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CHAPTER VIII

THE detailed account of Captain Codrington's services down to 1813 will have enabled naval readers to judge how far professional knowledge and practical seamanship were combined with the energy and devoted zeal which must be patent to general readers. The events of 1827, and his position at the head of the combined fleets of three nations, will now enable them to estimate whether the superior qualities required in a Commander-in-Chief were not superadded to those of a subordinate officer, and exercised to their full extent under circumstances of heavy responsibility.

The plan adopted in the arrangement of the following correspondence has been, as far as possible, to place the letters of Sir E. Codrington himself in their regular succession, letting them be followed by the answers received; and to place communications addressed to him (when not answers) at about the date at which they reached him-the object being, to carry on the sequence of his daily life as affected by the communications he received and the duties he had to carry out.

This

It has, however, sometimes been found desirable to deviate from this arrangement, in order to make a subject clearer by its immediate completion, or by the answers called forth by questions relating to it. will in many cases give the appearance of irregularity in the succession of dates, which will be removed if the general plan is borne in mind.

Much difficulty is added to the arrangement of the letters (as very great difficulty was also added to the service to be done and the measures to be combined and carried out) by the long interval between the despatch and receipt of instructions and letters and of the

necessary answers, both from England and the various parts of the Mediterranean; a delay increased by imperfect postal arrangements, which, with the single exception of a steamboat between Corfu and Zante, were at that period still dependent upon sailing vessels. In the selection of papers relating to the complicated diplomatic and professional situation occupied by my Father in the anxious period of 1827-8, I have had the assistance of my brother, Sir William Codrington; who has given me the following general summary of the events connected with the Treaty of July, and the part borne in its execution by my Father.-J. B.

MEMORANDUM.

Before giving the detailed correspondence connected with the Treaty of July 1827 for the pacification of Greece, in which Sir Edward Codrington bore an active part, it may be stated that the Greek Revolution began in 1820-1, and was as justifiable a rebellion as any recorded in history, if tyranny is ever to give place to freedom. For several years the Greeks gained advantages by sea and by land: the islands of Hydra, Spezzia, and others had formed a small navy; Athens, Navarin, the Acropolis of Corinth, Napoli, Missolunghi, and Tripolitza were in their possession: but in the spring of 1826-7, Ibrahim Pacha having brought a large force from Egypt, occupied Missolunghi and all the Morea except Napoli, Athens was besieged; and the fortunes of Greece were at a low ebb. The Emperor of Russia had long urged the necessity of interference for the pacification of Greece and the Levant; and when Mr. Canning felt assured that Russia would act alone rather than not at all, the Duke of Wellington was sent on a mission to Petersburg, and signed the Protocol of April 1826 the foundation of interference in favour of Greece on the part of England and Russia, and of the subsequent Treaty of July 6, in which Mr. Canning secured the participation of France. In the Protocol of April 1826 no mention is made of the employment of actual

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force; but in the Treaty of July a secret article was inserted to transmit to the Admirals the eventual instructions of the three Powers, to exert all the means which circumstances may suggest to their prudence 'to obtain the immediate effect of the Armistice which they desire, by preventing, as far as may be in their 'power, all collision between the contending parties.' Sir Edward Codrington was ordered to receive instructions from the English Ambassador at Constantinople,* Mr. Stratford Canning.

The difficulty of the Admiral's position will be apparent the peculiar Government of the Porte-the dissensions and piracies of the Greeks-the armistice to be enforced, but force to be avoided-the separate interests of the different Powers in the Mediterranean, and the imminent danger that by delay there might remain no Greece to be saved-all these were discordant elements in proceedings to be taken under such a treaty of interference as that of July 1827. To complete this outline, it may be mentioned that the Treaty itself had been made by Canning, whose liberal policy in Foreign Affairs had created enthusiasm, and who became Prime Minister in 1827; his friend Lord Dudley, whose name is appended to the Treaty, being Minister for Foreign Affairs. When Canning adopted the bold policy by which Russia was held in hand by other Great Powers accompanying her rather than allowing her to proceed alone, safety lay in promptness which should conquer resistance; and it was well felt by a distinguished diplomatist that nothing but the most decided measures would carry the Allies safely through the strait on which they were embarked, and that keeping pace with Russia was the best means of preventing her going beyond the object of the Treaty. Let it be remarked that in 1827 there was no steam in men-of-war-no steam despatch boat attached to a fleet wind, with seamanship in the management of masts and sails, was the only means of movement. The great expedition of Turkish and Egyptian ships with

Now Lord Stratford de Redcliffe.

the troops intended to complete the subjugation of Greece, had sailed from Alexandria before the Admirals had power given them to act. Sir Edward Codrington had placed his squadron before Hydra for its protection whilst he awaited this order from Mr. S. Canning. He received it on September 7, and proceeded at once to cut off the Egyptian expedition from the coast, but instead of attacking Hydra it went direct to Navarin, having anchored there on September 9. Sir E. Codrington sailed at once for Navarin, and was there joined by Admiral De Rigny and the French squadron. An armistice by sea and land was agreed to on September 25 by Ibrahim Pacha, till he should hear from Constantinople and Egypt; but in the absence of the Allied squadrons he broke his word, and with a fleet of fortynine sail (ten of which were large frigates) attempted on the 2nd and 4th October to relieve the Turkish forts and destroy some Greek men-of-war in the Gulf of Patras. He was met in opposition by Sir Edward Codrington, with only the 'Asia' 84, two small frigates and a brig, and forced, not without some hostile proceeding, back to Navarin. The 'Asia's' broadside, ready for action, was not to be passed with impunity: some of his ships persisting a second time, were fired into, and the first act of real hostility was thus committed under a bold naval and political responsibility assumed by Sir E. Codrington with his small squadron. But, though hostility had taken place, there had been no battle; and this may have led the successors of Mr. Canning to hope that the Treaty might yet succeed without the effects of war.

The Russian squadron having arrived, and the French squadron having joined the English off Navarin, it was thought that Ibrahim having yielded to the small English force employed against him off Patras, would yield to the three squadrons combined. But though foiled by sca, Ibrahim had power by land, and commenced those barbarities of burning and pillaging on shore which it was the object of the Treaty to prevent. The Admirals sent in a warning letter to him-no one

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would receive it. Consequently the Allied squadrons entered the Bay to place themselves alongside his fleet, and in front of his camp, in the expectation that in presence of the whole Allied force combined, he would consent to a permanent armistice, and to the return of the expedition to Alexandria. His fleet had for three days been placed and prepared for action: he fired upon the Allies-and his fleet was destroyed.

The English Ministers were frightened, and sent Queries' to the Admiral, instead of reinforcements to his fleet. Lord Goderich had not strength to face Parliament-the Government resigned early in January 1828-and the Treaty, half executed, was left to the mercies of its political enemies.

Canning had died on August 8, 1827, with his Treaty signed, but its execution scarcely commenced; his administration was succeeded by one of little power and weak nerve, which thus succumbed in less than four months, scared by the sound itself had made.'

The political door was thus open to the Duke of Wellington, hostile to the government of Mr. Canning and to his Treaty, which he termed one of their Portuguese and Greek follies.' But he retained in office some friends of Canning, viz., Lord Dudley and Mr. Huskisson, soon to be thrown aside as broken tools, in May 1828, Lord Aberdeen succeeding to the Foreign Office. It may be remarked that at first the Admiralty and Lord Dudley, then Mr. S. Canning at Constantinople, then Lord Dudley direct, as Secretary of State, then Mr. Huskisson, as Secretary of State, each in succession gave or withheld instructions to Sir E. Codring ton, according to the political complications of a home or foreign policy. What a picture is presented on this point by the Fourth Volume of the Duke of Wellington's Memoranda and Despatches! Whilst Sir E. Codring ton, not having received official information or instructions framed either in England or Constantinople subsequent to the Battle of Navarin, was in anxious expectation of them; one Minister (Mr. Huskisson) writes, April 6 1828, The instructions prepared two