may in future be sent to Greece, that direction which shall be most conformable to the principal object of the Committees.

6. The Commission will keep an exact account of the sums which have been entrusted to them, and the Germans and Swiss shall have free access to it; moreover it shall be communicated to the Committees, together with information of the mode in which the aforesaid aids shall have been applied.

7. The Administrative Commission shall do all in its power to get the Philhellenes placed in a state of activity conformable to the abilities of each, either forming a separate corps or individually. If ever the good news which we may receive of them should excite anew the interest of the public, and the Commission shall have taken proper precautions to receive in safety whatever may be transmitted to them from the Committees, as well as to dispose of it according to their directions, then alone will it be possible to send perhaps new aids to the Philhellenes. Still the Central Society of Switzerland cannot at present make any positive engagement on this point.

We are very desirous that the obstacles which have hitherto been opposed to the activity of the Philhellenes, may be diminished; that these brave men may remain faithful to their first designs of assisting the Greeks in their struggle with the tyrants. May this generous resolution at length become truly useful to Greece, and do honour to the Committees which have assisted her with all their might. Given in our sitting of the 15th October, 1823.

The President of the Philhellene Cen

tral Society of Switzerland.

JEAN HENRI BREMI, Canon.

Zurich,

LA presente sera remise a votre altesse par le Colonel Stan

Il est hope, fils du Majeur-Général Comte de Harrington, etc. etc. arrivé de Londres pour cinquante jours, après avoir visité tous les comités d'Allemagne. Il est chargé de notre comité d'operer à ma compagnie à la liberation de la Grèce. Je crois que son nom et sa mission le recommanderont suffisamment a votre altesse, sans qu'il ait besoin d'autres recommandations d'un étranger, quoi qu'il respecte et admire avec toute l'Europe, le courage, les talens, et surtout la probité du Prince Mavrocordato.

Il me deplait beaucoup d'entendre que les dissensions continuent toujours dans la Grèce, et dans un moment ou elle pourroit triomfer de tout en général, comme elle a deja triomfé à part.

La Grèce est mise à present entre trois partis: ou reconquerir la liberté, ou devenir une dépendance des souverains d'Europe, ou tourner une province Turcque, et il ne lui reste que de saisir un de ces trois partis. Mais la guerre civile n'est qu'une route pour les deux derniers. Si elle a envie de la sort de Valachie et de la Crimée, elle peut l'obtenir demain; si de celle d'Italie après demain ; mais si elle veut devenir la véritable Grèce, libre toujours et independante, il faut qu'elle se determine aujourd'hui, ou elle n'aura plus le tems de le faire à jamais.

Je suis, avec tout le respect,

De votre altesse obeissant serviteur,

N. B.

P. S. Votre altesse saura deja que j'ai cherché de contenter aux recherches du gouvernment Grec, tant qu'il etoit a mon pouvoir; mais je voudrois bien que cette flotte, deja si long tems attendue et toujours en vain, fut arrivée, ou au moins qu'elle fût en route, et surtout que votre altesse s'approche de ces parts, ou sur la flotte avec une mission publique, ou en quelque autre façon.

Prince,

TRANSLATION.

Cephalonia, 2d December, 1823.

THE present will be put into your hands by Colonel Stanhope, son of Major-General the Earl of Harrington, &c. &c. He has arrived from London for fifty days, after having visited all the Committees of Germany. He is charged by our Committee to act in concert with me for the liberation of Greece. I conceive that his name and his mission will be a sufficient recommendation, without the necessity of any other from a foreigner, although one, who, in

common with all Europe, respects and admires the courage, the talents, and, above all, the probity of Prince Mavrocordato.

I am very uneasy at hearing that the dissensions of Greece still continue, and at a moment when she might triumph over every thing in general, as she has already triumphed in part. Greece is, at present, placed between three measures; either to re-conquer her liberty, or to become a dependence of the sovereigns of Europe, or to return to a Turkish province: she has the choice only of these three alternatives. Civil war is but a road which leads to the two latter. If she is desirous of the fate of Walachia and the Crimea, she may obtain it to-morrow; if of that of Italy, the day after; but if she wishes to become truly Greece, free and independent, she must resolve to-day, or she will never again have the opportunity.

I am, with due respect,

Your highness's obedient servant,

N. B.

P. S. Your highness will already have known, that I have sought to fulfil the wishes of the Greek government, as much as it laid in my power to do; but I should wish that the fleet, so long and so vainly expected, were arrived, or at least, that it were on the way, and especially that your highness should approach these parts either on board the fleet, with a public mission, or in some other

manner.

Sir,

No. 10.

Lord Erskine to Prince Mavrocordato.

London, September 16th, 1823.

THE letter which your Excellency did me the great and unmerited honour to write to me by Mr. Blaquiere, on his return to England, gave me inexpressible satisfaction.

My abhorrence of the Ottoman domination, and my unalterable confidence in the re-establishment of ancient Greece, under the Christian dispensation, are not of a late date. Many years before the descendants of that illustrious people were in a condition to combine suc

cessfully against their infamous oppressora, even in my very dawn of life, I constantly looked forward, with feverish impatience, for their deliverance.

The Greeks ought never to have been assimilated by the nations of Europe to those colonies they had planted, which in our own times have cast off their allegiance to their parent states. At what periods and under what circumstances these great changes have taken place, and whether to be condemned, or justified and applauded, could have no reference to your ancient nation asserting its primitive independence; neither could the commotions in Naples, nor the discontents under European governments, have any possible relation to the war of Greece. The Greeks were not planted, nor colonised, nor ever protected by the Ottoman Porte; nor can I consider the Turkish rule as one to which nations, in the ordinary history of the world, have so often, through warfare, become subject, nor have they been governed when subjected according to the laws and customs of civilized states. I consider, on the contrary, her tyrannous usurpation and desolation as only an awful and mysterious dispensation of the Divine Providence, permitting, for an appointed period, the disastrous overthrow of one of the finest portions of the earth, obstructing, during this portentous eclipse, the progress of that promised light and knowledge of Christian redemption, the consummation of which one would have thought to have been an event deeply interesting to all Christian states. To the princes, therefore, on the continent of Europe, who have left you to be so long persecuted, and but for your own matchless valour, even to every man, woman, and child, inhumanly butchered, you had given no manner of offence, nor could they impute to you any purpose or thought of injuring them, by seeking to secure your independence. Your resistance to a most insufferable tyranny happened only, and altogether by accident, to have been cotemporary with a system which they themselves had confederated to establish; viz. that the world throughout should continue for ever in its present state, except under their immediate direction, and that crimes and follies should have no consequences: but, as the Greeks owed no allegiance to these distant sovereigns they were not bound to subscribe to tenets so novel, however patronised. In their admirable address to the princes at Verona on this subject, they have unanswerably disconnected Greece with all that could justify the rejection of their eloquent and affecting supplication for support; but I hope it will not be forgotten that Great Britain, though present by ministers at

that congress, was not a party to it, and cannot therefore be charged with having insulted the sacred cause of humanity and justice by such a cold-blooded, disgraceful, and disgusting silence. I advert to this, because I most anxiously wish to draw you closer every hour to my beloved country, renowned during so many ages for spreading the blessings of religion and freedom to the uttermost ends of the earth. Be assured that there is but one heart and soul and one voice amongst us for your final triumph, although at the outset of your glorious resistance there were difficulties in the way of a direct and immediate national support, originating in events much more remote than the period of your confederacy. The Ottoman Porte ought, in my opinion, to have been always considered in the light in which I have ever viewed it, and ought never to have been received into the communion of civilized states; but a different course having been for centuries pursued, and treaties being consequently on foot, obstacles were in the way of a sudden departure from a long established system, though so impolitic and erroneous. But now that Greece has become a nation out of all reach of re-conquest, and has established a regular government,-now that the Porte cannot contend that she has any dominion, either de jure or de facto, over her, I cannot think it consistent with our national character to permit such an infernal source of bloodshed and desolation to continue; and as our statesmen must besides speedily discover that British interests are now inseparably interwoven with your security and advancement, I cannot but encourage you to hope (though I speak from no authority nor from any knowledge of the designs of government) that a recognition of the confederated Greeks cannot be very distant. Speaking for myself, I pray God that I may live to see your infant navies undisturbed throughout the whole Archipelago, and the friendly flag of Great Britain bearing the commerce of the world into all the harbours of Greece. It is no figure, sir, when I express a hope that I may see this, because if it should happily take place during my short remaining time nothing should prevent me from seeing it; and, were I in the hour of death, I should rejoice in a spectacle so indicative of future peace upon earth and so consolatory to humanity and justice. I have the more confidence, sir, in this happy change, from the devout and affecting appeals to the Almighty God for succour and protection against your infidel oppressors, with which, amidst so many sufferings and successes, you appear to have organized your government, as they now lie before me, having been published by our Greek Committee. Such appeals, if upheld, as I am sure they will be, with corresponding faithfulness,