The Sun.
London, England, 1846-11-06 00:00:00

DEATH of the GREEK GENERAL

LONDOS.
The papers lately received from Greece announce the
melancholy death of General Londos, one of the most
celebrated men of the Greek revolution. He was born
in JEgeum, in the Peloponnesus, of opulent parents, and
early evinced that he was destined to be a great man,
and a saviour of his suffering country. Scarcely had the
flag of liberty been raised, than the intrepid Londos
willingly espoused the cause, and devoted his life and
bis all to the independence of his country. He lived to
see that hope realised, and since the restoration of peace
took a prominent part in the affairs of the country. But
what enhances the glory of this man is his co-operation
with General Kalergi and the rest of the Septembrians,
for the Greeks obtaining their constitution. The blood-
less revolution of the 3d of September must be fresh in
the memories of every lover of Greece. Ingratitude
on the part of those, however, who benefited by
the change, is the fruit that they who risked their lives
obtained, but the generous Londos never so much as
opened his mouth against the ungrateful. "We have
done our duty to our country," said he. " Ingratitude
is frequently the reward of those who risk their lives.
But the nation is not ungrateful, 'tis the enemies of the
nation who are so ; and of such I do not wish to have
even the gratitude." When Minister-of-War, Londos
committed a few political errors, but they were not of
such a magnitude as to deserve the exaggeration of his
enemies, and since the accession of the Coletti Adminis-
tration, when injustice and every atrocity were com-
mitted, and the constitution unheeded, both Londos
and his co-operators were justified. Such was this valu-
able man, for whom all Greece mourns, and for whom
all the Hellenic tribe will mourn when informed of his
death which took place on the 24th.- of September, acci-
dentally, by the firing of a pistol which he was placing
in a box after having loaded it for the purpose of taking
it with him on the morrow, being invited by his brother
to go and dine with him at the monastery of the Ponte-
licum. As to his arming himself, when going out of
Athens, he was perfectly justified in consequence of the
present circumstances. His accidental death, however,
was construed into voluntary suicide by his ,enemies, and
Coletti, and the President of the Synod, a flatterer of
the Administration, denied sepulchral rites to this
benefactor of Greece. The latter bases his denial
on the 14th canon of Timothy, the Alexandrian ;
but without examining strictly, as the canon demanded
of him, in order to be convinced whether the sui-
cide was voluntary or accidental, M. Coletti screens
himself behind his responsibility, and dares even to deny
military honours to the deceased General. In vain the
report of doctors, to prove that they cannot confidently
say whether the suicide was voluntary or accidental. In
vain the statement of the advocates, to show that, ac-
cording to Timothy's cause, the synod cannot deny ec-
clesiastical rites ; in vain did they prove that if the
Synod pertinaciously persist, military honours could not
be denied ; nothing can bring them to a sense of their
duty. His relations have resolved to embalm the body,
and wait for a period of decency and public morality in
order to pay due honours to one of the first martyrs of
the Greek revolution. What a state of things are these
in Greece ! Let Coletti take example from Mehemet
Ali, who, on the decease of the Greek Patriarch, ordered
his troops and the military bands at Cairo to accompany
him to his last abode. Such unheard of conduct
is a disgrace to the name of man. But Coletti
cares not a straw ; winds may blow and rains may
fall, he still reposes on the bed of roses prepared for
him by France. Strange, it will seem, why Greece, with
the co-operation of nearly all civilised nations, does not
prosper. But how can she when she has such miscreants
for her rulers, who are seconded by France, and whose
system of government is identified with such outrages
against every law and feeling of nature? A strange
coincidence must not be omitted here. When Sir Ed-
mund Lyons placed under General Kalergi's order the
steamer Geyser, to convey him to the lonian Islands,
in consequence of the persecution of the Coletti
Administration towards all the Septembrians,
General Londos accompanied him to the Finns,
and on taking leave of him, as if forseeing that he
would be persecuted after death, addressed him in these
emphatic words:—" I am afraid, General, that not only
whilst living will they persecute us without a cause, but
that even after death they will deny us the sepulchral
rites." This has been related by General Kalergi him-
self, who is now in London, far from his country, in con-
sequence of the ingratitude of those who are reaping the
fruits of his labours, and who think that, by persecuting
the Septembrians, and in particular General Kalergi,
they do service to the monarchy, and will thus secure
for themselves those high offices in the state of which
they aro totally unworthy.
is

REVIVAL OF THE SOUTHERN

WHALE FISHERY.

The most spirited efforts are now in progress, under
the auspices of some of the most influential names in the
commercial world, to restore the whale fisheries of
Great Britain. The progressive decline of this enter-
prising trade in this country, and its simultaneous and
enormous increase in the United States is fraught with
considerations equally humiliating and alarming. The
"British Whale and Seal Fishery Company" ap-
pear to have discovered substantial reason for believ-
ing that it may be revived with an unusual combination
of private profit and public advantage. They propose
to commence their operations in the northern
fishery, where their expectations of success are
founded on statistical reasoning which seems to
be irrefragable. It appears that so extraordinarily
fluctuating is the produce of that fishery, from the state
of the seasons and the ice in the Arctic Regions, that
in one of a series of 32 years, during which the quan-
tity of oil retained by each ship has been accurately
obtained, the average quantity for each was less than
11 tuns, involving, of course, the owners of all in enor-
mous loss ; while in another year the average quantity
,was nearly 190 tuns, yielding to all a very large profit.
The same disparity is found to prevail between different
ships in the same season ; for during the present year,
while one ship has obtained one hundred and seventy-
five tuns, another equally well navigated has returned
clean. It must be perfectly clear, that a trade so uncon-
trollably uncertain is, in its very nature, unfit for indi-
vidual operation; like fire or life assurance, it must, to
be profitable, be conducted on a large scale, and be
spread over a lengthened period. In individual hands it
becomes little better than a gambling speculation.
The successful quietly pocket their gains, and retire ;
the losers throw up the game in disgust : thus has the
Northern fishery decayed. The decline of the Southern
fishery appears to have been chiefly produced by other
causes, which, embracing evils beyond individual
remedy, appear likely to be amended by a powerful corn.
pany. On the whole, the Government having intimated
its approval by the grant of a charter limiting the lia-
bility of shareholders, the leading merchants of the City
having afforded their sanction to its prospects by becom-
ing its directors, and the objects being in the highest de-
gree patriotic and useful, its success, we are informed,
may be considered certain.