226 



Monthly Review of Literature, 



AUG. 



tetnplating leisurely the wonders of old, 

 right and left of the Nile, accompanied his 

 fellow-traveller, Mr. Newnham, an artist, to 

 Horeb and Sinai, where he fell ill, and died 

 soon after he got back to Cairo, in 1828, 

 then only twenty-six years of age. 



A friend and fellow-student has arranged 

 his papers, and prefixed a biographical 

 sketch, in the course of which he whines 

 woefully, through a number of pages, some- 

 tiling about talents and genius, in our 

 worthless state of society, standing no 

 chance of competing with rank and riches- 

 intending, apparently, this should apply to 

 his deceased friend, or perhaps to himself; 

 but nothing could well be less applicable 

 for in the profession of the law, actual 

 dulness, however allied, rarely reaches, and 

 never maintains, pre-eminence. If he had 

 been talking of the church or the state, or 

 the army or the navy, his remarks had been 

 something to the purpose. 



While Mr. Webster was at Vienna, the 

 news arrived of the memorable treaty of 

 the 6th of July ; and anticipating no very 

 welcome reception for Englishmen at Con- 

 stantinople, he took a circuit by the way of 

 Cracow to Odessa, where political circum- 

 stances continuing in the same untoward 

 state, he made the tour of the Crimea ; and, 

 finally, after all his precaution, arrived at 

 Constantinople, the very day in which news 

 of the battle of Navarino reached the Porte. 

 There was, however, in reality, no danger, 

 though he quotes Mr. Stratford Canning as 

 authority for the Sultan's actually meditat- 

 ing Violence on the first intelligence. The 

 Greek cause, of course, occupies much of 

 his remarks, and no man can be more de- 

 cided as to the worthlessness of the Greeks, 

 and the folly, or rather the atrocity, of Mr. 

 Canning's treaty. Mr. W. left England, 

 like all young men, with extravagant pre- 

 possessions in favour of the oppressed de- 

 scendants of Classic Greece ; but a little 

 actual intercourse and personal knowledge 

 soon converted admiration into disgust. 



Their character is as abandoned as their coun- 

 try is desolate. The vaunted valour of their fore- 

 fathers has passed away, and, ere long, the very 

 name of " Greek" will be a by-word for all that 

 is base and worthless. Never have the English 

 people been so egregiously gulled, both in public 

 feeling and political conduct, as in the instance 

 under consideration, when they destroyed the 

 only barrier which could be opposed to Russia in 

 the East, and weakened the confidence reposed in 

 them by Persia, which must needs feel mistrust at 

 so unaccountable a proceeding. Never again, be 

 her measures what they may, will England pos- 

 sess that influence which she has heretofore exer- 

 cised at the Ottoman court : years must elapse 

 before the Turks can regard her in any other 

 light than as a faithless ally, who has forfeited 

 all claims to confidence and for what, and for 

 whom? For scoundrels, who, while she was 

 shedding her blood at Navarino, were pillaging 

 her merchants, and committing on the bodies of 

 her captains and seamen acts of barbarity and 

 outrage which an Englishman would shudder to 

 hear named. Might all the vile qualities of de- 



graded human nature be summed up in one word, 

 ingratitude, lying, beastliness, piracy, and mur- 

 der they could find no more comprehensive term 

 than " a Greek." If any Englishman still re- 

 tain the enthusiastic and ridiculous notions about 

 the Greeks, which have led to such incalculable 

 mischief, let him proceed to the Archipelago 

 without a convoy. No more efficient corrective 

 needs be prescribed for his opinions. 



Remarking upon the popular delusions 

 in this country, he thus adverts to Lord 

 Byron's conduct and writings : , 



Nor should the conduct and writings of Lord 

 Byron be left out of view, in estimating the 

 causes which led to the senseless excitement in 

 favour of the worthless Greeks. His Lordship 

 had travelled through the country, and had seen 

 the Pass of Thermopylae a haunt of banditti ; he 

 had 



" Stood upon the rocky brow 



That looks o'er sea-lxorn Salamis ;'" 

 and had seen the pirate vessels prowling for their 

 unoffending prey. He had seen Pireus a port foi 1 

 pirates, and Egina a den of thieves. That he' 

 knew the Grecian character well, is evident; for 

 he pourtrayed it faithfully, when telling the' 

 Greeks that they were 



" Callous, save to crime ; 

 Stained with each evil that pollutes 

 Mankind, where'least above the brutes ; 

 Without even savage virtue blest, 

 Without one free or valiant breast." 

 And yet, with this knowledge, he lent the sanction 

 of his noble name, exalted talents, and personal 

 endpavour, to propagate the farce of Grecian 

 freedom! 



The desolate state in which he found 

 Cracow, and the contrast thus presented to 

 his thoughts of the present state and pros- 

 pects of the -Poles and Greeks, drew forth 

 the following animated expressions : , 



Whilst the former are subject to a system of 

 unremitting espionage and constraint, and, in re- 

 turn for their chivalrous exertions in the cause of 

 Christianity and European freedom, are aban- 

 doned to a merciless despotism ; the latter, whoj 

 by their intrigues and pusillanimity, prepared the 

 way for Turkish invasion, who lowered the cross 

 to the crescent, and crouched in the very dust 

 beneath Ottoman dominion, who equal their con- 

 querors in fanaticism, and exceed them in vice, 

 without partaking of one spark of that honour- 

 and bravery which have ever distinguished the 

 Turkish character, are held forth as the inhe- 

 ritors of the high spirit and patriotism which 

 gave undying glory to antient Greece. Thus, 

 the needy adventurer and Philhellene, taking ad- 

 vantage of the false impressions imbibed through 

 classic associations, mislead the untravelled en- 

 thusiast ; and thus is the fate of nations decided 

 by the dreaming influence of schoolboy recollec- 

 tions! 



After these passages, we shall not be sur- 

 prised at his characterising the Triple 

 Alliance in terms which, though sounding 

 harshly, few Englishman, unbiassed by 

 party views, will, after all, think too se- 

 vere. 



The best praise of the Turks may be found in 

 the following facts, namely, that since we had set 

 foot on their territory, all the perils incidental to 



