The Sun.
London, England, 1854-05-15 00:00:00

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[PRICE.SD.

THE GREEKS.

(Front the Weekly Dispatch,.)
It is surely something more certain and less unpre-
meditated than mere chance which has given to the
Emperor of all the Russias his Christian name. St.
Nicholas, as all know who study the Popish calendar,
is the tutelar of thieves. To the simple thinking of any
" plaint blunt man, that loves his friend," it may appear
matter of surprise that the meatiest of the vices should
have an evangelical guardian angel to watch over its
votaries. "This was for sometime a paradox—but now
the age gives it reason." After all, it is not so very ex-
traordinary that, in the intervals of business, burglary
or petty larceny should be of a " serious turn of mind."
Macbeth indeed admits that ''Amen stuck in his throat,"
but he very justly observes, after Duncan was regularly
taken in and done for, that the crown stealer "IL most
need of praying." The Czar is the most pious of pick-
pockets. He never annexes until lie has said grace. His
proclamations all declare that he only steals for the sake
of his religion ; his burglaries have for their exclusive
object the propagation of the Gospel. He is truly
the Moses Moses of monarchs. His empire is male
up of thefts. It is a " hack shop " of unconsidered
trifles, a bazaar of stolen goods. The ethnology of
of Muscovy is as piebald as a circus horse, made
up of more patches than Harlequin's suit of motley.
Chinese, Caltnuck, Tartar, Persian, Circassian—Geor-
gian, Greek, Fin, Turk, Satuoiede—Mongolian, Sclave,
Cossack, Pule, Armenian European, Asiatic- and
American—his dominion is the marine store-shop of the
nations, filled too by the same means, with but this dif-
ference, that, n the case of his Imperial Majesty, the
receiver is also the thief. Who that examines his ante-
cendents can doubt as to his present resolves, or future
inteutions ? It was said by Napoleon that without the
permission of France and England no hostile shot could
be fired in Europe. Peter the Great perfectly understood
ettnist—and lets to his successors a corresponding policy.
As the swindler 1 oorrarviiTeirffdiiiiMilleen.
the footpad—as the light finger is a more elegant as well
as successful instrument than the crowbar—as Count
Cagliostro was a far superior artist to Jack Sheppard—
so the Czar has always regarded war as a very low and
clumsy method of compassing " annexation.' A
political map of the Russian empire is one of the
most startling of modern pictures. Wylil has put
upon its parts the various periods of their acquisi-
tion. It looks as if it were made up entirely of pick-
ings and stealings. Here from Persia, there from Turkey,
now from Sweden, again from China, or Poland, and nearly
all within a century and a half, the cribbed portions make
up so much as to leave the original hotnestall of Muscovy
an insignificant patrimony. All have exactly the same
history. The reigning thief casts about him to see
where among his neighbours discontent is greatest, or
treason most practicable. Thither in secret, or on a
friendly visit, he sends his agents and his roubles. Cor-
ruption
and faction-nursing do their work. Rebellion
arises—revolution threatens. The Emperor of All the •
Russias enters the disturbed districts to "restore tran-
quillity " which he alone had interrupted. A little more
intrigue, treachery, bribery, ripens a friendly intervention
into a protectorate—and from the latter the step is in-
sensible, gradual and easy, to "incorporation" into the
great Muscovite empire. These "taking ways" have
become peculiarly obvious and transparent in the case of
Turkey. In every absolute Court there is a strong
Russian party. The Emperor of Austria is a mere regal
imbecility. The King of Prussia is a miserable sot, who
breaks the bridge of his nose after dinner by running
against his cherry trees in his garden. Half the courtiers
of every German potentate are the mere pensionaries
of the Czar. • Their silence or sympathy purchased,
he proceeds to " restore tranquillity " to the Crimea.
He pities the Wallachians and Moldavians. He
is grieved at the turbulence of the Circassians. "You
know the rest." Thesis have merely his political sym-
pathies. But the Greeks ! are they not Christians ?
Are they not of his own Church ? Can he be blamed
for the depth of his interest in, and the intensity of his
affection for, fellow worshippers, persecuted for con-
science sake by the heathen and the infidel ? So lie
takes the Greek subjects of the Sultan into pay. He
corrupts the old Mussulman faction in the Divan. He
opens communications with, lie subsidises, the patriarchs
and other priests of the Greek church in Turkey. He
" remonstrates" through his Ambassadors with the Porte
on the persecution of his Greek subjects. He gradually
accustoms the latter to turn from their own Sovereign,
and to took to him as their protector. He smuggles un-
considered clauses into protocols and treaties, which
begin with recognising his access to the Sultan as a
mere friendly adviser in reference to his dealings with
his Christian subjects, and are gradually swelled by jesu-
itical misinterpretation into the assertion of a right to
protect them against their own lawful monarch. Then
clines the " got up quarrel," which is the pretext for his
entering Moldaviato restore tranquillity, and now in place
of incorporation. lie is brought face to face with the power •
of France and England. The plot is begun afar off. He
approaches the Hellenes of Turkey through those of
Greece. King. Otho and his rascals are his mere sti-
pendiaries. lie intrigues with the vagabonds of the
lonian Islands. lie gets the Greeks of Turkey to
transfer their allegiance from the Sultan to himself or
the Gerniae or ether Sovereigns, so that their Ambits-
sailors may become protectors of the Sultan's own
people against his lawful authority. He induces Otho
to " try it oim" with England in the case of Don Pacific..
He nurses the offence of sheltering the Polish and Hun-
gerian refugees into a quarrel, until Lord Palmerston
orders our fleet to the Dardaeelles. See what has oc•
curred now. No sooner do France and England declare
war against him, than he wheedles Servia into rebellion,
and Ibt.lie entire Greek nation everywhere rises at his
signal of revolt. He even tells Austria that lie will
ann Poland, and set up Flung ,ry in array. Mr.
Cobden has taken for his clients the Greek houses in
England trading with Turkey. He denounces the pro-
clamation of the Sultan ordering out of his dominions
all Greeks, subjects of Otho. Yet what c'ul'l lie do ?
As a measure of safety whet would we .1,), if, when our
very existence as a nation was perilled, we had in the
very centre of our duminions persons who had renounced
our allegiance to set up against us the protection of
other POwers, and who were secretly abetting treason
and rebellion against us by their sympathisers ? These
London and Manchester houses have been detected in
the fact of raising subscriptions in aid of the Greek
revolt—many of them have avowed it—and yet they
have the consummate effrontery to complain of the only
measures open to the Sultan to secure even the very
seat of his Government from the dengerous censeqeencee
of their intrigues. A sort of sentimental sympathy, a
poetical pity, for these Greeks requires exemlimatien.
Russian agents, who fluid that there is no longer any
chance of detaching any trillion of public opinion in
this country in favour of the cause of their tyrant, now
endeavour to write up Hellenism, and advocate the
erection of the Greek nation into a great federal re-
public. We do not doubt that the Sultan would gladly
get rid of them. We are very certain that no Power
but Russia would oppose the establishment of a Greek
kingdom, or a Hellenic federal republic. But the truth
must be told—" 'Tis Greece, bat living Greece no
more." Some great delusion appears to exist as to
the numbers of the Greeks. The lonian Islands
can only muster 220,000 souls. The subjects of
King Otho do not reach 1,000,000. We cannot trace
in Turkey more than a million and a leaf. They
cannot make up a national census of three millions among
them all. It is impossible to make a political Power in
the East of Europe out of such materials, It it were
practicable in time abstract, the Greeks are incapable of
executing the mission. In England their merchants are
despised and mistrusted: They are without integrity or
principle. In London " Greek-houses," as a general
rule, are regarded as not worthy of reliance. The term
" levanting, ' which means absconding from one's engage-
ments, owes its origin to the conduct of trading concerns
in the city connected with the Levant. The fact is, the
Greeks, as a people, have passions, but no heal ts. They
are moved by impulses, not by principles. Without ear-
nestness, moral intensity, anything sincerely believed or
the object of any active faith, either mentally or morally
or theologically (although they are abundantly supersti.
thus), they do not present any spiritual elements out of
which a nation can be made. They have a republic
in the lonian Islands—yet they prove themselves
utterly incapable of government, entirely unworthy
of freedom—we are inclined to suspect even unfit
to form an independent society susceptible of any
permanent cohesion. They have a constitutional mo-
narchy under King Otho—what progress have they made
since they were redeemed from Turkey ? To call theta a
nation is ridiculous. They are a confused Babel crowd
of unmitigated scoundrels, without honour, humanity,
or courage. In Turkey it is not surprising-that they
are despised. There is but too much reason for Turks
refusing accepting their testimony in courts of law.
They are now to Europe at large what in the time of
Augustus they were to Rome. They cannot he honest.
It is not in their nature to speak the truth. They know
not what faithfulness or gratitude means. They are
the ready instruments of every wrong-doer who will
buy them, and the alert panders of every vice. That '
the Turks conquered them—that they rule them and
keep them down now—that a mere handful of Osmanlis
have quashed their revolt and crushed them into obe-
dience —these are facts which prove equally the vast
superiority of the one and the futile ineffectuality of the
other. The fact is, the Muesulmans are honest, true,
have deep moral convictions, and manfully a,ct, upon
them, whilst the Greek Christians are, and have, neither
the one nor the other. Of the one there is
hope,
but Ilene of the other. Time attempt to embark our
theological sympathies on the side of Russia and
Greece is really to libel Christianity. lie who knowine
not his master's will yet obeyed it was accepted, when
the disobedient professor was rejected. The Samaritan
was declared to be the neighbour of the Jew who fell
among theives, when the orthodox priest and Levite
were utterly Clisowned. Net every one who crieth
"Lord ! Lord !" but he who executes his precepts, is
the true disciple. That because a cruel, unscrupulous,
rapacious, and snivelling tyrant declares that his sole
object in stealing his neighbour's kingdom from him is
to extend the kingdom of Christ, a crew of book-making
clerical quacks should crown him as the providential
messenger of God, to universalize the reign of the Re-
deemer, is only.too Painful a proof of the fact that ortho-
doxy regards the Gospel not as a code of moral prin-
ciples, lilt as a mere farrago of articles of belie, to be
apprehended only opeOnlatively, and !wallowed by

?f D C/ ?":""

omnivorous credulity, without ever being masticated by
the reason, or digested by the conscience. We repeat
our convict on that the Turks are really nearer the
" kingdom of God, which conieth not with observation,"
than the Greeks or the Muscovites. While it is quite
possible that this war may become the means- of
turning the professors of Al Koran to the Gospel, it
wilt not be by either the precepts of the Greek tuitri•
archs or the practices of the Czar. The English. and
French allies of the Sultan are, in tbis.case, the 'true'
aries of Christiaiaty. Tae extension of the do-
minion of Ru.sia is but the propagation of superstition snub
paganism, usurping the name of true religion. Before
she can evangelise the Turk, it is .•firgt• of all necessary
that she herself should be converted^—andOve may add,
that the mind and thought of the Tuticare in a far better
state of preparation to reueiye the seed of-thie. "idingdom
of heaven" than the unprincipled Hellene; or the heathen'
Muscovite. " Thou art not tar from .the kingdom'of
God," said the author of our faith to one who had never
heard of the Gospel. The virtues of the Osmanlee are
much nearer the religion of Christ than is the mere creed
of the Greek Church.

"OLD CLIARI EY," AND HIS TIMES.

( From the Pras. )
Having last week taken a historical review of the an.
tecedents of the family of Napier, is the present number
of the Press, Pilot will commence his account of the per-
sonal exploit.; of "Old Charley" himself. He was born
on the 6th of March, 1786, being the eldest son of. the
Hon. Charles Napier, of Merchistoun-ball, county of
Stirling, Captain 11, N. Thus, as " Old Charley" counts
a Vice-Admiral of Sc d.land amongst his ancestors, 114
own father was a captain in the profession to which be
has devoted his life. His mother MeV Cbtiltiati,
daughter of Gabriel Hamilton, Esq., of Westburn,
county of Lanark. The admiral is grandsonlby first
marriage) of Francis, fifth Lord Napier, bother of
Colonel Erskine Napier, and cousin of the late Lord
Napier, who died while discharging the office of Chief
Commissioner for regulating the trade with Chins.
He entered the Navy on the Ist of November, 1799,
being then 13 years of age, so that he has been afloat
55 years. He joined as a first-class volunteer, and the
first King's ship in which he served was the Martin
sloop, commanded by the Hon. Matthew St. Clair. It
is probable that young Charley (as he was then) WAS

who, like hiliiiielfsprutomsTraliious ii... s.
tish family. The Martin was employed in service in -th;
North Sea, but her captain was nnfortunatysteelylyun:oosto
Yarmouth' in 1800, in the spring of which
Napier removed to the .Renown, a 74-gun ship, car-
rying the flag of Sir John Borlase Warren. That
gallant admiral, though not one of onr first-chow
naval celebrities, was a very distinguished officer. He
bad joined the navy at a very early age, but after
making a voyage or two Ile entered himself at
Emmanuel College, Cambridge, where he became pupil
to Martyn, the eminent botanist. On attaining his
mai .ri , • 'ty, Warren purchased Lundy Island, in the Bri-
tish Channel, and amused himself for time yachting, and
afterwards again joined the navy, in which he rose to
eminence. Under that admiral young Napier went oa
the expedition to Ferrol, and proceeded to the Mediter-
ranean, where, in November, 1802, he became a mid-
shipman, on board the Greyhound, 32 guns, commanded
by Captain W. Hoste. He afterwards shifted to the
Egyptienne, 40 guns, in which he made a visit to St.
Helena, and in 1804-5 he successively joined the Me-
diator and Renoruinee frigates. He was made a lieu.
tenant on the 30th of November, 1805, into the Coura-
geux, 74, Captain Richard Lee.
saThose were stirring times when Napier was com-
mencing his career. The country looked to the navy as
its defence against foreign invasion, and as its principal
resource in asserting its rank amongst nations. The
prowess of our army had not as yet been proved in the
Peninsular campaigns, and it is not too much to say
that the blue jackets were far morepopular than the red
coats. There are some still living who remember with
what enthusiasm the most eminent of the naval heroes
of that time were hailed on their appearance on public
occasions. The highest place was accorded to them at
the feast, and the most beautiful partners assigned to
them in the hall-room. They had dispelled the panic of
invasion, sustained our public credit, and given additional
glory to our historical annals ! The musical piece of
" The Waterman" enjoyed an amazing run in thou
days, and Dibdin's words and Incledon's tones were
familiar to every tongue and ear.
One can easily imagine how, in such times, a bold
dashing spirit like that of Napier panted to .have
an opportunity of . performing some gallant exploit.
Nor was he long 'without an opportunity of proving
of what stuff he was composed. Though after Tra-
falgar the enemy did not attempt to dispute, the
command of the ocean, he endeavoured to ar.noy
our commerce and insult our colonies};. by, detach-
ing his ships-of-war in various directions. Tile
Courageux, in which Napier was a lieutenant, was part
of time squadron commanded by Sir John Borlase War-
ren, when, on the 13th of March, 1806, the Marengo
and Belle Poule were captured ; and, having shown his
energy and zeal for the service in a variety of ways,
Napier, in 1807, was made acting commander of the
Pultusk brig, then serving in the West Indies, and the
Admiralty confirmed the appointment in the same year,
so that he was a commander at twenty- ne years of age.
In 1808 Napier was appointed to the Recruit, an 18-
gun sloop, on the West Indian station, and in her
he fought his first action on his own account, and
right gallantly he fought it. There was at that time
a note , French corvetna calied the Diligente, carrying
24 guns, and manned by 140 men. She was com-
manded by a brave and vigilant officer, Captain Le-
itriresquier, and she had bafflA the efforts of our
best ships either to take or damage her.. On the 6th of
Sept., ISOS, Napier was cruising iii lat. 17 deg. 50 min.
north, and long., from Greenwich, 58 deg. 20 ni. west.
The wind was east by nettle and a couple of hours after
dawn, while Napier was stantling closehauled on the
starboard tack, he i:iscovered theDiligente, in the N.E..
going tree on the larboard tack, iii the direction of Mar-
tinique. The Recruit immediately tacked, and Napieit
hoi-ted every rag of canvas that he could spread. At
half-past 7 in the morning he fired two shots. at the Dili-
gente, and hoisted his colours. A little after eight the
Diligente also tacked, as her skilful captain endeavoured
to keep the weather-gage, arid shortly afterwards he
hoisted a French en.ign. .
At half past eight the two vessels passed each other
within pi-tog shot, the Recruit on the larboard, and
the Diligente on td!e starboard tack. They exchanged
broadsides, and at the very first discharge Napier
received a severe wound, from which he •still suffers,
:as is seen in his limping gait. His_
.thigh was
broken, and Vie officas in vale endeavoured to per-
suade him to go below ; bet that would not meet
Vie disposition of one who was not only '' ready" but
aye ready." After delivering three broadsides the
two vessels then passed out of :sin shot, but tacked, and
again exchaseed broadside... The algente then wore,
situ the intention ..f raking the Reciut astern. But
Napier was the ciever Frenchman's match at everything
and lie wore also, and brought the French ship to close
action with the larboard guns. The two vessels then
continued manoeuvring and discharging at each other,
and, though severely cutting up the rigging, the Re-
cruits crew did not suffer much from the enemy's fire ;
but her second lieutenant was seriously wounded. At
half-past eleven the superior weight in guns of the
Frenchman told upon the Recruit, whose mainmast fell
overboard, and hues, down the stern, trailing in the sea.
Napier then worked his bow guns as bard as be could,
and, recollecting Nelson's maxim, " Always board a
Frenchman, but outmanceuvre a Russian," he made
several attempts to board the Diligente, but the latter
adroitely sheered off and succeeded in raking the Re-
cruit ; and, in the disabled state of the smaller English
vessel, there was every chance that the Frenchman
would be enabled again to rake her. While making the
attempt to do so, a rattling fire was kept up from the
Recruit, which blew up a piece of the Diligente's quarter
and cut away her boat filled with small-arm men. On,
this the Diligente put her helm up, and ran away before
the wind.
The ships remained within sight of each other, out of
gunshot, till the afternoon. Napier and his second
lieutenant (as before stated), along with several of his
sailors, were wounded, but only one seamen was killed.
Every attempt was made by Napier to continue the
action, but the Frenchman declined the polite invitation.
When Napier, after having rebreeched andretnounted his
cannonades, bore up to close again, the Diligente set
courses and toggallants, and bore away rapidy. • Napier
rigged a jurymast ; but the Recruit was a slow sailers
and before evening fell the Frenchman was out of sight.
The loss of the Frenchman could never be clearly
ascertained ; but, • as the Diligente fell into our hands
afterwards at the capture of Martinique, we know that
she was 370 tons ; and the loss amongst her crew must
have been very considerable to justify her captain its
scudding away before an English vessel greatly .his
inferior in guns and tonnage. In Captain Lemaresquier's
account of the action he says that several English ships-
of-war hove in sight., and that it was from them that be '
ran awar ; but his excuse was like an Old Bai!ey alibi
—to be believed in " with great scepticism." The Re-
cruit was obliged to make her way into the nearest port
to get a tiew mast ; and, for the present. Pilot will leave
Napier refitting in Carlisle Bay, Barbadoes.

PILOT,

THE CONSERVATIVE LAND SOCIETY.—The eighteenth
public drawing to determine the rotation of choice an
all the estates purchased for distribution amongst the
members of the Conservative Land Society took place
place ou the 13th inst., at the offices, 33, Norfolk-street,
Strand. The allotment of the St. Margaret's estate,
near Richmond, on the 7th of J une, imparted great
interest to this drawing, tights of choice being DOW
n eager demand. The Rev. Dr. Woithington and Mr.
Cribb, members of the execetive committee, arid the
sei.retary, superintended tire drawing. Messrs. Cowling,
Cundale, and Goylyer were the scrutineers. The :nimbi-Ili
'.raven were 50, 110 less than 11 being grouped in threes
and twos. The semority list will be increased 22 by
this drawing, 960 being the last share number on the
or,!er of r.gbts by date of membership. It was an.
nounced that no le-s than 9,641 shares had been taken
up to the 13th inst., representine; a subscribed capital of
452,050/., of which more than 100,000 i hail been paid
up, the withdrawals being but a small fraction on the
gr-s= amount. It was stated that the allotments of the
Oatland's Grange e-tat-, formerly the property of the
Duke of York, at Weybridge, in We-t Surrey -of the
Seven Sisters estate, at Tottenham-green, Middlesex;
aosnt Sofustsielex,
and of the second portion
Park estate, Brighton, pwoopuulldartilkeßoupwendilal
June and July. The nineteenth drawing is fiXed for
Wednesday, the 28th of June, -at the seventh vaitorly
meeting of the society is rrieusots' $6ll.