  [1] "These men," says the same authority, "generally speaking, from their complexions, evinced that they had been mariners all their lives, the sun having well tanned them. They wore small red caps, from which their hair flowed wildly down their shoulders. On the upper lip they wore very long mustachios, which the older ones were continually curling, and bringing out the point. They wore trousers of blue cotton, and a jacket; and by the immense capacity of the former, I should suppose they must have contained at least twelve yards. This was gathered into plaits round the waist, and only descended to the knees, which were left open. The hinder part presented a most singular appearance. It hung down almost trailing upon the ground in a huge bag, which kept moving backwards and forwards in a ludicrous manner at every motion of the body. They wore shoes, but no stockings; and their legs were as dark as their countenances, and covered with hair. Round their waist they wore a large red sash in several folds. Their jacket was similar to a waistcoat, with sleeves, and ornamented with small buttons from the wrist to the elbow, and the same on the bosom."—"Wanderings in Greece." [2] See especially Trikoupes, vol. iv., p. 126, and Gordon, vol. ii., p. 364. Mr. Finlay approves of the choice, but, not caring to say anything in favour of Lord Cochrane, makes no mention of his share in the work. Vol. ii., p. 139. [3] Gordon, vol. ii., p. 386. As Gordon was with Lord Cochrane at the time, and on intimate relations with him, it is strange, unless he himself, with far less excuse, shared the error for which he blamed him, that he did not advise him to pursue his former plan. Compare Trikoupes, vol. iv., p. 137, who blames and involuntarily acquits Lord Cochrane almost in the same breath. [4] Trikoupes, Gordon, Finlay, and all the other authorities, say that Lord Cochrane had 20,000l. He had only been supplied with 8,000l; and nearly all this sum had been already disposed of in fitting out the fleet at Poros, and paying the seamen's wages. [5] Finlay, vol. ii., p. 148. [6] Trikoupes, vol. iv., p. 152. [7] Gordon, vol. ii., p. 392. [8] "The admiral," says Gordon, "weighed with the Hellas and Karteria alone, leaving the rest of his squadron to draw pay and rations at Porto Kheli" (vol. ii., p. 415). The fact was that all the rest of his squadron that was fit for service was sent to the Negropont; and Lord Cochrane left directions that the other vessels, as soon as there were men to be rationed and funds for paying them, should follow him to Clarenza. But they only came to run away. [9] It is singular that at this early date Lord Cochrane should thus have advised and prognosticated the construction of the Suez Canal. [10] "The admiral," says Gordon (vol. ii., pp. 421, 422), "was less gratified at his victory than mortified that so inferior a vessel should have fought the Hellas for three-quarters of an hour, and disgusted at the backwardness of his crew. In his first cruise he carried with him four hundred men recruited in the Cyclades; but as they ran below in his engagement with the two Egyptian corvettes, he discharged them and took Hydriots alone. These last, though better mariners, and really more courageous, were disconcerted by his system of reserving fire till within pistol-shot—so different from their own plan of cannonading at a mile's distance. 'The boys,' said Cochrane, 'behaved pretty well; but the oldest, and ugliest, and fiercest-looking bravoes of Hydra ran to the other side of the deck, roaring like market-bulls.' His lordship took summary satisfaction by knocking them down with his fists, right and left." [11] Gordon, vol. ii., pp. 403, 404. [13] Dr. Gosse had remained in Greece during Lord Cochrane's absence, and he continued to reside in Greece for a few months after his friend's final departure. He won for himself much gratitude, not only by his zealous work in war time, but by the skill and patience with which he sought to reduce the plague which raged in Greece in 1827 and 1828. Two proofs of the popularity which he fairly won are as follows. The first, dated the 17th of June, 1828, was signed by twenty-three leading inhabitants of Poros. "Nous citoyens de Poros, reconnaissant dans la personne de M. le Docteur Louis AndrÉ Gosse, un homme animÉ du philhellÉnisme le plus sincÈre et douÉ de vertus Éminentes, considÉrant son zÈle ardent et infatigable pourtant en ce qui concerne le bien de la patrie et pour la cause sacrÉe de la GrÈce et en particulier tÉmoins des soins philanthropiques qu'il a prodiguÉs aux indigens, persuadÉs d'autre part que ses qualitÉs rares contribueront À l'amÉlioration de la morale du peuple Grec, et animÉs du dÉsir d'attacher À notre Ile cette homme vertueux; d'une voix unanime et d'un accord commun concÉdons le droit de bourgeoisie au susdit M.L.A. Gosse, pour qu'il jonisse dorÉnavant du titre et des droits de citoyen Poriote indigÈne. En foi de quoi nous lui avons dÉlivrÉ la prÉsente." The other document was issued by President Capodistrias on the 23rd of February, 1829. "La lettre que vous venez de m'adresser, datÉe du 21 FÉvrier, et les comptes qu'elle renferme, sont une nouvelle preuve du zÈle et de l'extrÊme exactitude, par laquelle vous vous Êtes toujours montrÉ digne de la confiance des amis gÉnÉreux de la GrÈce. "Je n'ai pas besoin de vous rÉpÉter combien la nation sait apprÉcier les services que vous lui avez rendus, et combien de reconnaissance je vous dois en particulier. C'est À mon instance que vous avez prolongÉ d'un an votre sÉjour en GrÈce. Dans cet espace, et surtout dans l'ÉtÉ dernier, la peste et les maladies qui vinrent augmenter nos malheurs et nos souffrances, vous ont fourni l'occasion de co-opÉrer par un noble dÉnouement a l'accomplissement des mesures sanitaires qui À l'aide de la Providence ont conjurÉ les manx majeurs, dont la Patrie Était menacÉe. "Maintenant vous devez remplir des dÉsirs qui honorent vos sentiments, vous allez retourner dans votre heureuse patrie, auprÈs de votre mÈre. Mes voeux vous y accompagneront, je vous souhaite toute sorte de bonheur. La GrÈce ne peut dans ce moment vous exprimer d'autre maniÈre sa reconnaissance, mais un jour viendra, je l'espÈre, dans lequel elle le pourra et son Gouvernement s'empressera alors d'acquitter sa dette envers vous, ainsi qu'envers les autres Étrangers, qui sincÈrement et gÉnÉreusement ont servi sa cause sacrÉe. "Lorsque vos affaires et vos intÉrÊts le permettront, vous vous occuperez toujours du bien de la GrÈce; vous lui serez toujours utile partout oÙ vous vous trouverez; mais si vous voulez lui Être utile plus directement, revenez encore au milieu d'un peuple qui vous connaÎt et qui vous aime, et son gouvernement se hÂtera de vous mettre À mÊme de lui rendre encore de grands services. "Recevez en attendant l'expression de ces sentiments, avec l'assurance de la considÉration le plus distinguÉe." [14] "My dear Lord Durham," wrote the Earl of Dundonald, on the 15th of April, "allow me most sincerely to congratulate you on the attainment of the great object which the present Administration has now, so honourably for themselves and so fortunately for the country, brought to a pass wherein no retrograde movement can take place, whatever may be the obstructions offered by the interested proprietors of borough influence, or by persons whose ideas of Government have been formed under the tuition of preceding Administrations. It is rare felicity for a nation to be governed by men having the liberality and justice which induce them to confer free institutions peacefully on the country; institutions which merit the gratitude of all who now exist, and will receive the unqualified applause of future generations. The page of history affords no parallel to the present event." [15] It is interesting to note that the recent introduction among us of the Turkish bath was due to Lord Dundonald. "Having recovered," says Dr. Gosse, in his treatise "Du Bain Turc," p. 58, "from two attacks of intermitting fever, I visited the islands of the Archipelago until summoned to Nauplia by Admiral Cochrane, who was then on board the little steam-vessel Mercury. There the air of the gulf, and the marshy miasma, brought on another attack of fever, from which I feared a fatal issue. Lord Cochrane had the kindness to take me in his arms, and to place me in the current of steam, which caused me to perspire freely. My illness disappeared as by enchantment." A similar service was rendered by Lord Dundonald to Mr. David Urquhart, whose attention was thus called to the advantages of the Turkish bath, and who became its great advocate. [16] John Bourne. "A Treatise on the Steam-Engine" (1861), p. 392. [17] John Bourne. "A Treatise on the Screw Propeller, Screw Vessels, and Screw Engines" (1867), p. 42. [18] John Bourne. "A Treatise on the Steam Engine" (1861), p. 233. These boilers, extensively used in London, America, and elsewhere, and now introduced in the Admiralty ship-building, have been greatly improved by Lord Dundonald's son, Captain the Hon. A. A. Cochrane, C.B. [19] The following statement of Lord Dundonald's "axiom" accompanied the model which was submitted to the Admiralty:—"It is universally admitted that a sharp bow and a clear run contribute to the speed of vessels; but what the consecutive lines ought to be, in order to constitute a perfect bow, or what those to form the run, no builder has yet exemplified by uniformity of practice, or theoretically defined. Ship-delineators profess the art as a mystery, and arbitrary forms are assumed as the result of science. These lines ought to be, by an axiom, founded on a law imposed by Infinite Wisdom for the perfect guidance of inanimate matter. Projectiles, thrown obliquely, take their flight in convex parabolic curves, wherein resistance is overcome by a minimum of force; and elastic surfaces obey the converse of that law in opposing certain external influences. It is a property of conic sections that a straight line, centred in the apex, and caused to circumscribe the surface of the cone, will apply itself continuously to all consecutive parabolic curves. Hence curves similar to the flight of projectiles, and to those formed by the flection of elastic surfaces, may be described on a large scale simply by causing a straight line or beam to revolve as on the axis of a cone, in contact with a parabolic or elliptical section. Thus a consecutive series of convex parabolic or elliptical curves may be substituted in ship-building for hollow fantastical lines. The benefits from which application are, increased velocity, capacity, strength, buoyancy, facility of steering, ease in hard seas, and exemption from breaking or 'hogging.'" Diagrams and explanations thereof accompanied this concise statement of the principle. [20] Part of a letter which Lord Dundonald received on this subject four years afterwards from Mr. Joseph Hume, though quoted in his "Autobiography," is too important to be here omitted. "I considered," wrote the great champion of public economy, on the 10th of May, 1852, "that you were incapable of taking the means that were resorted to by Mr. Cochrane Johnstone, and for which you suffered; and I was pleased to learn that you had been restored to your rank. I considered that act a proof that the Government which had restored you to the rank and honours of your profession, and had afterwards appointed you to the command in the West Indies, must have come to the same conclusion; and, until the perusal of your draft petition, I concluded that you had all your arrears paid to you as a tardy, though inadequate, return to your lordship, whose early exploits did honour to yourself, and gave additional lustre to the naval service of the country to which you belonged.... His Majesty King William IV. was satisfied with the innocence of Sir Robert Wilson, and he was restored to the service—was, I understand, paid all the arrears of pay and allowances during his suspension, and afterwards appointed to the command of Gibraltar. I was pleased at the result; and it would give me equal pleasure to learn that your application to her Majesty should be attended with an act of justice to you equally merited." Lord Palmerston subsequently, in answer to an application from Lord Dundonald—forgetting Sir Robert Wilson's case—said there was no precedent for such an act. Lord Dundonald answered that there was no precedent for such injustice as had been done to him. [21] The great Chartist who, having been tried and sentenced to transportation, had been sent to Bermuda in May, 1848. [22] Published in 1861 as a pamphlet, entitled, "Notes on the Mineralogy, Government, and Condition of the British West India Islands and North American Maritime Colonies." [23] The following patents, for the use of the Trinidad bitumen, were taken out by Lord Dundonald:—1851. "Improvements in the construction and manufacture of sewers, drains, waterways, pipes, reservoirs, and receptacles for liquids or solids, and for the making of columns, pillars, capitals, pedestals, bases, and other useful and ornamental objects, from a substance never heretofore employed for such manufactures."—1852. "Improvements in coating and insulating wire."—1852. "Improving bituminous substances, thereby rendering them available for purposes to which they never heretofore have been successfully applied."—1853. "Improvements in producing compositions or combinations of bituminous, resinous, and gummy matters, and thereby obtaining products useful in the arts and manufactures."—1853. "Improvements in apparatus for laying pipes in the earth, and in the juncture of such pipes." The "Observations on the long-desired, yet still unaccomplished proceeding, whereby to effect the embankment of the Thames and free the river from pollution," by the Earl of Dundonald, are especially interesting at the present time:—"It will probably be admitted that the Thames above bridge is unnecessarily broad, unless considered as a recipient for back-water; and that the long margin of shallow water between London Bridge and that of Vauxhall is of little importance, even for that purpose, as gravel, sand, and other substances, may advantageously be removed from the central bed of the river, fully to compensate for the water that would be excluded by an embankment of one-sixth on both sides of the channel. "An easy method of accomplishing this object would be to cut a ditch on each shore, equidistant from the centre, and fill it with bituminous concrete, as the foundation of a parapet or wharf to be formed of similar materials. Within this a main sewer might be excavated, and constructed in like manner of conglomerated gravel and sand from the spot. "It will of course occur that, although roads may be carried over the entrances of the various docks by swing-bridges, yet these entrances present obstacles to a direct line of sewers. "To enable this difficulty to be overcome, very solid tunnels, floored with hard pavement stones, set in bitumen, may be caused to descend in subverted curves below the entrances of the docks, whence all matters deposited may occasionally be removed by see-saw locomotive dredges on wheels, worked either by mechanical power, or by the current acting directly on the dredge." [24] The following letter, dated "Buckingham Palace, March 4, 1859," gave pleasure to Lord Dundonald:—"My Lord,—I have received the commands of His Royal Highness the Prince Consort to return you his best thanks for the copy of your 'Narrative,' which you have been good enough to send to his Royal Highness, and upon which his Royal Highness will place a high value. I am directed further to say that it would add materially to that value if you would have the kindness to write in the first page of the accompanying volume that it was presented by your lordship to the Prince. I have the honour to be, my lord, your most obedient humble servant,—C.B. Phipps." [25] Almost the last letter written by Lord Dundonald was this to Lord Brougham:—"My dear Lord Brougham,—I have the pleasure to forward you the second volume of my 'Autobiography,' in which you will find that use has been made of the kind expressions towards myself contained in your works. Of the injustice done to me I need not tell you, who are so well acquainted with the subject. If the accompanying volume succeeds in impressing on the public mind the sentiments so unflinchingly set forth in your works, it will have answered its purpose; and that it will do so I see no reason to doubt, now that the subject can be canvassed apart from political rancour. I am, my dear Lord Brougham, ever faithfully yours,—Dundonald." Lord Brougham's answer was dated from Paris, on the 31st of October, the very day of his friend's death. "I have just received your very kind letter, and I daresay the volume will very speedily reach me.... One thing I fear you do not come down late enough to relate. I mean the impression made upon all present when I took you to the Tuileries; and when the name of Cochrane, so well known to them (and which I cannot bring myself to change for your present title), was no sooner heard than there was a general start and shudder. I remember saying, as we drove away, that it ought to satisfy you as to your disappointment at Basque Roads; and you answered that you would rather have had the ships." [26] These lines, by Mr. Tom Taylor, were published in "Punch." Transcriber's note: The following typographical errors were corrected:
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