he had obtained from his chief pledges
of adhesion to Canning's policy. Such a declaration from such a man was
inevitably understood as applying at least to free trade and the conduct
of foreign affairs. Both Huskisson and the duke in parliamentary speeches
disclaimed the imputation of any bargain; still the rift was not closed,
and it was speedily widened by events on which harmony between tories and
friends of Canning was impossible.

For six years the so-called war of Greek independence had been carried
on with the utmost barbarity on both sides. The sympathies of Canning,
as foreign secretary, had been entirely with the Greeks, as they had
been with the South American insurgents, but he was equally on his guard
against the armed "mediation" of Russia and her claim to be the supreme
protector of the Greek Christians. We have seen how at last, in 1825,
hopeless discord between the great continental powers led to overtures
for the peaceful intervention of Great Britain, and how at this juncture
the Tsar Alexander died on December 1, 1825. Wellington, at Canning's
request, undertook a special embassy to St. Petersburg for the
ostensible purpose of congratulating the new tsar, Nicholas, on his
accession, and succeeded, during April, 1826, in concluding an
arrangement for joint action by Russia and Great Britain with a view to
establishing the autonomy of Greece under the sovereignty of Turkey.
Meanwhile the impulsive enthusiasm which has so often seized the English
people on behalf of "oppressed nationalities" had been fanned into a
flame by the cause of Greek independence. Byron had already sacrificed
his life to it in April, 1824; Cochrane now devoted to it an energy and
a naval reputation only second to Nelson's; volunteers joined the Greek
levies, and subscriptions came in freely. In the course of 1826 Canning
succeeded in procuring the adhesion of the French government to the
Anglo-Russian agreement. Early in 1827 the three powers demanded an
armistice from Turkey, and, on the refusal of the Porte, signed the
treaty of London for the settlement of the Greek question. This treaty,
dated July 6, 1827, was almost the last public act of Canning. It was
moderate in its terms, embodying the conditions laid down in the
previous year at St. Petersburg, and making the self-government of
Greece subject to a payment of tribute to the Porte. It provided for a
combination of the British, French, and Russian fleets in the event of