranean, testified
+of his lordship to the Admiralty that by his energy and foresight
+he had, with a single frigate, stopped a French army from occupying
+Eastern Spain. The services by which this was effected were as
+follows:--Preventing the reinforcement of the French garrison in
+Barcelona, by harassing the newly-arrived troops in their march along
+the coast, and organising and assisting the Spanish militia to oppose
+their progress, Lord Cochrane himself capturing one of their forts on
+shore, and taking the garrison prisoners.
+
+On the approach of a powerful French _corps d'armee_ towards
+Barcelona, Lord Cochrane blew up the roads along the coast, and taught
+the Spanish peasantry how to do so inland. By blowing up the cliff
+roads, near Mongat, Lord Cochrane interposed an insurmountable
+obstacle between the army and its artillery, capturing and throwing
+into the sea a considerable number of field-pieces, so that the
+operations of the French were rendered nugatory. For these services,
+Lord Cochrane, notwithstanding the strong representations of Lord
+Collingwood to the Board of Admiralty, neither received thanks nor
+reward of any kind; notwithstanding that whilst so engaged, and that
+voluntarily, in successfully accomplishing the work of an army, he
+patriotically gave up all chances of prize money, though easily to be
+obtained by cruising after the enemy's vessels. In place of this, he
+neither searched for nor captured a single prize, whilst engaged
+in harassing the French army on shore, devoting his whole energies
+towards the enterprise which he considered most conducive to the
+interests of his country.
+
+3. Having effected his object, Lord Cochrane sailed for the Gulf
+of Lyons, with the intention of cutting off the enemy's shore
+communications. This he accomplished by destroying their signal
+stations, telegraphs, and shore batteries along nearly the whole
+coast, navigating his frigate with perfect safety throughout this
+proverbially perilous part of the Mediterranean. In order further
+to paralyse the enemy's movements, Lord Cochrane made a practice
+of burning paper near the demolished stations, so as to deceive the
+French into the belief that he had burned their signal books; he
+rightly judging that from this circumstance they might not deem it
+necessary to alter their code of signals. The ruse succeeded, and,
+transmitting the signal books to Lord Collingwood, then watching the
+enemy's preparations in Toulon, the commander-in-chief was thus
+fully apprised, by the enemy's signals, not only of all their naval
+movements, but also of the position and movements of all British
+ships of war on the French coast. Lord Cochrane's single frigate
+thus performed the work of many vessels of observation, and Lord
+Collingwood testified of him to the Admiralty that "his resources
+seemed to have no end." Notwithstanding this testimony from his
+commander-in-chief, Lord Cochrane neither received reward nor thanks
+for the service rendered.
+
+4. On his return to the Spanish coast, Lord Cochrane found the French
+besieging Rosas, the Spaniards maintaining possession of the citadel,
+whilst Fort Trinidad had just been evacuated by the British officer
+who had been co-operating with the Spaniards in the larger fortress.
+Lord Cochrane, believing that if Fort Trinidad were held till
+reinforcements arrived, the French must be compelled to raise the
+siege of Rosas, persuaded the Spanish Governor not to surrender, as he
+was about to do, on its evacuation by the British officer aforesaid,
+and threw himself into the fort with a detachment from the seamen
+and marines of the _Imperieuse_, with which frigate he maintained
+uninterrupted communication, in spite of the enemy, who, on
+ascertaining it to be Lord Cochrane who was keeping them at bay,
+redoubled their efforts to capture the fort, the gallant defence of
+which is amongst the most remarkable events of naval warfare. Lord
+Cochrane held Fort Trinidad till, the Spaniards surrendering the
+citadel, he would not allow his men to run further risk in their
+behalf, and withdrew the seamen and marines in safety. For this
+remarkable exploit Lord Cochrane, though himself severely wounded,
+neither received reward nor thanks, except from Lord Collingwood,
+who again, without effect, warmly applauded his gallantry to the
+Admiralty.
+
+5. Immediately on his arrival at Plymouth, on leave of absence in
+consequence of ill health from his extraordinary exertions, Lord
+Cochrane was immediately summoned by the Admiralty to Whitehall,
+and asked for a plan whereby the French fleet in Basque Roads, then
+threatening our West India possessions, might be destroyed at one
+blow; this extraordinary request from a junior captain, after the most
+experienced officers in the navy had pronounced its impracticability,
+forcibly proving the very high opinion entertained by the Admiralty
+of Lord Cochrane's skill and resources. He gave in a plan, and was
+ordered to execute it, which order he reluctantly obeyed, having done
+all in his power to decline an invidious command, for fear of arousing
+the jealousy of officers to whom he was junior in the service. What
+followed is matter of history, and needs not to be recapitulated.
+Yet for the destruction of that powerful armament he neither received
+reward nor thanks from the Admiralty, though rewarded by his sovereign
+with the highest order of the Bath, a distinction which marked his
+Majesty's sense of the important service rendered.
+
+Nine years afterwards head money was awarded to the whole fleet,
+of which only the vessels directed by Lord Cochrane and a few sent
+afterwards, when too late for effective measures, took part in the
+action. The alleged reason of this award was that the _Calcutta_, one
+of the ships driven ashore by Lord Cochrane, did not surrender to him,
+but to ships sent to his assistance. This was not true, though after
+protracted deliberation so ruled by the Admiralty Court, and officers
+now living and present in the action have recently come forward to
+testify to the ship being in Lord Cochrane's possession before the
+arrival of the ships which subsequently came to his assistance. A
+small sum was therefore only awarded to him as a junior captain, in
+common with those who had been spectators only, and this he declined
+to receive. Such was his recompense for a service to the high merit of
+which Napoleon himself afterwards testified in the warmest manner; and
+it may be mentioned as a further testimony that a French Court Martial
+shot Captain Lafont, the commander of the _Calcutta_, because he
+surrendered to a vessel of inferior power, viz., Lord Cochrane's
+frigate, the _Imperieuse_ of forty-four guns, the _Calcutta_ carrying
+sixty guns.[A]
+
+[Footnote A: Captain Lafont was shot on board the _Ocean_, on
+September 9, 1809, _for surrendering the Calcutta to a ship of
+inferior force_, thus proving that she surrendered to Lord Cochrane
+alone, though Sir William Scott ruled in opposition to the facts
+adopted by the French Court Martial, which condemned Captain Lafont
+to death for the act. The surrender to Lord Cochrane alone is further
+proved by the additional fact, that the captains of the _Ville de
+Varsovie_ and _Aquilon_, which _did_ surrender to the other ships in
+conjunction with Lord Cochrane's frigate, were not even accused, much
+less punished for so doing.]
+
+The exploits of Lord Cochrane in the _Speedy_ and _Pallas_ are too
+well known in naval history to require recapitulation, and of these
+it may be said that the numerous prizes captured by these vessels
+constituted their own reward. It may here be mentioned in confirmation
+of what has previously been said, that the _Gamo_, a magnificent
+xebeque frigate of thirty-two guns, was not allowed to be bought into
+the navy, but was sold for a small sum to one of the piratical Barbary
+States, notwithstanding that Lord Cochrane had said that if he
+were allowed to have her in place of the _Speedy_, then in a very
+dilapidated condition, he would sweep the Mediterranean of the enemy's
+cruisers and privateers. His capacity so to do may be judged from what
+he effected with the _Speedy_, mounting only fourteen 4-pounders.
+
+With regard to the services previously enumerated, the case is
+different, notwithstanding their national importance in comparison
+with his minor acts, which may be classed as brilliant exploits only.
+But that no reward should have been conferred for doing effectively
+the work of an army, and that without the cost of a shilling to the
+nation beyond the ordinary expenditure of a small frigate, necessary
+to be disbursed whether she performed any effective service or not,
+is a neglect which, unless repaired in the persons of his successors,
+will for ever remain a blot on the British Government. Still more so
+will the worse neglect of not having in any way rewarded him for the
+destruction of the French fleet in Basque Roads, for though only four
+ships were destroyed at the moment, the whole fleet of the enemy was
+so damaged by having been driven on shore from terror of the explosive
+vessel, fired with Lord Cochrane's own hand, that it eventually became
+a wreck; and thus our West India commerce, then the most important
+branch of national export and import, was in a month after Lord
+Cochrane's arrival from the Mediterranean relieved from the panic
+which paralysed it, and restored to its wonted security;--a service
+which can only be estimated by the gloom and panic which had
+previously pervaded the whole country.
+
+Were reference made to the pension list, and note taken of the
+pensions granted to other officers and their successors for services
+which in point of national importance do not admit of comparison with
+those of Lord Cochrane, the present generation would be surprised at
+the national ingratitude manifested towards one, who, in his great
+exploits, had so patriotically sacrificed every consideration
+of private interest to his country's service. His cruise in the
+_Imperieuse_, which has no parallel in naval history, procured for
+Lord Cochrane nothing whatever but shattered health from the
+incessant anxiety and exertion he had undergone in the profitless but
+high-minded course he adopted to thwart the French in their attempts
+to establish a permanent footing in Eastern Spain. His exploits in
+Basque Roads procured him nothing but absolute ruin; for, from his
+refusal as a Member of Parliament to acquiesce in a vote of thanks to
+Lord Gambier, even though the same thanks were promised to himself,
+may be dated that active political persecution which commenced by
+depriving him of further naval employment and did not cease till it
+had accomplished his utter ruin, even to striking his name out of the
+_Navy List_.
+
+The animosity of this political partisanship towards one who had
+effected so much for his country is an anomaly even in political
+history. That amended representation of the people in Parliament, for
+which he strove up to 1818, had only fourteen years afterwards become
+the law of the land, and the boast of some who had persecuted Lord
+Cochrane for no offence beyond having been amongst the first to give
+expression to the popular will subsequently adopted by themselves.
+
+The efforts of Lord Cochrane in favour of reforming the abuses of the
+Navy and of Greenwich Hospital, which at that time brought upon him
+the wrath of the Administration, are at this moment seriously engaging
+the attention of parliament, as being of paramount national necessity.
+The doctrine then openly laid down, that no naval officer in
+parliament had a right to interfere with naval administration, has
+long been abrogated, and many of the brightest ornaments of the navy
+are now amongst the foremost to denounce naval abuses in the House of
+Commons. It is, in fact, to them that the country now looks for
+that vigilance which shall preserve the navy in a proper state of
+efficiency. Yet for these very things was Lord Cochrane persecuted,
+though modern Governments, which have been liberal enough to acquiesce
+in popular reforms, of which he was the early advocate, have not been
+liberal enough to make him amends for the wrongs he suffered as one of
+the indefatigable originators of their now-cherished measures. Still
+less have they deemed it inconsistent with the honour of this great
+country to refrain from rewarding him in the ordinary manner for his
+most important services, rendered when others shrank from them, as was
+the case at Basque Roads, where his plans, declined by his seniors in
+the service, were successfully executed by himself under the greatest
+possible discouragement and disadvantage.
+
+But the injustice manifested towards the late Earl of Dundonald did
+not end here. Driven from the service of his own country, and without
+fortune, he was compelled by his necessities to embark in the service
+of foreign states. With his own hand, directed by his own genius,
+which had to supply the place of adequate naval force, he liberated
+Chili, Peru, and Brazil from thraldom, consolidating the rebellious
+provinces of the latter empire on so permanent a basis, that its
+internal peace has never again been disturbed. Yet not one of these
+states has to this day satisfied the stipulated and indisputable
+arrangements by which he was induced to espouse their cause; the
+reason of their breach of contract being distinctly traceable to the
+course pursued towards Lord Dundonald in England. Seeing that the
+British Government paid no attention to the yet more important claims
+he had upon its gratitude, the South American States believed that
+they might with impunity disregard their own stipulations, and the
+dictates of national honour; the chief of one of them having had the
+audacity to tell Lord Cochrane that he would find no sympathy in the
+British Government.
+
+Three of the most distinguished officers in the British service, Sir
+Thomas Hastings, Sir John Burgoyne, and Colonel Colquhoun, have felt
+it their duty, when officially reporting on the efficacy of Lord
+Dundonald's war plans, to give him the highest credit for having kept
+his secret "_under peculiarly trying circumstances_," and from
+pure love of his native country. The "trying circumstances" were
+these,--that he had been driven from the service of that country by
+the machinations of a political faction, which, in the conscientious
+performance of his parliamentary duties, he had offended. Even this
+injury, which blasted his whole life and prospects, did not detract
+one _iota_ from the love of country, which to the day of his death
+was with him a passion; his acute mind well knowing how to draw the
+distinction between his country and those who were sacrificing its
+best interests to their love of power, if not to less worthy purposes.
+Never was praise more honourably given, than in the Ordnance Report
+of the above-named distinguished officers, and never was it more nobly
+deserved.
+
+Another "peculiarly trying circumstance" alluded to by those officers,
+was that, when compelled by actual pecuniary necessity, in consequence
+of the deprivation of his rank and pay, and the demands of increasing
+family, to accept service under a foreign state as his only means of
+subsistence, he lay before the castles of Callao, into which had been
+removed for security the whole wealth of the rich capital of Peru,
+including bullion and plate, estimated at upwards of a million
+sterling, he preserved his war secret, though strongly urged to put
+it in execution. Had he listened to the temptation, in six hours
+the whole of that wealth must have been in his possession. For not
+listening to it, he incurred the enmity of his employers, who urged
+that they were entitled to all his professional skill and knowledge,
+as a part of his bargain with them; and his non-compliance with their
+wishes is doubtless amongst the chief reasons why they have not, to
+this day, satisfied their own offered stipulations for his services.
+Yet, at the very moment when he was displaying this self-sacrificing
+patriotism, lest his country might suffer from his secret being
+divulged, the Government of Great Britain had, at the suggestion of
+the Spanish Government, passed a "Foreign Enlistment Act," with the
+express intention of enveloping him in its meshes.[A]
+
+[Footnote A: On Lord Cochrane's return from Brazil, having occasion
+to go before the Attorney-General, on the subject of a patent, that
+learned functionary rudely asked him, "_Whether he was not afraid to
+appear in his presence?_" Lord Cochrane's reply was, "_No, nor in
+the presence of any man living_." Evidence exists that the
+Attorney-General asked the Ministry if he should prosecute Lord
+Cochrane under the Foreign Enlistment Act, the reply being in the
+negative.]
+
+
+
+
+II.
+
+(Page 23.)
+
+
+As a striking instance of Lord Cochrane's method of exposing naval
+abuses, part of a speech delivered by him in the House of Commons, on
+the 11th of May, 1809, is here copied from his "Autobiography," vol.
+ii. pp. 142-144.
+
+    An admiral, worn out in the service, is superannuated at
+    410_l._. a year, a captain at 210_l._., a clerk of the ticket office
+    retires on 700_l._. a year! The widow of Admiral Sir Andrew
+    Mitchell has one third of the allowance given to the widow of
+    a Commissioner of the Navy.
+
+    I will give the House another instance. Four daughters of the
+    gallant Captain Courtenay have 12l. 10s. each, the daughter of
+    Admiral Sir Andrew Mitchell has 25l., two daughters of Admiral
+    Epworth have 25l. each, the daughter of Admiral Keppel 24l.,
+    the daughter of Captain Mann, who was killed in action, 25l.,
+    four children of Admiral Moriarty 25l. each. That is--thirteen
+    daughters of admirals and captains, several of whose fathers
+    fell in the service of their country, receive from the
+    gratitude of the nation a sum less than Dame Mary Saxton, the
+    widow of a commissioner.
+
+    The pension list is not formed on any comparative rank or
+    merit, length of service, or other rational principle, but
+    appears to me to be dependent on parliamentary influence
+    alone. Lieutenant Ellison, who lost his arm, is allowed 91l.
+    5s., Captain Johnstone, who lost his arm, has only 45l.
+    12s. 6d., Lieutenant Arden, who lost his arm, has 9l.
+    5s., Lieutenant Campbell, who lost his leg, 40_l._., and poor
+    Lieutenant Chambers, who lost both his legs, has only 80_l._.,
+    whilst Sir A.S. Hamond retires on 1500_l._. per annum. The brave
+    Sir Samuel Hood, who lost his arm, has only 500_l._., whilst the
+    late Secretary of the Admiralty retires, in full health, on a
+    pension of 1500_l._. per annum.
+
+To speak less in detail, 32 flag officers, 22 captains, 50
+lieutenants, 180 masters, 36 surgeons, 23 pursers, 91 boatswains, 97
+gunners, 202 carpenters, and 41 cooks, in all 774 persons, cost the
+country 4028l. less than the nett proceeds of the sinecures of Lords
+Arden (20,358_l._), Camden (20,536_l._), and Buckingham (20,693_l._).
+
+All the superannuated admirals, captains, and lieutenants put
+together, have but 1012l. more than Earl Camden's sinecure alone! All
+that is paid to the wounded officers of the whole British navy, and
+to the wives and children of those dead or killed in action, do
+not amount by 214l. to as much as Lord Arden's sinecure alone, viz.
+20,358_l._. What is paid to the mutilated officers themselves is but half
+as much.
+
+Is this justice? Is this the treatment which the officers of the
+navy deserve at the hands of those who call themselves his Majesty's
+Government? Does the country know of this injustice? Will this too be
+defended? If I express myself with warmth I trust in the indulgence
+of the House. I cannot suppress my feelings. Should 31 commissioners,
+commissioners' wives, and clerks have 3899l. more amongst them than
+all the wounded officers of the navy of England?
+
+I find upon examination that the Wellesleys receive from the public
+34,729_l._, a sum equal to 426 pairs of lieutenants' legs, calculated at
+the rate of allowance of Lieutenant Chambers's legs. Calculating
+for the pension of Captain Johnstone's arm, viz. 45l., Lord Arden's
+sinecure is equal to the value of 1022 captains' arms. The Marquis
+of Buckingham's sinecure alone will maintain the whole ordinary
+establishment of the victualling department at Chatham, Dover,
+Gibraltar, Sheerness, Downs, Heligoland, Cork, Malta, Mediterranean,
+Cape of Good Hope, Rio de Janeiro, and leave 5460_l._ in the Treasury.
+Two of these comfortable sinecures would victual the officers and men
+serving in all the ships in ordinary in Great Britain, viz. 117 sail
+of the line, 105 frigates, 27 sloops, and 50 hulks. Three of them
+would maintain the dockyard establishments at Portsmouth and Plymouth.
+The addition of a few more would amount to as much as the whole
+ordinary establishments of the royal dockyards at Chatham, Woolwich,
+Deptford, and Sheerness; whilst the sinecures and offices executed
+wholly by deputy would more than maintain the ordinary establishment
+of all the royal dockyards in the kingdom.
+
+Even Mr. Ponsonby, who lately made so pathetic an appeal to the good
+sense of the people of England against those whom he was pleased to
+term demagogues, actually receives, for having been thirteen months in
+office, a sum equal to nine admirals who have spent their lives in
+the service of their country; three times as much as all the pensions
+given to all the daughters and children of all the admirals,
+captains, lieutenants, and other officers who have died in indigent
+circumstances, or who have been killed in the service.
+
+
+
+
+III.
+
+(Page 258.)
+
+
+The following letter, too long to be quoted in the body of the work,
+but too important to be omitted, was addressed by Lord Cochrane to
+the Brazilian Secretary of State. It gives memorable evidence of
+the treatment to which he was subjected by the Portuguese faction in
+Brazil.
+
+
+Rio de Janeiro, May 3rd, 1824.
+
+MOST EXCELLENT SIR,
+
+I have received the honour of your excellency's reply to my letter
+of the 30th of March, and as I am thereby taught that the subjects on
+which I wrote are not now considered so intimately connected with your
+excellency's department as they were by your immediate predecessor,
+nor even so far relevant as to justify a direct communication to your
+excellency, I should feel it my duty to avoid troubling you farther
+on those subjects, were it not that you at the same time have freely
+expressed such opinions with respect to my conduct and motives as
+justice to myself requires me to controvert and refute.
+
+With regard to your excellency's assurance that it has ever been
+the intention of his Imperial Majesty and Council to act favourably
+towards me, I can in return assure your excellency that I have never
+doubted the just and benign intention of his Imperial Majesty himself,
+neither have I doubted that a part of his Privy Council has thought
+well of my services; and if I have imagined that a majority has been
+prejudiced against me, I have formed that conclusion merely from the
+effects which I have seen and experienced, and not from any undue
+prepossession against particular individuals, whether Brazilian or
+Portuguese. But when your excellency adds that those transactions
+between the late minister and myself, which, owing to their having
+been conducted verbally, have been ill-understood, have invariably
+been decided in a manner favourable to me, I confess myself at a loss
+to understand your excellency's meaning, not having any recollection
+of such favourable decisions, and therefore not feeling myself
+competent either to admit or deny unless in the first place your
+excellency shall be pleased to descend to particulars. I do indeed
+recollect that the late ministers, professing to have the authority of
+his Imperial Majesty, and which, from the personal countenance I
+have experienced from that august personage, I am sure they did not
+clandestinely assume, proffered to me the command of the imperial
+squadron, with every privilege, emolument, and advantage which
+I possessed in the command of the navy of Chili; and this, your
+excellency is desired to observe, was not a verbal transaction, but
+a written one, and therefore not liable to any of those
+misunderstandings to which verbal transactions, as your excellency
+observes, are naturally subject. Now, in Chili my commission was that
+of commander-in-chief of the squadron, without limitation as to time
+or any other restriction. My command, of course, was only to cease by
+my own voluntary resignation, or by sentence of court-martial, or by
+death, or other uncontrollable event. And accordingly the appointment
+which I accepted in the service of his Imperial Majesty, and in virtue
+of which I sailed in command of the expedition to Bahia, was that of
+commander-in-chief of the whole squadron, without limitation as to
+time or otherwise; and this, too, your excellency will be pleased
+to observe, was not a verbal transaction, but a solemn engagement
+in writing, bearing date the 26th day of March, 1823, and now in my
+possession. I had also the assurance in writing of the Minister of
+Marine, that the formalities of engrossment and registration of
+such appointment were only deferred from want of time, and should be
+executed immediately after my return.
+
+And now I most respectfully put it home to your excellency whether
+these engagements have or have not been fully confirmed and complied
+with under the present administration. I ask your excellency whether
+the patent which I received, bearing date the 25th November, 1823,
+did not contain a clause of limitation by which I might at any time be
+dismissed from the service under any pretence or without any pretence
+whatever--without even the form of a hearing in my own defence. Then
+again I ask your excellency whether my office as commander-in-chief of
+the squadron was not reduced for a period of three months--as appears
+by every official communication of the Minister of Marine to me during
+that period--to the command only of the vessels of war anchored
+in this port?[A] and further on this subject I ask your excellency
+whether after my repeated remonstrances against this injurious
+limitation of my stipulated authority, it was not pretended by the
+decree published in the Gazette of the 28th February, that I was then
+for the first time, as a mark of special favour, elevated to the rank
+of commander-in-chief of the squadron, and that too during the period
+only of the existing war: although nothing less than the chief command
+had been offered to me at the first, without any restriction as to
+time, and although it was only in that capacity I had consented to
+enter into the service, and under a written appointment as such I had
+then been in the service nearly twelve months. And then I ask your
+excellency whether the limitation introduced into the patent of the
+25th of November last, in violation of the original agreement, and
+confirmed and defined by the decree published on the 28th of February
+following; to which may be added the communication which I received
+from your excellency, excluding me from taking the oath, and becoming
+a party to the constitution, the 149th article of which provides for
+the protection of officers until lawfully deprived by sentence of
+court-martial; I say that I respectfully ask your excellency whether
+these proceedings were not well adapted for the purpose of casting me
+off with the utmost facility at the earliest moment that convenience
+might dictate; either with or without the admission of those claims
+for the future to which past services are usually considered entitled,
+as might best suit the inclination of those with whom my dismissal
+might originate. And is it not most probable that their inclination
+would run counter to those claims, especially when it is considered
+that my letter of the 6th of March to the Minister of Marine, in which
+I made the inquiry whether my right to half-pay would be recognized
+on the termination of the war, has never been answered, although my
+application for a reply has been repeated?[B] If then the explicit
+engagements in writing between the late minister of his Imperial
+Majesty and myself have, as I have shown, been set aside by the
+present ministry and council, and other arrangements far less
+favourable to me, and destructive of the lawful security of my present
+and future rights, have without my consent been substituted in their
+stead, where, I entreat your excellency, am I to look for those
+favourable constructions of "ill-understood verbal transactions,"
+which your excellency requires me to accept as a proof that the
+intentions of the present ministry and council, in respect to me, have
+ever been of the most favourable and obliging nature?
+
+[Footnote A: This was resorted to, in order to prevent Lord Cochrane
+from stationing the cruisers to annoy the enemy, to deprive him of
+any interest in future captures, and prevent his opposition to the
+unlawful restoration of enemy's property.]
+
+[Footnote B: An answer was at last given, a few days before Lord
+Cochrane's assistance was called for to put down the revolution
+at Pernambuco; and _half_ of the originally-granted _half-pay_ was
+decreed when he should return, after the termination of hostilities,
+to his native country.]
+
+I would beg permission, too, to inquire how it happened that
+portarias[A] from the Minister of Marine, charging me unjustly from
+time to time with neglecting to obey the command of his Imperial
+Majesty, were constantly made public, while my answers in refutation
+were always suppressed. And why, when I remonstrated against this
+injustice, was I answered that the same course should be persisted
+in, and that I had no alternative but to acquiesce, or to descend to
+a newspaper controversy by publishing my exculpations myself? Is it
+possible not to perceive that the _ex parte_ publication of
+these accusatory portarias was intended to lower me in the public
+estimation, and to prepare the way for the exercise of that power of
+summary dismissal which was so unfairly acquired by the means above
+described?
+
+[Footnote A: Official communications.]
+
+On the subject of the prizes your excellency is pleased to state: "Les
+difficultes survenues dans le jugement des prizes ont eu des motifs si
+connus et positifs qu'il est assez doloureux de les voir attribuir a
+la mauvaise volonte du Conseil de S.M.I." To this I reply that I know
+of no just cause for the delay which has arisen in the decision of the
+prizes, and consequently I have a right to impute blame for that delay
+to those who have the power to cause it or remove it. If the majority
+of the voices in council had been for a prompt condemnation to the
+captors of the prizes taken from the Portuguese nation, is
+it possible that individuals of that nation would be suffered
+to continue to be the judges of those prizes after an experience
+of many months has demonstrated either their determination
+to do nothing, or nothing favourable to the captors? The
+repugnance of Portuguese judges to condemn property captured from
+their fellow-countrymen, as a reward to those who have engaged in
+hostilities against Portugal, is natural enough, and is the only
+well-known and positive cause of the delay with which I am acquainted;
+but it is not such a cause for delay as ought to have been permitted
+to operate by the ministers and council of his Imperial Majesty, who
+are bound in honour and duty to act with fidelity towards those who
+have been engaged as auxiliaries in the attainment and maintenance of
+the independence of the empire. I did, however, inform your excellency
+that I had heard it stated that another difficulty had arisen in the
+apprehension that this Government might be under the necessity of
+eventually restoring the prizes to the original Portuguese owners as
+a condition of peace. But this, your excellency assures me, proves
+nothing but that I am a listener to "rapporteurs," whom I ought
+to drive from my presence. Unfortunately, however, for this bold
+explanation of your excellency, the individual whom I heard make the
+observation was no other than his excellency the present Minister of
+Marine, Francisco Villala Barboza. If your excellency considers that
+gentleman in the light of a "rapporteur," or talebearer, it is not for
+me to object; but the imputation of being a listener to or encourager
+of talebearers, so rashly advanced by your excellency against me,
+is without foundation in truth. It may be necessary for ministers
+of state to have their eavesdroppers and informers, but mine is a
+straightforward course, which needs no such precautions. And if there
+be any who volunteer information or advice, I can appreciate the value
+of it, and the motives of those who offer it. Those who know me much
+better than your excellency does, will admit that I am in the habit of
+thinking for myself, and not apt to act on the suggestions of others,
+especially if officiously tendered.
+
+As to the successive appointment and removal of incompetent auditors
+of marine, for which your excellency gives credit to the council,
+I can only say that the benefit of such repeated changes is by no
+means apparent. And to revert again to the difficulty of decision, for
+which your excellency intimates there is sufficient cause, I beg leave
+to ask your excellency what just reason can exist for not condemning
+these prizes to the captors. Can it be denied that the orders
+under which I sailed for the blockade of Bahia authorized me to act
+hostilely against the ships and property of the crown and subjects of
+Portugal? Can it be denied that war was regularly declared between
+the two nations? Was it not even promulgated under the sanction of his
+Imperial Majesty in a document giving to privateers certain privileges
+which it is admitted were possessed by the ships of war in the making
+and sale of captures? And yet did not the Prize Tribunal (consisting
+chiefly, as I before observed, of Portuguese), on the return of the
+squadron, eight months afterwards, pretend to be ignorant whether his
+Imperial Majesty was at war or at peace with the kingdom of Portugal?
+And did they not under that pretence avoid proceeding to adjudication?
+Was not this pretence a false one, or is it one of those well-founded
+causes of difficulty to which your excellency alludes? Can it be
+denied that the squadron sailed and acted in the full expectation,
+grounded on the assurance and engagements of the Government, that all
+captures made under the flag of the enemy, whether ships of war or
+merchant vessels, were to be prize to the captors? and yet when
+the prize judges were at length under the necessity of commencing
+proceedings, did they not endeavour to set aside the claims of the
+captors by the monstrous pretence that they had no interest in their
+captures when made within the distance of two leagues from the shore?
+Will your excellency contend that this was a good and sufficient
+reason? Was it founded in common sense, or on any rational precedent,
+or indeed any precedent whatever? Was it either honest to the squadron
+or faithful to the country? Was it not calculated to prevent the
+squadron from ever again assailing an invading enemy, or again
+expelling him from the shores of the empire? Then, in the next place,
+did not these most extraordinary judges pretend that at least all
+vessels taken in ports and harbours should be condemned as droits to
+the crown, and not as prize to the captors? Was not this another most
+pernicious attempt to deprive the imperial squadron not only of its
+reward for the past but of any adequate motive for the risk of
+future enterprise? And in effect, were not these successive pretences
+calculated to operate as invitations to invasions? Did they not tend
+to encourage the enemy to resume his occupation of the port of Bahia,
+and generally to renew his aggressions against the independence of
+the empire on her shores and in her ports without the probability
+of resistance by the squadrons of his Imperial Majesty? And have not
+these same judges actually condemned almost every prize as a droit
+to the crown, thereby doing as much as in them lay to defraud the
+squadron and to damp its zeal and destroy its energies? Nay, have
+not the auditors of marine actually issued decrees pronouncing the
+captures made at Maranhao to have been illegal, alleging that they
+were seized under the Brazilian flag, although in truth the flag
+of the enemy was flying at the time both in the forts and ships;
+declaring me a violator of the law of nations and law of the land;
+accusing me of having been guilty of an insult to the Emperor and
+the empire, and decreeing costs and damages against me under these
+infamous pretences? Can your excellency perceive either justice or
+decency in these decrees? Do they in any degree breathe the spirit of
+gratitude for the union of so important a province to the empire, or
+are they at all in accordance with the distinguished approbation which
+his Imperial Majesty himself has evinced of my services at Maranhao?
+
+Can it be unknown to your excellency that the late ministers, acting
+doubtless under the sanction of his Imperial Majesty, and assuredly
+under the guidance of common sense, held out that the value of ships
+of war taken from the enemy was to be the reward of the enterprise of
+the captors? And yet are we not now told that a law exists decreeing
+all captured men-of-war to the crown, and so rendering the engagements
+of the late ministers illegal and nugatory? Can anything be more
+contrary to justice, to good faith, to common sense, or to sound
+policy? Was it ever expected by any government employing foreign
+seamen in a war in which they can have no personal rights at stake,
+that those seamen will incur the risk of attacking a superior, or even
+an equal, force, without prospect of other reward than their ordinary
+pay? Is it not notorious that even in England it is found essential,
+or at least highly advantageous, to reward the officers and seamen,
+though fighting their own battles, not only with the full value of
+captured vessels of war, but even with additional premiums; and was
+it ever doubted that such liberal policy has mainly contributed to the
+surpassing magnitude of the naval power of that little island, and her
+consequent greatness as a nation?
+
+Can your excellency deny that the delay, the neglect, and the conduct
+generally of the prize judges, have been the cause of an immense
+diminution in the value of the captures? Have not the consequences
+been a wanton and shameful waste of property by decay and plunder?
+Can your excellency really believe in the existence of a good and
+sufficient motive for consigning such property to destruction, rather
+than at once awarding it to the captors in recompense for their
+services to the empire? Is it not true that all control over the sales
+and cargoes of the vessels, most of which are without invoices, have
+been taken from the captors and their agents and placed in the hands
+of individuals over whom they have no authority or influence, and from
+whom they can have no security of receiving a just account? And can
+it be doubted that the gracious intentions of his Imperial Majesty, as
+announced by himself, of rewarding the captors with the value of
+the prizes, are in the utmost danger of being defeated by such
+proceedings?
+
+Since the 12th day of February, when his Imperial Majesty was
+graciously pleased to signify his pleasure in his own handwriting that
+the prizes, though condemned to the crown, should be paid for to
+the captors, and that valuators should be appointed to estimate the
+amount, is it not true that nothing whatever, up to the date of my
+former letter to your excellency, had been done by his ministers
+and council in furtherance of such his gracious intentions? On the
+contrary, is it not notorious that, since the announcement of the
+imperial intention, numerous vessels and cargoes have been arbitrarily
+disposed of by authority of the auditors of marine, by being delivered
+to pretended owners and others without legal adjudication, and even
+without the decency of acquainting the captors or their agents that
+the property had been so transferred? And has not the whole cost
+of litigation, watching and guarding the vessels and cargoes, been
+entirely at the expense of the captors, notwithstanding the disposal
+of the property and the receipt of the proceeds by the agents of
+Government and others?
+
+So little hope of justice has been presented by the proceedings of the
+Prize Tribunal, that it has appeared quite useless to label the stores
+found in the naval and military arsenals of Maranhao, or the 66,000
+dollars in the chests of the Treasury and Custom House, with double
+that sum in bills, all of which was left for the use of the province,
+or permitted to be disbursed to satisfy the clamorous troops of Ceara
+and Pianhy. Has any remuneration been offered to the navy for these
+sacrifices, of which ministers were duly informed by my official
+despatches? or has any recompense been awarded for the Portuguese brig
+and schooner of war, both completely stored and equipped, which were
+surrendered at Maranhao, and which have ever since been employed in
+the naval service? To a proportion of all this I should have been
+entitled in Chili, as well as in the English service; and why, I ask,
+must I here be contented to be deprived of every hope of these the
+fruits of my labours? In addition to the prize vessels delivered to
+claimants without trial, have not the ministers appropriated others
+_to the uses of the state without valuation or recompense_?[A]
+
+[Footnote A: This conduct was afterwards more flagrantly exemplified
+on the arrival of the new and noble prize frigate _Imperatrice_, the
+equipment whereof had cost the captors 12,000 milreas, which sum has
+never been returned.]
+
+In short, is it not true that though more than a year has elapsed
+since the sailing of the imperial squadron under my command, and
+nearly half a year since its return, after succeeding in expelling the
+naval and military forces of the enemy from Bahia, and liberating the
+northern provinces, and uniting them to the empire; I say is it not
+true that not one shilling of prize money has yet been distributed
+to the squadron, and that no prospect is even now apparent of any
+distribution being speedily made? Is it not true that the only
+substantial reward of the officers and seamen of the squadron for the
+important services they have rendered has hitherto been nothing
+more than their mere pittance of ordinary pay; and even that in
+many instances vexatiously delayed and miserably curtailed? And with
+respect to myself individually, is it not notorious that I necessarily
+consume my whole pay in my current expenses; that my official rank
+cannot be upheld with less, and that it is wholly inadequate to the
+due support of the dignity of those high honours which his Imperial
+Majesty has been graciously pleased to confer?
+
+Under all these circumstances, it is in vain that I endeavour to
+make that discovery which your excellency assures me requires only
+a moment's reflection: "Au reste" (your excellency says), "que V'e.
+Ex'ce. reflechisse un moment, celle trouvera que le Gouvernement de
+S.M.I. simplement et uniquement pour faire plaisir a V'e. Ex'ce. a
+s'est attire une enorme responsabilite dans les engagemens pris
+avec V'e. Ex'ce." It is not one moment only nor one hour that I have
+reflected on these words, but without making the promised discovery,
+or any probable guess at your excellency's meaning. I would therefore
+entreat your excellency to tell me what it is that the Government
+has engaged to do. All that I know is they have engaged to pay me a
+certain sum per annum as commander-in-chief of the squadron; and this
+engagement, I admit, they have so far fulfilled. But the amount is
+little more than is received by the commander-in-chief of an English
+squadron; and is it not found in that service, and in every regular
+or established naval service, that for one officer qualified for any
+considerable command there are probably ten that are not qualified;
+though all have necessarily been reared and paid at the national
+expense? Whereas, in this case, so far from your having been at the
+expense of money in order to procure a few that are effective, you
+obtained at once, without any previous cost whatever, the services
+of myself and the officers that accompanied me, all of whom were
+experienced and efficient. Now, the united amount of the salaries you
+are engaged to pay to myself and the officers whom I brought with
+me does not exceed 25,000 dollars a year. To speak of this as an
+"enormous responsibility" as an empire, requires more than a "moment's
+reflection" to be clearly understood. The Government did, however,
+engage to pay to myself and my brother officers and seamen the value
+of our captures from the enemy, pursuant to the practice of all
+maritime belligerents, but this engagement has not hitherto been
+fulfilled. If, however, your excellency admits the responsibility of
+the Government to fulfil this engagement also, I am still equally at
+a loss to conceive in what sense that responsibility can be considered
+enormous, inasmuch as these prizes were not the property of the state,
+nor of individuals belonging to this nation, but were the property of
+Portugal, with whom this nation was and is engaged in lawful war.
+The payment, therefore, of the value of these prizes to the captors,
+supposing even the full value to be paid, does not in effect take
+one penny out of the national treasury, or out of the pocket of any
+Brazilian. If it be false--and your excellency appears to scout the
+idea--that any danger exists of having to pay twice for these prizes;
+if there really is no danger of being compelled to purchase peace
+with a defeated enemy by restoring them their forfeited property--it
+follows that the responsibility of the Government in fulfilling its
+engagement with the captors is so far from being enormous, that it is
+literally nothing. How the fulfilment of a lawful engagement by the
+simple act of paying over to the squadron the value of its prizes
+taken in time of war from the foreign enemies of the state (such
+payment occasioning no expense, and no loss to the state itself) can
+be attended with an enormous responsibility, I am utterly unable to
+comprehend. So far as the engagements of the Government with me,
+or with the captors in general of the Portuguese prizes, are of
+a pecuniary nature, they appear to me to lay no great weight of
+responsibility on the herculean shoulders of this vast empire. And it
+is only in a pecuniary sense that I can conceive it to be possible for
+your excellency to have thought of complaining of the responsibility
+attending the fulfilment of the engagements of the Government with me.
+
+It is no less difficult to comprehend how this supposed enormous
+responsibility has been incurred, "simplement et uniquement pour faire
+plaisir" to me; and it is still more difficult to comprehend how it
+happens that your excellency, "after all that you have heard and seen"
+(apres ce que j'ai entendu et vu), should be at a loss to know in what
+manner I am to be contented (je ne saurais pas dequelle maniere on
+puisse vous contenter). If, indeed, your excellency imagines that I
+ought to be contented with honorary distinctions alone, however highly
+I may prize them as the free gift of his Imperial Majesty; if
+your excellency is of opinion that I ought with "remercimens et
+satisfaction" to put up with those honours in lieu of those stipulated
+substantial rewards, which even those very honours render more
+necessary; if your excellency thinks that I ought, like the dog in the
+fable, to resign the substance for a grasp at the shadow; if this is
+all that your excellency knows on the subject of giving me content, it
+is then very true that your excellency does not know in what manner it
+is to be done. But if, "after all that your excellency has heard and
+seen," you would be pleased to render yourself conversant with those
+written engagements under which I was induced to enter into the
+service, all that your excellency and the rest of the ministers and
+council of his Imperial Majesty would then have to do in order
+to content me to the full, would be to desist from evading the
+performance of those engagements, and to cause them at once to
+be fully and honourably fulfilled. And I do believe that my
+"Correspondance Officielle une fais rendue publique, en faira foi;"
+for I am not conscious that I have ever called on the Government to
+incur one farthing of expense on my account beyond the fulfilment of
+their written engagements, which were the same as those which I had
+with Chili, which were formed precisely on the practice of England.
+There was, indeed, a verbal and conditional engagement with the late
+ministers that certain losses which I might incur in consequence of
+leaving the service of Chili should be made good;[A] and the question
+as to the obligation of fulfilling that engagement I submitted (in
+my letter of the 6th of March to the Minister of Marine) to the
+consideration of their successors. It will be fortunate for me if this
+should prove to be one of those "ill-understood verbal transactions"
+which your excellency assures me the present ministers and council
+always decide in my favour. I shall not in that case be backward to
+receive the benefit of the decision with "thanks and satisfaction;"
+but I am willing to resign it rather than it should add an
+overwhelming weight to that "enormous responsibility" which your
+excellency complains has already been incurred with a view to
+my contentment. I repeat that I have never asked for more than I
+possessed in Chili, or than any officer of the same rank is entitled
+to in England; though British officers have heretofore received in the
+service of Portugal double the amount of their English pay; and though
+the burning climate of Brazil is injurious to health, while those
+of Chili and Portugal are salubrious. Your excellency, therefore, is
+perfectly welcome to publish the whole of my official correspondence,
+because instead of proving, as your excellency asserts, the great
+difficulty of contenting me, it would go far to prove the much greater
+difficulty of inducing those with whom I have to do to take any one
+step for that purpose.
+
+[Footnote A: As the Brazilian Government had obtained possession of a
+new corvette, named the _Maria de Gloria_, which cost the Government
+of Chili 90,000 dollars, without reimbursing to that State one single
+farthing; and by the said act had deprived Lord Cochrane of the
+benefit he would have derived, as commander-in-chief, from the
+services of that ship in the Pacific, the non-fulfilment of this
+engagement seems the more unjust.]
+
+I confess, however, that in order to content me effectually it is
+necessary to fulfil not only all written engagements with myself
+individually, but generally with all the officers and seamen with
+whom, while I hold the command, I consider myself identified; and the
+more particularly because, in my own firm reliance on the good faith
+of the Government, I did in some sort become responsible for that good
+faith to my brother officers and seamen. But with whom, I put it to
+your excellency, has good faith been kept? Is it not notorious that
+previous to the departure of the expedition to Bahia, declarations
+were made to the seamen in writing by the late Minister of Marine,
+through my medium, and in printed proclamations, that their dues
+should be paid with all possible regularity, and all their arrears
+discharged immediately on their return? And is not your excellency
+aware that specific contracts were entered into by the accredited
+agent of his Imperial Majesty in England, with a number of officers
+and seamen, who, in consequence, were induced to quit their native
+country and enter into the employ of his Imperial Majesty? Can it be
+denied that these declarations and contracts, written and printed,
+were known to, and are actually in the possession of the ministers, or
+in the hands of the officers of the pay department, and yet is it not
+true that they were neglected to be fulfilled for a period of upwards
+of three months after the return of the _Pedro Primiero_; and was
+not the tardy fulfilment which at length took place procured by my
+incessant representations and remonstrances?
+
+Permit me also to ask whether the good effects of prompt payment
+were not illustrated on the arrival of the frigates _Nitherohy_ and
+_Caroline_, which happened just at the period I had succeeded in
+procuring payment to be made. Was it not in consequence of immediate
+payment that the greater part of the English crew of the _Nitherohy_
+remained quietly on board, and are now actually engaged on an
+important service to his Imperial Majesty? And, on the other hand, is
+it not equally true that the English seamen of the _Pedro Primiero_
+were so disheartened and disgusted with the long delay which in their
+case had occurred, and the manifest bad faith which had been evinced,
+that by far the greater part of them actually abandoned the ship?
+And generally, is it not true that the violations of promise, the
+obstructions of justice, and the arbitrary acts of severity, have
+produced dissatisfaction and irritation in the minds of the officers
+and seamen, and done infinite prejudice to the service of his Imperial
+Majesty and to the interests and prospects of the empire?
+
+Can it be denied that the treatment to which the officers are exposed
+is in the highest degree cruel and unjust? Have they not in many
+instances been confined in a fortress or prison-ship without being
+told who is their accuser or what is the accusation? And are they not
+kept for many months at a time in that cruel state of suspense
+and restraint without the means or opportunity of justification or
+defence? Have not some of them while incarcerated in the fortress of
+the Island of Cobras been deprived of their pay for a great length of
+time, and even denied the provisions necessary for their subsistence?
+And if, after all, they are brought to trial, are not their judges
+composed of the natives of a nation with whom they are at war? Is it
+possible that English, or other foreign officers in the service,
+can be satisfied with such a system? Can your excellency entertain a
+doubt, that open accusation, prompt trial, unsuspected justice, and
+speedy punishment, if merited, are essential to the good government of
+a naval service? Nay, is it possible that your excellency should not
+know that the system of government in the naval service of Portugal is
+the most wretched in the world, and consequently the last that ought
+to have been adopted for the naval service of Brazil?
+
+And here I would respectfully ask your excellency whether you know of
+any one thing recommended by me for the benefit of the naval service
+being complied with? Have the laws been revised to adapt them to the
+better government of the service? Has a corps of marine artillery
+been formed and taught their duty? Have young gentlemen intended for
+officers been sent on board to learn their profession? Have young men
+been enlisted and sent on board to be bred up as seamen? Or has
+any encouragement been given to the employment of Brazilians in the
+commerce of the coast?[A]
+
+[Footnote A: It was the policy of Portugal to navigate the
+coasting-trade of Brazil by slaves; and that of Spain to allow none
+but Indians to exercise the trade of fishermen on the shores of their
+South American colonies.]
+
+With regard to those difficulties, delays, and other impediments of
+which I have complained as existing in the arsenal and other offices,
+and which your excellency supposes me to have represented as being
+caused, or at least tolerated, by the minister, and which you are
+pleased to characterise as "tout a fait imaginaires, et n'ayant
+d'outre source que l'ambition sordide de quelque intrigant," I shall
+not now enter into them again at any length, as much that I have
+already written tends to refute your excellency's notions on the
+subject. That such abuses do really exist I have proved beyond the
+power of contradiction; and that they are at least tolerated by
+those--whoever they may be--who possess without exercising the means
+of preventing, does not require the ingenuity of an "intrigant" to
+discover, as the fact is self-evident. I cannot, therefore, admit that
+either my complaints or suspicions are "tout a fait imaginaires,"
+or that they are "des petitesses," as your excellency is pleased
+contemptuously to term them; but whatever they are, they originate in
+my own observation, without any assistance from the spectacles of
+an "intrigant," with which I am so gratuitously accommodated by your
+excellency.
+
+In still further proof, however, of the real existence of the evils
+in question, I may just observe that since the return of the _Pedro
+Primiero_, that ship has been kept in constant disorder by the delay
+in commencing and the idle and negligent mode of executing even the
+trifling alterations in the channels, which were necessary to enable
+the rigging to be set up, and which, after the lapse of upwards of
+five months, is now scarcely finished, though it might have been
+accomplished in forty-eight hours. Even the time of caulking was
+spun out to a period nearly as long as was occupied last year in the
+accomplishment of that thorough repair which the ship then underwent;
+and the painting is far from being completed after sixteen or eighteen
+days' labour, though a British ship of war is usually painted in a
+day. Even my own cabin is in such a state that when I am on board
+I have no place to sit down in. All these things may appear to your
+excellency as "des petitesses," or even "tout a fait imaginaires,"
+but to me they appear matters of a serious nature, injurious and
+disgraceful to the service.
+
+I may not, perhaps, succeed in convincing your excellency, but I have
+the satisfaction of being inwardly conscious that, independent of my
+natural desire to obtain justice for myself and for all the officers
+and men of the squadron, no small part of my anxiety for the
+fulfilment of the engagements of the Government proceeds from a desire
+to see the navy of his Imperial Majesty rendered efficient; which it
+can never be unless the same good faith is observed with the officers
+and men as is kept between the Government and navy of England, and
+unless indeed many other important considerations are attended to,
+which appear to have hitherto escaped the regard of the Imperial
+Government. Why, for instance, is there that indifference in regard
+to the clothing of the men? What but discontent, debasement, and
+enervation, can be the effects of that ragged and almost naked
+condition in which they have so long been suffered to remain,
+notwithstanding the numerous applications that have been made for the
+necessary clothing? I would also inquire the reason that officers and
+men, strangers to each other, and destitute of attachment and mutual
+confidence, are hastily shipped together in vessels of war going on
+active service, when better arrangements might easily be made. What
+can be expected from the vessels of war just gone out, in case they
+should meet with any serious opposition, but disgrace to those by whom
+they were so imperfectly and improperly equipped?
+
+If this communication were not already too long, or if, after the
+letter I have received from your excellency, it were possible for me
+to continue my representations in the hope of redress, I could add to
+the list of those causes of complaint which I have already pointed out
+many particulars which none but those who are blindly attached to that
+wretched system which has been so injurious to the marine and kingdom
+of Portugal could consider either trifling or imaginary. But as my
+present object has been chiefly to repel those imputations in which
+your excellency has so freely indulged, and believing that I have
+fully succeeded in that object, and have shown clearly that your
+excellency has unjustly and untruly accused me of encouraging
+talebearers, making unfounded complaints, and of being of a nature so
+avaricious as never to be satisfied--which latter, by-the-by, is
+an extraordinary accusation to prefer against me--a man whom your
+excellency must know has not hitherto been benefited, after being
+more than a year in the service, to the amount of one shilling for the
+important services he has rendered, but who, on the contrary, as
+he can show by his accounts, has necessarily expended more in his
+official situation than he has received in the service; so that the
+"remercimens" and the "satisfaction," which your excellency accuses
+him of being deficient in, can scarcely yet be due, unless it is
+proper to be satisfied and grateful too for less than nothing--having,
+I say, fully repelled and refuted these unjust accusations, I shall
+avoid troubling your excellency with any further detail. But I repeat
+that your excellency has my free consent to cause the whole of my
+official correspondence to be published; for in all that I have
+advanced with respect to the violations of contracts, and on the
+subject of the unsatisfied claims of the squadron, and relative to
+the ill-usage of officers under arrest, and to the misconduct of the
+judges of prizes, and of those who have the management of the civil
+department of the marine,[A] and in all matters whatever in question
+between the Government of Brazil and myself, I am confident I may
+safely rely on the decision of the public. And if, at the same time,
+your excellency can give a satisfactory explanation of the motives of
+that line of conduct on the part of the ministers and council, which,
+without such explanation, would have the appearance of originating in
+bad faith, the publication would be doubly beneficial by placing the
+conduct and character of all parties in a proper point of view.
+
+[Footnote A: Also Portuguese.]
+
+    I have the honour to be, Most excellent sir, Your respectful
+    and most obedient Servant, COCHRANE AND MARANHAM.
+
+    His Excellency, Joao Sereriano Maciele da Costa, Secretary of
+    State for the Home Department, &c., &c., &c.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+END OF VOL. I.
+
+
+LONDON: PRINTED BY WILLIAM CLOWES AND SONS, STAMFORD STREET AND
+CHARING CROSS.
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Life of Thomas, Lord Cochrane,
+Tenth Earl of Dundonald, G.C.B., Admiral of the Red, Rear-Admiral of the Fleet, Etc., Etc., by Thomas Cochrane, Earl of Dundonald
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