William Edward Cochrane

“ He has done much for the lower classes, and his firmness and perfect fairness have helped greatly to dispel from the city of Gibraltar the crime of using the knife, which was unfortunately once so prevalent.' Cochrane married in 1829 Theresa, daughter of Colonel William Haly, who died in 1873. He died at Glenrocky, his house in Gibraltar, on 24 June 1883, leaving one son, the Rev. ”

“ On his arrival in England Lord Cochrane, who had now a seat in Parliament, gave notice that he should oppose the vote of thanks about to be proposed to Lord Gambier. On hearing this Lord Gambier, on his arrival, demanded a court-martial. The evidence of Captain Pulteney Malcolm was much in favour of Lord Cochrane, but the other witnesses supported Lord Gambier, and sentence was pronounced, honourably acquitting him of all blame. From that day Lord Cochrane’s prospect of success in the navy was destroyed. ”

“ While this well-meaning but weak nobleman committed himself to a low disguise, in the vain hope of effecting his escape, Sir John Cochrane, after a gallant fight against overwhelming numbers, finding his enemies were gathering large reinforcements, retired with his troops to a neighbouring wilderness or morass, where he dismissed them, with the request that each man would provide the best way he could for his own safety. For himself, having received two severe wounds in the body during the engagement, and being worn out with fatigue, he sought refuge in the house of his uncle, Mr. ”

“ During the arrest of the officers of the Valdivia, Lord Cochrane wished to make an attack on the vessels of war, blockships, gunboats, and fortifications of Callao, and communicated the order for the same on the twentieth of February, which order to Captain Guise was answered by a private note to his lordship, stating, that he could not think of entering on this service with any officers except those under arrest, and that in case they were not permitted to rejoin their ship for this attack, he must resign the command of her, and begged Lord Cochrane to appoint another person to the command. ”

“ If he had lessened the resources of the Association for the Belief of the Manufacturing and Labouring Poor, he was thanked even for this, since it was believed to be a good thing for shallow charity to be stayed, in order that the cause of real justice might be promoted.
The thanks were all the heartier because of the fresh persecution to which Lord Cochrane was subjected on account of his patriotism. This persecution was in the shape of legal proceedings instituted against him by the Marshal of the King's Bench Prison for his escape therefrom on the 10th of March, 1815. ”

“ The conduct of Lord Cochrane, as he was called till the death of his father, was brilliant and was rewarded by the order of the Bath, but his aggressive temper led him into making attacks on the admiral which necessitated a court-martial on Gambier. The admiral was acquitted, and Cochrane naturally fell into disfavour with the admiralty. He was not employed again till 1813, when he was named to the command of the “Tonnant,” which was ordered for service as flagship on the coast of America. ”

“ The generals assembled at Hermione came out to meet him and tender their submission. "Our father is at last come," said one; "we have only to obey him and our liberty is secured." Sir Richard Church was at once sought as a leader by the Moreot faction, just as Lord Cochrane was claimed by the Phanariots as their champion. He, however, like his new comrade, wisely resolved to avoid partisanship and to study the interests of Greece as a whole, and to him must be assigned a share of the good work of pacification in which Lord Cochrane was the prime mover. ”

“ During his absence, in 1794, conspiracies against Spain arose in Mexico and New Granada, and, these continuing, he went in 1794, armed by secret promises of assistance from Pitt, to help in fomenting them. They prospered for several years; and in 1806 Miranda obtained substantial aid from Sir Alexander Cochrane, Lord Cochrane's uncle, then the admiral in command of the West India station. But in 1806 Pitt died. The Whigs came into power, and with their coming occurred a change in the English policy. ”

“ In June 1824 he left England for South America, with the design of engaging in the mining industry, returned to England in the ensuing year, but after a brief stay sailed again for America. He died the same year of a fever at Valencia in Colombia, now Venezuela. Cochrane published in 1824 'Narrative of a Pedestrian Journey through Russia and Siberian Tartary,' London, 8vo. The work passed through several editions. It is written in a lively style and contains much interesting incident. Of scientific value it is entirely destitute. ”

“ They are a light-hearted people. I wish I could join in their fun. I was hopeful that I should; but the cursed recollection of the injustice that has been done to me is never out of my mind; so that all my pleasures are blasted, from whatever source they might be expected to arise."
That last sentence fairly indicates the state of Lord Cochrane's mind during these painful years. Weighed down by troubles heavy enough to break the heart of an ordinary man, he fought nobly for the thorough justification of his character and for the protection of others from such persecution as had befallen him. ”

“ Enough has been said to show Lord Cochrane's position in relation to this deplorable state of affairs, and to exonerate him from all blame in the matter. That he should have been blamed at all is only part of the wanton injustice that attended him nearly all through his life. ”

“ The only result of those medical opinions was a renewal of the offer to remove Lord Cochrane to the rooms prepared for him, on the conditions previously specified by Mr. Jones. Lord Cochrane answered that he would rather die than submit to such an insulting arrangement. He published the doctors' certificates, however, on the 15th of April, and their effect upon the public was so great that the authorities were forced on the following day to take him out of his dungeon. Mr. ”

“ If Lord Cochrane's bearing at it was factious, it must be remembered how greatly he had suffered and how earnestly he desired to save the people at large from the sufferings entailed upon them by the Government which he and they had learnt to regard with a common dislike. By exposing what appeared to him and many others to be the hypocrisy of seeming philanthropists, and showing what he deemed the only real cause and the only real remedy of the national distress, he only acted as a brave and honest man, and his work was appreciated by the masses in whose interest it was done. ”

“ There were many men who would have risked the dangers of meeting wandering parties of dervishes, but there was only one of the force who was not only prepared 170to take the risk, but possessed the requisite astronomical knowledge, and that was Lord Cochrane, a subaltern in the 2nd Life Guards, the future Lord Dundonald. ”

“ On the side of his mother, Charlotte, daughter of Frederick Geyer of Boston in North America, he was of German origin. He received his early education at private schools, where his boisterous temperament brought him into repeated collision with the imperfect discipline. Several times he ran away, always with the intention of escaping to sea, and at last, in September 1806, his father got him entered on board the Imperieuse frigate, commanded by Lord Cochrane [see Cochrane, Thomas, tenth Earl of Dundonald] . ”

“ On the fifteenth of September Lord Cochrane received a letter from Captain Delano, who commanded the Lautaro, informing him that the state of insubordination in the remains of the crew of the Lautaro had risen to a very high pitch; for they observed the daily embarkation of money in the different merchant vessels, and this indicated, as they supposed, the jeopardy in which San Martin was placed with the army; that they saw no probability their arrears would ever be paid ”

“ With this expedition in view, and purposing to start upon it nearly a year sooner than he found himself able to do, Lord Cochrane sold Holly Hill and his other property in Hampshire, in July. In August he went for a few months to France, partly for the benefit of Lady Cochrane's health, partly, as it would seem, in the hope of introducing into that country the lamps which he had lately invented, and from which he hoped to derive considerable profit. ”

“ The honor of knighthood was conferred upon him, May 29, 1812; but we believe that he was not again employed until the autumn of that year, when he received a commission appointing him to the Surprise frigate; and in her we find him again serving at the Leeward islands, on which station he captured the American privateer brig Decatur, of 12 guns and 82 men, Jan. 16, 1813.
Sir Thomas Cochrane’s next appointment was, June 28, 1820, to the Forte of 44 guns. In 1821, he served both on the Jamaica and Halifax stations. In 1822, he attended his Majesty to Scotland; and in Sept. ”

“ Lord Cochrane replied that "a British nobleman was a free man, and therefore had a right to assist any country which was endeavouring to re-establish the rights of aggrieved humanity." "I have," he added, "adopted the cause of Chili with the same freedom of judgment that I previously exercised when refusing the offer of an admiral's rank in Spain, made to me not long ago by the Spanish ambassador in London." ”

“ The king’s troops having retired, this was effected without difficulty; and this remnant of an army being dispersed by common consent, every man sought his own safety in the best manner he could. Sir John Cochrane took refuge in the house of an uncle, by whom, or by whose wife, it is said, he was betrayed. He was, however, pardoned; and from this circumstance, coupled with the constant and seemingly peevish opposition which he gave to almost all Argyle’s plans, a suspicion has arisen that he had been treacherous throughout. ”

“ He applied for permission to rejoin his ship, then with the fleet in the North Sea; that also was curtly refused; but several months afterwards, when his speeches in parliament had proved offensive to the admiralty, he was directed to join the Impérieuse without delay and proceed to the Mediterranean. Cochrane declined the service, was therefore placed on half-pay, and for the next three years devoted himself to the exposure of gross abuses in the admiralty. Cochrane's well-justified attack, though it indirectly led to great reforms, created in the first instance much ill-feeling. ”

“ One day's delay may permit several weeks' provisions and stores to enter the Negropont."
Promptitude was not easy, in spite of the favourable promises of the primates. "Strange as it may appear to you," said Lord Cochrane, in a letter to his friend, M. Eynard, "it is yet a fact that, out of the thousands of seamen idle and starving at Hydra, Spetzas, and Egina, not a man will enter the service of his country without being paid in advance; nor will they engage to prolong their service beyond a month, so that the labour of disciplining a crew is interminable. ”

“ I solemnly declare that it is my opinion that a thousand men who would obey orders and do their duty are more than are necessary to perform the task at which your excellency hesitates. I shall be oppressed with grief if, after the scene of yesterday, I am compelled to return, first, to the seat of Government, and next to Europe, without having witnessed any deed that can tend to obliterate the stain thereby affixed on the Grecian people."
"I am making my last effort," wrote Lord Cochrane to Dr. Gosse, "to get Karaïskakes to advance. ”

“ Mr. Gurney. I have a little more evidence to give under this head, if your Lordship will allow me to give that now, the letter which I opened, offering Mr. M'Rae's discovery.
Mr. Joseph Fearn called again;
Examined by Mr. Gurney.
Q. Look at that letter, [shewing a letter to the witness,] do you believe that to be Mr. Cochrane Johnstone's hand-writing?
A. I do.
Q. Do you believe that also to be Mr. Cochrane Johnstone's hand-writing? ”

“ Our nature is like that of all men: we can suffer no more than others. We are neither angels nor workers of miracles, to raise the dead, or do impossible things. If any evil should happen, we are not to blame, nor has God to condemn us in anything." The bearers of this letter, and others who brought a like report, were carefully examined by Lord Cochrane, and by them he was solemnly assured that the garrison of the Acropolis, destitute of provisions and every other necessary, could not possibly hold out more than five days longer. ”

“ The conversation then turning upon other subjects, Stephen rose and strolled out of the room, and going down to the wharf seated himself on a balk of timber to think the matter out. That Lord Cochrane should have been driven to resign his position in Chili he could well understand, for he had wondered many times that he put up with the treatment that he received and the utter ingratitude that had been the sole reward of his great services ”

“ Lord Cochrane's retirement from the service of Greece brought to a close his career as a fighting seaman. With one brief exception, occurring twenty years later, when he commanded the British squadron in the North American and West Indian waters, but when there was no warfare to be done the rest of his life, comprising thirty years of ripe manhood and vigorous old age, was passed without employment in the profession which was dear to him, and in which he had shown himself to be possessed of talents rarely equalled and certainly never surpassed. ”

“ He was a strong, thick-set fellow, with a good-humoured countenance, which did not seem to Miss Cochrane, as she looked anxiously upon it, to savour much of hardy daring. He rode with the mail-bags strapped firmly to his saddle in front, close to the holsters [Pg 424] (for there were two) , one containing the letters direct from London, and the other those taken up at the different post-offices on the road. After riding a short distance together, Miss Cochrane deemed it time, as they were nearly half-way between Belford and Berwick, to commence her operations. ”