The Life of Thomas, Lord Cochrane, Tenth Earl of Dundonald, Vol. II

by Earl of Thomas Barnes Cochrane Dundonald; H. R. Fox Bourne

"Thank God," wrote Lord Cochrane three months later, on the 17th of May, to Dr. Gosse, who, in the interval, had also left Greece, "we are both clear of a country in which there is no hope of amelioration for half a century to come; unless, indeed, immigration shall take place to a great extent, under some king, or competent ruler, appointed and supported by the Governments of the mediating powers. The mental fever I contracted in Greece has not yet subsided, nor will it probably for some months to come."

Lord Cochrane might well be suffering from a mental fever. Nearly four years of his life had been spent in efforts to serve Greece, and with very poor result. To himself the issue had been wholly unfortunate; even the pecuniary recompense to which he was entitled having been so reduced as not to meet the expenses to which he had been put, partly through his generous surrender of the 20,000l. which he was to receive on completion of the work, partly through the depreciation of the Greek stock in which, out of sympathy for the cause, he had invested the 37,000l. paid to him on his engagement.

And to Greece the issues had been far less beneficial than he had hoped. The tedious and wanton delays to which he had been subjected at starting, whereby that starting was prevented for a year and a half, had hindered his arrival in Greece till it was too late for him to do much of the work that he had planned. The want of money, and, still more, the want of patriotism, courage, and even common honesty on the part of nearly all the leaders with whom he was to co-operate, and the officers and crews whom he was to command, had caused his ten months' active service in Greece to comprise little more than a series of bold projects, and projects which, if he had been aided by brave men, would have been as easy as they were bold, in which he received none of the support that was necessary, and which accordingly all his energy and genius could not make successful. When, after his visit to England and France, he returned to Greece, eager and able to render invaluable assistance in the organization of the navy, he was treated only with neglect and insolence, from which at last he was enabled to escape through the generous sympathy of a Russian admiral.

Much, however, he had done for Greece. To his persistent entreaties were due all the meagre displays of patriotism by which the Government of the country was maintained and Capodistrias accepted as President, and all the feeble efforts by which the war was carried on and the triumph of the Porte was averted until the direct interference of the Allied Powers. That interference had been in great measure induced by the report that he had entered the service of Greece, so that to him was due not a little of the benefit that accrued from the whole course of diplomacy by which her independence was secured; and the independence was made more prompt and complete than could have been expected by the fortunate circumstance of his having occasioned the collision between the forces of Turkey and those of the Allied Powers which issued in the Battle of Navarino. Much more he would have achieved had his arguments been listened to and his plans supported. His failures no less than his successes bespeak his worth.

CHAPTER XXIII.

A RECAPITULATION OF LORD COCHRANE'S NAVAL SERVICES.—HIS EFFORTS TO OBTAIN RESTITUTION OF THE RANK TAKEN FROM HIM AFTER THE STOCK EXCHANGE TRIAL.—HIS PETITION TO THE DUKE OF CLARENCE.—ITS REJECTION BY THE DUKE OF WELLINGTON'S CABINET.—LORD COCHRANE'S OCCUPATIONS AFTER THE CLOSE OF HIS GREEK SERVICE.—HIS RETURN TO ENGLAND.—HIS MEMORIAL TO WILLIAM IV.—ITS TARDY CONSIDERATION BY EARL GREY'S CABINET.—ITS PROMOTERS AND OPPONENTS.—LORD COCHRANE'S ACCESSION TO THE PEERAGE AS TENTH EARL OF DUNDONALD.—HIS INTERVIEW WITH THE KING.—THE COUNTESS OF DUNDONALD'S EFFORTS IN AID OF HER HUSBAND'S MEMORIAL.—THEIR ULTIMATE SUCCESS.—THE EARL OF DUNDONALD'S "FREE PARDON," AND RESTORATION TO NAVAL RANK.

[1828-1832.]

Lord Cochrane's retirement from the service of Greece brought to a close his career as a fighting seaman. With one brief exception, occurring twenty years later, when he commanded the British squadron in the North American and West Indian waters, but when there was no warfare to be done the rest of his life, comprising thirty years of ripe manhood and vigorous old age, was passed without employment in the profession which was dear to him, and in which he had shown himself to be possessed of talents rarely equalled and certainly never surpassed.

He entered that profession at the age of seventeen. In 1800, when he was twenty-four, he was promoted to the command of the Speedy. With that crazy little sloop, no larger than a coasting brig, he captured a large French privateer on the 10th of May, and on the 14th he recaptured two English vessels that had been seized by the enemy. On the 16th of June he took another French vessel, and on the 22nd another, with a prize which she had just obtained. On the 29th, he secured a large Spanish privateer, in spite of five gunboats which fought in her defence. On the 19th of July he captured another French privateer and rescued her prize; on the 27th he sunk another; and on the 31st he put another to flight and took possession of the prize which she had in tow. On the 22nd of September, he seized another of the enemy's vessels. On the 15th of December he wrecked one French war-ship and captured another, one of three which came to her assistance; and on the 24th, being attacked by two Spanish privateers, he took one of them. On the 16th of January, 1801, he chased two vessels, and seized one, and on the 22nd, two of the enemy's craft, one French and the other Spanish, struck to him. On the 24th of February a French brig fell into his hands. The same fate was shared by another vessel on the 11th of April, by another on the 13th, and by two others on the 15th. He captured a Spanish tartan and a Spanish privateer on the 4th of May; and on the 13th occurred his celebrated victory over the Gamo—carrying four times the tonnage, six times the number of men, and seven times the weight of shot possessed by the Speedy—which was soon followed by the taking of two other Spanish privateers heavily armed. On the 9th of June, the Speedy and another little vessel had a nine hours' fight, first with a Spanish zebec and three gunboats, and afterwards with a felucco and two more gunboats which came to their aid, which were only allowed to escape when the English ammunition was nearly exhausted, the Speedy having discharged fourteen hundred shot. On the 3rd of July, the pigmy vessel, after hard fighting, had to surrender to three French line-of-battle ships. It was on that occasion that their senior officer, Captain Pallière, declined to accept the sword of "an officer," as he said, "who had for so many hours struggled against impossibility." In his thirteen months' cruise Lord Cochrane had with his little sloop of fourteen 4-pounders, and a crew of fifty-four officers and men, taken and retaken fifty vessels, a hundred and twenty-two guns, and five hundred and thirty-four prisoners.

His next ship, the Arab, was made to serve during fourteen months in seas in which there was no work to be done; but for the Pallas, a fine frigate of thirty-two guns, he was allowed to find memorable employment. He was sent to the Azores, with orders to limit his cruise to a month. He captured one large Spanish vessel on the 6th of February, 1805, a second on the 13th, a third on the 15th, a fourth on the 16th. Forced after that to be idle, as far as prize-taking was concerned, for more than a year, he seized two French vessels on the 27th of March, 1806, and another a few days later. On the 6th of April he captured the Tapageuse, and on the 7th he chased three other corvettes till they were driven on shore by their crews and wrecked. He took another prize on the 14th. On the 14th of May, the Pallas had her famous engagement with the French frigate Minerve and three brigs, the Lynx, the Sylph, and the Palinure, carrying eighty-eight guns in all, wherein she was so disabled that she was forced to return to Portsmouth to be refitted.