The Last Days of Lord Byron
Leicester Stanhope to William Henry Humphreys, 20 May 1824
“I accept, with thankfulness, your offer to proceed to the
seat of the Greek government. I know that your zeal is quicker than my pen, that
you will be ready before these instructions.
“The principal object of your mission is, to prepare every
thing for the ensuing campaign; to obtain such information connected with the loan,
as will enable the commissioners to act on their arrival in Greece; and to
endeavour to persuade the people and the government to put the constitution of the
Greek republic in force. It is impossible for me, in a moment, to range over this
wide field; I shall, however, give you some hints to act upon.
“1. I wish you to read over your plan for the ensuing campaign
to the executive and legislative bodies, and to have every article of it well
debated. This done, be pleased to call upon the government for their sentiments on
this vital question.
“2. Desire the government to give you an estimate of the
expense of their military and naval forces, for the year 1824.
“3. Request of the government to state what part of the loan
they propose to devote to the above purpose.
“4. Point out to the government the necessity of ![]()
| 248 | INSTRUCTIONS TO MR. HUMPHREYS. | |
![]()
adhering to the law they
have passed, prohibiting the payment of old debts from the loan.
“5. Press upon the government the necessity of getting the
revenues of the state placed in the public coffers.
“11. Advise the government to employ a clever military
officer, near the seat of administration, to give them information and counsel in
military affairs. Also, to form a corps of 300 artillery-men, for the attack and
defence of fortresses, and another of 1,000 regular troops, to be quartered at the
seat of government.
“12. Desire the government to inform you in detail, what they
require for the sieges of Patras, Negropont, Lepanto, &c. Recommend them to
send round Baron Gilman or Lieut. Kindermann to the fortresses, to make a
report on their condition, how they are provisioned, and what cannon, mortars,
powder, shot, shells, &c., they possess.
“13. Speak to the government about Missolonghi. Impress upon
their minds the necessity of giving the Suliots a home,—of providing for the widows and orphans of those who have fallen
in the good fight,—of giving assurance, that their arrears shall be hereafter
paid, and of furnishing them with regular pay for the future. Unless the government
adopt this measure, they had better at once turn this treacherous enemy out of
their camp, and declare war against them.
“14. Urge the government to endeavour to ![]()
| INSTRUCTIONS TO MR. HUMPHREYS. | 249 |
![]()
create dissensions among the Turks, the
Egyptians, the Albanians, &c. Let them publish a list of all the wrongs and
oppressions which these people suffer under Turkish dominion, and then call upon
them to state whether it is for the preservation of such curses that they are to
risk their heads and their fortunes.
“15. Call to the attention of the government the plan of
Captain Hastings for a steam-boat. Tell
them that it would prove eminently useful in frightening away the Turks from the
blockade of the Corinthian gulf, of the fortresses in Negropont, &c.
“16. Explain Captain
Trelawny’s plan to the government. Let them endeavour to get
some English or American privateers, to harass the Turkish ships and their coasts.
“17. Demonstrate to the legislative body the necessity of
their assuming a high station in the republic, and recommend them to have their
proceedings published.
“18. Desire the government to send to Athens for the
lithographic press, the moment some one is instructed by Mr. Gropius or Gill, in the art of printing with it.
“19. Tell the government and the legislative body that I am
ready to establish my post immediately, and that
Dr. Marcies is to conduct it. No delays on this head.
Marcies will be at the seat of government in a fortnight.
![]()
| 250 |
INSTRUCTIONS TO MR. HUMPHREYS. |
|
![]()
“20. Declaim boldly before the legislative and executive
bodies against the traitors who, while they profess to be ‘les Amis des Loix,’ are slyly plotting against the republic. I
allude to those who are conspiring in the dark to place a foreign king over the
Greek people.
“21. Prove to the representatives of the commonwealth, the
necessity of coalescing and forming an administration, comprising all the various
interests of the state. Urge them to act on the principles of the constitution, and
of the greatest good of the greatest number.
“22. Desire the government to instruct the editors of papers
to send their sheets to all the Prefects. The government should pay the prime cost
of the said papers—say one dollar a year for each paper sent to each Prefect.
Desire the government also to solicit the editors to declaim against all extortion
and intrigue, and against the violators of the laws and of the constitution.
“23. Advise the government to send Kalergy and Mr.
Finlay on a mission to America.”
Anonymous,
“The Last Days of Lord Byron” in The Literary Magnet
Vol. 4 (June 1825)
“More last words of John Baxter!” our readers will exclaim: we have already Medwin’s Conversations; Dallas’s Recollections; Gamba’s Residence; Childe Harolde’s Wanderings; and a host of others, in
all shapes and sizes, from the ponderous quarto, to the pigmy “pocket edition.” If
we required any further evidence of the extent of the illustrious subject’s talents, or
the probability of his immortality, than what his works are capable of bestowing, we should
regard the never-dying interest that is attached to every thing concerning him, as the
completest evidence of the permanency of his literary fame. Mr.
Parry writes in a bold seaman-like style, and his work bears with it a very
evident air of identity. In Medwin’s and
Dallas’s books, we have too much of the poet; in the volumes
before us, the man stands upright in the various lights and shades of his character. Lord Byron neither required the fulsome adulation of the Dragoon
Captain, nor the sage apologies of Mr. Dallas, to make us believe, that at
the bottom he was a really good, but dreadfully misled, man; and that had his life been spared,
there was no doubt but what the finer qualities of his soul would have endeared him to the
world which he so eminently adorned. From the intelligence Mr.
Parry’s book affords us, we entertain no doubt, that had medical aid been
procured at the period of the lamentable catastrophe, the life so dear to Greece, liberty, and
song, would have been saved. . . .
[Henry Southern],
“Personal Character of Lord Byron” in London Magazine
Vol. 10 (October 1824)
It is said that his intention was not to remain in
Greece,—that he determined to return after his attack of epilepsy. Probably it was only
his removal into some better climate that was intended. Certainly a more miserable and
unhealthy bog than Missolonghi is not to be found out of the fens of Holland, or the Isle of
Ely. He either felt or affected to feel a presentiment that he should die in Greece, and when
his return was spoken of, considered it as out of the question, predicting that the Turks, the
Greeks, or the Malaria, would effectually put an end to any designs he might have of returning.
At the moment of his seizure with the epileptic fits prior to his last illness, he was jesting
with Parry, an engineer sent out by the Greek committee,
who, by dint of being his butt, had got great power over him, and indeed, became every thing to
him. Besides this man there was Fletcher, who had lived with
him twenty years, and who was originally a shoemaker, whom his Lordship had picked up in the
village where he lived, at Newstead, and who, after attending him in some of his rural
adventures, became attached to his service: he had also a faithful Italian servant, Battista; a Greek secretary; and Count
Gamba seems to have acted the part of his Italian secretary. Lord
Byron spoke French very imperfectly, and Italian not correctly, and it was with
the greatest difficulty he could be prevailed upon to make attempts m a foreign language. He
would get any body about him to interpret for him, though he might know the language better
than his interpreter. . . .
[John Gibson Lockhart],
“The Last Days of Lord Byron” in Blackwood’s Edinburgh Magazine
Vol. 18
No. 103 (August 1825)
This man now tells his story of what he saw and heard of Lord Byron’s behaviour and conversation while in Greece. He makes no
ridiculous professions of accuracy. He plainly says, the idea of noting down what
Lord Byron was pleased to say to him in private conversation never
once entered his head. But he adds, and who can doubt it, that finding himself thrown into
close contact of this sort with a man of Lord Byron’s extraordinary
genius and celebrity, whatever things of any importance were said by Lord
Byron did make a strong, an indelible impression on his mind. And, with-
out pretending to give the words—unless when there is something very
striking indeed about them—he does profess himself able and determined to give the
substance. We need, indeed, but little of such professions, to make us
believe, that the conversations which he relates did substantially take place between him
and Lord Byron. They carry the stamp of authenticity upon their front.
The man that said these things was a man of exquisite talent—of extraordinary reach
and compass of reflection—of high education and surpassing genius. This is enough for
us. Mr Parry is an excellent person in his own way,
but he is plainly as incapable of inventing these things, as if he had written himself down
on his title-page, “Author of Ahasuerus, a Poem.”
. . .
[John Gibson Lockhart],
“The Last Days of Lord Byron” in Blackwood’s Edinburgh Magazine
Vol. 18
No. 103 (August 1825)
Mavrocardato was, and is, universally admitted to be the
most accomplished of the Greek statesmen, and he was at this period the President of the
Provisionary Government; yet this agent of the Greek committee rates Major Parry, for giving Mavrocordato the
title by which he had always been distinguished, and which Lord
Byron, nay, even Sir Thomas Maitland,
never thought of refusing him. But this was not all. He openly took part with the faction
opposed to Mavrocordato and the existing Greek government; and why? Why,
because Mavrocordato, a man of sense and education, who has travelled in
Western Europe, and speaks her languages, and has read her books, was thoroughly aware of the
unfitness of a free press for Greece in her actual condition, and accordingly discountenanced
the setting up of a paper at Missolonghi; whereas Odysseus, a robber captain, in arms in reality against the Greek government as much
as against the Turks, had no objections to let Stanhope
print as many papers as he liked in Athens, which city the said Odysseus
refused, according to the language of Colonel Stanhope’s own eulogy,
“to surrender to a weak government;” in other words, was keeping possession of, in
opposition to the authorities which he had the year before sworn to
obey—the very authorities, too, be it observed, under which alone Colonel
Stanhope was at the time acting. Odysseus knew that his
wild barbarians could no more read a Greek newspaper than they could fly over Olympus, and
therefore he cared not what Stanhope printed, so he and his people got,
through Stanhope’s means, a part of the loans transmitted from
England, for the support of the Greek government and cause. . . .
[John Gibson Lockhart],
“The Last Days of Lord Byron” in Blackwood’s Edinburgh Magazine
Vol. 18
No. 103 (August 1825)
These passages cannot, we think, fail to gratify our readers. The view
they give of Lord Byron’s kind, natural temper,
frank and engaging manners, and noble self-possession in the midst of all the irritations
of disease and disgust, must go far we think to convince the most sceptical, that the
epithet of Satanic was not the happiest which a contemporary poet
might have applied to the author of Child
Harold. . . .
[John Gibson Lockhart],
“The Last Days of Lord Byron” in Blackwood’s Edinburgh Magazine
Vol. 18
No. 103 (August 1825)
The following is a most important passage indeed. In it we have Lord Byron
detailing, in a manner the sincerity of which it is impossible to doubt, his own views
concerning the ultimate prospects of Greece; and surely the exposition is such, that it could
have come from no mind in which sense, wisdom, and genius, were not equally inherent. It
is the only thing upon the subject that we have ever been able to think worth a second reading. . . .
[John Gibson Lockhart],
“The Last Days of Lord Byron” in Blackwood’s Edinburgh Magazine
Vol. 18
No. 103 (August 1825)
Our readers must turn to Mr Parry’s
own page for a great deal more of Lord Byron’s table
talk. They will find many sound English sentiments, even in regard to the English politics of
the day—they will find views as to America equally just and liberal—they will find
the most contemptuous allusions to the soi-disant
liberals with whom Lord Byron had come into personal
contact, such as old Cartwright, Leigh Hunt, &c.; and upon every occasion an open avowal of the deepest
respect for the aristocracy of Britain, which these poor creatures have spent their lives in
endeavouring to overthrow. . . .
[John Gibson Lockhart],
“The Last Days of Lord Byron” in Blackwood’s Edinburgh Magazine
Vol. 18
No. 103 (August 1825)
Of all this, and also of the affecting narrative which Mr Parry gives of Lord
Byron’s last days, strictly so called, we shall quote nothing. The main
outline of his illness is already sufficiently before the public; and these new details are so
painful, that though we do not wish not to have read them, we certainly shall never torture
ourselves with reading them again. The spectacle of youth, and rank, and genius, meeting with
calm resolution the approach of death, under external circumstances of the most cheerless
description, may afford a lesson to us all! But Mr Parry has painted this
scene with far too rude a pencil; and, indeed, the print which he has inserted of Byron on his miserable bed, and almost in the agonies of death,
attended by Parry himself and Tita,
ought to be omitted in every future edition. It is obviously a got-up thing—a mere
eyetrap—and for one person whose diseased taste it pleases, will undoubtedly disgust a
thousand who ought to be acquainted with this book. . . .
[John Gibson Lockhart],
“The Last Days of Lord Byron” in Blackwood’s Edinburgh Magazine
Vol. 18
No. 103 (August 1825)
In order that our article may terminate pleasantly, we have reserved wherewithal
to wind it up, Parry’s description of an interview
which he had with the personage whom Colonel Stanhope
mentions as “the finest genius of the most enlightened age, the immortal Bentham.” We shall give the sailor’s rough sketch
of the Patriarch without note or comment—in truth it needs none; and, we have no doubt,
posterity will not disdain to hang it up alongside of the more professional performance of that
other fine genius of our enlightened century—the immortal Hazlitt—in his noble gallery of portraits,
entitled “The Spirit of
The Age.” . . .
Anonymous,
“The Last Days of Lord Byron” in The Gentleman’s Magazine
Vol. 95 (June 1825)
The Author before us appears to be a man of strong natural sense, with an honest
old soldier’s heart, and all that John Bullism about him, which evinces a sturdy
determination to speak his mind, in utter disregard of person or party. Now as we like to
see good rather than evil, we are glad to find that though Byron was often politically tipsy, and talked nonsense about his country, the
King, America, &c.; yet in his conduct on the Greek subject, the usual wisdom of the
hereditary Senator was conspicuous. There was not a fault in his advice concerning the Greek
cause. He stands, as a Statesman, as superior to the rest, as the Trajan column does to a
milestone. He avowed an intention to study the art of war, probably to become another Napoleon; at all events to be a Washington. All this was in his nature. He was a charger of high blood, and men
rail at him because he was unfit for a cart-horse. It is to men of such a character that the
world is to look for the enthusiasm and perseverance requisite to effect great objects; and
whatever may be the results of their ambition, it is certain that Providence only works grand
changes by single men, not by bodies of men, and ultimately merges all in monarchy. Republics
have only short lives, and seldom merry ones. . . .
Anonymous,
“The Last Days of Lord Byron” in The Gentleman’s Magazine
Vol. 95 (June 1825)
The work opens with a long account of clumsy mis-management in transmission of
the stores; and the introduction to Lord Byron. His
behaviour to the Author was kind and condescending. The room was hung round with weapons like
an armoury, abore which were shelves furnished with books, an hieroglyphic of his
Lordship’s politics, which were to furnish Greece with arms and independence, and then to
leaven it with learning. His politics were very simple, but truly wise. Let one single object,
(he said,) the expulsion of the Turks, be first regarded. Newspapers and
the press would now only create faction, and do mischief. They are only to be considered as
secondary things. Col. Stanhope’s opposite sentiments
created the coolness between them. Bloodshed and anarchy, said the wise Member of the Upper
House, will be the consequence of discussing theories of government, before independence is
obtained. His Lordship was perfectly correct, for in a short time the wiseacres published a
Tirade against Kings, which, said the Peer, was the very way to bring the
Holy Alliance down upon them. Add to this, that the German Officers who came to assist, were
men of punctilious etiquette, and always quarrelling about rank; and mechanics sent out at an
expence of three hundred and forty pounds, did only fourteen days work, at the cost of
something more than four pounds one shilling a day. Pp. 66, 67. . . .
Anonymous,
“The Last Days of Lord Byron” in The Gentleman’s Magazine
Vol. 95 (June 1825)
For every object, public or private, his Lordship was expected to be paymaster;
a mutiny might cost him his life; what he received from England were a Wesleyan preacher,
bugle-horns, printing presses, and religious tracts. Arms, powder, and shot, were inferior
considerations*. With all his noble-minded sacrifices, he was harassed with crazy counsels;
worried out of his patience and sleep; and doomed to eat nothing for several days but cheese,
fish, vegetables, and bread. In short, at his outset in life, he was all but murdered by
calumniators; and now he had to encounter the insanity of his countrymen, who employed the
funds collected for the liberation of Greece, in propagating their own political and religious
tenets, instead of furnishing the indispensable materials of war. . . .
Anonymous,
“Parry v. Hunt” in The Times
No. 13,306 (15 June 1827)
William Fletcher—I was in the service of the late
Lord Byron upwards of 20 years, and was with him up to
the time of his death. I now receive a pension from his family for my services. I first saw
Parry at Greece, at Missollonghi. He lived in the
same house with Lord Byron. I was not much in the habit of seeing him, and
had not an opportunity of knowing whether he was drunk, more than I heard from report. He
sometimes appeared the worse for liquor. I have seen him in Lord
Byron’s company; he generally called him Captain
Parry. I have heard Parry speak of Colonel Stanhope. Some men were sent to attack a Turkish brig off Missolonghi.
Parry came home to his house on that occasion, and did not get out
again, but said he wanted to shave and dress. This was early in the evening, and it was a
considerable time before he came down again. He went into his room at the back of the house. I
don’t know where he went when he had shaved. The brig was afterwards in flames.
Parry was sent to, and discovered to be asleep. I did not see him go
out before the brig was in flames. I have seen Parry once since my return
to England. Since I have been subpœnaed here as a witness, I have seen him frequently.
Having been here in attendance a long time, and feeling a want for something to eat, I went to
get some bread and cheese. Zambelli was with me, and
Parry came in, and was very polite to us. I do not know whether the
word rogue was used. Parry addressed himself to me, but I do not recollect
the words he made use of; they were meant to imply that he had always been my friend. . . .
Anonymous,
“Parry v. Hunt” in The Times
No. 13,306 (15 June 1827)
I remember a Turkish
brig coming a-ground off Missolonghi. We were then all in that place. I heard that
Parry was applied to on that occasion to lend his assistance. He
was at Lord Byron’s house. Several of us were ordered by him to
go in a couple of boats, with guns, to attack the brig. Parry did not
go with us; was to come round by land with some Greek soldiers. He did not come round. He
said he would come to our assistance when he sent us out. He had a blue coat on, but I do
not know whether he was shaved or not. . . .
Anonymous,
“Parry v. Hunt” in The Times
No. 13,306 (15 June 1827)
— Zambelli, a Hungarian.—I
lived in the service of Lord Byron at Missolonghi, and had
the care of liquors and provisions in his house. I knew Parry at Missolonghi, and have twice known him absolutely intoxicated. He was,
on those occasions, asleep with the bottle by his side lying on the floor, and Lord
Byron called to me to take him away. Those are the only times when I have known
him affected by liquor. I cannot say how many bottles he drank on those occasions. I recollect
a Turkish brig being on shore when Parry came into the house and went up
stairs. He did not go out of the house again that day. The brig was not burning before he came
into the house. It was burned while he was in the house. . . .
Anonymous,
“Parry v. Hunt” in The Times
No. 13,306 (15 June 1827)
Colonel Stanhope.—I am a Lieutenant-Colonel in the
army. I went out to Greece, and saw Parry there; he
lived in my room, and ate his meals at my table. He was in the habit of drinking to excess. He
was a sot, and a boaster, and frequently spoke of making Congreve rockets, in which, he said,
he had made an improvement, of which Colonel Congreve
had taken the merit. He said he would take Lepanto by a fire-kite, and destroy the Turkish
fleet. He never carried any of his plans into execution. I have read the Last Days of Lord
Byron. Parry is not capable of writing such a work.
He is a man of a strong natural mind, but uneducated. He does not speak grammatically correct.
He frequently spoke of his great science as an engineer. I saw the brig on shore, and was
there. The brig was on shore four or five miles from Missolonghi, and the Greek officers
applied to Lord Byron and myself to lend assistance; we
despatched artillery and the greater part of the soldiers and townspeople immediately proceeded
there; we were for some time under the bombardment of this vessel. After having been stranded
for two days, and seeing the impossibility of getting her off, her crew set her on fire, and
escaped in their boats to another Turkish vessel which had been hovering in the offing.
Parry never made his appearance all the time. Lord
Byron treated him as a fool, a buffoon—not as one of these fools that have
so often graced the tables of the great. Parry called Lord
Byron Hal, and
he called him Falstaff.
. . .
Anonymous,
“Parry v. Hunt” in The Times
No. 13,306 (15 June 1827)
Mr. Bowring.—I acted as Secretary to the Greek
Committee. Parry was recalled by a vote of the committee
of the 3d of July. I should consider him incapable of writing such a book without some
assistance. I have not seen him in a state of actual drunkenness, but when he has drunk rather
too much. After his return, he showed me the materials from which this work was formed, but I
did not look them over. I should think them, however, insufficient to have made the book. . . .
Anonymous,
“Parry v. Hunt” in The Times
No. 13,306 (15 June 1827)
Mr. Knight.—This book was published by Knight and
Lacy. I am not of that house. Parry applied to me early in 1825. He was announced as
Captain Parry, and I fully expected to have seen that Captain Parry who had been so frequently towards the North
Pole. He, however, undeceived me, and said he came from Greece, and that he wished to publish
something relative to Lord Byron. Having said this, he left
a portfolio for my perusal, and we had no further conversation at the time. In a few days he
called again, and I returned the papers. They consisted of a few official documents, containing
technical particulars, terms of war, and estimates of ammunition, and several Greek newspapers,
with a few sheets, purporting to be the journal of Captain Parry. They
amounted altogether to about 40 or 50 folios. I have read the book which he has published, and
towards the end, in the appendix, there are some expressions similar to those I saw in the
papers he brought to me. The body of the book does not contain a line of what was in those
papers. If he were the writer of the journal put into my hands, he could not be the author of
this book. My interview with him was very short; but from what I saw of him, and from his
conversation, I should not think him capable of writing this book. . . .
Anonymous,
“Parry v. Hunt” in The Times
No. 13,306 (15 June 1827)
Mr. Lacy.—I am a partner in the house of Knight
and Lacy. We published this book for Mr. Parry. He said
he had received some assistance in the arrangement of the work from another gentleman. . . .
Anonymous,
“Verdict against the Examiner in the Case of William Parry” in The Examiner
No. 1011 (17 June 1827)
* In one of the editions of Shakspeare is an engraving (after Stothard) representing Antient Pistol cudgelled by Fluellen. Perhaps as humorous a
subject might be found for that admirable artist’s pencil in some of the
situations attributed by the witnesses to our valiant Major; for instance, the lying
asleep after a debauch, embracing the bottle, as described with significant gestures by
the witness Zambelli; or the elaborate shaving
and dressing, while his men were proceeding to assault the Turkish brig. . . .
Anonymous,
“Verdict against the Examiner in the Case of William Parry” in The Examiner
No. 1011 (17 June 1827)
The Chief Justice too, observing on
Parry’s conduct in the
affair of the Turkish brig, intimated, that one neglect of duty ought not to fix the character
of cowardice on any man:—but his Lordship knows, that a single neglect on the day of
battle cost the unfortunate Byng his life, and that Lord Sackville
was disgracefully driven from the service for once imputed fault on the field of Minden; yet
both these men had given repeated proofs of noble courage. Where, however, are William Parry’s proofs? . . .
George Finlay (1799-1875)
After study at Glasgow he fought in Greece where he saw much of Byron, afterwards buying
an estate in Attica. He was the author of
History of Greece, 7 vols
(1844-61).
Mr. Gill (d. 1824)
The foreman of William Parry's munitions factory at Missolonghi; they had previously
worked together as shipwrights. William Henry Humphreys reports that he was with Trelawny
in the cave of Odysseas Androutsos and that he died of disease in Napoli in the autumn of
1824.
Baron Gilman (d. 1824)
One of the leaders of Byron's brigade at Missolonghi; he was killed at Psara in July
1824.
Frank Abney Hastings (1794-1828)
After service in the British Navy where he fought at Trafalgar he was a notably
successful commander of the Greek Navy during the Revolution.
William Henry Humphreys (d. 1826)
English philhellene who traveled with William Parry's party; he was an associate of
Leicester Stanhope and Edward John Trelawny who died at Zante on a third expedition to
Greece.
Lt. Kinderman (1824 fl.)
Prussian Philhellene who traveled to Greece in the Hope, arriving in November 1823; he
was with Byron and Missolonghi until, dissatisfied with his circumstances, he decamped in
February 1824.
Edward John Trelawny (1792-1881)
Writer, adventurer, and friend of Shelley and Byron; author of the fictionalized memoirs,
Adventures of a Younger Son (1831) and
Recollections of the Last Days of Shelley and Byron (1858).
