The Sun.
London, England, 1823-05-16 00:00:00

INDEPENDENCE OF THE GREEKS.

A Meeting assembled yesterday at the Crown
and Anchor Tavern, pursuant to advertisement, to take into
consideration the most effectual measure for assisting the Greek
Patriots in their struggle with the Ottoman Power for a free
and constitutional Government. At about one o'clock Lord
MILTON entered the room, accompanied by the very nu-
merous and highly respectable Gentlemen of the Committee.
Mr. IticauDo proposed that Lord Milton be requested to
take the chair ;, which, being received with great applause, was
immediately carried into effect.
Lord A. Hamilton supported the Chairman on the right, and
J. Smith, Esq. M.P. on the left.
Lord MILTON rose and observed, that as the Meeting had
done him the honour to place him in the chair, he would pro-
ceed to call the attention of the assembly to the noble cause
for the promotion of which they had met. That a desire of
peace should exist to a considerable extent in the population
of a commercial nation was not surprising; but the people
of Great Britain ' could not view with apathy the arduous
struggle of the Greek nation. It had been said that this
great contest was merely a series of cruel and barbarous ac-
tions, both on one side and the other; but if the Greeks
were now so barbarous, we could not forget what they once
were ; and there could not be a doubt but that their de-
gradation in the 19th century was attributable to the Turks
themselves—the greatest barbarians of the eastern part of
the world. The Turk was not only barbarous but it followed,
almost of necessity, that all who were under the Ottoman -yoke
must imbibe much of the barbarity of their oppressori. Meet-
ings
had been frequently held in this great metropolis for the
purpose of giving pecuniary assistance to the distressed of other
nations ; but had there ever been any case before the public
that presented a greater or more just claim upon the sympathy
and aid of a free people than the regenerating Greeks ? It
might not be generally known, that it was too true, that meet-
ings had been held in almost every country, save our own, for
raising contributions for the promotion of Greek independence.
Was there an Englishman deserving of that name who could
rest content with being tamely quiescent in the enslavipg of a
great and noble population, when the German, Swiss, and Ame-
rican people had come forward, and actively assisted the advo-
cates of a free and constitutional government against despotic ;
and tyrannic power ? The Noble ',ord then took a lengthened
review of the inhuman barbarities committed by the Turks at
Scio, Oardiki, and other places ; and then detailed a variety of
less notorious, but equally revolting instances of the barbarous ,
and unnatural conduct of the Ottoman nation. Did it not then
necessarily follow, that the Greeks would attempt to retaliate
upon their oppressors ? It was the inevitable consequence of
the war which was waged against them ; and the assertions ot:
those who contended for the fact of Grecian barbarity, would
be therefore only an additional reason for the people of this
country to come forward on the present occasion, and enable the
Greeks to secure tiler independence and territory as early as.
possible.
The Noble CHAIRMAN then apologized for the absence of
Lord Erskine, from indisposition ; and of Mr. Wilberforce,
who, in a letter which was read to the meeting, expressed his
earnest hope, founded on religious principles, of the eventual
success of the Greek cause.

J. 6AlITII; Esq. M.P. wits most happy in being the channel
through which the meeting would be called upon to pledge
itself to aid the cause of Grecian independence. It could not
but be allowed, that to a certain extent at least, this country
was indebted fbr its liberty'and glory to the noble example of
the ancient Greeks. The founder of the Mahometan faith,
with all his bigotry and art, when his enemies were prostrate
at his feet, his language was, " Destroy them not l"—but was
such, he would ask, the conduct of the Turks ? No. Extirpa-
tion was the policy of that Government; they would „destroy
the political existence of the Greeks—nay their vremem-
brance of the deeds of days gone by: The meeting this day
might trun the contest now waging, and to those npw present
the patriots of modern Greece might owe-their liberty, their
lives, their property, and all that to freemen was valuable. The
Hon. Speaker concluded by moving the firstresolution.
" That the present situation of Greece is highly interesting
to the friends of humanity and independence."
Sir JamEs Maxxiwrosir seconded the Resolution which
had been proposed. Literature and art, civilisation ofmankind,
and the freedom of nations, were with him the causes of the
warmest emotions and the deepest commiseration, and he there-
fore could not be lukewarm in the great cause of Grecian inde-
pendence; and knowingois he did, the natural tendency of
Englishmen to press forward in aid of the liberty of the oppress-
ed, itnd in support of thtise who were engaged in the sacred
warfare.of freedom, stniggling to cast off their chains and
manacles, he feared that all he might say would rather damp
than encourage that laudable feeling. He did not speak in
ignorance when he applied harsh terms to the cruelty and
barbarity of the Mahemetan governments; be had witnessed
the results of their tyranny, and he knew that it was in the
nature of Mahometan governments to be tyrannical ; their laws
were so interwoven with their religious tenets, that it was im-
possible to remove or ameliorate the results of their oppression
to the struggling advocates of freedom. How had the,Christian
Powers of the Continent acted towards the few unfortunate
Greek refugees ? The eloquent speaker then alluded to the
expulsion of some Greeks who hail escaped from the massacre
of their countrymen to Russia, Austria, France, and Genoa;
the charitable reception afforded them by Switzerland, and the
subsequent remonstrance of the Holy Alliance to the,Diet of
that country, and concluded amidst loud applause.
Lord J. RUSSELL rose, and was received with great appro-
bation. After paying a just tribute to the display of patriotic
eloquence which the meeting had just heard, the Noble Lord
alluded briefly, to the presumed barbarity of the Greeks, which
having proved inevitable, if not justifiable, he proceeded to
draw the attention of those present to the necessity of the in-
habitants of the free European nations to show by their con-
duct that they were not parties to the tyrannic conduct of the
members of the Holy Alliance, and concluded by moving—
" That the liberation of iat unhappy country. affords the
most pleasing prospect of the promotion of Christianity and
civilization."
Lord W. BENTINCK most warmly seconded the resolution
just read. He the more readily did so, from the obvious neces-
sity which existed for every advocate of the constitutional li-
berty of nations to come forward in its support, when so many
wars were threatened and carrying on by the tyrannic Monarchs
of oppressed States.—(Applause.)
Mr. IlonirousE said, lie hail been honoured by those who
managed the present meeting with the requeSt to move the ad
resolution ; he called -it an honour, because no man could re-
ceive a greater than to be allowed to take a prominent part in
such a cause, which, notwitlistandiug the seeming apathy with
Which it was regarded, would, he trusted, kindle a spirit of sym-
pathy in this country worthy of Englishmen, worthy of Greece,
and the great cause of liberty. The Honourable Gentleman
concluded an able speech by moving a resolution, expressive of
the sense of the Meeting, that immediate aid should be given to
the Greeks. _ _ _

Mr. TAYLOR, the Barrister, seconded the motion in an elo-
quent speech, which he concluded by reading a letter from a
friend who had been an eye-Witness, describing the attrocities
committed by the Turks at Scio.
Lord A. HAMILTo4r, in a speech of considerable length,
moved a Resolution for entering into a subscription. 4
Mr. SHERIDAN, who was announced to the meeting as
the son of Mr. Sheridan, was received with applause, and was
listened to with attention. He began by urging that the object
of the Turks now was the utter extermination of the Greeks as
a nation. The Divan had three times met to deliberate,
whether they should order the extermination of the whole
of the Greeks now in power, in order to .prevent future
'disturbances, and had only been prevented from executing the
project, by the consideration that they would thereby destroy the
tariff, or the tax, which they received for permitting the
the Greeks to live.—(Hear, hear o—There were now two mil.
lons of human beings who were doomed to be exterminated
should the Turks succeed. That this was their doom, there
could not be the slightest doubt. It was manifested by the mas-
sacre at Scio. The Pacha who executed that atrocity, left Con-
stantinople with express orders to cut off' the whole people of
Scio as he would cut off one head, and he executed the order
with inhinuan fidelity. Of 100,000 Greeks who inhabited the
island, not one now remained upon it; anti that place, which
was but a short time since so prosperous anti beautiful, was now
in ruins. He appealed to the tribunal of public opinion in
favour of the cause; he appealed' to the friends of humanity,
to come forward with effectual aid in favour of the Greeks, who
had been so often betrayed by Europeans. Three times had the
Russians tempted them to revolt, anil then forsaken them. The
Austrians had insisted once on their observance of an amnesty
with the Turks, and no sooner had the Greeks accepted this am-
nesty than the Turks had turned in upon them the Albanians,
who hunted them down like blood hounds. Tht present revolu-
tion was one of the most undivided character : he would not
admit assistance to the Greeks to be a matter of debate or opi.
nion, for he held that to question whether they had a right to
resist such horrible oppression as they had suffered, a species of
blasphemy, not only against English feeling, but against the
true feeling of man.—kApplainid)—That which determined the
Greeks on rising some time before the measure was generally
prepared for, was the murder of their patriarch, who was
looked up to by all as their father anti highest dignitary, and
who had succeeded in gaining the respect even of the Turks.
The Patriarch was hung before his own church on their most
sacred day, on the false charge of having aided in the escape of
a persecuted family, and his body was afterwards given to the
Jews to be dragged about the streets with 'insult. There was
not a Greek that did not feelas if lie had die murdered patriarch
before his eyes. If it was not in the power of 'the meeting to
give extensive aid to those filo were carrying on the war for
freedom, yet the manifestation of their opinion would cheer the

Greeks ; he owned he calculated greatly upon the moral effects
of the meeting, for he knew the effect of the feeling shewn must
be great. He enforced that the people of this country, leaving
all moral feeling out of the question, had a strong interest in the
contest. It was not the intention f Russia to aid in the free.
dom of Greece, but it would be the object of her ruler to
keep aloof or hover over like a vulture until Greece and
Turkey had exhausted each other, and then to pouffe
upon and dismember the carcases.—(Applause.)—If Russia
permitted Greece, under such circumstances, to be any thing
or to bear the name of any thing, it would give it a Russian
Prince, as it had done Poland, and call it independent. Some
had argued against our interfering to aid the Greeks, on the
ground that they were fond of the Russians ; but this was not
the fact ; they disliked the Russians ; for no nation ever forgave
being betrayed, and it was only recently that the Greeks had
sent one of their Chiefs in chains to Candia, to be tried for
treason, in having offered to submit an island to the Russians.
It was incumbent upon us now to come fiirward on another
account, namely, to spew that the national feeling was not in
unison with the conduct of the Government. It was alleged
abroad that our reason for not interfering was the hold which
we had obtained in the lonian Isles, where the semblance of
freedom which was given to the inhabitants, and was now
endurable only by the contrast of the tyranny of the Turks on
shores a mile distant, would no longer be endured when real
freedom existed in the same neighbourhood. He concluded by
expressing, in language which received much applause, that a
heavy responsibility lay upon England in this contest, as she had
the " Police" of the 3lediterranean, and had it in her power to
check the barbarians, as she had shewn at Algiers. She had be-
sides deprived the Greeks of some powerful natural allies. She
had possessed herself of Malta by a very questionable act, and
drove out the order of Knights, who, had they been in exist-
ence, would have shed their last blood in aid of the Greeks.--
Much might be done by the loud expression of national sym-
pathy; and he contended they were bound to disclaim what
G lie
termed the " ambiguous feeling and shuffling policy" of o-
vernment towards the Greeks.
Mr. J. Sawrit, M.P. notwithstanding his respect for the
eloquence of the young man who had just addressed them, and
which had reminded him of what he (Mr. S.) had often heard
from the mouth of the father, he must say that this question
ought not to be discussed as a political question, but as a great
moral question, and in that point of view only it ought to be
considered.
After some speeches from 31r..Ha n To P and Mr. 31,1%11TELL,
it was moved that a Subscription should be entered into.
The following Subscriptions were then commenced :
Mr. Lake, 25/. ; J. C. Ilobhouse, 251. ; Mr. Maxwell, 20/. ;
Mr. Hume, 10/. • the Duke of Bedford, 1001. ; Lord 31ilton,
50/. ; J. Smith, 1.00/.; two Greeks, who had escaped, 401. each.
had a few words to say. He had,
• Every thing was going on smoothly, when, to the surprise Of
every body, anti the particular discomposure of many about the
table, up started HuieT from behind some persons, anti said,lie
for intruding ; but he felt the cause of liberty was at stake, and
there he was to resist it, and to fill up somethin, a which bad been
omitted. Many men of talent anti abilitylad that day spoken
with great eloquence, and much effect; but there was one thing
which they had omitted. They had described how atrociously.
the Russians had behaved, and how hardly others had treated
he said, perhaps to apologize
the Greeks ; but they had forgotten to say how badly the repre-
sentative of the British Government, Sir Thomas 31aidand, had
behaved to them. We had behaved utmost as infamously to the
Greeks as any of these Turkish infidela.—(liisses)—lie was
extremely sorry to see so miserably thin a meeting
great a cause. Here were little more perhaps than a thousana l
people present from the whole metropolia, atter the Greeks ?Lae
been fighting for their independenc.e these two years. 11
.lamented it exceedingly ; he did not wish to throw cold water
upon the thing. He came there, not only to open his moi_il4
and his hand in the cause of independence but to
refs°ll:cid
pocket. lie said, the sufferings of some independence; as
but he
by one of the speakers, were, to be sure, atrocious;
to support sto
at .Manchester. The orator went on his usual strain f .
,_.
greater WO
long time, magnifying his own sufferings as much , .
any thing the Greeks had endured,
contended that they were not to be compared to-the. do_nintgss
ing the conductors of the meeting for not having
-hieddeli
properly with him or his fellow-sufferers. Be was den
sh to
see the contrast which sonic of those about the table es_ army.
to their former behaviour, and that they were now not aohl.sera(l..
to call themselves Reforms. lie was sorry to so such a i
d It was
ble list of subscriptions as that which had been rea
1 here were
enough to throw cold water upon the cause. WIT 1• r, iv!,
and obliquely r?.,
.fli
the men who possessed their forty or sixty thousands ai-yaena . _
._
subscribed for oneman, and their the most injurenddnfiveln 111'
hun.
world (Sir Robert Wilson), one thousand a
Or tens.--
only with their poor one hundreds, 11
ti ies; twenties,_
rel tatent and coo-
' (lllsses.)--Hunable as he was„. there was su .
rot e .y.--( Yes and cha.
rage here to pat him down, it he was w- )-. 'he came
racter ! said one in the crowd.)— Humble as lie was,
d for as
Bred each, now came forward in the great cause of the Greeks
there with a determination et putting hiss ame own
thousands
much as the rich Duke of Bedford with his tens of tor
had subscribed.—(A lause.)—lle came there, said the orator
in a sneering tone, been
than a sacrifice to the cause.—(ApPlause.)ethllnbeen
than this was necessary to animate people. Why what i
the
Care'
subscribed was hardly enough to pay the expences of
teiChave
mittee as Committees were usually conducted. lie should lie's
felt ashamed of himself if he had been so rich and subscribed
so poorly. The orator, after some further reproaches to tho 7,
about him for their want of patriotiSm, concluded t
.1_
his own sufferings at Ilellester, the mention of whichexcited tar
lau_ghter of the naeeting. . get 11P
The motion for the Comniittee was put; when Hunt be
the to make a speech and a shew, but to
particular ones should be nominated to dispose again and insisted on the names being read that it !nigh'
seen who and what they were. r five
Tim names were read, when he demanded that four 0 .. r
the public !satisfaction. He had no objeculs'onefo the great ft r
of names, but how many of those would at ; and how o
rica
!
twos_ it that two or three sharp intriguing fellows got i"::in the
iced amongst some fair looking names,_ and man: d on
money as suited them, whilst those whom the public re ie
never attended ?
After a lon • e squabble, the list of names originally Prel'esed
held
who
was carried against the orator; who was the only one
up a hand against it. imam,
laord GLENWICIIirs in moo he hanks to the Cllal
ing le c e all a
rated Hunt for obtruding his grievances upon a ineetinar
to consider a question with which they had nothing to do!.
?eon,
HUNT took these observations upon him in high d"elt the
said he did not come there to be" tried, and detnaidetitec.
speaker's name ! He got hissed again; but he told the
ap-
ing' that be expected to be hissed at a meeting' for if the
peered at one without being hissed, be should mink ~,,,e
age was advancing at too quick a rate, rapidly as
,i 1 has al ea
theinse v •
already since Lord 31ilton and others had declare('
Ito be Reformers.
of the monea