1827, 316, 421. * An. Hist. x. 337, 355; dom.1 616, 617. fusal. Having adopted this resolution on the 18th | a shot was discharged, until the Dartmouth October, they proceeded to carry it sent a boat to one of the fireships, which was An. Reg into execution on the 18th, and thus fired upon, as it was supposed they were com317 Gor- brought on one of the most gloriousing to board. Several men were wounded by don, ii. 419, events in the annals of Christen- this discharge, which immediately induced a defensive fire from the Dartmouth, which beThe forces of the Allies consisted of ten came extremely warm. At the same time, an 160. ships of the line, ten frigates and a officer bearing a flag of truce, sent by Sir Forces on brig, and a few smaller vessels; in all, Edward Codrington to the Turkish 1 Sir E. both sides. twenty-six sail, carrying 1324 guns. admiral's ship, was slain; and a can- Codring Of these, three line-of-battle ships-viz, the non-shot was fired at Admiral de ton's DisAsia, of eighty four guns, which bore Sir Ed- Rigny's ship from one of the Egyp- patch; An. Reg. 411; ward Codrington's flag, the Albion, of seventy-tian vessels. This brought on a re- Ann. Hist. four guns, and the Genoa, seventy-four-were turn from the Asia and Sirène; and x. 358, 359; English; three French, viz., the Sirène, which immediately the fire became general Brenton, ii. bore the flag of Admiral de Rigny, the Scipio, along the whole line.' and the Breslau; and four Russian, under With characteristic hardihood, Sir E. CodAdmiral Heyden, whose flag was hoisted on rington anchored his vessel between 102. board the Azoff. The Ottoman force consisted the ships of the Capitan Bey, the The battle, of seventy-nine vessels, of which four were of Turkish, and Moharem Bey, the and defent of the line, nineteen frigates, and twenty-nine Egyptian admiral, and immediately the Turks. corvettes, besides lesser vessels, armed with began a tremendous fire, right and left, on his 2240 guns; so that, independent of the batter- antagonists. The Asia at the same time was ies and forts on shore, which were very formi- exposed to a raking fire from the frigates in dable, they had nine hundred guns more than the second and third line, which carried away the Christians. There can be no doubt, how- her mizen-mast by the board, disabled several ever, that, as the latter had a great superiority of the guns, and killed and wounded numbers ia sail of the line, having ten to four, they of the crew. Despite these disadvantages, were, upon the whole, superior in strength; however, the fire of the Asia was kept up with and if the battle had been fought at open sea, such vigor and precision that the two admirals' it probably would not have lasted an hour. ships were soon silenced, and floated away But the advantage arising from this superiority mere wrecks. Meanwhile the Genoa and of force was very much lost by the position of Albion took up their positions in the most the enemy, crowded into the bay of beautiful manner, and commenced the action Navarino, where they lay under the with the utmost vigor; while the French and guns of the batteries in the form of Russian admirals, aided by their respective a vast semicircle, having their broad-crews, took their ground, and rivaled the sides turned toward the centre of British seamen in skill and daring. The Sirène the bay, and so near each other as ran the greatest risk of being burned by the to resemble rather a huge floating fireships which were launched against her by battery than a fleet of detached ves- the Egyptians; but she was saved by the able exertions of Captain Fellows of the Dartmouth. The combined fleet entered the bay at two By degrees the superiority of the Christian fire o'clock on the afternoon of the 20th became very apparent; most of the vessels in Comance October. Sir Edward Codrington the enemy's line were either sunk, silenced, or meat of the led the van in the Asia, followed by in flames, and such of the crew as could escape battle. the Genoa and Albion; next came threw themselves into the sea and made for the October 20. Admiral de Rigny in the Sirène, shore, after setting fire to their respective ships. followed by the Scipio and the Breslau; Ad- The Asia was for long so enveloped in smoke miral Heyden, in the Azoff, brought up the that her flag only could be seen at the mastrear, with his three other line-of-battle ships. head, and when a frigate near her blew up, it The six leading ships passed the batteries at was thought she had exploded; but in a few the entrance of the bay, within pistol shot, minutes, the smoke clearing away, she was without opposition, and took up their stations seen still maintaining the fight with untiring directly opposite to the heaviest vessels in the energy, and a general shout along the whole enemy's line; the Russians, in the rear, were fleet announced the joyous discovery. placed abreast of the batteries; and the frig-battle lasted four hours, at the close of which ates of the squadron were directed to look time the whole Ottoman ships were burnt, after the enemy's frigates and fireships. No- sunk, or destroyed, with the exception of thing could exceed the precision with which twenty-eight of the smallest, which were cast the different vessels came in, and took up their ashore, or still afloat, and were respective positions. The Asia passed close to spared by the conquerors. Fifty- Codring the ship of Moharem Bey, and with silent and one vessels, including the four line- ton's Disawful grandeur clewed up her topsails, rounded of-battle ships, nineteen frigates, and patch, An. to, and let go her small bower-anchor on the twenty-nine corvettes, were destroy-413; Ann. Reg. 410, larboard of the Capitan Pacha's ship of equaled, with seven thousand of their list. x. size. The Capitan Bey said to his colleagues crews. History has scarcely pre- 353, 359; as they came in, "The die is now cast. I told served the record of so complete a Brenton, ii. you the English were not to be trifled with." conquest, or so awful a devastation.** Strict orders had been given not to fire; and although all the ships on both sides were clear ed for action, and every preparation made, not Gordon, ii. 431 Sir E. Codrington's Dis patch, Oct. 21; Aan. 410, 411. 161. sels.2 The 2 Admiral 618. * Ibrahim Pacha's own account of the circumstances which led to the battle of Navarino is substantially the same as that given above on the authority of the allied admirals: 163. Indescribably sublime was the scene which presented itself at the close of the Results of action, when the sun declined, serene the action. and unclouded, over this theatre of carnage. The line of the Ottomans had disappeared; a few floating wrecks alone were to be seen in the bay, clustered round their conquerors; flames were bursting out on all sides, and the sea was covered with fragments of burning vessels, upon some of which the standard of the Prophet was still to be seen, unsubdued even in ruin. Calamitous beyond measure to the vanquished, the victory was by no means bloodless to the conquerors, for the Mussulmans fought with their wonted valor, and neither asked nor accepted quarter. The loss on the part of the Allies was severest in the British squadron-a sure proof upon whom the weight of the contest had fallen, and with the peace. On whom its principal honor should rest: it Admiral niteur,Nov. 619. 164. battle. "I had returned, and again left Navarino for some days, Ibrahim was absent on an excursion toward when the English, French, and Russian squadrons hove in sight. A frigate and an English brig entered the har- Ryogos at the time this disaster was bor without showing their colors, and, after making sev- incurred; but he arrived at Neocas- Ibrahim's eral tacks in the bay, again left it without hoisting a flag; tron on the 21st, in time to see the proceedings conduct which I can neither justify nor account for. the 20th the pacha who commanded in my absence, observ-shattered and smoking fragments of after the ing the allied fleet bearing down on Navarino in order of his navy. As soon as the battle had battle, and with apparently hostile intentions, sent a boat ceased, the correspondence with the admirals on board the English admiral, and delivered to him the was renewed: it was agreed there should be no following communication-viz., that the pacha would be sorry to see so large an armament enter the port of Na- further hostilities; and indeed they were not to varino during the absence of Ibrahim; but that if the Al- be apprehended, for the Ottomans had no longer lies had any occasion to communicate with the shore, the means of carrying on the contest. Seeing they could do so with perfect security, and that part or parts of each squadron could enter without endangering at once that all his visions of Grecian conquest I appeal to you, sir-do you observe any thing were at an end, Ibrahim wisely applied himself calculated to give offense in a similar request? Was it to securing the means of exit from a country, not natural for the commander to object to the presence the warfare in which had proved so disastrous to of so powerful a force, and protest against its entering the port, especially as that force was four or five times supe- his house. He set about repairing such of his rior to the Turkish, and likely by its warlike presence to transports as had escaped the conflagration, and provoke hostilities? The English admiral sent back the in the beginning of December he took the first boat with the insulting answer, that he came to give orders, and not receive advice; while the combined flect steps toward the evacuation of the country, by continued to bear down on Navarino in line of battle. At dispatching his harem, and five thousand sick two o'clock P.M. the three squadrons entered the harbor, and wounded soldiers, who arrived safe in the and immediately took up their berths within pistol-shot of the Turkish fleet. In the meanwhile a frigate detached harbor of Alexandria in a few days. They were itself from the fleet, and anchored athwart two fireships much required in Egypt, for a fresh Nov. 9. which were moored at the mouth of the harbor: the French war had broken out there with the 2 Ann. Hist. and Russian squadrons followed the English admiral, and Wahabites, which severely taxed the X-4.3, 23; imitated his manœuvres. The Turkish admiral sent a Ann. Reg. boat a second time on board the English flag-ship, to de- resources of the country, already 17, 120, mand some explanation of these hostile proceedings; but strained to the uttermost by the 122; Gordon, the messenger was driven back in a manner equally in- Grecian contest.2 sulting and unjustifiable, while the frigate above mentioned sent her boats to seize on the fireships athwart which she had taken up her berth At this moment a discharge of musketry took place, which proved to be the signal for a general action-an action which was only terminated by the approach of night, and the utter destruction of our line-of-battle ships, fifteen frigates, and several transports, squadron. The Turkish squadron was composed of three and was not prepared for action; while the fleet which it had to contend with consisted of ten line-of-battle ships, besides a number of frigates and corvettes. This being the case, do the three admirals really think that they have reaped a rich harvest of glory, by crushing with their superior forces an opponent who neither expected nor had given cause for such an attack, and who was not prepared for action, nor had taken the precautions of defense? But to return to the subject, and state who began the action, and who has the blame or merit of having fired the first shot. On this point cach party is anxious to excul ii. 434, 435. Final rup Great apprehensions were entertained that when the intelligence of the disaster at Navarino was heard at Constan- 165. tinople, the rage of the Sultan would ture of the manner upon the European residents, the allied burst forth in the most dangerous Turks with and even the representatives of the powers. allied powers. It proved otherwise, however, and the crisis passed over with less violence than could have been expected. The firm atitude of the Divan, however, was not in the least shaken by the news of the misfortune, and the allied ministers having pressed for an answer to their note of 16th August, which had never yet received one, the Sultan replied by the Reis-Effendi, "My positive, absolute, defitive, unchangeable, eternal answer is, that the Sublime Porte does not accept any proposition regarding the Greeks, and will persist in its ignorant of the motive which gave occasion for this unaccountable conduct. The high powers profess a wish to own will regarding them even to the day of prevent the further effusion of blood in the Levant, while, the last judgment.' The Divan even went so behold! their admirals crimson the waters of Nava- far as to demand, as their final terms, after the corpses." IBRAHIM's Dispatch, October 26, 1827; Dub-catastrophe of Navarino, that they should relin Review, April, 1837. ceive a compensation for the destruction of their pate itself. What, however, is positively known on the subject is, that the English frigate, without reason or provocation, endeavored to take possession of some fireships, and that the just resistance made by the fireships caused the first shot to be fired. To conclude, sir-being conscious of having given no offense, I avow that I am still rino with blood, and cover the entire bay with floating fleet, and satisfaction for the insult offered to them by the attack made upon it, and that the Allies should abstain from all interference in the affairs of Greece. To these demands the allied embassadors returned for answer, that the treaty of 6th July obliged them to defend Greece; that the Turks had no claim for reparation on account of Navarino, as they began the battle; and that the Porte had still less reason to complain, as it had been warned that such an event would probably follow the rejection of the terms proposed by the allied powers. Accommodation was now obviously hopeless; the embassadors left Constantinople on December 8th, and soon after Count Capo d'Istria, who had been elected President of Greece, took possession of his new dominions, and issued a proclamation, declaring the Ottoman yoke forever broken, and 1 Ann. Reg. 1527, 321, titution thrown away: but when it was delivered, the balance was at once righted; an entire people rose from the grave; the blood of Chios was avenged by the flames of Navarino. No further resistance was practicable; the fleets of Asia had been sunk in the deep, and its armies had wasted away in the struggle; a single day had secured the independence of Greece, and restored her to her place in the European family. Such a result was felt by every generous bosom to be the fit subject of exultation. In vain did political considerations intervene; in vain did the caution of statesmen stigmatize this glorious achievement as "an untoward event." The chilling phrase, the unworthy sentiment, was drowned in the universal shout of Christendom. A voice superior to worldly wisdom made itself heard; a feeling deeper than the desire for national advantage was generally ex 322 Gordon, the independence of Greece estab-perienced. The cause of religion and humanity ii. 434, 444. 166. Universal transports in Greece lished.1 No words can convey an idea of the transports of joy which pervaded entire Greece when the intelligence of the battle of Navarino was received. Fast as the flaming beacon which at the battle. conveyed the news of the fall of Troy to Argos, the joyous tidings were transmitted from mountain to mountain, from crag to crag, from isle to isle, and one throb of exultation and thankfulness was felt in every bosom. Never since the defeat of Hasdrubal by the consul Nero, on the banks of the Metauris, had such a sensation pervaded the heart of a nation. Every one felt as if he himself were delivered from captivity or death. The terrible contest of seven years' duration, upon which their lives, those of their families and their property had been staked, was brought to a close. Christendom had come to the rescue; again, as in the days of the Crusades, the Cross had been triumphant over the Crescent. True, their numbers had been halved during the struggle, their wives and daughters sold as slaves, their houses burned, their fields wasted-what then? These evils had ceased: their sons would now be seeure from the Turkish cimeter, their daughters from the Turkish harems; industry would revive, property be rendered secure, and freedom, spreading its blessings over their hills Gordon, ii. and valleys, would restore the days of their ancient glory.2 Equally great was the sensation produced by this memorable event over entire Christendom. Never, save by the taking of Jerusalem in 1199 by the by the news crusading warriors under Godfrey of over Chris Bouillon, had so unanimous a feeling tendom. of exultation pervaded the Christian world: it exceeded that felt at the battle of Lepanto, gained by Don John of Austria; for that triumph only averted a remote danger from Europe generally, but this rescued one of its most interesting peoples from the jaws of instant destruction. Opinions in England were somewhat divided, from the obvious increase which it gave to the preponderance of Russia in the East; but on the Continent the rejoicing was universal. Slow, but certain, had been the march of Divine justice; the final blow was not struck till many opportunities of repentance had been neglected, and many occasions of res 438, 439. 167. Immense sensation produced | was felt to have been at stake, and men were thankful that, after so many alliances had been formed for the purposes of ambition and national rivalry, one at last had been found, where nations were banded together in defense of the oppressed, and the sword of Christendom had been drawn to rescue one of its families from destruction. 168. Much discussion took place at the time, as to which of the contending parties was the aggressor at Navarino, and, Who was as usual in such cuses, contradictory the aggresaccounts appeared as to which of the sor at Navparties fired the first shot. Such arino? special pleading is unworthy of the cause in which Europe was engaged on that occasion. The Allies undoubtedly were the aggressors in the battle; the sailing in a hostile guise into the bay was, as Lord Eldon justly remarked, a hostile act, which authorized the Ottomans to repel them by force. But as clearly as the Allies were the aggressors in the action, were the Turks the aggressors in the war; for they refused to accede to the terms of pacification proposed to them by the Allies for the settlement of the Greek question, and had made up their minds to brave the united hostility of Christendom rather than suspend the war of extermination Ibrahim was waging in the Morea. It is true, that war was one waged against their own revolted subjects; it is true that no stranger has a right, in the general case, to interfere in such a contest; and it is not less true that such interference came with a peculiarly bad grace from the Allies at that time, seeing they had recently interfered with decisive effect in Spain and Italy, not to support, but to put down revolutions. But that consideration only brings out the more clearly the justice of their interference the other way in the present instance, and the vital distinction between the contest closed by the flames of Navarino, and that terminated by the capitulation of Cadiz. 169. Though unfortunately confounded with them by the Emperor Alexander, the Greek war was, both in princi- The Greek war ple and object, essentially differ- was a strife of ent from the revolutions of Ric- religion and race, go or Pepe. It was not a social, not principles. but a national contest; it was not a war of principles or privileges, but of religion and race. The statesmen of western Europe, whose vision was blinded on both sides by the social | dered it all but insoluble even to the most convulsions so strongly raging among them- far-seeing statesmen, and has com- 171. selves at the time, mistook the signs of the times in the Eastern world; they thought they saw the marks of revolution in Peloponnesus, when, in fact, it was the contest, as old as the Trojan war, of Europe against Asia, which was then raging; it was the spirit of Richard against Saladin which had really been elicited. The conduct of the Turks throughout the whole of this contest had been so atro-European state is endangered by the extension cious; their cruelty, their massacres, their bloodthirstiness, had been so infamous that they had cast themselves out of the pale of civilization: like Robespierre, they had been declared, and rightly so, hors la loi by the human race. Beyond all question, non-interference is the rule, and interference the exception; but there are cases, as in the instances of the French and Spanish revolutions, where a different principle must be established, when the interests of humanity require interference with a nation abusing the right of the strongest within itself, as of a man threatening with death his wife or children. And if ever there was a nation which had brought itself within the exception, it was that which had perpetrated the massacre of Chios, and was yet reeking with the slaughter of Missolonghi. pelled the Western powers, for their Difficulty of own sake, to ally themselves with a the Eastern state which they would all gladly, question. were it practicable without general danger, see expelled from Europe? Is it not that the Ottoman empire is the only barrier which exists against the encroachments of Russia, and that if it is destroyed the independence of every 170. The great error committed was, that the European nations did In truth, so far from the treaty of 6th July, 1827, having been an unjustifiable interference with the rights of the Ottoman government as an independent power, it was not sooner inter- just the reverse; and the only fere, and in behalf thing to be regretted is that the of the Greeks. Christian powers did not interfere earlier in the contest, and with far more extensive views, for the restoration of the Greek empire. After the massacre of Chios, the Turks had thrown themselves out of the pale of civilization; they had proved themselves to be pirates, enemies of the human race, and no longer entitled to toleration from the European family. Expulsion from Europe was the natural and legitimate consequence of their flagrant violation of its usages in war. Had this been done in 1822-had the Congress of Verona acceded to the prayers of the Greeks, and restored the Christian empire of the East under the guarantee of the allied powerswhat an ocean of blood would have been dried up, what boundless misery prevented, what prospects of felicity to the human race opened! A Christian monarchy of 10,000,000 of souls, with Constantinople for its capital, would ere this have added a half to its population, wealth, and all the clements of national strength. The rapid growth, since the Crescent was expelled from their territories, of Servia, Greece, the isles of the Archipelago, Wallachia and Moldavia, and of the Christian inhabitants in all parts of the country, proves what might have been expected had all Turkey in Europe been blessed by a similar liberation. The fairest portion of Europe would have been restored to the rule of religion, liberty, and civilization, and a barrier erected by European freedom against Asiatic despotism in the regions where it was first successfully combated. What is the grand difficulty that now surrounds the Eastern question, which has ren of the Muscovite power from the Baltic to the Mediterranean? All see the necessity of this barrier, yet all are sensible of its weakness, and feel that it is one which is daily becoming more feeble, and must in the progress of time be swept away. This difficulty is entirely of our own creation; it might have been obviated, and a firm bulwark erected in the East, against which all the surges of Muscovite ambition would have beat in vain. Had the dictates of humanity, justice, and policy been listened to in 1822, and a Christian monarchy been erected in European Turkey, under the guarantee of Austria, France, and England, the whole difficulties of the Eastern question would have been obviated, and European independence would have found an additional security in the very quarter where it is now most seriously menaced. Instead of the living being allied to the dead, they would have been linked to the living; and a barrier against Eastern conquest erected on the shores of the Hellespont, not with the worn-out materials of Mohammedan despotism, but with the rising energy of Christian civilization. bar to the estab But modern Turkey, it is said, is divided by race, religion, and situation; 172. three-fourths of it are Christian, The division of one-fourth Mohammedan; there race and religion are six millions of Sclavonians, in Turkey is no four millions of Bulgarians, two lishment of a millions and a half of Turks, and Christian mononly one million of Greeks- archy. how can a united and powerful empire be formed of such materials? Most true;" and in what state was Greece anterior to the Fersian invasion: Italy before the Punic wars; England during the Heptarchy; Spain in the time of the Moors; France during its civil wars? Has the existence of such apparently fatal elements of division prevented these countries from becoming the most renowned, the most powerful, the most prosperous communities upon earth? In truth, diversity of race, so far from being an element of weakness, is, when duly coerced, the most prolific source of strength: it is to the body politic what the intermixture of soils is to the richness of the earth. It is the meagreness of unmingled race which is the real source of weakness; for it leaves hereditary maladies unchanged, hereditary defects unsupplied. Witness the unchanging ferocity in every age of the Ishmaelite, the irremediable indolence of the Irish, the incurable arrogance of the Turk; while the mingled blood of the Briton, the Roman, the Saxon, the Dane, and the Norman has produced the race to which is destined the sceptre of half the globe. Such was the resurrection of Greece; thus did old Hellas rise from the grave of nations. Scorched by fire, riddled by shot, baptized in 173. Prosperous ence. blood, she emerged victorious from the contest: she achieved her independence because she proved herself worthy condition of of it: she was trained to manGreece since hood in the only school of real imits independ-provement, the school of suffering. Twenty-five years have elapsed since her independence was sealed by the battle of Navarino, and already the warmest hopes of her friends have been realized. Her capital, Athens, now contains thirty thousand inhabitants, quadruple what it did when the contest terminated; its commerce has doubled, and all the signs of rapidly advancing prosperity are to be seen on the land. The inhabitants have increased fifty per cent.; they are now above seven hundred thousand; but the fatal chasms produced by the war, especially in the male population, are still in a great measure unsupplied, and vast tracts of fertile land, spread with the bones of its defenders, await in every part of the country the robust arm of industry for their cultivation. The Greeks, indeed, have not all the virtues of freemen; perhaps they are never destined to exhibit them. Like the Muscovites, and from the same cause, they are often cunning, fraudulent, deceitful: slaves always are such; and a nation is not crushed by a thousand years of Byzantine despotism, and four hundred of Mohammedan oppression, without having some of the features of the servile character impressed upon it. But they exhibit also the cheering symptoms of social improvement; they have proved they still possess the qualities to which their ancestors' greatness was owing. They are lively, ardent, and persevering, passionately desirous of knowledge, and indefatigable in the pursuit of it. The whole life which yet animates the Ottoman empire is owing to their intelligence and activity. The stagnation of despotism is unknown among them; if the union of civilization is unhappily equally unknown, that is a virtue of the manhood, and not to be looked for in the infancy of nations. The consciousness of deficiencies is the first step to their removal; the pride of barbarism, the self-sufficiency of ignorance, is the real bar to improvement; and a nation which is capable of making the efforts for improvement which the Greeks are doing, if not in possession of political greatness, is on the road to it. |