lie in her vast colonial possessions, in her wealth
or her navy, but in the quiet heroism and independence of her average
citizen. The Englishman obeys the law because he knows that respect
for the rights of others marks the difference between a dog-kennel and
civilised society. But he does not recognize the right of others to
interfere with his freedom of thought. If his country does something
which he believes to be wrong, he gets up and says so and the government
which he attacks will respect him and will give him full protection
against the mob which to-day, as in the time of Socrates, often loves to
destroy those who surpass it in courage or intelligence. There never has
been a good cause, however unpopular or however distant, which has not
counted a number of Englishmen among its staunchest adherents. The mass
of the English people are not different from those in other lands. They
stick to the business at hand and have no time for unpractical "sporting
ventures." But they rather admire their eccentric neighbour who drops
everything to go and fight for some obscure people in Asia or Africa and
when he has been killed they give him a fine public funeral and hold him
up to their children as an example of valor and chivalry.

Even the police spies of the Holy Alliance were powerless against this
national characteristic. In the year 1824, Lord Byron, a rich young
Englishman who wrote the poetry over which all Europe wept, hoisted the
sails of his yacht and started south to help the Greeks. Three months
later the news spread through Europe that their hero lay dead in
Missolonghi, the last of the Greek strongholds. His lonely death caught
the imagination of the people. In all countries, societies were formed
to help the Greeks. Lafayette, the grand old man of the American
revolution, pleaded their cause in France. The king of Bavaria sent
hundreds of his officers. Money and supplies poured in upon the starving
men of Missolonghi.

In England, George Canning, who had defeated the plans of the Holy
Alliance in South America, was now prime minis-ter. He saw his chance to
checkmate Metternich for a second time. The English and Russian fleets
were already in the Mediterranean. They were sent by governments which
dared no longer suppress the popular enthusiasm for the cause of the
Greek patriots. The French navy appeared because France, since the end
of the Crusades, had assumed the role of the defender of the Christian
faith