169 
T U R 
to the pacha of Belgrade, by whom it was transmitted to 
Constantinople. _ . 
The Russian cabinet was accused of having assisted this 
abortive enterprise. This, however, was strenuously de¬ 
nied, and Alexander took occasion, in very strong terms, to 
express his disapprobation of Czerni’s conduct and of the 
revolt. Thus the Greeks had, for the present, their hopes of 
assistance from Russia, which they had calculated on so 
much, entirely baffled. But another event occurred which 
hurried them into insurrection before the period reckoned 
upon by the Hetrerists. This was the rupture between the 
Sublime Porte and the famous Ali Pacha of Yanina. This 
enterprising chief was born in the year 1751, at lesselina, a 
small town in the interior of Albania, where his father was 
a pacha of two tails. When Ali was fifteen years of age, 
his father died, at which time, to use his own expression, he 
commenced his fortunate career with sixty paras and a mus¬ 
ket. He was now driven from Tesselina, and abandoned by 
almost all his followers. The people of Gardiki next formed 
a plan for his destruction, by surrounding the village where 
he reposed in the night: he effected his escape, but his 
mother and sister fell into the hands of his enemies, who 
treated them with every indignity; for which he afterwards 
inflicted dreadful vengeance. Ali now entered the service 
of Coul, pacha of Berat, whose daughter he soon obtained 
in marriage. Shortly after he overthrew the pachalic of 
Yanina, which became the centre of his future fortunes; 
from whence, by money, artifice, force and treachery, he 
extended his authority. The pachalic of Arta next submitted 
to his arms; and the Porte appointed him derveni pacha of 
Romelia, guardian of all the passes in the country. In 
1798 he was appointed vizier, or a pacha of three tails. 
After the death of his father-in-law, he attacked and de¬ 
feated the pachas of Berat and Delvino, in 1811 and 1812, 
by which he gained the finest part of Albania and a popula¬ 
tion of about 300,000. He was induced to preserve Ibrahim 
at Berat, for some time in nominal authority. He now suc¬ 
cessively overran Prevesa, Vonitza, Kilili, or Acarnania. 
Tesselina, with its inhabitants, now fell into his power. His 
good fortune had not obliterated the memory of the wrongs 
he had formerly received from the people of Tesselina; and 
he ordered all those involved in the guilt, to the number of 
700, to be dragged out of the city, bound together with 
cords, and destroyed. The Suliotes, a people living in 
mountainous retreats, till now supposed impregnable, were 
next conquered by Ali. He had now obtained absolute and 
undisputed possession of a country larger than Alexander 
the Great possessed previous to his conquests in Asia Minor. 
Ali was master of all Greece from Attica to Illyria. Eng¬ 
land, France, and Russia, generally kept a consul at his 
court; and on his part, the political information he pos¬ 
sessed was said to have been far superior to that at Constan¬ 
tinople. But Ali, the mighty pacha, knew well the uncer¬ 
tain tenure of his greatness. The Porte most ardently wished 
Ali to repair to Constantinople, and even offered him the 
dignity of grand vizier; but he refused this high office, 
well knowing that his arrival at the capital would be quickly 
followed by decapitation. War was declared, and the rebel 
found himself successively deserted by all the various tribes 
of Greeks whom he had made the instruments of each others 
subjection and of his own elevation. At length this despot, 
who had practised dissimulation all his life, became in turn 
its victim: being at war with the Porte, and having fortified 
himself in a strong fortress, with four years’ provisions, he 
was inveigled from his strong hold by a promise of pardon, 
and instantly cut down by the Turkish officers (Feb. 5,1822). 
The Greeks, whom Ali had taught the use of arms and 
trained to conquest, and had enlightened by partial civiliza¬ 
tion, though they deserted their leader, were not all prepared 
to unite themselves permanently with the Turks who over¬ 
threw him. Of those who did so unite themselves, a large 
proportion became immediately disgusted with the treachery 
of their new leaders, and having received money from Ali, 
Von. XXIV. No. 1635. 
KEY. 
betook themselves even during his life-time to harass the Ot¬ 
toman force. When Ali fell they kept up a vigorous though 
partial opposition to the detached forces of the Turks. This 
circumstauce induced the Hetaerists to strike a speedy blow. 
Their-choice fell on Alexander Ipsilanti for a leader. This 
general was the son of a banished hospodar of Wallachia, 
who had been highly respected by the inhabitants of the 
principality. 
Alexander had embraced the military profession at an 
early age, and served during the campaigns of 1812, and 
the two following years, with considerable distinction. He 
lost his right hand at the battle of Culm, and though still 
under the age of thirty, he was a major-general in the Rus¬ 
sian army, and aid-de-camp to the emperor at the com¬ 
mencement of the Greek struggle. 
Another Russian general. Prince Cantacuzene, descended 
from an illustrious Greek family, although senior in rank, 
generously volunteered to serve under Alexander; and Mi¬ 
chael Suzzo, the Hospodar of Moldavia, engaged to co¬ 
operate with them. The plan of campaign traced out by 
the Hetaerists, and the calculations on which they proceeded, 
were as follows:—No doubt could be entertained of the 
speedy reduction of the principalities; their possession would 
afford the means of organizing a considerable force, keeping 
up a communication with the rest of Europe, diverting the 
attention of the Turks, and also a fair chance of embroiling 
them with the great northern Potentate, to whom the patriots 
still confidently looked for assistance. A formidable con¬ 
spiracy was set on foot at the same time, in the very capital 
itself, the explosion of which would, it was thought, shake 
the Ottoman empire to its foundations, and enable Ipsilanti 
to assume the offensive beyond the Danube, while a spirited 
proclamation should summon the whole of Greece to arms, 
from Ossa to Tonarus. It was fully expected that on the 
first news of the rising, the Servians, instead of remaining 
tranquil spectators of the contest, would unite their efforts 
to those of the Greeks. The plan was unquestionably well 
concerted, and had all the parts received their full execution, 
it would probably have been crowned with success. 
But the scheme for attacking the metropolis was discovered 
thus:—A merchant of Constantinople, one of the principal 
conspirators, had some goodson hand, which he was unable to 
dispose of before the period fixed for the explosion. Unwilling 
to lose his merchandize, he found means to have the ap¬ 
pointed day exchanged for another a little later; and in the 
interval, a discovery took place. 
In the next place the revolutionists had very much mis¬ 
calculated the spirit and inclinations of the inhabitants of 
the principalities. The whole country was governed by 
Boyars, who held the peasantry almost in the same sub¬ 
jection as the barons of Europe did their vassals of yore. 
They were not, therefore, incliued for change. The pea¬ 
sants themselves, subdued and impoverished by a long 
course of slavery and exaction, had not the energy to bear 
arms, and scarcely the means to procure them. Suzzo 
died, and left the divan or assembly of Moldavian Boyards 
in the greatest embarrassment. At this juncture an ad¬ 
venturer, named Theodore Vladimiresco, formerly in the 
Russian service, thought fit to press some claims on the 
divan, against the treasury, for sums of money which he 
pretended to have disbursed in 1811, for the exigencies of 
the state: the divan refused to take cognizance of the affair 
until the arrival of another prince, and Vladimiresco, exas¬ 
perated by this resolution, immediately repaired to little 
Wallachia, where he possessed some influence among the 
Arnauts: allured by the hopes of plunder, a certain number 
of these engaged to join in a political crusade against the 
nobility of Buckarest. Accordingly, Theodore appeared in 
the field at the head of three hundred men, well armed, and 
issued a manifesto declaring that all the miseries of Wallachia 
proceeded from the apathy, corruption, and arrogance of the 
Boyards; that his sole object was to effect a reform in the 
government; and that this could only be done by ex- 
2 X pelling 
