hat it
appears to me that the bravest and most renowned officers of Greece are
devoting all their energies to the formation of a civil government and
wasting their time in discussions as to the place in which they shall
effect a reunion while the enemy is overrunning the country without
resistance. Already he possesses three-fourths of the fortresses of
Greece, and is besieging the capital of the republic. Athens is on the
point of falling into the power of the Ottoman forces; the brave Fabvier
and a few heroes, full of enthusiasm, are engaged in aiding the valiant
defenders of that city; and meanwhile the officers of Greece betake
themselves again and again to frivolous discussions on civil affairs. If
the shade of Demosthenes could again animate the ashes of this great man
which are here entombed, he would, changing only the names of persons
and places, address to you his first Philippic, and you would hear from
the lips of a compatriot profoundly versed in history and in the
knowledge of mankind, what ought to be your manner of acting. I
recommend you to read his discourse in full assembly, and I especially
recommend the citizens charged with presiding over the destinies of
Greece to follow his counsels point by point. With an authority so
applicable to the existing circumstances, it would be unpardonable
presumption in me to address to you other than his own words. 'If,
Athenians, you will now, though you did not before, adopt the principle
of every man being ready, where he can and ought to give his service to
the state, to give it without excuse, the wealthy to contribute, the
able-bodied to enlist; in a word, plainly, if you will become your own
masters, and cease each expecting to do nothing himself, while his
neighbour does everything for him, you will then, with God's permission,
get back your own, and recover what has been lost, and punish your
enemy.'"

To the same effect were Lord Cochrane's answers to the congratulatory
letters sent to him by the other leading persons and parties in Greece.
"It may be well to notice," he wrote on the same day to the Government
at Egina, "that in the conversation which I had with the deputation from
Hermione, I respectfully suggested that, as laws cannot be promulgated
with advantage whilst the mass of the country is under the iron yoke of
Turkish despotism, nor executed whilst the lives and properties of all
continue insecure, the National Assembly might be adjourned with