The Sun.
London, England, 1822-09-03 00:00:00

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THE GREEKS.

We have been much delighted with " Thoughts
on the Greek Revolution," by the only son of
the late SIIERIDAN, whose name alone was
sufficient to attract notice, and will be but the
more endeared to us by these ingenuous reflections,
so worthy of the Sire from whom he sprang, and
of Sir William of Wyckham, under whose auspices
he reaped his first laurels. We hail with rapture
this first opportunity which he has given us, of
congratulating the noble spirit of his father, " qui
gnatum habent, tali ingenio prwditum." Advocate
as he was all his life-time for the liberty of his
country, he knew how to stop when it would rise
into licentiousness; and at a season of great peril
and perplexity, Alien his own party were almost
struck dumb with amazement and consternation,
he stood up in his place, with all the power of his
eloquence, to stem the torrent that was nearly
overwhelming the spirits of his mighty adversary,
who had so long wcatheredi and even braved, all
other storms, and if suffered to take its Course
would have probably overwhelmed all real libe'rty
and the country itself in a dreary anarchy. It is
delightful to witness the same spirit of temperate
zeal just rising in one so much younger, and so
much more likely to be carried away by an ex-
travagant ardour for liberty, to moderate between
its friends and his enemies, who may be equally
injurious to its cause, as a weak friend who be.;
trays zeal only, and not knowledge, may even
do a greater injury than the most powerful ad-
versary. Defend me from my friend, says some one;
I know how to guard myself against my enemies:
but we must not go on further in this strain, lest
we should be called to the same account, and be
desired by the author, if we would do him ser-
vice, to hold our tongues. What we are now
congratulating the spirit of his father upon is that
his son should display not only the same zeal for
liberty, but, what is still more to his praise, and
is an omen far more propitious of his future fame,
the same tone of conciliation for which he was so
distinguished—" that anxiety to soften the minds
Of his countrymen towards the Greeks rather
than to inflame them against the Turks," which
breathes throughout the whole of his pamphlet.
In this spirit he comes forth in opposition to two
publishers of the same excommunicating stamp—
" Mr. Hughes's Appeal" and " War in Greece,"
which would expect the nations to unite in driv-
ing the Turks out of Europe : the one declaring
that we ought to give to Greece a Sovereign and
a Constitution, and then evacuate the country ;
and the other not hesitating to affirm that the
atrocities committed by the Turks against Chris-
tianity ought to put them under the ban of Euro-
pean confederation. This is only a small speci-
men of the taste of many in this country for dis-
turbing the repose of nations—and only a trifling
echo from the voice of so many thousands, who
are vociferating vengeance against all Turks and.
Infidels, and vow to replunge them back into
Asia, and not allow them so much as a foot in
Europe, which shall not be tainted any longer
with the breath of Islamism : and all this, they
do not hesitate to affirm, is as easy as it is de-
sirable,

" But what t exclaims our author, how can it be desirable
in the minds of those who have really reflected what it is to
expatriate millions of our fellow-creatures, women, too, and
children, who, though innocent of the guilt, must be involved
in the general condemnation ? DO they consider only that
the two populations are interwoven where the scenes occur ?
That Rumelia is inhabited chiefly by Turks, and that the Aga
or Turkish country gentleman is not every where a faithful
original of the Saracen's Head, for which they have made him
sit ? That in the paroxysms of national anarchy the innocent.
and helpless suffer, while the able and ferocious fatten on the
spoil; nay, that the mass of the people suffers misery, without
participating in the guilt ? Thus it was even in the French
Revolution, when men arc generally allowed to have ap-
proached nearer to the nature of demons, than at any other
period in the history of the world. Did the Allied Powers,
during the worst scenes of that Revolution, ever pretend to
make war on the French, because their crimes put them under
the ban of Europe ? Did not their doctrines and conduct, as
tending to revolutionize other Governments, form the ground
of that war ? And until this result was apprehended, were
they not suffered to indulge their propensity to noyades and
fusillades, and to enjoy their mechanical discoveries of the
guillotine and the soupape in all peace and quietness ? And
are they prepared to say that the enormities of the Turkish Go-
vernment are likely to encourage the Caravats of Ireland ?
Do they reflect that it is no such easy task to root up an
enormous population, and replant it in another quarter of the
world ? and that this Colussus of clay could scarcely be lifted
up by Minerva and set down quietly in Anatolia ? But if it
cannot be done quietly, how will they effect it ? 'Would they
have the horrors of Navarin and Tripolizza repeated. aye, and
multiplied a thousand fold g Do they reflect how much more
dreadful the warfare of two armed populations is, than the re-
gulated destruction of stipendiary armies? that the soldier who
is paid to kill his fellow-creatures at twelve kreutaers a day, is
the least terrible of belligerent animals ? And all this truly in
the cause of freedom ; to drive the Turks out of Europe ; to
give to Greece a Sovereign and a Constitution, and then eva-
cuate the country. Simple enough ! though I apprehend that
the country will have been sufficiently evacuated by the effects
°f the first part of this remedy. Without saying a word more
about the duties of sovereigns towards their fellow-creatures, or
even towards their subjects, and considering only the practica-
bility of the proposed measure, I am surprised that such dis-
interested destruction of the Turks should be contemplated by
an author, whose opinion of the necessary selfishness of all
governments is so strong, that he says, only a few pages before,
Had not the loss of three hundred thousand of the best French
troops taught England that she could not play the same game,
the Crowns of Spain and Portugal would probably have been
added to that of Great Britain, under as plausible pretexts as
are used in the appropriation of the territories of Indian legiti-