Part 6

"His Majesty makes this communication to the House of Commons with the full and entire confidence, that his faithful Commons will afford to His Majesty their cordial concurrence and support in maintaining the faith of treaties, and in securing against foreign hostility the safety and independence of the kingdom of Portugal, the oldest ally of Great Britain.

"G. R."

MR. CANNING AND THE PORTUGUESE APPEAL (1826).

=Source.=--_The Political Life of George Canning_, by A. G. Stapleton. London, 1831. Vol. III. p. 222.

"Some years ago," said Mr. Canning, "in the discussion of the negotiations respecting the French war against Spain, I took the liberty of adverting to this topick. I then stated that the position of this country in the present state of the world, was one of neutrality, not only between contending nations, but between conflicting principles; and that it was by neutrality alone that we could maintain that balance, the preservation of which I believed to be essential to the welfare of mankind. I then said that I feared that the next war which should be kindled in Europe, would be a war not so much of armies, as of opinions. Not four years have elapsed, and behold my apprehension realised! It is, to be sure, within narrow limits that this war of opinion is at present confined: but it is a war of opinion, that Spain (whether as Government, or as nation), is now waging against Portugal; it is a war which has commenced in hatred of the new institutions of Portugal. How long is it reasonable to expect that Portugal will abstain from retaliation? If into that war this country shall be compelled to enter, we shall enter into it, with a sincere and anxious desire to mitigate, rather than exasperate--and to mingle only in the conflict of arms, not in the more fatal conflict of opinions. But I much fear that this country (however earnestly she may endeavour to avoid it), could not, in such case, avoid seeing ranked under her banners, all the restless and dissatisfied of any nation with which she might come in conflict. It is the contemplation of this new _power_ in any future war, which excites my most anxious apprehension. It is one thing to have a giant's strength, but it would be another to use it like a giant. The consciousness of such strength is, undoubtedly, a source of confidence and security; but in the situation in which this country stands, our business is not to seek opportunities of displaying it, but to content ourselves with letting the professors of violent and exaggerated doctrines on both sides feel that it is not their interest to convert an umpire, into an adversary. The situation of England, amidst the struggle of political opinions, which agitates more or less sensibly different countries of the world, may be compared to that of the Ruler of the Winds, as described by the poet:

"'Celsâ sedet Aeolus arce, Sceptra tenens; mollitque animos et temperat iras; Ni faciat, maria ac terras caelumque profundum Quippe ferant rapidi secum, verrantque per auras.'

"The consequence of letting loose the passions at present chained and confined, would be to produce a scene of desolation, which no man can contemplate without horror: and I should not sleep easy on my couch, if I were conscious that I had contributed to precipitate it by a single moment.

"This, then, is the reason--a reason very different from fear--the reverse of a consciousness of disability,--why I dread the recurrence of hostilities in any part of Europe: why I would bear much, and would forbear long; why I would (as I have said) put up with almost anything that did not touch national faith and national honour;--rather than let slip the furies of war, the leash of which we hold in our hands,--not knowing whom they may reach, or how far their ravages may be carried. Such is the love of peace which the British Government acknowledges, and such the necessity of peace which the circumstances of the world inculcate.

"Let us fly," said Mr. Canning, in conclusion, "to the aid of Portugal by whomsoever attacked; because it is our duty to do so: and let us cease our interference where that duty ends. We go to Portugal not to rule, not to dictate, not to prescribe Constitutions, but to defend and to preserve the independence of an ally. We go to plant the standard of England on the well-known heights of Lisbon. Where that standard is planted foreign dominion shall not come."

THE LIFE OF CONVICT-SERVANTS IN AUSTRALIA (1827).

=Source.=--_The London Magazine_, 1827. Vol. VIII. p. 518.

_Extract from "Two Years in New South Wales," by P. Cunningham, Surgeon, R.N._

"The convict-servants are accommodated upon the farms in huts walled round and roofed with bark, or built of split wood and plaster, with thatched roofs. About four of them generally sleep and mess in each hut, drawing their provisions every Saturday, and being generally allowed the afternoon of that day, whereupon to wash their clothes and grind their wheat. Their usual allowance I have already stated to be a peck of wheat; seven pounds of beef, or four and a half of pork; two ounces of tea, two ounces of tobacco, and a pound of sugar, weekly; the majority of settlers permitting them to raise vegetables in little gardens allotted for their use, or supplying them occasionally from their own gardens. Wages are only allowed at the option of the master; but you are obliged to supply them with two full suits of clothes annually; and you also furnish a bed-tick (to be stuffed with grass), and a blanket, to each person, besides a tin-pot and knife; as also an iron-pot and frying-pan to each mess. The tea, sugar, and tobacco, are considered _bonuses_ for good conduct, and withheld in default thereof.

"To get work done, you must feed well; and when the rations are ultimately raised upon your own farm, you never give their expense a moment's consideration. The farm-men usually bake their flour into flat cakes, which they call _dampers_, and cook these in the ashes, cutting their salted meats into thin slices, and boiling them in the iron-pot or frying-pan, by which means the salt is, in a great measure, extracted. If tea and sugar are not supplied, milk is allowed as a substitute, tea _or_ milk forming the beverage to every meal. Though not living so comfortably as when everything is cooked and put down before them, yet it is more after their own mind, while the operations of preparing their meals amuse their leisure hours and give a greater zest to the enjoyment of those repasts. When the labour of the day is over, with enlivening chit-chat, singing, and smoking, they chase away _ennui_, and make the evening hours jog merrily by. Indeed, without the aid of that magic care-killer, the pipe, I believe the greater portion of our 'pressed men' would 'take the bush' in a week after their arrival in our solitudes, before time had attuned their minds to rural prospects and industrious pursuits.

"Convicts, when first assigned, if long habituated to a life of idleness and dissipation, commonly soon become restless and dissatisfied; and if failing to provoke you to return them into the government employ, wherein they may again be enabled to idle away their time in the joyous companionship of their old associates, will run off for head-quarters, regardless of the flogging that awaits them on being taken or on giving themselves up--the idle ramble they have had fully compensating them for the twenty-five or fifty lashes they may receive, in case they should not be admitted among the list at head-quarters. Many, too, start off for want of something for their fingers to pick at,--the leader of one batch of runaways from a friend of mine, exclaiming to those he left behind, on bidding them adieu, 'Why, I may as well be dead and buried in earnest, as buried alive in this here place, where a fellow has not even a _chance_!' The chance here wished for, not being the _chance_ of bettering his condition by good conduct, but by emptying the full pocket of some luckless wight! If they can be coaxed or compelled to stop, however, for a _twelvemonth_ or so, the greater portion, even of the worst, generally turn out very fair and often very good servants; cockneys becoming able ploughmen, and weavers, barbers, and such like soft-fingered gentry, being metamorphosed into good fencers, herdsmen and shepherds; a little urging and encouragement on the part of the master, and perseverance in enforcing his authority, generally sufficing.

"The convict-servants commence labour at sunrise, and leave off at sunset, being allowed an hour for breakfast, and an hour or more for dinner. It is long before you can accustom the greater portion to steady labour, the best of them usually working by fits and starts, then lying down for an hour or two, and up and at it again. To get your work readily and quietly done, the best method is certainly to task them, and allow them to get through it as they please; but as it is an object to accustom them to _regular_ industry, it will eventually serve your purpose better, and benefit them more, to keep them at constant work. Even some of the free-men who have served their time are perpetually skipping about, seldom remaining long in one situation."

AN INTERVIEW WITH GEORGE IV. (1827).

=Source.=--_The Diary and Correspondence of Charles Abbot, Lord Colchester._ London, 1861. Vol. III. p. 472.

March 27th. Heard from the Duke of Newcastle a fuller account of his interview with the King, at Windsor, on Saturday last. (The former account I had received from Lord Falmouth.)

He arrived at Windsor at two, and requested an audience. At the end of two hours, when he was exhausted and almost asleep, the door of his apartment was opened, and the King was announced.

The King received him very graciously; believed he understood the subject of his visit; entered at great length into the whole history of the Roman Catholics, from the reign of James II. down to the present time. Professed himself a "Protestant, heart and soul." Declared he never would give his assent to any measures for Roman Catholic Emancipation. And, when pressed by the Duke as to the new form of his administration, he assured the Duke "that the First Minister should be for the Protestant side of the question," and, as to Ireland, that the Chancellor there should be Protestant also. He added that the present audience would be necessarily known to everybody; but "he must keep faith with his Ministers." He said, "the courage of his family had never been questioned." When assured that, in choosing Protestants for his Ministers, his choice would be supported by a large and powerful body of Peers, and pressed for an assurance that his choice would be made accordingly, he said, again and again, "Do you doubt me? But it is not I who fail in my duty. It is you in Parliament. Why do you suffer the d----d Association in Dublin?"

The Duke of Newcastle clearly saw that the Chancellor had lost his former influence with the King. It was evident that the King knew the Duke of Rutland's opinions upon the present subject. The King's sentiments were strongly expressed, but there was reason to apprehend that considerations of ease and repose might outweigh his principles.

The Duke told the King plainly that the support or opposition of himself, and of those for whom he was acting, would depend on the choice that the King should finally make in forming his Administration.

In parting, the King very graciously told him "he never need ask an audience _in form_, he was always welcome," and hoped he would come and fish there in the summer.

(_N.B._--The King did not finish the audience without talking to the Duke about his _tailor_.)

THE TREATY OF LONDON (1827).

=Source.=--_The Political Life of George Canning_, by A. G. Stapleton. London, 1831. Vol. III. p. 286.

The treaty was signed on the 6th of July, 1827, by Prince Lieven, Lord Dudley, and Prince Polignac.

In execution of this treaty instructions were sent in common to the Representatives of the three Powers at Constantinople, directing them to present a joint declaration to the Divan; stating that their respective Governments had for six years been exerting themselves to induce the Porte to restore tranquillity to Greece; that these efforts had been useless, and that a war of extermination had been prolonged, of which the results were on the one hand shocking to humanity, while on the other they inflicted intolerable injuries on the commerce of all nations. That on these accounts it was no longer possible to admit that the fate of Greece, concerned exclusively the Ottoman Porte, and that the Courts of London, of Paris, and St. Petersburgh, therefore, felt it to be their duty to regulate by a special treaty the line of conduct which they had resolved to follow. That they offered their mediation between the Sublime Porte and the Greeks to put an end to the war, and to settle by an amicable negotiation the relations, which ought for the future to exist between them.

That for the purpose of facilitating the success of the mediation, they proposed to the Sublime Porte to suspend by an armistice all acts of hostility towards the Greeks, to whom a similar and simultaneous proposition was to be addressed.

Lastly, that before the end of a month, the Ottoman Porte must make known its definite determination.

That it was hoped that that determination would be in conformity with the wishes of the allied courts; but if the Porte refused to comply with the request, or returned an evasive and insufficient answer, or even maintained a complete silence, the allied courts would be compelled to have recourse to the measures which they should think most likely to be efficacious to put an end to a state of things, incompatible with the true interests of the Porte, with the security of the commerce, and the assured tranquillity of Europe.

In the event of no answer, an evasive answer, or a refusal on the part of the Porte, before a month had elapsed, the Divan was to be informed that the Allied Courts would interfere themselves to establish an armistice; but that, in the execution of this resolution, they were far from wishing to put an end to their friendly relations with the Porte.

The result of these representations was forthwith to be reported to the Admirals, commanding the several fleets of the Allies, who were instructed to make a similar requisition for an armistice, to the Greek Government; and in the event of either that Government, or the Porte refusing, or delaying, to consent to the establishment of an armistice, coercive measures were to be taken to enforce it.

If the Porte should be the refusing party (for after the propositions made by the Greeks there was little chance of their not consenting to the armistice), the Allied Squadrons were to unite, and the Admirals were to enter into friendly relations with the Greeks on the one hand, and on the other, to intercept all ships, freighted with men and arms, destined to act against the Greeks, whether coming from Turkey, or from the coast of Africa.

But whatever measures they might adopt towards the Ottoman navy, the three Admirals were especially instructed to take extreme care (_soin extrême_) that they should not degenerate into hostilities. The fixed intention of the three Powers was to interpose as conciliators (_conciliatrices_), and any hostile step would be contrary to the pacifick character, which they were desirous of assuming.

The settlement of this treaty, and of these instructions to the representatives of the three Courts, at Constantinople, and to the commanders of the Allied Squadron, were Mr. Canning's last acts on the subject of Greek affairs.

THE BATTLE OF NAVARINO (1827).

=Source.=--_The Gentleman's Magazine_, Vol. 97, 1827, p. 453.

TURKEY AND GREECE.

In our last number (p. 360), we stated that the combined squadrons of England and France (to which that of Russia, under Count Heyden, has been since added) had compelled Ibrahim Pacha to assent to an armistice, until the result of the negociations at Constantinople should be known; when he promised that "his fleet should not move from Navarino, until he received full instructions from Constantinople." It appears, however, that Ibrahim, whether in obedience to, or in opposition to the Ottoman Government, treacherously broke the conditions of the armistice. In the first place he attempted to make sail from Navarino to Patras, and on being ordered back by Adm. Codrington, landed his troops, and wreaked his barbarous vengeance on the miserable Greek inhabitants of the Morea. In short, it was discovered that the Turkish soldiers were desolating the country with fire and sword, and even butchering the women and children. Capt. Hamilton, of the Cambrian, communicated the circumstances to Adm. Codrington, in a letter dated Kitries, October 18. He says: "I have the honour of informing you that I arrived here yesterday morning, in company with the Russian frigate Constantine, the captain of which ship had placed himself under my orders. On entering the Gulf, we observed by clouds of fire and smoke that the work of devastation was still going on. The ships were anchored off the pass off Ancyro, and a joint letter from myself and the Russian captain was despatched to the Turkish commander. The Russian and English officers, the bearers of it, were not allowed to proceed to head-quarters, nor have we yet received any answer. In the afternoon, we, the two captains, went on shore to the Greek quarters, and were received with the greatest enthusiasm. The distress of the inhabitants driven from the plain is shocking! women and children dying every moment of absolute starvation, and hardly any having better food than boiled grass! I have promised to send a small quantity of bread to the caves in the mountains, where these unfortunate wretches have taken refuge. It is supposed that if Ibrahim remained in Greece, more than a third of its inhabitants will die of absolute starvation."

Under these circumstances the commanders of the allied forces signed an agreement on the 18th of October to enter and take a position in the port of Navarino, as a commodious means of "renewing to Ibrahim Pacha propositions, which, entering into the spirit of the treaty, were evidently to the advantage of the Porte itself." After the first part of this arrangement had been executed on the 20th by their anchoring close to the Turkish line of battle, the allied flags of truce were fired upon, and many British lives destroyed, in the very act of peaceable remonstrance with the Infidels. The necessary retaliation for this outrage brought on a general action, and the total destruction of a fleet which was armed with 1,800 pieces of ordinance.

The particulars of this brilliant victory are admirably detailed in the official despatches addressed to J. W. Croker, Esq., by Vice-Admiral Sir Edward Codrington, dated Navarino, October 21. They appeared in a _Gazette Extraordinary_ of the 10th of November, of which the following is a copy:

"H.M.'s Ship _Asia_,

"Port of Navarino, October 21.

"Sir,

"I have the honour of informing his Royal Highness the Lord High Admiral, that, my colleagues Count Heyden and the Chevalier de Rigny having agreed with me that we should come into this port, in order to induce Ibrahim Pacha to discontinue the brutal war of extermination which he has been carrying on since his return here from his failure in the Gulf of Patras, the combined squadrons passed the batteries, in order to take up their anchorage, at about two o'clock yesterday afternoon. The Turkish ships were moored in the form of a crescent, with springs on their cables, the larger ones presenting their broadsides towards the centre, the smaller ones in succession within them, filling up the intervals. The combined fleet was formed in the order of sailing in two columns, the British and French forming the weather or starboard line, and the Russian the lee line.

"The _Asia_ led in, followed by the _Genoa_ and _Albion_, and anchored close alongside a ship of the line bearing the flag of the Capitana Bey, another ship of the line, and a large double banked frigate, each thus having their proper opponent in the front line of the Turkish fleet. The four ships to windward, part of the Egyptian squadron, were allotted to the squadron of Rear-Adm. de Rigny; and those to leeward, in the bight of the crescent, were to mark the stations of the whole Russian squadron; the ships of their line closing those of the English line, and being followed up by their own frigates. The French frigate _Armide_ was directed to place herself alongside the outermost frigate, on the left hand entering the harbour; and the _Cambrian_, _Glasgow_, and _Talbot_ next to her, and abreast of the _Asia_, _Genoa_, and _Albion_; the _Dartmouth_ and the _Musquito_, the _Rose_, the _Brisk_, and the _Philomel_ were to look after six fire vessels at the entrance of the harbour. I gave orders that no gun should be fired, unless guns were first fired by the Turks; and those orders were strictly observed. The three English ships were accordingly permitted to pass the batteries and to moor, as they did with great rapidity, without any act of open hostility, although there was evident preparation for it in all the Turkish ships; but upon the _Dartmouth_ sending a boat to one of the fire vessels, Lieut. G. W. H. Fitzroy, and several of her crew, were shot with musketry. This produced a defensive fire of musketry from the _Dartmouth_, and _La Syrene_, bearing the flag of Rear-Admiral de Rigny; that was succeeded by cannon-shot at the Rear-Admiral from one of the Egyptian ships, which, of course, brought on a return, and thus very shortly afterwards the battle became general. The _Asia_, although placed alongside the ship of the Capitana Bey, was even nearer to that of Moharem Bey, the commander of the Egyptian ships; and since his ships did not fire at the _Asia_, although the action was begun to windward, neither did the _Asia_ fire at her. The latter, indeed, sent a message, "that he would not fire at all," and therefore no hostility took place betwixt our two ships for some time after the _Asia_ had returned the fire of the Capitana Bey.

"In the meantime, however, our excellent pilot, Mr. Peter Mitchell, who went to interpret to Moharem my desire to avoid bloodshed, was killed by his people in our boat alongside.

"Whether with or without his orders I know not; but his ship soon afterwards fired into the _Asia_, and was consequently effectually destroyed by the _Asia's_ fire, sharing the same fate as his brother Admiral on the starboard side, and falling to leeward a mere wreck. These ships being out of the way, the _Asia_ became exposed to a raking fire from vessels in the second and third line, which carried away her mizen-mast by the board, disabled some of her guns, and killed and wounded several of her crew. This narration of the proceedings of the _Asia_ would probably be equally applicable to most of the other ships of the fleet. The manner in which the _Genoa_ and _Albion_ took their stations was beautiful; and the conduct of my brother Admirals, Count Heyden and the Chevalier de Rigny, throughout was admirable and highly exemplary.