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

270 THE WAR OF GREEK INDEPENDENCE
thousands of Greek captives for the supply
slave markets of Egypt. 1
of the
While the Egyptian leader was thus preparing,
under adverse circumstances, to maintain his position
in the Peloponnese, the news of Navarino had produced
the most opposite effects upon the Cabinets and
peoples of Europe. Metternich, giving voice to the
opinions of the court of Vienna, denounced the action
of the allied admirals as an unparalleled outrage, the
destruction of the Ottoman fleet as an act of piracy
and murder. In England the account of Admiral
Codrington's action was received with very mixed
feelings. To the weak Cabinet of Lord Goderich,
which in a half-hearted manner had continued the
policy of Canning, it was wholly unwelcome. They
had babbled of peace, of friendly intervention, and
pacific demonstrations; and now the prophecies of
Metternich had come true, and they found themselves
plunged, by the ' indiscretion ' of the British admiral,
and contrary to their desires or convictions, into war
and war, moreover, with the Power which it
had
hitherto been the policy of England to support, as the
great barrier against the aggressive
and ambitious
i The fact that the British admiral did nothing- to prevent
this was made, later on, the pretext for depriving
him of his command.