f Greece,
I have the consolation of knowing that I have used my utmost endeavours
to prevent the evils I foresaw. One of these, however, I was far from
anticipating,--namely, that the revenues which I was authorised to
collect for the service of the marine would have been withdrawn from my
control and expended for other purposes; more particularly that sums so
diverted should be placed to the account of the marine, without the
objects for which they were employed having received my sanction or even
been known by me.

"I have struggled during eight months in the service of Greece against
difficulties far greater than all I ever encountered before; and I would
most willingly continue to contend with these, did I find the slightest
co-operation in any quarter. But, as the Government has withdrawn _de
facto_ the resources decreed, and the seamen decline to embark without
pay in advance, and the funds, arising from the philanthropy of other
European nations, which supplied the navy with the means of subsistence,
are wholly exhausted, I have no alternative but to lay the ships up in
port, until means to defray the expenses of the navy shall be found. I
have myself, during the last month, paid the Greeks in the naval
service; but whilst I see that even the share of prizes claimed by
Government is diverted from its proper use, I shall not continue to be
answerable for future expenses, nor for the liquidation of the just
claims of the foreign officers, which they have had the patience to
leave in arrears for many months."

It had come to this. Lord Cochrane had been devoting all his energies to
the service of Greece; and now he found himself deserted by his
employers, or only retained in the hope that he would be an unpaid agent
in piratical and lawless proceedings.

That last circumstance was to him the most painful of all. Having done
his utmost to restrain the piracy that was rife, he was still regarded
by the governing triumvirate as only the most powerful instrument for
achievements that were little better than piratical; and the same cruel
misrepresentation of his functions was common among his enemies in
England and other parts of Europe. Colour for this misrepresentation
appeared in the celebrated letter written by the three admirals on the
24th of October, which, describing the national fleet as a mere crowd of
"Greek corsairs," by implication included Lord Cochrane and his English
supporters in the same opprobrium.