for every kind of speculation,-they need not cross 'the American seas, for one much better worth their 'while, and nearer home. The resources even for an emigrant population, in the Greek islands alone, are rarely to be paralleled; and the cheapness of every • kind of, not only necessary, but luxury, (that is to say, luxury of nature,) fruits, wine, oil, &c. in a state of peace, are far beyond those of the Cape, and Van 'Dieman's Land, and the other places of refuge, which 'the English people are searching for over the waters. 'I beg that the Committee will command me in any ' and every way. If I am favoured with any instructions, 'I shall endeavour to obey them to the letter, whether 'conformable to my own private opinion or not. I beg leave to add, personally, my respect for the gen'tleman whom I have the honour of addressing,

And am, Sir, your obliged, &c.

P.S. The best refutation of Gell will be the active 'exertions of the Committee;-I am too warm a con'troversialist; and I suspect that if Mr. Hobhouse ' have taken him in hand, there will be little occasion for me to" encumber him with help." If I go up into the country, I will endeavour to transmit as accurate and impartial an account as circumstances will ' permit.

I shall write to Mr. Karellas. I expect intelligence from Captain Blaquiere, who has promised 'me some early intimation from the seat of the Pro'visional Government. I gave him a letter of intro'duction to Lord Sydney Osborne, at Corfu; but as 'Lord S. is in the government service, of course his reception could only be a cautious one.'

VOL. III.

2 E

• Sir,

• Genoa, May 21st, 1823.

I received yesterday the letter of the Committee, dated the 14th of March. What has occasioned the delay, I know not. It was forwarded by Mr. Galignani, from Paris, who stated that he had only had it in his charge four days, and that it was delivered to him by a Mr. Grattan. I need hardly say that I gladly accede to the proposition of the Committee, and hold myself highly honoured by being deemed worthy to be a member. I have also to return my thanks, particularly to yourself, for the accompanying ' letter, which is extremely flattering.

'Since I last wrote to you, through the medium of Mr. Hobhouse, I have received and forwarded a letter from Captain Blaquiere to me, from Corfu, 'which will show how he gets on. Yesterday I fell in with two young Germans, survivors of General 'Normann's band. They arrived at Genoa in the 'most deplorable state-without food-without a sou -without shoes. The Austrians had sent them out ' of their territory on their landing at Trieste; and they had been forced to come down to Florence, and 'had travelled from Leghorn here, with four Tuscan livres (about three francs) in their pockets. I have 'given them twenty Genoese scudi (about a hundred ' and thirty-three livres, French money), and new shoes, which will enable them to get to Switzerland, 'where they say that they have friends. All that they 'could raise in Genoa, besides, was thirty sous. They 'do not complain of the Greeks, but say that they have 'suffered more since their landing in Italy.

'I tried their veracity, 1st, by their passports and

papers; 2dly, by topography, cross-questioning them about Arta, Argos, Athens, Missolonghi, Corinth, ' &c.; and 3dly, in Romaic, of which I found one of 'them, at least, knew more than I do. One of them '(they are both of good families) is a fine handsome young fellow of three-and-twenty-a Wirtembergher, and has a look of Sandt about him-the other a Bavarian, older and flat-faced, and less ideal, but a 'great, sturdy, soldier-like personage. The Wirtem'bergher was in the action at Arta, where the Phil'hellenists were cut to pieces after killing six hundred 'Turks, they themselves being only a hundred and 'fifty in number, opposed to about six or seven thou'sand; only eight escaped, and of them about three only survived; so that General Normann " posted 'his ragamuffins where they were well peppered'not three of the hundred and fifty left alive and 'they are for the town's end for life."

These two left Greece by the direction of the Greeks. When Churschid Pacha overrun the Morea, 'the Greeks seem to have behaved well, in wishing to 'save their allies, when they thought that the game was up with themselves. This was in September 'last (1822): they wandered from island to island, and got from Milo to Smyrna, where the French ' consul gave them a passport, and a charitable captain a passage to Ancona, whence they got to Trieste, and were turned back by the Austrians. They com'plain only of the minister (who has always been an indifferent character); say that the Greeks fight very 'well in their own way, but were at first afraid to fire their own cannon-but mended with practice. 'Adolphe (the younger) commanded at Navarino for Ia short time; the other, a more material person,

"the bold Bavarian in a luckless hour," seems chiefly to lament a fast of three days at Argos, and the loss of twenty-five paras a day of pay in arrear, and some baggage at Tripolitza; but takes his 'wounds, and marches, and battles in very good part. Both are very simple, full of naïveté, and quite 'unpretending they say the foreigners quarrelled among themselves, particularly the French with the "Germans, which produced duels.

'The Greeks accept muskets, but throw away bayonets, and will not be disciplined. When these lads saw two Piedmontese regiments yesterday, they said, ""Ah, if we had but these two, we should have cleared 'the Morea:" in that case the Piedmontese must have behaved better than they did against the Austrians. They seem to lay great stress upon a few regular troops-say that the Greeks have arms and 'powder in plenty, but want victuals, hospital stores, ' and lint and linen, &c. and money, very much. Alto'gether, it would be difficult to show more practical 'philosophy than this remnant of our " puir hill folk" ' have done; they do not seem the least cast down, ' and their way of presenting themselves was as 'simple and natural as could be. They said, a Dane here had told them that an Englishman, friendly to 'the Greek cause, was here, and that, as they were 'reduced to beg their way home, they thought they 'might as well begin with me. I write in haste to 'snatch the post.-Believe me, and truly,

'Your obliged, &c.

'P.S. I have, since I wrote this, seen them again. 'Count P. Gamba asked them to breakfast. One of them means to publish his Journal of the campaign. The Bavarian wonders a little that the Greeks are

'not quite the same with them of the time of Themis'tocles (they were not then very tractable, by the by), ' and at the difficulty of disciplining them; but he is " a "bon homme" and a tactician, and a little like Dugald Dalgetty, who would insist upon the erection " of "a sconce on the hill of Drumsnab," or whatever ' it was; the other seems to wonder at nothing.'

LETTER 522.

TO LADY

'May 17th, 1823.

'My voyage to Greece will depend upon the Greek Committee (in England) partly, and partly on the 'intructions which some persons now in Greece on a private mission may be pleased to send me. I am a 'member, lately elected, of the said Committee; and 'my object in going up would be to do any little good ' in my power;-but as there are some pros and cons ' on the subject, with regard to how far the interven'tion of strangers may be advisable, I know no more 'than I tell you; but we shall probably hear something soon from England and Greece, which may 'more decisive.

be

With regard to the late person (Lord Londonderry), whom you hear that I have attacked, I can only say that a bad minister's memory is as much an object of investigation as his conduct while alive,'for his measures do not die with him like a private 'individual's notions. He is matter of history; and, ' wherever I find a tyrant or a villain, I will mark him. 'I attacked him no more than I had been wont to do. 'As to the Liberal,—it was a publication set up for 'the advantage of a persecuted author and a very worthy man. But it was foolish in me to engage in it; and so it has turned out-for I have hurt myself