Volume I Part 1 (1/2)
The Life of Thomas, Lord Cochrane, Tenth Earl of Dundonald, G.C.B.
by Thomas Cochrane, Earl of Dundonald.
PREFACE.
In these Volumes is recounted the public life of my late father from the period to which the narrative was brought down by himself in his unfinished ”Autobiography of a Seaman.” The completion of that work was prevented by his death, which occurred almost immediately after the publication of the Second Volume, eight years and a half ago.
I had hoped to supplement it sooner; but in this hope I have been thwarted.
My father's papers were, at the time of his death, in the hands of a gentleman who had a.s.sisted him in the preparation of his ”Autobiography,” and to this gentleman was entrusted the completion of the work. Illness and other occupations, however, interfered, and, after a lapse of about two years, he died, leaving the papers, of which no use had been made by him, to fall into the possession of others. Only after long delay and considerable trouble and expense was I able to recover them and realize my long-cherished purpose.
Further delay in the publication of this book has arisen from my having been compelled, as my father's executor, to make three long and laborious journeys to Brazil, which have engrossed much time.
At length, however, I find myself able to pay the debt which I owe both to my father's memory and to the public, by whom the ”Autobiography of a Seaman” was read with so much interest. At the beginning of last year I placed all the necessary doc.u.ments in the hands of my friend, Mr. H.R. Fox Bourne, asking him to handle them with the same zeal of research and impartiality of judgment which he has shown in his already published works. I have also furnished him with my own reminiscences of so much of my father's life as was personally known to me; and he has availed himself of all the help that could be obtained from other sources of information, both private and public. He has written the book to the best of his ability, and I have done my utmost to help him in making it as complete and accurate as possible. We hope that the late Earl of Dundonald's life and character have been all the better delineated in that the work has grown out of the personal knowledge of his son and the unbia.s.sed judgment of a stranger.
A long time having elapsed since the publication of the ”Autobiography of a Seaman,” it has been thought well to give a brief recapitulation of its story in an opening chapter.
The four following chapters recount my father's history during the five years following the cruel Stock Exchange trial, the subject last treated of in the ”Autobiography.” It is not strange that the harsh treatment to which he was subjected should have led him into opposition, in which there was some violence, which he afterwards condemned, against the Government of the day. But, if there were circ.u.mstances to be regretted in this portion of his career, it shows almost more plainly than any other with what strength of philanthropy he sought to aid the poor and the oppressed.
His occupations as Chief Admiral, first of Chili and afterwards of Brazil, were described by himself in two volumes, ent.i.tled, ”A Narrative of Services in Chili, Peru, and Brazil.” Therefore, the seven chapters of the present work which describe these episodes have been made as concise as possible. Only the most memorable circ.u.mstances have been dwelt upon, and the details introduced have been drawn to some extent from doc.u.ments not included in the volumes referred to.
There was no reason for abridgment in treating of my father's connection with Greece. In the service of that country he was less able to achieve beneficial results than in Chili and Brazil; but as, on that ground, he has been frequently traduced by critics and historians, it seemed especially important to show how his successes were greater than these critics and historians have represented, and how his failures sprang from the faults of others and from misfortunes by which he was the chief sufferer. The doc.u.ments left by him, moreover, afford abundant material for ill.u.s.trating an eventful period in modern history. The chapters referring to Greece and Greek affairs, accordingly, enter with especial fullness into the circ.u.mstances of Lord Dundonald's life at this time, and his connection with contemporary politics.
Eight other chapters recount all that was of most public interest in the thirty years of my father's life after his return from Greece.
Except during a brief period of active service in his profession, when he had command of the British squadron in North American and West Indian waters, those thirty years were chiefly spent in efforts--by scientific research, by mechanical experiment, and by persevering argument--to increase the naval power of his country, and in efforts no less zealous to secure for himself that full reversal of the wrongful sentence pa.s.sed upon him in a former generation, which could only be attained by public rest.i.tution of the official rank and national honours of which he had been deprived.
This rest.i.tution was begun by his Majesty King William IV., and completed by our present most gracious Queen and the Prince Consort.
By the kindnesses which he received from these ill.u.s.trious persons, my father's later years were cheered; and I can never cease to be profoundly grateful to my Sovereign, and her revered husband, for the personal interest with which they listened to my prayer immediately after his death. Through their gracious influence, the same banner of the Bath that had been taken from him nearly fifty years before, was restored to its place in Westminster Abbey, and allowed to float over his remains at their time of burial. Thus the last stain upon my father's memory was wiped out.
DUNDONALD. London, May 24th, 1869.
CHAPTER I.
INTRODUCTION.--LORD COCHRANE'S ANCESTRY.--HIS FIRST OCCUPATIONS IN THE NAVY.--HIS CRUISE IN THE ”SPEEDY” AND CAPTURE OF THE ”GAMO.”--HIS EXPLOITS IN THE ”PALLAS.”--THE BEGINNING OF HIS PARLIAMENTARY LIFE.--HIS TWO ELECTIONS AS MEMBER FOR HONITON.--HIS ELECTION FOR WESTMINSTER.--FURTHER SEAMANs.h.i.+P.--THE BASQUE ROADS AFFAIR.--THE COURT-MARTIAL ON LORD GAMBIER, AND ITS INJURIOUS EFFECTS ON LORD COCHRANE'S NAVAL CAREER.--HIS PARLIAMENTARY OCCUPATIONS.--HIS VISIT TO MALTA AND ITS ISSUES.--THE ANTECEDENTS AND CONSEQUENCES OF THE STOCK EXCHANGE TRIAL.
[1775-1814.]
Thomas, Loud Cochrane, tenth Earl of Dundonald, was born at Annsfield, in Lanark, on the 14th of December, 1775, and died in London on the 31st of October, 1860. Shortly before his death he wrote two volumes, styled ”The Autobiography of a Seaman,” which set forth his history down to 1814, the fortieth year of his age. To those volumes the present work, recounting his career during the ensuing six-and-forty years, is intended to serve as a sequel. Before entering upon the later narrative, however, it will be necessary briefly to recapitulate the incidents that have been already detailed.
The Earl of Dundonald was descended from a long line of knights and barons, chiefly resident in Renfrew and Ayr, many of whom were men of mark in Scottish history during the thirteenth and following centuries. Robert Cochran was the especial favourite and foremost counsellor of James III., who made him Earl of Mar; but the favours heaped upon him, and perhaps a certain arrogance in the use of those favours, led to so much opposition from his peers and rivals that he was a.s.sa.s.sinated by them in 1480.[A]
[Footnote A: Pinkerton, the historian, gives some curious details, ill.u.s.trating not only Robert Cochran's character, but also the condition of government and society in Scotland four centuries ago.
”The Scottish army,” he says, ”amounting to about fifty thousand, had crowded to the royal banner at Burrough Muir, near Edinburgh, whence they marched to Soutray and to Lauder, at which place they encamped between the church and the village. Cochran, Earl of Mar, conducted the artillery. On the morning after their arrival at Lauder, the peers a.s.sembled in a secret council, in the church, and deliberated upon their designs of revenge.... Cochran, ignorant of their designs, left the royal presence to proceed to the council. The earl was attended by three hundred men, armed with light battle-axes, and distinguished by his livery of white with black fillets. He was clothed in a riding cloak of black velvet, and wore a large chain of gold around his neck; his horn of the chase, or of battle, was adorned with gold and precious stones, and his helmet, overlaid with the same valuable metal, was borne before him. Approaching the door of the church, he commanded an attendant to knock with authority; and Sir Robert Douglas, of Lochleven, who guarded the pa.s.sage, inquiring the name, was answered, 'Tis I, the Earl of Mar.' Cochran and some of his friends were admitted. Angus advanced to him, and pulling the gold chain from his neck, said, 'A rope will become thee better,' while Douglas of Lochleven seized his hunting-horn, declaring that he had been too long a hunter of mischief. Rather astonished than alarmed, Cochran said, 'My lords, is it jest or earnest?' To which it was replied, 'It is good earnest, and so thou shalt find it; for thou and thy accomplices have too long abused our prince's favour. But no longer expect such advantage, for thou and thy followers shall now reap the deserved reward.' Having secured Mar, the lords despatched some men-at-arms to the king's pavilion, conducted by two or three moderate leaders, who amused James, while their followers seized the favourites. Sir William Roger and others were instantly hanged over the bridge at Lauder. Cochran was now brought out, his hands bound with a rope, and thus conducted to the bridge, and hanged above his fellows.”] Later scions of the family prospered, and in 1641, Sir William Cochrane was raised to the peerage, as Lord Cochrane of Cowden, by Charles I. For his adherence to the royal cause this n.o.bleman was fined 5000_l._ by the Long Parliament in 1654; and, in recompense for his loyalty, he was made first Earl of Dundonald by Charles II. in 1669. His successors were faithful to the Stuarts, and thereby they suffered heavily. Archibald, the ninth Earl, inheriting a patrimony much reduced by the loyalty and zeal of his ancestors, spent it all in the scientific pursuits to which he devoted himself, and in which he was the friendly rival of Watt, Priestley, Cavendish, and other leading chemists and mechanicians of two or three generations ago. His eldest son, heir to little more than a famous name and a chivalrous and enterprising disposition, had to fight his own way in the world.
Lord Cochrane--as the subject of these memoirs was styled in courtesy until his accession to the peerage in 1831--was intended by his father for the army, in which he received a captain's commission. But his own predilections were in favour of a seaman's life, and accordingly, after brief schooling, he joined the _Hind_, as a mids.h.i.+pman, in June, 1793, when he was nearly eighteen years of age.
During the next seven years he learnt his craft in various s.h.i.+ps and seas, being helped in many ways by his uncle, the Hon. Alexander Cochrane, but profiting most by his own ready wit and hearty love of his profession. Having been promoted to the rank of lieutenant in 1794, he was made commander of the _Speedy_ early in 1800. This little sloop, not larger than a coasting brig, but crowded with eighty-four men and six officers, seemed to be intended only for playing at war.
Her whole armament consisted of fourteen 4-pounders. When her new commander tried to add to these a couple of 12-pounders, the deck proved too small and the timbers too weak for them, and they had to be returned. So Lilliputian was his cabin, that, to shave himself, Lord Cochrane was obliged to thrust his head out of the skylight and make a dressing-table of the quarter-deck.