Letters and Journals of Lord Byron
Lord Byron to Sir John Bowring, 10 December 1823
“Colonel Napier will
present to you this letter. Of his military character it were superfluous to speak; of
his personal, I can say, from my own knowledge, as well as from all public rumour, or
private report, that it is as excellent as his military: in short, a better or a braver
man is not easily to be found. He is our man to lead a regular
force, or to organize a national one for the Greeks. Ask the army—ask any one. He is
besides a personal friend of both Prince
Mavrocordato, Colonel Stanhope, and
myself, and in such concord with all three that we should all pull together—an
indispensable, as well as a rare point, especially in Greece at present.
“To enable a regular force to be properly organized, it will
be requisite for the loan-holders to set apart at least 50,000l.
sterling for that particular purpose—perhaps more—but by so doing they will guarantee
their own monies, ‘and make assurance doubly sure.’ They can appoint
commissioners to see that part properly expended—and I recommend a similar precaution
for the whole.
“I hope that the Deputies have arrived, as well as some of
my various despatches (chiefly addressed to Mr.
Hobhouse) for the Committee. Colonel
Napier will tell you the recent special interposition of ![]()
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the gods in behalf of the Greeks—who seem to have no
enemies in heaven or on earth to be dreaded but their own tendency to discord amongst
themselves. But these, too, it is to be hoped, will be mitigated, and then we can take
the field on the offensive, instead of being reduced to the petite guerre of defending the same fortresses year after year,
and taking a few ships, and starving out a castle, and making more fuss about them than
Alexander in his cups, or Buonaparte in a bulletin. Our friends have done something
in the way of the Spartans—(though not one-tenth of what is
told)—but have not yet inherited their style.
“Believe me yours, &c.”
Alexander the Great (356 BC-323 BC)
Macedonian conqueror; the son of Philip II, he was king of Macedon, 336-323 BC.
Sir John Bowring (1792-1872)
Poet, linguist, MP, and editor of the
Westminster Review. He was
the secretary of the London Greek Committee (1823) through which he was wrongly accused of
having enriched himself.
John Cam Hobhouse, baron Broughton (1786-1869)
Founder of the Cambridge Whig Club; traveled with Byron in the orient, radical MP for
Westminster (1820); Byron's executor; after a long career in politics published
Some Account of a Long Life (1865) later augmented as
Recollections of a Long Life, 6 vols (1909-1911).
Prince Alexander Mavrocordatos [Αλεξανδρος Μαβροκορδατος] (1791-1865)
Greek statesman and diplomat with Byron at Missolonghi; after study at the University of
Padua he joined the Greek Revolution in 1821 and in 1822 was elected by the National
Assembly at Epidaurus. He commanded forces in western Central Greece and retired in 1826
after the Fall of Messolonghi.
Sir Charles James Napier (1782-1853)
British officer who after a career in the Napoleonic wars knew Byron while he was the
military resident in Cephalonia.
Emperor Napoleon I (1769-1821)
Military leader, First Consul (1799), and Emperor of the French (1804), after his
abdication he was exiled to Elba (1814); after his defeat at Waterloo he was exiled to St.
Helena (1815).
Leicester Fitzgerald Charles Stanhope, fifth earl of Harrington (1784-1862)
The third son of the third earl; in 1823 he traveled to Greece as the Commissioner of the
London Greek Committee; there he served with Byron, whom he criticizes in
Greece in 1823 and 1824 (1824). He inherited the earldom from his brother in
1851.
