“I am very uneasy at hearing that the dissensions of Greece still continue, and at a moment when she might triumph over every thing in general, as she has already triumphed in part.  Greece is, at present, placed between three measures:  either to reconquer her liberty, to become a dependence of the sovereigns of Europe, or to return to a Turkish province.  She has the choice only of these three alternatives.  Civil war is but a road which leads to the two latter.  If she is desirous of the fate of Walachia and the Crimea, she may obtain it to-morrow; if of that of Italy, the day after; but if she wishes to become truly Greece, free and independent, she must resolve to-day, or she will never again have the opportunity.

“I am, with all respect,

“Your Highness’s obedient servant,

“N.  B.

“P.S.  Your Highness will already have known that I have sought to fulfil the wishes of the Greek government, as much as it lay in my power to do so:  but I should wish that the fleet so long and so vainly expected were arrived, or, at least, that it were on the way; and especially that your Highness should approach these parts, either on board the fleet, with a public mission, or in some other manner.”

LETTER 528.  TO MR. BOWRING.

“10bre 7. 1823.

“I confirm the above[1]:  it is certainly my opinion that Mr. Millingen is entitled to the same salary with Mr. Tindall, and his service is likely to be harder.

[Footnote 1:  He here alludes to a letter, forwarded with his own, from Mr. Millingen, who was about to join, in his medical capacity, the Suliotes, near Fatras, and requested of the Committee an increase of pay.  This gentleman, having mentioned in his letter “that the retreat of the Turks from before Missolonghi had rendered unnecessary the appearance of the Greek fleet,” Lord Byron, in a note on this passage, says, “By the special providence of the Deity, the Mussulmans were seized with a panic, and fled; but no thanks to the fleet, which ought to have been here months ago, and has no excuse to the contrary, lately—­at least since I had the money ready to pay.”

On another passage, in which Mr. Millingen complains that his hope of any remuneration from the Greeks has “turned out perfectly chimerical,” Lord Byron remarks, in a note, “and will do so, till they obtain a loan.  They have not a rap, nor credit (in the islands) to raise one.  A medical man may succeed better than others; but all these penniless officers had better have stayed at home.  Much money may not be required, but some must.”]

“I have written to you (as to Mr. Hobhouse for your perusal) by various opportunities, mostly private; also by the Deputies, and by Mr. Hamilton Browne.

“The public success of the Greeks has been considerable,—­Corinth taken, Missolonghi nearly safe, and some ships in the Archipelago taken from the Turks; but there is not only dissension in the Morea, but civil war, by the latest accounts[1]; to what extent we do not yet know, but hope trifling.