Memorials and Other Papers — Volume 1De Quincey, Thomas
General
Memorials and Other Papers — Volume 1
De Quincey, Thomas
English essays
"It was the hope of Greece that, in these seasons of emergency, she
would not fail of help and earnest resort of friends from the Christian
nations throughout Europe. For it was agreeable neither to humanity nor
to piety, that the rights of nations, liable to no grudges of malice
or scruples of jealousy, should be surreptitiously and wickedly filched
away, or mocked with outrage and insult; but that they should be settled
firmly on those foundations which Nature herself has furnished in
abundance to the condition of man in society. However, so it was, that
Greece, cherishing these most reasonable expectations, met with most
unmerited disappointments.
"But you, noble and generous Englishman, no sooner heard the trumpet of
popular rights echoing melodiously from the summits of Taygetus, of
Ida, of Pindus, and of Olympus, than, turning with listening ears to
the sound, and immediately renouncing the delights of country, of family
ties, and (what is above all) of domestic luxury and ease, and the
happiness of your own fireside, you hurried to our assistance. But
suddenly, and in contradiction to the universal hope of Greece, by
leaving us, you have thrown us all into great perplexity and amazement,
and that at a crisis when some were applying their minds to military
pursuits, some to the establishment of a civil administration, others
to other objects, but all alike were hurrying and exerting themselves
wherever circumstances seemed to invite them.
"Meantime, the government of Greece having heard many idle rumors
and unauthorized tales disseminated, but such as seemed neither in
correspondence with their opinion of your own native nobility from
rank and family, nor with what was due to the newly-instituted
administration, have slighted and turned a deaf ear to them all, coming
to this resolution--that, in absenting yourself from Greece, you are
doubtless obeying some strong necessity; for that it is not possible
nor credible of a man such as you displayed yourself to be whilst living
amongst us, that he should mean to insult the wretched--least of all,
to insult the unhappy and much-suffering people of Greece. Under these
circumstances, both the deliberative and the executive bodies of the
Grecian government, assembling separately, have come to a resolution,
without one dissentient voice, to invite you back to Greece, in order
that you may again take a share in the Grecian contest--a contest in
itself glorious, and not alien from your character and pursuits. For the
liberty of any one nation cannot be a matter altogether indifferent
to the rest, but naturally it is a common and diffusive interest; and
nothing can be more reasonable than that the Englishman and the Grecian,
in such a cause, should make themselves yoke-fellows, and should
participate as brothers in so holy a struggle. Therefore, the Grecian
government hastens, by this present distinguished expression of its
regard, to invite you to the soil of Greece, a soil united by such
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