ece was to pay
you on the acknowledgment of her independence. It doubts not that the
Congress will value at its true worth all the nation's debt to you, and
that it will adopt the measures which you propose for succouring the
families of the Greek seamen who have fallen in the war. The future of
Greece is in the hands of God and of the Allied Powers. You have taken
part in her restoration, and she will reckon you, with sentiments of
profound gratitude, among her first and generous defenders."

A day had not passed, however, before Lord Cochrane had fresh proof of
the worthlessness of that pretended gratitude. Information having
reached Messrs. J. and S. Ricardo, the contractors for the Greek loan of
1825, that the new Government contemplated repudiating the debt, they
had written to Lord Cochrane, begging him to bring the matter before
Capodistrias, and represent to him the injustice to the stock-holders
and the discredit to Greece that would result from such an act. Lord
Cochrane, accordingly, had an interview with the President and his two
chief advisers on the 5th of December, when this subject was discussed,
and, though the repudiation was only threatened, attempts were made to
justify it on the plea that the 2,000,000l. forming the loan had nearly
all been squandered in England and America, much having disappeared in
unexplained ways, the rest having been absorbed in ship-building and
engine-making, from which Greece had derived no benefit. Both in the
personal interview and in a long letter which he addressed to the
President on the following day, Lord Cochrane indignantly resented the
proposed repudiation. He admitted that there had been gross
mismanagement, but showed that the chief blame for this attached to the
Greek deputies, Orlando and Luriottis, who had been sent to England to
raise the money and to see that it was properly expended, but who, as
was well known, had sought only their own advantage and enjoyment, and,
pilfering themselves, had allowed others to pilfer without restraint. He
urged that the innocent holders of the Greek stock ought not to suffer
on this account, and showed also, that, if there had been great abuse of
the loan, it had enabled the Greeks to tide over their worst time of
trouble. "Your excellency must be aware," he wrote, "that there was no
war-ship belonging to the State which was not bought, taken, or obtained
by the aid of this loan, and that all the guns, mortars, powder, and