11.

Debates on

in Parliament.

A scene so melancholy, and so unwonted in modern times, excited, as well it might, the most profound sympathy this subject in Europe; and as it proved, by a decisive act, how deep were the feelings of nationality which slumbered under the weight of Turkish oppression, it strongly awakened the general feeling in favor of the Greeks. The affair was made the subject of warm debates in both Houses of Parliament; but it was too late. Parga had been delivered up to its oppressors; its inhabitants, like the Athenians in the days of Xerxes, had fled, and its deserted streets had become the abode of the pirate and wild animals. The Opposition loudly declaimed against the cession of this town and expatriation of its unfortunate inhabitants, as a breach of national faith, a surrender of the national honor on the part of England, which could never be effaced. But although it must ever be a matter of deep regret to every person animated with right feelings, that so deplorable a catastrophe should have taken place under the shadow of the British flag, and to those who had, in trusting sincerity, taken the oath of fidelity to the British crown, there does not appear to have been any direct breach of treaty in our conduct on this occasion. Parga had been either forgotten at the Congress of Vienna, when the general cession of Epirus to the Porte had been stipulated, or it had been intentionally ceded to that power. In either case we were bound by the faith of treaties to give it up; and its evacuation, however melancholy, was conducted with every xl. 1177, 1182. possible regard to the interests and feelings of its inhabitants.'

Nom

lost the vigor of barbarism, and not gained the strength of civilization. Between the two they appeared destined to sink into the dust. inally extending over the fairest portions of Europe, Asia, and Africa; embracing in extent nearly the whole which, on the division of the Empire, fell to the lot of Constantine, their real dominion was confined to a much narrower circle. Egypt and Algeria were only in form subject to their sway; the Pacha of Bagdad could little be relied on; even the nearer provinces of Moldavia and Wallachia, containing 2,000,000 inhabitants, and yielding a revenue approaching to a million sterling, were rather tributary states than real parts of the empire. Governed by hospodars selected by the Porte from the most wealthy Greeks of the Fanar, who looked to these appointments chiefly as the means of augmenting their fortunes, they had been subjected to innumerable burdens beyond what actually flowed into the coffers of the Sultan, and the inhabitants were so discontented that they not only formed no addition to the strength of the empire, but rather were a burden to its resources. They had been three times occupied by the Russian troops, and as often incited to revolt by their commanders, within the last half-century, and as often ceded back, on peace being concluded, to the Turks, with stipulations in their favor, which the Porte constantly found the means of eluding. Thus the Ottomans, as well as themselves, had come to regard their dominion over them as merely temporary, to be made the most of while it lasted. Their agriculture was annihilated by an ordinance prohibiting the export of their grain any where but to Constantinople, whither they sent 1,500,000 Matters were in this state, with the public bushels of wheat annually; and only three feeling all over Europe strongly ex- commodities-wool, yellow berries, and harecited in favor of the Greeks, when skins-were allowed to be exported. It may Spanish rev- the Spanish revolution of 1820 broke easily be conceived, therefore, how discontentout, so frightful in political conse-ed their inhabitants were, and how they longed Turkey and Greece. every part of the world. for the steady government and comparative quences in Followed as it speedily was by those freedom of industry which the Muscovites enin Naples, Sicily, and Piedmont, and by an ex-joyed. Servia, with its million of inhabitants, traordinary fermentation alike in France, Germany, and England, it produced such a commotion in men's minds as led, in the course of the next year, to the GREEK REVOLUTION. The inhabitants of Hellas, already prepared by the efforts of the Hetairists for an approaching convulsion, deemed the hour of their deliverance at hand; the friends of the Greeks, or Philhellenes as they were called, in every part of Europe encouraged these ideas, and secretly made subscriptions in money and contributions in arms to carry it into effect. The desire for liberty, the fervor of democracy, combined with hatred of the infidel in stimulating the Greeks to an effort to restore their long-lost nationality; and the strongest passions which can move the human breast, the love of free2 Lac. iii. 93; dom, the animosities of race, and Lam. vii. 345 the hostility of adverse religions, Ann. Hist. iv. came for once to pull in the same direction.2

1 Parl. Deb.

12. Effect of the

olution on

373, 374.

might be expected, at the first signal from Russia, to join its gallant youth to the Muscovite bands; and Albania, under the sceptre of the wily tyrant, Ali Pacha, was as likely to join the enemies of the Porte as to support its fortunes. The Turkish empire was rapidly approaching that state which characterized the last days of the Lower Empire, when the distant provinces had all fallen off or become independent, and the whole strength of the state 1 Ann. Hist. consisted in the capital, and the iv. 373, 376; provinces which immediately sur- Gordon, i, 92, rounded it.'

93.

Add to this, that the military strength of the empire was in that state of decrepit- 14. ude which invariably ensues when Its weakness one method of carrying on war is in a military substituted for another, and the na- point of view. tional armaments are exchanged for those formed on the model of other states. The Turks were a nation of soldiers, and as every one of them was trained to the management of a horse and the use of arms, they were capable, when thoroughly roused, and deeply imbued with the military spirit, of forming immense armies, which had more than once proved extremely formidable to the eastern states of Europe. But

|

sand men, to whom were soon added two thousand Arnauts, who formed the police of Bucharest, but deserted to his standard.

16.

March 7.

6. Turks in Europe were only a third of the esire inhabitants, and they alone were intrusted with arms, the military strength of the empire, at least in that quarter, rested on a very Ere long another insurrection, equally fornarrow foundation; and, such as it was, it had midable, broke out in Jassy, the capsensibly declined during the last century. The ital of Moldavia. On the 23d Feb- Ipsilanti's Turkomans had become citizens, and habituated ruary (7th March, new style), Prince insurrection to the enjoyments of peaceful life; the janiza- Alexander Ipsilanti, an officer of in Moldavia. ries were in great part tradesmen, who were distinction in the Russian service,* unwilling to exchange the certain profits of entered Jassy, the capital of that province, at business for the uncertain gains of war. Then the head of two hundred horse, from whence the feudal militia had become greatly less war- he issued a proclamation, calling on the Greeks like and efficient than it had been in former of every denomination to take up arms, and days, and no regular army had as yet been promising them, in no obscure terms, the supformed to supply its place. Such as were en- port of Russia. The effect of this proclamarolled were often more dangerous to their own tion was prompt and terrible. Assured of the government than its enemies. So unruly were connivance, if not the support, of the governor some of its armed defenders, that it was hard of the province, promised the all-powerful proto say whether the Sultan did not often run tection of Russia, the whole Christian populagreater risks from their insubordination than tion of the town, whether Greek, Moldavian, from the open hostility of his enemies. Re- or Arnaut, rose in insurrection, fell upon the volts of the janizaries had, in very recent times, Turks, great numbers of whom they massacred, brought the reigning family to the very brink and pillaged their houses. Similar excesses were of ruin, and been appeased only by abject sub-perpetrated at Galatz, the chief seaport of the mission on the part of the government; and though various efforts had been made to introduce the European discipline among them, yet they had been constantly eluded, and the attempt to enforce them led to such discontent, 1 Val. 93, 96; as augmented the danger arising Fonton, 126, from their mutinous disposition and arrogant habits.'

129.

15. Commence

insurrection

in Wallachia.

province, where great numbers of Mussulmans perished, and the town, being set on fire, was in part consumed. The vessels in the harbor, with the guns on board, fell into the hands of the Greeks, to whom they proved of essential service. The whole armed Mussulman force in the two provinces consisted of six hundred horse, who were unable to make head against the insurgents, who soon amounted to twenty thousand men. The intelligence of these events excited the utmost enthusiasm among the Greeks at Odessa, among whom Ipsilanti's proclamation was publicly read amidst deafening cheers, and large subscriptions to provide for the support of the insurgents were made. Ipsilanti, encouraged by these auspicious events, organized a battalion styled the Sacred Battalion, and which embraced the entire flower of the youth of the country. Their uniform was black, with a cross formed of bones in front, with 1 Ann Hist. the famous inscription of Constan- iv. 381, 383; tine, In this sign you shall con- Gordon, i. quer." 1‡

The insurrection, the embers of which had so long been prepared by the efforts of the Hetairists, and which the ment of the Spanish revolution at length blew into a flame, broke out first in Wallachia. The reason was that these provinces were nearest to Russia, upon whose support the insurgents mainly relied. It was brought to a point by the death of Prince Alexander Suzzo, the hospodar of Wallachia, who expired on the 30th January, 1821. The Porte lost no time in appointing a new hospodar, Prince Charles Callimachi, the head of one of the most illustrious Greek families of the Fanar; but as the short interregnum which must ensue in some degree weakened the hands of government, the Hetairists resolved to take advantage of it to raise the standard of revolt. It began with a band of Greeks and Arnauts, one hundred and fifty in number, who assembled in Bucharest unknown to the Turks, and marched out of the town under the command of a brave officer, Theodore Vladimaruko, formerly a lieutenant-colonel in the Russian service, and who was so called from his having received the order of St. Vladamir from them. With this slender band he seized the small town of Czernitz, near the ruins of Trajan's bridge over the Dan-aire Historique, iv. 582; GORDON, i. 88. ube, from whence he issued a proclamation, announcing that the hour of their deliverance was at hand, and calling upon the people to rise and shake off the tyranny of their oppressors. Such was the discontent which generally prevailed, in consequence of the oppressive exactions of the Turkish satraps, and the depression of the value of their produce by being confined to the market of Constantinople, that the peasants all flocked to his standard; and in a few days Theodore foundish himself at the head of twelve thou

2 Gordon, i.

96, 98; Ann. Hist. iv. 377,

380.

94, 109.

Prince Alexander Ipsilanti was descended from an illustrious Greek family of the Fanar, and his father had formerly been hospodar of Wallachia. The young prince burg, from whence he obtained a commission in the Imwas admitted early into the military academy at St. Petersperial Guard, and lost an arm in the battle of Culm in 1813. He gradually rose in the Russian service to the rank of major-general; but he became, after the peace of 1815, wearied of the inactivity of pacific life, and entered warmly into the designs of the Greek Hetairists. His known bravery and experience, and the rank he bore in the Russian service, pointed him out to the Grand Arch as the proper person to command their armies, and he "Steward of the Stewards of the august Arch."-Annu

accordingly received the commission of generalissimo.—

"Inhabitants of Moldavia! know that at this moment all Greece has lighted the torch of liberty, and broken the yoke of tyranny. It reclaims its inalienable rights. I go where duty calls me, and I offer you, as well on my own part as on that of all my countrymen assembled here, whom I have the honor to command, the assurance of protection, and of perfect security to your persons and property. Divine Providence has given you in Prince Michael Suzzo, your present governor, a defender of your rights, a father, a benefactor. He deserves all these titles, unite with him to protect the common weal. If some desperate Turks venture to make an incursion into your territory, fear nothing; for a great power is ready to puntheir insolence.-ALEXANDER IPSILANTI. Jassy, 23d February, 1821" (old style).—Annuaire Historique, iv. 381. "In hoc signo vinces."

17.

19.

neutral

The great thing required to give consistency of the Christian population, and the entire exto the insurrection, and cause it to pulsion of the Turks from their dominions in Ipsilanti's extend over the whole inhabitants Europe. first meas of Greece, was to hold out some se- It may readily be conceived that it must have ures. curity for the support of Russia. To been motives of no ordinary kind favor this idea Ipsilanti spread abroad the news which induced the Emperor Ålexan- Reasons of approaching aid from Russia, and made large der at this juncture to forego such which inrequisitions in horses and provisions for the manifold advantages, and remain duced him alleged use of the troops of that power. In a neutral when he had only to give the to remain few weeks he was at the head of 1500 troops, signal, and the empire of the East chiefly horsemen, at the head of which he en- must have fallen into his grasp. What those tered Jassy, and organized his little motives were is now known from the best of March 9. force in a regular manner, which, with all sources-his own words, in confidential conthe exception of the second battalion, 600 versation with M. de Chateaubriand: "The strong, all consisted of cavalry. Meanwhile, time is past," said he, "when there can be a the fermentation was extreme throughout all | French, Russian, Prussian, or Austrian policy. Greece and the isles, and the utmost alarm pre- One only policy for the safety of all can be advailed at Constantinople. In vain the Russian mitted in common by all people and all kings. minister, Baron Strogonoff, gave the Divan the It devolves on me to show myself the first to strongest assurance that the imperial govern- be convinced of the principles on which the ment were strangers to the movement, and Holy Alliance is founded. An opportunity prewould in no way whatever countenance it; in sented itself on occasion of the insurrection of vain the Patriarch and Synod of Constantinople the Greeks. Nothing certainly could have been issued a proclamation denouncing the more for my interests, those of my people, and March 21. insurrection in the most emphatic the opinion of my country, than a religious war terms, and calling on all the Greeks to remain against the Turks; but I discerned in the troufaithful in their allegiance to their sovereign. bles of the Peloponnesus the revolutionary mark. The Ottoman government, now thoroughly From that moment I kept aloof from them. Noalarmed, persisted in regarding the danger as thing has been spared to turn me aside from most serious, and in secret instigated by the the Alliance, but in vain. My self-love has been March 30. agents of Russia; and on the 30th assailed, my prejudices appealed to, but in vain. March a proclamation was issued by What need have I of an extension of my emthe Divan, ascribing the disorders which had pire? Providence has not put under my orders broken out to the distrust which the malversa-eight hundred thousand soldiers to satisfy my tions of the governors of provinces had inspired, ambition, but to protect religion, morality, and and calling on all Mussulmans to forego all the justice, and to establish the principles of order luxuries of life, to provide themselves with on which human society reposes.' In pursu arms and horses, and to recur to ance of these principles, Count Nesselrode dethe life of their ancestors and of clared officially that "his Imperial Majesty camps, the primitive state of the could not regard the enterprise of Ipsilanti as nation.1 any thing but the effect of the exaltation which characterizes the present epoch, as well as of the inexperience and levity of that young man, whose name is ordered to be erased from the Russian service." Orders briand, Conwere at the same time sent to the gres de Veimperial forces on the Pruth and in rone, i. 222; the Black Sea to observe the strict- Ann. Hist. iv. 384, 385. est neutrality.'

1 Ann. Hist. iv. 363, 385; Gordon, i. 102, 104.

18.

Alexander to

this time.

The first intelligence of these events was brought to the Emperor Alexander Reasons in April, at the congress of Laybach, which urged engaged in deliberating with the the Emperor other sovereigns on the affairs of intervene in Spain, Naples, and Piedmont. It Turkey at may readily be conceived what a prospect was here opened to Russian ambition. The object which the cabinet of St. Petersburg had been laboring for a century to attain, seemed now to be placed within its grasp. Turkey, long sinking into decrepitude, now convulsed in its most important provinces by insurrection, seemed to be falling to pieces; the unanimous voice of the Greek nation called upon the Czar to take the lead in their deliverance; nothing, to all appearance, could prevent the conquest of Constantinople, and replacing the cross on the dome of St. Sophia. The other nations of Europe were so entirely occupied with their domestic troubles, and the social dangers with which they were threatened from the effects of the Spanish revolution, that no serious resistance to this conquest was to be anticipated from the jealousy which had hitherto alone prevented it. Every thing within and without conspired to recommend a forward movement of the Muscovite troops; and there can be no doubt that the crossing of the Pruth by their battalions would have been the signal for a universal insurrection

1 Chateau

and meas

lanti.

The publication of this resolution on the part of the imperial government was a 20. death-blow to the insurrection in Enthusiasm the provinces to the north of the of the Turks, Danube. The tumultuary bands ures taken which Theodore and Ipsilanti had against Ipsiraised proved wholly unequal to a contest in the plains of Wallachia and Moldavia with the strength of the Ottomans, now fairly aroused, and stimulated by every feeling of religious zeal and patriotic ardor. The fermentation soon became excessive in Constantinople. Large bodies of Ottomans daily crossed over from Asia Minor, all animated to the very highest degree with fanatical enthusiasm, and loudly demanding to be led instantly against the Giaours, whom they would exterminate to the last man. Nothing would satisfy the populace but liberty to massacre the whole Greeks in the capital; and it was only on the earnest remonstrances of the Russian, French, and English embassadors, that the Divan was prevented from giving the reins to their fury. As

1 Ann. Hist.

21.

ment of the insurrection in Greece Proper and

385, 387.

388.

23.

Constanti

arch.

it was, they hastened the march of the Asiatic | Spezzia, and Ipsara, the strongest and most troops through the capital to the Balkan and powerful among them, fitted out armaments the Danube, and there was soon ac- with incredible activity, to protect their shores, iv. 385, 386; cumulated a force with which the and intercept the commerce of the enemy.* Aan. Reg. Greeks in Moldavia and Wallachia, The chiefs of Peloponnesus soon after 1821, 247, now discouraged by the policy of assembled at Calamata, in the Morea, April 9. 249. Russia, were unable to cope.' from whence they issued a proclamation, in But while these serious preparations were in which they stated that they had taken up arms progress for crushing the insurgents "to deliver the Peloponnesus from the tyranny Commence to the north of the Danube, the in- of the Ottomans; to restore to its inhabitants surrection had broken out, and al- their liberty; to combat for it, for their religready become formidable, in the ion, and for that land which had 1 Gordon, i. Morea and the islands of the Archi- been illustrated by so much genius, 144, 149, the islands. pelago. COLOCOTRONI, formerly a and to which Europe is mainly in- 163; Ann. major in the service of Russia, Peter Mavro, debted for the light and the blessings Hist. iv. Michael, and other chiefs, who had been pre- of civilization. We ask nothing in repared for the event, had been collecting arms turn but arms, money, and councils." all winter in the caverns of Mount Taygetus; The intelligence of these events succeeding and having received orders from Ipsilanti no one another with stunning violence, longer to delay their rising, they assembled excited the utmost sensation at Con- Violent extheir followers in the mountains, in the centre stantinople both among the Greeks citement at of the Peloponnesus, and raised the standard and Mussulmans. But the latter, nople, and of revolt. In Patras, a strong and important who were a majority of the inhabit- murder of fortress, the revolt burst forth under circum- ants, had the military force at their the Patristances peculiarly frightful. The Chris- disposal, and were encouraged by April 21. April 6. tians rose in arms, and set fire to the the continual passage of armed and Turkish quarter; the Ottomans retired to the fanatical Turks from Asia toward the Danube, citadel, from whence they kept up an incessant instead of being intimidated by so many and bombardment on the burning city: the con- such threatening dangers, were only roused by tending parties fought with incredible fury in them to fresh exertions, and inspired with more the streets; no quarter was shown on either sanguinary passions. Instant death to the side; and at length victory declared for the in- Christians was the universal cry among the surgents, in consequence of the arrival of the Mussulmans. Unable to resist the torrent, and prelate Germanos with some thousand peasants, in secret not averse to measures of severity, half-armed, headed by their priests singing which, it was hoped, might crush the insurrecpsalms, and promising eternal salvation to such tion in the bud, the Divan resolved on an atroas died combating for the Cross. This rein- cious act, which, more than any thing else, forcement proved decisive: the Turks were on tended to spread and perpetuate the insurrecall sides driven back into the citadel; the town tion, and may be regarded as one of the prinand harbor fell into the hands of the insurgents; cipal causes which hastened the ruin of the the crucifix, amidst boundless joy, was raised Turkish empire. This was the murder of in the Place of St. George, and a proclamation Gregory, Patriarch of Constantinople, a revered was issued by the assembled chiefs, prelate, eighty years of age, who was which concluded with the words-seized on Easter Sunday, as he was de- April 21. "Peace to the Christians, respect to scending from the altar, where he had been iv. 386, 387. the consuls, death to the Turks." 2 celebrating divine service, and hanged at the The intelligence of this success spread like gate of his archiepiscopal palace, amidst the wildfire through the Morea, and ferocious cries of a vast crowd of Mussulmans. The insur- every where caused the insurrection The blameless life and exemplary character of to break forth. With incredible en- this prelate, the proof of fidelity to the governthusiasm the peasants assembled in ment which he had recently given by his proctheir vales; old arms were searched lamation against the insurgents, the courage he for and brought forth; and a variety evinced in his last moments, while they were of skirmishes took place, with various success. unable to move his enemies, enshrined his The general result, however, was favorable to memory in the hearts of his grateful countrythe insurgents. Gradually the Turks were men. His blood cemented the foundations of driven back into their strongholds; and in a the Christian empire in the East; he might say, few days they possessed nothing in the Morea with the Protestant martyr at the stake, "We but the Acro-Corinthus of Corinth, the towns shall light a fire this day which, by the grace of Coron and Modon, the castle of the Morea, of God, shall never be extinguished." After Tripolitza, Napoli di Romania, and the citadel hanging three hours, the body was cut down of Patras. Attica followed the example: the and delivered to a few abandoned Jews, by Ottoman garrison of Athens, too weak to hold the city, shut itself up in the Acropolis, and "The insupportable yoke of Ottoman tyranny hath the cross was re-erected in the city of Theseus. of Peloponnesus. So excessive had its rigor become, weighed down, for above a century, the unhappy Greeks In the isles the flame spread with still greater that its fainting victims had scarcely strength enough rapidity, from the superior security which their left to utter groans. In this state, deprived of all our insular situation and maritime resources af- rights, we have unanimously resolved to take up arms against our tyrants. Our intestine discord is buried in forded. The peasants in Crete rose, and com- oblivion, as a fruit of oppression: we breathe the air of pelled the Turks to take refuge in their strong-liberty; our hands, having burst their fetters, already holds; the whole islands of the Archipelago MAUROMIKLIALES, 28th March, 1821. GORDON'S Greek signalize themselves against the barbarians."-PETROS hoisted the standard of the Cross; and Hydra, Revolution, i. 183.

2 Gordon, i. 147, 149; Ann. Hist.

22.

rection spreads Over all Greece.

VOL. II.-C