which revived in the vallies and defiles of Greece the sure triumphs of European discipline. It was still more strange to see a vassal, who, like the Pacha of Egypt, was fond of power, and little scrupulous about the means of attaining it, not merely submitting to his ostensible dependence on the Grand Seignior, but expending his wealth, and transporting his best armies to a distant province, to fight the battles of a master, whom it was his policy, and, one should think, would have been his inclination, to cripple and humiliate. Provided as he was with all the muniments of war in a much more effective state than they had ever been possessed by the Sultan, he would have had little to dread, even if the Divan had been occupied with no other cares than to watch and restrain the progress of his ambition. But, harassed and distracted as the Turkish government was, on every side-in Greece, by a growing rebellion which had swept her fleets from the sea and driven her armies from the field-in Wallachia, Servia, and Moldavia, by an illconcealed spirit of discontent which rendered these provinces a burthen on the monarchy-and around them, and along the shores of the Euxine, by the armies of Russia, whose policy was ever languishing for a feasible pretext to push its conquests beyond the Danube-the Sultan could have offered no successful resistance to the defection of his great vassal, or prevented Mohammed from easily converting his pachalick into an independent monarchy. But, hitherto, Mohammed, notwithstanding all the seductions of circumstances, had held fast his integrity. It was with his treasures, and with the blood of his armies, that the cause of the Sul

tan had been maintained in Greece for the last eighteen months. He had not been contented with one exertion, or a great, but solitary, sacrifice : men, provisions, and treasure, had been renewed during that period more than once. His fleets were fitted out for the use of the Porte, in the basins of Alexandria, with as much activity and regularity, as if their equipment had been going on in the Bosphorus under the eye of the Grand Seignior himself. From the first landing of his troops in the Morea, success had returned to wait upon the crescent, and every day since had seen the fortunes of Greece sinking nearer to their former servile and degraded estate.

At the close of 1826, these fortunes had assumed a gloomier aspect, than they had hitherto displayed at any stage of the conflict. The insurgents had lost the fruits of all their exertions in western Greece; the bravest of them had fallen in the vain defence of Missolonghi ; Napoli de Romania was almost the only strong position which they still retained in the Morea; and the government itself had betrayed the sense of insecurity by transferring its seat to the Islands. Dissension and jealousy reigned among their leaders; for, where the seeds of these ruinous dispositions have once been sown, disaster and disappointment are sure to cherish their growth. Each laid on his rival the blame of the series of calamities which threatened to terminate in their speedy subjugation, or sought to turn them to the account of some private end. None set the example of cordial cooperation, of honest and determined unity of purpose. The members of the ostensible government were quarrelling among themselves about

the place of meeting, and threaten ing to set up a couple of rival congresses, while the scymitars of the Turks were flashing at their gates. The events, however, which occurred in the beginning of the year, were calculated for a time to excite hope rather than to encourage despair. The inactivity of Ibrahim during the latter part of 1826, had allowed them time at least to recover from their dismay. Advantage was taken of it to make considerable exertions to provision Napoli, which the committee of government abandoned for the island of Poros. The whole population of Spezzia, with their families and their vessels, were transported to Hydra; Hydra itself was strengthened by a garrison of irregular troops. Karaiskaki, how ever, was the only leader who kept the field efficiently. His band had been strengthened by the junction of the devoted men who made their escape from Missolonghi by cutting their way through the works and the ranks of the besiegers. He still maintained the ascendancy in the mountains of Livadia, and threatened to become so troublesome, that Redschid Pacha sent against him a body of Albanians, part of the troops with which he was pressing the siege of Athens. Karaiskaki met and defeated them at Debrena. Making good use, in his pursuit of them, of his knowledge of the country, he surrounded them in the neighbourhood of Arakova, completely cutting off their retreat. A desperate battle ensued, which lasted five hours. The Turks, after losing a great number of men, and the whole of their baggage, retired to a new position, whither Karaiskaki followed, and, without engaging, kept them shut up during five days. They then proposed

to capitulate on condition of being allowed to retire; but the Greek commander answered, that they might now do with him as the Greeks had done with them at Missolonghi-make good their own way. He then dislodged them from their position, forced them toaction, and killed, according to his own despatch, one thousand three hundred of them, among whom were the Kiaya Bey, Moustapha Bey, and two other Beys. The shattered remains of the Albanian corps immediately evacuated Livadia. A few days afterwards, he defeated another body of Turks who were marching to Salona.

These advantages were encouraging in themselves, and were of additional importance as holding out a hope, that the troops, who gained them, might march to the relief of Athens, the siege of which was still closely pressed by the Seraskier Redschid Pacha. Colonel Fabvier, after his unfortunate expedition to Negropont, had returned to Attica; and, taking advantage of the departure of part of Redschid's army for Livadia, he succeeded in throwing himself into the Acropolis with a body of three hundred men, and conveying to the garrison a supply of provisions. In the beginning of February, the Greeks prepared two expeditions, one by land, the other by sea, to raise the siege by a joint attack. The naval expedition, which consisted of two thousand men, set out from Salamis on the 5th of February, after sunset, and, landing at the Piræus the same night, carried several posts on the shore, which were feebly defended. Some days before, another Greek corps of two thousand five hundred men, under the order of Vasso and Bourbachi, had marched from

Eleusis upon Athens, to make on that side a diversion in favour of the enterprise; but, on the 9th of February, the Seraskier fell suddenly on this corps, and completely defeated it. Bourbachi was taken with two hundred of his own men, and beheaded. The Seraskier subsequently marched on the corps which had disembarked at the Piræus, pursued it, and took several posts and entrenchments which the Greeks had occupied, but without being able to drive them from the Piræus. The Turks made several attempts to carry these works; in all of them they lost men, and in none of them gained any ground, while, on the other hand, frequent sallies were made by the Greeks both from the Acropolis and from the Piræus. On the 4th of March, the Ottoman troops attacked three towers, which general Calierghi had made himself master of a few days before, in the Piræus. Both parties fought desperately from the morning till the evening. The Turks had seven hundred killed and three hundred wounded. According to the Greek accounts, the Greeks lost ten killed and twenty wounded. A proclamation was published by the government declaring the ports of Trikeri and Mallo, as well as of the whole island of Eubea, to be in a state of blockade, with a view to cut off supplies of provisions from the besieging army. naval force, that was to maintain this blockade, had now been in creased by a large frigate built for Greece in America at an enormous expense, which, under the name of the Hellas, formed the flag-ship of admiral Miaulis, and a single steam véssel, the Perseverance, fitted out and commanded by captain Has tings.

The

On the 18th of February, Ka

raiskaki obtained another victory in Livadia over the army of Omer Pacha. He attacked it in the neighbourhood of Distomo, and compelled it to a hurried retreat, with the loss of its baggage and artillery. About the same time, the Turkish garrison of Salona abandoned the fortress, which fell into the hands of the Greeks; and, the whole of this district of western Greece being thus in a great measure cleared of the enemy, Karaiskaki, after being joined at Eleusis by reinforcements under the chiefs Caratosso and Coletti, marched into Attica, to aid in raising the siege of Athens. The siege was still carried on by the same series of unimportant sallies and assaults, that had now been repeated for eight months. In one of these which took place on the 24th March, and in which the Greeks carried a Turkish position, Karaiskaki himself was wounded. The Seraskier was too weak in troops to prevent supplies from reaching the garrison; he contented himself now with acting on the defensive, awaiting the arrival of reinforcements which were marching from Constantinople by way of Thessaly, and to whose approach the Greeks most unaccountably neglected to present any obstacle.

In the mean time, the general national assembly ought to have been convened; but the two parties, who divided it, differed as to the place in which its sittings should be held, and were perfectly willing to sacrifice, each of them to the maintenance of its own opinion on this trifling matter, the plain interests of their country in this the most critical emergency of its fortunes. The deputies of Hydra and Spezzia, the party of Colocotroni and Deligiauni, refused to go

to Egina, and assembled at Hermione. The others, who had gone to Egina, proposed to choose a third place for the seat of the national assembly. They even sent six of the representatives to come to an arrangement with them. The deputies at Hermione answered, that, being the most numerous, and the choice of the nation having fallen on that town, they invited the others to come thither as soon as possible. The others answered that they did not recognize the majority of the plenipotentiaries at Hermione, as there was no proof that they were empowered; and they at the same time protested against all the acts of that assembly.-Upon this, the assembly at Hermione announced that, the representatives of the provinces being finally assembled, it was going to commence its labours under George Sisini, as president, and immediately a similar declaration was made by the plenipotentiaries of Egina, under Panoulzo Notara, as president.

Such was the state of matters when lord Cochrane arrived at Poros, where the committee of government, which conducted public affairs during the intervals of the national assembly, had fixed its seat. His lordship saw instantly that, while such dispositions prevailed, no good could be effected, and applied himself to remove these ruinous dissensions. In a reply addressed to the members of the government, and the leading military men, who had sent a deputation to welcome him to Greece, he said to them, "I was grieved from the first at seeing the bravest and most renowned military chiefs of Greece busying themselves about politics and the congress, and losing their time

in disputing about the place of assembly, whilst the enemy is overrunning your country without the least opposition; while they hold three-fourths of the fortresses of Greece, and have surrounded its metropolis. Athens is in danger of falling into the hands of the enemies. The brave Fabvier, with a handful of heroes, full of enthusiasm for independence, has advanced to the assistance of its generous defenders, whilst the chiefs of Greece are disputing about politics." He advised them to read "in full congress" the first Philippic of Demosthenes as containing, mutatis mutandis, an apt and eloquent lesson on their present duties. The influence of his lordship, from whose name and gallantry they expected so much, backed by his threats immediately to take his departure, if their disputes were not put an end to, brought the parties to a compromise; and the assembly was convened at Troezene (Damala) in the beginning of April.

By one of their first acts, they appointed their countryman, the Count Capo d'Istria, president of Greece for seven years, with the power and prerogatives of the president of the United States. This nobleman had long been in the service of Russia, and was relieved from that service to enable him to accept of this office, in which he could not fail to be a most useful auxiliary to the policy of the cabinet of St. Petersburg in creating itself the protector of the Turkish dependencies. If the Count should decline the appointment, another assembly was to be convened to make a new election. Until his arrival, three provisional governors were named, one for the Islands, another for the Morea,