it but the name. Its ambition was not military, but diplomatic,
the possession of place and power in such ways as were then possible.
Its real, if not avowed, leader was Prince Mavrocordatos, with an able
abettor in his brother-in-law, Mr. Spiridion Trikoupes. All through the
previous year Mavrocordatos and his friends had sought zealously to win
for Greece the protection of England. They had corresponded to that end
with Mr. Stratford Canning, the British ambassador at Constantinople,
with Captain Hamilton, who was then stationed in Greek waters to watch
the interests of English shipping, and with others. They had sent an
irregular deputation to treat with the British Government, and had used
all the means in their power, so far as foreign intervention was
concerned, for the establishment of a smaller but more organized Greek
nation than that which their rivals desired. Had that end been worthily
sought, they would have deserved universal sympathy. But they showed by
their conduct that they cared little for good government, or for the
real interests of the community. They exercised their abilities and
squandered their resources in schemes for selfish aggrandisement, and
the possession of authority which was to benefit none but themselves.
Many of their prominent members having studied statecraft, before the
time of the Revolution, as Christian officials in the employment of
Turkey, to whom the name Phanariot was given from the Christian quarter
of Constantinople, the whole party acquired the name of Phanariot.

This latter party had all along hoped to make Lord Cochrane its tool. It
was Mavrocordatos who first invited him to enter the service of the
Greeks; and when that service was agreed upon no effort was spared to
attach him to the group of partizans among whom Mavrocordatos was chief.
Lord Cochrane, steadily refusing this, soon incurred their opposition,
and to this opposition is to be attributed some of the unreasonable
blame which was afterwards brought upon him. Much further opposition to
him, moreover, was soon aroused by his, in like manner, refusing to
become the creature of the other leading faction. He wisely resolved,
from the first--and he maintained his resolution throughout--to belong
to no party, but having devoted himself to the cause of the Greek nation
as a whole, to seek only those objects which were for the good of all.

That resolution was soon put to the test. Immediately after his arrival
on t