The Sun.
London, England, 1870-04-26 00:00:00

THE SUN, LONDON

THE MASSACRE BY GREEK
BRIGANDS.
What Little need there was of confirmation to the story
of the butchery in Greece has been but too adequately
met. Mr. Otway has confirmed the intelligence in the

louse of Commons. More telegrams through Reuters'

agency make no substantial alteration in the
d3tails. Count de Boyl,. Secretary to the Italian
Legation, and Mr. Herbert were killed first,
and afterwards Mr. Vyner and Mr. Lloyd. Several of
the robbers have been killed or taken, and two of the

chiefs have fallen. The bodies of Mr. Herbert and Alr.

Lloyd have arrived at Athens, and will be buried in the
presence of the King and Queen, the Ministers, and other
diplomatic bodies, and the Archbishop.
Mr. Lloyd was the son of Mr. E. J. Lloyd, Q.C., of.
Frenchay, Gloucestershire, and County Court judge of
Bristol, and was himself a barrister. Mr. E. H. C.
Herbert, one of the victims of the brigands, was British
diplomatic secretary at Athens, having received his ap-
pointment in November, 1868. He had previously been
secretary at Vienna,to which service he had been appointed
in October, 1865. His diplomatic career began in 1859,
in which year he got the nomination of attacb6 to the
Vienna Embassy, after passing an examination before
the Civil Service Commissioners, and obtaining an
honorary certificate. He was transferred to Lisbon in
August, 1861, and to Constantinople in June,
1863, after passing a second examination before
the Commissioners, and attaining the rank of
third-class secretary in her Majesty's diplomatic

service. ^ He went back two years afterwards to Vienna,
from whence, as already noticed, he was transferred to
the Athens Legation. Mr. Vyner was a grandson of the
late Earl de Grey, and younger brother of the present
Countess de Grey and Ripon. He was the son of Captain
and Lady Mary Vyner, and was exceedingly popular in
Yorkshire, where his death will be universally mourned.
Lord Muncaster, who has happily escaped, is a baron in
the peerage of Ireland (creation 1783), and a baronet of
Great Britain. His lordship was born on Christmas Day,
1834, and succeeded his brother in the title in June, 1862.
He married in April, 1863, Constance, second daughter
of Mr. Edmund L'Estrange, and niece of the Earl of
Scarborough. Lord Muncaster was formerly a captain in
the Rifle Brigade.

The London journals publish an important communica-
tion from a good authority respecting the conduct of the
Greek Government in this mournful affair. What is de-

dared to be the true state of the case is put thus :-1.
That the expedition to Marathon was under-
taken with the full knowledge and consent of the
Greek Government, under the formal protection of

an escort, and even, as there is reason to believe,

with the assurance that such protection was unnecessary.
2. That the capture of the whole party occurred within a
very few miles of Athens, and that when it had so taken
place the means of ransom to the last farthing were imme-
diately forthcoming without expense to the Greek Govern
ment. 3. That the Greek Government were distinctly
warned that any employment of force against the
brigands would be followed by the massacre of the
prisoners, and that they gave a solemn promise, which
was communicated to the brigands, that they should not
be molested. 4. That, false to this promise, the Greek
Government did send, or allow to be sent, troops who sur-
rounded the brigands, and thus deliberately provoked the
massacre. 5. We know that the amnesty was a vital point
with the brigands, and would have saved the prisoners.
Even assuming that the objection of the Greek Govern-
ment to grant an amnesty was reasonable, it was at least
a matter for further consideration. By attacking the
brigands the Greek Government destroyed all chances of
escape for the prisoners, and are thus accountable for their
murder.
A correspondent of the Levant Herald, writing before
the murders, and whilst the negotiations for ransom were
going on, says :—" The public consternation at this event
is indescribable. Everyone was aware that brigandage
had increased to an insufferable extent, but an outrage
like this, committed almost at the very gates of the
capital, upon the persons of foreigners of high position, is
an act of audacity without precedent. At the time of
the occupation of Greece by the English and French
troops in 1856, a French captain was actually
carried off by brigands from the French camp itself
between Athens and the Piraeus, but the Greek Govern-
ment was, at that moment, absolved from all responsi-
bility for the maintenance of public order. The coup de
main of Monday last will furnish the enemies of Greece
with additional arguments against her ; so' striking a
proof of the deplorable absence of public security cannot
fail to give fresh rain to all possible calumnies
that can be heaped upon the country. There
is extreme indignation against the Ministry. It is
justly remarked that the incapacity of the Minister
of War for the post he occupies has long been notorious,
and that nothing can excuse his retention at the head of a
department which is of paramount importance in the sup-
pression of brigandage. His colleagues, aware of his in-
competency, did, it is true, seek to have him replaced by
a more capable officer, but M. Soutzo has always proved
skilful enough to frustrate the efforts made to re-
move him from office. M. Avgherinos, also—whom
M. Zaimis, while himself absent in the suite of the
King, had entrusted with the Ministry of the Interior—
come in for a full share of the public blame. People
naturally ask, bow it came that the Home Minister,
whose department it specially concerned, could have
been ignorant of the fact that a band of twenty-eight
brigands was prowling about Attica ? It is really incre-
dible that a band of such a number should have been
able to move about unnoticed at so short a distance from
Athens. The whole Ministry will not improbably be
compelled to resign as a sacrifice to the anger
of the public. As the present Government owes its exis-
tence to royal favour—it was in a minority at the close
of the session, and was retained in office solely at the
desire of the Court—some portion of the odium which
it incurs necessarily reflects upon higher quarters. It
is felt and said that if the Ministry be incapable,
parliamentary government is not to blame, for matters
were so managed that Parliament was deprived of the
influence which it should legitimately have exercised in
the construction of the Cabinet. There was a desire to
reign with paramount power, and that desire was accom-
plished, but what use has been made of that power?
Personal enjoyment in high place has been derived from
it, and that only. As for the country, it was never so
low as it is at the present moment. The King should
lose no time in covering his responsibility. If he holds
to `personal government '—if he is bent upon governing
himself—it is essential for the security of his throne that
the country should perceive some good results accruing
from such government. The country has allowed the
Throne to encroach upon all its rights, and it is at present
too weary to defend them ; but if the upshot of these
encroachments be to allow Greece to Pia into a state of
disorganisation, growing worse from week to week, then
assuredly the people will before long demand a strict
account from those who have substituted personal rule
for parliamentary government."
A letter from Mrs. E. Lloyd describes the capture. It
is dated Tuesday, April 12, and is addressed to a relative
—" You will be as much shocked to hear as I am to tell
of the dreadful thing that has happened. There arrived
herelast week Lord and Lady Muncaster and Mr Vyner.
An expedition to Marathon was arranged for yesterday.
We started in two carriages at 5.30 a,ina having procured
an escort from the Minister of War. In the first
carriage were Ned, Barbara, the Italian Secretary,
myself, and the Italian secretary's servant ;
in
the second, Lord and Lady Muncaster, Mr. Vyner, Mr.
Herbert, and a Greek dragoman. We reached Marathon
all right, breakfasted on the tumulus, and started for
Athens at 2 30. At 4 30, when we were about a mile from
the place where we were to change horses, two shots were
fired, and the two gendarmes in front of our carriage fell
the carriage stopped, more shots were fired, we all crouched
down to the bottom of the carriage, and in a moment
were surrounded by brigands. We were made to get
out, and hurried off into the bushes. Then there
was a slight engagement between the soldiers and the
brigands., and we were made to lie flat down, so as to
avoid the bullets which whistled through the trees over
us. Then we were hurried on as fast as
possible, Ned carrying my poor little Bunch, who cried
bitterly. As soon as they got out of reach of the soldiers
fire the brigands begun to be uncivil. To me
they had offered no personal violence, but they. struck
Lady Muncaster with a stick, and dragged so violently
at a velvet collar round her neck with a pearl cross,
attached, and at her watch chain, that they nearly choked
her. After they had made us hurry over dreadful
ground for about an hour they mounted Lady Muncaster
and me on the horses of the gendarmes, and Ned on the
other horse with Barbara, and then took us right to the
top of the mountains. There we were made to sit sawn,
and a consultation was held between the brigands and
ourselves, with the dragoman as interpreter. They ask
£50,000 ransom ! They told us £32,000, and Lord Mun-
caster said he only saw one way of doing it, -which was, if
they let the ladies go, to telegraph to the head of a bank
in London for £32,000 in sovereigns to be cent cliraetly by
special messenger. and settle afterwards. At 7 o'clock
they sent off I„,ady Muncaster and me with the two gen-
darmes, and Bunch, on the same horse as Nee had ridden
in the servant's arms."