We opened this volume with no very sanguine expectations either of instruction or of amusement. Medwin, Gamba, Dallas, had all published, and had all disappointed us most grievously. The last-named gentle man betrayed, in his own style of writing, the unpleasant fact, that he was an extremely dull person. The weakness, the puerile imbecility of Count Gamba's mind, was at once made manifest in the same manner; and everybody was satisfied that however fair, candid, and sincere their intentions, such men never could, by any chance, have comprehended the real character of Lord Byron. The lieutenant cf light dragoons came out of the business with a still worse grace. He certainly proved himself to be a blockhead by his mode of writing; but he exposed himself to (at least) the suspicion of worse things than this, by the matter of his book. He exhibited himself between the horns of a woeful enough dilemma-either I have falsified Lord Byron's table-talk, or I have betrayed his confidence. There was no tertium quid. Between these two stools he must, and he did, fall to the ground. At the same time, it is only justice to Captain Medwin to concede, that the admitted fact of his mere stupidity is capable, in

our charitable eyes, of accounting for much the greater part, perhaps even the whole, of his offences. A great fool has seldom-very seldom indeed-a good memory; and a very egregious fool is, of course, a bad judge of what may, and what may not, be with honour and propriety revealed to the public, in regard to the private conversation of an illustrious character, whom the said very egregious fool ought never, on any pretence whatever, to have been permitted to approach on terms of anything like familiarity. With respect to a fourth author, who had also touched on the same subject, Colonel Leicester Stanhope, we shall, for the present, only observe, that his book was a fourth disappointment. In a word, to end where we began, we expected little from the appearance of a fifth PhiloByron, in the person of Mr WILLIAM PARRY.

Nevertheless, we have been exceedingly interested by the perusal of the volume before us: Nor shall we deny that part of our satisfaction arises from the strong confirmation which this plain sailor's facts afford to the propriety of those views of Lord Byron's general character, and, above all, of his demeanour and conduct during his last and fatal stay in Greece, which

S

we ourselves laid before our readers some months ago ;*—views which, we have reason to believe, the majority of our readers were pleased to receive at the time with a considerable portion

of favour.

This Mr Parry is, as we have said, a plain man, or, to use a favourite phrase of his own, a doing man." He had been not merely a fire-eater, but what is called a Fire-master, in our navy, and had, through a long life, served in such a way as to secure a high character for bravery, honesty, and intelligence and skill in his profession. He attracted the notice of Mr Gordon of Cairness, whose generous services in the cause of Greece must be well known to every reader, and was requested to spend some time with him at his seat in Aberdeenshire, in order to consider and draw up plans for supplying the Greeks with a train of field artillery arranged and served on the English model. Mr Gordon was much pleased with Parry's thorough knowledge of the subject, and with the manliness of his personal behaviour. It being calculated that, for L.10,500, an useful and efficient corps of artillery could be organized in Greece, Mr Gordon sent Parry to wait upon the Greek Committee in London, with the estimates, which he accompanied with the munificent of fer to take upon himself one-third of the whole expense, provided the Committee would defray the remainder. Mr Gordon also declared his willingness to repair once more to Greece, there to superintend Parry in the formation of the brigade, and to attend it in the field in whatever capacity he might be supposed best fitted to serve the corps and the cause.

The Greek committee, for reasons best known to themselves, declined Mr Gordon's proposals. They, how ever, set about an artillery corps on a much smaller scale, and at last sent out, under Parry's care, munitions of various sorts, and a small body of English artizans, who were expected to be of much service in equipping the guns, carriages, &c. in Greece. These men and stores Mr Parry entreated the committee to send direct to Greece by a fast sailing vessel. The committee grudged this expense, and embarked all on board a common heavy-laden merchantman, which had

to touch first at Malta, and then at Corfu. There was great risk here, because, had any one betrayed the secret, that English artizans and munitions of war were on board the ship, the authorities at either of these islands must have detained them. Accordingly Parry was obliged to bribe his own workmen in both ports, and encountered a variety of very unpleasing things, that might all have been avoided by the plan he himself had proposed. Worst of all, a great deal of time was lost:-Not less than four months, the most important of the year, were needlessly lost. However, after all this trouble and delay, the ship at last touched the shore of Greece at Dragomestri. Two days after, Parry received orders to debark his men and stores, and send them by boats to Missolonghi. To that place he accordingly proceeded without delay. He arrived there the 7th of February, 1823-about fourteen months before Lord Byron died.

He spent these months in continual intercourse with Lord Byron. Lord Byron was the colonel of the artillery corps-Parry the major. Lord Byron treated him with the utmost frankness and kindness from beginning to end. Parry nursed him on his deathbed: It was to him that Byron made the last effort towards explaining his dying wishes. In a word, the plain honest sense of this sailor-his practical knowledge, and scorn of theoretical notions of all sorts-his manly temper

his utter superiority to all personal fears and annoyances-these good qualities, with whatever humbler matters allied, seem to have effectually gained for Parry Lord Byron's respect and friendship.

This man now tells his story of what he saw and heard of Lord Byron's behaviour and conversation while in Greece. He makes no ridiculous professions of accuracy. He plainly says, the idea of noting down what Lord Byron was pleased to say to him in private conversation never once entered his head. But he adds, and who can doubt it, that finding himself thrown into close contact of this sort with a man of Lord Byron's extraordinary genius and celebrity, whatever things of any importance were said by Lord Byron did make a strong, an indelible impression on his mind. And, with

out pretending to give the words-unless when there is something very striking indeed about them-he does profess himself able and determined to give the substance. We need, indeed, but little of such professions, to make us believe, that the conversations which he relates did substantially take place between him and Lord Byron. They carry the stamp of authenticity upon their front. The man that said these things was a man of exquisite talent of extraordinary reach and compass of reflection-of high education and surpassing genius. This is enough for us. Mr Parry is an excellent person in his own way, but he is plainly as incapable of inventing these things, as if he had written himself down on his title-page," Author of Ahasuerus, a Poem."

Our readers may free themselves from any apprehensions that we are about to bestow all our tediousness on the affairs-general of Greece. Nothing is farther from our thoughts. We are by no means sure that we thoroughly understand that subject in its breadth and in its details ourselves, nor, if we were, should we think of giving forth our views under the form of a review of Mr Parry's volume a volume which owes almost the whole of its value to the light it throws on the personal character of our great departed poet.

To no inconsiderable extent, however, Lord Byron's personal character is illustrated by the facts which Parry brings out in regard to the general state of Greece during the period of his intercourse with him. The same facts, we are sorry to see and to say, tend to darken others of our country men quite as much as to illustrate and adorn the reputation of Byron. We shall merely give, in a single paragraph, what appears to us to be the result as to the one side and the other.

Lord Byron went to Greece, because the Committee-people from England, and Mavrocardato from Greece, had written to him the most pressing let ters, assuring him that his presence there would be of the most incalculable service to the Greek cause. He delayed his departure from time to time, alleging that he could be of no use to Greece unless her rival factions would coalesce. Blacquiere assured him, that his appearance would be the signal for unanimity; and he at length

passed into the Levant. Even there he lingered for a considerable time, anxious to make it felt that the Greeks, by composing their internal feuds, might purchase his presence, and the command of his resources. He was at last worn out with this delay, and in an evil day and an evil hour he placed himself upon the soil of the Morea.

He was soon convinced that the animosities of the Greek parties were almost hopeless of cure; this, in part, he had looked to; but he found another thing, for which undoubtedly he had been entirely and completely unprepared. He found that the Greek Committee in London, although they had all along professed themselves willing to trust everything to him, if he would but repair to Greece, continued to acknowledge another agent, over whom he could exert no control there, who assumed, and was permitted to assume command, equal at least to what he could exert, over the money, arms, men, &c., transmitted from England to Greece.

This agent was the Honourable Colonel Stanhope, a crack-brained enthusiast of the regular_Bentham breed-an officer who considered, and at all times declared, it to be the proudest recollection of his life, that he had had a hand in setting up a free press at Calcutta-and who, sol"dier though he was, evidently thought nothing of the military means necessary for the emancipation of Greece, compared with the opportunities afforded to him by the Greek insurrection, of trying, or rather of exemplifying upon a new and virgin soil, the efficacy of the thousand grand panaceas for all the evils of human character, laws, and government, which have germinated from the fertile brain of Jeremy Bentham. This man's absurdity of conduct throughout the whole business, absolutely passes the bounds of imagination; and, indeed, it seems impossible to reconcile it with any notions of sanity.

Nevertheless, here was this Colonel Stanhope protected, cherished, and approved in all his views by the parent Committee of London-allowed to do whatever he pleased-and making continual use of this precious privilege, by doing whatever a cunning fiend might have been expected to suggest, for the purpose of