tions with Greece, and order the admirals commanding their naval
forces to impose an armistice on the belligerents. Instructions were
drawn up, which authorized those commanders to prevent the transmission
of troops and supplies from Turkey or Egypt to Greece; but enjoined
them to avoid hostilities unless the Turks should endeavour to force a
passage. Despatches were sent at the same time to Constantinople and
to the Greek government: and Colonel Cradock was sent to Alexandria to
endeavour to persuade the pacha to withdraw his Egyptian army. It was
arranged that a combined fleet should give effect to these resolutions,
and two line-of-battle ships were sent to re-enforce Sir Edward
Codrington. The French government, also, sent four ships of the line
into the same seas, and Admiral Siniavin arrived at Spithead with a
Russian squadron of eight sail of the line and eight frigates; half of
which only, however, joined the confederates. But although thus menaced,
the Reis Effendi would not listen to any terms. He would not even deign
to receive such a communication as the treaty of the 6th of July; and
when a copy was left on his sofa, he refused to answer it, or to admit
any explanations. The Russian minister now proposed to starve the Divan
into compliance by a joint blockade of the Bosphorus and Hellespont.
The French minister entered into his views; but Lord Dudley objected on
the part of England to such a step, as too violent. Negociations were
in this state, when suddenly ominous sounds proceeded from the Bay of
Navarino. In that harbour the Turkish and Egyptian fleets were blockaded
by the combined squadrons of England, France, and Russia, under the
chief command of Sir Edward Codrington. The Greeks had readily accepted
an armistice under the treaty; but Ibrahim Pasha not only refused its
terms, but aggravated the miseries of war by devastating the country
of Greece. The inhabitants were massacred; villages, vineyards and
olive-trees, in which the principal riches of the nation consisted,
destroyed. Irritated by such barbarity the allied admirals determined
to enforce the armistice on Ibrahim. Their plan was to enter the harbour
and renew their demands of an armistice, under the alternative, that,
if he refused, they would attack and destroy his fleet. Their first
movement towards the harbour was an hostile act. About noon on the 20th
of October the combined fleets passed the batteries to take up their
anchorage, formed