THE WAR OF GREEK INDEPENDENCE 1821 TO 1833 BY W.ALISON PHILLIPS 1897

202 THE WAR OF GREEK INDEPENDENCE
of seventy years, it is impossible
to read the account
of the heroic defence of the town, and of its terrible
fate, without emotion. At the time the effect of the
news was profound. All Europe had been watching
with breathless interest every phase
struggle.
of the titanic
Missolonghi, the scene of Byron's romantic
activity, the site of his grave, appealed in itself to the
imagination of a world which had not yet shaken off
the spell of the poet's genius;
and, even without this,
the heroism of its inhabitants would have sufficed to
win for it the enthusiastic sympathies of Christendom.
The defence and fall of Missolonghi then gave an immense
impetus to the wave of Philhellenic feeling
which was already sweeping
all before it
throughout
Europe. The crimes, the follies, the selfishness of the
Greeks were forgotten. The public opinion of Europe,
itself growing restless under the yoke of Metternich's
reactionary policy, saw only the spectacle of a gallant
people struggling ' against fearful odds ? for the liberty
which is the birthright of all men; and, not in
England only, but throughout Europe, an active propaganda
was carried on in favour of the cause of Hellas.
On the continent, where the Greeks were not recognised
as belligerents, subscriptions were collected, ostensibly
to provide funds for the ransom of Greek
slaves, really for the purposes of the war. Through-