Among the less serious embarrassments of his position at this period, may be mentioned the struggle maintained against him by his colleague, Colonel Stanhope,—­with a degree of conscientious perseverance which, even while thwarted by it, he could not but respect, on the subject of a Free Press, which it was one of the favourite objects of his fellow-agent to bring instantly into operation in all parts of Greece.  On this important point their opinions differed considerably; and the following report, by Colonel Stanhope, of one of their many conversations on the subject, may be taken as a fair and concise statement of their respective views:—­“Lord Byron said that he was an ardent friend of publicity and the press:  but that he feared it was not applicable to this society in its present combustible state.  I answered that I thought it applicable to all countries, and essential here, in order to put an end to the state of anarchy which at present prevailed.  Lord B. feared libels and licentiousness.  I said that the object of a free press was to check public licentiousness, and to expose libellers to odium.  Lord B. had mentioned his conversation with Mavrocordato[1] to show that the Prince was not hostile to the press.  I declared that I knew him to be an enemy to the press, although he dared not openly to avow it.  His Lordship then said that he had not made up his mind about the liberty of the press in Greece, but that he thought the experiment worth trying.”

[Footnote 1:  Lord Byron had, it seems, acknowledged, on the preceding evening, his having remarked to Prince Blavrocordato that “if he were in his situation, he would have placed the press under a censor;” to which the Prince had replied, “No; the liberty of the press is guaranteed by the Constitution.”]

That between two men, both eager in the service of one common cause, there should arise a difference of opinion as to the means of serving it is but a natural result of the varieties of human judgment, and detracts nothing from the zeal or sincerity of either.  But by those who do not suffer themselves to be carried away by a theory, it will be conceded, I think, that the scruples professed by Lord Byron, with respect to the expedience or safety of introducing what is called a Free Press into a country so little advanced in civilisation as Greece, were founded on just views of human nature and practical good sense.  To endeavour to force upon a state of society, so unprepared for them, such full grown institutions; to think of engrafting, at once, on an ignorant people the fruits of long knowledge and cultivation,—­of importing among them, ready made, those advantages and blessings which no nation ever attained but by its own working out, nor ever was fitted to enjoy but by having first struggled for them; to harbour even a dream of the success of such an experiment, implies a sanguineness almost incredible, and such as, though, in the present instance, indulged by the political economist and soldier, was, as we have seen, beyond the poet.