The Life of Thomas, Lord Cochrane by Earl of Dundonald Thomas Barnes Cochrane (best classic books to read .TXT) 📕

Society.—Sultan Mahmud and Ali Pasha's Rebellion.—The
Beginning of the Greek Insurrection.—Count John Capodistrias.—Prince
Alexander Hypsilantes.—The Revolution in the Morca.—Theodore
Kolokotrones.—The Revolution in the Islands.—The Greek Navy and its
Character.—The Excesses of the Greeks.—Their bad Government.—Prince
Alexander Mavrocordatos.—The Progress of the Revolution.—The
Spoliation of Chios.—English Philhellenes; Thomas Gordon, Frank Abney
Hastings, Lord Byron.—The first Greek Loan, and the bad uses to
which it was put.—Reverses of the Greeks.—Ibrahim and his
Successes.—Mavrocordatos's Letter to Lord Cochrane - 286
CHAPTER XIV.

[1825-1826.]

Lord Cochrane's Dismissal from Brazilian Service, and his Acceptance of Employment as Chief Admiral of the Greeks.—The Greek Committee and the Greek Deputies in London.—The Terms of Lord Cochrane's Agreement, and the consequent Preparations.—His Visit to Scotland.—Sir Walter Scott's Verses on Lady Cochrane.—Lord Cochrane's forced Retirement to Boulogne, and thence to Brussels.—The Delays in fitting out the Greek Armament.—Captain Hastings, Mr. Hobhouse, and Sir Francis Burdett.—Captain Hastings's Memoir on the Greek Leaders and their Characters.—The first Consequences of Lord Cochrane's new Enterprise.—The Duke of Wellington's Message to Lord Cochrane.—The Greek Deputies' Proposal to Lord Cochrane and his Answer.—The Final Arrangements for his Departure.—The Messiah of the Greeks. - 318

CHAPTER XV.

[1826-1827.]

Lord Cochrane's Departure for Greece.—His Visit to London and Voyage to the Mediterranean.—His Stay at Messina, and afterwards at Marseilles.—The Delays in Completing the Steamships, and the consequent Injury to the Greek Cause, and serious Embarrassment to Lord Cochrane.—His Correspondence with Messrs. J. and S. Ricardo.—His Letter to the Greek Government.—Chevalíer Eynard, and the Continental Philhellenes.—Lord Cochrane's Final Departure and Arrival in Greece. - 355

CHAPTER XVI.

[1826-1827.]

The Progress of Affairs in Greece.—The Siege of Missolonghi.—Its Fall.—The Bad Government and Mismanagement of the Greeks.—General Ponsonby's Account of them.—The Effect of Lord Cochrane's Promised Assistance.—The Fears of the Turks, as shown in their Correspondence with Mr. Canning.—The Arrival of Captain Hastings in Greece, with the Karteria.—His Opinion of Greek Captains and Sailors.—The Frigate Hellas,—Letters to Lord Cochrane from Admiral Miaoulis and the Governing Commission of Greece. - 368

APPENDIX.

* * * * *

I. (Page 22.)—"Resumé of the Services of the late Earl of Dundonald, none of which have been Requited or Officially Recognised," by Thomas, Eleventh Earl of Dundonald. - 389

II. (Page 23.)—Part of a Speech delivered by Lord Cochrane in the
House of Commons, on the 11th of May, 1809, on Naval Abuses. - 397

III. (Page 258.)—A Letter written by Lord Cochrane to the Secretary of State of Brazil on the 3rd of May, 1824. - 400

THE LIFE OF THOMAS, TENTH EARL OF DUNDONALD. CHAPTER I. INTRODUCTION.—LORD COCHRANE'S ANCESTRY.—HIS FIRST OCCUPATIONS IN THE NAVY.—HIS CRUISE IN THE "SPEEDY" AND CAPTURE OF THE "GAMO."—HIS EXPLOITS IN THE "PALLAS."—THE BEGINNING OF HIS PARLIAMENTARY LIFE.—HIS TWO ELECTIONS AS MEMBER FOR HONITON.—HIS ELECTION FOR WESTMINSTER.—FURTHER SEAMANSHIP.—THE BASQUE ROADS AFFAIR.—THE COURT-MARTIAL ON LORD GAMBIER, AND ITS INJURIOUS EFFECTS ON LORD COCHRANE'S NAVAL CAREER.—HIS PARLIAMENTARY OCCUPATIONS.—HIS VISIT TO MALTA AND ITS ISSUES.—THE ANTECEDENTS AND CONSEQUENCES OF THE STOCK EXCHANGE TRIAL.

[1775-1814.]

Thomas, Loud Cochrane, tenth Earl of Dundonald, was born at Annsfield, in Lanark, on the 14th of December, 1775, and died in London on the 31st of October, 1860. Shortly before his death he wrote two volumes, styled "The Autobiography of a Seaman," which set forth his history down to 1814, the fortieth year of his age. To those volumes the present work, recounting his career during the ensuing six-and-forty years, is intended to serve as a sequel. Before entering upon the later narrative, however, it will be necessary briefly to recapitulate the incidents that have been already detailed.

The Earl of Dundonald was descended from a long line of knights and barons, chiefly resident in Renfrew and Ayr, many of whom were men of mark in Scottish history during the thirteenth and following centuries. Robert Cochran was the especial favourite and foremost counsellor of James III., who made him Earl of Mar; but the favours heaped upon him, and perhaps a certain arrogance in the use of those favours, led to so much opposition from his peers and rivals that he was assassinated by them in 1480.[A]

[Footnote A: Pinkerton, the historian, gives some curious details, illustrating not only Robert Cochran's character, but also the condition of government and society in Scotland four centuries ago. "The Scottish army," he says, "amounting to about fifty thousand, had crowded to the royal banner at Burrough Muir, near Edinburgh, whence they marched to Soutray and to Lauder, at which place they encamped between the church and the village. Cochran, Earl of Mar, conducted the artillery. On the morning after their arrival at Lauder, the peers assembled in a secret council, in the church, and deliberated upon their designs of revenge…. Cochran, ignorant of their designs, left the royal presence to proceed to the council. The earl was attended by three hundred men, armed with light battle-axes, and distinguished by his livery of white with black fillets. He was clothed in a riding cloak of black velvet, and wore a large chain of gold around his neck; his horn of the chase, or of battle, was adorned with gold and precious stones, and his helmet, overlaid with the same valuable metal, was borne before him. Approaching the door of the church, he commanded an attendant to knock with authority; and Sir Robert Douglas, of Lochleven, who guarded the passage, inquiring the name, was answered, 'Tis I, the Earl of Mar.' Cochran and some of his friends were admitted. Angus advanced to him, and pulling the gold chain from his neck, said, 'A rope will become thee better,' while Douglas of Lochleven seized his hunting-horn, declaring that he had been too long a hunter of mischief. Rather astonished than alarmed, Cochran said, 'My lords, is it jest or earnest?' To which it was replied, 'It is good earnest, and so thou shalt find it; for thou and thy accomplices have too long abused our prince's favour. But no longer expect such advantage, for thou and thy followers shall now reap the deserved reward.' Having secured Mar, the lords despatched some men-at-arms to the king's pavilion, conducted by two or three moderate leaders, who amused James, while their followers seized the favourites. Sir William Roger and others were instantly hanged over the bridge at Lauder. Cochran was now brought out, his hands bound with a rope, and thus conducted to the bridge, and hanged above his fellows."] Later scions of the family prospered, and in 1641, Sir William Cochrane was raised to the peerage, as Lord Cochrane of Cowden, by Charles I. For his adherence to the royal cause this nobleman was fined 5000_l._ by the Long Parliament in 1654; and, in recompense for his loyalty, he was made first Earl of Dundonald by Charles II. in 1669. His successors were faithful to the Stuarts, and thereby they suffered heavily. Archibald, the ninth Earl, inheriting a patrimony much reduced by the loyalty and zeal of his ancestors, spent it all in the scientific pursuits to which he devoted himself, and in which he was the friendly rival of Watt, Priestley, Cavendish, and other leading chemists and mechanicians of two or three generations ago. His eldest son, heir to little more than a famous name and a chivalrous and enterprising disposition, had to fight his own way in the world.

Lord Cochrane—as the subject of these memoirs was styled in courtesy until his accession to the peerage in 1831—was intended by his father for the army, in which he received a captain's commission. But his own predilections were in favour of a seaman's life, and accordingly, after brief schooling, he joined the Hind, as a midshipman, in June, 1793, when he was nearly eighteen years of age.

During the next seven years he learnt his craft in various ships and seas, being helped in many ways by his uncle, the Hon. Alexander Cochrane, but profiting most by his own ready wit and hearty love of his profession. Having been promoted to the rank of lieutenant in 1794, he was made commander of the Speedy early in 1800. This little sloop, not larger than a coasting brig, but crowded with eighty-four men and six officers, seemed to be intended only for playing at war. Her whole armament consisted of fourteen 4-pounders. When her new commander tried to add to these a couple of 12-pounders, the deck proved too small and the timbers too weak for them, and they had to be returned. So Lilliputian was his cabin, that, to shave himself, Lord Cochrane was obliged to thrust his head out of the skylight and make a dressing-table of the quarter-deck.

Yet the Speedy, ably commanded, was quite large enough to be of good service. Cruising in her along the Spanish coast, Lord Cochrane succeeded in capturing many gunboats and merchantmen, and the enemy soon learnt to regard her with especial dread. On one memorable occasion, the 6th of May, 1801, he fell in with the Gamo, a Spanish frigate furnished with six times as many men as were in the Speedy and with seven times her weight of shot. Lord Cochrane, boldly advancing, locked his little craft in the enemy's rigging. It was, in miniature, a contest as unequal as that by which Sir Francis Drake and his fellows overcame the Great Armada of Spain in 1588, and with like result. The heavy shot of the Gamo riddled the Speedy's sails, but, passing overhead, did no mischief to her hulk or her men. During an hour there was desperate fighting with small arms, and twice the Spaniards tried in vain to board their sturdy little foe. Lord Cochrane then determined to meet them on their own deck, and the daring project was facilitated by one of the smart expedients in which he was never wanting. Before going into action, "knowing," as he said, "that the final struggle would be a desperate one, and calculating on the superstitious wonder which forms an element in the Spanish character," he had ordered his crew to blacken their faces; and, "what with this and the excitement of combat, more ferocious-looking objects could scarcely be imagined." With these men following him he promptly gained the frigate's deck, and then their strong arms and hideous faces soon frightened the Spaniards into submission.

The senior officer of the Gamo asked for a certificate of his bravery, and received one testifying that he had conducted himself "like a true Spaniard." To Spain, of course, this was no sarcasm, and on the strength of the document its holder soon obtained further promotion.

That achievement, which cost only three men's lives, led to consequences greater than could have been expected. Lord Cochrane, after three months' waiting, received the rank of post captain. But his desire that the services of Lieutenant Parker, his second in command, should also be recompensed led to a correspondence with Earl St. Vincent which turned him from a jealous superior into a bitter enemy. In reply to Lord Cochrane's recommendation, Earl St. Vincent alleged that "it was unusual to promote two officers for such a service,—besides which the small number of men killed on board the Speedy did not warrant the application." Lord Cochrane answered, with incautious honesty, that "his lordship's reasons for not promoting Lieutenant Parker, because there were only three men killed on board the Speedy, were in opposition to his lordship's own promotion to an earldom, as well as that of his flag-captain to knighthood, and his other officers to increased rank and honours; for that, in the battle from which his lordship derived his title there was only one man killed on board his own flagship." That was language too plain to be forgiven.

In July, 1801, the Speedy was captured by three French line-of-battle ships, whose senior in command, Captain Pallière, declined to accept the sword of an officer "who had," as he said, "for so many hours struggled against impossibility," and asked Lord Cochrane, though a prisoner, still to wear it. He, however, was refused employment as commander of another ship. Thereupon, with characteristic energy, he devoted his forced leisure from professional pursuits to a year of student life at Edinburgh, where, in 1802, Lord Palmerston was his class-fellow under Professor Dugald Stewart.

This occupation, however, was disturbed by the renewal of war with France in 1803. Lord Cochrane, though with difficulty, then obtained permission to return to active service, the Arab, one of the craziest little ships in the navy, being assigned to him. On his representing that she was too rotten for use off the French coast, he was ordered to employ her in cruising in the North Sea and protecting the fisheries north-east of the Orkneys, "where," as he said, "no vessel fished, and consequently there were no fisheries to protect." This ignominious work