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

A day had not passed, however, before Lord Cochrane had fresh proof of the worthlessness of that pretended gratitude. Information having reached Messrs. J. and S. Ricardo, the contractors for the Greek loan of 1825, that the new Government contemplated repudiating the debt, they had written to Lord Cochrane, begging him to bring the matter before Capodistrias, and represent to him the injustice to the stock-holders and the discredit to Greece that would result from such an act. Lord Cochrane, accordingly, had an interview with the President and his two chief advisers on the 5th of December, when this subject was discussed, and, though the repudiation was only threatened, attempts were made to justify it on the plea that the 2,000,000l. forming the loan had nearly all been squandered in England and America, much having disappeared in unexplained ways, the rest having been absorbed in ship-building and engine-making, from which Greece had derived no benefit. Both in the personal interview and in a long letter which he addressed to the President on the following day, Lord Cochrane indignantly resented the proposed repudiation. He admitted that there had been gross mismanagement, but showed that the chief blame for this attached to the Greek deputies, Orlando and Luriottis, who had been sent to England to raise the money and to see that it was properly expended, but who, as was well known, had sought only their own advantage and enjoyment, and, pilfering themselves, had allowed others to pilfer without restraint. He urged that the innocent holders of the Greek stock ought not to suffer on this account, and showed also, that, if there had been great abuse of the loan, it had enabled the Greeks to tide over their worst time of trouble. "Your excellency must be aware," he wrote, "that there was no war-ship belonging to the State which was not bought, taken, or obtained by the aid of this loan, and that all the guns, mortars, powder, and other military stores which served to maintain the liberties of Greece during these later years were chiefly procured by help of this same fund. It enabled you to carry on the war until independence was secured by the intervention of the Allied Powers."

The debt was not repudiated; but Lord Cochrane's arguments for its acknowledgment gave an opportunity for exhibition of the long-smothered jealousy with which he was regarded by the counsellors of Capodistrias, if not by Capodistrias himself. The exhibition certainly was contemptible. As Lord Cochrane was about to leave Greece – and, indeed, eager to do so – the spite could only be shown in the arrangements made for his departure.

Having transferred the Mercury, which brought him out, to the President, Lord Cochrane had to ask for a vessel to take him from Egina, where he was then staying, to the Ionian Islands, or, if he could not there find suitable conveyance, to Toulon or Marseilles. The brig Proserpine was grudgingly placed at his disposal. "I pray you, my lord," wrote Mavrocordatos, on the 8th of December, "if you are obliged to take her to Toulon or Marseilles, not to detain her at Navarino or Zante, but to enable her to return with as little delay as possible to her work on the shores of Western Greece." Lord Cochrane accordingly embarked in this vessel on the 10th. No sooner was he on board, however, than he found himself treated with studied rudeness by her captain, Manoli Bouti, "exposed," as he said, "to privations and insults that would not be allowed in the conveyance of convicts." He had to put in at Poros on the same evening, and thence address a complaint to the Government, then lodged in that island. Four days passed before he received a written answer to his letter, and then it conveyed nothing but a formal intimation that another captain would be appointed in lieu of the obnoxious officer.

Many personal communications, however, had passed in the interval, by which was confirmed the suspicion formed by Lord Cochrane from the first, that the captain's misconduct had been dictated by his superiors, and that it had been a preconceived plan to try and send the First Admiral of Greece – for both title and functions still belonged to him – from her shores with every possible degradation. He naturally resented this indignity. He claimed that, while he remained in Greece, and until his office of First Admiral was abrogated, he should be treated with the respect due to his rank. All he asked, he urged, was that he might be allowed to leave Greece at once, if with such show of honour from the people whom he had done his best to serve, as would free him from insult and the Government from disgrace. "I assure your excellency," he wrote to the President, "that I regret the occurrence of any circumstance that occasions uneasiness to you; but I believe that, on reflection, you will clearly perceive that all which has occurred has been the work of others, whose acts I could neither control nor foresee. I waive my right to insist at present on any explicit recognition of my authority, and, though there is ample justification for my seeking more than I desire, all that I demand of your excellency is, for the sake of Greece, not to suffer, not to sanction your ministers in an endeavour to force me on to public explanations, by persevering in the scandalous line of conduct which they pursue. Surely your excellency cannot be aware of the importance which naval men attach to the continuance of the insignia of office, whilst actually embarked within the limits of their station, or you would not for an instant tolerate the attempt made to degrade me in the estimation of the high authorities and numerous officers here present in the port of Poros. I respectfully await your excellency's official commands and warrant to strike my flag; not founded on reasonings or on assumptions, which may prove fallacious or incorrect; but dictated in explicit terms, such as an officer can, such as he ought to obey."

That Lord Cochrane was not fighting with a shadow, appears from a letter addressed to Dr. Gosse, on the 15th of December, by Count Heyden, then commanding the Azoff, as representative of Russia in the bay of Poros. "As the affairs of etiquette are delicate," he said, "I beg that you will inform me whether his lordship is still serving as First Admiral of Greece, or whether he has received his congé. If he is still in her service and employ, I shall rejoice to render him all the honours due to his rank. In the other case, I will pay him all the honours, except the salute of cannon. I beg that you will favour me with an answer, in order that I may show his lordship all the honour that is due to him."

Dr. Gosse's answer, though longer than Admiral Heyden expected, claims to be here quoted, as it furnished an important tribute to Lord Cochrane's worth, and was all the more valuable in that the Russian officer, glad to do all in his power to render homage to a man whom the Greek Government was now treating with childish insolence, made it his own by publishing it in the naval archives of Russia. "Lord Cochrane," wrote Dr. Gosse, "having arrived in Greece in March 1827, was, in the National Assembly at Troezene, elected First Admiral and Commander-in-Chief of the Naval Forces of Greece, with independent and unlimited powers. Subsequently, and after the election of Count Capodistrias as President, the Assembly decided that the admiral should be under the authority of the Government until the arrival of the President. During the year 1827, Lord Cochrane fulfilled his duties with all the zeal, all the accuracy, and all the talent for which he is renowned; but he found it impossible to achieve anything of importance, isolated as he was, without sufficient funds, and without support from others, except that of the Philhellenic Committees, and without the co-operation of the Greeks themselves. At length, having pledged himself not to interfere in internal politics, he considered his presence in Greece useless until a firm Government could be organized, and deemed that he could render best service to the nation by advocating its interests in Western Europe. He departed early in January, after during two months vainly awaiting the arrival of Count Capodistrias, whom he informed of his expedition, and asked for instructions. He returned to France and England, used all the means in his power to obtain fresh aid for Greece, fitted out one of the steamboats that were being prepared in London, took steps for the completion of the other two, and, after writing a second letter to the President – which, like the first one, received no answer – returned to Greece, resolved to devote himself to her cause. He was received with coldness and indifference; neither lodging, nor provisions, nor employment were offered to him. He asked that his accounts might be examined: ignorant or evil-minded commissioners were entrusted with their investigation, and the Government only took it in hand very tardily. Objections and disputes, difficulties and contradictions, accumulated, and it was only after a delay of sixty days that his accounts were publicly and officially declared to be correct. All that while he remained like a private person on board his steamboat, manned only by six sailors. In all the audiences that he had with the President, he asked for instructions as to the position and work that he should assume; but he could never receive any definite answer. During one interview which he had with Prince Mavrocordatos on board the Mercury, in the port of Poros, on the 1st of December, the anniversary of the coronation of the Emperor of Russia, he announced his intention of hoisting his flag on board one of the national vessels as a public compliment to that sovereign, and asked M. Mavrocordatos to inform the President of that intention; but he received no answer. He had during this period received numerous letters from the Government addressed to him as First Admiral and Commander-in-Chief of the Naval Forces of Greece. He afterwards went to Egina with Messrs. Trikoupes and Mavrocordatos, to receive a part of the money due to him, and to hand over to the Commission of Marine the steamboat Mercury. That done, he was embarked in a national vessel, a miserable brig which had been seized as contraband, badly repaired, which had been sent to convey him to Navarino, Zante, Toulon, or Marseilles. This vessel was under the orders of a Hydriot brulotteer, an ignorant and coarse man, who, long before, at the expedition against Alexandria, had acted in direct violation of the admiral's orders; and the crew was on a par with the captain. Lord Cochrane was insolently received by these people. No place of safety was found for his baggage and his money; no food was provided even for the voyage from Egina to Poros, where Lord Cochrane wished to take leave of the President. At Poros the captain repeated his insults. Lord Cochrane requested the President to dismiss him, but received no answer. M. Trikoupes even came on board and declared that the captain should continue his voyage and proceed to his destination. Lord Cochrane then said that he would be master on board a vessel from whose mast floated his admiral's flag, and that he would yield to nothing but the written orders of the President, in order, as he said, that he might protect himself from the insolence of servants of the Government who sought to annoy him by their exhibition of paltry jealousy, or to force him into a quarrel with the President. The day before yesterday, in the afternoon, he had an interview with the President, and, Messrs. Trikoupes and Mavrocordatos being present, he openly pointed out to him the intrigues of these officials and the dangers of the course in which they were leading him. Warmly, and with the boldness of a good conscience, he exposed their policy and expressed his views upon the organization of the Greek navy. He then repeated his wish to depart as soon as possible, although he declared himself willing at any future time to serve Greece if she had need of him. He also announced that he would at once take down his flag of authority if the President officially and directly required it, but that, if any charges were brought against him, he should be compelled to remain in Greece until he had exculpated himself before the nation and obtained the punishment of the unworthy servants of the President, for whom personally he declared that he had a profound respect, while he commiserated his difficult and painful position. In this interview Lord Cochrane appeared to me to have a great advantage over his antagonists. Yesterday the admiral's flag was still floating. In the evening the President wrote him a letter in vague terms and contributing nothing to the end he had in view. This morning Lord Cochrane, in his reply, has again asked for authority to lower his flag, if that is the will of the President; but no orders have been received. This precise statement of facts which have come under my own knowledge will, I think, make it easy for your excellency to arrive at conclusions comporting with the laws of etiquette."

"I have read your letter with pleasure and with pain," wrote Admiral Heyden in answer on the same day; "for I am certain that Lord Cochrane must have suffered greatly from the treatment to which he has been exposed. In proof of my esteem I beg that he will send back to their kennels these miserable causes of his annoyance, and proceed to Malta, or to Zante if he wishes, in one of my corvettes, taking with him as large a suite as he likes. It cannot be too numerous. As regards his salute, I shall receive him with the honours due to his rank and with musical honours; and at his departure I will man the yards; but the salute of guns I cannot give him, as he is not in naval authority. Vice-Admiral Miaoulis never received from me the honours which I offer to Lord Cochrane. I did not man the yards and did not give him a salute. I hope I shall have the pleasure of seeing his lordship, and that I can provide him a passage more agreeable than that proposed for him by Greece."

Not content with sending that friendly message to Lord Cochrane, Admiral Heyden took prompt occasion to reprove Capodistrias for his unworthy conduct. Capodistrias thereupon used the influence of Dr. Grosse in bringing about at any rate a formal reconciliation between himself and Lord Cochrane, the result of which was that the latter received the official discharge that he desired, and even an offer to find him in another ship a better passage than he could have expected on board the Proserpine. Lord Cochrane, however, preferred to accept Admiral Heyden's more generous invitation. "It is gratifying," he said in a letter to Dr. Grosse on the 18th of December,13 "that even the authority to which wicked men refer in proof of the rectitude of evil deeds fails to sanction infamous conduct. Alas! if Capodistrias suffers – and he seems not inclined to oppose – I say, if he suffers the base intrigues of the Phanar to be introduced as the means of ruling a nation, Greece must fall back, if not into a darker state, yet into a worse condition, inasmuch as suspended anarchy is preferable to civil war."

Those prognostications proved correct. Capodistrias, allowing others to direct him in ways of bad government, entered on a policy which very soon led to his assassination – to be followed by the milder rule of King Otho.

On the 20th of December Lord Cochrane left Poros in the Russian corvette Grimachi, honourably placed at his disposal by Admiral Heyden, and proceeded to Malta. There he was worthily received by the British admiral, Sir Pulteney Malcolm, who offered him immediate conveyance to Naples in the Racer, or, in a week's time, a passage direct to Marseilles in the Etna. Believing that thus he would save time, he chose the former alternative. From Naples, however, he found it impossible to proceed to Marseilles, and he was obliged, on the 29th of January, to embark in an English merchant vessel to Leghorn. Eleven days were spent in the short voyage, and on reaching Leghorn he had to submit to fifteen days' quarantine before being allowed to proceed to Paris, there to rejoin his family. The whole journey occupied nearly ten weeks.

From Leghorn he wrote on the 15th of February to Chevalier Eynard respecting Greece and her still unfortunate condition. "Civilization and internal order," he said, "can make no steady progress in Greece unless the Government can be supported otherwise than by the present bands of undisciplined, ignorant, and lawless savages. Under existing circumstances, Greeks who have attained the age of maturity are incapable of military organization. You have long known my opinion as to the necessity of sending foreign troops to Greece to maintain order. You know that I preferred Swiss or Bavarian soldiers to those of the great pacificating powers, because the latter cannot, with propriety, interfere in matters of police, whilst paid by foreign countries. It is now, however, too late to send small military establishments, such as would have sufficed on the arrival of Capodistrias, because now they would be considered as oppressors; then they would have been received as allies and friends. The alternatives that may be pursued in the conduct relative to Greece now are, to let the Revolution work itself out, as in South America, or to leave six regiments in the country until the young men who are abroad shall be educated and the rising generation at home shall be somewhat civilized. It is of no use to attempt to do good by half measures under the present circumstances of Greece. Kolokotrones is ready, on the spot, to take possession of Patras the moment it is evacuated. Petro-Bey, who has been prosecuted in the Court of Admiralty for piracy, is prepared to avenge himself by taking authority in Maina. Konduriottes, Zaimes, and all the other chiefs, anxiously await the meeting of the Assembly, which they hail as the final hour of the President's authority. Capodistrias's ministers, too, who are no fools, but, on the contrary, cunning men, undoubtedly have similar views, for they have taken every means to discredit, disgust, and drive away every foreigner who, by his conduct, counsel, or friendly intimation, could avert the evil. Thus things are fast tending towards a discreditable close of the President's administration."

"Thank God," wrote Lord Cochrane three months later, on the 17th of May, to Dr. Gosse, who, in the interval, had also left Greece, "we are both clear of a country in which there is no hope of amelioration for half a century to come; unless, indeed, immigration shall take place to a great extent, under some king, or competent ruler, appointed and supported by the Governments of the mediating powers. The mental fever I contracted in Greece has not yet subsided, nor will it probably for some months to come."

Lord Cochrane might well be suffering from a mental fever. Nearly four years of his life had been spent in efforts to serve Greece, and with very poor result. To himself the issue had been wholly unfortunate; even the pecuniary recompense to which he was entitled having been so reduced as not to meet the expenses to which he had been put, partly through his generous surrender of the 20,000l. which he was to receive on completion of the work, partly through the depreciation of the Greek stock in which, out of sympathy for the cause, he had invested the 37,000l. paid to him on his engagement.

And to Greece the issues had been far less beneficial than he had hoped. The tedious and wanton delays to which he had been subjected at starting, whereby that starting was prevented for a year and a half, had hindered his arrival in Greece till it was too late for him to do much of the work that he had planned. The want of money, and, still more, the want of patriotism, courage, and even common honesty on the part of nearly all the leaders with whom he was to co-operate, and the officers and crews whom he was to command, had caused his ten months' active service in Greece to comprise little more than a series of bold projects, and projects which, if he had been aided by brave men, would have been as easy as they were bold, in which he received none of the support that was necessary, and which accordingly all his energy and genius could not make successful. When, after his visit to England and France, he returned to Greece, eager and able to render invaluable assistance in the organization of the navy, he was treated only with neglect and insolence, from which at last he was enabled to escape through the generous sympathy of a Russian admiral.

Much, however, he had done for Greece. To his persistent entreaties were due all the meagre displays of patriotism by which the Government of the country was maintained and Capodistrias accepted as President, and all the feeble efforts by which the war was carried on and the triumph of the Porte was averted until the direct interference of the Allied Powers. That interference had been in great measure induced by the report that he had entered the service of Greece, so that to him was due not a little of the benefit that accrued from the whole course of diplomacy by which her independence was secured; and the independence was made more prompt and complete than could have been expected by the fortunate circumstance of his having occasioned the collision between the forces of Turkey and those of the Allied Powers which issued in the Battle of Navarino. Much more he would have achieved had his arguments been listened to and his plans supported. His failures no less than his successes bespeak his worth.

CHAPTER XXIII

A RECAPITULATION OF LORD COCHRANE'S NAVAL SERVICES. – HIS EFFORTS TO OBTAIN RESTITUTION OF THE RANK TAKEN FROM HIM AFTER THE STOCK EXCHANGE TRIAL. – HIS PETITION TO THE DUKE OF CLARENCE. – ITS REJECTION BY THE DUKE OF WELLINGTON'S CABINET. – LORD COCHRANE'S OCCUPATIONS AFTER THE CLOSE OF HIS GREEK SERVICE. – HIS RETURN TO ENGLAND. – HIS MEMORIAL TO WILLIAM IV. – ITS TARDY CONSIDERATION BY EARL GREY'S CABINET. – ITS PROMOTERS AND OPPONENTS. – LORD COCHRANE'S ACCESSION TO THE PEERAGE AS TENTH EARL OF DUNDONALD. – HIS INTERVIEW WITH THE KING. – THE COUNTESS OF DUNDONALD'S EFFORTS IN AID OF HER HUSBAND'S MEMORIAL. – THEIR ULTIMATE SUCCESS. – THE EARL OF DUNDONALD'S "FREE PARDON," AND RESTORATION TO NAVAL RANK.

[1828-1832.]

Lord Cochrane's retirement from the service of Greece brought to a close his career as a fighting seaman. With one brief exception, occurring twenty years later, when he commanded the British squadron in the North American and West Indian waters, but when there was no warfare to be done the rest of his life, comprising thirty years of ripe manhood and vigorous old age, was passed without employment in the profession which was dear to him, and in which he had shown himself to be possessed of talents rarely equalled and certainly never surpassed.

He entered that profession at the age of seventeen. In 1800, when he was twenty-four, he was promoted to the command of the Speedy. With that crazy little sloop, no larger than a coasting brig, he captured a large French privateer on the 10th of May, and on the 14th he recaptured two English vessels that had been seized by the enemy. On the 16th of June he took another French vessel, and on the 22nd another, with a prize which she had just obtained. On the 29th, he secured a large Spanish privateer, in spite of five gunboats which fought in her defence. On the 19th of July he captured another French privateer and rescued her prize; on the 27th he sunk another; and on the 31st he put another to flight and took possession of the prize which she had in tow. On the 22nd of September, he seized another of the enemy's vessels. On the 15th of December he wrecked one French war-ship and captured another, one of three which came to her assistance; and on the 24th, being attacked by two Spanish privateers, he took one of them. On the 16th of January, 1801, he chased two vessels, and seized one, and on the 22nd, two of the enemy's craft, one French and the other Spanish, struck to him. On the 24th of February a French brig fell into his hands. The same fate was shared by another vessel on the 11th of April, by another on the 13th, and by two others on the 15th. He captured a Spanish tartan and a Spanish privateer on the 4th of May; and on the 13th occurred his celebrated victory over the Gamo– carrying four times the tonnage, six times the number of men, and seven times the weight of shot possessed by the Speedy– which was soon followed by the taking of two other Spanish privateers heavily armed. On the 9th of June, the Speedy and another little vessel had a nine hours' fight, first with a Spanish zebec and three gunboats, and afterwards with a felucco and two more gunboats which came to their aid, which were only allowed to escape when the English ammunition was nearly exhausted, the Speedy having discharged fourteen hundred shot. On the 3rd of July, the pigmy vessel, after hard fighting, had to surrender to three French line-of-battle ships. It was on that occasion that their senior officer, Captain Pallière, declined to accept the sword of "an officer," as he said, "who had for so many hours struggled against impossibility." In his thirteen months' cruise Lord Cochrane had with his little sloop of fourteen 4-pounders, and a crew of fifty-four officers and men, taken and retaken fifty vessels, a hundred and twenty-two guns, and five hundred and thirty-four prisoners.